Our beautiful baby girl

Riley was diagnosed with another UTI yesterday. She is back on her antibiotics. She seems to be feeling ok, even with this. I was feeling down because of all of the things she has had to go through, so I created a little video last night. I felt so much better after doing it. I think it turned out really nice. You need to turn on your sound with it. Enjoy. :-)

January in Arizona

While the rest of the country is frozen, this is the time of year that Arizona is worth living in... Seventy-five and sunny! Not only that, but when you live in a small town, or village, you get to share in some fun activities, like parades.

This pic is of the fam this past weekend, as we participated in the Laveen Village Parade. Our float's theme: "Isn't it Grape to live in Laveen?". Fun stuff.

Riley is doing fairly well. We're now waiting for that moment where she'll start taking off all over the house. We're still banking on her jumping up and walking before doing the whole crawling thing, but time will tell.

Happy February!

Merry Christmas!

So, we took Riley to her first visit with Santa. As you can see, she had a really rough time with the whole experience.

Election Night

Wow, what a day! History was made. No matter how you voted, that fact remains. We are very excited. Stephanie got to the polls this morning at 5:55am and there were already about 120 people in line. After being there for about an hour and a half, her vote was cast. John was home with Riley and went a little later. He was actually in line only about 45 minutes. After work, the lines out here were about 2.5 hours long. People were still excited to be there though!

Senator McCain gave such a gracious speech. We were proud of him.

We are entering a new phase in our country and we are looking forward to it!

First Halloween

So Riley got to experience her first Halloween. We didn't go Trick-or-Treating. What would she do with the candy? I know what we would do. :-) And that wouldn't be helpful.

As you can see she was as cute as a little pumpkin. It was kind of warm here, so she didn't get to wear it very long. She got to wear it last Friday night to the Harvest Festival at her daycare. Everyone ooohed and ahhhed over her. In fact, she got a prize for her costume from the director of the daycare. We were so proud! She also got to do several crafts (heavily assisted of course), but it was still fun.

On the downside, she had to go to the doctor Monday because she has another UTI. She is on antibiotics 3 times a day and of course she is not happy at all about that. Bless her little heart! She will finish up this round on Thursday and hopefully it will be the last one she ever gets. That's what we pray anyway.

One Month Later

Now, one month after the surgery, Riley is doing great. We all are. As we now near the holidays, we're looking forward to many firsts . . . Riley's first trick-or-treat experience, her first Thanksgiving and of course, her first visit from Santa.

Stay tuned for more pics to come!

Update on Riley's Surgery

Well, it's Wednesday - the morning after Riley's surgery - and she appears now to be on the mend. The morning of surgery, as you can imagine, is an experience that no parent ever desires to go through, and the hardest part was letting her go. That being said, we knew that she was in excellent hands, and we knew that so many of you were lifting her up in prayer.

While we know that she's not completely "out of the woods" yet, she definitely is on the road to recovery. The first day and night were rough, but Stephanie was able to stay with her and be there with her throughout the night.

Today, she's starting to "talk" again and every once in a while, we even get a smile or two. As of now, we're not sure if she's heading home today or tomorrow, so once we know, we'll keep you updated too.

Thank you all who lifted her up in prayers, and to those of you who came to join our family during this procedure, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We love you all.

John, Stephanie, and Riley