HELP ME PLEASE!

So what i need help with is a certain christmas gift for a certain price...

What i'm looking for is a website, a business, a friend of a friend or anything/anyone that makes personalized "coir"welcome mats (the coir welcome mats are the nicer, heavier duty ones, kind of bristly...know what i mean?) I have my sister in law for christmas and she would love a welcome mat for outside of their frontdoor with their last name on it. Our limit is 50 bucks...this is where you all come in...i can't find any under about 75, does anyone know of anything or anyone that does these for about that price? (i can even work with a little higher than $50, i can try to find coupons/discounts) please let me know. thanks so much for any tips or ideas you guys may have!

Halloween

Halloween was good. Nothing too special. We were invited to go to a dinner/potluck at a friends house which was fun and then from there all the kids went trick-or-treating...Riley was a giraffe! She wasn't too happy about it at first though.

She just loves to be outside. See that big smile?!
Hahaha

Aw, just sad...she got over it

Give me some MORE candy! I made her go to a few doors so i could have some candy, haha, and plus i wanted the experience for her and our little family...i had to dump all her candy in the back of the wagon after each house though because it was too hard to see if she was putting any in her mouth. so finally i just gave her a sucker, wish i took a picture, because she LOVED it! she had a death grip on it and even started biteing off pieces :)

Riley's First birthday party

Store bought cakes for riley to smash into

a gazillion cupcakes so graciously made by katie for riley. They came out SO pretty and really completed her purple-y themed party. They tasted amazing as well...the pictures dont show it but the chocolate batter was even dyed purple!

Carrie and Brad, basically family, they are always supporting us :)

Sophie stopped to pose for the camera, how cute!

Lia is such a doll!

A few family members. My step brother Chase and his wife tami on the right and my brother Matt and his girlfriend tammy on the left.

Caitlin and Barry. My little sister, practicaly.

Hailee, Gregg and Laurie, great picture!

These are the miller's. I run with kristi and babysit Emerson

While we were singing to her to she did not know what we were up to...she just looked around at everyone very interested. Who are all these people looking at me and singing to me?

She did not like her cake one bit at first! i was giving her frosting and she would spit it out. Then her uncle ben gave her some cake from the middle with no frosting and she ended up likeing the whole thing!

What was left of the pretty cake

My brother and his girlfriend with riley after she finished enjoying her cake. priceless picture!

Riley really fell in love with a few of the gifts she opened like these pajamas...

and this teddy bear that was almost as big as her!

This purse. She knew exactly what to do with it...well i dont put purses around my neck, but she knew you were supposed to wear/hold it somehow!

And this chair from josh's parents. The look on her face says it all. She would get distracted by something and get off the chair, but not long after she would remember, and scramble back over all the wrapping paper and happily sit in it some more :)

My brother said he wanted to get her the coolest thing in the toy store-he is such a pround uncle-and he sure did! He got her this toy horse, that you have to jump up and down on and spin the thing on top to make stuff happen on the t.v. like the alphabet or numbers, etc. very fun! We had such a wonderful day thanks to all our family and close friends who were so willing to put a few hours aside for Riley and make her first birthday really special. THANKS!

CAMP PENDLETON MUD RUN

On october 18th Josh,his dad Max, his brother Ben and I ran the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. It is a 10k (6.2 miles) on the marine base in san diego filled with muddy obstacles. The race was AMAZING! It started out by having you run past a few water trucks-you know, the kind you see squirting water out from allsides and the top of them onto dirt at construction jobs usually to keep the dirt/dust down-a couple fire trucks...so needless to say we were completly soaked from the start...even if you were able to dodge one of the trucks, the next ones were sure to drench you! I was so cold my thighs and fingers were numb for awhile! Then you run for about a mile until you get to a river crossing, maybe a 1.5 feet deep, 10 feet wide...it was fun, gets you a little wet and muddy. Then the HILL began...this was the hill from h-e double hockey sticks. It was almost 500ft. high and almost 2.5 miles long. Everytime you get to a corner where i couldn't see around i though, yay this is the top, unitl i ran a few more feet to see that it stretched out farther, this happened a few times! The next obsitcal was at the "almost" top of the crappy hill. They had tires set up that you had to run through without tripping over. Then finally, at the "real" top of the hill was the first mud pit and wall to climb over. There was a slippery mud birm you had to climb over to get into the mud put, which was totally slippery and fun and filled with water. Then there was a five foot wall you had to climb over, with military waiting to help anyone that couldn't make it. After you climb over you had to jump into the next mud pit filled with water wondering how deep it was and climb over one more wall. Almost right after this, a little jog away was the lake crossing. It was as deep as my shoulders, so like 4.5 feet deep or so and maybe 75-100 yards across or something(not too good with distances) it was really cold, but by that time i needed it, and it felt great. Aprox. one more mile down the road was this insanely steep muddy hill. At the top was a guy with a fire hose squirting it RIGHT AT YOU. no mercy what so ever. it was so hard to get a foot dug in to take a next step that i was using my hands to claw my way up....this race is so fun, i'm telling you! A little after that was one mroe mud pit with the two walls, this time i had to step on a marine's leg to get over and then when i jumped in on the other side i fell on my butt...haha...after this was just more running, and more running until
the final obstacle of "army crawling" in a mud pit under barb-wire (flags)...right when i got there this marine guy started shouting "GO! GO! GO!" so i got all nervous and dived in head first under all the muddy water, not knowing how deep, it was only like a foot or so, after that you race to the finish for a sweet victory!!!! We had so much fun we are making it a family tradition. Any friends who want to join in, feel free! It was such a great experience and made running 6 miles so worth it :)

Josh's mom, Ben's wife and Josh's youngest brother went with us. We all ate at P.F. Chang's the night before and drove to sleep at his grandma's in dana point.

While at the restaurant we got fortunes that fit most of us so well!

Me:Your hidden talents will soon be revealed-i was really nervous about running that far, i had never run that far before.

Josh: Don't worry about the stock market. Invest in family-josh is the investor and money man of the family

Ben: Be prepared to modify your plan-ben likes to be very precise

Max: You will be pleasantly surprised tomorrow-no one knew for sure if he could finish the race

Lynne: Something on four wheels will soon be a fun investment for you!-lynne just got in a car accident and needs a new one.

Daniel: Someone is looking up to you. Don't let that person down-Riley always looks up to and plays with daniel

Lisa: Listen these next few days to your friends to get answers you seek- ?

Josh and I on the shuttle to the race


The rset of the gang

Before the race. We were so antsy, we had no idea what to expect!

Ready to go


They had us caged up like this for 30 minutes!!!






Here i am racing to the finish line! I finished 7th in my age category out of 252 other women ages 19-25 with a 1:10:31 time

After it was all said and done. We all loved it.


Sorry i waited so long to post this but i waited until the photographers from the invent posted the pictures. When i found the ones of us, i was not able to copy them in anyway to put them up here like i planned and there was no way for spectators to see us on the obstacles...hence boring pictures, i hoped you enjoyed anyway and are now convinced to run with us next year.

RILEY'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

Riley turned the big 01 on october 22! In the morning i got her out of her crib and took her to our room, like usual. She likes to watch us get ready and pull everything out of the closet and bathroom cupboards. I was holding and talking to josh telling him all the things i needed to get done that day, before and after work, to be ready for riley's family party this saturday when i suddenly remembered it was our little sweet heart's birthday!!! so i stopped mid sentance and started singing happy birthday to her and josh joined in. haha. Riley liked that we were singing to her but had no idea why! The day was pretty normal. I ran errands most of the day, babysat and then had to go to church for activity days...FINALLY when i got home i made riley and i some dinner and soon after josh got home from work. We dropped everything and opened some presents!!!

(i'm not very good at this yet. the pictures are kind of out of order!)

This is riley's main present from me...a family album of our 17 (!) immediate family members, all laminated so she can bend, chew and drool all over them. It is going to be great for church etc. Very quiet and she can learn all of the people who love her!

Sorry, again. Out of order. I got Riley alphabet magnets for the fridge, twist up crayons(in hopes she doesn't eat them too much) a coloring book, and bubbles.
Here she is loving to hold and tote around the heavy bag.

Riding her present...Josh got her a "little people" school bus. It makes some cute noises. i'm sure annoying in the future! Riley LOVES it. She really needed some bigger kid toys. she is so sick of teethers and rattles.

Opening her little people "rumble dump truck" from daddy.

The hat- ...riley is a member of the toys r us birthday club and when we went she got a balloon and this hat. she puts it on all the time :)

Overall it was a pretty normal day. She is having a family birthday party on saturday to really celebrate; balloons, streamers, cake in her face, the whole nine! We love our daughter. she is amazing and so happy. we couldn't ask for aything more. These past 12 months have been nothing but the best of times. She has brought so much joy into our home, words just can't describe our love for her...we'd do anything for our daughter :)

Riley, Riley, Riley...

Riley is so much fun to have around...I just wanted to post a few things from the past week or so that i have captured on camera...

Riley helping me clean our sliding glass doors. She does a great job, don't you think?!

I made sure to put the "tupperware drawer" low (trick from my mom) so that she always has some fun stuff to play with in the kitchen. She learned how to crawl in and gets mad when there is no room for her, haha.
This picture didn't quite capture what i wanted to show, but if you look closely she has two bruises on her head, one above her eye and one smack dab in the middle of her forehead. Now that she can walk, she thinks she is sooo big! Well, she walks everywhere now and falls everywhere too! She hit the corner of a table right above her eye. The bruise in the middle seems to be permanet though. Everytime it's just about to fade out completely, BOOM, she falls again and gets another right in the same place. That particular one was from a ball that her uncle rolled to her and it went between her legs so, naturally, she looked between her legs to try to get it and fell on her head!

Riley's first visit to the pumpkin patch - our camera is slowing coming to it's death, so most of the pictures were blurry...When we got to the pumpkin patch it was closed! Luckily a few of the owners were still there and were kind enough to turn the lights on for us, we had the place to ourself which was nice...Riley was ccrraannkky because it was so late, so most of the pictures we have of her she is crying or mad.
She liked to try to hold the little pumpkins, but they were all too heavy.

Josh and i are so proud of her first "Real" word... "wow", she says it so many different ways...in this video is the regualr "wow" but sometimes, she looks straight up and whispers a wow, and other times she walks around saying "wowowowow"

Lets get started

I figured i should start off just letting you know where everyone is at in life! Josh is working full time, and does financial advising on the side-let us know if you guys need anything! He goes to the gym most mornings before work to play raquet ball with his buddies and we hang out when he gets home from work. He likes to catch up on his time with Riley. I am currently a stay at home mom and LOVING it! I do baby sit almost always 5 days a week to earn a little money to pay off my student loans. It's fun and gives Riley someone to play with besides boring ol' me :) I try to run most days still, but i'm getting lazy again. Riley...what isn't she doing?! She learned how to walk a few weeks ago and is getting better and faster every day. She is such a goof ball. She loves to hold anything that has a handle on her arm like a purse. OH and the best...When you say "hi" she'll wave to you but when you say "hello" she will put whatever is in her hand to her ear like a phone! She says mamamma and dadadad..i still don't think she knows mamama refers just to me, she says it when she wants somehting, when she's tired or when she is just babbling...she does know dadadad is just josh though. She said her first real word....it's WOW...how cute huh? whenever she sees something that amazes her (food, a picture, ect) she says "wooow" with real round lips/mouth. and she also says "oh oh oh" when you ask her what a doggy says (she hasn't got down the "woof") I will try to get each of these on tape soon so i can post them for you :)

Riley Figured out how to crawl into our washer!