Just a tender moment

So this is probably going to be my most "journal-like" entry. When I started this blog, I told myself that I wanted to do it mainly to record all of the hilarious, the random, and the heart-warming things that my 4 year old says to me so I don't ever forget just how dang precious she is.

Lately, Riley has been going through some separation anxiety. She really struggles every day that she can't come with me to my office or to practice. She wants every bit of my attention at home...just for one day, I want to count how many times she says "hey mom"...."hey mom"...."hey mom"...."hey mom"...I feel so bad when I'm busy because it usually comes out a little exasperated..."what Riley?"...."what Riley?"...."WHAT RILEY??"...then I instantly feel bad when her response is..."I love you".

Just the other day, I was driving her to preschool (another daily struggle), and the conversation was as follows:

R: Hey mom?
M: What Riley?
R: I love you.
M: Well, I love you too.
R: Are you gonna be gone all day?
M: Nope, I will be back to pick u up in a little bit.
R: Well, I will miss you all day. You just make my heart grow so big.

What an incredible kid!! And Riley, you cannot even begin to comprehend how much you've made my heart grow the past 4 1/2 years!

Picture stress

So I know I've been MIA for awhile...the stress of my new job (interim head coach) is taking its toll. I love it though, and I love going to work everyday (maybe not every day!!). I find myself running around like a chicken with my head cut off half the time. I do apologize to everybody I've left hanging by not texting back, emailing back, calling back, so on and so forth...and as I've left my camera at my mother's (I think), I don't have any Thanksgiving pics to post. And FYI, if this post gets published underlined, I've been messing with it for 10 min trying to get it un-underlined & I can't figure it out, so whatever!

I did, however, manage to get the girls' pictures done while I was in SLC. It was a chore to say the least. The place was packed. I'm so glad we got an "appointment"...we were there for almost 3 hours!! Park was soo good when we arrived, but an hour later, when we finally got taken back, she was ready to eat and sleep. So we got one good pose, and then we couldn't get her settled down, so I resorted to a 5min. bottle break. After that, she was fast asleep. The headband came off, soon to be followed by the fleece jammies, since we were all sweating profusely in the tight cramped room. She opened her eyes when we set her on the bench long enough to get a little smirk out of her, and then she dropped her head and closed her eyes...

So it was hard, but I'm glad my mother was there to keep me from ripping the head off the photographer who called Parker a boy...I guess the name Parker is SO unfathomable for a girl, that even if she is wearing pink pajamas and A BOW ON HER HEAD, if the name is Parker, must be a boy!! I'm used to it though and it's fine. I love my girls with boy names!! But we did come away with two cute poses...

PRE-STRESS POSE

POST-STRESS POSE
"..just take the picture people.."