Christmas 2008

Riley has officially made it through his first Christmas. It was a tiring and exhausting affair for him. We started opening presents Christmas Eve. We have a tradition of opening Christmas pajamas, but I forgot to wrap his. So he got to open a few presents that were given to him from the Giving Tree at our church. I just need to include this side note: THANK YOU to all who got us gifts from the Giving Tree. When Tina told us she was going to put Riley on the tree I was so overwhelmed with gratitude, it made me cry. At that point we were starting to struggle with our finances and weren't sure what kind of Christmas presents we were going to be able to buy, let alone the things he really needed. Travis wasn't sure we "needed" to be on there, but I told him it was too late and Tina didn't ask, she told me she was doing it. And for those who know Tina, I wasn't about to argue :) As it turns out, Travis was laid off of work the week before Christmas, so the presents were more needed than we knew. Hmmm, I think God knew what he was doing!

It took just a few minutes before he figured out how this opening presents thing worked. I let him open a bag that had a bunch of little presents wrapped inside it. They were all clothes so I think he wasn't very excited and lost interest. But Mommy LOVED the clothes!!! They were all these cute little sweat suites and a snow jacket. Even a velour sweat suite, SSSSOOO CUTE!!! They had put in a really soft stuffed Giraffe as well so after a few presents I let him play with the Giraffe and I finished it off for him. I can't even believe how much clothes he got. He's all stocked up with warm 6-9 month clothes.

Early Christmas morning Grammy & Papa came over to help start the food so we could eat while Riley napped. We decided to let him nap while we cooked/ate and then open presents after he woke up. We won't be in control over how early he gets to open presents for very long, so I took advantage of the situation :) Papa was sitting on the couch with him and he got the camera out to take some pictures. His camera has a view finder that turns around so you can see yourself in the picture. Riley was looking in the view finder, seeing my Dad, and then turning around and actually looking at him. He was very confused how Papa could be in front of him and beside him at the same time!

This is our lovely "brunch" that we ended up eating at like 9:30am. Travis, Shekinah and I all opened our presents after brunch. Tina was very sneaky and put Travis and I on the Giving Tree as well, so we got more than we planned on for Christmas. I can't even begin to thank everyone for everything, we are so blessed!

When I went to get Riley up from his nap he was so excited, like he knew everyone was down stairs and it was Christmas morning! As we were coming down the stairs he was practically in anticipation of what he was going to see. This is all of us in our new Christmas Jams.

Riley seemed to enjoy the tissue paper more than the wrapping paper. One of Travis' gifts was stuffed with a lot of tissue because he likes to feel and shake things to find out what they are. So I left the tissue out for Riley to play in for a few minutes before opening presents.

Shekinah was texting, taking pictures and videos for Grandma and Grandpa back in Oregon. We finally got Grandpa on speaker phone to talk to Riley. Usually Riley just listens when someone talks to him on the phone, but this time he started this really high pitched talking when Grandpa Stan talked to him. From that moment on he was making all sorts of loud, fun, high pitched sounds the rest of the day and even into today. It's like he unlocked some new part of his voice that he had forgotten about. About 2 months ago he started in with high pitched noises and hasn't really done much of them since. Now it's been non-stop for 2 days. It's really stinkin cute!

I just had to get pictures of him in his snow hats. The first one was from the Giving Tree and the second was from Great Grandma Nimmo. She also got him matching gloves, some socks and some clothes. I just loved the hats!

So tired after a long day of present opening and playing with toys. He really did seem to know when he woke up from every nap that day that his toys and family were waiting for him downstairs.

The whole day was full of blessings and love from family and friends. I thank God for all he has done for us this Christmas season and there is no way that we could even begin to miss out on the real reason for Christmas this year. He has taken care of us and I know He will continue to do so.

Travis had a phone interview with a company this week and has a face-to-face interview with another company scheduled for Jan. 6th. That helps give us hope and boosts Travis' confidence.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We love you all! God bless everyone this Christmas season!

Travis, Tiffany & Riley Langford

Winter 2008

Here is my beautiful fake Christmas tree! It looks so much better in the dark with the lights on, but this is the only picture I have of the whole thing so I just thought I'd show y'all. I really love my tree and don't know if I will ever go back to a real one. We would have to live in Oregon again where there are tree farms and they don't cost so much.

This last Sunday, Travis and I did our annual "Acoustic Christmas Carol" service at our church. The first year we started leading worship at KLC we decided to dedicate Christmas Sunday to doing this service. Travis and the guys got together and re-worked a bunch of standard Christmas carols. Since then we have added one or two every year and this is our third year doing it. Most of the time the worship team isn't required to dress up very much, so I also subject them to being all decked out for this service. We wear black, red, white and/or gold. It looks really sharp. I wish we would have video taped it, but we didn't think of that in time. I think we have a vocal recording, but that's it. Riley got to wear his Christmas sweater so we decided to take some family pictures.
Travis' sister Shekinah is with us until the 3rd, so she joined in too. It's so fun having her here. She is an amazing musician and is applying to Berkley College of Music in Boston, MA. She wants to be a professional musician or work in the industry some how. She plays guitar, sings and writes her own music. She has a band called Innocent Rebellion back in Oregon. We are so proud of her!
I had to take pictures of Riley in this super cute outfit I bought at the consignment store for about $5. It's navy blue track pants and a t-shirt that has the long sleeves and hood attached. I'm a sucker for the t-shirts with the long sleeves underneath, so cute for little boys!!! I thought he looked so big in it.



We have had a bunch of snow in the last week. Not as much as Portland, but a lot for this time of year here. Last year we didn't get snow like this until about February. We took Riley for a walk ( just to get the mail) and let him hang out for a minute. We even let him taste the snow. He seemed to like it :)

I can't wait to post pictures of his first Christmas. Make sure to check back later this week to see them. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!

Snow Day!

We got Riley's first snow this week! He really wasn't too impressed with it. He didn't like the cold on his hands. He also doesn't love being in his coat, I think he is a little claustrophobic :)

Well we found out today that Travis got laid off from his job. They went ahead and let him come home, so that was nice. The one positive thing is that he gets to be home for holiday weeks. His sister Shekinah will be here starting Friday for two weeks, so it's nice that he doesn't have to work while she's here. He was already going to take some days off, but now he gets the whole time. Yes, I know it's a little thing, but whatever works to keep the spirits up, right? We know that God is in control and He has a plan. We ask that you keep us in your prayers.

Can't wait to post pictures of Riley's first Christmas!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Full of Thankfulness

It's a miracle, my pictures and video are back! And even better, they are all there TWICE!!! I can't even believe it. This makes my whole week! So, there are lots of pictures here for you to enjoy, so have fun!

Hangin' with Papa before we eat.

First Thanksgiving!!!!

Mmmm...my Thanksgiving dinner!

Laughing at Mommy making burping noises. I know, not very lady like, but it gets him to laugh every time! He is a boy through and through. Oh and he only laughs when Mommy does it, go figure ;)

Watching TV with Grammy...football I think.

Sooo flexible I can even eat my toes in the Bumbo that Grammy & Papa bought for me!

Look at me - I can sit up all by myself!

Ok so he loves to chew on "Mr. Crabs" and then he reaches for something else and just leaves him hanging there. It's pretty stinkin' hillarious.

My first Christmas Tree!

Oops, a little too close Daddy :)

Just one little touch to see what it is.

"What? I'm not doing anything."

Ok, now for the video. This is Riley having his first vegatble...Sweet Potatoes. And no, there are no marshmallows :)

Thanksgiving Pictures

Well I meant for this post to include pictures of Riley's first Thanksgiving and a video of his first taste of sweet potatoes, but as you can see they aren't here. I loaded them onto my computer and I don't know if it was my computer or the Picasa program, but they just disappeared. I had of course already deleted them from the camera so they are completely gone. As I write this I realize I have so much to be thankful for in life and I shouldn't be that concerned over pictures and videos. But it did make me very sad to loose the pictures of my first child's Thanksgiving and a really cute video of him with some of his first food. I think we can recreate the video, but never the pictures. Anyway, I'm not going to go on complaining about it because we have the rest of his life to create more memories. Just wanted to share with you all why I don't have pictures from this last weekend. Today we took Riley to the doctor for his 6 month check up and booster shots. He is 17lbs and 28 inches long. His weight is in the 50% and his height 97%. The doctor guesses he'll be over 6' based upon his track so far. He says we'll be able to tell better in the next year or so, but he says Riley will be taller than both Travis or I. The doctor also said that he is very advanced in his motor skills and developmental progress. He has said that every time we have gone and has always been impressed with everything Riley can do.

Oh and I added a thing so you can be a 'follower' of my blog. Add your self to it so it looks like I have friends :)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!