Birthday Girl

It is hard to believe that 4 years ago we were blessed with the most beautiful baby girl! Riley sweetness, compassion, and interest in the world amazes us daily and we love watching her grow in to a beautiful young lady! Happy Birthday baby girl!! We love you!

Riley October 2004

Riley (as Belle from Beauty and the Beast) October 2008

Riley and Lexa

(with Tracy's attempt at a princess cake in the background)

Riley on roller skates for the 1st time - Thank you Aunt Darcy, Uncle Mike and Lexa!! Riley loves the skates and so does Kyle!!

Riley also wants to send a special thank you to Bebe, Mamo, Grandma, & Papa for all the wonderful gifts and all the fun!!

Batman (Aiden) and Belle (Riley) getting ready for the Halloween Parade

Little Red Riding Hood (Ivy) and a Dragon (Kyle)

A Look Through Time

Riley and Kyle had a great week. It rained a little, but over all, the cool weather has driven the bugs away and the kids play together for hours on the back deck. The most important part of the week is when we celebrated Mamo's 92nd birthday!! Happy 92nd birthday Mamo!! Riley and Kyle are so lucky to have their great-grandmother in their lives and to see her so often!!

Mamo and Bebe also kicked off Riley's month long birthday celebration but bringing her to Toys-R-Us to pick out a birthday gift. She walked away with more Dora twins, princes polly's, a princes puzzle, and more twin babies! (and spree was limited by her rotten parents. Bebe would have bought her the entire store!) Riley kept saying "it is just so difficult to pick". Kyle made out as well with a Barney guitar and a tomas train. Lucky little kids:-)

Riley and Mamo (nearly 4 and 92) holding the new twins at Out Back

Kyle and Bebe

Stepping back in time at the pumpkin patch...

Riley 2005 - almost 1 year old

Riley 2006 - almost 2 years old

Riley 2007 - almost 3 years old

Kyle (and entire family) - 2007 - 5 months old

2008 - Kyle 17 months old - Riley almost 4!!!

Octoberfest

October is always a busy month for the Surratts and this year is no different! Last Sunday we went to Kings Dominion with the Umsteads again and the girls road the Scooby Doo several times - they are officially roller coaster hooked! We also had two exciting playgroups with our friends, visiting a local haystack maze and a fun adventure with Miss Spider at a local park and another playdate at Maymont Park to see the animals again and have a picnic lunch. We are definitely enjoying the last bit of good weather before winter sets in. This past weekend we did a pumpkin craft at Michaels with Lexa and Aunt Darcy, went to our friend Emory's birthday at a local fire station, went to the pumpkin patch, and had friends over for football and Erics famous chili (Steelers by-week)! Whew, we are all exhausted!

Riley is still loving soccer and started gymnastics this past week as well. She also went to a different pumpkin patch as a field trip and we painted her pumpkin later that evening (eventually I'll post a pix of all her fabulous pumpkins!)

Kyle is growing and moving faster than ever... so fast that he constantly falls and constantly bleeds! But smiles all the same!

Because we missed posting last week, this week is HEAVY in pix! Enjoy!

Arriving at the pumpkin patch

Kyle loved picking pumpkins. His final pumpkin pick ended up being orange and he carried it all the way back to the hay ride by him self - he ended up covered in dirt from head to toe!

Riley and Aiden at the pumpkin patch - 2008
Riley and Aiden at the pumpkin patch - 2005 - FOUR pumpkin-trips ago!!Riley at the fire station for Emory's birthday
Kyle at the fire station (they LOVE the fireman hats - thank you Ms. Katie!)Riley got her hair cut!
Half the crew playing during football/chili afternoon - check out Rileys new Steelers shirt!

Kyle got a new shirt too and now he is moving at the speed of light!

Kyle's big double busted lip - yuck!
The kids at Miss Spiders Adventure
Playgroup fun with our playgroup

Haystacks with Duffy and John
Riley driving at Kings Dominion

The Green Monster

Latest kid news:
Kyle battled a green marker today and lost. He is still mama's boy but is also very independent, therefore every time he is asked to hold an adults hand in the street, it is a throw down. Kyle is also now climbing to the top of the playground and coming down on his own.

Riley loves preschool and loves playing with her brother. Her new favorite thing to play is "school", where either Tracy or Eric is the school teacher to her favorite dolls and stuffed animals and she is the mommy. After she tells us what the lesson for the day should be, she leaves us to teach while she goes off to school. Eric enjoys this game b/c this allows him to watch sports center, where Tracy would prefer Riley "teach" with her:-) Tracy tried talking Riley into teaching with her earlier this week by explaining that she can be a teacher and a mommy. Riley paused while thinking about the suggestion and told Tracy, "hold on... I'm thinking about it..." The final decision was that she would be a mommy and a student. At least she was in the same room now!
Enjoy the pix!

Riley at the park with buddy Aiden

Kyles very green face

close up of the Green! This pix really doesn't do the damage justice!

Kyle going down the slide like a big kid!

Welcome Fall!

We have had a great week! This past weekend, Grandma and Papa came to visit and watch the girls awesome soccer skills!! Riley and Kyle loves having Grandma and Papa around all weekend. Riley and Grandma played school a LOT while Kyle continued to tackle Papa. Sammi (Grandma and Papas puppy) loved playing with Buster and surprisingly, Buster loved playing as well.

Soccer is going great - both girls are surprising us with their skills and they are having a lot of fun! Kyle's 9th tooth has finally broken through (a molar!!) This explains why he has woken up in the middle of the night 4 of the last 6 nights... too bad Tracy & Eric didn't figure out the waking was a result of the tooth earlier - now Motrin keeps him happy through the night!

School update: Kyle has also moved up to the toddler room at school. His transition has been great and he loves playing with the big kids. Riley had her first field trip this week and Tracy joined her. She had a great time with her friends and loved having mommy there to play as well!

Visit to the lake with our neighborhood friends - the ducks were being crazy and the kids couldn't get enough!

Riley's 1st time on the school bus on her way to Maymont Park for her 1st field trip!

(sitting with BFF, Brianna)

Can you see the Two Bears?!
Riley's preschool class (Riley is on the ground on the right)
Lunch with BFF, Brianna. Ri got to use her new Hello Kitty lunch box (who knew Hello Kitty was back in fashion?!)

Go Steelers! Kyle at soccer practice - its finally cooling off in the mornings! Riley's fancy footwork!
Poor Kyle - being dressed up in Rileys nightgowns already!

51 More Weeks

Hanna and Ike were no match for our family! We spent last week at Emerald Isle and had beautiful weather and a GREAT time! We spent hours on end playing in the sand and water and even found time for putt-putt, bumper boats, race cars, the aquarium, ice cream, and delicious dinners every night! Papa and Eric even found time for golf! Aside from our regular motley crew, Aunt Becky from Cali joined us - it was great seeing you Aunt Beck! Thank you Grandma, Papa, Bebe, and Mamo for such a fun week!

But most importantly, Happy Birthday Aunt Darcy! We celebrated Aunt Darcy's birthday at the beach and we are looking forward to the same next year!

The kids had a blast - Kyle now says "fut-ball" and throws his arms in the air when anyone says touchdown and Riley can't get enough of the surf! Soccer started for Ri when we got back from vacation and we'll have tons of pix of that in the future! Both Riley and Lexa were Much better than we thought they would be:-) We took over 200 pix, so no stories, just pix this week...
(for a ton more pix, check out Aunt Darcy's blog - http://umsteadupdate.blogspot.com )

The annual matching clothes picture.

Kyle and Lexa in the baby pool on the beach - the water was ROUGH so the baby pool was a great alternative. Notice the monster sand castle in the background!
Eric and Riley in the water.


The Rodrigues crew (plus husbands)

The Surratts (minus Tracy)

Pigs may now be flying... Bev is using a computer!
Birthday Girl in the Birthday Hat!
Emerald Isle Butts!
Eric being swept to sea with all the kids
Grandma tickling the girls on a night time walk
My favorite picture - Touchdown!
(Grandma, Kyle, Papa)

Riley's 1st soccer practice

We did a lot of singing and dancing to Mama Mia this week - here is just the beginning of Kyle getting into his moves...

Another cute doll!

We've had a busy week and the camera never came out... but here are some old ones that I stumbled upon...

Riley last week (3 years 10 months old)

Riley 2005 - 11 months old

Riley at one and a half years old (I'm not sure whats up with the hair!)

Instead of saying "me-ow", she would say "ow-me"... so cute!