Riley is EIGHT!!!!

 Eight years ago, the Lord blessed our family beyond measure when he gave us this amazing little boy! He is my perfectionist, my snuggler, my worrier, my baker, my reader, my speller, my musician, my artist and my love! 

Sam, our elf from the North Pole, helped us make Ri's day super special by decorating his bedroom door with streamers and balloons. He also brought us everything we needed to make Riley's birthday cupcakes. 

What a sweet elf;)

This birthday was a little extra special for our Ri too.  You see, a few weeks ago, we started to talk to him about what he wanted to do for his birthday. We had a idea of a really special birthday gift that we knew Ri would enjoy, but couldn't swing a party AND this special gift too. So...we presented him with a choice. He could have a fun party and invite his friends, OR he could fore go the party this year and receive a gift we knew he would absolutely LOVE. 

Well, after thinking about it for a day or two, Riley chose the gift. 

The gift was a mini ipad. Shane's sweet boss had upgraded to a new one and sold us her old one for Riley. 

Oh.My.Goodness!!!! I wish you could have heard the squeals of delight that went with that face above.

 He was over the moon!!!!

 After lunch, we enjoyed those yummy cupcakes Sam so kindly brought!

Well, I wish I could tell you the rest of Riley's special day was just as wonderful as it began, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

A few days ago Sophie had the stomach bug. 

And just a few hours after these above pictures were taken, that little bug took down the rest of our family too.

I'll spare you the details, but you can only imagine what it's like to have SIX people come down with that kind of bug at the EXACT same time. 

Yeah...it wasn't pretty.

The ONLY blessing is that we ALL have had it now and won't have to worry about being sick on Christmas! 

So if you've noticed that I've been posting a lot this weekend...now you know why. 

We're all stuck at home...recovering from that mess;)