August 25th, 2011

That will be the birthday of the newest Rife, if all goes according to plan. But I'm smart enough to know that things don't always go according to plan! Nolan is breech, so we have a c-section scheduled for 7:30 next Thursday morning. Next Thursday! In a little over a week we will be a family of five. But this kid likes to do things a little differently than his sisters - guess he's figuring out now how to hold his own - and I wouldn't be surprised if he makes his appearance earlier.

Will keep you posted...!

Not Poopy, not Animal, but...

I'm stealing my friends', the Colleys, cute idea to announce the name of the smallest Rife. So here you go...



Years of me looking at baby names produced nothing. Three minutes of Matt looking over a baby name list on a website, and there you have it. Totally not what we expected to like, but we do! Anna's still disappointed that he won't be Poopy, and Holly had her heart set on Superhero Baby (there's an insight into their personalities, btw). But it seems right to us. And I'm just glad we didn't have to choose another girl name.

Mother's Day

It is still strange to me that I get to celebrate Mother's Day. Mother's Day is for MY mom, and Matt's mom. I want to make sure they feel loved and celebrated, and I kind of forget that I fall into the "Mother" category now. But sweet Matt wouldn't let me forget for long. He asked several times how I wanted to spend Mother's Day, how I wanted it to go. And yesterday he showered me with wonderful gifts and did all the dirty work with the girls (that was my answer to "how do you want it to go?").

Holly and Anna also worked hard to make me feel special on Mother's Day. At school, Holly made this flower pot for me...

Look closely at the sign. When asked what she loves about me, this was her answer...

Sigh. Tear. Love that girl.

She also, under the supervision of her patient Daddy, made me Auburn colored sand art.



Here is Anna's gift to me - a popsicle-stick-framed picture of her cuteness. On the fridge, smiling at me every time I open it to pour her [more] milk.


And today, a fun package arrived on my doorstep from a dear friend, filled with goodies for all of us. I think my favorite thing inside was this little plaque...


Two little girls and a little boy. Or, as I will look at it, two sisters and their baby brother. Here is an actual picture of little baby boy Rife...


I'm thankful for so much this Mother's Day - a wonderful mom, the best mom-in-law I could ask for, a loving husband, two beautiful girls, one baby boy on the way, and amazing friends.

It was a happy day, indeed.

Signs of Spring

Oh, we are so ready for spring. After a few teasers, I'm hopeful that it's actually here to stay. Until summer at least. Give me the yellow layer of dust on everything, the itchy eyes, and swarms of mating carpenter bees all over my porch and patio. I'll gladly exchange it for cold, gloomy days inside and restless girls who long to run outside and play with their friends and neighbors. I'll see you in the backyard for cornhole and cookouts.

Milestones

After dinner with neighbors, one being a boy Anna's age who just moved from his crib to a big boy bed, we decided to make the move with Anna. Like, at 7:30 at night. No preparation, no talking it up. Just, "Anna, do you want to sleep in Holly's room tonight?" Here was the reaction:



They both did great! They talked and played for a while, then Holly's giggles turned to, "Shh! We're supposed to be sleeping!" Anna continued to talk and sing, and I realized Holly had fallen asleep when I heard Anna say, "Holly! Holly? Come here?"

I'm not declaring victory yet, but here's to one successful night in a big girl bed. And two big girls in one room.

It's a Beautiful Life

Add this to the list of things she'll kill me for later...

Little peanut

Yep, we're expecting Rife baby #3 on September 1st! This is a picture of the peanut at 8 weeks. I'm 13 weeks now. So if I were to have an ultrasound today, you'd actually see a baby rather than a kidney bean. But isn't it the cutest little kidney bean ever?

We weren't intentionally keeping it on the down low this long - if I've seen you in person, I've told you already I'm sure! But I honestly keep forgetting that I'm pregnant. No real problems (other than the usual I'm-going-to-hiberbate-for-the-winter fatigue and a few weeks of blah) and 2 active little girls have made it easy to be distracted. But realized I'd better get the word out now before people run into me at the store and think I've totally let myself go.

A few pregnancy facts:

- our peanut is now the size of a medium shrimp (??)

- I should only be consuming 300 more calories per day. Umm....

- If this baby is a 3rd girl, we are going to need serious help, and possibly marriage counseling, to name her.

And, yes, we will be finding out the sex. Of course we will! Since Matt will not discuss baby names until we know if it's a boy or girl (as he says, otherwise we're wasting half our time - way too inefficient for this engineer), we would be in real trouble after the baby is born. Weeks without a name. Which would drive you monogrammers nuts. So we're doing it for you.

And for those that argue that it ruins the surprise...come on. I completely respect that you like the suspense, but we will be just as surprised when we find out. At 20 weeks. And we won't have a collection of 30 onesies covered in yellow ducks. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I love you all!

(PS - I had this in nice, neat paragraphs, but when posted it comes out like one big run-on essay. I apologize to my literary friends.)

Thank you to the Academy

I'm a little behind, but gotta give props where props are due. Matt's family has an annual NFL pool, and the prize is one year with the revered Rife Cup. This year - for the first time since I've known him - Matt brought home the trophy!

I'm so proud of you, my love! Here's to your next win in 15 years...

WAR EAGLE!!

Auburn Tigers are 2010 National Champions!!

A few fast facts:

• Auburn becomes the first team since Georgia Tech in 1990 to win a national title after starting the season ranked outside the top 20.

• Cam Newton is the 9th Heisman winner to play in the national championship game in the last 11 years.

• Auburn's win, coming on the heels of Alabama's title last year, marks the first time in 70-plus years that two different teams from the same state are crowned national champs in consecutive seasons.

• The SEC improves to 7-0 in BCS title games and has now won the the last five.

(ESPN Stats and Information)

Wish I was here to celebrate...

Preciousness

Snow Fun!

There's nothing quite like a white Christmas.

A new Christmas tradition?

I LOVE all things Christmas, and our December this far has been full of all the usual fun Christmas activities. We got dressed up for the Chick-fil-A Open House (note Holly's name tag - so cute!):














Decorated a gingerbread house:














And baked Christmas cake balls.














We've had some reeeeally cold nights, and have used the heck out of our old-fashioned, woodburning fireplace already. And it's not even winter yet.

All of the activity, while all good things, makes me think about how we distort the spirit of Christmas with our consumerism and excess. I fall into this trap each year, and it bothers me. Then I read books like Radical, and read verses like these, and I have to wonder...are we missing the boat? Rather than collecting things for ourselves (and teaching our kids to do the same), shouldn't we be giving our things away? I'm not there yet.

But I'm being challenged lately, and it's as though Jesus is saying directly to my heart, "I have blessed you with so much not so that you can consume more, but because you are the means through which I will love and feed the poor and oppressed." And man, does Jesus love the poor and the oppressed.

What does that mean for our family? What does that mean for me?

After talking about this with our small group, our neighbor and friend Kerri challenged me. Above and beyond their family's normal giving, she had decided to give away all of her discretionary monthly allowance for 2011 to Charity: Water. No fancy haircuts, no department store lipstick. Instead, she is bringing clean water to people who have none. That's what I'm talking about! THAT is the spirit of Christmas!

Knowing I had to put up or shut up, I decided to give up my entire clothing budget for next year (and Matt's too...if I didn't tell him, he would never even know). I'm not sure where it's going yet. But I'm excited about knowing that the new shoes I didn't buy just fed a child. Or purchased a teenage girl out of sex slavery. Or did just about anything other than fill up my already full closet.

Having decided that (last night!), my heart feels full. And ready to receive my King.

Merry Christmas to all!

Happy Day!

Dori and Lee got married last week in Kauai and celebrated on Saturday with a reception in Memphis. It was perfect - a beautiful bride, her handsome groom, and an art gallery full of adoring friends and family. They are blessed!

I have a few tips for Lee, from someone who has known Dori for 21 years.

1) Don't talk to her while she's trying to fall asleep.
2) Don't talk to her too early in the morning. If you do, don't be too cheerful.
3) Don't touch her with your feet.
4) Take good care of my bf. Love her well, lead her well, and cherish her. I know I do.

Congratulations Dori and Lee. Wishing you a life of love and a home full of laughter and joy...and little Schumanns!

Happy Things

I love the mountains outside of Asheville.

I love them even more with my honey.

I loved the sunset from my front porch this evening.


And the bright red tree in the yard across the street. (Doesn't it look like I altered the photo to make the background look black and white? Nope! That's how red the tree is.)

I love my gangsta baby. Side note on Anna...the girl finds something she likes and becomes obsessed. Today, it was this pink hat. Had to have it on and wanted to nap with it. Other obsessions of late: anything that's yellow, her princess pajamas (which happen to be yellow), a butterfly bib that she wears all day. Obsessed. She is stubborn and strong-willed, and when she doesn't make me crazy, she makes me smile.

I love my wacky fairy-butterfly-princess. Wish you could see the pink rain boots she's wearing.


And I love Sunday morning dances. Does it get any sweeter?

'Tis the Season?

Ever since I read Candace's enthusiastic blog post about pumpkin flavored goodies, I've been wanted to try something. An experiment, if you will. I'm not a big pumpkin fan (when I eat anything pumpkin flavored, I can't help but picture pumpkin guts), but I have been on a cake ball frenzy since I discovered these.

So an idea was born.

What if...I combined Candace's mom's recipe with Bakerella's recipe? Spice cake, cream cheese, pumpkin, chocolate. It's going to be amazing.

I decided to make them this morning (because although I'm supposed to be packing and handling logistics for a weekend getaway that begins in 2 hours, I must have nothing better to do).

Start with the basics:


I added a couple eggs, a little oil, and a little water to the cake mixture, because I just didn't trust that pumpkin and cake mix alone would work. Wasn't necessary. If you decide to make these, follow directions. Isn't that the number 1 rule in baking?

Throw her in the oven:


Find yourself a good helper who doesn't mind getting her hands dirty:

After rolling the mix into balls and chilling (per Bakerella's instructions), dip them in chocolate. And the end result:

Actually, the TRUE end result:


My opinion, not bad. But not amazing. I still felt like I was eating the inside of a gourd, to be honest. But I think most people, especially pumpkin people, would enjoy it.

If you live in my area, I'll save you one and you can decide for yourself!

We're back!!

Thanks to some encouragement from some sweet friends, I'm resuming my blog. I took an unintentional summer break...we had a season when our lives were really busy but not especially interesting. So a week turned into a month, which turned into two, which turned into nearly forgetting my blogger.com password.

I'll give you a few highlights of the previous few months for the Rife family. Hopefully it doesn't leave you thinking, "no wonder she hasn't had much to say!"

August included a girls' trip to Vegas: my mom, her sister Bonnie, my sister Leigh, and myself. Fun, fun times!



We also took the girls to a Braves game. We made it through at least 5 innings, and this time actually got to see some baseball!



In September, Matt and I took the girls for our first real family vacation with just the 4 of us. We went to the Blue Ridge Mountains and had a great time picking apples, hiking, and enjoying the end of summer (or so we thought...who knew summer would hang around until mid-October?).




In October, Holly got to celebrate her birthday twice. In Greenville for her actual birthday, with Grammy, Pappy, Uncle Kelly, Aunt Megan, and Evan...



...and with Nana and Papa and our incredible neighborhood friends for her Little Mermaid birthday party. My baby is 4!




And to bring you fully up to speed, a few pictures from our Halloween festivities. Anna made a cute peacock, but a compliant one she was not. Spending $17 on a costume was enough to make the battle worthwhile.








Sorry for all the photos, but sometimes pictures just tell a better story. Especially when there are 4+ months of stories to tell.

See you again soon!