Drumroll for...

...the new baby name. We're pretty sure the name of the new baby girl will be:

Mikayla Isabella Riley

We look forward to having Mikayla in our lives. We think that "Lizzie" (from V's middle name Elizabeth) and "Izzie" (from Mikayla's middle name Isabella) will have a blast together. Victoria is excited as far as we can tell. We've explained it to her and think she understands. Thank you for your votes.
Also I think I said I'd let you know what we decided on potty training. Well we decided to go for it and V was doing pretty well. She loved the praise when she was successful and when sometimes tell us when she needed to go, but in the end she truly was not ready. She would still go in her diaper whenever she needed to and eventually did not care for it anymore. So we'll be having two kids in diapers, but oh well. When she's not ready, she's not ready.

Name picking time...

Ok so we've narrowed it down to names that we like. We're no longer taking suggestions, but would like to see what everyone thinks of our narrowed list. Vote in our poll for which name you like the best. :)

Disclaimer: Final decision is still John and Katrina's. We are just curious as to what you all think.

We may be broke, but at least we do it in style

That's right...that's our new 2006 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer edition! A few days ago the Crown Victoria would not start again. We'd been having a few problems with it before, but decided to keep the Crown Vic to save money. Well we got tired of it. We've got bigger and better things to do than to worry about cars. Plus if we ever were looking to get one now is the best time to do so because it's definitely a buyer's market. Just to give you an idea of how good a deal we got let me tell you the price of a brand new Ford Explorer that's NOT Eddie Bauer edition = $40,000 at least. Now guess how much we paid for this one? It has 21k miles, leather interior, a clean record, is still under warranty, and not to mention looks brand new. Ok, we paid approx. $18,200 including taxes and registration! Isn't that amazing?!!! I'm so excited and relieved to have this. I feel so much safer and lucky. More pictures...yay!

So now all we've to do is get rid of our Crown Victoria and sell John's 1970 Ford Mustang and we'll have covered most of the cost...hopefully. I'm sure we won't be able to get a whole lot for our cars, but one could hope. Also, we finally finished our kitchen mosaic and we're almost done with the kitchen...we need to do crown mouldings and seal a few more things before we're done. Did I even mention we were doing a mosaic? Well, we were and it takes a while. So here that is.

Video of Victoria and such

In honor of the new Riley baby to come we now have a pink page. Yay! We are still deciding on a name and still taking suggestions. We have a few picked out that we like, but we are not going to say what they are until we've narrowed it down. Also, my new camera that takes pictures also does really awesome video recording. This was our first take last night of Victoria. It's not that exciting, but we were just trying it out. Let me know if it doesn't upload and enjoy!

I now present to you, Victoria Riley...


In other news when we were in Provo working on painting the exterior of our Provo duplex Victoria got paint in her hair. A lot of paint actually. Here are some pictures of the damage. There is still a little left to get out and yes, I have tried peanut butter. It did nothing except maker her hair smell like peanut butter!

Ultrasound results

Today we took a break from our "Provo Vacation/Work Week" and came back to Salt Lake. John had to go to work and I had an ultrasound appointment. I'm sure you all are curious of the results. It's a hermaphrodite, none of you guessed it. Unbelievable! Ok I'm joking of course, but a surprising amount of you were incorrect. It's a girl! We're excited that we don' t have to change a lot and we think that V will enjoy having a sister. We plan on them having a lot of shopping sprees together and spending all of our hard earned money. :) As of this point we have no name picked out because we didn't want a recurrence of what happened with V when they told us it was a boy and then changed it later on. So we will now begin looking at girl names again. Yay! Suggestions for names are welcome unless you suggest really bad names. If you are consistent in suggesting bad names we will veto all further name comments from you. So don't suggest a bad name! Also, we haven't had enough opinions on potty training for V so if you could take our poll (to the right) and give an opinion then that'd be awesome. Thanks.

Little known facts about us...hopefully

We were tagged by Daniel and Kristen to give six facts about ourselves so here goes:

John:
1. I hate blogging (Katrina is even typing this for John).
2. I like to watch Hannah Montana when my wife leaves the room.
3. I should've studied architecture in school. In retrospect, I should've become an architect.
4. I really really REALLY want a pool, but my wife won't let me get one until we have our final home.
5. I swore I'd never live in Utah growing up.
6. I speak Thai and Laotian fluently and am learning Spanish, Bermese, and Cambodian so that I can take over Southeast Asia.

Katrina:
1. I love to watch Broadway shows and plays. Also, comedy shows. Oh, and shows about crime because I am trying to understand the criminal mind, but my husband thinks I'm trying to kill him.
2. I get really cranky when I'm hungry. If you feed me you're my new best friend. If not, back off.
3. I can't "sit around" all day and do nothing. I'll go crazy.
4. I think John is the most talented person I've ever met and he's teaching me lots of new talents like how to tile, caulk, patch holes, etc.
5. I speak Spanish and a bit of German and am learning Thai (very slowly b/c of lack of time).
6. I want a new car. SUV really. I like the new Mercury Mariner. Want to buy me one?

We tag:
Everyone who reads our blog.

The Rules
A - Each person has to list 6 facts/habits about them.
B - After part A, go to 6 people's blogs and leave a comment letting them know to read your blog, and that they have been tagged.
C - List at the end of your posting who you have tagged.

Potty Training?? Please give opinion.

So I've been going back and forth about whether or not V is ready for toilet training. The first time I ever put her on the potty and asked her to go she went! I was amazed. Perhaps, she is ready. Since then, she's gone a few times consistently in the morning and about once or twice since then in the afternoon. Granted on our NY trip we were unable to "train" her, but she's shown a few signs she's ready. Sure it would be AWESOME if I could train her before the new baby arrives, so my dilemma is this. If I wait until after I have the baby then it'll be a while since there is an adjustment period with a new sibling for both her and I, but if I start now would I just be backtracking when the new baby does come? And of course if she's ready, why not? So I need your opinion. Here's a checklist of what are signs for them being ready from Babycenter.org. I'll let you know where she's at and you give your opinion...please. :)

Physical signs:
Can walk and run steadily. YES
Urinates a fair amount at one time. SOMETIMES, mostly it's still whenever
Has regular, well-formed bowel movements at relatively predictable times. NO IDEA
Has "dry" periods of at least three or four hours, which shows that her bladder muscles are developed enough to hold urine. NO

Behavioral signs:
Can sit down quietly in one position for two to five minutes. YES
Can pull her pants up and down. YES
Dislikes the feeling of wearing a wet or dirty diaper. SOMETIMES (she'll care one day and not the next)
Shows interest in others' bathroom habits (wants to watch you go to the bathroom or wear underwear). YES
Gives a physical or verbal sign when she's having a bowel movement such as grunting, squatting, or telling you. YES, well sometimes
Demonstrates a desire for independence. YES
Takes pride in her accomplishments. YES?
Isn't resistant to learning to use the toilet. YES, she likes sitting on her potty
Is in a generally cooperative stage, not a negative or contrary one. YES

Cognitive signs:
Can follow simple instructions, such as "go get the toy." YES
Understands the value of putting things where they belong. NO
Has words for urine and stool. YES
Understands the physical signals that mean she has to go and can tell you before it happens or even hold it until she has time to get to the potty. NO