Reese, Nate, and Kristina...Our Crazy, Fun, Beautiful Life...It's Us!

Boy Oh BoY...Have I been SLACKING!

2010-01-08T21:52:00.000-08:00

First I'd like to apologize to my avid blog followers, if I had any!...As I was sitting here at my parent's house, Reese is fast asleep with Nana and Papa...I got to thinking about when in the heck was the last time I have posted on my blog???? NOVEMBER 10TH! ooopsy! Needless to say, life has been quite hectic, to say the least. Right after that last post came Thanksgiving, then my finals for school, then Christmas, then New Years, and here we are! School starts in just under two weeks and ohhhh how I am not looking forward to it! Gotta keep telling myself only this last semester (with the appropriate grades :) and I am DONE!

Anyways, over the past two months I have taken tons of pictures and Reese has grown tremendously! She is just getting over her FIRST cold. I am so thankful I was here at mom and dad's for this one though because it was quite draining trying to figure out what hurts, how to treat it, how to please her, how to sleep, how to get her to sleep when she can't breathe through her nose. :( It was stressful...but luckily, for the most part, she is over her cold...however now Nana and I have taken it over. But I would much rather be sick than her. It broke my heart having to push nasal saline up her little nostrils with the bulb thing and then suck out the boogers. I kept asking mom if she'd remember or hate me afterward. Again, so happy I was here to have her reassurance, guidance, and help. I tend to get quite stressed out when Reese shows any signs of not normal. I will say that although she was very congested and coughing, during the day she was, for the most part, pretty close to her fun smiling self.

Aside from Reesey being sick, we too had the normal crazy holiday madness. It was such a blast to be there and witness Reese's first Christmas as she stared in amazement of us telling her to rip open the presents. And then tons of toys and stuff all around her. It was the best feeling ever. Although my days of real sleep have long gone out the window, she is the greatest gift of all. The joy she brings to my life is indescribable. Below are some of my favorite pictures over the past two months....

Reese helping Gma Wakeman with dishes...ha...her new thing she loves it being naked! It is HILARIOUS!

This picture makes me laugh everytime I see it...Reese just being Reese and being silly in between presents...

Reese on Christmas Eve in her beautiful Christmas dress and adorable white fur coat and red shoes from Aunt Jenny

Jack waiting for Reese to drop SOMETHING or Reese will even intentionally throw something down....

Helping me unload groceries :)

Having fun at the park, enjoying the awesome weather!

Reese and Sophia helping me clean the refrigerator

Going for a walk around downtown Austin on New Years Eve

Reese and Sophia (Reese's friend who is just three months older)

Us on Christmas morning in Magnolia...Reese looks thrilled...

I go to class.....Reese and Nana go shopping.....

2009-11-10T18:45:00.000-08:00

So today I had class from 2-620. Usually when mom comes up to watch Reese, so I can go to class and Nathan can go work, they just hang out at the apartment. Today it was such a beautiful day out so mom decided to ride down to San Marcos with me, drop me off at school, and go to the outlets with Reese. During my first class they just ran to WalMart then came back to campus before my next class. Then from 4-6 they hit the outlets. Mom said she just wanted to run by Bath and Body Works, but six o'clock rolled and still no Reese and mom. So I texted them and get this...

(along with the above picture...) "Bet you can't guess why we are late"

Since you don't know...she was wearing a onsie and shorts when we left earlier in the day, apparently it got chilly out while I was in class so Nana took Reese to get pants and a jacket from GAP and some new Nike tennies! Reese officially has her first pair of Nike's! Needless to say, they picked me up a couple minutes later. Reese was passed out in the back seat with Spongebob playing. Overall my guess would be that Nana and Reese had an ok day...ha ha They had a great time today! :)

PS Mom and dad gave us their portable DVD player so Reese takes car rides much more pleasantly! :)

Just getting home and crawling around in her new tennies.

She saw the camera in my hand and went straight for it.

Horrible picture of me...but me n my girl :)

Not the best video, but just so those of you who don't see Reese a lot can see how much she is crawling and how well she is getting around. We can't leave the room for more than 5 seconds without her being into something or making her way there.

Reese gets her first haircut...

2009-11-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to get my hair cut and colored before Nikki, my hair girl, fixed it for my bridal portraits we did on Saturday. It was quite an eventful weekend. Somehow Saturday flewwww by so fast. I had my hair appointment at 10 am, we got done there about 1:30 (we were running late and we did a lot :), then we had to haul butt back to Bremond to grab my dress, throw on some make-up, then to Calvert to take some pictures at the church and downtown, then we had to rush back to Bremond to make it in time for some sunset pictures. It was all accomplished and everything turned out great. I would give a little preview of the bridal pictures as well, but Nate can't see until March 6th. :) I had such a blast and was so glad to get to visit with Lauren as well, since I don't get to see her very often.

We actually only took off a couple little "whispsies" because they kept going in her eyes. Everything else we left to grow more. :)

Reese and Nana just before they left the house to go get Reese's shots. I am still too much of a weenie to take her myself.

This video was actually taken during the week. I was feeding Reese dinner and she and Nate got into a war. It was too cute.

Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend we celebrated mom and dad's 25th wedding anniversary. I came to Bremond on Thursday and Nate made it down this afternoon. We hung out here around the house and then went to Hearne for dinner at Ama's Mexican Food. Reese also started really crawling today so it was a great day. I will post a video of her crawling within the next couple of days. She is starting to move everywhere, and even pulled up on the table by herself. We stay right be her side because she still face plants every couple of steps. However, for the most part she has it down. It is so exciting. We didn't go trick or treating because obviously Reese does not do candy yet, but a couple weeks ago I dressed Jack and Reese up in their costumes. Reese was a cute little giraffe and Jack was a fireman. I love being a mommy, and love my family, life it great.....if only school would end.....SOON!!!

Reese and Jack in their Halloween costumes

Jack as the devil in this one...Reese just chillin' :)

Of course Reese trying to eat his hat...

Reese and her uncle Ryan

Nana, Papa, and Reese

My fam :)

Probably one of my favorite pics of me and my girl.

Playing with mommy's boots

Update :)

2009-10-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

So since my last post we hit up a pumpkin patch, attempted to carve a HUGE pumpkin (but ended up only cleaning it out and roasting the seeds), had a doctor appointment, and Reese is ALMOST crawling! :) She is getting so big. I know I say that just about every post, but it seems as though time is just flying by especially with our busy lifestyle. This semester of school is past half way and I am so looking forward to it being OVER! School is just not the same when you have a family and real life. I miss those days or weekends of doing nothing and spending time with my family. It seems so nonexistent anymore. :( Anyways, below are some pictures of the events I mentioned. There are more pumpkin patch pictures on Facebook, so feel free to take a look there as well.

Reese's new boots! :)

The best dr, Dr. Alice Blount, and Reese

Eating some lunch on the way to Fort Worth for a Mary Kay party

What Reese thought towards the end of the party...ha ha

Eating some ice cream at Casa Ole

She loved it!

Drinking some tea at Nana and Papa's

The funniest thing ever. I loved it.

Playing with paper at doctor.

She fell asleep on the floor watching Yo Gabba Gabba

Cleaning out the pumpkin and Reese is investigating the slimy stuff. Good times with family.

Me and my girl at the pumpkin patch

~love Love LOVE my wonderful family~

Trying to crawl! The blanket she's crawling on...I made her. Probably the easiest thing ever. :)

Reese loves Jack

2009-10-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after I gave Reese a bath, I bathed Jack as well. After he gets a bath he gets all excited and runs around everywhere! Reese just loves this. Enjoy!

PS Reese's favorite show "Yo Gabba Gabba" is on in the background, so excuse the wierd songs. ha

Bring your daughter AND fiance to work day... :)

2009-10-14T07:10:00.002-07:00

On Monday, after class I was meeting up with Nathan to grab Reese because he had to compost for work. I decided since I had never really got see what he does, that I wanted to go out there with him. I have been wondering for awhile, so I figure why not. It was a little chilly, muddy, and pretty much gross outside. This did not help AT ALL with the smell of this food! I knew it would smell, but lordy....It was rank! What an awesome man to provide for our family and have to smell that everyday. That is all part of starting your own business though, doing all the dirty work now, and then make money to pay someone later. Reese and I had a good time out there. She was talking away and making her loud noises and trying them all out. It was like she was telling them what to do. ha ha. I am glad we got to see what daddy does, and actually spend a little time with him. Lately we have been so busy running around, dropping and going, that we really haven't got to spend good time together. Even if he was working, we still got to see him! :)

Nathan looking THRILLED!!

Working hard...Scooping that food and putting mulch in with it.

I know, horrible pic of me, I was trying to get Reese and wasn't sure if I was in the pic.

Me and my girl :)

"Nana I am ready for those bath toys!!"

2009-10-14T07:10:00.001-07:00

I recently got Reese a new bath chair. She was still fitting into her old one that she laid down in, but since she likes to sit up so much now, I thought it was time for one that she could sit up in the bath. She loves it! She can look around now, rather than just up at us. I finally broke out her little rubber duckies and she loves them. Mom keeps telling her every time we go to Bremond that, "Nana is gonna buy you so many bath toys." Well mom I think its time! She loves them! I am going to have to get a little bucket or something to hold them in as well. We are unfortunately limited on space here, so her toys are going to take over our little bathroom! ha

She loves the bath even more now!

Of course, trying to eat anything she gets her hands on! lol

Girls Night

2009-10-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to Houston to deliver some of my Mary Kay product for my wonderful customers who bought from me. For those of you who did not know, I did start selling Mary Kay to try and bring in some extra income for my family. It does take time to get it off the ground to the point where you are actually making some good money, but I knew that going in and am actually enjoying it. Anyways, Reese and I drove down early Friday morning. I left at like 7am because I wanted Reese to sleep most of the way. She seems to really hate the car seat lately, but in just four more pounds we get to switch to the big girl car seat and she can face forward! So we got down to Conroe. I finally got to see my friend Hillary's apartment, then we went shopping for a little bit, went to see and deliver product to Nathan's aunt and Mimi, then to Olive Garden to meet Nate's sister Holly and her roommate for dinner. I hadn't seen her in quite some time, and she was so excited to see Reese. It really was a great time. After dinner we headed back to Hill's and by this time I already decided I was going to stay the night and leave Saturday. That morning we did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! It was the most amazing thing! I slept right next to my baby girl, and relaxed with her on the couch for most of the day. I do get to spend time with her while I am here in Austin, but when I am at home I feel like I am constantly trying to get SOMETHING done. Being away from it all made me relax and enjoy my girl time. Although my girls night was not a typical "girl's night," it was with a majority of the girls in my life that mean the most. I really enjoyed it and hope to do it again soon. I got some random pictures through the two days, but of course my phone was much more handy then grabbing my actual camera, so the quality is not very good.

My little Reesey-roo when we stopped in Old Navy for a quick look. I ended up spending $50 on clothes for my little one. I did good though, in the fact that I bought them bigger and for cold weather. Of all the clothes she does have, it amazing that she doesn't have many for the winter. That girl has SOOOO MANY CLOTHES! It is insane!

Hillary and Reese in her new hat :)

Reese and her Aunt Holly

Me and the girls. Luv them! Again...very poor quality :/

And Reese playing in her pack-n-play. She almost conquered pulling up that day. She is so close and I have a feeling she will be crawling and going everywhere in no time!

Decorating for the fam...

2009-10-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

So last week I took out my Halloween decorations so I could make our home somewhat festive for fall. I have some fall stuff and some Halloween stuff as well. Nate made fun of me at first but then finally admitted he liked it, I guess it was just "too manly" to like the decorations right off the bat. Once I took the box out it sat for a couple days because I have been so dang busy, but finally by about the third day I got around to doing it. Below is just a picture of our balcony. Nothing way extravagant or cute, but hey...It's better than being completely boring and having nothing right! I do plan on going out a little more for Christmas time. By then Reese will probably be crawling. It is really going to be "the most wonderful time of the year." I can't wait to spend Christmas with my very own family, have our very own tree, presents, everything! For now here is Halloween :)

Reese is big enough for a high chair!

2009-10-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

I know I am not near as good at updating my blog as I once was during the summer BEFORE school started. You can definitely blame school for my lack of updating everyone and posting cute little pictures of my baby girl. A couple days after we got home from Bremond, the previous blog, Nate finally had the time to put her high chair together that his aunt and uncle got us as one of our shower gifts. I can't believe she is already big enough for this! It is sooo helpful to have this when you're feeding her. It is literally like trying to hit a moving target though. She is so interested in everything so she is constantly looking around and checking EVERYTHING out. She is doing great at opening her mouth and anticipating the bite. I have come to the conclusion though, that she only really likes turkey, will eat chicken, but despises beef! She throws a fit after a couple bites and will not have anymore. I usually mix in the vegetables with each bite to give it a little better taste. Sadly enough, those canned baby foods are not the most appealing thing. I feel bad lately when I am chowing down on a good meal and she is staring at me with those sad eyes. I can't wait till I can just give her some chicken nuggets. ha ha....Actually I CAN wait, my little baby girl is already growing up way to fast.

Checking it alllllll out!

Just a short little blurb of Reese having fun in her high chair

Reese just finishing up breakfast. Some oatmeal with banana mixed in. She loves it.

She loves eating, but there is no way clean way to do it. You can see the food on her nightie and food all over the tray on the previous picture.

Such a cute picture. She wearing her Cowboys nightie that Nana and Papa sent her home with that night. Even though the Cowboys haven't been doing so hot, we will still support them. :)

Life in the Country

2009-10-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks we have had to travel back and forth to Bremond on the weekends for wedding stuff. To measure out the reception place, talk to the rehearsal dinner chef, meet with our pastor for pre-marital classes, etc. In between all this it is nice to get away from the hussle and bussle of the big city and relax. Poor Jack gets neglected at our place when we are so busy. We take him for longer walk here and there, but he has so much energy, that those couple walks do not get it all out. When we come to Nana and Papa's he, Daisy, and Dutchess run down to, what used to be the pond (the drought has almost dried it up), and play and run and run some more. Jack was down for two days after this because he was so worn out and his hip was hurting him. We all just stood on the side watching, and jumping back and forth when Daisy or Dutchess would about wipe us out from running so close.

Nana and Reese standing back and out of the way in the shade

Hi, baby girl!

Cooling off in the nice clean water :)

Having a grand ol' doggone time ha ha

The must've done this for at least an hour. I had to grab Dutchess and bring her back to the house. She just cant handle the heat for very long because she is so dang big!

Me, just trying out my photography on an old little tack house by the pond.

And after a long day of church, wedding stuff, and playing outside Reese took a nap with her Uncle Ryan. :)

My VERY Neglected Blog :(

2009-10-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

So sorry to my avid blog followers I have been very bad at updating. Life has been quite busy for life in the Vonderau-St.Clair (soon to be Vonderau :) household. I have had a test every week for school, then class Monday through Thursday, Nate is busy with Restaurant Recyclers, Reese, and somewhere in there doing my household/motherly chores. However over the past couple of weeks I have accumulated quite a few random pictures. Those that are not so clear were taken on my phone, because it is so handy to catch Reese in her cute little acts. I know I have said this a lot lately but she is developing such a cute personality. She laughs, and is just babbling away in her own little language. As far as eating food, she has cleared turkey, chicken, and beef with their broths, sweet potatoes, bananas, carrots, butternut squash, and green beans. And you saw from the previous blog she loves paper as well. ha ha Enjoy the pictures below! My last test, in my first string of tests, is this week so hopefully I will be able to update more often. My mom is now off every Tuesday and Thursday so she is going to drive to Austin to help me out with Reese so I can get some stuff done around the house, blog, study, wash clothes, etc!!

The six pictures below are outside of our church in Bremond. We were waiting on dad to finish counting money, so I did a little mini photo shoot of Reesey. She is really starting to get good at sitting up. She only fell to the side one time. :) Don't worry it is very thick St. Augustine grass.

This picture above is one of my favorite even though she isn't even looking at the camera

Checking out the grass

Precious

What do you want me to do?! ha ha

Absolutely beautiful! I love her soo very much!

This was also her first day to wear a bow in her hair :)

During church, Uncle Ryan brought Reese to the front for children's time. She was talking away too. She made all 14 members that were there laugh.

These are two randoms of when she, Jack, and I went on a walk around the complex. This picture was taken afterwards. She looks pretty sleeping...

Reese + Turkey n broth = A HUGE MESS

2009-09-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

So tonight when I got home from class, Nate was working on dinner, Reese was napping, and the house was still in somewhat good condition. :) It was quite a pleasant environment to come home to. Shortly after I walked in, Reese woke up. I held her while Nathan finished up dinner and we sat and talked with him. We sat down to eat and the picture explain the rest...I was rolling laughing. I was a mess, but one of the best time since I have been mommy. Me and Nate sitting at the dinner table having a great time watching the love of our life have the time of her life rip one of daddy's paper to shreds and get "turkey and broth" everywhere!!

Looking for more STUFF!

Loves that paper!

She was having the BEST time of her life! I was so precious watching her. I wish I was this easily amused!

She was flinging it around and so hyper.

And.....The damage is done, and by that look on her face you'd think she did nothing at all!

A close up of all the damage she did.... :)

LONG Overdue!

2009-09-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

So since my last post we have been VERY busy. School is progressing and assignments, tests, projects are rolling in. Nathan has been busy with his own business, Restaurant Recyclers. He and Jim seem get at least one new customer each week, so that is great! Austin is definitely the place to do a recycling business. I also decided to start selling Mary Kay this past weekend to bring in some extra income for our family. I think it will be fun, but a little stressful at the same time because I want to succeed and do good at it. I guess it will just take some time and learning. Aside from school, Nate's company, and my new business venture, Reese is keeping us on our toes and quite busy. There is never a dull moment with her anymore. She is growing so fast and developing such a personality! She is constantly smiling...Well when she gets her way. Nathan was telling her tonight, "Reese you were such a good girl all day for daddy and now you're being a little Miss Priss." He was trying to watch O'Reilly and eat a snack and hold her while she was working on falling asleep but she wanted to be up and moving around to fall asleep not sitting. :) You may wonder where I was...I was working on a test review for my personal finance class. Tomorrow night I will be reading that thing 1,000 times to prepare for my first test in college since I've been a mommy, on Thursday. Wish me luck. :)

My city boy went dove hunting for the first time on opening day, September 1st.

My baby girl, if you cant see it...she is wearing her "Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner" onsie in honor of Mr. Patrick Swayze.

Just playing around :)

She love Love LOVES Jack...That is her buddy!

Reese going for a ride around the apartment complex. She was quite cranky so as long as she is moving she is happy. I'm thinking we might have a little case of baby ADD. :)

Oh yea, aside from all of the above going on...We have been wedding planning as well. Nathan and I are officially engaged! :) The date is March 6, 2010.

YAY!

Beef and Broth

2009-09-02T20:36:00.001-07:00

So yesterday was the last day of green beans. Although Reese really did like them, it was time to move on to better things...beef and broth!! woo hoo!! This stuff smelled AWFUL. It smelled like wet dog or cat food. ha Reese seemed to think so as well. She did take a couple bites and actually chew and swallow. There were other times though, that she spit it out and one time she even gagged!! It was quite amusing to say the least. She is just such a joy to be around. Even if she has been a little cranky or SPOILED for a lack of better terms, these past couple of days. Reese is the light of my life. When I do get frustrated and don't know what to do to make her happy she always seems to know when to laugh, even in the middle of her little fit! Her personality is developing so much everyday. My little girl is almost five months! Anyways, below are some pictures from our beef and broth experiment. We will try again tomorrow and see if maybe she will acquire a taste.

Notice how she just sits back and stares at me. I know you can hear me laughing in the video, I couldn't help it. What a little bundle of joy!

"What in the HECK is this?"

Not too sure...

Just another video from the fun!

Green Beans this week

2009-08-31T20:30:00.000-07:00

Each week Reese gets to try a new can food. We are starting with veggies, then going to meats, then fruits. Our doctor said fruits last because they are the sweetest and if she eats them first she wont want any others. I've already blogged about oatmeal and carrots, this week we are on green beans. She REALLY likes them! Even though my little girl is very curious and I have to chase a moving target to give her bites...she does open her mouth and actually chew it up. Every so often she will decide she didn't want that bite and spit it right back out OR she will blow and get it every where. ha ha I love it though! You'll see from the pictures below...it is a much cleaner process feeding these opposed to carrots

See only a little on her! :)

Staring at Jack. She LOVES him. Every time he runs around and plays she just watches and laughs. Its so cute.

My life although she has been quite cranky lately and has started "throwing fits." *Side Note* Reese does NOT like to sit still and do nothing. She is just fine walking around in our arms and doing stuff, but if you sit on the couch to watch TV she throws a fit. Something on TV just MIGHT catch her attention for like.....5 seconds....and then she arches her back throws her hands up and yells and screams until you get up or do something. Yeaaa its cute now, but when she gets older I will NOT put up with tantrums. :) K that's all. Goodnight friends.

Reese's Room is FINISHED!!!

2009-08-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

So Reese is now four and a half months old and I have FINALLY finished her room. There is a couple little things here and there Id like to do, but for the most part it is done! My excuse for not getting it done right when we moved in is...She started out sleeping on my chest for the first two months, and then she went to her bassinet at our bedside. During the day when I could have worked on her room, I could have worked on it but she would not allow much of anything but holding her. Nathan's new job is much better hours as well. So my mom came up and Nathan was able to watch her while we hung stuff and decorated. I am pretty happy at how well it turned out. It took some getting used to her being in another room. I only slept on the couch two nights so I was closer to her. :)

Her room is actually a "den" space off our living room so thats why I put curtains up to somewhat section off her room from everything else. We had some friends of ours over a couple nights ago and Reese went to bed, I closed the curtains, and she was good.

I think it would look better with painted walls, but seeing how live in an apartment and Ive to repaint them when we leave...I wasnt gonna do that.

Her crib. I had everything done pretty much before we went to Chicago except the crib because it had not come in yet, but Nate had it all put together for us the night we got home! :)

Reese sound asleep in her first night sleeping there.

Reese takes her first airplane trip

2009-08-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

CHI-TOWN...

This last week Reese, mom, and I took a trip to Chicago to visit family before school started back up this coming Wednesday. We went from Tuesday through Saturday. Although we were there for five days, the time flew by like I knew it would. The stays are never long enough. Reese did fly for her very first time though. I was nervous because I know my ears popping is uncomfortable for me and I was worried that she would be "that baby" on the flight. However on the way there and the flight back she did great! On both flights she took a little nap during and when her ears would start to pop and she would become just a little cranky mom would give her a bottle and she would willingly take it. The trip was a great time, and it was so good to see family. Nathan and I are planning a trip for Thanksgiving so Nate can meet more of my family. Below are quite a few pics over the course of our trip. Enjoy!

Walking through the airport. This Bjorn is the best thing ever for times like that. Reese conked out, and off we went. The next time I faced her forward for the first time and she was looking around everywhere.

Airplane photo shoot.

Just waiting to take off

Her ears started popping, so we gave her a bottle

and we landed in Chicago and she was fascinated by everything outside. She stared out there from the time we landed till we got off the plane.

Sitting in a booster chair at dinner. My girl is getting so big. Nana had to help her stay up a little, but she'll be doing it on her own in no time.

Tummy time. She is getting better at it now that she's getting stronger

Precious

Everywhere Reese went, Omit was a step behind to see her

Bath time at Omit's

The beautiful sunset in Chicago looking off Omit's balcony. I wish those dang power lines weren't in, but it's still a pretty sky.

Visiting The Howland Family; Aunt Daina and Uncle Jim's house and their four wonderful kiddos

They just LOVEDDD Reese. When we left Holly was saying, "take care of Reese for me." It was cute.

...and visiting the Karss and Siemers family; our cousins

I finally got to meet Natalie and Brenda finally got to meet Reese

Me and Holly

Me and my girl!

Holly was playing with Reese and put a baseball hat on her. lol

CARROT TIME!

We went to the doctor the week before we went and Reese gets to start trying a new food each week. This week it was carrots. It was fun and the pictures were cute because it looked like she got attacked by one. ha ha

Love this! Absolutely tooo cute! Reese put her arm like this on her own!

Nana and her girl

Reese riding with Omit while we went shopping

and after going and going for the past couple of days, Reese was EXHAUSTED and Omit did not want to put her down. It was so precious.

A video of Holly talking and playing with Reese. It is quite short, and I know you cant see it very good, but listen to Holly at the end...kids say the darnedest things. So cute! So glad I got it on camera.

An eventful weekend at Nana and Papa's house

2009-08-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

Reese meet Dutchess

Yesterday Nana and Papa were at work all day and it was me, Reese, and Ryan home for the day. We really didnt do too much. Just hung out and enjoyed each others company. Reese did get a little cranky at some point so I decided to set her out on the floor and give her some "tummy time." The doctor has suggested we do this since she was just two months old to get her strong. I have tried numerous times, however Reese does not care for it too much. Now that she is getting stronger and much more of a personality she lasts a little longer. So I got a couple toys out and Dutchess decided to come check things out. She is our English Mastiff and the sweetest thing ever. It was cute. She laid down off the blanket and SLOWLY moved her way in. Here a couple pictures from that experience. Reese loved it and laughed the whole time. You think she'd get scared with a big oh "galoot" hovering over her but they both did great.

Tummy time and trying to make it towards her toys.

Checkin' it out

Dutchess being VERY gentle and sniffing it out.

New Toy!!!

In addition to meeting Dutchess, Nana and Papa came home from work with a new toy for Reese. Mom saw it at the store and said, "oooo we'll buy it later." She went on her way to continue shopping and the next thing she knew dad was carrying it over to put it in the cart. ha ha It's her first real toy that she has gotten to actually stay at their house. She tried it out for a bit today and really seemed to like it. She has not quite figured out that she can spin, just gets focused in on one thing and stares. As she gets older Im sure she will be bouncing away.

Sleepy Time

Well after all the events from above, we also had some family friends from Magnolia come up for the day today. Mom made homeade burgers and buns. I mowed the lawn, we all just hung out, and sat outside on the porch once it cooled off a bit. They left about 830 and Reese was getting cranky. I got her in the bath, tried some oatmeal, and OUT she went on Papa's lap.

She is not quite all the way out. She kept opening and closing her eyes to make sure she was not missing out on anything. :)

REESE LAUGHED!!!!

2009-08-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Last week in the bath Reese actually "laughed" twice. It was the most adorable thing, and I could've cried then. It absolutely melted my heart. Well tonight after we did the oatmeal thing, it was time for a bath. When we are back in Bremond I (well Nana) bathes her in their tub. Its much bigger and easier than mine and Ryan's. So as I was getting her bath stuff together, mom had her laying on the bed and was talking to her. Reese was just smiling away and looking around everywhere. Having the time of her life. Mom started tickling her to make her smile and she started REALLY laughing! Oh my goodness! I have never felt a feeling like this in my life. Having a family of my very own...a beautiful baby girl, a wonderful man (that I one day plan to call my husband and who is a wonderful daddy to our daughter), and amazing family support...but wow to hear your child laugh is absolutely amazing! I just wanted to squeeze her and tell her how much I love her. I wish Nate could have been here to see it, but he is working and finishing up his last four days at Hyatt.

Which PS...Nate is about done cooking and about to start a business venture with a family friend of their's. Briefly...they will be recycling restaurant wastes, composting the food, and stuff. His hours will be MUCH more flexible for me to finish up school and get to spend sooo much more quality time with our wonderful daughter.

Reese gets to eat oatmeal!

2009-08-13T20:44:00.000-07:00

As I said we went to the doctor today. Reese is "advanced" in her development in the fact that she is so alert, laughing, talking, and just about has sitting up mastered. In addition to the good news..Reese gets to start eating solids!! Week by week we can introduce her to new things starting with oatmeal, then to meats and veggies, and then fruits. Our doctor said to do fruits last because they are the highest in sugars, and if we start with those she wont want anything else and we want her to like and want the healthy things too! :) So tonight Nana bought her some Gerber oatmeal, some spoons, and bowls. She didn't pretty well considering it was her first time. She'd take down some and spit out others, and even blow her lips together getting it everywhere. It was sooo much fun!

I felt the need to open my mouth with her. ha ha

You can kind of see those earrings :) Beautiful!

" What?!?!, I'm ready for some real food!!" haha

First time eating solid food

Reese gets her ears pierced!!

2009-08-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

So today Reese has doctor appointment and since we were in Bryan and had some time to waste I've been wanting to get her ears pierced but never had the courage to take her in and get in done, because I'd cry right along with her. Since Nana was with us we went in and Nana got her ears pierced. :) I took a couple pictures before and then went out into the mall and called Nate. I still canNOT stand it when she screams and cries really loud. It breaks my heart. Her four month shots are coming up and I assure you daddy will be taking her to get those, I sit my little behind in the waiting room again.

Just before the lady started marking where to do them.

Getting the positioning correct.
I know I dont have any close ups on this post, but on the following couple you will see them! She looks sooo cute with them.

"Quito" meet Reese

2009-08-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

So we havent been to Bremond in quite some time, probably a month or so. Reese and I came in last night because she had a doctor appointment, my big girl wieghed 14lbs 8oz!! She is growing up so fast. But needless to say last time we were here she was not near as alert as she is now. This past week she has REALLY developing a personality! Smiling is nothing new, but just noticing things, following them SO WELL, and grabbing onto and chewing things. Oh and the drool...yea....stilllll going! So we were sitting and watching tv and mom was holding Reese and Quito, our cat, came up and was checking things out. Reese immediately got all excited and started making noises, smiling, and flalin those arms everywhere. It was so cute and so exciting to see her have so much emotion. Here are a couple pictures from them meeting...

HI, may I help you?? :)

Who are you?? Nice to meet you.

Hmmmmm

And this morning Ryan was playing Xbox and Reese was sooo intrigued by the colors and movement. She was having a grand ol time and that little chair is the BEST thing ever!

She is totally into the game! She will like football just like her mommy and big a huge Dallas Cowboys fan!

And she also SAT UP FOR THE FIRST TIME ALLLLLL BY HERSELF!

Look at my big girl! No hands to assist her or anything!

Little of This...Little of That

2009-08-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

To those of you who do actually read this :)...I am sorry I have been slacking just a little bit this past week. Since Reese has about outgrown her bassinet, we are going to Chicago next week, and I start school in two weeks...I wanted to get stuff done around the house. I ordered the crib and cute decorations for Reese's room. I know that is usually something that is done before the baby even arrives. However in our situation it was not appropriate, besides...who cares :) How we have done things have worked great for us, and that's what makes us US! Decorations started coming in yesterday, it was the mobile. It's cute. More came in today. So almost all the decor is here, but the crib has NOT even shipped yet. Website says it'll be here around the 17th. Ugh...little do they know/care I wanted it by this Saturday so I could have her room done before Chicago because I start school just a couple days after I get back. Oh well, I'm gonna try to have everything hung up and in place. then when it does come we can just set it in place. Aside from Reese's room on the to do list has been errands, going through our file cabinet, making doctor appointments, cleaning, organizing, etc, etc, etc....So below are just a couple pictures and videos I have snapped over the past couple days. The quality is great because it was on my phone. On my to do's was clear out my camera card, so the phone was more handy.

Friday before we went out to lunch with Brian and Holly. My baby girl is attempting to hold her own bottle. You'll see the video below.

Got that little pinkie in the air. ha ha

She likes to sit up on the couch and always smiles!

My fav of this blog! I was trying to start dinner, because I cooked tonight :), and Reese apparently did not care. So Nana and Papa bought her this little chair that helps her sit up. She is getting pretty good at her by herself, but she tends to go side to side or just go all the way forward. Anyways, this is probably the best $30 bucks they have ever spent for me! She really likes it and just watches me or Jack or looks around. Yes I did have it sitting on the counter but I was right in front of her and constantly had an eye on her, soooo no lectures please :)

And...a random picture I shot on my phone from while passing by downtown Austin. Turned out pretty cool.

My baby trying to figure out how this "hold my own bottle" works. You'll see my hand actually holding it up but she is the one moving it. Too cute!

This is from today...I opened our balcony window blinds and she played in her Exersaucer and watched Jack outside on the balcony.

So that is about all I have. I was writing this sitting on the couch and right next to me was my precious baby sitting in her little green chair. I was about done and glanced over at her and saw one of her little hands on the couch and and her bobbing down while she was falling asleep. My heart just melted. I wish I could have gotten a picture, but I just wanted to hold her. She is absolutely the best thing that has ever happened to me. She is now in her swing and fell right to sleep when I set her in it. She is awfully tired today. I guess all the errands and stuff she and I have been doing is getting to her, it sure is getting to me! I feel like I have been ran over by a truck, I'm stressed, and my face is breaking out like a little teenager. :( Anyways, my love is about to be home and we are going to eat dinner and spend a little time together since I have been very into my "to do" list the past couple days. Goodnight. Love, US

Teething is making mom go crazy...poor Reesey :(

2009-08-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days Reese has been teething and drooling away! She has still been sleeping well since we are back at home and she is in her normal routine. However during the day when it is just she and I, I get NOTHING done! She will swing for only a short period of time and you saw on the previous blog what she does when I put her in her swing. She wants me to hold her, but not sit and hold her. She is only happy when I am up walking around with her. If we are sitting it is to eat or get her to fall asleep. This evening before bath time I did want to unload the dishwasher so I moved her swing to the kitchen so I could talk to her, then I tried to entertain her by some tummy time. She never really has cared for "tummy time" she just wants to sit up or stand. She is getting better day to day on sitting up but we still don't have down the balancing yet. She will go wayyy forward or side to side. It is now 8:05pm, she has already had her bath and is in the swing asleep. I'm thinking she is just worn out from her mouth hurting all day. Hopefully she stays asleep and gets a good night rest!

Sitting in the middle of her Boppy

Tummy Time

This is an outfit, I JUST bought her two weeks ago...It is soo cute on her, but it is already tight. I was so sad because Monday would be her first and only time to wear it.

Look at her bow legged self...it is normal though at this age. So cute!

More Tummy Time on camera, she didn't care for it too much. Notice the video is only about 15 seconds.

Reese! Are you serious!?

2009-08-04T19:04:00.001-07:00

So I wasn't going to blog tonight since I posted all those pictures from the weekend, wrote about it, and it took me alllllllllll dayyyyyyyyy lonnnnnnnnnnng, but it was just too cute and funny what she did this evening. Reese has been sooo cranky today. Aside from the fact she will not let me put her down, while I am holding her she doesn't want me to sit down either. If I do she screams! She is actually sleeping at the moment, but after her bath tonight I was trying to make her a bottle and she wouldn't sit on the couch for anything. So I brought her little chair in the kitchen and set her in it so she could at least see me while I make it. Thank God I did snap her in because look at the pictures below! lol

In case you are not familiar with how it is supposed to work...the chair vibrates and she is supposed to just relax and look around. However she obviously did not want to. I laid her in it, started making her bottle, turned back around, and hello she was sitting up like so. Too cute, but my girl is growing so fast!

Back Home...with lots of pictures!!!

2009-08-04T10:01:00.000-07:00

We have officially made it back home after our little vacation to Fort Worth for Jen and Bo's Wedding. Reese and I left Wednesday, Nathan flew in Friday morning, and we all returned Sunday late afternoon. Reese did WONDERFUL on the drive up and slept most of the way. We got to Jen and Bo's around 7 or so, ate dinner, and I bathed Reese. I guess since she slept most of the drive and she was out of her element, she slept AWFUL that night! I felt like we had returned to the first week she was born. I slept maybe two hours and Thursday was just as bad. She and I hung out at the house while Jen and Bo did errands to get ready for the wedding. Reese and I left around 5 and headed to the hotel, Grand Hyatt at DFW Airport. Once we made it there my horrible night and day turned marvelous.

The view from our room, overlooking the runway

My baby girl patiently waiting for us to go eat

Reese and I spent some awesome time together. The bellman helped us up to the room because I had SOOOO much stuff, then she and I went downstairs to get some dinner. I had already fed her in the room so she sat with me at the bar while I ate. I was such a great feeling to just enjoy dinner with my girl. After I ate we headed back up to the room, took a bath, and waited for Ashley and Seth to arrive. They came in around 11pm, and off to bed we all went. The next morning us girls headed out to Jen's bridal luncheon. Ashley and I found out the hard way that Google Maps can be quite misleading at times! We kept driving towards "the dot" on the map, because the list directions were apparently not clear enough, and we just kept passing the freaking thing. Come to find out Google Maps was leading us the wrong way, so it was not completely our fault. :) We only ended up being about 5 minutes late because we left a little early.

Reese chewing on her toy and watching the girls

Me and my girl

Jenny, Reese, and Ashley before lunch

After lunch getting ready to head to the nail place

Reese conked out on Mrs. Pollard's shoulder while I ran and got my toenails painted. I didn't want Reese smelling those yucky fumes.

After the luncheon we went and got our toenails painted and headed back to the hotel. We relaxed there for an hour or so changed, the boys got ready, and back to Fort Worth we went for the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went pretty fast, the rehearsal dinner was great, and Reese did wonderful. She did get a little cranky but overall considering she was wayy off her schedule she did great.

Walking to the chapel for the rehearsal

@ Los Vaqueros in the Fort Worth Stockyards

She likes standing on the table :)

Cutie!

Nate loves making faces at her

US! :-)

High school buds and Reese

Bo & Jenny

The next day Ashley and I were supposed to be at Stonegate Mansion, the reception site, at 930. However because of the fact it was pouring rain and people apparently do not know how to drive when it rains, we ended up being late. Surprisingly enough the bride was not stressed and we ended up finishing hair and make up and things on schedule. :) The wedding was beautiful and the reception was a blast. Congrats again to Jenny and Bo, hope you both are having a wonderful time on your honeymoon to Antigua! I took tons of pictures but I'm not going to post them all on here, the rest of them are on Facebook. Enjoy :)

The bridesmaids

Us with Jenny before the wedding

Me and my girl...this was my first time to hold her all day (the reception) I missed her so much!

I like this picture alot!

One of my favorite pictures of Nate and our girl

Me and my man

Reese and her Godmothers

Me and dad

Me and the girls

Papa and his girl

Us again...

Aunt Jenny and Reese

Father daughter dance to "Wonderful Tonight" It was the most precious thing, Nate wanted to dance with her so bad.

Family dance :)

...annnnnd.......NATE GOT THE GARTER!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Getting Ready for Our First Road Trip

2009-07-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

So since I wrote last I have been running around like what feels like, a chicken with my head cut off! We did some pictures on Sunday and since I have been trying to get us all ready to head to Fort Worth this week for Jen and Bo's wedding. It is quite stressful to get ALL of us ready...figure out outfits, make sure Nate's fit AND match, blah blah, the list goes on. As much as I feel so scattered brained and crazy, I love my life and like the crazy life. Today Reese and I went to Texas State to meet with my advisor. What a reality check...ha ha. Parking, changing her diaper, taking out my handy dandy stroller, and pushing it across campus! I NEVER in a million years saw myself there, but I loved it and embraced it. Life happens! and mine is! My advisor, Amy, loved Reese and boy was Reese just flirting away with everyone she saw. She was such a good girl today. Smiling and giggling at anyone that talked to her. We went to eat lunch with Brandy and Katie. Reese just napped and then woke up and smiled some more. She and I headed home. I was really wanting to get somethings done but she wasn't having it, so we napped. I put on a load of wash and then gave her a bath. THEN tried putting her in the swing, nope wasn't having that either! I got frustrated and sat down with her on my legs like I usually do and watched TV. I looked down at her and got teary eyed and just wanted to cry. She was dozing off to sleep, and would occasionally open her eyes and look up at me, like she was making sure I was still there. It is indescribable the way it made me feel. I sat there for about another hour and carried her to bed. The pictures below are kind of random throughout the past couple of days. Doing stuff here and there and spending time with my loves in between. Tomorrow Reese and I will leave for Fort Worth. Our first road trip just her and I. Should be quite interesting! Then Nate will fly up Friday morning and enjoy the rest of the weekend with us. Then Papa will come up Saturday to watch Reese. After the reception starts they will head back to the hotel and hit the sack. Should be fun, until then...enjoy the pictures and I will have lots to say and post when we return Sunday. Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend. Love, Kristina

This is my girl when she was falling asleep tonight. The absolute most PRECIOUS thing. It is such a rewarding job being a mommy!

This is at lunch today. Reese smiling with Brandy and Katie.

Ha. Random...this is a loaf of sourdough bread. From the previous posts, I told you Nate is making wine. Well from those grapes he has started our own yeast from the left over grapes and it makes (my favorite) sourdough bread. He set it, and told me when it rose almost to the top to start it...WELLL I came home from meeting mom with Jack and this is what I found. ooopppss. I cleaned it up and baked it...still tastes amazing. :)

LOVE THIS PICTURE! Notice how Reese has her feet place up under that tray. That is how she has just started riding in the swing these past couple of days. So cute!

I took this, this morning. When Nate changes her diaper after he gets up he usually just leaves her in her diaper for a little bit. She was just enjoying laying there and smiling away. Again...I must say...SO CUTE :)

Another CRANKY Day!

2009-07-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

So today Lauren, our personal photographer :)/Nate's friend from high school/one of my good friends now, was in town to make a quick visit and she was so nice to suggest we do a couple pictures of Reese since she was already here. We got some cute ones of just her and we also did a couple family shots, including even Jack as well. :) I am excited to see them. And although I skipped out on meeting for lunch before pictures so Reese would not miss her not nap time, she was VERY persistent on not taking one. Needless to say, she never got a nap in except for a brief cat nap while we ate lunch and continued shooting.

After Lauren left so old family friends of ours stopped by for a quick visit and Reese fell asleep while they were here. Right as they left Reese and I hit the couch and napped for a couple hours. These past couple of days have definitely shown me I am not back to normal, STILL! I have just felt sooo tired and blahhh...

Coree and Reese

Evie and Reese. She has known me since I was a couple weeks old. It was great to see her!

I was able to cheer Reese up by getting her in the bath. She loved it of course, and this is probably the cutest video of her yet. She was just talking away, I thought it was soo cute. Then I got her out, she cried, ate real quick, and is now back asleep. Hopefully she will sleep good tonight also since she slept most of the afternoon.

This is what we do while the bath is filling up :)

She looks at the camera pretty well. :) Love her soooo much even on those days when she and I are both cranky!

Yesterday Reese and I spent the day in Waco with Nana, Papa, and Uncle Ryan. Mom and I had a hair appointment at 1, I needed to shop for Jen's wedding this weekend, and Ryan was doing a baseball camp at Baylor University. It turned out to be quite a busy and rushed day because I wanted to get alot done and we didn't leave Waco till 9pm...and if you have read previous blogs, you know, that is a HUGE no no! It was past Reese's bath time and getting close to bed time and neither had happened. I finally got her to fall asleep in the car, I hurried home, got her in the bath because we sweat alot outside, and off to bed she went. So glad we got to see the fam.

Nana and Reese

Papa and Reese

...and Uncle Ryan with Reesey. He is so good at getting her to smile. It is awesome to watch her take care of her. All three of them were passing her around throughout the day, no one could get enough of her. So cute! She is loved soooo very much!

Cranky Day

2009-07-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

Today was quite a cranky one for Reese. She was either sleeping or crying all day long. This evening I put her in her Exersaucer so I could clean the tub real quick and get her bath stuff together. I walked back through the living room and she seemed to be having a good time. One camera battery was dead and the other one's card was in the computer to I just used the handy dandy iPhone. The video and pics actually turned out well. She is asleep now and I am hoping we have a better day tomorrow because we are going to spend the day in Waco with Nana, Papa, and Uncle Ryan.

Mid-Week Trip to Magnolia

2009-07-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning our family left to head out to Magnolia for Nathan's 25th birthday. We were going down there to see Coldplay, one of his favorite bands, at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion. We left as soon as possible so we could spend sometime relaxing and family could see Reese. We got there, changed, and headed out to the pool. Reese has not shown any signs of extremely sensitive skin and I lathered her up in some baby sun screen and she went for her first little "swim." I even found her a bathing suit that fit when I went shopping for Nathan's birthday. PS I came back with four bags for Reese and two for the birthday boy. :)

MY FAVORITE PICTURE THUS FAR OF REESE AND HER DADDY! Absolutely priceless! True love!

Nate and our two children. ha

Daddy playing with Reese. Love it!

US :)

Reese and her Aunt Holly who absolutely adores her.

Me and my girl after going for a swim...I'm looking a little rough :)

Reese's 1st time in the pool! I had to get it on tape for Reese to view down the road.

NATHAN'S 25th BIRTHDAY...

That evening Brian, Nate's dad, cooked a marvelous fish dinner for us. Sandra and her family came over and we celebrated Nathan and Gerry's, Sandra's son, birthday. It was a great time.

Us before dinner. Please notice how my left shoulder is wet...Reese is teething and drooling like CRAZY!

Holly and Reesey

The birthday boy with his girl.

Us with our happy perfect little girl.

Wednesday morning we slept in just a bit. We then headed over to Aunt Leah's to visit the girls, Mimi, and OB. Also to give OB his birthday present because his follows Nate's on the 23rd. We had some good Chinese food take-out over there for lunch and got to visit for a couple hours before we headed home to get ready for the Coldplay concert.

Reese :)

Anna and Kayla with Reese. They are so great at helping to take care of her. Anna even got in there and helped me change a DIRTY diaper!

Wednesday evening, Nate and I dropped Jack and Reese off over at Sandra's house around 6:45pm and we headed out to The Woodlands for the concert. We met over at our friend Juddy's house and left from there. Just as we were walking out the door it started POURING rain. Thankfully it was only temporary and we had a wonderful time at the conert. Coldplay was amazing! Afterward we went to pick up our girl. She was sound asleep and slept through getting in the carseat for the ride home. She looked so precious.

Me, Nate, Juddy, and Alex

Just getting to the concert

While Coldplay is performing

Chris Martin like 10 feet from us! Awesome!

Overall we had a wonderful "weekend." I am so thankful Nathan and I have come so far and have been able to give Reese such a loving home and family environment. I look forward to what God has in store in for us, and cant wait for our future and lives together.

Jack....He is nuts!?!?! You'll see...

2009-07-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

This happened just as we had finished playing in the pool with Reese and we were just sitting enjoying the wonderful weather. I could have included it in the next post, but I just thought it was so funny and CRAZY that I would save it for its own. We are thinking Jack was after a mouse of some sort, because I checked this tree up and down for a bird nest or something, and found NOTHING! If you are not familiar with palm trees...the leaves are soo sharp. It didnt phase Jack at all during his venture. Granted that night, you would have thought he was on his death bed :( I felt so bad, but I kept yelling at him to get out but he kept going back. We think his body was just soo sore from being stuck sooo many times. The next day he was fine, and now he is back to his hyper sweet self. Enjoy this video it is nuts!

Please notice how he is PULLING and yanking these sharp things out of the tree! and even grabbing on to the the big brown bark stuff!

I'm back...

2009-07-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

So I left my baby girl for the first time this past weekend. I left Friday morning and came back Sunday afternoon. The weekend was filled with lots of fun! It is now 1:15am Tuesday morning and I just got time to sit down and blog.

So I went out of town this weekend for my friend, Jenny's, bachelorette party. I am in her wedding on August 1st. She and her fiance just moved outside of Fort Worth to Weatherford. I got to see their new house and their two newest additions to the family, Stella and Shooter, the puppies!

It was lots of fun. I tagged along with Jen and her mom to the bridal pictures on Saturday. I had alot of fun watching them do the shoot and be Jenny's little maid (to put it nicely :) and carry the train of her dress around everywhere. I loved it though. Then although we got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning to get ready for all this, we had her bachelorette party that night in downtown Fort Worth. I am so proud of myself that I didn't just crash and get tired by 7 or 8. I didn't get to sleep until 2am that morning because I was so out of my norm. I am so used to having Reese in her bassinet at my bedside, and the fact that she was not there kept me up thinking about her and Nate all night long.

Me, Ashley, and Jenny at the house before we left to go downtown

Fort Worth Reunion...man, I miss those days but I love my life now so very much.

All of us girls. I set up a timer to get one of all of us. :)

"High School Buddies" ha ha

The drive home was soooo lonnnnnnnng. I had to stop to get a Starbucks and beef jerky to keep me busy. I really didn't think I was that tired until about 30 minutes into the drive. As I got closer to home mom and Ryan met me in Round Rock at the outlets. It was on their way home back to Bremond and I needed to go shopping for Nathan's birthday present. As soon as they showed up, Reese was in the stroller sound asleep. I didn't care to wake her this time, I unbuckled her and held on for dear life. I missed her so much. I had to be careful though not to squeeze her too hard because she is so small. Mom and Ryan stayed for a little bit to shop with me. My plan was to find Nathan a present and get home...however I kept buying and buying for Reese. You will get to see some cute pictures in the near future. :)

So then Reese and I headed home. She was out like a light, we pulled up to the apartments around 6. I got Reese out and started to get my key out and then realized I DIDN'T HAVE A KEY! I had switched vehicles with mom because Nathan and I needed the truck for our trip to Houston tomorrow. So, I didnt freak out just said OK Ill just drive out to Bastrop and get Nate's and come home. Little did I know, that trip would turn out to be absolute chaos! I'm gonna make what was a horrible LONG three hours, short to spare you all from reading a novel...

1. Reese finished the last of her formula right as we left the outlets. So if I was going to need more I'd have to go buy some. 2. I Google mapped directions, because I had only been there once, they had it placed wrong. 3. Mom called The Hyatt to get directions for me, the dumb front desk lady told us wrong. I kept driving and doing U-turns, little did I know I was 15 miles passed the freaking place. 5. Low fuel light comes on. 6. Go to the only gas station around and they're out of EVERYTHING! 6. I drive back 10 miles to get gas because at the rate it was going I'd be on the side of the road out of gas with no formula for my daughter. So I get gas and leave 7. Then Reese starts screaming at this point, so I stop to change her. The wind starts blowing out of control because a storm is heading in. I crack the window while I run around to get back in the driver seat, because if I accidentally locked the door I'd be able to get right back in. 8. Then start driving forget the window is down. The window shade for Reese is flapping in the window so I roll up the window with the shade in it and break it :) Lovely I know. So at this point I'm crying, Reese is screaming and it is a mess. I finally get correct directions because mom had to call the lady again and get CORRECT directions. Reese and I get home around 9. I bathed her, fed her, and off to sleep she went.

I had a wonderful weekend, a horrible Sunday evening, but a great Sunday night. Nate and I spent some good quality time together when he got home and tomorrow we will all leave to go to Magnolia for a Coldplay concert on Wednesday evening for Nate's birthday. Unfortunately since I wasn't around my little angel over the weekend I do not have any pictures to post. I will be taking tons over the next two days, so till then enjoy a couple bachelorette party pictures. Stay tuned because one of my purchases yesterday was a bathing suit for Reese! yay! I cant wait for her to wear it!

2009-07-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 18, 2009
Hello again this is Nana, Kristina is in Ft.Worth, hopefully having a nice time and not worrying, and Nathan is at work. Today was a very nice day, Reese woke up about 7:30 drank the other 2 ounces from a bottle I had fixed 1 1/2 before. She and I watched Sponge Bob until Ryan woke up around 9:00 a.m. The day was great, Reese got to spend alittle time with her Daddy. She and I catnapped around noon, then later in the afternoon she had another nap before we all had to leave for the ballgame.
Reese must be on a growing spirt, she has been eating quite a bit more than usual and napping more. She actually napped during Ryan's ballgame for about 40 minutes. I guess she got alittle bored since her Uncle Ryan wasn't playing at the time. Everyone of the parents Ryan plays ball with have been so kind to help with Reese. Of course Reese is such a doll and smiles at anyone who talks to her!
THe ride home from the ballpark started out well, but about 30 minutes into the drive Reese became alittle fussy. So Uncle Ryan was great he went and sat in the back seat and kept her company. Once we got home Reese got a bath, ate 3 ounces of Rice cereal and milk, sat in her swing for about 15 minutes night night she went. She is now in her bassinet sleeping soundly. As I have said she is awesome, I am so thankful to get to be a part of her life. God has Blest us with such a beautiful angel!
Goodnight and God Bless, Nana

2009-07-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 17,2009
Well here it goes, I was told by my wonderful daughter I had to update everyone on Reese's day. Hopefully I won't be too wordy or dull. This is Nana, as I am known by Jack and Reese, and actually all the hoodlums you know who brought home for us to love. I've been looking foward to seeing Reese so bad and spending quality time with her, I haven't seen Reese since July 4th, so I was very excited.
I'll begin from the start of the day, Reese woke up at 6:30ish, Mommy brought her to her swing, so of course I couldn't see her from her room, so Jack and I moved to the floor in front of her and dozed til about 8:30. I got up and got dressed, fixed my hair, then I turned her swing off. Well of course that woke her up, YAY. I couldn't wait for her to get up. So the day began, she drank a bottle, shortly after Ryan woke up, and man does she love him! She was smiling and cooing at him it was adorable! 10:00 a.m. rolled around and we had to get going. Reese, Jack, and I had to take Ryan to the ball field at Texas Luthern University in Seguin, unfortunately it was too hot for us to stay and watch, so Ryan hung out with the Doty's between games. In fact when I left the field the car temp. thing said it was 106 out! Our way home was kinda funny, Reese started to fuss after I got gas, so I assumed she was hungry we pulled over and I began to feed her, but she really didn't want the bottle. Dumby me, a strange odor came over me, duh, Reese had a present for me. After I changed her, she ate 2-3 ounces, I settled her back in her carseat and off we went. I drove through Taco Bell and Jack didn't appreciate that because I had nothing to share ( I owe him Wendy's).
Once we were home Reese visited with her daddy and Jack and I went for a walk. Nathan left at 1:30 pm. Well the afternoon was uneventful, Reese slept for about 45 minutes after watching Sponge Bob, ate 2 ounces and a few minutes before it was time to go she ate 2-3 more ounces got a little fussy, so I put her in her swing while I got things ready to go. She actually stayed asleep when I put her in her carseat. The ride to the ballpark was quiet, I left Jack home, I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle them both.
Once at the ballpark, Reese was held and loved on by some of our teammates Moms. They are all so sweet. In fact Reese got a cute outfit, and a few cute toys from the Fair's and the Anderson's. She really smiled and cood with them, it was cute. Before the end of the game she drank a couple of ounces, Mrs. Doty held her and she went out like a light.
Ryan pitched a great game, only gave up one earned run and we won the game. He loves having Reese at the game, he always says, "She my good luck charm"
On the way home we ran into HEB, Reese got a little fussy so since Ryan and I hadn't eaten we picked stuff up for supper. Plus I figured this would help settle Reese she got alittle fussy. I think she was ready to get home and get a bath. After all it was about 7:45 then.
Once we got home I bathed her, she played in the tub, ate her Rice cereal bottle, went in her swing and was out within minutes. I put her to bed, but after about 1 hour or so she woke up acting hungry. She drank about 2 ounces and back to sleep she went. She's so beautiful I could just stare at her all night!! So that was our day, I loved every minute of it!! No pictures to share though, my memory card for my camera doesn't fit into this computer so...... sorry. It's Great being a Nana! Goodnight.

Catchin' Up

2009-07-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

So good news and bad news...

BAD NEWS - no pictures to post tonight.

GOOD NEWS - Reese and I got to catch up on our sleep today. I am happy to report that she and I both stayed in our jammies all day today. I did not even put in my contacts all day, definitely sported the glasses. Now I wasn't completely unproductive all day. I usually never nap throughout the day now that Reese is on a good schedule, but since she woke up at 2am when I was climbing into bed and still woke up pretty early I took advantage of her naps...actually only two of them. During the longest one, I must say, I was quite productive. I chatted with HP online and got it set up to send in the laptop. The dumb screen apparently is not sealed well because dust and other matter has made it behind the screen and it is quite annoying. I also got all kinds of insurance quotes. We are looking at getting our own policy. For sure Nathan is, I might stretch it out, and let mom and dad pay for just a couple more months...Then I will take it over when I know exactly what we have coming in. :) I know that probably does not sound like much but I was so exhausted from sleeping only a couple of hours last night or this morning really. Plus I have a big weekend ahead of me! My dear friend Jenny is getting married on August 1st and us girls are celebrating with the bachelorette party this weekend in downtown Fort Worth. I am already aware I will not be sleeping much, so I was being proactive and over sleeping. Hopefully it works. :) So...I will be in Fort Worth Friday through Sunday and I am pumped to see my girlfriends, unfortunately we live so far away, but when I see them its like we never lose time by being so far. But anyways, I am gonna be without my little Reesey allll weekend long. I am going to miss her sooo very much. Nana and Uncle Ryan are heading up here to our place tomorrow morning. It works out great that Ryan has a baseball tournament just 45 minutes south of us. Nathan will be working everyday I am gone, so Nana and Uncle Ryan will be taking over Reese for just 2.5 days. And so I am thinking...I do this blog for family and friends to keep up with Reese and how much she is growing and how her days go. So that means......Nana or Uncle Ryan is going to have to take that over for the days I am gone so I can keep up with my little girl and read all about their adventures of keeping her for the first time for more than a couple hours. I mean they will be here at our place, have complete access to a computer and Internet. I will have to leave detailed, and when I say detailed I mean DETAILED, directions of how to use blogspot. So yay! That will be so much fun more me to read about my little girl....

STAY TUNED FOR "THE ADVENTURES OF REESE, NANA, AND UNCLE RYAN" and maybe Papa if he comes up for the day. :)

I may get a blog in tomorrow, because I am leaving early Friday morning, but it is all up to them Friday and Saturday. I better see some good reports....I know I will!!! I am off to get Reese to bed and start writing out a list of notes for Nana to take care of Reese while I am gone. That could be awhile since I am probably a little over worried about leaving her. And please note has nothing to do with them...I'm just being a mom!

Mini Family Reunion

2009-07-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

I have not written in a couple days, because Nate had Sunday and Monday off. Usually my blog time is after I get Reese bathed and fed and to bed. However when Nathan has off I try to spend that time with him since his hours are so wierd. Anyways, at work on Saturday, Nathan's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cousins happened to be staying at Lost Pines. Mimi and Leah told them where to find him and they definitely did! :) The invited us back out for dinner and lots of enjoyable visiting on Sunday. Reese got to meet her 5th COUSINS! It is not very often that that happens and it was a very great time! It was my first time meeting them all. They were so sweet and so much fun to sit and talk with. None of us wanted to leave, but it was passed Reese's bed time so after spending the whole evening out there we headed back home around 930 or 10. Everyone is from Houston, so we have to be sure to stay in touch and make an effort to see them when we make trips down there to visit. Nathan had not seen any of them in quite a LONG time, but he said he really enjoyed it and that "it was very nice seeing them again. They are so nice."

Reese when we first got to Hyatt Lost Pines Resort (PS this is where Nathan works) She was SUCH a good girl the whole time! Johnnie feeding Reese COUSINS! Our family at dinner :) KK being such a good helper and pushing Reese around while we waited for valet to get the car.

Outside the resort. It was so cool...I wish Reese would have been a little bigger. They had a big projector outside with a Disney movie playing in a big lawn for the kids. They were serving popcorn and doing s'mores. It was awesome! When she gets bigger we are going to definitely have to come stay. There is a water park, lazy river, everything! It is a little kids paradise!

This was after we got home and I was trying to get Reese to sleep.

Videos from the previous post....

2009-07-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Reese watching TV...I love how focused in on it she is! She definitely gets that from her daddy. Sometimes I have to go and pause shows just to talk to him. Thank goodness for DVR! And thank God for cartoons and Reese watching them lately so I can somewhat do a couple things around the house while Nate is at work.

Wake Up Sleepy Head!

2009-07-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

Last night Reese and I drove about 45 minutes, to Georgetown, to watch her Uncle Ryan play baseball. I ALWAYS keep my camera in my purse to capture cute moments at anytime, however yesterday I left it sitting on the desk from up loading pictures to the last blog. I do keep an old timey disposable camera in the diaper bag thought. ha ha So I got a couple cute picture of Reese, Papa, and Uncle Ryan after the game. The game was at 730 and lasted about two hours by the time we finished talking and said our goodbyes and headed home. We had a great time, but unfortunately we did not get home till about 10:30 which is WAYYY passed Reese's newly established "bath and bedtime." :) I bathed and fed her as soon as we got home and got her to sleep finally at about 11-1130. She slept great, but still woke up at her usual time, 7:30. So needless to say she did not get enough sleep last night. So today she has slept most of the day and when she has been up she has been a fuss bucket!! In fact, I had to wake her up to take a bath this evening at 8pm. That is very unusual because usually she is yelling at me 7:45 to remind me that it is bath time!

I woke her up and had the bath water running...she is realizing that it is bath time!

ha ha. I love this picture. She is like, "Gosh, mom did you really have to wake me up for a BATH!"

Just enjoying being in the bath and waking up

STTTTRRRRRRETTTTTCHHHH!

STTTTREEEETTTCHHH again.....

.................again..............

....................again...................

and AGAIN....I know it is alot of pictures. But I thought it
was too cute how many time she's kept stretching.

And after the bath in cute little hippopotamus towel. :)

In between sleeping alllll day, I put Reese in front of the TV for a little bit. It is so cute how focused in on it she is. I could sit and watch her, watch TV, all day. :)

UGHHH and now sitting here for like 45 minutes waiting on my two videos to upload I get this: Sorry, there was an error uploading your video. Please contact support and include the following information:
Blog Id:7863991844967822819Video Id:927f99911f1e8945

I will post the videos later when I get that figured out. They are soo cute so that' ll be something to look forward to. :) It is now 10pm and Reese has been sleeping for an hour and a half. Hopefully she sleeps through the night now. Goodnight friends. I am off to eat dinner....a little late I suppose.

Uncle Mark and Aunt DeAnn stop by for a visit

2009-07-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

Today Uncle Mark and Aunt Deann stopped by for a visit to see Reese. Mark had not seen her since the hospital the night of the day she was born and Deann finally got to see her for the first time. Unfortunately Nathan was at work so he was not here to visit, but Reese and I definitely enjoyed the company. We sat and chatted for a couple hours and then they headed out to see Chris and some other family friends in Ganado, TX. They were just rounding up a week long road trip up to Colorado and New Mexico and back down to Texas. They also brought us some more diapers, wipes, and books! yay! We can never get enough of those. Just when I think we are about to have to go out and buy some God blesses us with some more :) It was so nice to see them.

Uncle Mark watching Reese sit up in the Boppy

Uncle Mark reading the book about a lamb to her. He was joking around and telling the story about how Nate bought a lamb from the county fair and butchered it. :( lol Good thing Reese didn't know what he was talking about.

Reading some more...Jack joining in on the fun and making himself at home on Mark's lap

After they left Reese told Nana and Papa about their visit and then started crying to tell me..."Hello it is 8 o'clock, bath time mom!"

Reese discovers the TV

2009-07-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I have been feeling blah for the past couple of days. This morning Nate was nice enough to get up with Reese early this morning even though he had to work today. I wanted to rest to see if it would help me feel better because I am worried about Reese getting sick. I am feeling better now, just a little weak.

Today I laid Reese on the couch and set her up against a pillow, because she will scream if she is just on her back unless she is sleeping, but she was STILL cranky. I was trying to talk her through as I was making a bottle, but it wasn't working. Then all of sudden she stopped crying for like 30 seconds. I ran over to her because I didn't know what happened and found her just fine staring at the television. It was a McDonald's commercial advertising Ice Age the movie, so it was a cartoon. As soon as that commercial ended she immediately started crying again. I could not help but laugh. I thought it was too cute. So after she drank down her bottle, I put her in her vibrating chair (which she has not liked to sit in lately because it does not move, and she wants to sit up and move) and she watched some, "1,2,3 Penguins" show. I have no clue what it is. I am sure here in the next couple weeks I will know most of the kids shows and their songs that go along with them. ha ha That is OK though. I could have just sat and watch her watch TV all day. It was so amazing to watch her focus in on it and make noises and talk with it.

Jammies~n~Sleepin'

2009-07-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

The pictures above and below this paragraph were taken at about 830am on Monday morning. Reese has been doing great in sleeping in her bassinet through the night. Still on the schedule of bath at 8, eat afterward, and sleep from about 10pm to 6ish. The "6ish" fluctuates quite a bit. This particular day she woke up at 7, ate, and went right back to sleep with us. We both got up and Reese slept in till 930am. I couldn't resist the picture. She looks so cute!

Again this paragraph will be about the pictures above and below. First off the cute little nighty she is wearing was actually mine. :) It is so soft. I had it at the bottom of the stack of her nighties because the last time I tried putting it on her, it was pretty big. Now it is quite tight. I think last night will be her only time in it. She is growing SOOO fast! The bottom picture, I took at 130am when she woke up because she was hungry again. Nate was calling her his "little comic book super hero." After that I couldn't resist a full body picture for you all to see, because after he said that, I definitely agreed! It was too funny. After she ate and was happy again she and I headed to the living room to sleep because she was pretty AWAKE so I put her in the swing and she was out in about 30 minutes, then slept till 730.

In these two pictures, the white nighty was mine as well. Mommy fell a little behind on washing Reese's clothes this past week and I got the bottom of the barrel. :) I think she looks adorable in this one. Although usually, the fabric folds over her hands on the nighties and on this one there is a place for her toes to be exposed. ?? Not really sure what that is for......hmmm. In the bottom picture Reese was talking to Nana. We had just got out of the bath and ate, and apparently she was not happy with me. Nana said she was telling on me that I was not making her happy. ha ha Just shortly after this phone call she conked out, you'll see in the video below.

I thought this was soo funny. She was obviously soo tired!

Pickin' grapes for homemade wine...maybe??? :)

2009-07-06T17:21:00.001-07:00

On Sunday, we went to a little spot in Austin to pick some grapes. A random but fun little outing. Nate picked about four plastic WalMart bags full and I played with his camera trying to figure out the settings because we do not use his that much. Later that evening he washed them all and removed all the stems and leaves from them. We are going to attempt to make some homemade red wine. I will get back to you on how that goes...Im thinking it is going to taste like...well, not good :) If it does turn out good though, it will save us some money! If that fails its still fun to go.

Nate pickin' grapes...and apparently his camera takes REALLY light pictures. Still need to play w/ it more.

A flower :)

Pickin' more grapes

Reese in the car...it was too hot to be out there the whole time

Reesey talking to her mommy. Love her sooo much!

4th of July Celebrations

2009-07-06T16:36:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, for the 4th, we just hung out at our apartment here in Austin. Nathan's friends Nick and Pat came over...and then that morning I got a pleasant phone call that mom, dad, and Ryan were coming up for the day as well. They could not stand to be away from Reese for any longer. We grilled at a little pit that is here on the apartment grounds, not to far from our place. It was quite a HOT day, but we had such a good time! I am so glad my family came up to join us, it was so good to see them. After we stuffed our faces with wayyyy too much food we headed downtown on the Marriot parking garage to watch the fireworks. We were actually pretty close to them (but far enough that they were not too loud for Reese) and we had the perfect view. Reese actually really enjoyed them and watched into the sky a majority of the time. I am not sure she could fully make them out but she was pretty mesmorized by all of them. I got alot of cute pictures so this post will be mostly of them. Hope you all had a great 4th :-)

1st 4th of July for our family :)

The boys with their girl :)

Me, mom, and Ryan

Jack being "cool" with Reese's glasses on...

Reese having everyone's UNDIVIDED attention

Reese and Papa taking a nap after our meal

Dad with the boys minus Ryan

Nana and her two grandchildren. (I know its a little blurry but its such a cute picture)

High school friends in the Corvair

Me and Nate with his nasty lamb chop

Reese sitting "cool" haha

Reese is Growin' Away

2009-07-02T20:42:00.001-07:00

Well....not a whole lot to report today. Reese is growing away. These past couple of days she has been much more demanding of my UNDIVIDED attention. I cant get much done around the house, but it is so enjoyable to sit and talk to her and watch her smile and laugh and get all excited. She is no longer satisfied with sitting in swing and looking around (unless she is tired) or sitting in her vibrating chair. In fact, she has not sat in it for about a week now. She wines and grunts when she is in it because she wants to sit up not lay there and watch animals jump around. :) As long as she is moving or you're assisting her in sitting up or standing she is such a happy baby. I love her to pieces!

Nate enjoying holding his little girl. I asked him to change her but he felt like she wanted to be naked except for her diaper and mittens and of course wrapped in a blankie to keep warm. Too cute. He adores her so much!

Our wake up "knock" this morning. Nate's good friend, Nick, had his Corvair worked on last week and it is now actually driveable. He was so excited, so drove it over to show Nate. Nathan and Nick plan to work on it througout the rest of the summer to fix it up some more.

Glow Worm and Bath Time...The only times where Reese has been happy today!

2009-07-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

This morning we got up early to go do a couple errands. We didnt get to bed till about 2am because Reese kept waking up. She went to bed, woke up at 1130, went back to sleep, and up again around 1am, then finally slept till about 8am. I really think she is on another growth spurt because even being around her everyday, I feel like she has gotten bigger. When I put her in the carseat this morning I had to adjust the shoulder straps because they were to low. Her head would no longer fit it to the little head support thing that goes around her head, instead it was resting ON it. So for sure, just since this weekend she has grown. It is just crazy. So we got home from running errands, Nate went to work. Reese ate 4.5oz in one feeding and went right to sleep. These past two days she has done alot of sleeping and eating and in between quite a bit of crankiness. Unless of course the "GLOW WORM" is singing to her. I really do not know how many more times I can listen to that thing! :) But then again its either that or her scream....guess I'll be listening to it play the same ol' symphony songs. Well I THINK I've got her to bed, on what has been her schedule for the past two weeks, on time. She is swinging away. Listening to what? The same songs that glow worm plays! Can't Playschool or Graco come up with some other songs to listen to also. K well I am off to do my motherly duties and hopefully transfer Reese to her bassinet to sleep for the rest of the night.

PS I'd like to say thanks to Nana and Papa for torturing me with that Glow Worm! They knew when they bought it she'd love it and want to listen to it 24/7. I guess that's one of the joys of being Reese's grandparents. :)

The GLOW WORM that Reese loves soo much!

Sleeping after eating 4.5 oz! Look how big she is on my chest now! She is getting so big!

She absolutely LOVESSSS bath time!

andddd so does Jack. :) He likes to sit and watch and at the end he drinks water out of my hand. He loves it!

After bath time. In her cute little "hip, hip hop, hippapotomus" (-Big Daddy, for those of you who have never seen it ) towel

Bath Time!!

A bad day gone Good :)

2009-06-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today I ironically woke up, in literally, the worst mood ever. This last 8 pounds of baby weight that is hanging on for dear life is really starting to get to me and just some other things have been on my mind. It was just all surfacing at once. It seems that running and eating good isn't doing it for me. However Reese is starting to get to where she can entertain herself and Nathan and I are going to start working out soon and bring her to the little work out room with us. Anyways, since I woke up in a bad mood, I went back to bed for about an hour to maybe see if I could wake up on the "right side of the bed" this time. It somewhat worked but I was still just in a blahhh mood. As Nathan was leaving for work he was so comforting and so understanding and my day began to look up. Reese was sleeping at the time and when she woke up and looked into my eyes and smiled...I knew I'd be OK. I just had to keep be patient with 8 pounds and continue praying for the rest. I have the most amazing family of my own and wonderful support system and that's all that matters.

Today Reese kept trying to sit up in her chair so before her bath I put her in the "Exersaucer." She sat up in it so much better than the first time Nate and I tried. She was making noises looking at all the colors and gadgets, it was so cute. She has definitely been developing her own personality. It is so much fun.

She even thought all the print on the seat was so interesting

awww laughing

Jack felt the need to be RIGHT next to me after I fed Reese after her bath. The camera was handy so I couldn't pass it up. Love my kids. :)

Who's that baby in the mirror??

2009-06-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

As I was blogging I overheard Nate and Reese playing in the mirror. I couldnt help but stop and go video this. She was just talking (well I call it talking :) away. It was just precious.

And the title of this entry "Who's that baby in the mirror?" That's a song mom made up when I was little and used to sing it to us, so I of course sing it to Reese. Enjoy...

MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND & ASHLEY COMES TO TOWN!

2009-06-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

I'm going to do a couple different stories in this one post to recap the whole weekend. Ashley came to town on Thursday night and left Sunday, to come visit and celebrate my birthday with us. It was a great time and I am sooo glad she came!

Friday we didn't do a whole lot during the day. Ashley and I went to run a couple errands...look for Reese a new outfit to wear to dinner that night :), look for Ashley a new phone case, and she got Seth some new shorts from American Eagle. K...well I guess we didnt do errands...we shopped :) Then Friday evening it was off to the Oasis. A HUGE restaurant on Lake Travis in North Austin. It was awesome. Food was good, our waiter...not so good. But the sunset and the view made up for it all. Friday evening we got back and I opened my present from Nate. He got me a bottle of champagne and a beautiful glass, hand-blown flower. The champagne was really good, and it was interesting because I had never opened a bottle of it myself. So I took off the foil and the wiring, turned to ask what I do next, and WHEWWW it flew off and champagne went everywhere. ha It was quite the scene.

Reesey in her new outfit!

Me and my yummy bottle of champagne

Aunt Ashley with her girl

Saturday we headed to San Marcos to do some more shopping at the outlet malls. You see in the picture that Reese is ready to go! She was the talk of the store at each place we went to. I bought her some of the cutest outfits! I cant wait to get her in them and post some pics!!! Although it was my birthday, I didnt buy anything for me. I found it much more fun to buy for my family. I now understand what parents have been talking about when they do so much for my brother and I. But we had a great time, Reese did well, but it was hot as heck!!! The heat lately is just unbelievable! We made it though, and after a long day of shopping Ashley and I headed downtown to a relaxed bar that Nathan's friend works at. We got some good people watching time in! It was quite a laugh. Felt good to get out. I miss those times with Ash, but I do love my life now and I definitely missed Reesey while we were gone. I constantly was texting Nate to see how she was. I bathed and fed her before I left and had her to sleep, turned out she never woke up. She has been such a good girl and has been sleeping from about 1030 till 6ish. Its great!

Me and Reese in her Baby Bjorn. She rode in her stroller most of the way but got cranky, and then conked out in this. I look AWFUL! It was hot and I didnt even bother putting on make up bc I knew it would be miserably hot. Still fun though!

Before we headed downtown..not the most wonderful looking night for me. But again, still a wonderful time! :) Plus who do I have to impress. haha

Overall I had a wonderful weekend with some of the most special people in my life. It was great! Thanks guys!

CATCH UP...beginning with...new picture frames!

2009-06-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well well well...where to start?!?!?! Last time I blogged is a week ago now and alot has been going on. Nathan worked last Tuesday and Wednesday. And Wednesday afternoon, before he went to work we caught lunch with, Lauren, a friend of ours...who fortunately is a wonderful photographer and does our pictures. :) At lunch she brought my latest order of pictures from Reese's newborn shoot. I was soooo excited because the large, 16x20, picture would complete my idea for our large open wall in the apartment. A couple weeks ago I framed our maternity 16x20 collage and knew I would be needing the same frame to do Reese's newborn collage in as well. I ended up getting a frame from WalMart and only bought one because HELLO Its WalMart they will have another when I'm ready. WRONG! I went back numerous times, never found it. So needless to say in a short story...Reese and I went EVERYWHERE that carries frames on Wednesday looking for a perfect reasonably priced frame. When I had finally given up, because I refused to pay $50 for each frame, we passed Kirkland's Home and I decided to run in real quick just know that they'd have nothing. Luckily they proved me wrong and were having a big sale. We left with two perfect frames and even found a door mat :)

A picture of the whole wall with the frames Reese and I found

The collage of our fam :)

And the maternity collage

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE (to Reese) RYAN!!!

2009-06-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight Reese and I met my family for dinner in Temple at BJ's Brewhouse. None of us had ever been there, but it was quite good. We all met to celebrate my brother, Ryan's, birthday and mine. However Ryan's birthday was actually today. He is SEVENTEEN years old already! I cannot believe he is already seventeen. I remember just a couple years ago talking with about the day he'd turn 16 and begin driving. Now that year has come and gone and he is now 17, a JUNIOR in high school, and starting to prepare to make himself marketable to one day play college baseball. The years have absolutely flown by. Ryan is two years from graduating high school, I am 24 Saturday, have a beautiful baby girl, and a little family of my very own. I am so very blessed. Getting to this point in my life has been wonderful and bumpy at times but I would not change a thing for a million dollars. It has made me who I am today. I am so proud at the man my baby brother is becoming and there is not a doubt in mind he will be an excellent role model and support for his little niece, Reese. He absolutely adores her and that makes me so happy. I could just sit and watch my family hold and talk to her. It is such a blessing. Here are a couple pictures from the night. I know I went off on a little tangent, but I guess Ryan turning 17 was a little emotional for me inside. It has taken me a little bit to let go and raise a family of my own. Thank you mom and dad for raising me to be the woman I am today. I pray I am half the parents you both have been to me...and HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY RYAN! I love you!

Papa and Reese

Probably one of my favorite pictures of Reese!!!

And probably one of my favorite pictures of Reese and Nana

Uncle Ryan and Reese

Brother, Sister, and the next generation :)

Bath Time!

2009-06-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

I just got done bathing Reese about an hour ago, fed her, and now she is sleeping. Just wanted to tell everyone how enjoyable it was to watch her in bath tonight. I wish I could have had my camera right there with me. She loves scooting down in her bath chair so her feet hang off the side and she can move them in the water. I put just A LITTLE more water in than I usually do so she could have more of her body actually in the water. I always start off by getting her wet with the washcloth, then I wash her hair, then body, and then get her out shortly afterward. Tonight I just sat and talked to her for about 5 or 10 minutes more. She was just getting so excited and moving her arms everywhere and kicking those feet. She'd laugh sometimes and just stare off and take in the bath. It was just so amazing. I am so very blessed. I wish her daddy could have been here to see her enjoy the bath. He would have loved it.

Happy 1st Father's Day Nathan

2009-06-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 1ST FATHER'S DAY NATHAN! and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO MY DAD...I love you so very much. Thank you for providing for me and being there for me during the hardest times of my life. I never would have made it without you and Mom!

Well today is Father's Day and unfortunately Nathan had to work. He does not think ahead of time and forgets to ask off for special days like this and MY BIRTHDAY :) which is this coming Saturday. Oh well, that is why I love him. He will make it up to me by cooking a marvelous dinner on Friday night. He has off Thursday and Friday so we will celebrate then and on those days Ashley and hopefully Jen will join us as well. They'll be coming into town to help me celebrate my first birthday as a mommy. Anyways, back to Father's Day...so since Nate had to work today and yesterday, Reese and I, along with the help of my friend Brandy went and found Nate the perfect gift. He loves the band Coldplay and had a vinyl record of their music. So we got him a record frame for that (which by the way is not easy to find! Our everyday stores do not have them) from a record store in downtown Austin. Also as ironic as it is, Coldplay is playing at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on his birthday this year. So, with the help of our friend Juddy, we will be going to that concert. I made tickets myself though, as a way to tell him that we are going. Then youll also see in the picture I got Reese a onsie to tell her daddy she loves him and a cute little card from her for his 1st Father's Day. Even though he had to work I think he enjoyed his little gifts, I know he was quite surprised. I had them sitting out on our table and he didnt even notice them sitting there! ha

A picture of the dinner I mentioned in the previous entry that Nathan was cooking as I was blogging! Those two meals were some of the BEST I have ever had!

Nate has two days off = I get two wonderful meals :)

2009-06-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

So Nathan had yesterday, Thursday, and today off of work. Yesterday we ran some errands. Went to the post office and then to Ross and Marshalls. We both love those stores. I actually introduced Nate to them, and now fortuately he likes it also. I actually have to tell him no on things otherwise we'd walk out of there spending way too much money. We did, however, make a "bigger" purchase yesterday. We got an area rug for the living. Really makes the place feel homey. Then we came home from running errands and did stuff around here. I hadn't got a chance to really CLEAN because I always get sidetracked when Reese cries or whatever. So I cleaned and washed alot of clothes yesterday. Nate and I also put together Reese's Exersaucer. She has really been wanting to sit up and even then pushes up and likes to stand as well. So we thought it would be time to go ahead and let her play in it. However we put her in it and she kind of leaned right forward, but we put a blanket in front of her and fixed it. However she is still discovering things so she just stared at the chair designs. You'll see in the picture below.

Haha, notice her little spike on top. She fell asleep after her bath, this was taken after she had woken up, and I kept trying to brush it down. It kept popping right back up.

Then after that, we bathed her, she went to sleep, and we ate this marvelous dinner! It was salmon (my absolute favorite), homemade garlic mashed potatoes (Ashley's favorite, instead of my box taters haha), and aspargus! It was ohhhhh soooo good!!!!!!!!!

Now Nate is cooking ANOTHER wonderful dinner as I speak, well type. :) On the menu tonight is Alaskan Halibut, French Horn Mushrooms, and Risotto rice.

Jenny........I think, maybe I should call you tomorrow.

2009-06-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well hello friends and family! Reese got her 2 month shots today. :( Nathan and I took her to the "Far South Austin Health Department," because my doctor's office is dumb and screwed up scheduling her for them and couldnt get her in till August....umm hello, bit of a problem getting her 2 month shots at 4 months. :) So yea, we took her there. We arrived a tad bit early so I could fill out any paper work as Nate gave her another bottle. A couple minutes later a Santa Claus looking dude came out and called out, "Reese." I sadly looked at Nate and said, "I'll wait here." They went on back, and I heard her scream for a second. I got sad and a couple seconds later they came walking out. She wasn't crying, just clinging onto daddy with a couple little tears. :( We headed to WalMart to stock up on some more groceries and went home and Nate went to work. Reese slept for a little bit longer and then woke up raising hell. I gave another dose of Tylenol and a little later she was good. Then this evening she went cranky pants or fuss bucket (as Nana says. haha). Did not want to eat, sleep, nothing. AND I had planned to call Jenny tonight to details on the bridal shower. However Reese continued to cry, wine, and do whatever else babies do, so I polietly texted her while bouncing crying Reese and said, "umm maybe I should call ya tomorrow when Nathan is off work. haha" ..etc. Now here a couple hours ago I gave another dose of Tylenol and now she is asleep in her swing. She is absolutely amazing and I am so blessed to have her. Enjoy the video. I thought it was pretty cute. Listen closely, bc aside from the smiles :), youll hear her little coos she is starting to do....and listen even closer and you'll hear her passing gas. haha The rest of it was too cute to do another. Goodnight my friends. I'm going to go wait for my love to get home and eat a nice little healthy dinner with him.

My little girl! As you probably cannot fully tell in this picture...Reese is holding herself up I am simply holding her up for balance. She is getting soooo strong and growing so fast already!

Reese finally likes to sleep in her own bed!

2009-06-16T18:14:00.001-07:00

So back at our apartment I have been experimenting with Reese sleeping in the bassinet through the night. She has actually been doing quite well! And when we came to Bremond she even slept in the pack and play. She loves the mobile. I could just sit and watch her for hours, you'll see why in the video below. I think it is about time to get her a crib here pretty soon. :)

New Sun Hat!

2009-06-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

My brother rode with me yesterday to College Station to help me out with Reese while I saw the doctor, then I took him to get a birthday present for his girlfried. I couldnt pass up Gymboree. We left with a new hat for Reese.

Back to Bremond for just a couple days...

2009-06-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

Daisy Duke. My parents dog that loves being outside, and probably the most photogetic dog ever! Love her!

Well Nathan and I had to leave Magnolia on Sunday morning at 9am because he had to work. :( Just when we got to our apartment Reese and I jumped in the car with Nana (aka my mom :) and rode to Bremond. I had a dr appt on Monday morning for a check on my stomach issues and Reese was supposed to get her two month shots, today actually. However I forgot a document I needed back in Austin. So tomorrow morning at 950 daddy (Nate) will be taking Reese to get those shots in Austin. I just cant bare to sit there while she screams when they give her three shots. :( Anyways, so Nana, Papa, and Uncle Ryan have enjoyed their time with Reese. Its awesome watching them hold her and her smile back at them. Check out the videos below. One of them is kind of long (like 30 seconds) but its soo cute at the end. Something to look forward to! :)

Reese practicing to sit up! :)

Her uncle loves her to pieces!

Also for those of you who dont know what a crazy man Nate is about buying live animals and killing them for meat...We already have 70 pounds of lamb meat in Austin from a home grown lamb. And below is a picture of the pigs that will become bacon here in a couple weeks. One is my parents and the other for Nathan. Theyve developed quite the personality. ha

"Saaaaaaailing, takes me away" to Magnol-i-a.

2009-06-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

Obviously it has been a couple days since I have lost blogged. Nathan, Reese, and I took a little family trip. We headed off to Magnolia to go to an "America" and "Christopher Cross" concert. The concert was actually Saturday night, we got in town on Friday evening. Nathan and Brian cooked an amazing dinner. We all just hung out and enjoyed each others company. It was a nice relaxing evening. I also barely got to hold my little girl, because her Aunt Holly was having the time of her life! She fed her, changed her, bounced her around when she was cranky...every little thing Holly did. It was so awesome to watch her take care of Reese. Below youll see a picture of them two and notice that Reese is holding her bottle ALL BY HERSELF!! So cute, if I must say so myself. haha

Saturday we had planned to leave and head out to the Sam Houston Racetrack around 1 oclock. Which case we would drop off little Reese at Aunt Leah's first and then head down. However Nate and I got caught up playing with Belle and Jack outside. Poor Jack, he had been cooped up in the apartment because he hangs out with Reese and I all day...so he was having the time of his life running around and chasing Belle and running with Nate on the golf cart. Needless to say, we finally left the house around 230 or so and headed to Aunt Leah's. We got there and visited with Mimi, Leah, and the girls for quite sometime. It was very nice. Although I am sad that I didnt think to take out my camera and take some pictures of them holding Reese! :( Hopefully we will make it down to Houston again soon, and for sure I will then. We got down the racetrack about 5. Just in time for Nate to bet on two races and lose 80 bucks! Oh well....he had a good time. The concert started around 8. I really had no idea who we were really seeing, but when they came on I definitely recognized some of the songs. Christopher Cross was amazing. (hints the title of this blog) I never knew he sang the song "sailing." America was good as well. Quite older guys but still put on a pretty good show. :) We all had a great time and it was good to get out for a night while the family watched our little girl. I did, however, texted Aunt Leah quite a few times to check on Reese. Not that I ever doubted there babysitting skills, just for my piece of mind. :) I am so glad they got to watch Reese and spend some time with her. And that Reese was not a huge fuss bucket while she was there.

The horses coming out before the next race started.
We were convinced that this was Uncle Mark! haha

Me and Nate waiting for the concert to start.

How Brian watched the whole "America" performance. ha<>

"That's my day..."

2009-06-10T21:35:00.000-07:00

So Nate just got home about 30 minutes ago and he brought beer as I had asked because of this long day you can read about below. :) So Im just sitting at our desk on my computer reading over Jenny's blog. (I got excited that someone close to me had one.) Anyways...so here I am reading intensly...I reach over to the mouse to scroll down..and there goes my freaking beer! All over the desk and floor. What do I do? Just stare and watch/listen to it drip onto the floor. Nate looks over as he's holding Reese, "you ok?" I reply, "yup, that's just my day!" I throw a towel on it and continue reading. ha No, it didnt get on any of the electronics...thank God.

Someone help me...I love her dearly but....

2009-06-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

Well WHAT DAY! It is now 930pm and I am finally getting Reese to settle down. After a little infant tylenol and soothing she has finally closed her eyes and sleeping. However she isnt sleeping hard enough for me to put her in her bassinet bc I tried and she woke up crying in less than a minute. :/

Not the most entertaining video but it's amazing what will calm a baby down and help them go to sleep.

Poor Jack (my other baby) wants to play and I couldnt because I was trying to sooth Reese so she would stop crying. :(

Day 2.....

2009-06-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

*Please note* The below post took about an hour and half between stopping for bottles, changes, crying, screaming, bathroom, computer errors, etc. Thanks! :)

Whewwwwwwww......so day #2 and I am about to throw the computer! The whole following people and watching them on my dashboard is totally throwing me for a loop and I know I am not computer illiterate, not to mention Reese's wonderful mood today :)! It shows I am following people (well the only 2 people I know on here so far) but then on my dashboard under people I am following, there is nothing. ughhh frustrating!

Anyways, the whole reason for this blog is updates on Reese. So, she fell asleep last night at 10pm on my chest so I put her down in her bassinet and she slept for a couple hours. She woke up around 1230am, ate, and went right back to sleep IN HER BASSINET!I was so shocked that she didnt wake back up! She did wake up at 430am, 7am, and 9am to eat again which she slept on my chest from then on. Probably would have gone back to sleep in her bassinet but unfortunately I was exhausted bc I really didnt sleep much bc I was constantly peeking over the side of the bassinet to make sure she was ok. I am so used to her being right beside me or on my chest, but once I get used to her being in her bed it is going to be great! She woke up for good around 11am all smiles at first, then daddy left for work, I fed and changed her again, and then she proceeded to be very cranky!! I bounced her around for a bit, and finally gave up. I put her in her swing on the highest possible speed with the classical music it plays way up. She is now dosing on and off. yay!

PS I just changed the batteries on this things not even a week ago and had to changed them today because it sounded like a horror movie. I think maybe its time I invest in some Duracell stock. Three D size batteries every couple of weeks between the swing and vibrating chair might get a little pricey!

Sound asleep in her bassinet! yay!

Reese and Nate sleeping MORE! Nate got in pretty late last night from work so I let him sleep in some with his girl :-)

Welcome friends and family!

2009-06-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Well hello family and friends...I am quite new to this blog thing but I figured it would be much easier for me to communicate about Reese and keep everyone up to date through one spot. (Aside from Facebook. haha) Reese is getting big and starting to hold up her head, she is a little wobbly but it is so cute to watch her hold it up and look around. We went to the doctor last Friday and she weighed 10 pounds 12 ounces and 22 1/2 inches long. Which from the time she was born, she has grown so much and sooo fast. She weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 20 inches long at birth. She is already almost 2 months old and time just continues to fly by. Here are just a couple pictures of her from birth till now to catch everyone up. I will try to at least blog every couple of days if not everyday. It all depends on what little Ms. Reese will allow. :)

Proud parents as Reese just entered the world.

Welcome home Reese, wearing the same outfit her mommy wore home :)

Her 1st bath. She liked it then and loves it even more now!!

Proud parents and godfather following her baptism. What a special day. We had very special family and friends there. From out of town to friends/family in Bremond. I'd post all the pictures but it would take up the whole page! ha

Reese in her baptism dress, also the same one I wore. So beautiful!