11 months and other news

Can't believe this girl is almost one! Next month I'll do a comparison of all her monthly pictures with her Hershey bear but seriously...she is just too big for me!

Reese's Pieces:

• She has become miss personality especially when daddy walks through the door at night. She loves to be chased around the house, loves to play and LoVeS anything and everything having to do with animals! It really makes me excited for the day when we (hopefully) can have a dog...there will be no end to her joy.

• She has turned in to a great little sleeper! I was worried (and probably shouldn't have been) with such a hard beginning and many wake-ups but now unless there's something wrong...like sickness or teething, she sleeps 12 hours almost on the dot. Her usual wake up time is 7:30 and that's been a huge blessing for this preggo mama!

• She's jabbering and "talking" a ton! "Mama" and "Dada" are the two words we know for sure but often we will hear her saying "Ba" for her bear, bottle or ball.

• Reese has 5 teeth!!! And I can't go another minute without acknowledging the BEST thing for teething thanks to my friend Ashley! Seriously, yesterday I was playing around with Reese when I noticed there was another sharp "object" in her mouth besides the four pearly whites I've become accustomed to. It was a tooth and not just the whites of it but completely broken through and partially above her gum. I had NO idea this little guy was even on its way. I attribute no crying and no pain to her necklace from www.hazelaid.com. It blew me away because Reese has a terrible time with teething. Praising the Lord for this amazing find!! Our next baby will be getting one of these necklaces no matter what gender they are. (Matt's almost with me on this one!)

• She knows and understands who Aunt Courtney is. The other day I asked her where Aunt Coco was and she looked out the window and all around the apartment. :) Love that we have family in our apartment complex and all the interaction she gets with them!

So that is Reese in a nutshell. 

As for baby #2...today marks the 1/2 way point (20 weeks) and definitely an exciting milestone. :) He or she weighs about 10 ounces and is 10 inches long...our little string bean! We have our big ultrasound scheduled for Monday to find out what baby is and I'm definitely excited/nervous just as I was with Reese. If you think about it, pray for us as they do all the normal tests to make sure baby is growing and developing as it should. If there is anything concerning this will be when they find that out. 

AND...I'd love to know what you all think we are having! Matt and I both would like another girl but we are pretty sure this time around it's a boy! :) Please leave a comment and tell us what you think. We love hearing from you! I'll be sure to update the blog once we know.

One more highlight...Matt felt baby move for the first time two nights ago. It's so amazing as the mother to feel your baby move and kick inside of you but to be able to share that with your husband and the daddy of this little person is even better.

My Valentines

Celebrating Reese's first Valentine's Day today and thought I'd dress her up for the occasion. I bought this outfit right after we found out she was a girl and she's finally wearing it. Wow!

An oldie but a goodie...Matt and I celebrating Valentine's a few years back at Maggiano's. Thank you Lord for my husband. You have caused me to love You more because of him. I am the most blessed girl in the world to have him as my best friend. 

Happy Valentine's Day dear friends!

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John 4:10-11

Some things I've been up to

starting January 1st I really wanted to be purposeful in having my Bible reading and quiet time every day. This has always been a challenge for me to not miss a day but it has especially escalated since Reese entered the picture. I found myself thinking that if I even got to pray during the day, that was a triumph. My personal walk, marriage and even friendships really started to feel the strain of that thinking. The Lord graciously worked on my heart to show me that I need Him and His word continually and I should be desperate for it even when I don't feel well, when the house is messy, the dishes are still in the sink or I find that there are so many more "needed" things to get done. I am so thankful for the Lord's mercy and kindness as I realized my sin in doing this thing called motherhood on my own strength. So...to keep myself accountable and to have a portion for every day of the year I started the "MacArthur Daily Bible." So far, it's been wonderful. I think the last time I read through the Old Testament was in college. It's been a long time and I find myself sad to have to stop reading for the day (not that I technically have to but I want to stay on track and not take away from the next day).

Here's a plug for my old stomping grounds, Grace To You. If you're in need of a good devotional, want to read through the Bible in a year or just want the every day accountability like me, I highly recommend this tool! So thankful for John's insight and helps while you read.

It wasn't necessarily a resolution but I knew that once I started feeling better in this pregnancy it was time to hit the exercise hard. I did this dvd while I was pregnant with Reese and two weeks ago decided it was time to pull it out again. Silly me...I thought there would be no problem getting back into it and that I actually might need to find something else just to intensify things. Well, and my husband can vouch for me, I looked pretty pathetic around here for about a week...like a really old lady struggling to pull herself up kind of look. I'm feeling a lot stronger now and actually notice a spring in my step. Erin O'Brien is great and I'm starting to look forward to our times together. :)

If you're looking for a good chocolate icing recipe for Valentine's Day or any occasion for that matter, I recommend this one from Pioneer Woman's blog. So Good! I didn't get any pictures of the finished product but it turned out great (disclaimer: she does say somewhere that it goes on thick and she's right...you need to work quickly once it comes off the stove). The nice part about it is that it's only 3 ingredients. I didn't try making the yellow cake (I was using up a box that had been in my pantry WAY too long) but being that she's Pioneer Woman and her recipes are A-mazing I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Did I mention that I'm on a sugar fast? I sound like my friend Polly. :) You would be too, though, if you had been consuming the amounts of sugar I was just last week. I don't know what it was but 7 cupcakes in 3 days, eating frosting out of the tub with a spoon and a piece of fruit pizza later, I had to take drastic measures. So I haven't had anything since Saturday...that's 6 days so far. I realize that I started this right before one of the most sugar-filled holidays we celebrate but I'm letting myself have one thing and then it's back to my fast. I'm not sure how long this will go...but definitely for awhile. The idea of gestational diabetes scares me to no end, plus I know all of this isn't good for our baby. It must be pregnancy because I'm not like this....I never think about food this much. This could also be why it was so necessary to kick exercising into high gear. :)

Lastly, baby has been moving way more in the past few days (since being off sugar...it's not a sugar-induced spurt of energy :)). I believe this is my very favorite aspect of being pregnant. It creates such a bond whenever I feel this little person kick. In 17 days, we get to watch him/her do all this moving around and hopefully find out what we're having! I can't wait. My friend Amanda said it right, other than the birth day, ultrasound day is her favorite and I would have to agree.

Thanks for bearing with me through this post...just some fun, random thoughts I thought I'd share. :) Happy Friday!!

Get-a-way weekend!

Matt and I are still floating from a wonderful anniversary weekend away. I didn't realize until after we got home, just how much we and our marriage needed the time spent apart from our girl. We went a little farther from home than I was at first comfortable with but since Reese did such a great job with her Marmee and Papa, it put me at ease.

Matt took Friday off so that we could have a noon departure and enjoy most of the day together. This is the beauty we drove up to in Anaheim (Disneyland area for all you out of state friends).

We literally felt like newlyweds checking into this place and realizing that we didn't have a diaper bag attached to our shoulder, weren't lugging the pack-n-play up the elevator and there were no limits because of a nap and feeding schedule. It felt so strange to drop our bags in our room, head right to the lobby, pick up food from Starbucks for this prego mama and then to wait for the shuttle to Disneyland. It was pure bliss just to sit on the bench and whisper in each other's ears like we were head over heels high schoolers. Having a child made me appreciate this time more than I ever did during our many get-a-way weekends as just the two of us.

Such a cool store! We walked all through Downtown Disney and Matt being the Lego lover that he is, had to stop in. I didn't realize how much more besides boxed sets of Legos was in this place. The Lego Woody and Giraffe were so amazing!

Because this trip was to celebrate our 4th Anniversary we splurged a bit and went out to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp. I love this place. The food is incredible, the staff were so friendly and helpful and our time and conversations were without distraction.

Ha! Matt had me pose for this one b/c I was looking through the amazing drinks and found the one I would have ordered that night had I not been pregnant. Oh well...just another reason to one day go away again. 

Once dinner was finished we headed to Cheesecake Factory to have dessert. I made sure to leave room...even though my shrimp was to die for. We split the Chocolate Tower Truffle Cake. I forgot to take a picture of this incredible masterpiece so here's one I found on Google. It just doesn't do it justice. I slept terribly that night (what a bummer...my one chance to sleep without interruption) because of all the caffeine that must be in this thing. But literally I'm drooling just thinking about how good it was.

Beyond all the amazing things we did and food we ate, it was just great to sit and talk, pray, talk about this next year coming up, the changes that we will go through again and reminding ourselves or where our strength and help come from! "My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth." Psalm 121:2 Through our time away we decided to start reading Wayne Mack's "Strengthening Your Marriage." We've been enjoying that the past couple of Wednesday evenings and are excited to see what God will be doing in our lives and marriage through that study.

And lastly...what would a blog post be without pictures of Reese? She had a great time playing hard with her Marmee and Papa...even slept the whole night for them! Made this mama extra thankful and proud! (Pictures courtesy of Marmee)

Thank you again, Ray and Missy for watching Reese for us. We had a wonderful time getting away and that was all because of your kindness to us!

10 months

Oh this girl...it's a good thing she's so cute because the days (and nights) have become more difficult with her. You just may be catching me at a moment where my daughter won't sleep for longer than 30 minutes and then refuses to go back down (nap time). She's also been crying hard and long when we put her to bed at night and waking up at least twice. Hopefully it's just a phase. I'm praying it's something that will pass and I'll look back and think, did that really happen? Ha! Maybe. 

The other challenge....FOOD! I shouldn't be surprised. Food has never been her friend since she was born. She is so uninterested in it...even all the yummy fruits she's trying get tossed over the side of her Bumbo. The one thing I can count on to be completely gone from her tray when I turn around is cheese. At least I know she's getting her calcium and dairy!

Other than those two things...and that seems to occupy my mind and heart constantly...she's so much fun, such a joy and more precious as the days go by.

Here's a little more of what Miss Reese has been up to:

-Crawling like a Pro! We'll turn around after putting her down and she'll already be in the next room!

-She loves animals and especially dogs! When we read her touch and feel book and get to the doggie page she starts to laugh and then doesn't want to turn the page. If we do, she'll go back through the pages until she finds it.

-She weighs 17 1/2 pounds (25th percentile) and I can't remember her height :/ (they say it so fast and I miss it...but I know she's in the 40th for height)

-For the first time a few mornings ago I found her pulled up on her crib standing. So exciting! This could be the reason behind her troubled sleep.

-She's going to have her first overnighter with Marmee and Papa this weekend. Matt and I are excited to get away but I must admit, it's hard thinking about leaving your baby for the first time. I just hope she's a good girl...and they all get their sleep!

-Reese had her first professional pictures taken at JC Penny. They turned out amazing (a big answer to prayer!) and I can't wait for them to get here so that our girl can finally be on the wall. :)

-Mom continues to pray for wisdom, strength and dependence on the Lord to raise this little one. God has blessed us richly and we give Him all the praise!

Reese loves her Hershey bear!

Our serious girl.

Standing all by myself!

She looks proud of herself for being so messy!

Crazy hair and tummy pictures

We've had a slow morning...which is why my hair is still wet at 11:30 and the breakfast dishes haven't been washed but...the bed is made, important emails and phone calls are done and Reese just woke up from a nap. Her hair is why I pulled out my camera. It's CrAzY! Matt and I have a good laugh every time we go and get her from her crib. It's got a mind of it's own and dad affectionately calls it her "Einstein hair"! These pictures don't really do it justice but enjoy!

And here is the baby bump at 15 weeks today. It doesn't look very big but I feel like

it is...at least for how early into pregnancy we are. :)

Reese Meets Grandmom

I love Palm Springs. I've been there more times than I can count on my hands and other then going in June or July when you're so hot it's hard to move let alone enjoy it, Matt and I always say we wish we had a little home there to spend 9 or 10 months out of the year. I'm not sure why Palm Springs other then the fact that we don't have to get on a plane, it's cheap to stay and the weather is PERFECT...while all the rest of the US was experiencing 20 or 30 degree weather and for Alaska probably -degrees, we were basking in early 80s. Ahhh! 

But anyways...the reason we went there this past weekend was to see my Grandmother and for Reese to meet her Great Grandmother (that sounds so crazy) for the first time. We had such a wonderful visit with her and truly soaked up all two days we were together. She spoiled us with incredible lunches and dinners out and even bought a sweet little dress for Reese when she turns one. 

Oh...I love Grandmom more then I can say. She is a precious woman that I am so thankful to be family to. Coming up on 5 years ago we lost her sweet husband to brain cancer...who all of us grandchildren lovingly called Poppy. You may recognize that name because my Dad chose to carry it on and be called Poppy by his grandchildren. So special! For Reese to have the opportunity to meet and spend time with Grandmom did my heart a world of good. It's so hard that we are across the country from each other but I'm grateful we had this time. Thank you for all the loving and spoiling you did for all 3 of us, Grandmom! We loved our visit with you.