Random updates on a Monday

1. Something I want to document and never forget, because I love it and know that one day soon it will just be a memory, is the fact that Reese cannot pronounce her v's correctly. So we get this: moobie= movie, moob= move, Steeb (Neal's boss)= Steve, smoobie= smoothie, neber= never.

2. Ella has developed quite the attitude and ability to fight back. We may be in over our heads with these 2 strong willed girls..but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

3. We have undoubdebtly moved into the best cul-de-sac there is. The girls have had a blast since we moved in. For the 4th of July we had a 3rd of July cul-de-sac party complete with food, a baseball game, fireworks and a band. It seemed that everyone had a great time.

4. I have been running for over 3 months now! This is a huge accomplishment for me. I have set out to run before and it has only lasted for a few weeks at most. I have 2 ladies that have been running with me and I think that is the difference that has kept me at it. I have gotten up to 3 miles, this is also huge for me..I know it is not a lot to many but this is the furthest I have ever run. I have been working towards a 5k race that I am scheduled to run on August 3rd. Sunday July 7th my left ankle began hurting. The next day both ankles were hurting. The hurt was mild so I went ahead and ran on a treadmill while I was on vacation. They didn’t hurt any worse, it was just there, until Friday of that week. My ankles were swollen and so sore. They are now very sore and swollen off and on. I broke down and made an appointment with an Orthopedic doctor. I apparently have tendinitis. I'm on anti inflammatory and am hoping that will fix it. Sadly I will not be able to run the race.

5. The girls went to spend the weekend with Neal’s parents for the first time ever away from home without us this past weekend. I truly missed them so much but it was a much needed break. We were able to relax, enjoy friends without distraction and get a lot done around the house in preparation for a big shower that we are throwing here next weekend. The girls had a great time with their Grandparents and I am thankful that they were willing to take on so much responsibility. Gigi and Gi-Pop will probably sleep really well for a week.

6. I'm so glad to have my precious little girls home!

San Antonio Vacation 2013

This year’s vacation started out with 4 bathroom stops in the 1^st 3 hours of our road trip to San Antonio. After our 1^st bathroom stop Reese would insist that she needed to use the bathroom and once we stopped and got out she would reveal that she did not need to use the bathroom. I have to hand it to her that she is a very smart 3 year old, she figured out quickly that claiming to need to use the bathroom got her out of the car that she hates. My girls are decent car riders but not great and neither of them really napped in the car..Reese not at all really and Ella only for a half hour here or there.

We chose San Antonio because Reese has had an obsession with whales for a while now so we decided to do Sea World. While we were there we also did the river walk, the Children’s museum, swam in the hotel pools a lot and ate at Taco Cabana a lot. We stopped in Allen on the way up and back for the night to break up the trip and had fun there too.

The river walk really was not kid friendly. There is about an 8 foot wide walk way on each side of the river with no railing to keep you from falling into the river. There are also hardly any bridges to get you from one side to the other and the couple that we saw had stairs, not convenient with a double stroller. We didn’t let the girls get out of the stroller as we feared they would fall in. We stopped for dinner at the Rainforest Café. This was actually one of the highlights of the trip. The girls loved all of the animals and were fascinated, and a bit frightened, of the thunderstorms. The food was okay but the entertainment was spectacular for a 3 yo and a 1 yo.

My mom came up for the night and got to go to Sea World and the Children’s museum with us. Sea world was a lot of fun. We spent 10 hours there and everyone held up so much better than I expected. Neal looked at me at one point and said he didn’t think we could have done the whole day there without my mom as it is a lot to keep up with the 2 of them at a theme park that size.

We had a really great vacation and so much fun together. We hope to do it again one day when the girls are older and also do Shlitterbahn and maybe float the Guadalupe River.

Ella's 1st movie

At 2 years old we took Reese to her 1st movie. Ella is 20 months, which seems young for a movie in the theatre. Monsters University came out a couple of weeks ago and Monsters Inc. is Ella's favorite movie so we decided to go ahead and try it. We went on a Sunday afternoon after nap. We went with our good friends and neighbors. Ella and Reese were so excited. Ella was such a good girl. She sat in our laps. watched the movie and ate her pop corn and candy. Her sister on the other hand would not stay in her seat or be quiet. About an hour and a half in we had to leave because Reese wouldn't behave and Ella was about ready anyways. So we look forward to seeing the entire movie when it comes out. We had a good time and Ella enjoyed her first experience in the theatre.

 

 

 

Look at Ella's silly pose in the below photo!

 

I love this photo of our cute little family.

Father's Day 2013

The girls and I are so fortunate to have Neal. He is the best daddy that any little girl could ask for & he is the best husband & support that I could ever ask for. On Mother's Day I did one if those mommy questionnaires with Reese so I decided to do a daddy one today.

What is your daddy’s name?
Daddy

What is something that daddy always says to you?
What are you doing?

What makes daddy happy?
To play games with me.

What makes daddy sad?
When he falls down and he gets a boo boo and it bleeds.

How does daddy make you laugh?
When I say poop or I toot.

How old is daddy?
8

How tall is daddy?
Big

What color is daddy’s hair?
Brown

If daddy becomes famous, what will it be for?
Playing

What is daddy’s favorite food?
Food from chuck e cheese.

What is daddy really good at?
Playing.

What is daddy’s favorite thing to do?
Golf.

What does daddy do for his job?
Lays on the beds.

What makes you proud of daddy?
When I poop on the potty. (I think she mistook this question for what makes daddy proud of her.)

What do you and daddy do together?
Play games.

Where is daddy’s favorite place to go?
Chick fil a.

How do you know that daddy loves you?
He fixes the loud noise and protects me.

Bikes, dentists & Luke Bryan

Reese has been asking for a new bike for a few weeks. All of the neighbors ride their bikes around often and she only has a crossover version of a trike/bike. We wanted to get her a bike during the spring/summer so that she could practice while she is watching all of her little friends riding around and so that we could pass her trike/bike down to Ella to use. We feel like they are always getting new things and we want them to appreciate the things that they have. We have been having typical 3 year old behavior issues lately so we decided to try out a behavior based sticker chart for a week and have the bike be the reward for this. She got a sicker for getting ready without issue in the morning, having a good report when we picked her up from school and having a good evening, 3 stickers a day. It didn’t work without a snag here and there but it was one of the most effective things we have tried so far. So after about a week and a half she got her new bike! She loves it and it is even has a baby doll seat on the back.

Last week we took Reese to the dentist and found out that she had 3 cavities that needed to be filled. Apparently she has inherited deeply grooved teeth that will be hard to keep cavity free. They told us that we could not be in the room during the filling and that she would be mildly sedated. This was scary to me but I knew sedation would be needed for her to cooperate with this and not to be terribly scared. I was most nervous about her anxiety levels in all of this and didn’t want her to be ruined for the dentist for life. She was a superstar and did so well. She was not scared at all and the dentist office is amazing with preschool children. She ended up having 4 cavities that needed filling and had the other molars sealed so hopefully we won’t have further problems with her baby teeth. Sadly, I failed to take any pictures. If anyone is looking for a dentist I would highly recommend Northwest Arkansas Pediatric Dental Clinic, we see Dr. Rhodes.

I am very thankful to have a job and to have a job that I enjoy (it frustrates me often but I work on interesting and meaningful things). I am also really thankful for the company that I work for. They have been so good to me over the 6 years that I have been with them and have supported multiple life events in a way that I never expected (IVF twice, bed rest, maternity leave, kids sicknesses). There aren’t a lot of glamorous perks but one perk is shareholders each year and all of the celebrities involved. We decided to take Reese and Ella to their first concert this week since it was offered free to associates. They got to see Lee Brice and Luke Bryan. It was really fun, challenging to keep up with them but fun. I love this picture that I got of the 4 of us as we were waiting for the concert to start.

Mommy hood

Yesterday was Mother's Day. I am so thankful that He chose me to be these girls mommy. It has been the most amazing (& challenging) thing I've ever done. Neal did a great job of making the day special. We also did something that I've been waiting for Reese to be old enough to do, a mommy survey...see her responses below:

1. How old is your mom. 3

2. How much does your mom weigh? 2 months

3. What is your mom's favorite color? Green

4. What is your mom's favorite food? Lunchables & apple sauce

5. My mom always says? Listen & obey

6. What does your mom cook the best? Lunchables & cookies

7. What is your mom's job? The iPuter (?)

8. Your mom laughs when? When she goes home & then she goes to church (again, ?)

9. If your mom had time she would love to? Play with fish

10. Your mom & you like to? Play games together

11. What does your mom really love?playing games

12. You love your mom because? Games (I think she got stuck on games)

I think this survey is such a cute idea and look forward to doing this each year.

Random thoughts on a Monday

1. My mother in law took this photo of us before Reese's birthday party. I absolutely love this picture of my sweet little family.

2. Ella has a sweet little friend at school named Caroline. I think she has found her Reagan (Reese's bestie). They are so cute together and seem to love each other so much. She also lives in our neighborhood and get to play together at the playground, in the culdesac and at the pool. I am so excited to watch these two cuties grow up together.

3. I haven’t written a post on Reese’s 3^rd birthday party and am not sure that I am going to get around to it so I will make this a condensed version. We all had a blast. The gym that we did it at turned out to be a great choice. All of the kiddos seemed to have a great time and it was a perfect amount of space for the exorbitant amount of people that I ended up inviting. She even had a surprise visit from Rapunzel. I will probably upload a separate post of photos to remember in a soon to come post.

4. She looks so adorable in a bow but they only stay in for as much as 10 minutes. We need some bow training.

5. How did they get so big? They sat at a table by themselves, for a bit, at Sam's on Friday eating their pizza.

6. Ella's teacher sent this picture to me of her playing in the water at school. I love this cute picture of her and am so happy to have chosen a school that has teachers that will text me photos througout the day.

7. If you are ever in Little Rock All Aboard was such a fun place to take kids to eat. Your dinner is delivered by a train. This is Ella fascinated by the train delivery system.

8. We recently took Reese to Disney on Ice, dare to dream. Reese’s best friend Reagan went down too (her grandparent’s also live in the area) and we met my good friend and college roommate and her little girl. All 3 girls seemed to love it..and I think that all of us enjoyed it too.

9. We are 3 weeks in to having no binkys. I am so incredibly proud of this girl. She is getting so big. In this photo she is buckling her shoes all by herself.

10. In my last random updates I talked about our love for Barkley. We still love her to death but she is driving up crazy by getting food from the table any time we turn around. I recently made the girls a mini table and chairs and it is just at Barkley’s level, I think this has caused her to realize what exciting things exist on a kitchen table so she fights to get onto the mini table or the regular table now whenever she smells food.

11. The above mentioned table and chairs has worked out to be a really fun addition to our kitchen. I got the table at a flea market and the chairs from Walmart.com. Neal and I painted them cream, distressed them and I modge podged the top with scrapbook paper. I love how it turned out!

12. Ella fell a few weeks ago and, we don’t know how in the world it happened, caught her fingernail just right that it took her nail off. It was 45 minutes of top of her lungs crying, bleeding and a whole lot of family members with broken hearts for this sweet little girl. She wouldn’t even eat the smarties that I offered her in an effort to distract her from the pain, this means she was in a lot of pain. My co-worker and her pediatrician both scared me when they mentioned that it could have come out from the root and the nail may never come back. I am thrilled to report that she has a nail growing back now. This is not a great photo but it is close to impossible to get an 18 month old to hold her hand still to get a good shot of it.