same old, same old

Not much new over here.  Anadean is in town so I've enjoyed hanging out with her.  Reese loves "Dean."  She turns into such a show-off when she has someone to perform for.  Here are a few pics from the past few days.

Reese is so close to mastering Mr. Potato Head.

Stella trying out a carrot.  One nibble and she threw it on the floor.

Wes brought home Chik-fil-A for lunch one day.  Reese LOVES any kind of dip so we gave her some for her nuggets.  Stella saw what Reese had so she wanted to try it.  Guess I should have taught her what to do with it.  I looked away and when I looked back, she had it tipped back and almost empty.   Yummmmmmmmmm.

More and more trees are being decorated on that stretch of 360 near our house.

pictures

I need to catch up on some pictures. Here are my faves...

Our nanny, Kaitlyn, captured these awesome pictures of Stella.  Love her big grin.

I can't wait to see the pictures our photographer took at our family photo shoot last weekend.  She was so calm and patient and I didn't feel stressed out.  She just followed us around as we chased Reese and Stella.  We would sit together for a few minutes, ummmmmmmmmm seconds, and then they would be off.  Below is my sneak peak of what is to come. 

A few days ago, it was 35 degrees and we had a beautiful fire going.  Today it's going to be 80 degrees.  That was a short winter.

Look at this little turkey.  He took two steps yesterday.  Itty bitty steps but it won't be long.

I'm cleaning out  my last closet of unpacked boxes.  It holds mostly books, knick-knacks and art.  I am in the process of framing our art from all our world travels.  I'm going to create a little gallery in the sitting room off the kitchen.  Here are a few pieces I've framed.

This was before I stretched these two paintings.

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Here we are playing in the backyard on one of the cooler days.

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Where does this boy get his chubby cheeks?  He still only eats formula, baby food and the occasional puff.  Curious what the pediatrician tells me tomorrow. 

Both my girls love to color.

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Reese, our little actress, likes to make this face when she is unhappy about something.  Don't remember what she was upset about.  And that's Kaitlyn (KK) holding her.  Don't know what we'd do without KK.  I LIVE for Tuesdays when she spends the day here.  I get SOOOOOOO much done.

And the "Mother of the Year" award goes to...

someone else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Wes just told me (at 5:00 pm) that it was Drake's birthday today.  What??????  How do I forget my son's first birthday??????  I mean totally and completely forgot.  Seriously, I can't remember ANYTHING these days.  We've been planning on celebrating Drake's bday when Steve and Lynda come in town but I really can't believe I forgot today was the real day.  Sorry Drake!!!  Happy Birthday to the sweetest, happiest, cutest little boy on the planet.  So glad you are mine:)

Any-hoo, I met up with Kara Howard (know her from Blacksburg college days) for breakfast this morning.  Stella was at school so we took Drake and Reese to Pump It Up, a bounce house.  Reese had a blast.  Her favorite part was the slide, which is super, duper fast!!  I'm surprised she wasn't scared.  But she did it again and again and again.

 

Drake hung out on his car while Reese ran around.



And here is Reese when it was time to leave.



Stella and I enjoyed a fun game of chase when we got home.



And she did some singing.

Brrrrrr

It's cold outside!!!!  Luckily, it warmed up a little today and we got the kids outside.  But the rest of the week was cold and rainy.  Blah.  Wes told me it's going to get down in the 30's this week.  Not my favorite.   We still haven't put a fire in the fireplace.  Maybe in the next few days.  I need to go buy S'mores supplies:)

Reese just cracks me up.  She is such a copycat.  From time to time, I will tell her "wait a minute" when she asks for something.  She has decided to turn the tables on me.  Every time I ask her to do something, she holds up 3 fingers and says "3 more minutes."  I say "no, right now."  She says "one more minute."  She is going to be in sales like her daddy.  Constantly bargaining.  Here is a cute video of her.

And here are her animal sounds.

Drake is able to hold his own with his big sisters.  He looooooooves bath time.  Can you tell?

 

Some cute pics.

Reese loves to read.

And watch Dora.  Don't mind Stella dancing on the kitchen table on the background.  No big deal.  Did you notice the mini recliner Reese is sitting in?  Wes snagged that at Cost-Co and the girls love it.  Super cute.

 

This is random....we've noticed that people are decorating trees for x-mas on a stretch of highway near our house.  Today, I counted 6 trees decorated.  We drove by a middle-aged couple decorating a tree today and I wanted to pull over and ask them why they are doing it.  Talk about getting in the holiday spirit a little early!!!  Bizarre.  

 

catching up on videos

Not much news from here.  Took a cute video of Stella today.  You can see her trying to get some words out at the beginning of the video.  She's making progress!!!

Reese talks more every day, if that's possible.  I will try and capture a video of her.  Here are a few things she says that crack me up.  When something good happens (like getting a popsicle) she says "Yay, Woo-Hoo!!"  She loves butterflies, but calls them "butt-fries."  If you offer her something she wants, she says "O-kaaaaaay."  Quite the cutie.  I do have a video of her singing Do-Re-Mi.

 

And here is a video of all 3 kiddos in the playroom, each doing their own thing.

And another video of all 3 of them. Not sure why Stella is kissing the legs of the table. But Reese thinks it's a good idea.

 

And one more video of playroom shenanigans.

Here is a video of Drake playing with cars.

Still waiting for Drake to take his first steps.  He loves standing up so I have a feeling it's just around the corner.  

E-I-E-I-OHHHHHHHHHHHH

Stella treated our Sunday morning meeting to her animal sounds during a loud rendition of Old MacDonald.  Very loud.  She was quiet for the first 15 minutes before she started singing.  Then she wouldn't stop.  Sigh.

We've had a nice weekend.  The weather has been GORGEOUS and we've been outside a lot.  Drake learned to go down the slide.  

And he loves wearing Daddy's hat.

Wes just ran to get some firewood.  Excited to have our first fire in our new home.  As long as it stays in the fireplace.  Speaking of fires, I don't think I shared what happened last time we were out of town.  Lynda was here watching the kids when all the smoke detectors went off at 2:00 in the morning.   UGH!!!!  We have the worst luck with smoke detectors - this happened in our Houston house a couple of times.  I just hate that the first time it happened here, it happened to Lynda.  She called Wes and he guided her to the breaker box in the garage, where she shut them off.  And they are still off.  I asked my electrician what to do and he said we have one bad detector and since they are all connected, they all go off.  And there is no way to tell which one is bad.  Really??????  He suggested replacing them all.  I have an idea of which one is bad - it kept chirping when I replaced all the batteries when we moved in. I think I'll replace it and see what happens.  Fingers crossed they don't go off when Wes is out of town. Which brings me to my next story.  Wes was out of town this past week when I awoke to the sound of a different alarm coming from the garage.  I ran out there to discover a flashing red light on a septic tank alarm system located right next to the ceiling.   I called Wes because I remembered the previous homeowner telling us this alarm goes off during heavy rain, which was the case.   Wes said the only way to turn it off was at the septic alarm.  So I found myself dragging out the 8 foot ladder and standing on my tippy toes to reach the alarm.  WHY does this stuff only happen when Wes is gone?????  

Happy Halloween

The girls still fit in their bumblebee costumes from last year so that was easy!   I crammed Drake into a pumpkin pajama suit.  Then we headed to the neighbor's house.  There are only 7 or 8 young couples in our neighborhood so it was nice to meet everyone at one place.  Here are the pics I got.  The girls were more interested in the toy car than anything else.

I took these pictures the other night before bedtime.  The kids were watching an episode of Dora and they actually let me comb their hair.  Cutie pies.

I forgot to show you the latest update to Stella's room/playroom.  Lynda took the chair and pillows back to Houston for a re-do.  Wish I had a before picture.  Dark brown seat cushion and maroon pillows = dark and ugly.  Now it's beautiful!!!!

I need to do another video tour of Stella's room.  It's looking good!!

I am having fun playing with the slow motion feature on my new phone.  I have watched this video of Drake a hundred times today.  He HATES eating solid food.  He still gags as soon as I put something on his tray.  Here I am trying to get him to eat a puff.  Not much luck.

Nighty-night!!!