O Christmas tree

Each year we get a real tree, it usually comes from a typical nursery but as soon as a neighbor told me about fairly close tree farm where we could cut our own tree, I was sold.  So just a few days after Thanksgiving, we packed up and headed west to Dewberry Farms.  I knew of Dewberry Farms but none of us had been before. (We def want to try the pumpkin patch next fall!) 

We had a great time!  (Riley was a little off at first but after snack and lunch she was back to her normal self.)  First thing was a fun little train ride to the tree area.  We found the perfect tree and then off we were to enjoy some of the old school fun while the wonderful workers at Dewberry got our tree ready to go home with us.








The tree! :)



Riley's favorite part is probably a toss up between the massive slide and the bounce pillow.  She asks every so often out of the blue when she can go back to the big big big slide.






Not sure these pictures do Slide Mountain justice, it was pretty tall and I just thought for sure Riley would not like it at all.  But she loved it and wanted to ride over and over.  We just lucked out that it was pretty empty while we were riding.  The sweet worker let Clay or I ride with her each time.  I think we had just as much fun as she did!








Rope swinging







So while we had a BLAST picking out our tree and enjoying the fun rides and swings and cool playset, we will likely NOT be cutting down our own tree next year.

Yep, our beautiful tree died an early, crispy, needleless (they all fell on my floor) death like two weeks after we got it.  :(  Boo.  We have never had one of our real trees die so quickly, they have always been going strong until New Year's Day at least.  This year I could not even turn on the tree lights the two weeks before Christmas for fear of burning our house to the ground.  And someone (no names) was not going to spend any more $ on a tree. Hint it wasn't me.  I was already to hang up the towel and find me a nice fake tree or "mommy, mrs. w calls it an artifishul"  :)

Oh and you should have seen the piles of needles anytime Scout's tail got near that tree...it was fun.

Sister love

Catching up...again. :)
From November:










Riley loves to help wake Reese up!




Sweet Daddy

9 months old!

9 months is such a fun age!  Reese's personality is really starting to show more and more.  She is such a sweet sweet baby.  She is mostly happy but if she has not had her naps...watch out! (Hahaha...so I just looked to see what I wrote last month about Reese and it was this almost word for word.) 
But it is so true- Reese is a sweetheart. 


Reese has really started getting attached to her daddy.  Clay and I both love this.  It is so sweet to see her look and reach for him, get excited when he comes home, and snuggle him. 
In fact, while we were at my parents for Christmas Clay and I went to the store.  When we came back Reese was scooting so fast toward me and I reached down to pick her up only to have her haul her tiny self right past me to Clay. 
She is still very into Riley and what Riley does but has become more independent lately.  She will play on her own for a few short minutes now. 




Reese is still taking two naps.  Both are usually good naps - anywhere from an hour and 15 mins to 2.5 hours.  She dives for the bed around 7 and does not like to be kept up past then.  She has only slept through the night a few times.  If she is not teething she sleeps like a champ but unfortunately she teeths for like 3 weeks per tooth and it seem like as soon as one comes another starts to come.

hey...


We had her 9 month well check a few weeks ago, she looked great except for the double ear infection she had (Riley had a double ear infection too!!! :( ) Clay and I had NO idea, but Reese did sleep some better after starting her medicine. 
Her stats:
weight - 17lbs 15.5 oz  (25%)
height - 28.25" (62.6%)
head circumference - 17 " (20%)





Some things Reese is up to this month:

-Went from army crawling to crawling on her knees
-Still babbles some and she loves to make these donald duck type sounds...they are hysterical
-Eats so well.  Peas, pears, sweet pot, hummus, she will pretty much try whatever we are eating
-She loves to hand things to people now.  Her favorite game right now is pass the toy.  She will go back and forth with me for minutes at a time.  :)
-Reese now responds to her name



Crawling

Reese, 8 months old!

Well this past month has just flown by.  I feel like I say this all the time and all the time it is true.
I was super determined to take Reese's 8 month pictures while she was still 8 months.  So today, one day before she turns 9 months, we took her pics!  :)  Lucky for both of us, she was in a great mood and was very playful. She was super active and this made for some silly photos. :)



check out that long hair in the back :)

Reese is such a sweet baby, and her personality is starting to show more and more.  She can be pretty content, she can also be very particular and she can swing from one to another in the matter of a second.  She still loves her momma and pretty much all is right when I'm around.  I love this!!  She has been really interested in anything and everything Riley does lately.  This has resulted in some fun tug-o-war sessions (Reese is very strong and almost won out a few times :)  She has taken an interest in Scout lately as well, he does not particularly love this especially when she goes for the paws. 




Here are some things she is up to this month:
-Still army crawling all over but also crawls on her knees several times a day (usually just a few steps)
-Loves to eat and will eat just about anything placed on her tray.  Her new favorites are tilapia and brocolli but she still loves carrots, sweet potato, and her all time favorite is pear.  Girl can eat an entire huge pear (cut up) for breakfast. 
-Reese babbles a ton more, she has been focusing on the bah buh and nah sounds lately.  She has said her first word.  Momma.  I'll post about that another time.  <3 p="p">-She still takes 2 naps, and nurses about every 3 hours.
-She sleeps from 7pm-7:30am and wakes 1-2 times a night
-Oh and she now has 4 teeth!  Her front bottom two teeth and a week and a half ago she cut the top left tooth and yesterday she cut the top right.  As soon as she cut the top left tooth she went from waking 3-5 times to only 1-2 times a night.  Whew that was a tough 6 week battle.  Lets pray the other teeth aren't anything like this.






Silly girl!!


army crawl

Riley says

My big little girl says some big, big girl things. For awhile now I have recorded some of the hilarious things Riley says in my phone. If I don't write them down immediately I will forget.

Sidenote: I sometimes wonder if something is wrong with me. I mean I forget pretty much EVERYTHING all the time. Then I remember that I haven't slept much in the past several months. make that years. and then I don't feel like a CAT scan is as necessary.

Anyway, Riley cracks me up on a daily basis. Hourly really. She talks like such a little mini-me sometimes, it is seriously hilarious. But sometimes it's not. Like when she wants to do something and I say no or its not on her terms. R: "But I'm asking you nicely..." Yes, sweet Riley you are asking nicely. Ha!

Here are a few of my other favorites.

"Reese eats old food from your tummy" Hmmm. Breastfeeding redefined. :)

"Scout is a child of God too."

***"Daddy has on his big girl panties. Dora panties."

"Reese has Jesus in her heart." My heart exploded on that one.

Not on this one... "Your fingernails grow like worms. Small worms not big worms."

Riley was pulling at her ear. Me: Are your ears bothering you? R: "No, they were just crooked, but not anymore. I fixed them."

While listening to He's Got the Whole World in His Hands. "Jesus has lots of things in his hands."

After spending the morning at the park in August and eating a popsicle. "that popsicle was good, it made the hot day go away."

After bath with Clay she told me, "my bottom was making bubbles in the bathtub." HA!

She took a drink of my water bottle and spit water back in my bottle. "it was too full in my mouth so I just put a little back."

"Food and God growed me."

"Look at my face mommy. See how I'm standing on my eye?" She was trying to wink. ;)

To my mom, "Nana, sometimes I take secret bites before the blessing."

And my sadest, least favorite was when she threw up for the first time. She was so scared and didn't know what was going on. "I spit my throat out. I spit my throat out, Mommy."