Reese (8mo & 9mo pix) updates!

Here are some pictures of Reese on December 18th at 9 months old! She has been up to a lot these past few weeks. She got a second tooth around the beginning of the month. She has mastered army crawling and gets across a room quicker than anyone in the army (I think so anyways, maybe I am just getting slower)! In the past week she has begun to crawl on all 4's but isn't quite as quick and will go to army crawling if she just can't move fast enough. She has been waving "hi" and "goodbye"! She copies you with all sounds (mama, dada, blah, blah), faces, grunts, "fake coughing", etc.! She will raise at least one hand above her head when you say, "how big is Reese?" She is pulling herself up on everything and walking along the couch after she pulls herself up. Lord, help us, she's moving lots earlier than the other two. And, she KNOWS exactly what she shouldn't be getting into and sticks everything in her mouth. Christmas Eve while everyone was unwrapping gifts, paper was going everywhere and she started coughing, in which I pulled a folded up piece of tape out of her mouth. She will look at you and give you the biggest smile when you tell her "no" (unless she nibbles while nursing, that "no" scares her............)! She loves electrical outlets (something the other two never really paid much attention to). She LOVES her sisters and they can get her to laugh instantly. She is a big hugger, and when you say, "give hugs and kisses", you will get a big wet one and the most tightest hug you've ever gotten from a baby, not kidding. She is just the love of all 4 of our lives, the apple of all of our eyes and puts a smile on our face no matter what! What can I say, the 4 of us love our Reese's to pieces!!

These are pictures of Reese that I took on her 8 month "birthday"!! This first one is my favorite and captures the smile we see constantly on this little angel's face! This one I got the lighting just right to capture her beautiful eyes. Here they look blue, but at times Jason and I see a green tint to them:

My little Rees"ey" Pie (sweetie pie):

Feathers are the "in" thing:

December Happenings

It did snow the beginning of December and the girls got to go play in it as it was pretty nice temperatures.

Then the snow started to melt and one fine day, Jason and the girls used all the snow we had in the yard to make this snowman. In a flash, he was gone. I wanted a white Christmas, but that definitely didn't happen this year. But, at least it's been beautiful and hopefully that means one less month of the white stuff this winter.

Ryleigh had her Kindergarten Christmas Program at School last week! She is the 10th one in the front row. The little girl that is 9th is her friend Natalie. It was hilarious when they opened the curtain and there the two of them were next to each other in the exact same dress with a little different color red. I did have to tell Natalies mom what good taste she had. Of course, Ryleigh's dress was a hand-me-down. Natalie is the one who has some miniature ponies that Ryleigh got to go see one day after school and feed them. Ryleigh did really good at her program. She sang really good and even louder when she spotted us. It was lots of fun!

A Santa Story!

So, Jason and I took the girls to see Santa early this year. We went before Thanksgiving, which always seems to be a no-no in my book. I like celebrating one holiday at a time and none before another holiday is over. This year, however, I thought it would be good to get it out of the way, get that picture for the special calendars we make for the grandparents and not have to worry. Well, it was a good thing we did it because December went by way to fast and most of it, I felt like I was sick and then slowly recovering from being sick. So, it goes like this. I got an email that Santa was going to be at the mall at 9 am on his first day (the 19th of Nov). Perfect, I thought! There won't be a line because the mall doesn't open until 10 am, we can get there before the crowds and rush, right? Well, we got the girls there at 9:15, promised them doughnuts if they were good and took a picture with Santa, but no Santa was to be found. The sign said he was going to be there at 10:00am. WHAT??? I promised Jason he was supposed to be there at 9. So, we ventured to the only open store (Target), got the girls milk and doughnuts and headed back to stand in line to see Santa at 10. We were the first ones in line, also, by the way......BONUS, you say??? Nope, to that in a second! So, we are sitting there eating our breakfast, when who should appear, but Mrs. Claus. We talked with her and learned that Santa had been at the food court since 9 am, you can almost see me look at Jason here and be like, "See, I wasn't losing my mind!" By this time it was about 9:55 and one of his elves, who's running the show runs to see how much longer he's going to be, she comes back to tell us another 15 minutes and then runs to Target to get crayons for the coloring books he's going to hand out (which at this time, we already have 2 that the girls are thumbing through). All of my ideas to get Landree to take a picture with Santa, start to fade. (doughnuts, something special from Santa......ahhhhh)! Finally, Santa comes walking from the food court! Ryleigh runs up to him, hugs him and won't give him one minute to get to his chair. Landree runs the opposite way when she sees him and starts crying! By this time, there is a line starting to form. The Elf running the show, still isn't back from Target with crayons. The other elf, doesn't know what she's doing. All I want is a picture with the 3 of them with Santa after Ryleigh tells him what she wants. Elf #2 tries to take a few photos (all of which have Landree screaming, Ryleigh smiling and Reese just sitting on his lap doing nothing). What do you know, the camera isn't working. Elf #1 finally gets back, works on the camera. In the meantime, people have been waiting to see Santa for almost 40 minutes now, and my daughter is hogging his lap. ALL I WANT IS A PICTURE! So, I go get my camera (a no-no) and start snapping photos, trying to get Landree in the picture. Finally elf #1 gets the camera fixed, but they lost all of the photos taken, so we get to try again. This time, we get Landree next to Santa, a bit of a grin, but still acting deathly afraid of the man in the big red suit. We get a couple of photos. So, I learned my lessen. DON'T go to see Santa on his first day. He's late, the camera doesn't work, the computer to pay for the pictures doesn't work, the list goes on. The only good thing out of the whole chaotic mess, elf #2 told us there was a coupon for $3 off a package. She messed up though, there was no coupon. Jason stayed to pay while I went to feed a fussy Reese in the car. They gave him the $3 off the package, I think to just get rid of us, since we had been there since 9:15 and it was now 10:45! I think the picture turned out pretty good, despite the above mess! You can definitely tell, who LOVES Santa, who is afraid of him and who could really care less!! And, the funniest thing. All of December, when we'd tell the girls to be good and that Santa was watching, Landree would cry, "me no like Santa!" Finally one night we had a little heart to heart while she was crying in bed. L: "Is Santa in the house?" Me: "no", L: "but Santa watching?", Me: "yes", L: "me no like Santa". Me: ":why not, he brings good little girls toys on Christmas Eve!" L: " is he outside the window", Me: "no" (I had to open the blinds for her and show her the neighborhood to make sure Santa wasn't looking in). Finally on Christmas day, after Santa came, she says, "I like Santa!" Silly girl!

December Birthday's!

So, I missed some while away from my computer!?!?! Oh, how December flew by. First a big Happy 5th Birthday went out to our niece, Havyn on December 6th! Then, Jason's cousin, Chris, welcomed a son on December 6th, Reed Quint! Then, my Grandma Mary had a birthday on December 9th! Then, my cousin Aaron and his wife welcomed a little girl into the world, Ayla Dinslage on December 19th! My cousin Cali, on the 20th and good friend Rachel! Then, of course my little Landree Lou on the 21st (which is the only one I got on the blog and with pictures and on time)! Then, Jason's brother, Jeremy turned 30 on the 22nd! Then Emeryn, our other niece, turned 3 on the 23rd! HOLY COW! So, a big Happy Birthday to all the above mentioned peeps, sorry I am late on a blog entry! Hopefully, I didn't miss any!

Happy Birthday Landree Lou!!

Today, our little miss Lou turned 3! I can't believe 3 years has gone by since this most beautiful and precious little girl entered our lives. We had a little party for her last Saturday with some of her friends, grandparents and Godparents. She had fun, was a little shy while we sang to her, but overall, had a great time. Today, she has been all smiles with all the phone calls she got. I love when she talks on the phone, she shakes her head yes or no to the questions she is being asked, but won't say the words. She also kissed the phone with each phone call she received and sang happy birthday to herself! Here she is with her cake on Saturday. There are 3 pictures, they all show a different face, I couldn't pick a favorite!

I didn't want to do any other posts today, as it is Landree's special day, so lots more to come when I get another minute!

November

Today is my day off. I am feeling better after being knocked on my butt with whatever illness hit our household, that started almost two weeks ago now, but a total of 7 days for this mama. NOT COOL. Anyways, I've had so many things to blog about and so little time, so maybe I'll knock out November quick, then slowly work into December and then hopefully stay caught up. So, what did November bring (with where I left off), here goes:
Miss Reese turned 8 months old on the 18th. I have pictures. Along with that came her first tooth on the 20th. You wouldn't know it, she's still such a happy little girl. She likes to stand up holding onto the couch and we had to lower her mattress in her crib because she had been found kneeling with her head leaning over the rail, which might have meant a nose dive into the carpet if we wouldn't have done that. We also visited Santa and that is a funny story meant for it's own blog post, so more to come on that! I took some photos for family friends of ours and then some more family photos of the Quint Family. Hopefully some of them turned out, as I think they don't look anything compared to my good friend, Ana's work. We celebrated Thanksgiving twice, my parents came over Thanksgiving Eve and we had Thanksgiving dinner with them, then they headed back home and we headed to Northfield where we spent the next four days with Jason's family celebrating our 2nd Thanksgiving and our 1st Christmas celebration. It was a very good time and much needed since it had been 4 years since the siblings have all been together. Last time we were all together, Ryleigh and Havyn were the only grandchildren. Now there are 7 of them so it was quite entertaining to have all the "grandchildren" together and interact! I held my first book club hosting and it went well. The next day I was ill with another nasty cold for the weekend. Ryleigh also told me the next morning, after holding her pointer finger and thumb nearly together, "I was this close to coming down there and telling you and your friends to be quiet, that we were trying to go to sleep"! Thankfully she didn't repeat any new words she might have heard because there was quite the adult conversation going on. Then, besides a bunch of Christmas shopping I got done in November, the only other thing that happened was that I turned 32. Nothing special about that since I still wasn't quite feeling well from the cold I had. Jason asked if I wanted to go out to eat or stay home. I didn't want to waste our money on something I couldn't "taste" very well, so we stayed home. Him and the girls got me a hair cut, color and style and made me some no bake cookies. Yummy. And, another good birthday spent with the ones I love. OH, and mom and I also went out for my birthday, shopping and for lunch! Thanks mom!