May 2010

Christmas this year melted my heart. I mean into mush. Over and over again. I was overflowing with JOY watching my children get LOVED on by ALL of their family members, remembering and telling my girls the true meaning of Christmas, getting excited about presents (even the paper and boxes!), and just smiling and giggling over new toys and great company. We had a fabulous Christmas and feel so blessed.

Christmas Eve: It snowed!!!

Christmas morning:

Christmas afternoon with Richey’s fam:

Christmas with my fam:

How blessed we are!

The girls are doing great- growing and growing.  I often can’t believe my eyes!  Our biggest news around here is…. at 13 months 3 weeks and 3 days, (last week) Riley Grace started crawling!!  Hooray!  We are so proud of her!  Now, though, my LIFE HAS CHANGED.  I’m even more exhausted by the end of the day than I used to be!  But what an answered prayer.

This is a little late, but here are/were the girls’ stats at their 1 year appointment:

Reesey

length: 29 3/4 in  (75%)

weight: 20 lbs 3 oz (25-50%)

Head 17 3/4 in (50%)

Ri

length: 28 in (10-25%)

weight: 17 lbs 7 oz (5%)

head: 17 in (5-10%)

There’s a 3 POUND difference between the girls!  I wonder if Riley will catch up or if there will always be a size difference?!  This is what they’ve been up to the past couple months (They are 14 months old now!):

Reese

We’ve turned her car seat forward and she really enjoys it.  She’s just nearly walking!  She stands by herself all the time, cruises along everything, loves her ‘walker scooter’, and is becoming more and more like a toddler!  Reese is hilarious- loves to laugh (she has a ‘fake laugh’ for attention too!), makes a “silly face” where she wrinkles her nose and sniffs!, loves to be upside down, loves to climb, and is a curious little girl that’s in to everything– including opening cabinets, the potty, swinging doors open and closed.  She’s saying: Mama, Dada, bye bye (and waves!), baby, thank you (dank uuu), more (muh), dog (dah), milk (mi), me (when she wants something)… I think that’s all.  Some of her favorite things: Leap Frog stuffed animal that sings the ABCs (she’s in love!), her paci, and her pappy (blanket)- well two actually- one for each hand.  She’s working on her 7th and 8th tooth (one’s a molar- ouch!), the girl loves to eat, and loves to sleep too.  Reese is an absolute JoY to our family- and everyone she meets!

Riley Grace

Riley’s very proud of herself now that she’s crawling and she is SO happy to finally be on the move!  She’ll crawl and giggle, crawl and giggle, just about all day long!  She’s not quite 20 lbs yet, so we haven’t turned her car seat around yet, but she doesn’t mind.  She has a good view of Reese, so there’s lots of giggles in the car.  Riley is soooo ticklish- it cracks her up.  She loves playing with Cali (our dog), she also does the “silly face,” makes friends with everyone everywhere (even more than Reese), and this little girl LOVES balls!  She loves to throw them and crawl after them- endless entertainment and laughter for little Riley!  She has two teeth and seems to be working on some more.  She is saying: Mama, Dada, ball (bah), more (muh)– she also does the sign for more, dog (dah), bye (and waves), and Pop.  Some of her favorites: balls, and her pappy (blanket).  She is also a great eater and sleeper!  She is SO precious to us!

Here are a few pics from  the past couple months including Halloween:

On September 4, Reese Abigail and Riley Grace turned ONE!  We had a little party last Saturday and had SO much fun!  Here are some pics!

The girls LOVED their cake (especially Riley!!) and were spoiled rotten with new toys.  What two precious blessings these girls are to us!  Still can’t believe they’re one.  

“What’s it going to be like when we’re ONE on Friday?  Hmmm….”

I just L-O-V-E these girls AND their baby blues!

riley grace

reese abigail

1st birthday countdown: 10 days!!!!!!

Riley is getting her FIRST tooth– WOOO HOOO!  She’s eating all ‘table food’ now, feeding herself and mastering her straw sippy cup… now we just need her to hold it herself.  She’s not crawling yet, but has been doing GREAT rocking on her hands and knees!  She’s as sweet and silly as ever- always cracking me up with her dancing, squealing, serious conversations (her fav word is Dada.  She also says Mama), and giggles.  

See the tooth coming through?  (bottom right- her right!)

Riley’s new ‘kicks!’

working on holding her sippy cup!

Reese is pulling up with ease and the little dare devil has been letting go of what she’s been holding onto for a few seconds!  She is starting to “cruise” a bit along the couch too.  She has 4 and 2 halves teeth and they make her look like SUCH a big girl!  She’s getting a bit of hair now.  She laughs and smiles ALL the time to anyone in her path.  She also has learned to wave and does it all the time- it cracks me up!  Her latest favorite word is: Mama, which I LOVE!  She also says Dada, muh (for more), and duh ( for dog), and Mum Mum (for her favorite snack)!

look at that hair (kind of!) AND her new shoes!

I LOVE this pic of REese and Pop!

Love this pic of Reese with her friends and sis- she’s waving at me!

The girls are in LOVE with each other which melts my heart- they just laugh back and forth and get SO excited to see the other one.  What a blessing they are!

18 days til Reese and Riley’s 1st birthday!

Reese and Riley are nearly 11 months old… I’ve been getting a bit emotional as their first birthday is approaching!  My emotions were in full swing last weekend when we went to the NICU Reunion!  What an awesome day- to see the amazing nurses and doctor that took such good care of my preemies.  I loved showing off how BIG, silly, and healthy they are now.  I can’t stop thanking God for his goodness- his healing, and faithfulness.  Here are a couple pics… It’ll be fun next year when the girls can participate more in the fun- ohhhhh- they’ll love it! (I should have taken more pics!)

(This is a picture of a picture!)  This  was our souvenir from the Reunion!

We’re here- yippee!

Reese with Nurse Hannah!

Riley with Nurse Pattie

Reese and Riley with Nurse Pattie!!

We’ve been staying busy lately, but have been back in town after our little weekend getaways the past several weeks (Houston, 4th of July in Horseshoe Bay, Wedding in Wimberly).  We’ve been seeing friends, running errands, and playing lots at home.  I love watching them play these days.   They are really studying things and exploring.  Reese is pulling up and climbing with ease and is very proud of herself!  Riley’s still content watching, but is making strides as well… when on her tummy she is rocking, when on her bottom she is bouncing, she can roll both ways (finally)– I think she’s wanting to move.  Motivation is the key!  Reese is eating all “table food,” as she made it clear to me after spitting out her baby food over and over that she would like to please make the full transition rather than partial to big people food.  Her favs are bananas, avocados, and cheese.  She’s working on her 5th AND 6th tooth- WOW.  Riley is still my sweet toothless wonder.  She, too, is loving some “table food,” but is still eating some pureed (chunky though ) food too- like with meats and things.  Still hard for her to chew (with NO teeth).  Her favs are bananas and carrots (really soft ones:) ).Reese having black beans- she was quite pleased (and a MESS)!

This is Riley’s new picture face- ha ha!

Big girl!!

Riley bouncing- and making her picture face “Cheeeeeeeese!”

sweet babies playing

I’ve been thinking about their 1st birthday party (we’re just going to do small with the fam) and have decided hot pink, zebra print, and tutus is the way to go- you’re only 1 once! ha!  Here are some ideas/inspirations:

I hope to get the girls’ 1 year pics done in Sept/end of August- that will be fun!  But… it’s getting harder and harder to get Reese to be still long enough for a pic and for both girls to look at the camera.  I’m sure our photographer has somethings up her sleeves though!  

I’m going to make the girls’ tutus, bows, invitations, and a few decorations and things for their party, so we’ll see how it goes… pics to come!  I have over a month, so that’s good!

Has it really been over a month since I’ve updated?!  Well the girls are 10 months old now (WOW).  Things have felt a bit crazy (when do they NOT??) lately because for the past few weeks, Reese has been CRAWLING!  She’s totally keeping me on my toes and crawling circles around Riley as she just contently sits and giggles.  The OT and pedi. say Riley has all the strength to crawl– just not the motivation yet! ha!   She’s my lazy girl- probably gets that from me- ha ha!  The girls latest stats (at 9 1/2 months):

Reese:

17.13 lbs

28 1/2 inches long

16 in head

She’s reaching all her milestones and is SO strong!  She’s been pulling up to her knees and with a tiny bit of help- to her feet.  She likes to “walk” with me– really it’s me moving/helping her, but she gets very proud of herself!  She says: Mama and Dada and loves “singing” as we call it.  She is in love with food- will eat any pureed food (even meat- yuck), loves Gerber puffs, avocados, bananas, and crackers (and can pick them up herself!).  She can even hold her bottle herself (LIFE changing for me, I tell ya!).  I’m going to start more table food with her.  Reese is a HOOT!  She is busy busy busy and loves to laugh and even… pick on her (nonmobile) sister.  

Riley:

16.8 lbs

26 3/4 inches long

16 in head

Riley is strong- has full range in motion in her neck (HUGE for her!) and everywhere else for that matter.  She is sitting well, rolling over to her tummy (won’t roll back…), and LOVES to dance.  When we tell her to dance, she bounces where she’s sitting and squeals and smiles!  She also loves the bouncer and has started shaking her head “no.”  Hilarious!  Don’t think she knows quite what it means, but she seems to do it at the most opportune times.  She is such a ham now- wants EVERY ONE’s attention and is so funny.  She talks non-stop– literally all day long.  Her fav is: Dada.  Once she gets over her stubborn ways and gets some motivation when she’s good and ready, I’m sure she’ll take off like her sis.  She has no teeth yet, but loves to eat her baby food and loves Gerber puffs, but I have to break them in half AND place them in her mouth… like I said, stubborn/high maintenance! ha!  She’s not quite ready for all the foods her sis is eating, but she’ll get there!  

We’ve been on a few “getaways” the past few weeks and it’s been GREAT.  In June the girls, my sister, nephew (18 months), my dog Cali, and I took a road trip for a week to visit my mom and dad (Nan and Pop).  We had SO much fun shopping, taking the kids to the splash park, and playing.  It was so relaxing and a great getaway (even though we missed Daddy).  A few pics:

on a ride at the mall!

going to the splash pad (don’t they look excited??  they really did have fun, promise!)

Pop and Riley after bathtime

Reese loves giving Nan kisses

The last weekend in June, my PRECIOUS friend, Susan, took me on a getaway from the girls– full of surprises!  It was hard to leave them, but I did just fine once all the fun began!  All she told me was I was going to San Antonio.  But… really first we stopped off in Marble Falls to meet her mom and sister for pedicures, dinner, and spent the night at her parent’s house.  The next morning we got ready and packed up to head to San Antonio and her mom and sister came with us!  We searched out The Cove for lunch (a hole in the wall seen on Diners, Dives, and Drive Inns on Food Network.  When we got there we were cracking up because it’s a laundry mat, a car wash, and a restaurant-ha!  When we walked in, I was SO confused… my mom and sister were there to meet us!!!  We all were in San Antonio to go see Wicked (Broadway Musical)!!!  I had been dying to see it!  We stayed on the Riverwalk, ate yummy food, saw Wicked, relaxed and laughed a lot (mostly at me… I’m easy to fool… I didn’t catch on to any of my surprises!).  LOVED Wicked and LOVED the weekend (We call it “Wicked Weekend”!).  What a blessing to have such a great friend that would organize and coordinate with my family a surprise weekend getaway for me, to rejuvenate and just have a break from my TWO babies.  I’m in love with my job as a mom, but goodness- it’s constant.  By the way, Richey survived (and Reese and Riley too!).  Tommy (Susan’s hubby) was here to help as well as my bro-in-law and Casen (nephew).  I did find out however, Richey left them in their pajamas all day… AND they ate lunch at a sports bar??? WHAT?!  Oh well.  It was one of my favorite weekends ever.

This last weekend, we headed to Horseshoe Bay for the 4th of July with some friends.  It was SO much fun!  The girls had a blast swimming and loved exploring a new place.

My festive babies!

Riley and her new friend, Fancy!

Reese airing out playing with Fancy… this was right before she pooped- yuck! ha!

my little fishies

pretty reesey

pretty riley grace

I’ll try to be better about updating!

My Reese and My Riley, you’re 9 months old now you see.

I know I keep saying this, but time’s really flying by for me!

Reese: you are crawling, well, backwards (that kinda counts- mom said!)

You also sit up… until you suddenly flail and bump your head.

You’re almost 18 pounds and grab everything in sight.

You are never still, so… changing your diaper is quite a fright.

You enjoy getting attention and with those bright eyes and smile- people’s hearts you do win-

To everyone we see, you flash those two teeth, giggle, and then grin!

Our heart melts when you cuddle with us, reach for our face, and “talk.”

You love to eat (that’s my girl), play, be outside, and go on walks.

Riley: you love tummy time, and with a little help, you will sit.

You love to giggle at your sister, pull Cali’s ears, and LOVE to spit.

You weigh almost as much as your sis does now and are just as talkative too!

Your sweet voice makes us smile as well as when you play “peek-a-boo!”

You have no teeth yet, but are drooling up a storm…

have a feeling that very soon we’ll see your very first tooth form.

You enjoy mirrors, feeling textures and bouncing, and girl, you go to town!

You sleep very well after playing so hard: all you need is your pappy and you “cluck” when set down.

Our girls, you are our joy, and a gift from above.

We thank our gracious Father for His abundant love!

Happy 9 month birthday, Riley Grace and Reese Abigail!  We love you a lot a lot.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy