hut, hut, hike

My cousin, Dru, was on the Campo Verde High School football team this year. Granted, they weren't too smart and didn't play him hardly at all during the season (he would have been awesome!), but we wanted to go show our support anyways. Luke is obsessed with football, so we thought this would a fun family outing. Reagan held still long enough for pictures. Luke was way too in to the game and his cousin Killian to even bother with looking in my direction.

Our sad attempts at a family picture. We really need to remember that you can't put the kids next to each other in pictures...and that Keith needs to keep his eyes open.

I'm glad that Luke had such a good time watching the football game. I can't wait until he gets a little older and starts to understand more of what's going on...or even plays!

go cards!

I feel like I had to say that considering the tickets we had were given to us for free. I can't really be angry at them for wasting my money when it wasn't my money that was wasted in the first place, right? This was the first time that I had been to the University of Phoenix Stadium (side note: ridiculous name) and its actually a beautiful stadium. I was really surprised and the ginormousness of it though. It is huge!

Keith had warned me on the way to the game that professional football crowds are much different compared to the college football crowds that I am accustomed to. I wasn't sure what he meant until we got there. Boy, are people different! We watched two different guys get removed by security multiple times. How do you get removed multiple times? I mean, they let you come back after the first time? And I'd never seen people fight with other people that are rooting for the same team. Talk about passionate about the game. Geez. You're here for the SAME team guys!

The Cards have had a rough year and they are really missing Kurt Warner. It wasn't really surprising to me that we lost this game, but it was something fun that I Keith and I were able to experience together. Thanks Keith for sticking it out and dodging fights with me!

birthday dinner

I'm going to play catch up today and try to get in as many posts that I skipped over this year before the new year rings in. Sorry these will be so random and all over the place!

As a way to celebrate my mom's birthday in November and to thank my parents for the fact that they gave us the Cardinal's tickets and that they watched the kids for us while we went to said Cardinal's game, Keith and I attempted to take them out to dinner. Things didn't go quite according to plan, but once we were settled, it all worked out for the best.

Luke refused to leave the house without his "Manny Construction Job" hat. If you haven't seen Handy Manny's Big Construction Job, Luke would say you're missing out.

Reagan cooperated for the most part. We haven't taken her to a restaurant since our trip to Sea World in June. I was nervous about how she would handle a restaurant environment, but she took it like a champ

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top 10 of 10

It is absolutely crazy to me that this is the last day of 2010. As a way to commemorate, I'd like to create a list of my top 10 favorite moments of 2010. We have had such an amazing year full of wonderful memories that although it will be difficult to narrow it down to just 10, but I'm going to try.

10. Being able to help photograph Luke and Andrea surprising their parents with Luke coming home was an honor. The look of sheer joy and amazement on Tom and Gail's faces is something I will cherish forever.

9. Although the Cardinals game was more of an "experience" than either Keith or I had bargained for, it was so nice to get to go do something together. Alone. Without kids. Since Luke and Reagan have arrived in our lives, we do like to spend most of our free time with them, but it is nice every once in awhile to remember that we were a couple first.

Check out this girl's extensions. She paid too much. I actually felt bad for her. She also had fake eyelashes, a bad fake tan, a load of make up, and some other fake body parts...if you know what I mean. I can only imagine what her self esteem must be like.

8. Joining Lifetime Fitness has been something that I've been able to do not only for myself, but for the kids as well. They are becoming much more social and more accustomed to not being around me 24/7. And I'm not going to lie. It's nice to feel like I'm at least making the attempt to get somewhere near my pre-baby body.

7. Getting the phone call that Andi and Andrew were engaged. Granted, the days following until they returned from Mexico were some of the absolute hardest days because I sooo wanted to start wedding planning with her, but that moment on my way to the gym when she called to tell me was priceless.

6. We were able to take Luke to his first movie in a real movie theater. Luke is obsessed with Toy Story, so when we went to see Toy Story 3, he was on his absolute best behavior. I think the dark also helped our cause because I think he might have been too afraid to move around too much.

5. Keith and I were blessed to welcome a niece, Miss Parker, and another nephew, Mr. Matthew.

4. Luke's first time meeting Reagan was more than I could have ever hoped for. He just kept repeating "Hi Baby!" over and over and you could tell he loved his baby sister already.

3. December 22, 2010: The first and only time that Reagan has managed to sleep a consecutive 12 hours like she's supposed to. And to be fair this was nearly my favorite moment of 2010, but since it only happened once, it gets the #3 spot.

2. Our family vacation to San Diego. It was our first real attempt at a vacation as a family of four, our first time to a theme park with the kids, our first time to a zoo, our first time to a restaurant with just the four of us. We also got to watch three fabulous ladies finish the Rock and Roll half marathon there. That trip was just an all-around happy momma moment for me.

1. The birth of our daughter, Reagan Rose. It was a genuinely enjoyable labor and delivery and we were given the most perfect baby. Reagan's birth is far and away our best memory of 2010.

 

Honorable Mention: I do have to add in Kirk and Brittany's wedding to this mix of memories. Their wedding was so much fun. The photo booth,  great friends, and the little spat over Keith's inappropriate dancing behavior with a much older woman and her significant other definitely made for an unforgettable night.

Here's hoping that 2011 will be just as fabulous as 2010 was!

poo problems

I'm just going to warn you up front: if you don't want to read about poo, don't read this. If you really couldn't care less about what Reagan and I are currently facing, don't read this. And if you are squeamish, I wouldn't read this either. It's just too bad that I'm the squeamish one...

Reagan's diarrhea situation doesn't seem to be improving at all. Poor girl had wicked poo for two weeks before the doctor told us to put her on the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast/carbs + yogurt). Since that time, she's really only eaten bananas, yogurt, and a load of cookies because she basically refuses anything else on the BRAT diet. She'll readily gobble down other baby foods that she had no issue with before, but it a move we've learned not to make. Those other foods caused Keith and my mom to have to scrub Reagan and clean her sheets and clothing on Christmas morning. Not good.

Now two weeks in to this adjusted diet and seeing no real progress in her tummy situation, I contacted her pediatrician today. They were concerned enough to have me bring her in today. Her heart and lungs sound fine. Her eyes, ears, and mouth look good. Her behavior isn't anything out of the ordinary; like I told the doctor, she is her normal "princess" self. He suggested getting a stool sample. Sounds simple right? Not so much.

So I walk into the lab place and when I request the kit, the girl literally laughs out loud when I explain that this is for my 11 month old daughter. She hands me a Target-sized plastic bag filled with vials and slides and instructions and plastic gloves. What the heck am I going to be doing with rubber gloves?!? Turns out that I have to collect Reagan's poo over the course of the next three days. They need two room-temperature vials of poo from the first two days in addition to the slide smears on both of those days. On the third day I have to fill four vials in addition to the two smears: three room-temperature and one refrigerated.

Really. Really? I'm having her checked due to diarrhea. How am I supposed to get enough poo to accomplish this task? Luckily her poo this afternoon wasn't watery like it had been in the past few weeks. Still completely disgusting, but manageable for the poo recovery. I really felt like some mad scientist today extracting "stool samples" from Reagan's diaper. When I signed on to this whole Mom business, this isn't quite what I had in mind. And how gross is it that I'm going to have to store her poo in our refrigerator? Yuck.

To end on a positive note, I would like to give myself a small pat on the back for not gagging too much through this whole ordeal. I consider it a success that Reagan hasn't been vomited on by now. And she has taken all this like a champ. She has been patient when I need to take a breather and is always there smiling back at me. That smile makes every second of this disgustingness worth it.

you tell me...

So its no secret that Luke doesn't really resemble me. His genetic make-up may be half mine, but his looks basically all derive from his father and I'm completely okay with that. When we found out that our second baby was going to be a girl, I was secretly wishing and hoping that Reagan might get more of my looks. I've always had this crazy notion that I would have this dark, curly-haired baby girl with big brown eyes running around. These are pictures of me from 10months to 12 months old.

I have to love the pictures of my dad before he became our hairless wonder.

And now some recent pictures of Reagan. What do you think?

christmas night

We wanted to end our Christmas day doing something with just our little family, so we decided to take the kids on a walk around the neighborhood to look at the lights. They both get such a kick out of looking at the lights and sitting in the wagon. There is one house around the corner from us that has their lights cued up to music. This is them watching and Luke "listening."

I wanted to get a good picture of them together in front of lights. This gets to be very tricky at night. The first picture is with the flash so you can see their faces. The second is without and they are blurry. Oh well, at least I tried.

I love the kids and our little family. We had an amazing day celebrating Jesus' birth and I feel so blessed that I get to spend such a joyous day with them.

christmas day

On Christmas morning, we woke the kids up at 8am to see what Santa had brought. We've started the tradition since the kids have been born that we invite our families over Christmas morning to open gifts with us and then we share a yummy breakfast. This year did not disappoint. It may be chaos on Christmas morning, but we love the we get to share the joy of the holiday with our families. In the afternoon, we headed over to my cousin Kate's home for our traditional family get-together.

The phone is for you.

Just before the family showed up, we hear this crazy knocking on our door and ringing of our doorbell. Andi and Andrew had stopped by to see us on Christmas! I was so excited they came by because they're heading out to visit Andrew's family in Wisconsin, so we won't get a chance to see them for the next few days. Reagan sat still for the picture, but Luke couldn't be bothered. He was showing them all the goodness of the new kitchen and play food.

The phone is still for you.

 

Get it open Daddy! Faster!

Reagan loves a baby...

...but not opening more gifts. She's done and this is three gifts in.

Keith was obviously not super thrilled to be putting Reagan's stroller together.

Reagan is super excited to walk along with her stroller though. She gets so happy as she's pushing it along.

Pop Pop (while he's still awake) and Luke

Parker get s a turn.

Aunt Beth and Reagan (please notice the now-sleeping Pop Pop. He snores loud!)

A little sibling love.