Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Merry Christmas!!!

I can't believe Christmas week is here! We have been busy baking Christmas cookies, shopping, wrapping presents, reading Christmas books, and watching Christmas shows! We are so excited to celebrate the birth of Jesus with Reese this year! Here are a few pics of us preparing for our first Christmas with Reese!











Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Reese meets Santa Clause!

I could not WAIT to take Reese to meet Santa! She was in an awesome mood tonight so when Andrew got home from work we headed up to Firewheel to check out the setup. Sure it wasn't the most spectacular arrangement but there was only 1 person in front of us and Reese was continuing her good mood, so we went for it! We paid our obligatory $17 for two 5X7 pictures and got started! I got to take pics too since we were buying pics. Here is Andrew right after putting her down in Santa's lap. She just looked up at him like "Who are you!!!"


This one is so cute! The one we ended up buying looks similar to this but closer.


Now she is very distracted by the kids in line after us.


Now she is with her daddy! She did great! No tears! I wasn't really worried, since I hear that next year will be the year to worry about tears!


2009 vs 2010

What a difference a year makes!

2009


2010

8 months!

Reesie Girl you are 8 months old! That is 2/3 of a year! I cannot believe I will be planning a 1st birthday party for you in just 4 short months! I know it will be here before we know it! This past month feels like it went faster than any of the others. It was pretty eventful as you were sick for the first time, hosted your first playgroup and popped out 2 teeth! Alright, here are all the details of your 8th month...

(yes she is chewing on a cat collar in the pic below)

official pedi weight: 18 lbs 3 oz

diaper size: 3 (size 4 overnight @ night)

clothes: carters-9 mo; gap and old navy: 6-12 mos

teeth count: 2 bottom ones!

A huge highlight of this month was those teeth! I had a feeling they were going to pop through at any minute b/c bless your heart you were soooo fussy! And that is not your normal! On 11/14 we all went on a picnic and on the way back you fell asleep in the car. Until then you would not let me poke my finger in your mouth. So I poked my finger in your mouth when you fell asleep and there it was! Your first tooth! The bottom right one to be exact. On 11/23 the right one showed up! I sure do miss your gummy grins but those teeth are pretty cute!

Sadly you got sick for the first time this past month. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but we so glad to be past that! We both got texts from Tawny that you had a fever and weren't acting like yourself. Your daddy picked you up a little earlier than usual and took you home. By the time I got home you were burning up, vomiting, refusing your bottle, and very lethargic. All you wanted to do was lay on us, and that is not you! You are a girl on the go! Your temp was 101.7 so we called the pedi and gave you tylenol. You slept in our room for the first time in months. Throughout the night your temp stayed around 99.5 and we kept a close eye on you. To the pedi we went first thing in the morning. Turns out you had hand, food, and mouth disease complete with ulcers in your throat!!!! Poor little thing. I stayed home with you the rest of the week and within a few days we had our happy girl back. We also think you had a very mild form of the croup that you picked up at daycare b/c you coughed alot at night for a few nights. Oh and this was when you cut your teeth too! What a rough week!


You have a new bedtime! After daylight savings, you decided that you wanted to be done with the day at 7 pm. We were very scared that you would want to get up at 6 and you did for a few days, but quickly pushed your waking up time back to 7. So you now sleep 7-7. Other than when you were sick and cutting teeth you continue to sleep through the night. We put like 4 paci's in your crib with you and you are soooo good about locating them! If you wake up fussing we will look on the monitor and see your little hand whipping back and forth until you find one and then you are instantly back to sleep! You alre also starting to sleep on your side and belly more now that you can roll! Sometimes you can't quite get back to your back and I will have to go flip you back over around 5am. You still seem to prefer your back for the most part.


Drinking 5 six ounce bottles with the last one of the day being 8 oz.

Feeding you has been a learning experience for sure! When you got sick you refused any kind of food so we just stuck with bottles. When we reintroduced solids you refused them for days and days. You would eat one bite and then lower your head telling us you were done. So we have been taking lots of breaks and doing lots of reintroducing. Really the only thing you seem to like is your baby mummums and yogurt. So we will keep trying. The pedi said as long as you keep drinking your milk then not to stress and we will re-evaluate @ 9 months.

You are getting busier and busier! You do not like to sit on the floor quietly and entertain yourself any more! You want to be where we are, doing what we are doing, and holding what we are holding! You are trying so hard to crawl! You can pull yourself into a crawl position from sitting and stay like that for a few seconds but then your legs just kind of give out. If we put you into a crawl position you can stay longer and will start kind of rocking back in forth. If we are across the room and you are trying to get to us you will just cry b/c you want so badly to get over to where we are!


I think the above and below pic are examples of the fact that you are about to be mobile!!!

You are starting to "dance" and bob your head to the music your toys make. It is so cute!


You have learned to wave!!! It melts my heart when you wave at me from across the room!

You have picked up growling again. You did it for a few weeks a few months ago and then stopped. Well it is back in full force!!! You will look at me and go "Grrrrrrrrrr!" It's really funny when we are out at the grocery store and you growl yourself up and down every aisle! I am constantly cracking up!


Obsessions: my car keys, work badge, emptying out the contents of the pump bag, ANYTHING paper, Jack's collar, taking off your shoes and socks


You are getting even better at standing while holding onto something! You are much less wobbly!


You scream with delight when you see either of the cats.


You fall asleep while eating your bedtime bottle like 80% of the time and I get to just hold you. This is my favorite part of the day!


You love your baths! We are putting you on the sponge without the baby tub now and you are able to move around more and play with more toys! You could stay in there for a long time if we let you! Your favorite is chewing on the mesh toy bag.


You HATE your infant carseat and pretty much cry the whole time in it. We just started putting you in a convertible carseat and so far so good! You still fuss a little getting strapped in, but seem to enjoy the better view and upright position so much more!


We showed you how to wave a rally towel at all the Rangers games we went to. Since then you like to wave articles of clothing around in the air! Here are you and Nanny waving your rally leg warmers!


When you drink your bottles you always put your left hand in your hair and twirl it around.

Love your paci. When you were sick you would take it from me and throw it on the ground. It made me sad that it did not comfort you the way it normally would.


You LOVE your daddy! Whenever he comes home you stop what you're doing when you hear the garage door go up. You frantically search for him when you hear his voice and practically jump into his arms! You like to hold your arms out and go back and forth between us.

You hosted a fun Thanksgiving playdate and had fun with KK, KT, Nash, and Ethan!


You are babbling quite a bit. We hear babababa, dedededede, and mamamama the most! Yhe likes to blow raspberries and it is getting louder and louder! It is borderline spitting now!


You do these really shrill happy screams when you get really excited!


When there is something new to you, you spend lots of time inspecting it turning it all over. I love watching you discover new things!

We are so excited about the upcoming holidays with you little girl!!! There is so much joy in our house with you here this year!!! I'm trying not to stress out about making everything perfect and starting the perfect traditions and everything. I know it will be perfect just b/c you are here with us. I remember decorating last year when I was 5 months pregnant and I would just sit and dream about what next year would hold! I never imagined how much we would love you and how much you would impact our lives!!!! We love you Reese! Bring on the best Christmas ever!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Reese's First Thanksgiving!

The Herrell Fam had a memorable Thanksgiving this year! There is nothing like waking up Thanksgiving morning (when you don't have to work!!!) to the sweetest little face ever!!! I am so thankful for Reese Elizabeth!!!! The temps were very warm earlier in the week and dropped to the 40's Thanksgiving morning! We started off the morning with a chilly walk!

I made monkey bread for the first time and am going to now make it every Thanksgiving morning! (Next time I will just have to cook it long enough ha!)

We loaded up and headed to Arlington to pick up Nanny and Grampa and arrived at Grammy and Papa's in Azle just in time for lunch! Reese sported the turkey shirt I made her!

Reese with all the cousins...

Daddy and his little turkey...

The big boys did such a good job at entertaining Reese!

Reese had some sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and of course her mummums.

Trying to drink her water without having to hold it ha!

We had a wonderful day at Grammee and Papa's! We were so thankful they invited Nanny and Grampa so we could all spend the day with Reese! After we all parted ways the 3 of us headed back home and enjoyed some play time. Reese opened her Thanksgiving card from Nanny and Grampa!

This picture cracks me up...look at those thighs!!!

On Saturday morning we had Thanksgiving Day part 2! Auntie Babs was here from OK! We heaed to Arlington for a SECOND wonderful meal!



Nanny had so many fun things for Reese to do! Here she is helping Daddy set up a fun train set!

And here is Reese's little people Thanksgiving playset!

Our little family of 3

Reese thoroughly enjoyed tearing apart one of Nanny's homemade rolls. She even ate a bite or two!

This is what a roll looks like once it is shredded.

After a VERY SHORT nap we played with the trainset.

We decided to head down to Ft Worth to see the tree and walk around a bit. It was chilly so we didn't stay long.



We ended the night with some Mama's Pizza! What a wonderful first Thanksgiving all together!