Reece is 11 months old!

To use Hailey's favorite expression...say what?!?!?! 

This busy little boy is 11 months old today! I can't believe it! 

Reece weighs about 22ish pounds (I'm guessing). He wears 12 month clothes, a size 4 diaper and a 4.5 wide shoe! (He isn't wearing a lot of shoes yet because the soft baby ones are too small and he isn't walking so we haven't really put regular shoes on him yet but we did have him sized) he now has 8 teeth! (He cut 4 when we were traveling at Christmas, yes 4!)

Reece is still a terrible sleeper but we are making a little progress, that is when he isn't teething or sick. On a good night he will go down around 7:30, wake up around 4 to eat then go back to sleep until close to 6. Not great, but better... He still takes mostly 30 minute naps during the day, every three hours. I've gotten an occasional longer one but nothing consistent. 

I'm pretty sure Reece's favorite thing to do is eat. Ha! He still takes a bottle/nurses four or five times a day but this little one LOVES his table food. His favorites are cheese, quesadilla, grilled cheese, Mac and cheese, tortellini, and turkey. Can you see the cheese trend going on here?! He still loves mixed veggies and is starting to eat more fruit. So far he will eat strawberries and grapes in addition to the mandrain oranges, but he will only eat them if there is nothing else left on his tray. He has also tried chicken nuggets, hot dog, pizza, lasagna, chicken noodle soup, Mexican rice, waffles, muffins, bagels, yogurt, and his first French fry. His favorite veggies vary from day to day: green beans, black beans, squash, zucchini, peas and corn are some of the usuals. We've also noticed if he likes something he wipes it in his hair and all over his face. Silly, messy boy. 

He still isn't walking yet but he can take 4 or 5 steps if you bribe him :) I think he's just faster crawling so he doesn't really care. 

He is a climber! And usually wants to play with whatever Hailey has.

He loves throwing a ball to you and reading books now. 

He loves his cars and will now make the "vroom vroom" noise as he rolls them. 

He does the same thing with airplanes too except he does move them in the air not roll them on the ground. 

He is into everything! Reece definitely keeps me on my toes. His favorite thing to get to is the toilet paper/tissues/wipes. We don't keep the toilet paper on the roller in the bathrooms anymore because he pulls it all down and then tries to eat it. We keep it on the counter by the sink but if you leave it too close to the edge he will get it and do this 

Reece can say "dada, mama, num num, all done and amen" he knows the signs for more and all done. 

Reece loves to be outside. He will crawl everywhere, climb and try to eat whatever he can get his hands on. 

He does have a bit of a temper that may haunt us later. Ha!

We love you Reece Anthony! I can't wait to see what the next 11 months, years and beyond bring!

Life After Christmas

I feel like we're still getting back into our routine after traveling. Life around here has been

New present testing,

Keeping ourselves occupied,

Learning to help,

Getting outside whenever possible,

Using our imaginations,

Trying new skills

And just plain old looking cute. 

We're getting there...

Christmas in Tennessee- part 3

We had so much fun in Tennessee we needed three posts to share it! On Monday we had the whole day to enjoy our hotel, Nashville and hang out with our cousins! We started with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. I have to say, until this trip we never really ate out in resturants with my kids unless you count chick-fil-a. This trip we did it quite a few times and only once was a disaster ;)

After a yummy pancake breakfast we headed over to Julie and Trey's hotel to go swimming! The kids had a blast and Reece looked so big in his bathing suit!

This is he only view we got of Tucker most of the time... His feet :)

After swimming we cleaned up a bit and headed to Opry Mills mall for a bit. We ate lunch at Moe's and then Grams let the kids rose this giant stuffed lion. They had so much fun!

So many grand babies they couldn't all fit in at once!

Poor Reece and Ryan were exhausted from lack of sleep. Ahem...Reece...yes this is at lunch

After the fun at he mall we headed back to our hotel for naps and then hung out there the rest of the night. That was our roughest night. The kids were exhausted, we were exhausted, and we were all grouchy. We are at one of the resturants on the hotel and then got some frozen yogurt. I think it was he only way we survived until bedtime! Let's put it this way: the kids were in bed at 7 and Ryan and I were in bed by 7:30...

The next morning. We went back to banner and granny's house. We did a little more horseback riding 

And Reece had his first taste of chicken and dumplins! He was a fan!

The next morning we headed back tom harlotre and spent he day/night with his parents before moving on to Raleigh on Thursday. We had an amazing trip but after ten days, we were ready to be home. The kids were too. 

We love traveling to see family and getting to spend time with them!

Christmas in Tennessee- part 2

Sunday morning we made the trek to Nashville. We had plans to do Christmas with my dad's side of the family that afternoon but first we wanted to check into our hotel and get settled. We were SO excited and thankful that my dad surprised us with reservations at the Opryland Hotel! We grew up always visiting the hotel to see the beautiful atriums all decorated for Christmas and now we were getting to stay there! 

After checking in, we got our stuff into the room and decided to explore. Ryan and Reece decided to stay in the room and try to rest so Hailey and I were on our own. As we walked in to atrium she said, "it's our first visit to the jungle, mommy!" She was so excited! I could barely keep up with her. 

She immediately noticed that all of the ponds had coins in them and wanted to throw some but I didn't have any with me so that had to wait. 

But I don't think she minded... She got distracted by the "dancing water"

She wanted her picture with the nutcracker 

After our trip to the jungle we headed over to meme's house to celebrate Christmas a little more! Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way there so it took a little while of them to wake up and not be grouchy once we arrived ;)

We had some yummy food and then sent everyone outside to play before presents. They enjoyed playing football! Ha! 

 After they got some energy out we opened a few gifts. Hailey got her favorite gift of Christmas- a vet kit! And Reece got several balls and a new fire tuck. 

Of course Reece had a blow out which ruined his cute Christmas shirt 

I hate that I didn't get a picture of the kids with meme (Gigi) I don't know how I forgot!

It was getting a little later and the kids were starting to tire out so we headed back to the hotel to explore a little more. Julie, trey and the boys went with us. 

Ryan took Reece back to the room to put him to bed but Hailey and I stayed out to enjoy the lights a little more. She had so much fun with her cousins! And trey gave her a few coins to throw into the pond! 

All of this was just Nashville day 1! There's still more to come! 

Christmas in Tennessee-part 1

We left for Tennessee on Saturday morning, the day after Christmas. We only had to stop once so that was better than we hoped. We made our stop at Bass Pro in Sevierville. It is the biggest Bass Pro ever and there is so much to look at and see. 

We made it to Granny's house around 2:00 so there was still plenty of time to have fun outside before the Christmas festivities that night. Reece stayed at the house with my mom and we took Hailey, Cailin (my cousin's daughter) Tucker and Mack to feed fish, ride horses and feed goats. 

Ryan even rode Forrest with Hailey!

Mack got to go with Bobby Gebe to feed the cows. He was in heaven! (And Hailey was a little jealous)

Mack and Hailey got to ride in the back of the truck (up the driveway) to feed the goats. Tucker and Cailin rode the horse. 

The kids may have eaten a few of the rice cakes we took the goats ;)

That night we got together with all of my cousins and their kids at granny's house. It was loud and wild and I didn't take one picture. But it was fun! We got some sleep that night (as much as Reece would allow. Ha!) and then headed to Nashville for another round in the morning!