"out of the mouth of babes..."

Reagan's first attempt at saying prayers:

"Heavenly Father,
... this day,
... our bodies,
... daddy work,
... drive carefully,
... name Jesus Christ, Amen."

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one more room...

For some unknown reason we decided to paint another room, the toy room. I'm not sure why we decided to paint it when I was 32 weeks pregnant, but we did. The worst part, we didn't have a ladder. How did we reach the top of the walls you ask? Simple. We pushed our huge piano around the room for me to stand on. Yes, insane. But it is done now...
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Before...

After...

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

After...

This one shows where we made the wall end. There was no way we were going to paint all the way up with our high ceilings! And yes, that is the piano I stood on to paint...

happy

EASTER

This may very well be our last family picture with just the three of us...

Reagan had so much fun playing tag and hide 'n' seek.

Austin did too!

My first ever turkey, along with my first ever homemade stuffing. Everyone said it was really good, but they could've been being polite!

Austin picked out the drumstick to eat, Bob finished it...

We had a very enjoyable Easter. Church went well, Reagan wasn't too antsy. The Relief Society President was super nice and let Reagan draw on her lap for 10-15 minutes so I could actually hear some of the lesson! Reagan has been warming up to strangers a little bit, that is a relief! After Church we had Rick's parents, my parents, and Molly and Bob's family over for dinner. Rick gave us each some scriptures to read to re-tell the Easter story, and we had pictures for the kids to look at. The kids had tons of fun playing together, and playing with all the grandparents. Hope you had a wonderful Easter!

33 weeks

happy spring!

We decided to keep Easter baskets and Easter egg hunts separate from Easter Sunday, that way we can make our Easter more Christ-centered. So, today Reagan got to open her Easter basket and hunt for Easter Eggs...

She was way too busy playing with her basket of goodies, so she wouldn't really give me a smile. It was hard enough just getting her to look at the camera for a brief second!

She enjoyed finding the eggs! She would shout, "Good finder!" and then she would run to the basement stairs and throw them down. As they bounced down the stairs, "Boom... Splat... Cowbunga!"

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I know she won't really understand very much when we talk about Christ's Resurrection tomorrow, but hopefully as she grows older she will gain an understanding of the Joy in Easter!

our little comedian

We had company for dinner last night, Heather (Rick's cousin from Seattle) and Rick's parents. Reagan decided it was a good night to test her skills as a comedian.

After she was done eating she said, "Cookie?"

Rick responded to her by saying, "We don't have any more, Mommy and Daddy ate them all last night."

Reagan then started shouting, "Piggies, Piggies!"

We all had a good laugh. And just for the record there were only a few cookies left, so we aren't really piggies!

spring is here

...at least for a few days. We have been very busy enjoying the gorgeous weather!

Wednesday - It made it to 40 degrees, so we headed outside for a brisk walk in the sunshine. We looked at the clouds, stomped on snowballs, picked up leaves, and giggled...

Thursday - Mommy decided my hair was finally long enough to put it in pigtails. Don't I look so cute??

Thursday - the temperature was in the upper 40s. We went for two walks today, played football with Daddy, ran through our soggy yard, and giggled...


Friday - Upper 50s! We went to the park at 6:30 and it was 58 degrees outside! We enjoyed swinging, climbing up the slide, running around, making new friends, and giggling...

18 months

Reagan hates the doctor's office!

Height - Just over 32" (65th percentile)
Weight - Just over 22 pounds (20th percentile)

No shots! Hooray! Lungs sound great, speech is exceptional, still a little fluid in her ears (no infections), tons of teeth...

an oasis of goodness

Hands down, Stillwater Grill is the best restaurant known to mankind! Not only do they have the best food ever, but they just became smokefree! Every few months Rick and I decide to splurge and go to our favorite restaurant, and tonight was one of those nights. I was already beyond excited as we were pulling into the parking lot, when I looked at the entrance and read "We are now smokefree." I was ecstatic! There are very few restaurants that we can take Reagan to that aren't fastfood, and now Stillwater is one of them!

Now let me get back to their food... Hot Spinach Artichoke Cheese Dip - Fresh spinach & artichokes in a creamy cheddar cheese sauce, seasoned with cracked red pepper, parmesan cheese & salsa. Topped with bubbling swiss cheese & served with tortilla chips. This dip is divine! The first time we ever went to Stillwater we had a coupon for a free spinach artichoke dip. We naively tried to convince our waiter to let us substitute a different appetizer, but to no avail. We are forever grateful to that waiter for introducing us to such yummy goodness. We have since tried spinach artichoke dip at every restaurant we have been to, and none even come close! That would be enough to make us regular customers, but that is not all... Rick enjoys the New York Strip Steak, while I prefer the Backyard Rib Eye. No matter what cut of steak you prefer, there is no alternative to Stillwater! We have tried numerous restaurants - from Ruth's Chris to Outback, and there is no competition!

more abcs

Apparently I can't pick up a fast enough signal to upload video of Reagan's latest craze. So I guess you will just have to take my word for it. Reagan can recognize all of the letters of the alphabet and the numbers 0-10. She likes to play with her alphabet flashcards all the time, and I bought her a wooden alphabet puzzle because she is obsessed! She points out letters EVERYWHERE! She also has a number puzzle that has pieces that spell the numbers. She recognizes most of those too! She has mastered counting to 20, except she ALWAYS skips fourteen and instead says thirteen twice. I decided to teach her the days of the week, and she is doing pretty well. She says tuesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday. I wish that was what my week consisted of - only 3 weekdays! Anyone have any ideas of what I can teach her next? Two people have suggested presidents and states, but I think that may be a little too much just yet. Besides, I don't even know the presidents' names!

reagan-isms

A few of Reagan's favorite phrases/questions:

1. What's that? (She asks this when she knows the answer and wants you to ask her)
2. What color? (See above)
3. They're friends... with Reagan! (Referring to any two items, normally animals)
4. And on his farm... (She says this whenever she finds an animal and wants to sing)
5. What does a ___ say? (She starts with asking what animals say, but when she runs out of animals then she moves on to other objects. The hardest to answer - what does a tree say, a 10 say, a binky say?)
6. Water in it! (Her way of asking for more water in her cup)
7. Froggy squirt it! (Telling me to use her bath toy froggy to squirt her other bath toys)
8. Be big helper! (What she says when she wants to carry the swiffer mop around the house)
9. Play tunes! (She says this normally only to daddy, asking him to play her fridge DJ while she is eating)
10. Love you! Buh-Bye! See you in awhile! Okay! (This is her normal salutation)

the girls' room

We decided to paint the girls' bedroom before Kennedy arrives. Rick chose the color again - he has good taste. It is a shade of lavender to coordinate with Reagan's quilt her Aunt Molly made her. (It matches well even though the picture suggests otherwise). We bought Reagan her toddler bed so she can get used to it before she has to be sleeping in it. She loves climbing on it, running on it, dancing on it, etc... The last photo shows the curtains I had to tailor to fit her window. I haven't decided whether to buy new crib bedding or to make it, so the crib bedding doesn't match yet. Who knows when I will finish decorating, so I decided just to post the semi-finished product! Can you believe our little girl is almost big enough for a toddler bed?!

3/4 done

Well I am officially 3/4 of the way through my pregnancy! 30 weeks down, 10 weeks to go! How does this pregnancy compare with my first? Well it is definitely flying by quicker than the first one! I haven't been able to run during most of this one, which stinks! Michigan winters make it impossible to run outside, and since we don't have a treadmill... Luckily I haven't gained tons of weight though (16 pounds so far). But there are still 10 weeks left for me to turn into an elephant. Other differences include: I can eat chicken without feeling sick. I don't crave cereal four times a day, normally only twice. I can still wear my non-maternity jeans (I gave those up at about 5 months last time). I crave brownies instead of cheesecake. I will be delivering at U of M instead of Sparrow hospital.