eureka!

ronnie and i talked my parents into watching

both girls and dogs over the weekend so we

could take the Harley down to eureka springs with

two other couples for a little adult trip.

two weekends out of town, which is normally

not my style but this sounded so fun, we couldn't pass it up.  

i had never been, but ronnie had, and he's literally

been talking about going down there for years.

his friend invited us and at first, ronnie

didn't think we should go, but i'm glad i talked

him into taking some time away.

it was very pretty,

perfect weather and

such a neat little town.

it kind of reminds me a little bit

of estes park and branson.

it's tucked in the trees and the hills

which makes it a fun ride on a motorcycle.

we shopped around, did a little day drinking

and i was in bed by 10:30.

the next day we headed out to branson, where

we stopped for lunch and hit up the outlet mall.

(i forgot i was traveling on a harley and bought

a huge bag which had to travel on our friend's bike - whoops.)

i was definitely tired when i got home, but

it was fun to get away and have a short weekend

without the kids.

i guess i can consider this an early birthday gift.

we've already decided that we need to schedule

another trip to the smokey mountains or nashville.

i love traveling.

i can't wait until the girls are a little older so we

can go on fun family vacations that don't require

SO MUCH WORK.

the end of the season

over labor day weekend we loaded up

the camper and the kids and went down to the lake.

i told brette way too early in the week about

our plans so every morning we had a talk

about how much longer until she got to go camping.

next time, i'm telling her the day before. 

it was amazing weather.

a little chilly at night, 

hot during the day.

perfect for evenings around the campfire

and afternoons on the boat. 

i could tell a big difference in reid since we had 

gone last over memorial day weekend.

it's crazy how much she has changed in 

just three months.

every time we go, i think it gets a little bit easier. 

i'm still running around taking girls to the bathroom,

making drinks and trying to inforce nap time,

but there's a lot of freedom when we go camping too.

not to mention, that the girls still go to bed around 8:30

when we're out there, so ronnie and i have 

the rest of the night to hang out and have some adult time.

(aka - drinking beer around the fire)

we also played the most fun game,

i'm ordering it online because when I went to Wal-Mart

(yes, I actually went inside for this thing)

they were all sold out, but I found it on amazon.

it's called "spike it" - pictured below.

so fun.

go buy it.

the second day, i went out with another family on their boat

because when everyone else left, reid was still sleeping. 

they go tubing a lot and i'm trying to talk

brette into trying it.

i finally negotiated her going, as long as me, ronnie and reid all went too.

by the time i got her convinced we were ready to go home

for the days and we were going to try it out the next day, but i 

never made it back over to their boat. 

its my new mission next summer to get the girls on the tube.

i know reid we absolutely love it - - she's going

to be my little daredevil.

it was such a nice weekend.

i know i complain about campering a lot,

because it IS a lot of work too, but

we end up having a lot of fun and the girls

love it so much, i'm almost sad to see the season end.

until next year... 

and this is not campering but i just love the pic. 

Birthday pieces

we had reid and eden's birthday party two weekends ago,

lego themed. (eden's pick)

it's easy while reid is so small because i can just do

whatever eden wants and reid doesn't care at all.

i'm sure next year, we might have to compromise a bit. 

although, eden is literally so sweet with reid i think

it's going to be easy for them to share their birthday parties. 

kelly sent me a bunch of lego party ideas and it

ended up being pretty easy fun.

first, i bought red, yellow and blue party bags.

i cut the fronts off of them and cut out little circles.

a little glue and some rope, and wah la, 

a lego banner, which i hung on the fireplace. 

i did more of these to hang above our kitchen and 

hung streamers and balloons. 

i also busted out our big legos as a centerpiece for

the table and had my mom bring up brian's legos 

from when he was a kid.

we had a little lego building station and 

i took two of the green pads, made an E and a R

to help decorate the cake. 

which the cake, my mom made.

i told her what i wanted and she did the rest since

it needed to be dairy free and i had never tried it before.

i knew my mom's dairy free cake was amazing and i

didn't want to mess it up for the party.

basically, just make a sheet cake and some extra cupcakes.

cut the bottoms off the cupcakes and place them 

on the sheet cake in a lego pattern.

then ice.

LEGO CAKE!

some of our family couldn't make it this year,

so it was a smaller crowd, but

since we ordered pizza, there was nothing left for 

me to do but hang out and talk, which was a nice

change from some of the other parties i've thrown.

i think the girls had fun and i loved spending

the day with family. 

happy birthday reid and eden! 

our big 2 and 5 year old girls. 

love them so much.

back to school

we wrapped up summer and headed into the

fall semester at the girls' school.

they had a week off in between so i took off

work and spent some quality time with the kids.

the branson trip didn't work out because ronnie's 

dad forgot we were coming and had other plans.

wah wah.

it was a real bummer, but i called my margie in st. louis and

asked if we could come crash at her place for the weekend, so

we did that instead.

right before we left, i called our other college roomie, shannon,

to see if she wanted to come too and as luck would

have it, she and her youngest were free to joined us.

wahoo!

so basically within an hour we had planned a little reunion last minute.

it was so nice to visit marge and her kids and let our kids play.

she just bought a new home so it was perfect timing to see

her new crib too.

(ps- it makes me want a new house)

the kids had fun and marge, shan and i always love to hang out.

i think ronnie even enjoyed himself too.

once we got home, we had a few more days of freedom

and then wednesday, they started back to school.

brette is in pre-k with ms. kay and reid is in the 2's

classroom with ms. susie. 

and guess what!!!

reid has literally not cried one time since starting back.

maybe a week at home with me and she realized that 

maybe school isn't such a bad thing? 

probably.

here's brette's class

 and this is brette on this year verses last year on her first day. 

so sweet.

it was a nice week of vacation and a great week back to school.

i think this is going to be a really good school year for both of them

and i'm excited to see how much they learn.

another year, another photo

we've added our newest picture to our photo journey.

for most of you, you know that i took a picture when i found out i was

pregnant with brette, then again when i was huge, once i had her and then again 

when she was a year old.

then repeated the whole thing with reid.

so as of last year, this little photo journey was done,

but i just love it so much that i'm going to try to do it every 

summer, just so we can all marvel on how much they've grown and

how adorably cute my kids really are.

i know, right?!

so here we go, from the beginning.

september 2012

my little two and four year old. 

i already can't wait for next year to see all the changes.

love, love, love.

it's the final countdown

holy hell.

july came and went,

and now august seems to be flying.

here's a little recap:

ronnie left for a week to go to sturgis.

boys only trip. (eye roll)

but we agreed to trade time this year.

he stayed home when i went to new orleans last spring

and then i stayed home while he did this.

the only difference is he was gone DOUBLE the amount of time. 

of course.

also, he texted me tonight (they're on their way home)

and his friend's bike fell on his in the trailor on 

the drive home and his bike has lots of damage.

i can only imagine what this is going to cost us.

oh, and he already told me he wants to go next year.

meanwhile, the girls and i have had some fun of our own.

we went with my mom and dad to the KC aquarium over the weekend.

it was a rainy day, perfect for a fun little indoor adventure.

plus i always love going to crown center.

then on sunday, i picked up madeline and eden and met

jeff, kelly and dylanie for the butterfly exhibit at powell gardens.

(where ronnie and i got married)

it was so cute with lots of little activities and of course, butterflies. 

i drove the girls over to the chapel and let them walk through,

just so they could see where our wedding was.

they thought it was disgusting that i kissed ronnie there and

brette was worried i was going to get married again without dad.

they're so funny.

so the weekend was good, but weekdays kind of drag.

we go to work/school, come home and do dinner, playtime, bath and bed, but

then it's 8:00 at night and I have nothing to do and no one 

to talk to for the next 2-3 hours.

don't get me wrong, i read two books in complete peace and 

i watched kylie jenner's new show without any complaining.

but i'm not used to sleeping alone and there were a few times

i heard weird noises and even though i'm the only adult

in the house i still freak out and move to the middle of my bed.

so i'm excited he's coming home and we can be boring together again.

also, today was the girls' last day of summer school and they

had a little summer picnic to celebrate.

their school closes for a week before fall session begins.

which mean - I GET THE NEXT WEEK OFF!

wahoo!

honestly though, i really like my job and i don't feel like

i've been there long enough to really need a vacation, but still.

i'm going to try to make the next week really fun 

for the girls and hang out with all my favorite friends that 

i don't get to see anymore.

i already have a girls dinner planned, a play date in warrensburg, 

a trip to the zoo and a weekend away to branson scheduled.

we're going to be busy, but it's going to be fun.

sometime in there i need to buy school supplies, go grocery shopping, 

clean house and do the laundry too.

ready. set. go.

it's the last few days of summer and i'm

going to make the most of them.

reid: 2 years

our little baby is two years old and i

remember thinking when brette was this age,

"wow, you're so grown up!"

but with reid, i feel like she's still my baby.

she still seem so young,

thank god.

growth:

both girls have a pediatrician appointment in august.

i had them scheduled for earlier this month but

my dr cancelled on me, so i have no stats on either child

for their birthday. wah wah.

the clothes that fit reid the best are 24 months.

2T are still big on her and the 18 month stuff,

depending on what it is, she can still wear.

she's in a diaper (size 5) at nap time and at night.

besides that, she's rocking undies all day, but

we still see our fair share of accidents.

she does great and then not great.

for example, she went four days with no accidents and

then turned around and had two accidents today.

it's frustrating.

her hair is still growing a lot and is down past her shoulders.

i think its lightened a bit in the summer and i'm

pretty sure we're going to end up with a strawberry blonde.

ps- she still HATES to get her hair done.

it's a battle.

physically, she so much more advanced than

B ever was at this age.

she climbs up ladders and goes down slides.

she pulls over chairs and climbs up on them.

she's everywhere and into everything.

ronnie is still calling her scragglemuff and

his chinese redhead. (because we swear she's speaking chinese.)

we also call her our little make-out queen because

she will quite literally not stop kissing you.

she kisses everyone and is the sweetest little girl.

i'm also proud to report that reid is really starting to talk well.

i love love love when my babies start talking.

she will pretty much repeat anything you ask her to say.

i hear a lot of "mama" except its really drawn out.

maaaaaaamaaaa and it goes up at the end.

she does it to ronnie's name too, because sometimes,

she calls him ronnie and not daddy.

i think it's because ronnie tries to impersonate me so

much that the kids pick up on it.

she is also really polite, saying "peas and tank u."

it's really really cute.

she can name all her animals and tell you

what sounds they make.

we are working on colors,

right now she knows orange, blue and pink.

yay! school is working!

i heard her say her first sentence the other day and

i meant to write it down, but i can't remember it now.

i just remember thinking, oh my gosh, that was more than two words in a row!

i definitely see improvements every week. 

sleeps:

reid still sleeps really well for me.

she goes to bed every night at 8:00 and

wakes up around 7:00.

(i think she would actually sleep longer if it was dark out,

one good thing about the winter months.)

when she started school, i transitioned to their schedule

so reid would have some consistency.

they sleep from 12:30 to 2:30 everyday, but

on the weekends she's been known to sleep 3 or 4 hours.

i don't think she sleeps a full 2 hours at school so

by the weekend she is extra tired.

i still have no troubles putting her down or

getting through the night.

although, one night about a month ago i think

she had her first nightmare.

she woke up super upset trying to climb out of her crib.

poor thing.

but that never happens.

i put her down and see her in the morning.

just how i like it.

eats:

reid has her favorites and

she likes to stick to them.

morning? she either wants blueberry muffins or

a granola bar with any kind of fruit.

the kid loves fruit. 

it's nice to grab and go for school, but

on the weekends i try to do pancakes, eggs - -

something that takes a bit more effort.

lunch? she likes lunch meat, pb&j's,

hamburgers and i get reports back from the school

that she normally eats most of her meal.

that's good because they're serving a wide variety of

things i know my kids wouldn't touch if i made it.

dinner? recently, i found out she loves tacos, corn on the cob, and chicken pot pie.

i make a bunch of different stuff and sometimes she eats

well and other times she doesn't.

it's a toss up.

she normally eats meat really well,

but not side dishes.

for snacks she likes popcorn, cheese sticks, turkey sticks,

cucumbers, FRUIT, crackers and for a treat she

loves ice cream or m&m's.

plays:

i have an announcement!!!!

reid has fallen in love with a

cabbage patch doll.

i know.

her name is Baby. very clever.

do i think she will sleep with her every

night until she's 30?

(so few of us are that cool.)

probably not,

but still, i'm excited.

she carries her around everywhere and

sleeps with her every night.

she loves to cover her with blankets and feed her bottles.

she also really into purse items - -

she always has her phone and keys.

so basically, she's a little mama.

she still likes picking out books, and thank god,

we've made it past Pajama Time everyday.

she does a great job of playing on her own,

which i know 2nd kids are not known for,

but i'm so down with it.

her and brette still don't play well together.

i think the communication gap is still too big.

but i know from watching madeline and eden,

that the day is coming and i'm very excited for it.

t w o  y e a r s  o l d,

i can't believe it.

she's such a sweet baby.

she can shriek with the best of them, but

is so sweet with her 'tank you's' and kisses.

i can't wait to see what the next year brings.

happy birthday, reid elizabeth!

love you.