December 1st

I did something crafty for once in my life and made an advent calendar.



Luke 1:26-28, 31
“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you… You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.’”

Angel Gabriel was inside the box tonight along with the scripture and a marshmallow treat for each of the boys. Reed likes to share his treats and Will doesn't complain. I like this new tradition so far.





I had actually already purchased to box and Christmas papers to make this a couple of months ago, but I found this website last night when I was searching for what to put in each box.

Reed's First Haircut

I've got a lot of catching up to do, but I will start with today, July 12, 2011....Reed's first haircut. It was a big event for me. I was never emotionally attached to Will's hair. It came in straight and we really couldn't do anything with it, so his first cut wasn't that big of a deal. Reed, on the other hand, had the cutest little curls and I just loved them. I really did not want to cut them for a long time. But he got mistaken for a girl for the first time two days ago and Chris has been subtly pushing for a cut, so I gave in. We went to our favorite Sports Clips after dinner tonight and Reed got his first haircut. It was just a week ago that we were in that very place getting Will's haircut when Chris said we should go ahead and cut Reed's hair too. I laughed it off, but tonight he won. He is a squirmy little guy so I wasn't sure how he would do, but Chris held him and gave him a sucker and he did really well. We also got a wonderful stylist named Reese. We will definitely go back to her. She was so patient and good with Reed. My baby is turning into a boy!

I was a lot better at this...

...when I only had one child! And it's funny how every little milestone seemed so interesting with Will. I mean of course I am proud of all of Reed's milestones too, but I don't feel the urgent need to blog about them. But just to catch you up...Reed is 7-months-old now. He started sitting up sometime in September (or was it August?). He started eating real [baby] food in October. He loves the baby food I make him and Puffs. I am trying to switch him from Puffs to Cheerios, because we will go broke feeding him Puffs at this rate. He started crawling a few weeks ago. He never even went through the rocking stage...just decided to start army crawling one day. He started crawling on all fours a few days ago and now he is really going fast. And Chris found his first tooth a week ago and another one today (the bottom middle two)! He is such a joy! He is so happy, sleeps great at night, loves to cuddle, admires his big brother...pretty much his only flaw is that he doesn't take naps. Oh my. That is a pretty big one. But we will get through it. Really the only time he cries is when I put him in that darn crib during the day. At night, he goes right to sleep and doesn't make a peep for 10-12 hours. Somehow the crib is not a happy place during the day though. This pretty much makes me crazy everyday, but it is worth it because he is my baby and he is SWEET when I am not trying to get a nap out of him. I love him so much!




Will is approaching three-and-a-half-years-old and he is so much fun. This is the best age. He constantly makes me laugh. Sometimes he is trying to be funny, but most of the time he is funny without trying. He always has a pretend football game going on and it is pretty entertaining to hear all about his games everyday. Sometimes I am not allowed to call him by his name. He will correct me by saying, "I am not Will...I am football player." He still enjoys playing with cars, coloring, reading, painting, and watching tv. He recently learned how to play the Wii and he is pretty good at it. He likes all the sports games and Mario Cart. He has also been very interested in helping me in the kitchen lately. His favorite thing to do is pull a chair up to the sink and wash dishes. This will come in handy someday. He loves his baby brother and wants him to be in the same room with him most of the time. He is a great kid! He is hilarious, very smart, sometimes sensitive...always my little buddy! I love my Will!


Picture taken by Therese Barrett Photography.


I am so thankful for these two amazing little guys!

Reed is 3 Months!

My little Reed turned 3-months-old and he is just as sweet as can be. I will say he is a homebody to the extreme. He is so happy at home and rarely complains, but the second I start to put him in his carseat he starts arching his back and crying. You would think I am torturing the poor little guy. He will just scream and scream in the car until he falls asleep or until we get somewhere and I get him out of his carseat. But even when he gets out of his carseat and we are not at home, he is not 100% happy. I guess he is very aware of his environment and feels most comfortable at home. It is probably a good change of pace for me. Sometimes I like to just go go go and now that I have Reed that doesn't like to do that, it keeps me at home a lot more and I am learning to be okay with that.

He is a GREAT sleeper. He sleeps 10:30-8:30 most nights. He slept until 9:15 this morning...talk about spoiling mama on a Saturday!! His naps have gotten shorter, but he still takes several 30-45 minute naps throughout the day. I think he is going through the 3-4 month wakeful period and just doesn't want to miss out on anything right now. But I'm sure we will be able to work on stretching his naps eventually. I'm not too worried about it right now.

He is still a big boy...at least in comparison to Will. He was 14.5 pounds a few weeks ago. He is a good eater, but currently hates the bottle. He doesn't do any tricks yet...but to be honest, we have only done tummy time a few times, so I haven't really given the opportunity to learn how to roll yet. I just hate to mess with him, when he is so content to be just laying on his back all the time. The doctor said not to worry and we can start working on this at 4 months...so that's what we will do! He has really started to watch his big brother and thinks he is pretty funny.





We love you sweet Reed!!!

Will is 3!

I seriously cannot believe I have a 3-year-old. That seems so old! We had a race car birthday party for him this year. I said last year that it was the last birthday party we would have for Will at our house, but of course we ended up having it at our house again. When I first mentioned the idea of having the birthday party at Chuck E Cheese or McDonalds to Will, he said, "Nooo...I want the kids to come to my house!" I started to try to convince him to do it somewhere else and he did warm up to the idea, but then I got nervous that he would clam up like he sometimes does when we are out in public and I wanted him to have fun at his party. So we did have it at home...hopefully next year will be the year we have it somewhere else. It's not that having it here is the worst thing ever, but it always seems to stress me out and I can't enjoy the party myself...but this year, I just decided not to do food (just snacks) and that helped a lot. Oh, and Chris let me hire someone to clean the house!






I really wanted a flag banner for the "Pit Stop" but I couldn't find one anywhere (it was too late to order online), so I made this one out of a table cloth and string.




Chris and I made these cars out of boxes and the kids decorated them and then raced them on a little race track we setup in the backyard.


This was the little kid heat.


Chris has been collecting Hot Wheels for Will since I was pregnant with him and we found out he was a boy. Since all the Hot Wheels stuff says it is for ages 3+, I told Chris we would have to wait until his 3rd birthday to give them to him...even though he already has a bunch that he has played with for awhile. But I think this might have at least triple his collection of cars and he only had a really simple race track before...now Chris and Will spend their evenings designing all kinds of cool race tracks. It really is pretty cool...I didn't realize what the race tracks would be like.


I went to Walmart right before the party to pick up a few last minute items and found all these car shirts for cheap (they all just happened to be red)! They didn't have one in Reed's size so I bought him a red onesie and put a car sticker on it.



I will have to write more about my 3-year-old later, Reed is calling! :)

Rainbow

Call us doting parents, but Will drew this rainbow from his heart this morning and Chris and I think it is pretty special. It is the first time that he has drawn something, told us what it is, and it actually looks like what he told us. :)

Reed Laughs