Semi-Pro

My dear friend Audrey came over to work her magic with her camera for Miss Reese. Audrey humbly claims she's not a pro and that she has no idea what she's doing when taking pictures. I don't think that could possibly be true. I'd give her at least semi-pro status.

Tiny toes

Baby blues

Aud was a genius with the pearls that I just happened to be wearing that day.



We hoped to get some good shots of the 4 of us also...this proved to be challenging.

We had many obstacles to overcome...like wind and the "terrible twos" flaring up.

This one just cracks me up.

And this one is my fav!

Thanks, Aud, for coming to work your magic on us!!!

Egg Huntin'

I've enjoyed seeing all the pictures with the fancy church clothes, egg dyeing and egg hunts filling up everyones Facebook pages and blog world. Guess we better get ours out there too! Hate to deprive cyberspace of our cute kiddo doing his egg huntin'. Cade participated in several Easter egg hunts this year...each one with a little more gusto than the last. And although the candy was enticing...it's really hard for anything to keep this guy's attention for too long.
The Heine's hosted a very cute Easter party complete with an egg hunt, cookie decorating, and a yummy lunch! Unfortunately the rain moved the egg hunt inside.

Go Cade Go! Go find the eggs...he wasn't too sure what that even meant.

He was rolling for a little bit...

But the Heine's have LOTS of cool toys...and they won out over hunting for eggs.


Cade's final egg hunt was his most lucrative of all...probably because there were no other kids to compete with! The Easter Bunny must live in our neighborhood because each Easter morning our yard is scattered with TONS of candy-filled plastic eggs!

Cade enjoyed looking for them...he just takes his time with the search.

Once he figured out there was candy in them he picked up the pace a bit.




Thank you neighborhood Easter bunny!

Here's how Reese passed the time while Cade hunted for eggs. I have a feeling that next year she'll be giving him a run for his money! (Notice how she busts right out of my swaddle job with the blankets? Matt is the expert swaddler...he can keep her confined...I apparently cannot.)

Only in the City

Enjoyed a quick trip to Deanna Rose Farmstead on Friday...along with half of Johnson County it seemed. This was not an original idea. I'd never seen the parking lot so full!

Reese is hiding in the pouch...trust me, she's there.


Cade and I have been a handful of times before, but this was the first time for him to actually care about seeing the animals.

Baby pigs!

Gazing at the sheep...way at the other end of the pen.

Cade doesn't understand how this works.


The Farmstead is a really cool place. It's like a very clean and JoCo-ified County Fair with playgrounds mixed in here and there. I thought it was ironic when Matt made the comment that having a place like this to come visit was "one of the perks of living in the city."

The Next Generation

Oh how things change...The Hardees and the Harwoods got married the same summer that we did (2005) and now there are 6 kids (age 3 and under) between us. It's so fun watching families grow all around us!
Here are the guys with their boys...the next generation of Pioneers?

Cade's World

Cade's interpretation of how to use the breast pump...

Meet and Greet

As of last weekend, Reese has now been introduced to all of her wonderful aunts and her uncle and cousin.

Aunt Beth brought a yummy cookie cake. Trust us, Reese, it was tasty.

Christy and Mitch came all the way from Omaha

The Beck's visited from Great Bend.

The boys loved wrestling together. The little boys and the big boys!

Cousin Lukas wasn't quite sure about all this.

It was very fun having all the Keeley siblings together, I know Matt had really looked forward to their visit. They were so nice to cook for us, do some yard work (which is not a small task!), and even took me to Target. Thank goodness!

Fitting in a little cuddle-time.

The meals have started coming from friends and I'm just so, so thankful! Jamie brought us a refreshing lime pie.

And DeAnna brought a yummy meal of sloppy joes and broccoli salad. She is so, so sweet. When Cade was born she brought us not one but two fantastic meals. I was so looking forward to her bringing meals again and coming over to hang out with us. DeAnna is one of my best friends from college and I'm so lucky to have her in my life. I love this lady! Reese is even sporting the cute little KSU onesie that DeAnna brought us in the hopsital.

Oh yes, and the sloppy joes were meatless. Made with lentils. I loved them. I feel healthy eating them. Matt gave them the "ok." This guy's opinion about food can't really be trusted though. His favorite meal is pigs in a blanket. Enough said.

Hmm...is this a problem? Luckily Cade is pretty light so I'm choosing not to make a big deal about him sitting in the baby things.

And finally, these two things are currently my constant companions. When breastfeeding, I become obsessed with tracking how often and how much she eats. I was this way with Cade too. It's like once you start tracking their feeding in the hospital I just can't stop. What if the doctor has a question and I need to consult the log? What if her patterns change and I don't know it? I'm a crazy-person, yes, I know.

The other is just a small notebook where I keep track of my millions of lists. It seems when you get home from the hospital there are a million little things to be done (or that I think need to be done) and your mind works faster than your body. Enter the notebook of lists. I track my medicine, keep to-do lists, grocery lists, Target lists, etc in here. Don't mess with my crazy list system. It works.

And Then There Were Two...

...Two kids that is. Life with two kids. I find myself wanting to just relish all the details of the first days home, these first days of Reese's life. I want to remember everything because when I try to think back to all the transitions involved with bringing Cade home, becoming a parent the first time...it's all a blur.
First bath

Not painful at all

We've actually had several outings, with and without Reese.
Her first trip to the doctor

This time, being the experienced parent that I am, I knew that the whole appointment takes place without any outfit on at all so we dressed in one that is cute, but easy to remove.

Reese was already back up to birth weight (plus two ounces actually!) so I was a very, very proud breast-feeding mama. Success!!

Other recent outings include taking Cade to Shear Madness for a much-needed hair cut. I thought if we went there it would be more like a "treat" than a hair cut. They have fun chairs to sit in and movies to watch. And of course when you're that close to Chick-fil-a then we had to make a stop there too.

The other outing of the week included a date night to Garazzo's to use our Groupon. Heck, gotta take advantage of having G-Mom around! I can count the times that I've left Cade with a sitter in the evenings on ONE hand. And it's usually for things like Parent/Teacher conferences rather than for Matt and I to go somewhere. We have rarely left Cade to go on dates and I think that kinda stinks. So, we're turning over a new leaf and finally realizing that leaving the kids for 2 hours on an evening will probably do more good than harm. Also, I will be positioning myself behind Matt for pics until my stomach doesn't look like I'm still at least 4 months pregnant.

Showing our KSU pride.

Having a little tutu time while Cade checks his calendar.

Cade enjoys teaching Reese about things...like how to use Grandpa's cell phone


Now the true test comes, all of our family has come and gone. Can we make it on our own?! I'm so thankful that I have until August (August 16th to be exact) to just hang out with the kids. So far it's felt very natural to just add Reese to our brood. She has been easy-going and I'm just thankful to have one child that stays where you put them! I've enjoyed getting to see so many of our friends and family members as people come to meet Miss Reese. Come visit us and you'll receive some Reese's candy in honor of Reese's arrival!