Girls Weekend

These cool cats came to town last weekend; making these kids ecstatic!

Not sure we can actually call it a "Girls Weekend" much longer as that could be offensive to Cade.

We shopped, we ate, we watched movies, we quoted movies. It's what we do. I assured my mom that Cade was fine to run some errands since he's been doing so well with the potty-training. He then proceeded to have two accidents (a #1 AND a #2) on our 45-minute trip to the mall. Thanks, Cade. Awesome.

Matt got back into town late Saturday night after their game and was just in time to get everyone addicted to the word-game Ruzzle. (Kaitlin, you would freaking love it.)

Bearded Bathing Beauties. Cade loves to put a beard on Reese and she is such a great sport about it.

It's always a treat to have some extra hands and "helper pants" around when Matt is out of town. Thank you, Mom, G-Dog, and Kid for coming to town to keep us company, make some memories, and momentarily restore my sanity.

10 Months Old

Our favorite girl turns 10 months old tomorrow. As always, insert shock and awe here.

"Hey Cade, which apps did you say are your favorites?"

Look at those baby blues. This past week we've seen a new side of Reese. The sick and somewhat grouchy side. She was down and out with a fever for a couple days and now just the runny nose and congestion has stuck around. Been using tons of those fancy boogie wipes but still ended up with a red nose, and a small cut even.

Usually she is just as happy as ever, but has been a little on-edge with the sickness and difficulty breathing...and the FOUR new teeth that are coming in.

Now she probably just cries as much as other kids. Just breaks my heart.

Stats and size:
We finally just went to see the good doc for her 9 month appointment and shots. Reese's daddy took her and said the shots were a little difficult for him too. Had the beginnings of our cough and congestion but the doctor said it was just one of those things that will have to run its course. I'm glad we haven't had the stomach bug at our house yet (famous last words, I'm sure).
Weight: 17 pounds on the dot, 10th percentile
Height: 28.5 inches, 57th percentile
Head: 17 1/2 inches, 72nd percentile

In clothes she's in between sizes a bit right now. 9 months are getting snug but 12 months is still pretty big. We're just moving to longer fleece sleepers at night. The 9 month ones are tight on the toes but she has plenty of room to grow in the 9-12 months ones. Still size 3 diapers...hopefully for awhile because I just went to Sam's.

On the Move:
Reese crawls super-fast and gets up the stairs well and has just begun attempting to go down the stairs somewhat...usually needs a spotter. She can stand and sit without having to pull herself up on anything but takes no steps forward. Not even thinking about it. Just drops to the floor to crawl.

Food:
She's not liking baby food as much as she seems to want more texture to her food. She prefers pasta, fruit, and cut up steamed veggies that she can feed herself. She is our eater and will continue to eat until we quit offering something. She is becoming a "grazer" it seems when it comes to nursing, or maybe it just seems that way to me. She's easily distracted and just prefers to eat a little at a time...or she's eating really fast and I don't realize that she's done already. When at the sitter she has 2 pumped bottles and then I nurse about 4 times at home throughout the evening and morning.

Sleep:
Lately not so hot. Quite interrupted with her sickness. She hasn't ever really woken up angry, until now. She wakes up so mad and we're not really sure what we can do to help her. She goes to bed around 8 and will eat again around 11pm (more for my sake than hers...we dropped that feeding once but now its back) and then on a normal night will sleep through until 6 or so when she wakes to eat again. She will get up for the day around 8:30 and then takes a lengthy early afternoon nap and a cat nap around supper time.

Social:
Very responsive to smiles and attention from people. Also goes crazy over music and starts to move up and down "dancing" and clapping. Likes to be wherever Cade is and attempts to do whatever he does. She's starting to speak up a little more and babble some, mostly just to herself. Responds when you talk to her and will repeat sounds you make. She gets more vocal the more tired she is. Reese is quite the mama's girl. I think it's purely because mama's got the food but I do love how she likes to stick close to me.

Hard to believe that first birthday is just around the corner!

Zip, Zero, Zilch

Slow start to the new year here on the blog...just not much to write about. Zip, zero, zilch in fact.

I've been thinking, I could write about my new year's resolution to lower my standards for cleaning my home...again. (Those who've been to our place recently may be wondering how this is possible!)

I could write about how I have not slept uninterrupted through the night for almost 3 years...or how I have only had one period since August of 2009? Topics you'd like to hear more about? No?

I'll just stick with a few pics from this less-than-newsworthy week.



Testing out all our new Christmas presents.

"His and hers" castles.

How can you not love someone who wears these tiny little undies? Although, at times, teaching him to wear them sure tests it. We are in the thick of potty-training around here, and by "we" I mean mostly our sitter.

A highlight of the week was getting to work out at a Parents As Teachers "Fit Mom" class. It was so, so fun! Jessica and I strapped on our babes and squated and lunged our morning away! I just really liked the atmosphere of being around other moms who "feel your pain!"

And finally, I'm back on board the "Bachelor" train. Matt banned me from watching it a few years ago, and I can't say that I've missed it as it's the same crazy drama season after season. But I'm not going to pass up the chance to watch our fellow wildcat in the spotlight!

I have actually been reading his sister's blog for quite some time (don't judge me, I read A LOT of random blogs, the magic of Google Reader I'm tellin' you!) so it's really interesting to hear her take on it all. She does a weekly recap of the episode and answers viewer questions in her comments. Check it. If you need more blogs to read, that is.

Maybe next week we'll be more newsworthy. I'm no psychic but I can predict there will be pottying, basketball, work, and winter.

Christmas Extravaganza 2012

This year our Christmas break was nothing short of an extravaganza of traveling and celebrating with friends and family.

We kicked off the season with our 2nd annual trip to Crown Center with the Heine's. We're so thankful for their friendship. We love it when our schedules jive and we actually get to spend some time together. It will be fun to watch our brood of kiddos start to actually embrace the visits to Santa. Until then, we will keep forcing them.

My little lefty!

We went on a Thursday evening so the lines weren't long at all. We actually got a great family pic with Santa, walked around Crown Center, and ate at the Crayola Cafe.

Reegan and Cade are so cute together!

After visiting Santa, we went to Hawaii for a week, just in case somewhere along the line you missed that.

We got home on Friday to unpack, wash, repack, wrap gifts, and load everything we own in the car to head to the Bend.

First, the Beck's hosted over 40 people for the Schartz family Christmas (Matt's mom's side). It's always great to catch up with everyone and munch on pickle wraps, corn dip and homemade salsa. Cade was thrilled to spend time at "Lukas' house" and they make quite a pair.

The two newest cousins did some bonding as well as we celebrated with the Keeley side. This celebration gets a bit more chaotic each year with the addition of all the grandkids!

We made the switch on Christmas Eve to the Sauder side where the fun continued with plenty of Dutch Blitz, late nights, and Christmas fun.

We really want Cade to understand who Jesus is as our Savior and that Christmas is about celebrating Jesus' birth, not just Santa and presents. So we had a birthday party for Jesus complete with decorations and a layer cake. I went a little crazy on the cake actually. This was an idea that was discussed at my MOPS group this year that I thought would be fun...so we made a cake from four layers: chocolate for sin in the world, red for the blood of Christ that covers our sin, white for purity after Christ died for us, and green for abundant life in Christ. Neat idea...difficult to execute. I had to apologize to Jesus for the looks of his birthday cake. Did Cade grasp all of this, um, no. But he definitely knows that Christmas is Jesus' birthday and we had a party. We'll start there.

I did a terrible job of taking pics this year and am disappointed I didn't really get any of the kids with their grandparents or aunts. Guess we were all photoed out after Hawaii. These were our only posed efforts.

I think this is so cute of them playing together...or at least, near each other. I'm sure we're seconds away from Cade freaking out on her.

After we stayed in the Bend for a bit longer than we should have (don't ask) we voyaged down to Tulsa to see some family on my mom's side and watch MNU play Rogers State. It's always so fun to see the Roberts clan and I loved getting to see the "Roberts Resort" all decked out for Christmas!

Another wonderful year of holiday bliss with all of our family. But I am definitely all traveled out. I'm not packing a bag for anyone or sleeping in a bed other than my own for quite some time. Spending time with friends and family is always fun and I love making those memories, but you better believe I'm parking it here for awhile. Whew!

Hawaiian Adventure

As you may have seen from my Facebook pics (sorry, I was "that" person taunting everyone with my status updates for awhile there)...we boycotted the cold and snow by escaping to Hawaii for a portion of our Christmas break.

Sun, sand, and traveling about 10,000 miles with a toddler and an infant. Sounds amazing, huh?

As plans came together for MNU to play in the Hoop'n'Surf Classic in Honolulu several of our extended family members jumped on board and decided to come "support the team." I was excited for the opportunity to travel...yet terrified of making the trip with the kids. I mean, come on, we were going to be "those people" on the plane with the screaming, pooping, tiny kids and all their crap that goes along with them. I was freaked. I read articles about traveling, downloaded recommended apps for kids, made DVDs of Cade's favorite TV shows, purchased new books, little toys and backpacks for the kids, very carefully packed our bags, and pretty much braced myself for the worst. I'm a realist (which Matt says is code for mean and negative) but I knew this wasn't going to just be fun at the beach. It was going to be a trip...not a vacation...a trip where I had to be the mom and be prepared to keep everyone entertained and happy...and in clean pants.

That being said, it actually was a mostly perfect trip! The kids traveled extremely well and we had a great time enjoying the sand and sun of Hawaii! I guess maybe bracing myself for the worst and then hoping for the best really worked.

We had more than enough things packed to keep everyone entertained and happy on the plane and we didn't run out of diapers or even need our extra outfits. Success! We used suckers for Cade during take off and landing and I fed Reese a pumped bottle to keep everyone's ears happy. Seemed to work well.

We flew from KC to Dallas and then after an hour and a half layover we tackled the long flight to Hawaii. (Cade was confused why we weren't at the beach after the first flight...)

After much deliberation, we opted to bring Cade's carseat onto the plane for the flight. We figured he'd be able to see out better, sleep better, and we could strap Reese into it when Cade was on a lap. It was annoying to lug on and off the plane but we did have plenty of extra hands (usually a basketball player) to help with that. We checked our double stroller and Reese's car seat at the gate each time. Also annoying, but I was very glad to have all of it along with us. I wasn't sure if we'd need the seats to ride on the bus or in rental cars in Hawaii and we did use Reese's seat for her to sleep in some since the sit'n'stand stroller isn't always conducive to that. I carried Reese around in my Beco carrier often. I just love that thing.

Shortly after arriving and checking into our hotel, we had to introduce Cade to the ocean!

It was fun having so many of our favorite people there with us! Matt's parents and sister, my parents and sisters, the Hepker's and the Lamar's.

Pearl Harbor on our first full day.

The reason for the trip...the games. Pioneers took on some tough opponents and went 1-1. They played Monday and Tuesday mornings leaving us with the rest of the time to just take it all in!

Sauder Family Luau action

Keeley Family Luau action

Pretty cool watching the sun set with the ocean view!

Some of the team enjoying the luau

Some beautifu Hawaiian Luau "Barbies"

Conner, a Pioneer, making his rather lengthy guest appearance on stage

Snorkel Fun at Hanauma Bay

We got huge snow cones pretty much every day and ate at some neat restaurants

Beach Bums

Reese was a great little traveler. She didn't love the beach her first day and timed her afternoon naps perfectly during beach time for the rest of the trip.

Cade, however, LOVED the beach and the waves. He could've stayed out there all day every day and is anxious to go back. Perhaps we could find a closer beach to visit next time?
The kids slept fairly well and adjusted to Hawaii time pretty easily. They went to bed at about 8:30-9pm Hawaii time but still seemed to wake up at about their normal time according to Kansas time. Helped us to make the most of our time there. They usually napped on the go or not at all (Cade). They were good and tired when we returned back to the mainland.

The trip home was even more smooth as we flew through the night and the kids slept pretty much the whole time. We returned to Kansas to find snow on the ground. I even missed a snow day from school while I was gone. Best way to spend a snow day EVER!

If there were any stressful parts of this trip I must have already blocked them out and look back on it as a great week of making fun memories with my kids. It was a wonderful time and helps put everything into perspective. It makes tackling trips to the grocery store or keeping everyone quiet during Christmas Eve service seem like nothing after conquering a trip to Hawaii!

*For more fun pics see Gentry's recap of the trip at good 'ol Journeys of Gentry.

Reesie Update

Our Christmas girl turns 9 months today! Unfortunately her 9-month well-baby check-up isn't until mid-January. (I had hoped to get it done before our deductible started over...but apparently everyone was thinking that way...)

No height and weight stats so I'll have to come up with some others to share. Still 6 teeth, 6-9 mo clothes, size 3 diapers and infinite smiles.

She's still a great sleeper and an amazing traveler! Several firsts this month! First trip to see Santa...which I just realized I'll have to post about after Christmas. Oops.

Reese went on her first plane ride (which was only an hour long to Dallas) and since she did so well we decided to take her on her second plane ride (from Dallas to Honolulu)...for over 8 hours! Seriously, she continues to be the best baby. Never even a poorly timed poop! (Now I'm just getting cocky with fate here).

She is standing freely some, but knows her fastest way to get around is her lightning-fast crawl.

She decided the beach was not all it was cracked up to be, so after day 1 she preferred to nap while on the beach...which worked out pretty perfectly.

She attracts attention wherever we go with her sweet, sweet smiles.

Looking forward to the rest of the firsts that December will bring for Reese as we celebrate the birth of Christ the King!!