Mama's Girl

Reese is starting to act like she loves us a little bit- finally! She has never been a cuddly, snuggly baby. I mean, we know she likes us but she wouldn't lean into us or let us rock her before she went to sleep or hug her tight. She likes other people, which is definitely a good thing. But now she will be sitting on the floor, look up to me and raise her arms because she wants me to hold her. Spence and I always kiss after we say prayers (his parents always did it, and we just kind of naturally started doing it to.) The other night after family prayers we kissed and Reese tilted her head up to me because she wanted one too. Then she did it to Spence. We have gotten her to give kisses before but that was the first time she wanted to. She has a fever and a cold right now and last night she laid her head on my shoulder and let me rock her for awhile. She loves my Mom and Dad, but now when they are holding her if she is done she will lean toward me so I'll take her. I don't want her to become overly attached to me- separation is healthy. But it is nice that she is starting to show that she loves us because we love her so much.

January stinks

So I have decided that January is the lamest month of the year. Nothing left to look forward to now that Christmas and New Year's are over. It's cold and wet and where I live, it looks like this:

 Gray. All day. Every day.

I lived in Seattle for a while growing up and I didn't think it would bother me when we moved back but I am struggling. I need one of those UV happy lamps or something. I tell Spence every day that I wish tanning didn't give you cancer so I could go and get some vitamin D and some warmth (not to mention some color on my totally pastey legs.) I'll live through it- but this has definitely solidified my desire to go to grad school somewhere sunny and warm- Arizona, Texas, Florida, Hawaii.

Coming Home

When Spence and I were first married we met this awesome couple in our ward- Scott and Michelle Hart. They are great friends and they introduced us to rock climbing. There was a gym in Logan like 3 minutes from our house and we would go climbing 3-4 times a week. It is the best sport to do as couples because you can totally go at your own pace and skill level without slowing anyone else down (or making them feel bad because you are better at it than them.) When we were able to go that often we really saw ourselves improve. Of course, life changes and with a baby we have not exactly had the time to dedicate to this 'wholesome recreational activity.' But as part of our New Year's Resolutions we have decided to go rock climbing at least once a month. So yesterday we went with my mom and dad. Mom watched Reese while the other 3 of us climbed. I know this is going to sound way too deep for what I'm talking about but it was like coming home. I had the best time. Sure, I'm not nearly as good as I was before but it was so nice to be just me and my little muscles and the wall.

Spence aka Spider Man. He is just so tall he skips holds all the time and is up the wall before I can even blink.

My dad is 53 and totally keeps up with me. He and I were doing all the same climbs.

You can't see my face but it is beaming with joy.

Even Reese enjoyed herself. We will be getting her into a climbing harness as soon as possible.

It would have been so easy to be discouraged because it has been so long and I kind of have to start over. But kind of the opposite things happened- I want to go back as much as I can so I can work back up to it. I love it- and when you have something in your life that you enjoy that much you have to figure out a way to make it work.

Reese is 10 months old

We celebrated Reese's 10 month birthday by going to a one year old birthday of a little boy in our ward. I can't believe that will be Reese in 2 months- with frosting smeared all over her little face. There is nothing really new to report- she is still crawling around like a mad woman, standing and pulling stuff off of shelves, and still smiling at everyone she sees. She doesn't have any new teeth and still says 'da da' for everything. But there are some fun and quirky things that she has been doing that I never want to forget.

 We are so fortunate that she has not yet figured out how to open drawers and cabinets. But when I'm cooking and she wants to be with me in the kitchen I'll open the tuperware drawer for her. She loves taking them all out and carrying them around the kitchen. Too bad she doesn't love putting them back in.

 She has started growling. She has always been such a happy and noisy baby, but now she growls constantly. It's so funny to hear the grainy quality to her voice.

 She wants to climb over everything. She loves to have you lay on the ground so she can crawl over you. Anytime we hold her on the couch she tries to crawl over the edge of the arm. We have to keep a close eye on her because I know one of these days she is going to leap off.

 She likes to put something in her mouth while she is doing something else. So she often has a toy in each hand and one in her mouth. Or something in her mouth while she is crawling around.

 I wish I could buy this child a little baby jungle gym. She likes to crawl under the table and weave her way in and out of the chair legs. It's amazing to watch her problem solving abilities. Sometimes she will get stuck but she doesn't cry, she just keeps trying different things until something works.

 I started renting Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to limit the Elmo time. She is starting to talk like a muppet. She will say 'da da da' and will move her head up and down like Elmo and his friends. She is our little muppet baby.

She has way more fun taking her toys and books off of the shelves then actually playing with them. She likes to grab the DVD cases and look at the pictures and slobber all over them.

Happy 10 month birthday to little Reese!

Old habits die hard

So I went to the photo desk at Fred Meyer today to pick up some pictures that I had dropped off. They couldn't find them! They weren't in the drawer under "Watts." They weren't on the counter and they weren't in the machine. Turns out I had typed my last name in as "Thorpe." I have been married for over 4 years and I have never done that before. Kind of funny.

Another nap time gone

So Reese has been asleep for an hour. An hour ago I turned on my computer with full intentions of working on my talk I'm giving in church on Sunday. But here we are 60 minutes later and... no talk. I have spent the last hour looking at blogs, uploading pictures to facebook, reading people's walls on facebook, shopping for a new head band, eating a snack while I checked my favorite photographer's website and now writing a blog post about it. Social media got to me again... whoops.

I can't live without...

 If I could keep this in a holster on my belt- I would. Reese spits up regularly and almost always on the carpet... or my pants... or Spencer's shirt.

 Reese loves Elmo's World so much. She will not sit still on her own unless this is on. She is in love with Mr. Noodle- the second he comes on screen she laughs and laughs. This is how I get things done while she is awake. (I'm not a bad mom- she only gets 30 minutes a day.)

 The best high chair for apartment living. Plus, Reese is a social girl and wouldn't be happy unless she was at the table with us. This is also how we read books because she won't sit still if she isn't strapped in.

This is Lovey. If Reese has this little guy to suck on, she goes to sleep like a champ.

And of course, these two :)

Hooray!

Reese's pictures came in the mail today and I LOVE THEM! Spence does too :) I have picked out a few... well actually a lot... of our favorites. We need to pick one to blow up big to hang in our house- let me know which one you like best.

More Christmas Fun

 So this year we did a lot of fun things to celebrate the season. We took Reese to get her picture with Santa (which reminds me, I need to scan it so I can post it- so stay tuned.) We went to the Festival of the Nativities at our church building. It was amazing- there were nativities from all around the world. They also had a live nativity (someone in our ward asked if we had volunteered. We laughed so hard- not only is Reese huge now but she is so noisy. It would not have been spiritual at all.) We went into Seattle to see the gingerbread competition they do at the Sheraton to benefit research for juvenile diabetes. We took our good pals Brett and Jenna Alvey with us. It was fun to take this picture because Reese was smiling and drawing the attention of everyone standing around waiting. She is such a babe.

We also went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens again this year. They recreate the plants they have there in the Spring out of Christmas lights. It is amazing. This year they had a scavenger hunt to find all the animals throughout the gardens. It was for kids, but we had fun looking for them anyway.

The last thing we did (after Christmas actually, but that's ok) was go down to Tacoma to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium for Zoo Lights. It is similar to the Botanical Gardens but they have lots of animal scenes. They also have an old antique carousel that we took Reese on. It was so fun- we picked a tiger that didn't go up and down just to be safe. But she loved going round and round and waving at all the people.

 Here is a short little video of us on the carousel. Enjoy!

Annual Thorpe Family Gingerbread Competition

 Sorry for all the Christmas posts but I need to do some catching up and we have done lots of fun stuff. Every year my family does a gingerbread competition- it is our favorite tradition and we look forward to it all year. We buy (and eat) way too much candy and make a huge mess but we all love it.

 Mom usually goes for a mosaic style- very cute Santa this year.

 Kara and Josh made a Christmas tree out of frosted mini wheats. There is also a sleigh on there.

 Dad always says he has no ideas and then does something awesome. This is his ski village. the little condos had windows and front doors with shoveled walkways.

 Al made a helicopter pad with Santa's sleigh coming in for a landing.

Another mosaic. It was cute, colorful and kind of random- a lot like Selina :)

 

My tribute to the Nightmare Before Christmas. Notice Jack on the left behind the graveyard. The Oogie Boogie Man (made of a green Air Head) is on the right by the Christmas tree. I'm not going to lie- I was pretty excited about this. Nerdy... I know.

So where is Spencer's contribution this year? It's right here...

Yes, even though Spence loves doing the gingerbreads, he sacrificed himself and took care of Reese while we all played. It was really sweet of him because he usually dominates us all with his awesome creations.

Christmas

We had an awesome first Christmas as a family. On Christmas Eve we spent the day at my parent's place. My sister Megan and her husband Boone were in town and we really enjoyed being with them. The Elders came over and had lunch with us and played dominoes and Chinese Ping Pong. Mom had made sugar cookies so we decorated those (we stole two to bring home and leave out for Santa.) We spent the rest of the day watching How to Train Your Dragon (loved it- seriously), eating way to much, and playing some games. We opened our siblings gifts that night- thanks to Josh and Megan for our gifts! We read the Christmas story in Luke 2 as well as some other scriptures from the Book of Mormon. We have a little baby sized plush nativity so we let Reese play with the pieces as we told her the story of the Savior's birth.
Once we were home as a little family we put out Santa's cookies, milk and some carrots for the reindeer. We put Reese in her Christmas jammies and read a story.

On Christmas morning Spence and I got up so we would be ready for Reese when she woke up. She woke around 8:30 (our baby is awesome) and we brought her out to see what Santa had brought for her. She loved her stuffed Elmo in her stocking and liked her car from Santa but is still figuring it out.

Her favorite thing of the morning was a blue bow from one of the boxes. She crawled around with it stuck to her hand and then she would sit down and just look at it. We opened our gifts from Ed and Lorie and Dallin and Morgan (thanks guys!) Before heading back over to my parent's house.

Everyone was up and waiting for us so we got to dig right in. Reese had the most presents out of anyone, so we were all helping her open her new toys, books and clothes. Presents are so fun- to get and to give. My favorite presents I got were a Whippy Cake head band from Spence and some bird pictures from my parents. My favorite presents to give were surprise Adidas to Spencer, a new rug for my parents and Reese's new Elmo. Christmas day was spent eating again (turkey dinner- yummy) and watching the Madagascar Christmas movies (so funny!) We played more games and really just enjoyed being together as a family. We Skyped with Ed and Lorie- we sure did miss the Watts side of our family. We are truly blessed to both have awesome parents that we love and respect. Our first Christmas with Reese was a total success and we loved every minute of it.