Spence, Amy and Reese

Video Dump

2012-01-06T08:26:00.001-08:00

I realized I hadn't posted several cute videos of Reese. Ok, 6 cute videos. Hope you enjoy them on our private blog. Click HERE!

Christmas activities, more about Reese

2011-12-21T15:17:00.000-08:00

New posts on our private blog. Click here!

Several new posts

2011-10-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

New posts about our trip to Victoria, Mt. Rainier, Spencer's birthday and me going back to school.

Click here!

Reese is 18 months

2011-09-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Check out the new posts on my private blog by clicking here

If you need an invite, please leave a comment with your e-mail address. Thanks!

New posts- 5k, funny Reese stuff

2011-08-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

Click here! Leave a comment with your e-mail if you need an invite to our private blog. Thanks!

Awesome giveaway

2011-08-22T10:14:00.001-07:00

There is a great giveaway over at Whippy Cake. But if you win, you have to share with me because I'm the one who told you about it :)

Click here

Moses Lake and Reese 17 months- videos

2011-08-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

New post on our private blog. Click here. Leave a comment with your e-mail if you need an invite. Enjoy!

New Post with video

2011-07-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

New post on our private blog. Click here. If you need an invite, leave a comment with your e-mail address. Thanks!

Birthday etc.

2011-06-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

New posts on our private blog about the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, Vashon Island and my birthday. Click here. Leave a comment with your e-mail if you need to be invited. Thanks- Happy Summer!

Videos

2011-05-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

New videos of Reese on our private blog

Click here

Mother's Day

2011-05-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Click here to go to our private blog. If you need an invite, leave a comment with your e-mail address. Thanks!

Easter etc.

2011-04-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

New posts on our private blog at http://spenceandamy.blogspot.com

Utah Trip and Star Wars

2011-04-13T23:09:00.001-07:00

More new posts on our private blog. Check it out here.

http://spenceandamy.blogspot.com

Olympic Peninsula Day 2 and 3

2011-04-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd finally finish posting about our trip like a month and a half ago. See the posts here

http://spenceandamy.blogspot.com

Reese's Birthday Party

2011-03-17T16:27:00.000-07:00

New post here www.spenceandamy.blogspot.com

Blogging question- please help

2011-03-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

I was trying to do a blog post about Reese's birthday party and an error message came up saying that I had run out of free storage and I needed to buy more in order to post anymore pictures. Has this happened to anyone else? I tried to read up on it, but there is no way I have used all my storage- I have only been blogging for a year. Someone please explain this to me and let me know if this has happened to you. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Reese!

2011-03-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

There is a new post on our private blog. To see it click here. If you would like to be invited to our blog, leave a comment with our e-mail address. Thanks!

Olympic Peninsula Day 1

2011-03-09T16:32:00.001-08:00

There is a new post on our private blog here. If you need an invite, please leave a comment. Thanks!

A little bit of me

2011-03-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

There is a new post on our private blog. Click here. If you haven't been invited to our private blog, please leave a comment with your e-mail address. Thank you!

FYI

2011-03-03T10:43:00.001-08:00

I forgot to tell you that I will be keeping this blog public. When I do a new post on the private blog, I'll put a note here so that your blog feeds will let you know that I have updated. So keep me on your 'friend' list, ok? Thanks!

Going private- for real this time

2011-02-25T21:32:00.000-08:00

So since we have started uploading so many videos and since Reese is getting older we have decided to go private. Please leave your e-mail address in the comments or send me an e-mail at amy.t.watts@gmail.com Thanks!

Reese's First Dentist Appointment

2011-02-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

I took Reese to the dentist today and she did awesome. You are supposed to take them 6 months after their first tooth erupts. Actually when I called I figured we wouldn't get in for a few months but they said they had an opening today so I took it.

She did so awesome. She sat on my lap like a champ and smiled. She let the assistant brush her teeth with the prophy paste and look at her teeth with the mirror. When the Doctor came we laid her down on our laps and she looked at her teeth and gums. Reese even let her put a flouride varnish on her teeth. Everyone kept saying how great she was doing and how almost all kids that age cry the whole time.

She has 4 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom. #4 on the bottom should be here by the end of the week. The Doctor said she can feel a molar on the top right that will be her next tooth to come in after that (yikes!) I hope she teeths as well with molars as she had with the rest of her teeth.

Anyway- I was super proud of our little girl.

Playing with your food

2011-02-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Tortilla Chip Day

2011-02-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

Happy Hour

2011-02-22T19:55:00.000-08:00

We had the most fun tonight. Reese was in a silly mood and the three of us just played and played. Check out this first video- our little girl is starting to WALK! (please ignore my hair and PJ's)

Then she was making funny faces.

And then she laughed... and laughed... and then laughed so hard she fell over!

It was the best night ever!

Ed and Lorie's Mission Call

2011-02-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

Spencer's parents have been called to serve as the mission presidents in the Guatemala City North mission. We are thrilled for them. They told us about the call over Thanksgiving and we have been patiently (ok, not so patiently) waiting to hear where they were headed. They report to the MTC in Provo on June 22 through the 26 and then they will arrive in Guatemala on July 1, 2011.

Guatemala is on the isthmus that connects Mexico to South America. We are happy it is not farther south. Flights to Guatemala from Texas (where Spencer's brother lives and where we hope to go to grad school) are only around $200 a person. We may get to visit Ed and Lorie more than once!

Here are some stats about Guatemala from the church website. They are from 2001 but I couldn't find any updated information.

National population: approximately 11.5 million
Church membership: more than 179,000
Stakes: 40
Missions: 4
Wards and branches: 453
Church-owned meetinghouses: 261
Temple: Guatemala City, dedicated in 1984
Missionary Training Center: Guatemala City

Happy Gumdrop Day

2011-02-15T21:11:00.000-08:00

Reese is 11 months old!

2011-02-15T08:44:00.000-08:00

One more month and we will have a 1 year old! That is just CRAZY. Reese is really growing up. She has such personality- she is sweet and stubborn and smart and totally awesome.

Badger Face

This month has brought some changes in her. She is still talking constantly but it has changed. Instead of just 'da da da da' over and over she really changes up the syllables and jabbers. I think she is really wanting to say things- she will get intense and you can tell she is thinking really hard.

Just today she got the hang of walking with her little plastic car/ walker. She gets more and more brave each day trying to walk between the furniture and stuff. Here is a little video of it.

She wants to feed herself more now. She will still take pureed stuff in a spoon but she needs finger foods in between to keep herself occupied. She does really well but it sure gets messy. We are trying to let that go and just roll with it. She will feed herself a bottle too, but we still hold her most of the time because that's as close to cuddling as we get. Also- we have started her on cow's milk. We had been working on it and she just wasn't loving it. But the other day she figured out how to drink out of my Camelbak. So we gave her some milk in it and she went to town. Now she has her own little mini camelbak and has milk with every meal.

Also- she likes to put bites on top of her sippy cup and then eat it off the lid. She will do that with toys too- put them on top of something and then pick them up with her mouth.

She is back to enjoying being read to. She will take a book off the shelf and sit and look at you like 'hey- come read this to me.' She picks the same ones over and over- Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, Gossie and Gertie, Count my Kisses, and I Love You Through and Through.

She loves to be chased. All you have to say is "I'm gonna get you..." and she'll take off. She also likes being tickled but only if she is in the mood. But when she is she will just laugh and laugh and it's so cute.

We are trying to give her (and me) more social interaction. We go to play group on Tuesdays and to story time at the library on Fridays. She does well with other kids for the most part. She just doesn't like it when they pull her hair.

She is in a big-girl car seat now. She is well over the weight requirement so we went ahead and faced her forward. She loves being able to see where we are going. She can also see us, which makes her whine a little bit more but she it figuring things out.

She is just super cute and getting so big and next month she will be 1 year old!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T14:03:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it but this is our 6th Valentine's Day together. Actually, 2-14-2006 was our second date. I remember being so nervous because we were still getting to know each other. I didn't want Spencer to feel obligated or weird. But he took me out to the Blue Bird and we went back to his place to watch a movie. He gave me a card with a picture of a donkey on it that said something funny. I still have it somewhere. Everything was new and exciting- the way it is at the beginning of a relationship. Since our first date we have hardly gone more than a few days without seeing each other (except that first summer when I went home.) I think about the day we met, when he called to ask me out, our first date, our first kiss and I can remember so much about how I felt and how much I just enjoying being with him. It was definitely different and better then anything else I had ever felt and I knew from the beginning that it was different. Now, 5 years later, I still consider myself so lucky to have married that first date. It was my last first date, but I have never once been sad about that. Now I have the best partner in the world to share all the rest of my 'firsts' with. Including this one:

Reese is the second love of my life- Spencer's too. She makes me smile and laugh everyday. She has brought back that sense of newness because every day with her is new. She is learning and growing and changing. Our love for each other has grown through her and she makes both Spence and I better people.

So Happy Valentine's Day to all of you and especially to my two Valentines- I love you both!

Spencer's Tribute to Honest Abe

2011-02-14T13:30:00.001-08:00

I think he looks pretty cute, but I definitely prefer a baby-face Spencer.

Giveaway

2011-02-14T09:19:00.001-08:00

There is a super cute giveaway over at whippycake.com/blog today. Go check it out!

Funny February Holidays

2011-02-11T14:10:00.000-08:00

I was recently inspired by my friend Sara. She is super creative in the activities and parties she plans for her and her hubby, their one year old and their friends. This year they celebrated Groundhog's Day. This is from her blog (which is private or I'd send you all over there right now.)

"And yes we celebrated Phil this year by watching one of our all time favorite movies Groundhog day. I could watch that movie today and the next day, and the next, and the next.... We also enjoyed some delicious Punxsutawney Phil Pie. I first attempted to draw a groundhog with the chocolate syrup but that ended in disaster. So I quickly watercolored up this picture instead. The pie was topped with grasshopper cookies because groundhogs occasionally eat grasshoppers."

Spence and I pretty much do the same things every night- watch a show, play a game, workout or read (and of course play with Reese.) So in an effort to be a little more creative, we are starting to celebrate the totally random holidays in each month. For example... did you know today is White T-Shirt Day? All three of us are participating. How easy was that?

Tomorrow is Abraham Lincoln's birthday and we will be celebrating it by reading a picture book about his life and cooking his favorite meal- chicken fricassee and biscuits. We were going to make pretzel log cabins but I think we will wait until Reese is a little older.

Here are a few more days that might be fun to celebrate with your kids:

Feb. 14- Valentine's Day, obviously
Feb. 15- Gumdrop Day- We will be making sculptures with gum drops and toothpicks
Feb. 17- Random Acts of Kindness Day
Feb. 20- Love Your Pet Day- Reese and I will take Bicho to the dog park and visit Petco
Feb. 24- Tortilla Chip Day- nachos for dinner!
Feb. 26- Tell a Fairy Tale Day- a whole day of fairy tale books and games
Feb. 27- Polar Bear Day- we will visit the library to read some books about polar bears
Feb. 28- Tooth Fairy Day- maybe Reese will be nice and let me brush her teeth without screaming

Hopefully we can get some pictures of these celebrations to share. Let me know if you do anything fun for these special days!

For Grandma

2011-02-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

So my sweet Grandma Edna loves Reese. When I call to talk to her the first thing she says is "how's my baby?" I'm so glad that they have a relationship and it's awesome that even though Grandma Edna has a ton of great grandkids and even a few great-great grandkids she still takes a personal interest in Reese. So I shot this video of Reese and wanted to post it so my sister can pull it up on her Iphone and show it to Grandma. We love you!

(we were listening to Disney music so just try to ignore the Pirates Life for Me in the background. Next time I'll pick a cuter song.)

Also, speaking of my Grandma, I have a random cleaning tip for you. Next time you finish cleaning your toilet (everyone's favorite job, I know) try this with the brush:

That way it can drip dry and you don't get gross toilet water in the bottom of your brush holder. My grandma showed me that last time I visited. Then I came home and showed my Mom and she thought it was the greatest thing ever. Maybe everyone does this already but it was a revelation to me so thanks Grandma!

Comments

2011-02-08T09:22:00.001-08:00

So my cute friend let me know that she hadn't been able to comment on my blog. I changed the settings around (including removing the annoying word verification thing... sorry I didn't even know I had that.) So hopefully it's better now. Thanks for reading my blog and sharing your thoughts with me!

Be Happy

2011-02-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

That was one of my goals last week. I have just been struggling lately and I shouldn't be. I have a wonderful husband, a sweet daughter and family who lives close by. I have several great friends (well, I have many but several within a 30 mile radius.) I live in an apartment that is safe and warm. I have a car to drive and food to eat. Spence has a great job that allows me to stay home and be a mom. I have a strong testimony and relationship with my Savior. But I have just been bumming out.

So last week my goals were to stay busy and be happy. I love staying at home with Reese and most days I make really good use of my time- working out, reading scriptures, keeping the house (relatively) clean and organized and working toward personal goals. But sometimes I don't. It's weird how when you have a lot of time on your hands, sometimes you just don't do anything because you don't have to. Then when you don't do anything you feel totally unaccomplished and depressed. I wish I was better at self motivating- I'm working on it.

So all last week I was happy- each and every day I found a million things to be happy about. A bird landed on my balcony and I got to watch it = happy. Reese figured out how to drink out of my Camelbak = happy. Spence cleaned up all the Superbowl dishes (and there were a lot of them) = happy. Reese did awesome at church yesterday = double happy. Al took 3rd in KingCo for wrestling = happy. I finished a really great book (Half Broke Horses) = happy. The list goes on and on and it's growing everyday.

I'm feeling much better and I'm going to keep working on it.

Mama's Girl

2011-01-27T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-18T14:45:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-12T16:25:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-01-07T18:28:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-01-03T18:47:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-01T21:41:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

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.

Are you ready...

2010-12-29T12:26:00.000-08:00

... to die of cuteness overload? I just got the preview of Reese's pictures and here it is!

I am freaking out with excitement. Here is the story- when we found out we were pregnant we were living in Logan, UT. The first thing I did was call the doctor I wanted and the second thing I did was e-mail Skye Johansen. She had done some absolutely beautiful maternity and newborn shots for our friends the Wimmers. Anyway- when we moved away before Reese was born I was so bummed I couldn't get her newborn shots done by Skye (check out her website- she is seriously amazing.) We had my Mom's friend take some and they turned out beautiful- but we were all amateurs and it just wasn't quite the same. So when we decided to go to St. George for Thanksgiving, Spencer said we could stop in Lehi to get some pictures done. Then we had a huge snow storm and there was no way we could squeeze it in before Thanksgiving. Skye was awesome and let us reschedule for after- but Spence wouldn't be there so we couldn't do family shots. I was bummed about that but look how cute Reese's came out!!! She is mailing me the whole CD tomorrow so be prepared for a picture overload when I get them. I love this little girl and I'm so glad to have beautiful pictures that show her personality so I can remember her just this way.

The Christmas Tie

2010-12-17T09:10:00.000-08:00

My Dad has a million ties. He has worn a tie to work everyday probably since before I was born. Some people in his office take a 'casual Friday.' Not my Dad- he still wears a tie. My Mom has offered to get him a nice rotating tie rack. He said no- he keeps them all on a wooden rack and he says he has a system. Some ties have been given to him as gifts. Some ties are from other countries. Some ties are really, really nice. Some ties are not. When my little brother was asked to describe our Dad for a Father's Day project, one of the first things he said was "my Dad wears a tie."

My Dad is a wonderful man. He has worked hard his whole life to support his family, to teach us the things we need to know about the gospel and the world. But he plays hard too. When I was little, he would come home from work and take his tie off- that meant he was ready to play. I know my Dad was busy with work and callings and personal interests but he took the time to play with us every night. He is my friend and he cares about me. When he gives me a hug it is never cursory- he means it every time.

I told my Dad once, probably a long time ago, that this is my favorite of his ties. I don't know where he bought it or who gave it to him. I don't even remember when I told him that. But every year at Christmas he saves this tie just for me. When I would come home from college for the holidays he would wear it to church for me. This tie is one of the many ways that he tells me how much he loves me. I live closer to him now and I get to see him more often, so you might think small gestures like this wouldn't need to happen any more. But last week when we went to have lunch with him at his office he wore this tie again- just for me.

Little Reese is 9 months old

2010-12-14T10:42:00.000-08:00

Even though her 8 month post was only 2 weeks ago, we definitely have some new developments to report. Tooth number 7 is here but just barely peeking through on the bottom. Everything goes in Reese's mouth, it doesn't matter what it is. Our good friend Meaghan Latimer sent us an adorable owl for Reese for Christmas. She looked at it for a second, then grabbed it and stuffed it in her mouth. That means, she loved it.

Reese with 'baby Grinch' hair after she woke up from a nap

She is getting so much more interactive in her play. She loves for us to stack her blocks so she can knock them over. She has figured out how to roll things, so she will roll them away from her and then crawl after them.

Her new favorite game is to stand on the diaper caddy and pull all the diapers out and toss them around the room. Speaking of which- she is pulling herself up to stand now. She has gotten really good at it and is able to sit down carefully when she is done (most of the time.) She likes to climb the little stairs at my parent's house, but always wants to turn right back around and go down them head first.

She is making lots more sounds and is actually combining some. The other day she said "dat" for like 5 minutes. She also whistled yesterday- it was pretty funny. I can't wait to see if she does it again. She is SO NOISY! At least she is happy, but I'm telling you she is so loud and especially at church. The other day we were driving in the car and Spence called me. I had to have him call me back later because she was babbling so loud I could not hear a word he was saying.

She has definitely learned the meaning on the word 'no.' She is actually pretty obedient (for a 9 month old.) She will go for the Christmas tree chords and I'll say "Reesie, No No." She will look at me and smile and then crawl away to play with something else. I'll enjoy it while it lasts. (I love this picture because not only is she heading for the tree, but she is a total blur. The majority of my pictures turn out this way- she just never sits still.)

She still loves her tubby time but it is starting to give me severe anxiety. She won't stay sitting down but wants to crawl all over the tub and try to stand and it's slippery and I'm just waiting for her to bang her little face on something. If anyone has any advice please share it!

She is still just as friendly as can be. Anywhere we go she is making eyes at someone. It's actually been pretty cool because she has no prejudice, she will smile at anyone. On the plane home from Utah there was a young twenties kind of punk looking kid sitting in the row behind us. He had a long pony tail and some earrings and stuff. He and I probably would not have made eye contact or spoken to each other, but Reese just grinned at him and he smiled back. Then I smiled at him and he smiled at me and we were all a little bit happier then we were before.

She is just such a happy kid- most of the time anyway. We are so fortunate and truly blessed to have her with us. She is my little buddy and she teaches me a lot about being Christlike, looking at people with no preconceived notions and she definitely teaches me a little about patience. She has helped me discover some of my weaknesses but also some of my strengths. We love her more every second.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

2010-12-13T22:34:00.000-08:00

Even though Reese is crawling all over the place, we still wanted to get a Christmas tree. This is the 5th Christmas that Spence and I have spent together. Every Christmas- even our first one being married 1 month and living in a hole of an apartment that was $280 a month- we have named our Christmas trees. Petree (like on the Land Before Time), Steve (the name of the hedge on "Over the Hedge"), Mr. Norwall (like the weird whale on "Elf"), and Shaq ("ahhhh... the greatest in the universe"). We would like to introduce this year's tree: Mahem. Have you seen that Allstate commercial? If you haven't, here it is. It's hilarious.

There are lots more Mayhem commercials- check them out on YouTube.

We had talked about going to cut down our own tree, but then realized it would be me and Reese standing in the cold while Spence worked the axe. So we went to the Home Depot instead. It was really kind of a non event- we walked in, Spence picked up a tree and said "how about this one?" It looked pretty good so we bought it. Reese and I left so the sound of the saw wouldn't scare her. We were done- easy.

In true Watts family tradition, we decorated our tree and then sat on a blanket in the living room to eat doughnuts and drink hot chocolate. Reese loved the doughnut, but wasn't crazy about the tepid semi-chocolate flavored water we gave her in a sippy cup. That's how Spencer's family has always done it, so we are happy to carry out the tradition.

After four years of marriage we finally found an angel we both like. Well, I like it and Spencer tolerates it. As you know angels don't have wings but we have never found a 'doctrinally correct one.' He tried to rip her wings off, but it wasn't worth the hassel. The only other problem is that she is HUGE. She looks like a dinosaur angel on top of our tree. Oh well, we will just have to get a 12 footer next year.

Living Vicariously

2010-12-08T15:48:00.000-08:00

So I didn't start dancing until high school but I loved ballet. I never got really good, so I have decided that Reese is going to be an amazing dancer so I can live vicariously through her. She has already started...

I'm pretty sure I saw a changement, a pas de chat and a petit jete in there. And check out that turn out! Swan Lake, here we come.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-12-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

We headed south for Thanksgiving this year as it was Spencer's family's turn. The Watts clan does Thanksgiving in St. George with Ed's family, so not only did we drive 12 hours to Logan but then we pulled an extra 5.5 to St. George. It was worth it though. We were do happy to stay in Logan with Ed and Lorie for a night. They usually don't put up their Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, but they had it all up as a surprise for us. Reese had to get her picture with Santa in their living room.

Reese and Mimi (Spencer's mom, Lorie)

Spencer's brother Paul and his family came all the way from Texas. Reese loved her cousins- especially Ruby, who is almost 2. She would just watch her walk around and crawled after her all the time. All of their kids were so sweet to Reese and we were thrilled they were with us. Dallin and his girlfriend Morgan came too. We are all excited for that to become more official sometime soon.

Reese and Ruby

Thanksgiving night we got a big surprise. Ed and Lorie always give us a gift that night to start the Christmas season- usually a book. But then they gave us a box to all open together- even Spencer's sister Lisa and her husband Ken were on the phone with us. Inside the box was a little piece of paper that read "We are going on a mission." We were shocked! They have been called to preside over a Spanish speaking mission, but we won't know which one until early March. We couldn't be more excited for them, but we will of course miss them tons since they will be gone for 3 years. We are already saving our money in case we need to visit them in Argentina or something.

Reese's first Thanksgiving

Spencer had to drive home Monday, but Reese and I stayed in Layton so I could see my 2 grandmas and my sisters. When I lived in Logan, I spent a lot of time at Christmas with my Grandma Edna. She and I would put up her tree and decorations, go to Temple Square, watch Christmas movies and make holiday candy. She loves Reese so much, so it was fun to do some of these things just the 3 of us.

Reese bundled up to see the lights in Layton Park

Reese standing up and trying to climb the stairs- which she did successfully several times

My sweet Grandma Edna reading Reese a book

So Thanksgiving was awesome- full of family and food and fun. We love Spencer's side of our family so much- Paul and Glory, and Dallin and Morgan are so awesome (we of course missed Ken and Lisa too.) Family is a special blessing, and I couldn't be luckier when it comes to my in laws. I don't even think of them that way- we are sealed, so I love them just as much as my own brother and sisters and their spouses too. And we are incredibly blessed to have so many living grandparents. We both have wonderful examples to follow. I hope your Thanksgivings were just as awesome.

Reese is 8 months old (actually, 8 and a half)

2010-12-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

So I wrote this post 2 weeks ago and forgot to finish it- but better late then never. I know I sound like a broken record but I can't believe my baby is 8 months old! We were gone for a week on 'vacation' and when we got home she was bigger. Not only was she bigger but she is definitely mobile now. She was tentatively crawling when we left but now she is all over the place. She sits her self up, lays her self down, rolls, crawls and sits up again.

A typical view of her crawling away

I can't even tell you how much I missed her while we were gone. I think if we had been having more fun, it wouldn't have been as bad. I actually cried when we saw her I was so happy. She has 4 teeth on top and still just the two on the bottom. She wants to eat everything- EVERYTHING! It doesn't matter if it's crunchy, spicy, cold or sweet. She especially loves her munch bag (I don't know what it's really called, but it's a mesh bag with a plastic handle. You put fruit bits in it or whatever and she can chew on them without the risk of choking.) She loves it, and actually gets a little possessive when you try to take it away. Her favorite treat in there are orange slices. Unfortunately, it makes quite a mess so we have to use our poncho bibs (thanks to Drew and Kristi Clark for those!)

She loves watching Elmo's World and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves music- when I turn the Ipod on she just looks at the speaker for a while and smiles. She is starting to laugh a lot more. She likes playing peek-a-boo type games. Spence likes to do it while I'm holding her and then she laughs and flails her arms, usually smacking me in the face but I don't mind. She is getting a little snugglier- she will at least lean into you a bit. She is getting close to waving. She won't raise her hand up, but she opens and closes her fingers. She is still doing great recognizing her signs. She has started making a 'vee' sound which is so cute. She just gabs all the time. She gets really silly and extra fun about an hour before bed time and that is the best time of day because all three of us just have such a hoot together. We love her so much and can't imagine life without our little babe.

Carnival Splendor Wednesday and Thursday

2010-11-22T10:06:00.000-08:00

So about this time on our trip Spence and I got tired of making the captains log and started journaling the way it really was.

*Wednesday November 10, 2010 4:00pm

It has been a better day. They started serving food in 3 places instead of 1 so the lines have been better but the caliber of food still isn't great. The weather has been a bit warmer so we spent a lot of time today out on deck. We both finally bit the bullet and took freezing cold showers with the door open so we could get some light. We saw some dolphins this morning which was fun. We are making good time and they say we will be in San Diego by noon on Thursday but we will still have to disembark. We finally got cell service and I called Mom. I couldn't talk long, but she did ask if I was eating Pop Tarts. I thought it was really weird she would ask me that. I found out later that we have been all over the news. They are saying all we have is Spam and Pop Tarts- I would love a pop tart but I haven't seen any. We did have a very nice fellow passenger give us a can of Pringles. He had waited in line for an hour when they opened the gift shop but somehow ended up getting more then he needed. It was so nice.

We thought this was so funny- they were on every floor by the elevators and almost all of them spelled vomit with a 'd'

Me and our delicious can of Pringles- what a treat

The pop tarts appeared Thursday morning at breakfast. Breakfast really was the best meal- cereal and yogurt as opposed to weird sandwiches and lettuce.

By Wednesday we were really getting bored. We also were really struggling with the smells of the ship. You pretty much had 4 choices: inside it smelled like spoiled and rotting food, outside it smelled like diesel from the emergency generator, many floors smelled like human waste (sorry that's gross) and lots of the common rooms smelled like cigarette smoke. We chose the cigarette smoke- we would sit in the smokers lounge and play cards because that was the smell we could stand the most. Our clothes reeked when I unpacked our suit cases. The rotting food smell was the worst and it was so hard to wait in line for food for an hour and smell it. By Wednesday night, I couldn't eat dinner because I was so tired of the food and it all reeked so bad. So like I said, those Pop Tarts Thursday morning were awesome.

Lucky for us we pulled into San Diego Thursday morning around 8:00am. We had no power still so that meant no propulsion and no steering. So we were so close for so long, but the tugs had to pull and push us in real slow. Then they had to hook up all the gang planks manually. By some divine providence, we were in the first disembarkation group- there were 30 groups I think. So we were one of the very first people off the boat. They had a tent set up with agents to help us with our travel arrangements- they had booked us a very nice room at the Westin in Los Angeles. They also provided buses for everyone.

San Diego

Doesn't Spence look happy in this picture?

Lucky for us, our good friends Scott and Meaghan Latimer were in San Diego, so they picked us up. However, in order to leave the dock and get to a place where we could meet up with them we had to/ got to walk through the media. There were vans and satellite trucks all over from all the major networks who wanted coverage on the story. Since we were some of the first people off both Spence and I were able to be interviews. Spence didn't love it but I thought it was a hoot. They were shoving cameras and microphones in my face and asking me all these questions. I got e-mails and text messages from people all over the place- Washington, Utah, Texas- who saw Spence and I on TV or read quotes from us in the paper. Here are a few links to our interviews:

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/107287843.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/12/earlyshow/main7047942.shtml

On this one I am quoted in the written story and then if you watch the video we are at the 2 minute mark. We both kind of look like goons, but oh well.

So needless to say, we were glad it was over. We were tempted to fly home Friday night, but since the Latimer's were there and we had free hotel accommodations, we decided to stay until Sunday night and end our vacation on a high note with hot food, hot showers and Disneyland. Details to come!

Carnival Splendor- Monday afternoon and Tuesday

2010-11-21T16:24:00.000-08:00

Sorry it took me so long to continue the epic saga- we moved this week! More on that later, but for now let me take you back to the Splendor.

Captain's Log Monday November 8th, 2010 1600 hours
Due to my forsight and many years as a seasoned sea captain I have just barely decided to contact the closest port- Ensanada Mexico. We are still unsure whether we can get our propulsion system running, so Ensanada has dispatched 2 tug boats in case we need to be towed in. Luckily it is a lovely 65 degrees, cloudy and windy so I'm sure the passengers will enjoy sun bathing out on deck.

1700 hours
I have just been informed that some passengers have the audacity to be worrying about how Carnival will be compensating them for this little speed bump. If it were up to me, the passengers would be grateful! It's not everyday you have a hero for a captain. I guess 15 hours without working toilets would make my 3374 passengers a little crabby.

* This was a the longest day EVER! We walked around, stood in line for food, read, played 2-person Yahtzee, Skipbo and Phase 10, laid in our room (it was impossible to nap as they were making announcements every 5 seconds.) We went on deck but it was cloudy and windy. It was not awesome.

2200 hours
We just made the last announcement of the night, but I'm sure the passengers will hear my melodious voice even in their dreams. The toilets are working and we expect the tug boats between 1 and 4am. So all in all, not a bad day. I think I'll wear my Spongebob tie for Letterman.

Tuesday November 9th, 2010 0400 hours
The tugboats we expected by now have not arrived. Apparently they have all night Happy Hours in Ensanada and they won't be here until mid-day. It's just as well, because I am doing a great job in the mean time.

0600 hours
So I just got a call from the US Coastguard and the US Navy. Apparently they are sending a Coastguard boat and an aircraft carrier. It's completely unnecessary- I have it all under control.

US Coastguard

USS Ronald Reagan

0800 hours
Uh Oh- we are running out of water and food. I guess it's good that the USS Ronald Reagan is here and it's helicopter can fly in some provisions. We thought we saw a huge piece of drift wood, but it turned out to be a Mexican Navy ship. I radioed over, but they didn't have any hot tacos on board.

The helicopter from the Ronald Reagan brought us 60 pallets of supplies.

The ship from the Mexican Navy

* So today we really did see the Coast Guard, the Mexican Navy and the USS Ronald Reagan. That was probably the brightest spot in our trip so far. It's a good thing it wasn't the USS Jimmy Carter or Spence might have thrown himself overboard.

The captain told us the plan was to be tugged to Ensanada and we would disembark there. I thought it sounded disastrous- how were they going to get all 3374 of us off the ship, through customs and border patrol and then into the US? So at 6:00pm on Tuesday he announced that we would be tugged to San Diego instead. This meant that we would be on the ship an extra day and a half- we would arrive in San Diego Thursday night. Throughout the day we went from having 1 tug boat to two to expecting 5 total but only ever ended up with three.

One of our tug boats- the Chihuahua

More to come soon!

Carnival Splendor- Sunday and Monday morning

2010-11-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

Where to even start. I thought about doing this all in one post, but there is just too much, so this is going to be a series- something to look forward to, right? We have tried to make it a little funny, so you don't have to read us complaining so much. We were lucky enough to stumble across the 'captain's log' from our voyage, so you will be fortunate enough to hear this story from multiple perspectives.

Captain's Log Sunday November 7, 2010 1800 hours

The cruise is underway and only a mere 2 hours late. Today was our annual Coast Guard inspection. Even though the passengers had to wait outside in line for 2 extra hours, I'm sure it comforts them to know that we passed with flying colors.

* After a long day of flying, standing in line to check in for the ship, a safety orientation and a 2 hour delay we were excited to eat. We have heard how fun the cruise wait staff can be- ours was about as exciting as a rock. Our waiter- Innocenti- is from India. We called him Manmeet- but not to his face (anyone seen Outsourced?) After dinner we went to the "Welcome Show." After 1.5 hours of mediocre jokes from John, the British cruise director, we decided to leave when the passenger on stage was named Dick Little- you can imagine the jokes that came from that. We decided to hit the club to let loose and get our groove on. Just one problem- there was no one there! So we watched some drunken karaoke and headed off to bed, looking forward to a good night's sleep.

Spencer looking very excited to go on our cruise

Captain's Log Monday November 8, 2010 0600 hours

Uh Oh- there seems to be quite a bit of smoke in the engine room. It must be a "flameless fire." Whoever said duct tape would fix anything was full of crap.

0700 hours

We have sounded the emergency alarm, woken up all the passengers and brought them to the top deck. Of course, the power is out and elevators don't work. But I'm sure 12 flights of stairs won't be a problem. I'm so excited! I'm going to be just like that guy who landed his plane on the Hudson. I'll be a hero. I wonder what I should wear on Letterman?

0800 hours

For the last hour we have been "dissassissapating" the smoke from the engine and aft cabins. We have instructed the passengers to return to their cabins.

0815 hours

Just kidding- they need to stay on the deck.

0830 hours

Actually those in the forward cabins can return to their rooms. People love a decisive leader. So far the only systems down are the elevators, cabin lights, cabin water, toilet suction, AC/ heating, all food prep areas propulsion and entertainment. Basically anything that needs electricity, so everything. We have received a few complaints, but it could be worse. They could be starving.

1200 Oh dear- they are starving. Luckily I had the crew whip up a delicious meal of kidney beans and shredded carrots. And for dessert- tortilla chips!

* Because we don't drink or gamble, we came on this cruise to eat and get tan. Since all the power was out they couldn't cook anything- so we really ate shredded veggies and canned meats. We both worked out and ate healthy to get in shape for this cruise but I'm pretty sure that we came home skinnier. This is a cruise Gandhi would be proud of. I'm so glad we didn't waste our money on Sketchers Shape-Ups because we took 12 flights of stairs at least 5 times a day. Our calves are looking pretty good.

Spencer looking less excited because our ship is broken

Stay tuned for the next installment :)

Dream Cruise 2010

2010-11-14T20:21:00.000-08:00

We were on the Carnival Splendor. Stay tuned for details.

Harry Potter Exhibit

2010-11-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you are all sick of reading about how much I love Harry Potter, but tonight Spence and I and my parents went to the HP exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. It was awesome. I got to pull a Mandrake out of a pot, shoot a Quaffel through a hoop and hold Hermione's wand (in the gift shop... but still!) They had costumes from the movies as well as props and set pieces. They even had some props from HP 7 that is coming out NEXT WEEK! We saw the Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore and a decoy detonator (I hope that means something to some of you.) Pictures were strictly forbidden, but I never obey that rule (I took pictures in the Louvre for crying out loud.) So they are not the best quality because I was being sneaky, but hopefully at least some of you think they are cool.

These are Quidditch robes. From the left: an Irish uniform from the Quidditch World Cup, Ron Weasley's robes, Madame Hooch's robes, Harry Potter's Quidditch robes, and Viktor Krum's World Cup robes

More Quidditch stuff- the trunk of balls and souvenir items from the Quidditch World Cup

A very blurry Dad and Reese outside the great hall where all the Educational Decrees were posted

A poster depicting "Undesireable #1"

Me and Spence in the gift shop- doesn't he looked thrilled to be taking this picture? I am holding Hermione's wand and he has Harry's. Then the security guard came and yelled at me :)

It was really super fun and if you were thinking about going, you should. They have an optional audio tour with extra info about the sets and the production. I think they said it cost an added $5, we didn't do it but I'm sure it was neat. I can't wait till the 19th for HP 7. It's going to be so good!

The Sweet Taste of Victory

2010-11-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

So as we all know, having a baby changes your body... FOREVER! Well a few months ago Spence and I decided to set some goals to help us get in shape for our vacation. I don't like to set goals based solely on weight because I feel like it fluctuates so much. Also, my action plan included a fair amount of weight lifting, and muscle weighs more than fat, right? So I had a size- a pants size that I wanted to fit into before we left. Well last night we went to the mall and guess what... they fit! Not only did they fit, but they were comfortable and they looked good. And, there was actually one pair of pants that was even one size smaller that fit (I think they may have been miss marked but hey, I'll take it!) It is so nice when you work hard and it pays off. What have I been doing? P90X. I am not as crazy as they want you to be, but it's working for me and I kick my own trash every time I work out. I also did a little of this but not a lot because I hate it. I have done the full blown diet once before and it worked awesome but I was so miserable. I like to eat. Which leads me to my next thought... what does victory taste like?

It tastes like these- mellowcreme pumpkins. I love them so much. Each year I buy one bag and it has to last me all of autumn. Spencer hates them so I get them all to myself. Every morning after breakfast I count out 5 and that is my allotment for the day. They are delicious and totally worth the sugar. Yummy!

Yikes!

2010-11-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

I was just checking the 10 day forcast and I saw this:

Fri
Nov 12

Rain / Snow Showers

Can you believe that? I'm not ready!

Circus Freaks

2010-11-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

We decided that for Reese's first Halloween we wanted to have a theme to our costumes. We had several ideas but decided to be a circus family- The Ringmaster, a Lion and the World's Strongest Man. Spence did want Reese to be the Bearded Lady, but I said no. Reese and I dressed up for work and then we all dressed up for the Ward Halloween party where everyone asked Spence why he wasn't wearing a costume. He didn't really need the muscle suit, we just wanted him to be modest. Spence and I used Reese as our excuse to get some candy, which was nice but I ate way too much. We lit our pumpkins and enjoyed having some of the kids from the ward come Trick or Treating to our house Saturday night as we enjoyed dinner with some friends. All in all, it was a great Halloween. Now on to Thanksgiving!

Halloween Movie Countdown #12

2010-10-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

Love this movie- Love It! Definitely my favorite Halloween movie. I don't like scary movies, just fun ones. I watch this every year- today we watched it with my whole family and we had an awesome time. I thought I would also include a list of previous Halloween countdown movies.

- Addams Family Values
- Beetlejuice (I watched it this year and hated it- not worthy of a blog post)
- Van Helsing
- Death Becomes Her
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Corpse Bride
- The Village
- Witches
- Teen Witch
- Practical Magic
- Dracula Dead and Loving It (Mel Brooks- funny but a little inappropriate)
- Bewitched

I hope everyone's Halloween was spooky and full of treats!

Halloween Movie Countdown #11

2010-10-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

I think I'm out of nerdy stories. Oh wait- I'm not. This one doesn't have to do with this particular movie but with the books in general. So you know how when you get your senior pictures done you can take props? Like all the football players take a football etc. Well I took the Harry Potter books- there were 4 at the time. My word, I can't believe I'm embarrassing myself like this.

I love this movie. I love them all. I can't wait to go to Universal Studios in Florida and see Harry Potter Land!

Halloween Movie Countdown #10

2010-10-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

This was the first Harry Potter that Spence and I got to enjoy together. It came out during the Summer that we lived with my parents while Spence was doing his internship. I worked for my Dad and his office rented out a theatre to do a special preview for their clients. I helped organize the event, so my whole family dressed up. I was Hermione complete with a time turner that I made and an old book on fairies. Spence was Neville and had a stuffed frog that croaked when you squeezed it. Mom was McGonagal, Dad was Dumbledore and Almen was a quidditch player. We had a trivia contest before with prizes like wands, Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, tattoos and stickers. The best part was as we were leaving, all the people were lining up to see the midnight showing. It was awesome.

Halloween Movie Countdown #9

2010-10-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

This came out in 2005 while I was in college. But rewind to earlier in my life. My Dad and I went to London and Paris for my senior trip. We had such an awesome time seeing the sights. Of course while we were in London we had to hit up Kings Cross Station and find Platform 9 3/4. Unfortunately, platforms 9 and 10 were closed for construction, so they moved the Platform 9 3/4 sign to a random wall so people could still take pictures of it.

Then when we were in Paris we were walking around (I think we were lost actually) and we saw in a toy store a Harry Potter made entirely out of Legos. Now please don't judge- this is probably the worst picture of me EVER TAKEN. Hopefully most of you know that I clean up nice.

On a side note- this is Spencer's favorite of the HP movies.

Halloween Movie Countdown #8

2010-10-27T19:56:00.000-07:00

I bought the official posters for all the Harry Potter movies when I was in high school. I took them to college with me and had them up in my dorm my first semester along with tons of stuff from Pirates of the Caribbean, Chicago and some Disney stuff. Seriously- my walls were completely covered. Before Spencer and I ever met, he and his buddies helped my roommate Erin move in at the end of that first semester (but he and I didn't meet until 2 years later). He says he remembers seeing my room and thinking it was nuts that I had that much movie stuff. I don't know if he really remembers that, but after that first semester, I took everything down- it was time to be a little more mature. I still love it though :)

So yeah- look behind us in this picture- I can't believe I'm posting this!

The Great Pumpkin

2010-10-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Spence and I carved our pumpkins last week with our good friends Brett and Jenna Alvey. They are a dentist and an orthodontist, so they carved a tooth with a bracket on it- it was awesome but I didn't get a picture. I carved Big Blue- the USU mascot. In real life he looks like this:

But my pumpkin looks like this:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Spence decided to be overly ambitious and carve the Death Star from Star Wars. Where is his picture? Well, he hasn't quite finished it yet. When he does, I'll put up a picture.

Last night my family had us over for FHE and we carved Reese's pumpkin. Spence did most of the work. I love it- I think it turned out so cute. We had to put Reese in a pretty silly Halloween costume to take her picture with it.

Halloween Movie Countdown #7

2010-10-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

So I know I promised some embarrassing old pictures of me- and they are coming. I have been having issues scanning them, but hopefully I will get them up today. But my countdown couldn't wait any longer- I'm running out of time and there are so many more movies to talk about!

Before this movie came out they were doing a big promotion with Coke to win a trip to England. At the Safeway they had a big cardboard stand-up of Harry and Malfoy flying on the broom sticks. I asked them if I could have it. I wrote my name and number on it and they called me when it was time to throw it away. The embarrassing thing was that I wrote my name and number huge on the back, so tons of people at school saw it and asked me about it. My mom kept it in their game room for a long time, used it for seminary and took it to girls camp. I was Hermione for Halloween that year too.

Here I am- probably a sophomore in high school.

Halloween Movie Countdown #6

2010-10-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

Movie #2 in the Twilight Saga is, in my opinion, werewolf-sized leaps and bounds better than the first one. Spence and my Dad both liked it better- they thought the werewolves butched it up a little because, as my Dad put it, the vampires are kind of femmy. So they are both definitely on Team Jacob. Which team are you on? Bookwise I am on Team Edward, even though he can be kind of a jerk. But moviewise I'm on Team Jacob- Taylor Lautner is a lot cuter than Robert Patinson. But of course neither are as cute as Spencer :)

Halloween Movie Countdown #5

2010-10-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

So this is a total guilty pleasure movie for me- and probably lots of you. When I started reading the Twilight series we were driving to St. George for Thanksgiving and I probably said 3 words to Spence the whole drive down there. I don't think these novels will go down in history as the best written things ever, but they sure were fun to read. Spencer has been a great husband and has seen all 3 movies with me- he thinks they have gotten better and I actually do to. Twilight has more angst and awkward moments then 1,000 first dates. It cracks me up that Edward and Bella are supposed to be madly in love but they don't even act like they like each other! I know there are a lot of opinions on this but I must say that I do not think Robert Pattinson is attractive. Feel free to comment if you feel otherwise :) But vampires and teen drama make this a super fun Halloween movie.

Halloween Movie Countdown #4

2010-10-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

I love, love, love the Harry Potter movies. The early ones are so funny to watch now- they were all so young! I think the early movies are a better representation of the books, but I like that the later films took on a more artistic approach. I am really excited for #7 to come out in November. Spence and I have been toying with the idea of hitting up a midnight movie. We'll see- babies change things, don't they? But the Harry Potter movies are classic October movies, and I have some pretty nerdy stories to share as I watch each movie, so stay tuned :)

Halloween Movie Countdown #3

2010-10-19T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Addams Family is a classic. It's funny how all of these movies really make me miss my sister Kara. She was always into the spooky stuff- she loved these movies, Goosebumps books, Unsolved Mysteries and all that kind of stuff. She was Wednesday Addams for Halloween one year; we didn't get to buy costumes so she wore this old black dress of my Mom's with a big white lace collar. She did her hair in braids, but they were super-thick because she has more curly hair then anyone I've ever seen. Pretty much all of my childhood memories involve her in some way- she was my best friend growing up and is still one of my all time favorite people. So this Halloween movie is dedicated to her :)

Halloween Movie Countdown #2

2010-10-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

Reese and I watched Casper this morning. Casper came out in 1995 so I was ten and I remember loving it. Why? Because of this:

That is Devon Sawa, and any girl my age LOVED him! What a dream boat. I figured out today that he was actually born in 1978 so when Casper came out he was 17! Doesn't he look like he is 12 in this picture? Anyway, like all old movies we loved when we were kids, it was fun to watch Casper but I don't think I'll need to see it again for a long time. I have my own dream boat now :)

Happy 7 month birthday Reese!

2010-10-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

Reese will be 7 months old tomorrow. I can't believe how much she has grown. She is just a little person with her own personality and her own opinions. She becomes more and more fun as each day goes by, and a lot has happened in this last month.

This is not the cutest picture of her, but it shows her two top teeth that have come in. They are still working their way down, but they are here. Just in time for Halloween; we have a little Jack-O-Lantern baby. She chews on everything. I love to see her smile and laugh with those cute little teeth sticking out.

Reese's absolute favorite thing in the world is sitting in her blue bouncy chair and chewing on her Winnie the Pooh toothbrush. I usually save them for the end of her cycle. When she gets fussy before her nap, I can put her in the chair with her toothbrush and she will last another 10-15 minutes.

She is really starting to figure out what her body can do. If she is sitting in her Boppy and you are behind her, she will arch back and look at you, and then sit back up and play and then do it all over again. When you hold her so she is standing up, she wants to turn in circles like in her Exercauser. She loves to pat things with her hands- she actually hits pretty hard as our poor dog found out when he took a right hook to the face. She also pulled our some of the hair on his ear- whoops. It will be nice when we can teach her to 'be soft.' She has had so much fun staying here at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Anytime Bicho (the dog) or Soup (the cat) are around she is watching their every move and smiling away.

Reese has become my little buddy. It is so fun to do everything together. I love having her with me and being able to talk to her and teach her things. We sing a lot and read books. I can tell how much she wants to know everything, so I try to tell her as much as possible. I know it's so early, but she really looks at me and listens. She is doing great with signing, she doesn't sign back yet (except for 'milk' and only when she gets really impatient) but she knows what we mean when we sign to her.

Here is a little video of her and me playing together. I sound pretty dorky but she has the cutest laugh and you can see her teeth. Enjoy!

Halloween Movie Countdown #1

2010-10-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

So every October I put together a list of movies to watch as a countdown to Halloween. This year we started with Return to Oz- not an official Halloween movie but creepy none-the-less. My sister Kara and I used to watch this all the time when we were kids. It had been years since I had seen it but I totally remembered being scared by the Wheelers and the crazy lady who takes her head off. Spence was a trooper and endured watching it with me, and it really is a dumb movie with bad writing and horrible backdrop sets. But it was fun and got me excited to see what comes next from Netflix.

Just Wondering

2010-10-11T16:45:00.000-07:00

So I thought I would try just blogging some of my thoughts. I pretty much just write about Reese, but there have been some things I have been wondering about lately.

- Why is it when I finally get into a really good routine with exercising I get sick, or we go on vacation, or it's a holiday, or I get sick again?
- How come Reese always wakes up right when Spence and I are sitting down to dinner?
- Is there some force in the universe that whenever we are able to start saving some money makes something on our cars break?
- Why do I not have the self control to eat healthier? I always have such good plans and then my sweet Mom-in-law sends me Rice Krispie Treats cereal and I eat the whole box.
- How can I make myself enjoy reading the scriptures? I'm working on it, and I'm getting better but I still have so far to go!
- Why don't I use my time more effectively? There was a Cake Boss marathon on TLC today and I didn't get much done.

Anyway- any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. I'm sure many of you wonder about these same things.

Monster Baby

2010-10-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun weekend. We went to Salmon Days on Saturday and I don't know what Reese was doing at the parade, but she was being hilarious. Any time we tried to take her picture she was making this crazy monster face.

We did get a few cute ones though. She is such a babe and she had a great time at the parade, seeing the Salmon in the hatchery and walking around. She fell asleep all slumped over in the baby carrier and everyone kept looking at her and saying how cute she was- we had to agree.

And backtracking a little, we had some visitors on Friday. Our good friends Tommy and Meg Farwell brought little Jaevin up to visit from Utah. We went to Snoqualmie Falls and then to Small Fries for shakes. Then we watched USU kick the trash out of BYU- GO AGGIES! It was so fun to have them here- we miss our Utah friends a lot, and all of you are welcome to come visit any time :)

In other news- Reese is starting to get up on her hands and knees. She needs a little help, but you can tell she wants to be moving around SO bad. She gets on her belly and just juts her head out like when you try to fly in a dream- you know what I mean? You can just tell she is thinking "come on, come on!" It's pretty cute. Before we know it she is going to be all over the place and there will be no stopping her.

My Spencer is 29!

2010-09-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

Actually, he is 29 years and 1 day old- his birthday was yesterday. September 21st has to be my favorite day of the year. Spencer does SO much for me, it's nice to have a reason to focus completely on him. We had a nice dinner and dessert yesterday and he opened his presents from me and Reese. Then tonight we had a special dinner with my family. For dessert he wanted home made ice cream, so we each made our own ice cream in a bag. It was fun, but pretty messy. Since you can't stick a candle in a bag of ice cream, I made him hold it while we sang to him.

This year the theme for his birthday was "Choose Your Own Adventure." Do you remember those books? They give you two choices and then depending on what you choose you go to a different page, so the story can be different every time. Well I made him a "Choose Your Own Birthday Adventure" book. It was so fun to read the book with him and have him choose where we would go, where we would eat, what we would have for dessert. Most of the stuff won't be happening until Saturday, so stay tuned to find out how the adventure ends.

Happy birthday to my Spencer- my best friend in the whole world and the only person I could even imagine spending eternity with. I love you infinity!

Happy 6 month birthday!

2010-09-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

Reese had her 6 month birthday last week. Her doctor's appointment went great- she is 18 pounds 4.5 ounces and 27.3 inches long. Both are in the 90-95th percentile so we have a big healthy girl. She needed two shots; the first one she didn't even blink and the second she cried for like 2 seconds, I picked her up and then she smiled at the nurse. I think our biggest news is that she has two teeth. They came out of nowhere- she hadn't been fussy or anything, and then one morning I was wiping her gums and there they were. She looks like a little jack-o-lantern!

Reese drools constantly, so she is always wearing a bib. I hate it because it covers up her cute clothes, but oh well. She is such a happy girl. She smiles constantly and laughs a lot. I am always meeting new people because anytime we are out in a store or a restaurant Reese is making new friends. People stop me in the aisle to tell me what a beautiful, happy baby I have. I usually just agree with them. But really- just look at this little babe!

She is sitting up on her own a lot, but she will still topple to the side sometimes so we have to be careful. She can roll from her back to her tummy either to the left or right now but still won't roll back. However, now she is straightening her arms and lifting her chest up. She wants to crawl SO bad. I fear she will have it figured out before too long and then there will be no stopping her!

She has discovered her wrists. She will hold a toy and wave it back and forth and rotate her wrist around. She still loves to read books. I got sick of all ours already so we are going to the library once a week to stock up on new titles. Her favorite song of the moment is "In the Leafy Treetops". She also likes to sit at the piano with Granddaddy and make music.

She absolutely loves to eat. We let her sit in the high chair at Applebee's last week and she went nuts. She was so excited to be at the table with us like a big girl. She eats her normal rice cereal, pureed fruits and veggies but she has also tried bacon, lime jello, broccoli cheese soup, pancake, chicken, and macaroni and cheese. We are also working with a sippy cup and she is getting the hang of it.

And I saved the best for last- she is giving hugs and kisses. Kind of. She will wrap her arms around your neck and squeeze your neck skin in her hands and suck on your face. It's so funny and it actually kind of hurts, but we love it. For awhile she was wanting to suck on our noses, but she bit me last week so we don't do that anymore. Anyway- that's probably way more than anyone even wanted to know. I just love this baby and how much she has grown up. She changes each and every day. She is so happy and content but she has a stubborn streak in her too (she gets it from Spence.) So at some point we are going to have our hands full.

2010-09-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

I am so lucky

Girls' Camp/ Selina

2010-09-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

My friend Carlen just sent me this picture that she took of me, Reese and my Mom at Girls' Camp. The theme for this year was "Happily Ever After" based on Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk. (If you haven't read it- it is excellent. You can find it here.) Anyway, because of my Princess experiences that I had working for Disney, I was asked to come up and speak to the girls. It was really an awesome experience. They are such beautiful, strong girls and I was humbled to be in their presence.

It was also great to have Selina there. She is such a great little sister. Selina is the most genuinely sweet person I know. She possesses real empathy and will truly share your joys and sorrows.She is a senior at Issaquah High School this year which I just can't believe. I still think of her sometimes as the little 7 year old that didn't speak English but could still sass you. She has grown to be such a beautiful young woman with many talents and a huge heart. I love her to bits.

(My awesome friend took Selina's senior pics. Check out the rest of them on Mandy's Blog)

Precious Moments

2010-08-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

So the other night I had a little breakdown. I have always felt I had a poor memory, but it never bothered me much. I can tell you silly little details from Harry Potter, but I can't remember anything from our family vacation to Hawaii 3 years ago. Last week I was talking to a woman with a 7 week old little girl and I just couldn't remember what it was like when Reese was that small. I couldn't remember anything about it! She is only 5 months old, how can I not remember? I cried about it a bit and then my sweet husband started reminding me of things; telling me stories and helping me remember. I left the experience with a renewed desire to keep a good journal and take lots of pictures. So today I want to remember:

Reese curls her toes constantly- it makes it so hard to put shoes on her.

She sleeps on her tummy now and wakes up with red marks and sleep creases all over her face.
When I hold her, she likes to open and close her hand in the hair at the base of my neck.

Spence can't talk to her when she's eating because she just grins at him and milk runs down her chin.

When I sign the word 'book' to her, she kicks her legs and waves her arms because she is so excited.

If she is fussy, she quiets right down when we sing "Open and Shut Them".

Being outside is her favorite- she sits so quietly and observes everything. She loves God's creations.

When Spencer gets home from work, she gives him the biggest smile and can't take her eyes off him.

We can't keep socks on her- she kicks so much and rubs her feet together until they come off.

She grabs your face when you hold her close.

She loves her Exercauser and Jumper- she wants to stand up all the time.

Reese keeps her arms straight all the time- it's like she wants to take flight.

She did not like it when Daddy tried to feed her peas.

She rolls all around her crib when she is trying to fall asleep. We usually have to reposition her.

When you hold her in your lap, she has started to arch her neck to look up at you- I love that.

Her smiles are free, but it takes a little work to get her to laugh.

You can tell she is smart just by looking at her- she thinks with her face.

She brings me more joy than I ever thought possible.

Happy 5 month birthday

2010-08-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Reese is 5 months old today. She loves lots of things- Mommy and Daddy, her stuffed cow, sucking on stuff, eating rice cereal, kisses on her tummy that make her laugh, the book "The Cow that Laid an Egg," taking baths, the song Baby Beluga, walks in the stroller and sitting in her bouncy chair. She is very smart- we have been signing with her and even though she can't sign back yet she totally knows what's going on. When she sees something new, her eye brows knit together while she is thinking about it. She looks at things very intently, especially when we read books to her. She is also going to be an independent little thing- she already wants to stand up all the time and when she is on her belly she tries to scoot forward, and often succeeds. She brings Spence and I so much joy and we love her so much.

Pros and Cons

2010-08-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

Why Washington is awesome: We took the boat out on Lake Sammamish yesterday. It was sunny, clear skies and just beautiful on the lake. One of the resident Bald Eagles was out flying. Almen almost nailed his 360 and Spence did a rockin awesome board grab. My parents are super fun to hang out with on the boat. We have awesome friends the Hoopes who watched Reese even though they had 8 other kids at their house.

Why Washington sucks: It was August 14th, and that was the first time we have gone boating!

Baby Food

2010-08-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

So we gave Reese her first official food- tasty rice cereal. She has unofficially tried yogurt, tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, ice cream, asparagus soup, mac and cheese sauce and chicken pot pie. She has been acting like she wants more than just bottles for awhile now so she was pretty excited... and messy!

San Diego

2010-08-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

We just got back from San Diego and we had an awesome time. It was a week full of firsts for Reese. We went to the beach. She did ok, but refused to take a nap. There was just too much to see and do.

Spence loves to boogie board. Unfortunately I am lame and won't get in the ocean if it's too cold. Luckily he had his boys to go with him. Josh (Kara's hubby), my cute brother Almen, and Boone (Megan's new husband)

We took Reese swimming. She loved it- we knew she would. She even put her face in the water! I'm pretty sure she did it on accident but she didn't mind. It was so fun.

We went to Sea World. Don't worry- no trainers were eaten while we were there. When I was a kid I wanted to be a whale trainer. I would check out books on Orcas at the library and take notes in a notebook. A lot of the trainers are actually psychologists who specialized in animal behavior, and I was a psych major. Oh well- we have to let some of our dreams go, right?

Reese loves the song Baby Beluga, so we had to get a picture of her with the Beluga whale. They became great friends. We also bought her a little plastic whale for the bath tub- 9 bucks!

We also went to Universal Studios. It was so crowded, but we really had a good time. We used the Single Rider lines so we wouldn't have to wait in line, so that really helped.

We took Reese on the Studio Tour and she did great. She made it through the King Kong part, the Subway crash and the flash flood. Unfortunately by the end she was tired and hungry, so when the water cannon went off and Jaws came up to the boat she started to cry. She didn't mind him so much here- I guess because he was dead.

Reese is loving to sit up, but of course we couldn't bring her chairs. So she spent a lot of the week in her pillow-throne. She is the queen baby!

But the best part of the weekend was hands-down when we played Minute to Win It. Spence and I had gotten on the website and picked a bunch of the challenges and brought all the supplies. If you want a good time with a group of friends or a really fun FHE, play this game. Watching my Mom try to move an Oreo from her forehead to her mouth without using her hands was hilarious. Seeing my sister Kara try to knock stuff over using a baseball in a leg of pantyhose attached to her head was so funny. It was awesome!

Sweet Giveaways

2010-07-26T10:30:00.001-07:00

So I have become a little obsessed with the blog- Whippy Cake. The gal makes these super-cute headbands and stuff. She also does hair and make up tutorials. She is launching a new website and to celebrate is doing some great Giveaways, so be sure to check them out at:

http://whippycake.blogspot.com/

I heart blogs

2010-07-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

So I have been berating myself lately about how I haven't been keeping a journal for Reese. I have all these notes "journal about baby showers," "journal about when she kicked the first time" etc. etc. but I never end up journaling about anything. And I was getting discouraged because I was never going to be able to remember all the details when these things happened so long ago. But then I realized HELLO! you have been blogging about this stuff the whole time. I keep Reese's journal in a word doc on my computer so I pretty much just cut and pasted my whole blog in there and wahoo I'm done :)

Reese is 4 months old (plus a little bit)

2010-07-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little behind, but on July 15th our little Reese turned 4 months old. She is now 15 pounds (90th percentile) and 26 inches long (off the charts!) We have a big girl. This has been a great month for her developmentally. She can roll over from her back to her tummy. The bad thing is she hasn't figured out how to get back yet, so after awhile she gets upset and we have to help her flip over. But she will get the hang of it. We didn't get to see her roll completely for the first time, but I went to check on her while she was napping and I found this...

She had her first full-out laugh the other day. Not for me, not for Spence but for my boss at the dentist office. I come in to help out every once in awhile. I was up at the front desk and Reese was in her play gym in the back room and all the sudden I hear her cracking up. It was awesome. She is such a happy kid anyway, I knew it was just a matter of time.

She loves her little gym. That flower thing is a mirror and she loves talking to her little buddy. She also likes sitting up in her BeBe Pod chair. She is such a good baby and likes to play with us or by herself, which is a huge blessing. I don't want to jinx myself, but I hope all our kids are this delightful.

We were in Utah for 10 days and Reese did great on both 12 hour car rides. We had a chance to bless her at Spencer's parents' home. She wore the dress that I was blessed in and we wrapped her in the blanket Spencer was blessed in. It was fun to have her a little bit older because she was super awake and happy. She talked and cooed through part of the blessing. She and I are so lucky to have Spencer as the head of our family!

Reese brings so much joy to our lives. I am so lucky that I get to stay home and play with her all day. She is really starting to show her little personality and I have seen so much love, humor, kindness and independence from her already. She is just awesome!

Father's Day

2010-06-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day! It was fun to be able to celebrate Spencer's first official Father's Day. He is an amazing Daddy. Even though she is only 3 months old, Reese loves it when her Dad comes home. She will just watch him talk and walk around. Anytime he looks at her she smiles. He holds her facing out and plays with her in the mirror and she just goes crazy- it's so cute. I am so lucky to have such an awesome husband who is also an awesome father. Reese and I love you Spence!

I also want to say what amazing Dad's Spencer and I have. We were able to talk to Ed for a bit yesterday. I am so glad that Spencer had his example to grow up with. Ed is a hardworking man with a rock solid testimony. He is very practical and intelligent but also very kind and loving. I am lucky to have him as my father-in-law.

I love my Dad and let me tell you... he loves Reese! Being a Grandpa looks good on him. My Dad has taught me so much about how to live my life. He is also such a hard worker, but has always been able to prioritize and make time for our family. He has taught me the importance of education, how to love music, how to be patient and how to have fun. Lucky for me, Spencer has all the good qualities of both of our Dads. So again, Happy Father's Day to Spence, Ed and Dad. I love you!!!

Whoops!

2010-06-17T11:06:00.000-07:00

So I recently did something dumb- unintentionally of course. When we landed in Utah we went to rent a car. I'm 25 now, so my Dad was going to put me on as a driver. Well, when the nice man at Enterprise went to check my license he kindly informed me that it had expired on my 25th birthday! I figured it would be no big deal, I would just go and get a new one. Well, since it was a Utah license and I now need a Washington license, I have to take the written and the drive test! Not only that, but because my license is now invalid my Mom has to drive me to the DMV. I had to borrow the Driver's Ed. book from my little brother so I could study last night. I had to review the hand signals, how far I can park from a fire station, and the legal Blood Alcohol Content- no one remembers all that stuff! So the moral of the story is- take out your license and check the date so you don't have to feel like a 16 year old all over again.

Ha Ha Ha!

2010-06-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

Reese is such a happy baby. She hasn't really had a full-out giggle yet but she is getting so close. I took this video in Utah this weekend of her and her Uncle Josh playing together. It's a little long, but it is really cute. Seriously I think we all spent most of the weekend staring at Reese and waiting to see what cute thing she would do next. Enjoy!

An Eventful Weekend

2010-06-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Reese and I were able to spend the weekend in Utah. Before I tell you about it just let me say I'm sorry to all my wonderful Utah friends who I didn't get to see. This weekend was all about family.

We flew out Friday morning. I have no idea how people travel with babies by themselves. I am so glad I had Mom and Dad to help me with all my stuff! Reese did awesome. She slept during take off, woke up and played during the flight and then fell asleep right before we started our descent. It just could not have gone any better. The reason we went to Utah was for Grandma Edna's 90th birthday. She didn't know that Reese and I were coming, and it was so fun to surprise her. She is an amazing lady.

Friday night we had a bridal shower for my sister Megan. Reese got to meet her great-aunts on my Mom's side. Everyone just loved her of course. She was all smiles for everybody.

On Saturday, Ed and Lorie came down to see us. We went out to Grandma and Grandpa Porter's house in Bountiful. They were thrilled to meet Reese. Grandma Shirley Porter is the "S" in Reese's name. Ed and Lorie took us out to lunch at Wingers- yummy- and then we went shopping for some father's day gifts. I'm so glad I got to see them for a minute- Reese was too. She has grown so much since they came up to see her when she was just 3 weeks old!

Sunday was Grandma Edna's 90th birthday. We had a big party at Layton Park to celebrate. Lots of our family and friends were there and again Reese was so great. We really have the best baby. She smiled at everyone and was passed around. It was great to celebrate Grandma Edna and her many accomplishments. Her cousin and neighbor came down from Idaho and were able to tell us stories from when they were all young and growing up. It was so fun. We enjoyed the rest of the day just hanging out. Grandma Edna loves Reese so much. It was fun to see them talk to each other and play together. I took some video, which will be fun for Reese when she is older so she can remember her Great- Grandma. We took a walk later and Reese sat up in her stroller for the first time. She loved being able to look ahead and see where we were going. Unfortunately it was cold (in June- come on!) so we had to bundle her up really good. We played games that night with Megan and her fiancee Boone and Josh and Kara came over too. They read Reese "Underwear" which was always our favorite book and Grandma Edna's house.

Monday we went shopping for Reese at the Carter's outlet in Salt Lake. Josh was the worst- he just kept holding things up and saying "Kara look how cute- we have to get her this." Reese is so spoiled. I'm hoping she will get some cousins soon the balance things out. Monday night we flew home and Reese was excellent on the plain again (the 3 year old sitting behind us was not!) We were both so excited to see Spencer. The whole way home she just looked at him and smiled. It was a wonderful weekend, but it was nice to get home again. I love my family- immediate and extended- and I am so grateful for my knowledge that we can be together forever!

The big two-five

2010-06-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

So last Thursday was my 25th birthday. I don't worry too much about getting older- I'm sure I may feel differently when I hit those bigger mile stones. But for now, I am just really enjoying the age I am and the stage I am at in my life. I had an awesome birthday. When I was growing up, my mom would decorate the kitchen with streamers and put all our presents out on the table so we could see them when we first woke up. Spencer has continued this tradition for me. In Spencer's family you get a special birthday breakfast- we continue that tradition as well. I absolutely love Rice Krispy Treats cereal and you can't find it here in Washington. My sweet husband bought me two boxes in Logan a few weeks ago and had been hiding them in the garage! I am easy to please. The day was great- Reese was awesome. My mom took me to lunch at Panera and we went shoe shopping. That evening when Spence came home from work he let me open all my presents- most of them were clothes (it is so nice to not have to accommodate a big pregnant belly.) He took me to a nice dinner at Coho Cafe and we came home and had ice cream sandwiches. It was a great day.

Then on Saturday it was sunny (Finally!) so we headed south to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. I love doing stuff like that. It was a gorgeous day and the Zoo is right up against Puget Sound (I think... I get a little mixed up with the bodies of water around here.) Our favorite things were the elephants, the snow leopard, the polar bears (Spencer had never seen one before!), the meerkats, and of course the Asian River Otters.

My not-favorite animal was this peacock. As many of you know, birds freak me out. Well, of course we were at the zoo all day so Reese needed to eat. So we found ourselves a nice spot in the sun on the grass to feed her and eat our picnic lunch. Well this peacock came out of no where and was just roaming free. It walked right in front of me- like 3 feet away. It was pretty and all, but I was kind of defenseless sitting there feeding my baby. Luckily it didn't attack me, and it walked off while being chased by someone's toddler. But other than that- it was a perfect birthday.

Baby Update

2010-06-02T14:48:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted pics of Reese. She is doing great. She is just smiling like crazy and I think she is getting pretty close to laughing. At her last appointment she was up to 13.5 pounds and 24 inches long.

She is starting to figure out that her hands belong to her. She has sucked her thumb a couple of times, which at first I was really against, but she still struggles taking a binky so if she wants to suck her thumb I'm going to let her. It's funny though- because sometimes she will sit there with her mouth open, and she is trying to get her thumb in but she keeps hitting herself in the forehead. It's so funny.

We try to do some "tummy time" everyday. It's not her favorite, but she doesn't hate it. She talks a lot when she's on her tummy though- just jabber, jabber, jabber. She is a great baby because she likes to be held and played with, but she also likes to be by herself. We have one of those "gyms" where she can lay on her back and stuff dangles over her. It has a little mirror on it and she likes to look at and talk to herself. She is my little buddy and we have so much fun together.

Lost

2010-05-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

So I feel like a special time in my life is now over. Tonight, Spence and I watched the final episode of "Lost." I am so happy- and so sad. We started watching "Lost" while they were broadcasting the third season. It was the middle of the semester, and Spence and I would stay up until 3am watching the first and second season to catch up. Some of the most fun nights ever were watching "Lost" on Wednesday's with the Wimmers, the Lewis' and the Binghams. The night we all dressed up for the season 5 finale was hands-down one of the most awesome times ever! (Spence and I are on the far right in the picture- he was Richard and I was Charlotte.) We introduced the Latimers to "Lost" when we stayed with them in Mountain Green. We spent almost the whole weekend in front of the TV but we had the greatest time. The finale was great- everything we needed it to be and more. I know I sound a little crazy- but we got attached to this show and it really did provide such good times with friends and each other. It is the end of an era!

Spring in Seattle

2010-05-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share the weather report for the next 10 days. Lame, Lame, Lame! Although, several times last week the forecast was for rain and then it was totally sunny. Sometimes I think they just don't care or they just don't know, so they guess and rain in Seattle is usually a pretty good guess. So much for my plans to run every day and lose this baby weight. I guess I'll just have to snuggle up with Reese, eat some ice cream and watch a movie. Life is rough!

Today
May 23

Showers

53°

Mon
May 24

Partly Cloudy

60°

Tue
May 25

Few Showers

61°

Wed
May 26

Showers

58°

Thu
May 27

Showers

55°

Fri
May 28

Showers

54°

Sat
May 29

Few Showers

54°

Sun
May 30

Few Showers

61°

Mon
May 31

Cloudy

66°

Tue
Jun 1

Showers

62°

Outings

2010-05-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

We have started to be a little more adventurous in taking Reese places. This week my parents invited us to a client event for my Dad's work. We felt a little out of place- the event was for the top clients from my Dad's branch of Morgan Stanley- Smith Barney. Basically it was a lot of wealthy older couples and us with our stroller. It was fun though- they held it at the Seattle Aquarium. Reese slept most of the time, but she did wake up at the end to look at some fish. The river otters are usually our favorite attraction (we want to have some as pets one day) but they were cuddled up sleeping. But the sea otters kept us entertained for awhile- especially this little guy. He was swimming around on his back and just did not want to get his little face wet.

The event included a nice dinner and a 45 minute presentation from some financial speaker. I pretty much tuned out, but Spencer found it interesting. I was so proud of him: we were at a table with these older gentleman and they started talking about the energy sector and some new wind farm. Spencer piped right up and shared his infinite knowledge of wind farms. They were asking him questions and he was answering all articulately and stuff. It was awesome.

The weather has been beautiful, so yesterday we decided to take a little hike. We drove up to the Denny Creek area and hiked to Franklin Falls. The scenery here is always to pretty and we had a great time. Reese pretty much slept in her little carrier the whole hike. Having a baby definitely changes how you do things- everything just takes a lot longer, but of course it is worth it.

Josh and Kara

2010-05-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

So we had our last set of visitors- my sister Kara and her husband Josh. They have been so good to little Reesie- I swear that half of her clothes have come from them. We had a great time playing games and hanging out. My sister is hands-down one of the funniest people I have ever met. She always has great stories. We love Josh- they got married this summer and he fits right in. Josh, Spence and Almen have a great time together. We were so happy to have them here.

I love this baby!

2010-04-30T14:19:00.000-07:00