Several Posts Rolled Into One

These past few weeks have been pretty busy around the Reese home.

Jason has been working a lot (between regular work, schedule changes and off duty stuff) so we've been trying to cram our to-do lists in with our family time any free moment we get the chance.

Aside from all that, however, we've managed to do a few fun things.

Last Thursday we had lunch at Chicken Express and then decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we've been having and go to the park. Rebekah was less than thrilled with the swings or the play equipment (well, besides the slide - she wanted to do that over and over!) and more excited about feeding bread to the ducks and running around like a wild woman! It was so fun and refreshing to get the small amount of time together, just the four of us.




At chicken express....LOVE their sweet tea! Here, Bekah is being goofy and showing us her side slurping talent! She was being so funny because we let her sit in a booster seat and she thought she was somethin else!














Feeding the duckies...

and eating their bread! She hasn't quite caught on to why she can't have a snack too!




Little Miss Independent!


She got on the merry-go-round and smiled...until Daddy pushed it and she begged to get down!


Just chillin'...




This was a funny shot - she looked like she was going to slide by herself and even posed for the camera...and then wouldn't go down until Daddy helped her!



Last Friday was my sweet nephew, Jared's 9th birthday! I can't believe it's been that long. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was holding him and kissing his sweet baby face! We went to his birthday party yesterday at my sister's and we had a great time enjoying the family.

Then today, we went to our friend, Landon's 2nd birthday!

Jason had to work, so Aunt Sis was so awesome to take care of Noah while I went with Rebekah. It was at a fun bounce house place and we got to eat cake and pizza and I enjoyed talking to our friends, Micha and Amanda (and their son, Jacob).

But oh, it just melted my heart for how much of a big girl Rebekah was! I think someone secretly slipped her something in her drink because that girl was actually listening to me and staying close to me...not running off, and she ate "all by herself" with the rest of the kids while I secretly cried on the inside! She was being so sweet and so polite, and she was loving on the other kids around her. My sweet baby is growing up! Someone please make her slow down!!




R loved on the girls that she didn't know next to her, patting their backs and saying hi to them...they didn't seem to like it too much. So we put her next to her friend, Jacob!


He didn't mind too much!




Birthday boy!





On another random note, Noah turned 3 months old last Wednesday, the 4th. That boy really has my heart. I know I'm done for when it comes to his sweet smiling face and cooing. He has really begun to find his "voice"(the sweetest sound ever!) and loves to be cuddled. I've also gotten him to laugh - it is so fun! We also think he's beginning to teeth. Oh the joy! Let's just say that excessive amounts of drool, fussiness, and a tired mama are not the best combination right now! haha! Rebekah started the teething process at around 2 1/2 months old but it took her another month before we started feeling any teeth coming thru. Anyway, Noah has this soft minky blanket and likes to "eat" it and hold it close to his face. He likes to chew on his blue monkey, too! He is just now starting to really take to his paci more....with a little encouragement!



Rebekah is still the sweetest big sister ever! She always wants to "hold" and kiss on Noah. When he cries she says, "shhh!" to him, rocks him if he's in the carseat carrier, and says, "Noooaahhh" real softly...Or she'll bring his paci to him and cram in it his mouth (whether he likes it or not)... you know... big sister stuff.



But she's always happy to see him - any time of day or night. Bekah is also talking a lot more. Just this week she's starting to put longer strings of words together. She cracks us up because of the stuff she says to us and repeats! haha! I went to Target with her last night (where I splurged a little on some $4 and $5 shirts and shorts and a pair of shoes) and was trying shoes on her. She is in between sizes right now, so I would put one on and say, "no, that doesn't work!" and go to the next one. Well, soon she was saying "nooo...." and shaking her head too! I know the story doesn't translate well in text, but it was super cute! :) She also loves to watch American Idol and especially loves to sing and dance around the living room like crazy until she falls over! And she is finally finally letting me "fix" her hair. She's always fought me on it because she has such a sensitive scalp and it always hurts. But lately, she doesn't mind it so much. In fact, she turns into Little Miss Sassy Pants once it's done!

And the last update is that we got Noah dedicated at our church last Sunday. It was a "special" and private ceremony...one that God showed himself big time to us. When I get some pictures of it, I'll give you the whole story. :) But, we were so blessed by it and by the time with our family.

P.S. Hope you liked all the pics! I'm getting lazy about loading them because they take so long to post!!

Happy Monday!!

Lunch Date and Decorating our Apartment with Baby Clothes

Just wanted to share that Jason and I were able to have a fun dinner lunch and a movie date at the Movie Tavern today. This was only the 3rd time for us to leave both kiddos with someone else. (The first time was so I could get a haircut last month and the second was last Thursday night to go on a belated birthday/early Valentine's Day dinner date.) And as far as I know, they both behaved really well!

We saw, of all things, "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"! Haha! It was one of those "so-unrealistic-and-silly-that-it-was-funny" movies. But it was a good one to just pass the time with my honey and enjoy being kid-free for a few hours!

The highlight was that we each ate our very own pizza (hey, I'm a nursing mama!) and huge cherry coke.... and I got all the toppings on it that I wanted (that Jason doesn't like) and I didn't even have to share! :) Plus, we were one of 3 couples there, and I got to laugh as loud as I wanted. (And I think I was the only one laughing on many occasions... Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure everyone there just loved me. What can I say? I'm pretty easily entertained!)

And now, I would just like to give a quick shout out to my friend, Jana (and Chris- well, he helped while he was working), for offering to take care of the kids so that we could have some alone time together! Thanks Jana - you totally rock and I love ya!!

Oh, and the other latest and (not so) greatest news is that we think our dryer is broken. Our clothes have been taking forever to dry and yesterday they weren't drying at all. It made the clothes start to stink like mildew and they were sopping wet after like 2 or 3 cycles! But, it's getting hot on the inside, so we don't really know what the deal is. We at first thought that the hookup where the dryer goes into needed to be cleaned, but now that they've cleaned it....looks like we're going to have to get someone to come look at our dryer!

I had to get creative and hang up the kids' laundry because we had already washed them a few times since they started to stink and I didn't want to rewash them again! We didn't have enough hangers for them, so I used ours and had to figure out where to put them...


crib sheet on our barstools..




pantry/laundry room


kids' bathroom...


their towel rack...


our bathroom


and yes, there is a towel on the baby gate attached to Bekah's room!

Haha! Can you tell there isn't a whole lotta room to hang our clothes?! And needless to say, I am SO behind on laundry as a result, and it is ridiculous... Well, actually it's quite frustrating! We already have two cars that need fixing that we've put off, so the dryer is just one more thing to add to our list! But, we know that God is in control, and we are just hoping that it is a small problem that can be resolved easily. We would greatly appreciate it if you could pray for us that this can be taken care of quickly!

**Oh and here's a quick story: Today while I was on the phone with my mom, I noticed Rebekah playing "Pat a Cake" and "Peek a boo" with Noah (not to mention the usual nonstop hugging and kissing on him) while he was on my lap facing out toward her. She had no idea I was watching and it was the cutest thing ever! She is such a great big sister!**

The Bachelor

Okay, if you watch the Bachelor (and especially if you saw last week's episode) then you'll love this post from BooMama's blog. I literally laughed out loud. Oh, I can't wait for tonight's episode! Does anyone else think that DeAnna's return is staged for ratings? I don't know. I think she had her chance already if you ask me. :) Oh well. Happy Monday ya'll!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Jason takes a fall, Rebekah nurses her baby, and other random stories...

Awesome! I just realized that I posted ONE time in January. Nice. Well, I guess I can say I told ya that I wasn't going to be too great at keeping up. But I hate that because I'm on here all the time looking at other people's blogs. It's just time consuming to do my own!

Anyway I posted a slideshow of Christmas photos and another slideshow of Noah and Rebekah at the bottom of this.

As for Reese family news, things have been pretty crazy around here.

This is probably the boring way to do it, but here is the past week in review for us.

Last Tuesday, one of our icy days last week, Jason fell down the stairs outside that lead up to our apartment... that's right... all 13 stairs! He was in full uniform on his way out for work and slipped on the icy first step. Thankfully, he had his radio on him and called out for EMS to come out and check him out. He has a big bruise on his lower back, was really sore, and they thought he might have broken his thumb. It was ugly and swollen and he could barely move it. So he called in for work (of course) and I drove us all to the CareNow clinic. Our parents and J's sister met us there to help with the babies (plus they were concerned and that's just how we roll around here) and we were able to find out that he was not broken after all! Just a sprain! Woo hoo! So we ate dinner at Cotton Patch (love their rolls and butter!) and came home in the icy mess that was the weather. We saw so many accidents and were so thankful that we were not a part of any of them! Funny side note: Jason freaked out the x-ray tech when he asked her if he were to have a gun with him, would that affect the x-ray machine? lol She was like, "Why would you have a gun?" in a really creeped out voice. He didn't really think through how to ask her that simple question before alarming her.

Wednesday Rebekah threw up something fierce while we were at my mom and dad's house. We had eaten dinner at Chipotle and it had been awhile after that when it happened(and after having a little bit of ice cream for dessert). Funny thing was - and sorry in advance for those who are squeamish - it looked completely whole and undigested! My mom nailed it when she said it looked like the garbage disposal. Whole rice and beans and everything else she ate. So weird and really gross. She was fine after that.

Thursday we ate a fabulous dinner with Granna at OTB and were able to have some great food and conversation with just her and our little family of 4. The kids behaved wonderfully, and we found that Bekah likes chips and salsa now! ha! She's surely daddy's girl!

Friday I'll just say that I got sick to my stomach and couldn't sleep that night for all the trips to the bathroom. Noah was spitting up big time so I think it might be what I ate.

Saturday we took Rebekah to play at Green Valley park before church. We only got to stay about 30 minutes. It's been a long time since we've been to the park with her - she's so deprived. She cried when we left, saying "Doys!..." (which is "Toys!") because she liked playing on the slide and climbing the stairs so much! But she did not like the swing! lol! After that we ate at Quiznos (where the nice lady thought Bekah was cute and gave her a free cookie - yum!) and went to church. That night Jason got sick with fever and throwing up and going to the bathroom a lot.

So Sunday he couldn't go back to work as planned. But we did manage to go over to my parents house and watch the Superbowl...ok, really Jason slept in my parents room while my dad watched the game and my mom and I played with the kids, drank coffee, and watched commercials and the last part of the game. :)

How is it that each of us got sick and with each of us it got progressively worse? I have no idea.
But now I am happy to report that we are all feeling better - Thank the Lord- and Jason was finally able to go back to work last night.

In other news, Noah has become Mr. Smiley all the time and is such a happy baby. He's also become more animated when he cries. He shrieks and gets so loud now when he's really hungry or when we're in the car too long. Fun stuff. He will be two months old tomorrow! Crazy how fast time is flying by!

And here is a funny story about Rebekah: We were playing in her room on Sunday and I told her to feed her baby because it was crying. I swaddled the doll and gave Bekah the baby bottle. She thought about it a minute, put the bottle down, and then lifted her shirt up and put the baby there! I had to really work hard at keeping a straight face! Haha!

Oh and my birthday is this Saturday and I'm so excited! 26 ya'll! I can put that on here because I am still young enough to be excited about that. LOL. Just kidding. Anyway, hopefully on Friday my mom and my sister and I are going to go to a movie and hang out together - just us girls. I can't wait. And I think Jason and I are going out on Thursday night if we can find a babysitter, since that's his day off and he won't be able to go do anything on Saturday. So we shall see!

By the way, anyone have any good suggestions for good places to eat? I just want a yummy, middle of the road on moolah, fun place to eat. Can't wait to hear your ideas!

Hope you are having a Happy Tuesday!