Here's the Myres Family!

Things I forgot...and pics!!

2011-11-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

Things I forgot-

Reese ended up being an alternate for the all star team! He played in 2 summer tournaments (team placed runner up in both) and then state tournament and the world series. It was a great experience for him and he impressed us all- even made a diving catch that looked like the pros and ended the world series with his last bat being a great hit that was a double!! He also made the Olive Branch Intermediate chess team this year!!

Raygan-Elise had oral surgery to get caps on front 2 teeth. Nala, Simba, R-E and I went that day! Didn't realize the medicine was kicking in and she feel to that the ground bc she was so tipsy...Oops! Then she screamed bc I wouldn't let her walk anymore after realizing she was tipsy!! Her front teeth are now bright white! After this, it was time to take ease off her soothe (pacifier) bc. Was scared it would pull on caps. I told her she needed to mail her soothe to baby heith. She wasn't happy but eventually gave in to it...however, 3 days later she found another soothe! When I said Baby Heith needed it..she said, "no, he don't, he have one. He have other one I gave." Ha! Smart girl! Finally got her off of her soothe that week...although tears came and went for a long time!!!

Earlier post...

2011-11-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry...an earlier post was from summer, 2010. It was in the draft section and I clicked it and it posted... Oops!!

Time is flying by us...

2011-11-21T19:02:00.000-08:00

Another half year gone... Kids are growing and learning!

Reese is having a great year! He has made all A's, was the first child to get the Citizenship award in August, made the Desoto Cardinals 9u baseball team, and is being a great big brother! His week consists of school, homework, and baseball practice on Monday and Thursday nights. A friend shared a conversation he had with Reese's teacher and I must say it made me cry. And she didn't even know that I was friends with the other teacher.

Conversation-
Conversation started about who they thought were star students
Friend (Reese's PE teacher)- well, the kids who shine in your room may not necessarily be the ones who shine in here...,ore than likely they aren't.
Reese's teacher- True. It would be interesting to see who you think are stars and other activity teachers compared to my thoughts.
Friend- well who are yours .
Teacher- Well, my top 2 would be Reese and ____.
Friend- That is interesting bc they do shine in PE! Both very athletic, try hard, and determined!
Teacher- interesting. But if you want to know my kindest kid, kind to all, boys and girls, it would be Reese.
Friend then said they started talking about how Reese is a triple or quadruple threat- handsome, kind, smart, athletic!

Awww!! That's my boy!!!!

Raygan-Elise is growing up each day! Her conversations are so smart now! Sometimes, it takes her bit longer to catch on to numbers or letters, but she's so socially smart and verbal!!! She jokes and has a great sense of humor. she also can manipulate to get her way. Not sure if that's a pro or a con but she is talented at it! She is really into birthdays and says she wants every toy she sees for her birthday and every food at her birthday...she also says her birthday is on Friday and Tuesday. At school, we are having more good days than bad. Usually she plays and joins in...although she likes sneaking drinks from my diet dr peppers!!! I am enjoying having her with me each day.

Halloween- our traditional trip to Zoo Boo was great! John Aedon (a transformer for Zoo Boo and ghost buster for halloween), Anna, and Jeremy joined us! The kids had a ball!! Reese was scary for the first time! He wore a black coat and scary mask. He of course ran up and down each driveway and back to hayride until we pulled to next houses. When we got home, he had piles of candy on the floor. So we asked what in the world he was doing....he had sorted his candy into categories- chocolate, suckers, chewy, etc. : D. Raygan-Elise was a cute horse with bows of course!! She wasn't much into the trick or treating. After about 3 houses, she said she had enough and preferred
sitting on the hayride eating it!! Every so often, we talked her into going to another house! Then, I said let's go home. She was fine with that so as the hayride rode by our house we got off. Well, I guess she thought Reese and Daddy were getting off too bc as they pulled off the tears and screams started. She didn't want to get off...ect. After about 10 min and a trip to one more house (but then she refused to ring doorbell so we left) she was better! Pics coming soon!!

Life Without a computer = not many blog posts!

2011-06-19T19:22:00.000-07:00

But I finally decided to do a small one from my iPad!

Big happenings:

Reese finished 3rd grade with all A's in every subject all year long!! He will be leaving Chickasaw and for the first time since we moved here will be going to a school that isn't a walk across my parking lot! : (. He went to his first major concert- Bon Jovi with me, Brian, and Anna in May!!! I think Anna and I only embarrassed him a little bit in our 80's outfits. He watches concerts a lot like his Daddy! Anna and I were up dancing the whole time, and Brian and Reese sat and watched the band and stage show...although I talked them into getting up on some of the "must dance" songs! He really enjoyed the concert though! He had a wonderful soccer season and was a top player on his soccer team, and then went on to play a great season of baseball, including many home runs!! The best one was his last game last week: 2 outs, last inning, runner on first, tied 8-8 and Reese went up to bat. 2 strikes. And swing...a home run to win the last game of the season!!!! Although his team struggled this year with a sweet coach who had never coached before and many players who had never played baseball before, He was nominated by his coach to try out for all stars and although he didn't make the team...we are so proud of his heart and effort!! He is hoping to play fall baseball and sit out this season of football.

Raygan-Elise started coming to my school after spring break and will be in my room next year. Also, while out shopping in March, I ran out of diapers and told her do not potty on pants...and she didn't!!!! Wow! And from then on she wore panties! She's had a few accidents but not many!! She was finally baptized in early May. It was a wonderful special day. When the priest walked over, she put her hand on her cheeks, elbows on the pew, and just stared at him....it was precious. Then, after the actual baptism, she would cry about every 5-10 min and say "I got wet!". She is such a big girl now- talks all the time, has learned words to all sorts of songs, still loves her hair bows, and her "fip fops" (flip flops). She also had her first dance recital, and I must say she rocked it!! She knew both her dances and did a great job on the stage!

Spring Break: we took a weekend trip with Anna, John Aedon, Amanda, me, Reese, and Raygan-Elise to pick up our new family member, Sally! She is a full-blooded 3 yr old yorkie. Raygan-Elise adores her and carries her everywhere!!!!

Our Fall

2011-01-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

Fall went by so fast! Mostly spent with Reese playing football and R-E watching the games (well, ok not really).

Reese played on Cowboys and loved it! He played the whole game- Offense and Defense. He made one TD in a "preseason" game! For a lil one on the team, he was tough and strong! He was one of 4 on his team to make All-Stars and his All-Star team won! He had some great blocks in the game. And I am one of those moms that yells and walks the field. Then, I say to myself "he can't hear me" but I just keep yelling!
He is doing great in school and even his Spotlight/gifted teacher says how much he is a stand-out in her room. She says he's a leader and organizes the kids to come up with solutions! And she brags on his writings! She said she even copied one on a transparency to teach other Spotlight classes...I'm so proud!!! He still challenges me all the time with his thinking skills. I often have to get him to explain to me what he means and usually it is something so interesting. One funny story- As R-E was watching Dora, the cartoon asked "which black hole should dora go down." He died out laughing and we looked at him. He said, "that the craziest question the answer is none of them!" He ponders the weirdest things- "Why is there no random people walking around on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I mean there's always random people in real life but not cartoons" and "I wonder why there are no sharks on Spongebob". He loves to read and his new series he likes in 39 Clues. (We got him the whole set for Christmas). He's had a healthy year, except for a mild case of the flu. He is geared up and ready to play spring soccer! His other big accomplishment was receiving his First Communion in October! It was a special day filled with special guests: Anna, SL, Me, Brian, R-E, Hammie and Poppa! He received The Body and The Blood and you could see in his face how proud he was. Such a sweet boy...Brian and I have both walked in on him on different days in his room bf bedtime kneeling and saying his prayers! Brings tears to my eyes as I type!

Raygan-Elise is just growing up-- talking so much, uses potty occasionally,and of course being bossy! She says almost anything now and I can usually understand her (although others can't). She still loves singing "you are my sunshine" bf bed and loves part of "don't take my sunshine away". After she will say "i ant ake" = I want take...meaning sing that part again. She says i uv ew= I love you! She likes putting her hands on her hips to make a statement and she can give you some of the craziest faces to show her attitude and dislike. She still loves Mickey Mouse but has also started other shows since her daycare watches TV from 3:45-4:15 each day and somedays I don't make it there till 4. She enjoys Diego, Dora, Wonderpets, etc. She danced in her first recital/play in December. She was a flower in the Nutcracker: World Tour. She had many guests: SL, Mom, Me, Brian and Mamaw all there to watch her as she sat on stage for 3 minutes playing with her feet. She never stood up or attempted to do a thing. We are hoping her Spring performance will be more animated. She loves dance though! There are only 4 in her class and they really dance each Saturday! I also realized last week that she knows the letter R and M and the sound S makes. I wrote several other letters which she didn't recognize. Conclusion: knows R and M bc of all her monogrammed clothes!!! I always say lets get on this M shirt. :) Now, I'm not sure about the S... She can also sing the Alphabet song and the chorus to almost any song in top 10 hit radio. She loves music! She's of course been hit hard with diff. illnesses this fall. She had hand, foot, and mouth around the 2nd week of school, had ear infections in Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec, and was put on oral antibiotic for one of those infections with caused antibiotic induced colitis. On a big positive note, she just had her first hearing test come back normal...so YAY! (past tests were bad due to fluid.) Crazy Girl! Still off dairy and taking 2 allergy meds daily and asthma inhaler 2 times a day. We are working on getting her off her paci--AKA her soothie! It is extremely hard. Over Christmas break, we tried the only in the bed idea. It worked pretty good. But now we are onto the only in the bed and the carseat deal! We will keep working! The tears and screams flow so bad....It is like her best friend is gone when she realizes she doesn't have it.

Halloween: She was Minnie Mouse, and he was a football player. We went to our annual Zoo Boo trip- watched the magic show, road some zoo rides, trick or treated around the zoo, and Reese hung out with the scarecrows (they were real people!). R-E school also had a fall carnival/party during her school day- games, bounce house, snack, and hayride. I went up there to walk with her class! Reese drew a design on a pumpkin this year, then I cut it out. I was a bat pumpkin, and he did a great job!

Guess that's all for tonight! Will post Christmas soon! I'm gonna get back on track! I love to blog...one as an easy way to keep you up to date but also for my memories bc they are all going by too quick and I've realized you forget so much. I hope to print these out as a keepsake for Reese and R-E to have! Our Computer isn't acting nice and we haven't been able to upload pics. So most current our still on camera...but here are a few past ones:

Myres MIA...

2010-12-12T19:59:00.000-08:00

So I've been MIA!

I have been scolded and feel awful about not blogging lately! Sorry and I will get better! Here are some funny and memorable moments from our last months:

Early August-
Raygan-elise to random boy at reese football game-
R-E “Here, sit.”
Handed him book. R-E- “read”
Boy- “Who me “
R-E “Yes!”

Raygan elise popped in Potty this morning for first real time!

Reese - Apparently I offended her. (Her being Raygan-Elise.)

Raygan-elise not wanting to soap up in the tub so she put out her hand and said “stop! Stop it momma.” Then took soap and put it on other side of tub away from me.

Past Saturday-- Reese scored his first touchdown in a scrimmage game!

Reese- I never took into account where I was gonna put my toast.

August 5- Reese woke up excited about school! First thing he said- "mom, did you go to that open house thing? Oh good, so what's my activity class today?" : )

August 15-- Reese kissing Ray and then says “I'm practicing to be president bc when you're president you have to know how to kiss babies.” Me- how do you know that? Reese- They say it on tv.

Today- Ray kept diaper dry all day (except for poop)

Reese thought school gave him lunch money bc the office worker brought it down to his room after I took it to office. He was so excited the school gave him $.

Aug. 9- Great 1st day with my prekinders, bakery treats afterschool, major meltdown/fit from Raygan-elise but followed 1 hour later by her coming to me with a big hug & her telling me "i wuv ew" for the first time ever! And I actually loved helping Reese complete his homework- interviewing me about his name, why/when we choose it, etc. Great day!!

August 10- After Seeing Duggards TV show- Reese- “I wouldn't want that many kids unless I was married like 5 times so I would have 5 moms to help me!”

Aug. 10- Yea the toddler screaming at walmart was R-E. She was doing this bc I said NO it is inappropriate to throw your icee at your mom and took away her silly bandz. Reese then said mom she didnt actually throw it at you; only the straw hit you! Hmmmm...what I'm I doing wrong?! : )

Aug. 16- Reese is excited when riding solo & cooler than me are on xm but bret michaels comes on...and he sings "i don't like this" over and over. Whos kid is this?
And now he's asking to change aerosmith and trying yo annoy me by going lalalalalala. Seriously? I think Brian needs to have a talk with him! : )

Aug. 22- Thinks I may need to read some new parenting books after Raygan-elise's church behavior, which included her yelling hush and stop it momma, kicking toys in the quiet room, and trying to hit me when I told her to stop...or maybe I need to take a class! But first- its nap time!!

Sept 11- Can't believe Raygan-elise is so big...today was her first dance class! Some tears walking away but Mrs Jill cheered them up!

Sept. 12- Both of my kids are still up and now dancing to a vma performance...hmmm...

Sept. 25- Raygan-elise danced this morning at ballet, reese's team won their football game, and now I'm getting ready to take r-e to Disney on ice! What a fun day!

Oct. 1- "YES-2 desserts, fries, and a chicken sandwich...all a man can want!"- Reese on why he wants a lunch tray today!
Oct. 4- Raygan-elise is counting the fingers on her hand- "eighteen, eighteen, eighteen, eleven, twelve-teen, eighteen, eighteen, three”

Oct. 5- Is thinking Raygan-elise ate rocks at daycare today...why would I think. That? Her very random words- "I eat rocks" what? Who ate rocks? "me" (as she proudly raises her hand) at school? "Yes!"

Oct. 10- Cried this morning while watching reese and his Sunday school class take their First Eucharist...such a proud mommy!

October 23- Zoo BOO take 2! (and we have printed the tickets this time!)

October 30- Reese, Raygan-Elise and I went to March for Babies at the Olive Branch Park!

Nov 17----"Usher sang in the 90's? Hmmm...he sounded different back then."
--Reese (when an usher song came on 90's on 9)

Nov 18----Just watched Raygan-elise on stage for the first time at rehearsal for Ballet Desoto Nutcracker! She will be (hopefully dancing) flower on Sunday! So cute!

Nov. 21----Just watched the cutest sitting flower in her first Nutcracker performance!

Nov. 22----My house is all turned around...reese been sick since Friday and I've checked his temp so much that batteries are dead, and r-e upset that reese is taking "her medicines" and "her mameter" (thermometer)

Nov. 27----Awesome! -- R-E new word (too cute...guess she learned that from big brother) ~~Learned later that this was learned from Mrs. Holly, one of Raygan-Elise’s teachers, and she sounds exactly like Mrs. Holly!
Nov. 30 ---Out of nowhere, Raygan-Elise seriously just said- "mommys cazy" (crazy) hmmmm...not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not...
Dec 1---2nd day in a row- " oh, mommy cazy" (in carseat both times...wondering if its my driving)

Dec. 2----Is questioning her mornings...reese just said, "we are more happy this morning than we usually are."

Dec 4---Stars in Motion Parade float...too much fun and Raygan-Elise sat! Yay! Now nap for her! (She sat on float until last turn when she decided to stand and fuss. During parade, she kept poking her head through ribbon décor and saying, “I ee ew!” (I see you!)

July is gone!

2010-08-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

Our summer is gone! But we had a busy but fun one! Both of our babies are growing up...Here are some updates-

Reese is now a great bike rider! He even rode his bike to the store with his Poppa; although he did have one bad wreck on the way which they didn't tell me about for a few days. But since then, he has been around the neighborhood with Poppa and Brian and is doing great! He says this is the best summer ever because we went to Alabama Soccer tournament, go to the pool almost everyday, and went to the beach! I think Hammie and Poppa living here has been a plus for him too! He surprises me each day at the pool because he isn't shy. If he doesn't know anyone, he will just walk up and find a new friend to play with him! He really got into baseball and enjoyed several Redbirds game this summer (we all went for Father's Day)!! He still loves using his big words, especially the word apparently! He enjoys talking on the phone (with Caleb L.) and still loves computer games. He is clueless when it comes to looking for anything. It tends to be frustrating to us because he will walk right by what he is looking for and miss it! He lost another tooth on the way to our beach vaca when biting into a Baconator sandwich from Wendy's. He was surprised and excited bc he had wanted one of these sandwiches for a while...then he called me (he was with Hammie and Poppa) and said he took a few bites and it came out. I didn't even know one was loose! He enjoys watching Cake Boss on TV which is funny (a reality show about a cake store. And he has become SO nosy. Anytime he overhears us he walks in asking- what? What did you say? Who did that? Etc. He starts 3rd grade in 2 days, and I still am in shock! He will have Kim Bridges as his teacher, and we are so excited!!

REESE WITH ORANGE CRUSH TEAM AT ALABAMA 3-V-3 TOURNAMENT! CHAMPIONS!!!

Raygan-Elise had her 2nd surgery at the beginning of July. They replaced her tubes due to too many infections and took out her adenoids. It was outpatient at Lebonheur East. The day of the surgery she mostly slept once we got home. She was up about 3 hours and ate some mash potatoes. Friday she was doing quite well but Saturday she began running almost 103. So, we called the doc who felt it was unrelated and if she was still running fever Sunday to take her to the doctor. Well, she was so we did...to a minor med and they sent us to the ER bc she had a elevated white count. We didn't get the friendliest ER doc...in fact she complained about parents and was rude and at one point talked about how we should take away R-E paci (AKA her soothie). It was the oddest thing! They tested her for strep (although minor med had already said that would be negative bc she was on amoxicilian) and it was neg and dip-sticked her urine. After her fever came down from tylenol, they discharged her. Then, she threw up all throughout night! Monday and Tuesday were not so fun days and finally Wed was better! But boy, they aren't lying...breathe is awful and finally just stopped smelling about a week and half ago! Her ENT says he is unsure how she was actually breathing bc her adenoids were huge huge and growing into her nasal passages...so we are hoping next year we won't be sick all the time!

She also got her 1st haircut this month to try to even out the longer baby hair with the shorter newer hair. I was so nervous but it went fine. And it does look much better! She still potties off and on in the potty but also in her diaper. She goes to sleep with me and then I move her to her bed where typically she will stay all night. She is talking talking! Saying everything and learning so much! She understands and responds to everything we say...I am just loving this stage. She cracks us up all the time with her new fav sayings- go time out, I scares (I'm scared) and everything is "mines"! Still Loves Mickey Mouse and Minnie and Baby dolls and of course still loves bracelets! And yes she still takes her Soothie! She is still very emotional and diva-like. She can throw a major major fit, gets in horrible diva moods, is very bossy, loves to tell you to do something and says "now!", loves to throw things and hit when she is mad, and say NO! But is just too cute for words! She will be promoted on Monday to a new classroom also! So sad!

Adventures in Bike riding!

2010-07-04T07:26:00.001-07:00

Events happened on July 3rd, 2010-- Reese has never really wanted to learn how to ride a bike...well, actually he wants to...falls a few times and quits! This has been our pattern every year. Things always come so easy to him on the first try and since this is a little harder he gives up and thinks he can't. We always practice for a month or so and then we both get frustrated and give up. Last year after I read and read on the internet for tips we almost had it but he was a tad bit too big for his old bike so it never quite clicked. About 2 months ago, Brian was riding his bike as a neighbor put out a very nice boy bike with a sign free to a good home. So Brian asked him and it became Reese's new bike. Today, we decided it was time for him to try again. We started on the new big bike. Several falls and tears later he was so nervous. He kept saying "I just can't! I can't ride a bike." We took a break and went to the old small bike to work on balance and stopping. I told him he could do this- he was smart, a great athlete, and God gave him 2 legs and he could ride a bike! He asked "so why isn't God helping?" I said he is but you have to do you part too!! First we worked on balancing on the hill with the small bike and he did it and did it again about 10 times!! He could balance but not peddle as the bike too small, but he had confidence back! So we went back to the big bike on a straight piece of land! Brian and Hammie came outside to watch and offer their praise. (Later, Poppa and R-E came out too!) Next, we practiced balancing with me pushing and then onto peddling and he has it!!! He made several excuses along the way- the grass it too bumpy, my fingers won't reach the brake, you're pushing me toward the hill! Just going straight now...no turning yet. We really have to go somewhere where he can peddle farther before having to stop. But I'm so proud of him for finally giving it a better try!!! After I asked him if riding a bike was hard, I learned that he's still not into it too much yet. He said he kind of likes riding his bike and that his fav part was going down the hill (on his old bike). He wants to learn how to turn. He says if he can stand in the deep pool at the ymca then he can ride his bike (his new bigger bike) down the hill & touch the ground. But he says he needs to grow 5-6 more inches for that to happen. Now, Noah and Reese are riding R-E pink toddler car (the kind with no peddles that you just sit in) down our big backyard hill!!!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

June is gone...

2010-07-03T10:27:00.001-07:00

TIRED kids after a long day of errand (in our rental car while my car was being fixed from a friend backing into it)

Wow! Summer passes so quick! We have had a fun-filled month finishing up baseball early in June and then most days at the pool! Reese and Raygan-Elise are both looking very tan!

They both had their well visits this month. Reese weighed 64 lbs(75th percentile)and was inches 51 in tall (51st percentile). He also had a sinus infection, which is what was causing his cough so he got some meds. Raygan-Elise weight 25 lbs ( which is somewhere around the 25th percentile) and was inches tall (43rd percentile). She also went to an allergist this past week, and the results showed she is allergic to 2 families of mold, milk, cats, and rabbits. She has already been dairy-free since March (with a couple of cheating days, but has had no straight milk). We are removing all potted plants and we had to give away our 4 yr old bunny - Shadow. Reese was very sad and cried! At first, he thought it would be better to just never let Ray go upstairs, but we told him that really wasn't realistic! That was 3 days ago and this morning he came up to me and said- "so now that Shadow is gone, can we get another pet?" I said that I didn't think so and he said, "what? Why? it's not like I'm gonna say another bunny."

Reese loves sports! He says, "I like football first, baseball is second and soccer is third and that's all the sports I like because I don't want one to be a loser." (Bc they'd be in 4th place) He also loves using the word apparently! He uses it all the time! He isn't shy at the pool and will walk up to any of the kids and ask them to play! He likes getting kids together to play pickle- which is a game that involves a water ball and spots of the pool as bases. He has started having grumpy times, but we are working on that! He's also started to do a little stomping of feet, rolling of eyes, and ugh sounds when he doesn't want to do something but he is immediately getting in trouble and I'm hoping that being consistent will stop this stage soon!Mom says he's growing up bc he was talking to a friend on the phone and the friend said, "who answered the phone?" and Reese replied, "my grandmother." We've never heard him call her anything other than Hammie! But he's still a kid too!! We went to rent movies for the first time in months and he picked out Blank Check (older disney movie), The Suite life (disney TV show) and Scooby Doo!!! Football is coming soon! He is so excited!! He will be on the Cowboys 7 and 8 yr olds and Brian is going to help coach. This will be Brian's coaching debut!! :)

Reese using my phone to take a picture of himself! (I can tell her took it bc he didn't push his hair over to side; I always say push your hair over bf I take any pics!)

Raygan-Elise is very independent and moody!! She has grown up a lot and started to develop her own personality the past month. She still loves to eat everything!

On June 14th- R-E started sleeping on pallet by self.

On June 16th- I took Ray to the potty as soon as she woke up and R-E tt'd. Then she poo poo'd twice at the Y and tt'd a total of 6 times here. For a grand total of 8 potties today! Yay! First day ever and what a great day. She did wet pants all day too and had one poop in pants! But still good day. For months we've been sitting on potty ect.

June 17th- Fav sayings this week-- I comin, elpin=helping, oh e=hold me,

June 19th- R-E just asked to go potty for the first time- she said potty! And I took her and she went.

Now, she goes to potty on the potty and in her pull-ups. We've even tried panties a few times, which she's kept dry some and wet some. She is talking about everything! She says up- when she wants me to get up! She is very demanding. She even tried to boss a little boy (who we didn't know) at the pool. And he listened! She said, um (come), jup (jump), now, um (and added sounds like when you call a dog), now. The little boy walked over, climbed up and jumped!

She is starting to sing a lot of songs- she tries and knows some words to-- 5 little monkeys (swinging from a tree and jumping on the bed), The Alphabet song (loves P, and says z, x, g), You are my Sunshine and of course, itsy Bitsy Spider!

Mom bought her a toddler bed and bedding this month and daddy put it together. She loves it! She sits in it and watches TV! She will also sleep in it through the night after she falls asleep with me in my bed first and then we move her to her bed!

1st Night in her bed (without her bedding bc we didn't like any that day, but she has some now)

Late in June, she likes to say sop= stop,alk= walk, and sing her songs!

Raygan-Elise eating her pink cereal! While at the grocery store last night, Raygan-Elise walked and picked out her own cereal! She picked out a pink box with girls all over it, so of course I bought it! When unloading food, we realized she also added hot dogs (I had put in 2 packages so now we have 3), double stuffed oreos, a bag of chips, and a few more things!

PS- These are pics from cell phone bc our computer is still not letting us load new pictures! Also, forgive me for any typos! I type these quickly and Brian always finds some errors!

Reese Soccer!!

2010-06-30T18:44:00.001-07:00

Reese was asked a while back to join a 3 versus 3 soccer team which would travel out of town for tournaments 7 out of the 9 weeks of summer. We decided it wasn't the right time. But the team was going to have a player miss a tournament so they asked Reese to sub and we jumped at the chance to have a fun family weekend in Birmingham with the other Orange Crush team members and their families, as well as other friends on the other Olive Branch 3v3 teams. Brian and I were both nervous about the tournament. The other boys live soccer-all year long!! Reese only plays spring soccer and hadn't played since March and only had 1.5 practices with the team before the tournament. The night before we left I dreamed that Reese sat down on the middle of the field in the middle of the game and said "Coach Shea, I quit." I also dreamed that after half-time Reese came out in high heels and all the boys were yelling at him that he was supposed to wear cleats!

Friday, 6/25/2010- Reese road to Birmingham with a friend, Aaron Cook, and his parents so they could go swimming at the hotel. Brian, R-E and I left about an hour and half later.

Sat- Up bright and early and off to a 9 am game! Reese started off great and we were so proud. He scored 2 goals and played hard and strong. Orange Crush won!! Next game was at 12. All boys didn't play their best. Their game was very off, and we lost pretty bad! Next game started around 1:30 and they were back. He tried hard and was very aggressive. Reese scored another goal and blocked a few. We celebrated with sno-cones!! Raygan-Elise did surprisingly well all day! No nap! But she enjoyed all the attention from everyone around and enjoyed the snack bag! Next game was at 2:40 and again a great game. Reese scored another goal as well as scoring one that didn't count bc he wasn't across the line yet. Brian, Camden, and their son Gareth (friends of mine from high school) came to watch and Brian and I were so proud! Again-sno cones to celebrate. The team made it into the championship game and after a rough start a teammate, Riley, got them going. We won in overtime!! Orange Crush won the 3v3 Live Birmingham Tournament U8!!!! Reese was so excited and loved getting his championship medal.
Later in the evening, Brian and Reese went swimming in the hotel pool while R-E and I rested!!

Sunday- Alabama Adventure water park- Reese was read to go ride the big rides! He's finally tall enough to ride some larger slides, and he loved them all! Lines weren't long early in day so Brian and Reese road several over and over!! R-E loved the slides and water! She wore a life jacket for the first time and even went down the "large" slides at the "big kid" area. She even threw a fit to go by herself so after asking the life guard off she went and I followed behind her. She also loved the toddler area and toddler slides. She just smiled all day! Camden, Brian, and Gareth joined us again. Brian and Reese rode some roller coaster in the other area, and I took Reese over later while R-E took a nap and Brian rested too. We ended the day with an icee that Reese had been asking for all day long!!

Monday- McWayne Science Museum- Reese's fav part was petting the sharks and sting-rays (he went to that area twice). R-E loved seeing Nemo in the fish tank. I must admit I loved the jelly fish tank, and Brian liked the bed of nails! Reese was timid about the bed of nails but ended up doing it. R-E and Reese got in the hurricane tube. They both loved the balls that you could make float using air tubes and the water area that made the balls fly around! Reese was great at being a weather man on the green screen then we all got to watch him on the tv!! There were too many neat experiments!!! A very neat museum!
After a stop at the gift shop, we headed home!

Pics coming soon hopefully! Our computer is saying the hard drive if full and I haven't been able to load any pictures to our computer; therefore, I can't post or print any of them or any of the others that I've taken this summer!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

Reese's Birthday Slideshow!

2010-06-08T22:09:00.001-07:00

Here is the slideshow of Reese's Birthday Game!

Wonderful Party!

Free slideshow customized with Smilebox

Raygan-Elise's 2nd Bday Slideshow

2010-06-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

A free digital slideshow by Smilebox

ENJOY! We had a great time, but I can't believe she is 2!!! I will work on Reese's tomorrow night. Also, please forgive me for errors in their bday post! I worked on it late at night. OOPS!!!

My FB Status Awards

2010-06-04T13:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some recent FB status Honorable mentions by Me:

April Myres
--seriously almost just had a vulture hit her car while driving to school. Makes one worry how this day will unfold! (may 13th)

--and Raygan-Elise just left a routine 2 month follow-up ENT appt with more medicine bc her ear was infected. Then, R-E threw fit bc she wanted her "meshin" right then! Crazy Girl! (may 10th)

-- is so proud of her children! Glad for Reese's smile & sweet personality & that he always lets me help him & guide him and I am enjoying & beginning to laugh over Raygan-Elise's independant spirit & sassy personality. She brightens our day! Also so proud of Rod & his classmates tonight! Vespers was wonderful! Tears! (may 9th)

-- "Perhaps she had some cheese!" quoted from Reese Myres (may 4th)

--headed home from Reese's 2nd grade program & eating at IHop with two kids wired on syrup! (april 27)

-- Made it to the March for Babies!! I'd guess less than 20 people there (unlike the HUGE crowd last year). Walked to lake to show R-E the ducks! She loved that! THANKS to all donors! I met my goal & our team raised a little over $1200 for maternal & newborn research!!! (april 24th)

-- is laughing! Why? R-E is crying for paci & I say Reese find it. Reese responds- she already has 2 in her mouth but she's R-E & apparently that's not enough for her! (April 20th)

--watched Reese (from a distance) have his First Confession at Church this morning. Such a big boy!! (April 17th)

--thinks she may have had a calmer day at work with 16 three & four yr olds and my 9 High School students than I'm having here with her own 23 month old!!! hmmmm..... (april 16th)

-- is home with Raygan-Elise watching Nick and listening to Dora the Explorer tell us how important it is to mail in your Census!(april 9th)

But the winner for April and May's best April Myres status comment is

--School Assignment- Letter to Principal about something school needs- Dear Mrs. Baker, I think the school shoud have football pads & a football so we can play football. We also need cheerleaders. Think this over. Sincerely, Reese (april 21)

and runner up --Problem: Raygan Elise throwing fit to stay outside. The Plan: Go inside without her & pretend like I'm leaving her outside. The outcome: she happily walk to her slide & played as I spied through the window. Lesson learned: I must come up with better plan! (april 26th)

Some other quotes from Reese recently (and they are all about Raygan-Elise):
To the doc today-- Raygan-Elise also doesn't listen or behave. Can you fix that?
She hit mom at the end of the game for no apparent reason.
She likes the part where nemo disobeys and touches the boat. Maybe that's why she disregards us! (and she really does...when it gets to that part of movie where nemo doesn't listen to his dad she starts to grin and when nemo touches the boat she cracks up laughing!!!!)

Birthday Parties complete!

2010-06-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

Both Birthday Parties are complete!!!!

Raygan-Elise had her's first. She had a small party at our house! It was a "Favorite Things" themed party! Here is the poem for her invites:
Hair bows & Bracelets & Wearing my Shoes
I’m so excited that I’m turning TWO!
Running & Jumping & Playing on Swings,
These are a Few of my Favorite Things!

Minnie Mouse & Daisy & Watching Their Club.
Taking a Shower and Playing in the Tub!
Crayons & Markers and my Wall Drawings.
These are a Few of my Favorite Things!

My Reesey & Duckies & Playing with my Dolls.
Bouncing & Throwing Bright Colored Balls!
Silly Bands & Soothies & Most of all…Eating!!
These are a Few of my Favorite Things.

When I’m told No…
When I can’t Go…
When I’m feeling Mad…
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad!

Come join me, Raygan-Elise, for my 2nd Birthday Party
Honoring my favorite thing- ME!

Where: My House- My Favorite Place

Date: May- My Favorite Month
(Sunday, May 23rd)

Time: After Nap- My Favorite Time
(3:00 pm)

She had a blast! We had a bucket of balls, a basket of dress up items and another with baby dolls, our small bounce house and a water table (which were her favs that day). She wore her tutu and bracelets and necklaces the whole entire time. When getting in highchair to eat her birthday cake, her foot got stuck in her highchair as I was putting her in and she said I stuck I stuck. I said oh no your not. Bethany was at a diff angle and said she is really! She loved her bday cake! She loved the food and would walk to table to swipe a piece a food walk back outside and play and repeat!! She was so cute opening presents and would get excited and breathe deep and make excited noises with each new present. She recognized many and said their names! Valerie was playing with baby stella so when R-E opened her Baby stella pacifier I told her to take it to Valerie. Then, R-E started talking every present to Valerie after she opened it. After everyone left, I got in the bounce house with her and just played! It was such a fun day and it is so hard to believe that she has gone from a 4 lb even little thing to today at the doctor (ears again) she weighed 24 lbs! She's repeating everything we say (just cut back her special instructor to 2 times a month), love Minnie Mouse and about 2 weeks ago love NEMO!, still loves to eat, still dairy free, loves the water (jumps off the side of pool and goes completely under), has just started to like walking around without shoes, and is becoming a little, shall I say, more sassy!

Reese's party was this past Sunday at a Redbirds Game! He got treated with first class! We were escorted into game to a picnic table and ate hot dogs, cupcakes, dipping dots, and chips! We watched a little bit of the game, then went to play the games and play on the playground. Reese brought 4 boys from school- Aaron, Bryant, Jonathan, and Gavin, and Anna and John Aedon, and the Glorioso's! We went back to watch some more of the baseball game and Reese and Brian got to go down to the field! Rocky sang him Happy Birthday and his name appeared on the big screen (several times throughout the game!) While they were gone, I had all the kids and adults sign a ball to give to Reese! Then Brian took the kids back to the playground for a bit. Brian said while there Reese really wanted to watch the game instead of the playground! At the end of the game their were fireworks, which were beautiful except a wind or something brought some of the debree on us! Reese got some in his eyes and had to go wash them out. Reese loves baseball and wants to go back to a game real soon so he can actually watch the game. Reese said it was the best party!

Mother's Day

2010-05-09T20:33:00.001-07:00

Mother's Day, 2010

We had a relaxing morning at home this morning! Enjoyed opening my presents and reading the paper Reese made for me at school! He knows me very well! His answers- moms fav food- shrimp casidia, my mom likes to- shop for lots of stuff, my mother likes it when- I help her, and my mother is good at- cooking. (This last answer is debatable I think!)

We headed to Clarksdale this afternoon to attend Lee Academy's Vespers with Rod and his class. It was at St. Elizabeths Church this year which made it extra special for us! Brian and I just kept thinking that only 10 yrs ago a smiling little boy was in our wedding and giggling and turning red when asked to kiss me on my cheek! It cliche- but time sure flies! We are so proud of Rod but it was a sweet yet sad moment to see him in his cap and gown as I watched my children sit in the church pews! It wasn't that long ago that Rod was toddling around! Now, I'm tearing up again!!!!

Updates--
Reese- He is ready for summer! He has been enjoying baseball and has been playing good. He had a 2nd grade program last week and sang great! Of course, he choose IHop to eat after the program. He is such a sweet big brother and is finally learning he has to watch his actions bc Raygan-Elise copies everything he does! But he's learning to use it also! Like yesterday I wanted her to put on her tutu to see if it on her and she wouldn't. So Reese tried it on without me asking bc he said she'd want to do it then! He has started to order off the adult menus when we go out to eat! He thinks he's a little more grown than he really is. He still is obsessed with his DS and this months fav game is Mario Cart! Tonight he asked if he could sleep in bed with me. I said yes! I'm going to miss the days when he thinks he's too big to do that! Funny story- for some odd reason, he weighed himself today and weighed 62 lbs. Then, he kept running up & down stairs and re-weighing. We finally asked him what he was doing. He said trying to loose these 2 lbs but nothings happening! If only weight could be lost that quick!! He still makes me laugh daily with the phrases he uses! A few days ago he said- Perhaps someone gave her some cheese! His phrasing is just too cute!

Raygan-Elise--
She is started to say more and more each day! She sounds kind of muffled when she speaks but we can understand so much now! Her newest phrase- Dad-des om which means is daddy home? 4/27- I eat it- i e I (long i. Long e short i) . bracelet-sounds like a bad word (sh*t) . Here- ear, mess-mesh, hat, By 4/11- basket- sounds like another bad word (bu sh*t), uish- juice, ea-eat, Words by 3/24/10- eeth-teeth, seo-cereal, uh uh, ah huh, daw-dog, bis-fish. She is our dare devil and independent child. Last week she moved pillows beside the couch and then would jump off the couch onto her bottom on the pillows and just laugh and laugh. Then she'd do it all over! She loves to copy Reese, and she mimics almost anything we say now! If she wants something off a counter, she will go get a stool and take it where she needs it to reach things! Today at Vespers she started melting down bc she didn't want me to hold her hand as she walked down the stairs! So independent! Funny story- about half way through Vespers I started feeding her marshmallow. When anna asked, "what are you gonna do when you run out?"- I decided I should half them, but R-E didn't think that was a great idea. She refused to take any of the "half" ones. I kept trying to slip them to her but she shook her head no and pushed them away. It was too funny! And the sweetest story- each night (since she was born and in the nicu) I sing her you are my sunshine bf we go to bed! Last week, as I was singing it she joined me!! She sang- shine, gray, and shine! So so sweet and made me cry! Since that first time she has also started singing happy- or the "py" part of the word! And while I was getting school songs together she recognized 5 little monkeys swinging from the tree and mumbled/sung some of the words and did the motions! I didn't even know she knew this song! So, I asked Mrs Mary and Mrs Tina, and they sing it at school! We love her new school- Maples! Such a sweet, calm environment! She is learning so much! They love fixing her hair into pony tails and pig-tails and she loves to jump now! One teacher calls it her happy feet bc she gets on a roll and just starts tapping/hopping around! Oh and she loves loves bracelets! It makes her teachers laugh! She wears one each day to school. One day she wore one of mine that was way too big but they said she walked around all day with her arm up so it wouldn't fall off!

Brian and I are preparing ourselves for May Bday month! 2 bdays in 6 days!!! Raygan-Elise is going to have her party at our house, and Reese decided to have his party later in May so that he can have it at a Memphis Redbirds baseball game! Pictures to come soon!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

You have a March of Dimes/March for Babies e-card from Ray-Elise's Mom

2010-04-22T10:24:00.001-07:00

Ray-Elise's Mom has sent you a March of Dimes/March for Babies e-card!

To view your e-card, click on the link below, or copy and paste it into your browser’s address line:

http://ecards.marchforbabies.org/GKI5E2

EASTER DAY

2010-04-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

After Reese woke up bright and early, he came downstairs and told me he'd give me 5 more minutes!! So, I got the video camera (intending to just get Reese and let Raygan-Elise sleep) until I heard Reese waking her up saying, "see Raygan-Elise the Easter bunny has come. Wanna go see your basket? Wanna go see your basket and let momma record us?" As usual, Reese was calm and quiet and taking it all in while picking up each item and showing it to the video camera. Raygan-Elise wanted in Reese's basket and at first wasn't concerned with hers. Her main concern was the chocolate Reese's eggs. She has learned quickly how to tear the aluminum off of those! Mass was great and we only had to walk Raygan-Elise out once. But there were so many children that this week she just blended in with all the other sounds, and Reese read some of his picture Bible that the Easter Bunny brought! Then, we had a great lunch and well deserved nap! Then, came annual outside pictures, egg dying (Reese choose the camo dying kit this year) and building of the Easter House (which Anna bought to do with him but couldn't because she couldn't find a mixer). I hope you all had a Happy Easter! Wished we all lived much closer to each other!

Snowden Egg Hunt..

2010-04-03T14:39:00.000-07:00

REESE SHOOTING SOME HOOPS BEFORE THE HUNT

They always say "Rain or Shine" but this year (after the storms last night) it was a day full of shine & MUD! Each year we enjoy going to the Snowden Egg Hunt. They put out over 50000 eggs! With all the mud this year, we didn't get to do the activities but the egg hunt was still a hit! This is a huge crowded place! After letting Reese shoot a few basketballs, Brian and Reese headed to the ages 5-8 field and Raygan-Elise and I headed to the 0-4 field. Since this was Raygan-Elise's first big egg hunt, I took the camera! She also had a very small one at her Daycare, and Reese went to the OBHS egg hunt on Friday!

WAITING FOR THE COUNTDOWN

The countdown begins.5, 4, 3, 2, 1..and off we go! Raygan-Elise walked right out to the field and stopped! She stared at 4 eggs! and stared and stared...luckily the parents around were very nice and guided their children away from these 4 eggs b/c in a matter of minutes the 10's of thousands of eggs are gone! I encouraged her to pick them up but she just stared!!

Finally, she inched forward and picked up the eggs! Then we walked across the field where she found one more that the large crowd walked passed! Grand total= 5 eggs!! Her instructor that comes each Monday has been working with her to say eat (instead of throwing a fit on ground when hungry!) One activity was shaking the eggs and then seeing inside and saying eat to get the candy prize! So, of course, Ray-Elise was ready to shake and open each egg and eat the prize!!

Brian found Reese a good spot to start the hunt and took his Easter Grass out of his basket so he'd have more room! Brian says as they were waiting for the hunt to start that Reese found a friend, Drew from his football team. They talked and pretended the flags that blocked off the fields were pizza- yellow flag = cheese pizza, green flag = molded pizza! When we met up with them, Reese said he found the most eggs out of everyone! Then said well other than the boy who had the garbage bag for a basket!!! His Grand Total= 68 Eggs!!

After the hunt, we took some pictures (of course!- Notice Raygan-Elise really wants in Reese's basket! He was a great big brother and shared!) and then went to eat Mexican (imagine that!- but still no cheese dip! Brian says we are a team and we stick together! If Raygan-Elise can't have cheese, neither can we! Reese and I are thinking we are going to have to come up with a better plan! Reese says, "Chips aren't chips without cheese dip!").

Spring Break Zoo Trip

2010-03-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

Although it was a cold Spring Break, the kids still had lots of fun! We played and ate at Chik-fa-la on Monday and enjoyed the indoor bounce house. On Tuesday, Melissa and Aaron Cook came over for a while to join in on the bounce house fun. Wednesday- Reese and Raygan-Elise visited with Hammie for a bit, while Poppa and I ran errands. Then, they were pretty good while we went to two home stores. Thursday-Reese went to play at Titus's house for the day, while Stacey and I took the girls to the Collierville Antique Mall (yes, we are very brave!). Friday- Zoo! Saturday and Sunday we rested and played around the house!

Friday was our Zoo day. We met Mary Ann, her parents, and her children, Enoch and Sarah. The zoo was packed! The weather had been so cold all week and then with weather.com calling for thunderstorms Saturday, everyone had the same idea! It was a beautiful day and the animals were enjoying it. The bears were play fighting, and one of the Polar Bears was jumping off the rocks into the water! Reese's favorite spot is the new bear and wolves area- Teton Trek- because he loves the wolves. By the time we made it to the wolves, they were asleep. :( Reese got camera happy this trip and wanted to grab the camera and take pictures of all the animals. He also kept saying, "Take a picture of me here." "Oh, Mom, you always want to take a picture of me in the _____." Raygan-Elise was wonderful!!!!!! At the moment, our whole family is loving her on a dairy free diet...but again we will have to wait and see if it continues. She even walked with Mary Ann's parents and let Enoch and Sarah touch her! She still loves ducks! She found 2 sleeping in a corner by the fence and chased them until they flew away! She enjoyed the animals and especially lunch (pizza with cheese removed) and her strawberry Popsicle! Reese of course needed a wolf stuffed animals. I'm amazed with how much he still loves his stuffed animals-both collecting and honestly he really plays with them often. Although sometimes, he makes up games where he's throwing them. But we'll walk in and he's decorated the room with them or made a scavenger hunt with them. She was asleep before we even left the parking lot, while Reese went straight into playing his DS, with his new wolf in arm (he named him Teton). And when Brian got home from work, we went to eat Mexican! Sad our fun week must come to an end!!!

How are the kids?

2010-03-18T21:01:00.001-07:00

Reese is growing up and starting to use a larger vocabulary each day! I keep thinking I need to write a list of the words he uses during regular conversation. I am going to do that this next month! It is hilarious! He is playing soccer games now and has started baseball practice. He made 2 goals at a soccer game (the only game ever that Brian and I both weren't in attendance! UGH)! He is on the Cardinals through Snowden for Baseball this year. He is very excited. He has a great stance when at bat and when he makes contact he hit great. But sometimes get too nervous I think. I so remember that feeling of everyone watching you! And I pulled his other front tooth so he got $2 from the tooth fairy. He has told many people that his mom likes to pull teeth!! I do, I do!! He really is enjoying reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I haven't read them and think maybe I should! But he's very excited that the movie is coming out this weekend. I would say his good friend at school is Titus, and he got to go to his house over spring break which thrilled him. He said they ate, watched TV, and played games! Poppa and him caught a turtle a few weeks ago and he saved it for many days. Then was so sad to let it go. He wanted to make a "home" for it outside so he could go back and visit. A friend wasn't very nice and tossed it too deep into the water while they were outside playing! It broke his heart (and mine and Brian's seeing him so upset). He has a sweet heart! He is very scattered like me sometimes and can walk right by something but then ask where it is!! He is still making all A's in school and soon I will be having to choose his 3rd grade teacher! YIKES! 3rd Grade!!!

Raygan-Elise is starting to talk more and more each day! She has learned so many new words! She is still getting speech once a week but I think soon we will probably go onto just maintenance and/or where they check in on her from time to time. I feel they will wait until she turns 2 to decide to see if she is "where she should be". She has had 2 more ear infections in the last post (one with yeast in culture). The practitioner put her back on daily zyrtec and singular but she still had another infection and nose running the week after that (we are still taking it though). We saw the real ENT (not just nurse practitioner) and he was leaning toward more surgery but wanted to see if it possibly was dairy allergy. She has had what I think is eczema for a while. So we are on dairy and egg free diet till March 30th! and it may be coincidence but her nose has quit running and in general her irritability is better!!! She still has such a strong personality with what we call- a little bit of evil. Last night she decided it would be fun to tease dogs with food from the highchair and then eat it! How does a 22 month old come up with this? I must say I didn't stop her immediately b/c I recorded some of it on my phone. She likes to be so independent! She loves spoons, balls, her soothie (pacifier), Mimmie(minnie) and of course bows and shoes! She loves water (even showers!) and will take a large cup and dump it all over her face in the bathtub! She still eats more than I've ever seen a little person eat! She also likes to sit on her potty even though she doesn't like potty-ing on it. When she feels she must go, she either stands and goes on floor (even #2'd on floor once) or goes and gets a diaper! She isn't afraid of anything and is rough and tough! We got the bounce house out this week and she loved it! She would throw herself all over it! She loves her Reese and has started copying everything we do! If he does it, she tries to do it! And it happened- she wrote all over the wall and the door this week with a green coloring pencil! Newest words- eeth (teeth), loves saying uh uh (no), eese (Reese)

Facebook Status comments!

2010-03-18T20:51:00.000-07:00

Everyone on facebook comes up with such cute and witty ways to word their status comments...usually mine are pretty blah! But I do find it a fun and quick way to share with friends what's going on in our little world. But sometimes I do have a moment. And I must say this was my best one which I can tell by all the comments I had about it and it is based on a TRUE STORY!!

Top Facebook Status Award Winner of the Month by April:
Attention all Target shoppers: I apologize for your shopping experience today. The lady in the green shirt is April and the adorable girl laying down in the basket kicking and screaming is Raygan-Elise. They have now left the store and you may continue on with your Friday afternoon shopping. **Target is not responsible for any distractions or headaches received during shopping.

Honorable Mentions:
pizza hut again!! Reese is upstairs eating. Brian is eating watching basketball. I'm eating mine in living room with Raygan-Elise who isn't eating yet because she's throwing a fit because she can't eat her pizza with a spoon.

is so proud of Reese and his scrabble team member, Jacob, for placing 5th in the Spotlight Scrabble Tournament today! He was so excited!

just learned Raygan-Elise may not need speech any more because apparently Brian asked her if she was ready for a bath and she responded, "Yes and I want my mommy to give me the bath!" Wow! However, Brian was the only person to witness this breakthrough! ; )
on!

guess I should be happy Raygan-Elise loves Maples & threw a huge fit bc she didn't want to leave today but it makes me sad! Now onto Reese's 1st soccer practice.

just left a store where Reese announced, "this stuff is like so 1996!" so I asked what that means. He responded, "you know. like so 14 yrs ago!"

January/Early February Update on kids!

2010-02-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

I guess I've broken my Resolution already! But I'm going to hopefully do better!

Reese is such a good child. He still gets hyper, especially around Raygan-Elise, but in most of the time he is so helpful. His teachers say he's great. He's only pulled 2-3 cards this year. Once last week for playing at lunchtime. He enjoys Spotlight Gifted class so much! They had a scrabble tournament last week. It was a partner team tournament. He and his partner got 5th place. He had the biggest grin after school! I didn't know how many teams played so didn't know if 5th was good or if there were only 5 teams. : ). But I found out from his teacher that there were over 50 teams! So wow!! He still enjoys playing on the computer! And he is excited about Spring soccer! He still is close friends with Titus in his class and Caleb (a 3rd grader in Spotlight too) comes to play with him each day at the prek building. He recently also went to his friends Lake's bday party where he drove a go cart for the first time and he loved it! It has snowed up a storm and he's been sledding in our backyard!! He still cracks me up with the things he says: Mom, on your q we will start. Can you do it because I'm having to attend to Raygan-Elise? and so many more! He also made his Dad proud by watching the whole super bowl with brian (reese wanted saints to win! Yay, they did!) And even coming up with scenarios towards the end of game (such as saints need to make a td but miss extra point and the other team needs a safety!) bc he wanted us to win the super bowl squares!

Raygan-Elise is almost 21 months old! Her personality is definitely shining through more each day! The ear tube surgery has not stopped her infections. She has had 5 ear infections since the surgery which makes 11 since the last week of September. But on a very positive note, the tubes help her infections so much- she can hear even with the drainage and she doesn't run fever or feel bad! She just gets irritated and pulls on her ears but I would too if fluid was draining from them! She loves baby dolls and baby is one of her words she can say! After calling everyone mama and working with the speech teacher for a while, she now says dada!!! She said it for first time about 3 weeks ago! She now has about 10 words (some we understand only- like gu for duck and some clear like baby and bye!) She still loves being grumpy and throwing some major fits in public or private! Like her recent falling on the ground and screaming at target because I wouldn't keep the puppy pads! Seriously, we don't need puppy pads! Or at the house because she is mad at her jacket or because the dogs won't do what she wants them to do.
She had a check-up mid jan and weighed right over 23 lbs! And after a dentist trip that showed deterioration of teeth and a talk with dentist we cut out her bottle before bed immediately which slowly turned into a bottle-less day! She loves her soothie (pacifier), minnie mouse, saying mine, and shaking her head yes (mostly shakes yes no matter what you ask her- such as do you want daddy to change your diaper or do you want to kiss a monkey or jump off a table) and no. She still loves for Hammie to sing Itsy bitsy spider! And she loves peek-a-boo, this little piggie(but you can't use one foot, I have to do one piggy on one foot then next piggy on other foot and so on), and starting this past week- Baby Beluga, as I hold her like an infant or as she dances around the room! She is such a girly-girl. She loves wearing shoes and would wear the in bed if I would let her. She loves bracelets, and even took an onion out of my salad at Brian's bday dinner & put it on her wrist! She hates to have her hands dirty and wipes her feet if they get dirty and hates hates a wet or dirty diaper. So, we bought her a potty about 2 weeks ago and she's been just sitting on it. Often she will go to it after she pottys in her diaper. This morning she was grunting and pointing to tummy so I took her to potty. She sat on it but stood up immediately. Then she sat back down but got up, walked to get diaper, brought me diaper, then pp'd all over floor as she stood beside potty holding her diaper!

I'm hoping the video works. This is Reese and Raygan-Elise's new game. They love it! I'm calling it our winter olympics!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

Christmas/New Years Card

2010-01-13T16:22:00.000-08:00

I can't wait to have time to type more about our Disney Trip, but until then...

I didn't do a Christmas Card before Christmas in the hopes to do one with our Disney Pics. Well, I've spent the last week creating it with some digital paper and software! And now I CANNOT get it to print. So here is a preview. It is very clear on my computer but for some reason it is blurring when I upload it. I am not a professional yet...Hopefully, it will work soon!

Disney World Slide Show

2010-01-07T19:22:00.000-08:00

My New Year's Resolution is to blog more often (instead of 4 in one day)!!

Disney was wonderful! So much to do, so many stories! The kids had a blast!

I took almost 900 pictures and lots of video! I made a slide show of my fav pics (narrowed it down to 160 so I think that's pretty good)! There is still so much more to tell you about our Disney Adventures but this is a start. I'll share some stories and favorite events from each park in the upcoming days!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas, 09

2009-12-25T14:14:00.001-08:00

Christmas with little ones is so much fun! Leading up, we went to see Santa as he traveled through downtown Olive Branch. Reese had his list and read the entire letter to Santa. Santa kept it so he could remember it. Raygan-Elise wasn't as thrilled with Santa. She screamed! Santa tried real hard to win her over. He walked around and talked to her and whispered secrets in her ear. She warmed up a little...and by that I mean she didn't scream when he stood beside us but she didn't crack a smile either. Then, we went to the Hernando Christmas parade. Reese was more thrilled with trying to catch candy than the bands and floats passing by him. He just kept saying do you think they'll throw candy. Raygan-Elise smiled and clapped some. None of the very loud tractors, 18 wheeler (the front part), banks, or even firetrucks scared her. She just walked around my chair and stared at all of it!!

We started off this week in Clarksdale on Sunday. We opened presents at Ruru's first then SL that night. Raygan-Elise loved tearing the paper. And Reese was just super excited! I think Raygan-Elise's favorite gifts were her Magna-Doodle from Anna and her baby doll, from Hammie. Reese loves his Barakagun DS game from Anna. He said he can't eat anymore because the game changed his life!! Raygan-Elise got a rocking horse from Ruru and a grocery basket from Mamaw. Reese got a Spongebob game from Ruru and a hot wheels track from Mamaw. All the kids (except RE) got a marshmallow gun from Aunt Billie. That was a big hit with the cousins!! Reese loves his! That night we went to SL where they got a lot more gifts. The children had so much fun. We usually do Christmas in Clarksdale on Christmas Eve night and although I complained I feel blessed we did it early, as Ruru passed away Christmas Eve morning. She will be missed so much but as she said, "I'm ready to go home!"

Today, Santa came and of course tons more gifts!! Reese was SO excited yesterday! He set many traps to catch Santa but then changed them all. He took a nap to try and stay up late last night, but he still fell asleep. We called Norad Santa tracking all day and tracked Santa around the World on the computer. Brian said he has never seen him so excited! This morning he was thrilled with all his video games, guitar, and microscope plus everything else. Raygan-Elise was excited to see all the presents. She walked straight to her balls and then to her corn popper walker toy. She smiled each time her furreal pet cat made noises! She has been very very happy today! I think the tubes and meds from earlier in the week are definitely helping!

Then, we opened our presents. Reese's school had a fundraiser where the kids got to shop for their family. Reese got Raygan-Elise a book, me a heart necklace and earring set, and Brian a lighted key chain! Then they opened our presents to them. After the 3rd Mickey gift, Reese said hmmm, I'm getting a lot of these this year. Then, the big finale came! He opened the box and stared. When it finally sunk in, he grinned from ear to ear. Brian and I both got teary eyed!! Then, the big news-- Reese, I wonder when we can go....what about tomorrow! "YES!!!," he yelled, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" and his arms flew up in the air. We are so excited and have been packing the car all day! It will be a fun-filled Mickey Week!! We leave tomorrow around lunch! Reese says his Favorite part of Christmas is all the toys and I think Raygan-Elise's is the food (she's gotten so good at using baby sign for more, all done and eat.) She even says ma sometimes when she signs more.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!!! From our family!!!

My Funny Children!

2009-12-25T13:59:00.000-08:00

Personalities!! I tell you. Sometimes they are like night and day. Reese-the ever talkative, happy, smiling, question asking, curious boy and Raygan-Elise- the vocal (yet with no words), strong-willed, demanding, although yes curious girl!

I think the older a child gets in school, maybe the less time during the day they have to talk and be social...too many worksheets and tests that must be accomplished. Now, I'm not saying this is the teacher's fault; its just school now. We love Reese's teacher, Mrs. Samsel. We've known her since we moved to OB. Her daughter, Jorja, was in my class with Reese for 2 yrs. and they've been in the same class until this year! Now, back to my point...talking. So, sometimes Reese comes home and he just has so much built up that he wants to talk about to me...So, we got in the car and without stopping to breathe or pause here is his story from last week on our drive to get Raygan-Elise from her school:

"Mom, I can't wait till I'm like 16 and can drive a car and I will say-mom I'm driving to a friends house and if u let me u will say ok but be home by midnight and I will say ok but I'll come home at 1 and then get grounded so that's not good (and without taking a breath) who are the people on the side of the road that pick up stuff. Are they just environmentally friendly or what? And if u r a passenger looking outside the more restaurants you see you get hungry then if its not a restaurant just a store with windows then u can see the food and get even hungrier. I'm a really good drummer. I remember that day when we had that party and we were trying to figure out who was coming at the right time and then u said Zoe coming at 1 and Clayton coming at 2 and Olivia coming at 3 and really our Christmas tradition should really be breaking something. Wanna know what made me think of that. It was that bent tree right there."
And there was actually another story bt the driving and people on side of road but I was typing yet at that time. We love his funny off the wall stories. Brian says he's just like his Poppa!

Now, Raygan-Elise is 18 months old. She is saying bye, mama, and sometimes baba. She was assessed through Simple Strokes and First Steps and does have an expressive and receptive language delay, which we've discovered (after a failed hearing test and a visit to an ent)is probably due to fluid buildup in ear. We've had 3 speech sessions and it does seem to help. Mrs. Angela gave us a little game of saying specific sounds to "name" specific objects. Some nights Raygan-Elise tries, sometimes not. But she is only 18 months! Her personality is really starting to show! She loves dancing and shaking head to any music. She even started blowing kisses last week! She has also gotten better at shaking her head yes and no but often gives us the wrong answer that she is trying to give. She had ear tube surgery last Tuesday (weighed 22 lbs 0 oz the morning of surgery) and the ENT said her ears were awful and bled a lot due to fluid build up damage. We are hoping this helps her a lot with both her frustrations and language. Early this week her ears were still looking bad (with the tubes you can see the infection, which is gross but helpful in knowing to go to doc) so back to the ent we went. More antibiotics and antibiotic drops and they cultured it! Hopefully this will be it for a while!

As they grow, I will miss-

2009-11-29T07:49:00.001-08:00

* All the funny things Reese says. Recent quotes from Reese:
--After he was relaying messages for a while b/t Brian and I, he grabbed my cell phone, pushed some buttons, and said, "I'm done and clocking out for the day." Then he walked upstairs without saying another word.
--While trying to feed the very big catfish at Lake Tiak-O'Khata, he said, "the ducks are getting into our territory!"
--"I ate so much Thanksgiving food, I think I put on a few pounds." (yes, that was from Reese not me!)
* Reese's baby teeth! He has also lost 2 more teeth- another on bottom and his first on the top. I pulled the bottom one, and he pulled his top one while at school. First time for him to pull one!
* Reese rushing to say, "Good night, sweet dreams, don't let the beg bugs bite, love you more! I beat you!!"

I will miss Raygan-Elise:
* Grabbing and holding the collars of shirts or sleeves with her little hands and even her own collar if needed
* Her running to me and falling into my lap
* Her dancing and wiggling from side to side(which she loves to do now, especially to Chicken Elmo and Country Elmo that are hand-me downs from John Aedon!)
* Her calling me and Brian- mama!!
* Her signing more and eat.
* waving bye upside down. (more like we would use our hands to say come here).
* her soothie/pacifier- everyone says she reminds them of the baby on the Simpsons b/c she smacks on her soothie and really makes that same sound as on the show!

Halloween, 2009

2009-11-02T21:03:00.001-08:00

We did many activities leading up to Halloween night.

To start, we went to the annual Zoo Boo! This is our 4th year to go and we had a blast. We went with several friends this year- Bethany, Shane and Jack and Melissa and Aaron. Reese and Aaron both got picked to go on stage to help with a trick. That was so exciting for them! Reese decided to go through each line 2 times in a row by going through the line, then going to the end of the long line and going through again...He called it his sneak attack! Baby Jack and Raygan-Elise both decided to need a big time diaper change while having at least 3 layers of clothes on their little bodies! We had both talked to them about this prior to the event, but of course they didn't listen. The Hay Ride was a hit! Reese rode the spinning ride with a complete stranger! He's such a big boy! Raygan-Elise and Jack (and us mommies) had a fun time on the fast carousel! and I think Reese and Raygan-Elise's favorite was the dracula disco! They danced and danced! Although I think the cutest part of the evening was when we tried to take pics of Jack and Raygan-Elise together. I got some cute pics of Raygan-Elise while they situated Jack. By the time Jack was ready, Raygan-Elise decided to get up and walk around. But then she walked over to him and they just looked at each other, tapped each other, smiled and eventually shook hands (see pic!!).

We also enjoyed the OBHS Halloween Carnival! Reese played all the games and even went down a haunted hall (although he only made it half-way...brian went to and said it was scary!!). We got to see lots of friends--Vince, Valerie, JT, Abby, Jorja, Jack and many more!Raygan-Elise played the pick a duck game! Her first game!! and won 2 pieces of candy!

Raygan-Elise had her first class party and pajama day! I was able to go thanks to a good friend, Stacey, for watching my class! Raygan-Elise loves to eat, so of course this was right up her ally!! We signed up for treat bags so I made clear bags of cheetos look like pumpkins. She quickly ate her cupcake and use her baby sign to sign she wanted more. Mrs. Deborah gave her another cupcake! They had juice boxes which was hilarious to watch them try and figure them out. She enjoyed playing with her straw, although she did drink about half of it. She tried her strawberry, grapes, cookie, and cheetos too! I enjoyed just sitting back and watching her and her friends! We took Reese's teachers and her teachers cakes! yum, yum. Reese's class couldn't have a party, but they did each take a treat for their friends. He took Halloween shaped marshmallows with a pencil attached to the bag.

Then we went to downtown OB the afternoon of Halloween! We trick-or-treated in each store! I think Raygan-Elise liked the Ballroom Dancing Studio the best. She has really gotten into "dancing" lately and I must say it is SO funny to watch. She makes her hips/waist go front and back! Too cute!

Halloween night-- We went on a Trick or Treating Hay ride with our neighbors! Reese was so excited (since he missed it last year being sick). Reese was his blue phantom and Raygan-Elise was a pink poodle (she loves her pink poodle webkinz! It is the first thing she ever became attached to). Many of the houses had great decorations! One even had a haunted maze. Brian went through it with the kids first then I did. Reese kept telling look mom there is someone behind that tree about to scare you! Mark (our neighbor) finally said Reese stop telling her. :) Raygan-Elise loved the ride. She loves it outside!!! When we stopped, the kids and dads would go to first of 4 or 5 houses and Raygan-Elise and I would walk to the 3rd one. In our neighborhood, the driveways are long and in some parts of it-very long. Raygan-Elise and I would walk and walk and about half way to the house she'd turn around and walk back. She was very cute and excited to be out and about! I think maybe we made it all the way up to 3 houses! After we got home, I wanted to get a picture of Raygan-Elis smiling. So Reese jumped around and acted silly! She loves laughing at him! Then, she truly got tickled with me pulling her paci out of her mouth using my teeth (because I was holding her and the camera.) She was laughing so hard which made Reese and I both crack up! It was a great time!

Reese's Character Day Costume

2009-11-01T15:26:00.000-08:00

Reese wanted to have blue hair for character day at school. His first idea was a rock star book, then Monsters VS Aliens(he would be BOB). After not finding either book, he decided to write his own book. He wrote a story about a blue haired phantom attacking the USA. At this point, I decided Mrs. Samsel wouldn't care and that it was just fine to write his own book. Then, he completed the book report form using his book. Here is the story he wrote and a pic of him on book character day (in the picture, you can also see the "pumpkin-stien" he made all by himself for his spotlight/gifted pumpkin project):

The world was a peacefle place until. A meardor hit the earth.
It openend phantoms came out. They had blue hair and a black robe. They rampageed .
They had a gun, connon, torpedow, and a laser. They distored the woods, river, and the sity. So the U.S.A. gets sords, shields, and tanks. The U.S.A won. They selbrated with a feast.
Then it rained. The phantoms came back alive and distored Cina and avry thing in it . The U.S.A. air force came and beat them again. They were tierd and rested. And the genrel was proud. THE END

Update on Raygan-Elise

2009-11-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

Raygan-Elise had a busy month in October(and end of sept):
We decided that Disney Live was the calm before the storm because 2 days later she started running fever. Took her to the doctor (not our usual doc since he was out) on Sept 29 and she had a double ear infection. I also showed him the "white stuff" I noticed inside her mouth and he said that was normal and possibly irritation from molars appearing. We started an antibiotic. On October 6, I went with Reese's class to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Reese sat by Titus and loved the movie. Then Reese and I took Raygan-Elise to her Speech Eval. After the eval, they determined she was 6-9 months delayed in expressive and receptive language and were going to write up a report for the doctor. After some investigating, I discovered that our insurance doesn't pay for speech therapy for a language delay so I contacted first steps who scheduled their own eval date. Raygan-Elise was irritable and fussy more than usual and it continued all day long! She did however start babbling in syllables (baba, bo, mamama) and started waving bye-bye and sometimes even saying bye! On October 22, I took her back to the doctor, and this time we got into our doc!! He said both her ears were still infected and the stuff in her mouth was thrush. He gave us both med and did a CBC test. One number on the CBC was a little off so he sent us for lab work for 3 tests. Getting blood taken out of a 17 month olds veins is awfully sad! After the blood was taken, I took it upon myself to look it up on the internet what they were testing for--gluetin allergies. For 3 days, I didn't care and then for the 4 following days I looked and read and fully convince myself she had it. BUT she didn't!! YAY! and since taking the medicine for thrush she has been a much different child. Now she is still demanding and cries more than Reese ever did, but it isn't as constant. AND she smiles and laughes when that use to rarely happen. We are thrilled and really wonder how long she had this thrush infection! She was even excited every day last week when I picked her up from daycare. She would run up to me smiling. She has not done that one time since August (Everyday she would just start screaming when she saw me). On Oct. 26, she had her speech eval through First Steps. They determined her expressive and receptive language were on a 12 month level, and she will start having a special instructor come once a week for up to 60 min. I believe this will help with the crying also because it may help with language frustrations. All other areas of development were at the 18 month old level! YAY!!

Teton Trek

2009-11-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

What a busy month! The kids and I started off this month by going to the members preview of the new teton Trek at the Zoo. Reese was so amazed. He's gone to the zoo so much that some visits the thrill isn't there anymore. But the zoo out did themselves again and this is the best exhibit yet. Reese loved the wolves and even howled and got them to come over. Raygan-Elise loved walking around and mashing her face to see the bears splashing in the water. But the biggest hit had to be the geyser water outside the exhibit! They both loved getting wet and walking on the large rocks!

Best Day for Raygan-Elise!

2009-09-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

So anyone who is around Raygan-Elise for extended periods of time knows that she isn't the happiest baby. She get very upset at things, cries a lot, and tends to get overstimulated easily. We went to Elmo a few weeks back, and she wasn't happy to be on Sesame Street. So I was a bit concerned when Anna offered to give me her 3rd ticket she had to Playhouse Disney in Tupelo. But I decided to take Raygan-Elise and see how it went. She was wonderful! I had her in her "wrap/sling" the whole time of the show and she sat, she smiled and laughed. She leaned back and hugged me! She ate the cotton candy Anna bought during intermission (instead of throwing it and fussing like at Elmo). It was amazing! Then, we went to mall and she was playful and fun. Laughing, smiling, and being silly. Anna even said that she was a pleasure to be around. We still aren't sure what happened and at times during the day I was grinning and happy from ear to ear and other times I wondered if it was "the quiet before the storm". But it was great! I teared up at the end of the day because it was so fun. I'm not sure if she was just in a really really good mood or if she was on a sugar rush from the cotton candy and sweet tea but I'll take it either way! THANKS Anna for invited us! We really enjoyed it!! I'll post pics when I get them from Anna!

Zoo Trip- August 30th

2009-09-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

We took another family zoo trip on August 30th. This time we were joined by Anna, John Aedon, and Brian. Reese's favorite part was the birds again. He will be sad when that exhibit leaves. He likes to try and beat his goal of how many birds he can get on his stick. Raygan-Elise didn't point as much on this trip, but she had fun! John Aedon enjoyed seeing all the animals also. Here are some pics of our fun outing!

September, 2009

2009-09-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

Raygan-Elise: Well, 16 months have come and gone. We went this past week for our 15 month old doctor check-up/shots (a little late). They weighed her fully dressed with shoes and wet diaper- :) oops - on a manual scale and she weighed 21 lbs. So, I weighed her on Shaun Leigh's great digital scale and she actually weighs 20 lbs. and is 30 inches long. Her doctor started her on Singulair to help allergies and is sending her for a speech/lang. eval. since she hasn't started saying the real word mama (she babbles a lot!!) or dada or any other words. She does babble- bububububu, babababa, bybybybyb, and mamamama. She also points. She understands the words- highchair, diaper, and shoes, and her new trick is to throw her diaper in the garbage! This month we bought her a new car seat and turned her facing forward. She now loves watching DVD's in the car! Daycare is getting better. She has even had 3 days where she didn't cry when I left. We love her new teacher-Mrs. Deborah! Mrs. Deborah calls her her little princess!! Too funny b/c she didn't know we call Raygan-Elise our princess baby! Deborah says Raygan-Elise doesn't really like other children touching her, being near her, bothering her etc. Some days Deborah says she tells the other toddlers-"Stay away from her, stay away from her..." She says our princess is getting much better, but does cry more than anyone else in the room. Boy, do we believe that!! Raygan-Elise tends to get upset and cry over everything! Deborah says that RE tends to like everyone else to help her or do it for her. She won't walk down hall unless someone is holding her hand, and she won't get herself out of her snack chair. She has also learned how to throw a great fit! She falls to her bottom, then flings backwards and over, and kicks her very little feet! She still loves to eat! And has 4 top middle teeth, 4 bottom middle teeth and all 4 molars! New this month is her love of scribbling. She will pick up pens, pencils and crayons and loves to "write". They have been doing this at daycare, and I can tell! We took her, John Aedon, and one of Anna's friend & child to see Elmo. She watch a little, fussed a little, got mad a little, and smiled a little! But John Aedon loved it!

Reese: 2nd grade is going great! He was very excited to "test" into the Spotlight program (Desoto County Gifted program). His Spotlight teacher said he is one smart little boy, and he had a high IQ. We are very proud of him. He is definitely an interesting child! During my 1st wk back at school, Hammie called me to tell me Reese had a question. His ?- can I wash my clothes in your bathroom?...in your sink. I decided to say yes thinking it would keep him occupied. He was so excited to tell me it worked and now he wanted to wash all his clothes in my bathroom because, "Momma, there is more than one way to wash clothes." Last night he gave me a 2 min. lesson on how to use saxon phonics to code a sentence. Then, he said, "I wrote you a sentence and left it on couch. I'll check it tom and see if you get it right!" This morning he said that I didn't do good! Brian and I have also been enjoying his weekly "story with holes" where we try to figure out the situation. We haven't gotten one right yet. Football is going good and keeps us very busy with 3 practices a week or 2 practices and 1 game. I think sometimes we have 4 but I'm not sure. Brian takes him to almost all of them! Reese loves it and has played more than we originally were told he would. He is on the Cowboys, and so far we have 1 win and 1 lose. He has gotten into his AW phase. When I ask him to do something, he says AW!! We are quickly trying to correct this habit! He has lost 2 bottom middle teeth and has his first loose top tooth! Should come out in the next month.

Of course I think my children are adorable and great, but now other people are noticing too! :) A friend was at the doctor's office and flipping through a OB magazine when she recognized 2 kids in an ad for Olive Branch Old Towne. Those kids were Reese and Raygan-Elise with Santa in Old Towne last Christmas! And then, I took them to JCPenny's to finally have some brother/sister pics done and they love one of the pics and wanted to use it as sample. So of course, I signed the release. When we went back to pick up our pics a few days ago, their picture was out on the display table! How Awesome! I'm such a proud momma! I'll download these pics soon and will be sending them out this weekend!

Build-a-bear fun!

2009-09-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox photobook

August 1st- Build a bear was running a great special in the month of August so we took Raygan-Elise to get her first build-a-bear and Reese to get possibly his last. I believe this was his fourth but I'd have to ask him to be sure. His first was when he was 2, and it was so he would throw away his bottle. We did his whole build-a-bear then told him out in the mall that if he wanted his (he picked a tabby cat) that he had to throw away his bottle. And right there he threw it in trash. Now of course when we got back to car he cried for it but we just kept giving him the cat.

Reese choose a blue piece bear which he dressed as a TN Titans Football player and named him- Tackle. Reese is loving football and has his first game tomorrow night. He was very excited about the whole process, but did get a little embarrassed during the whole "put your heart in the bear" part where you have to rub it and kiss it.

Raygan-Elise picked a tie-dyed bear. (Even though Mommy kept pushing for the soft adorable lamb...she wasn't having it!) Reese helped pick out Hello Kitty PJ's and slippers for her and we named her Princess Baby II! Most of the time Raygan-Elise really just wanted to play with the mini-versions of the animals, especially the tabby cat, which is the one Reese has in the big version. We kept showing her the big animals, and she kept going to the little ones. John Aedon came and visited a few weeks later, and we went with him to do his build-a-bear. She again Loved the little animals, so I gave in and was going to buy the little kitty until...She started loving on the new little bitty version of the lamb! I was so excited so we bought the mini-lamb. She is so cute carrying it around. Although her pink poodle we bought for $3 at a consignment sale(she would carry it everywhere. On the daycare cam, it is always with her!), then lost...then had to go buy a replacement is still her favorite!!

Louisville Day Trip

2009-09-03T20:53:00.000-07:00

Pics-- Nothing's better than Mamaw hugs and kisses

July 18th--Visiting Louisville is always a fun time for the children. Reese feels right at home there and enjoys it so much. They enjoy eating at the Lake and visiting. This trip's big attraction was looking at Aunt Joan wonderful back yard. It is beautiful with many fruit trees. During our day trip, we went to eat at the lake for lunch (Reese loves the buffet) and we all agree Raygan-Elise is not as good as Reese was at that age in a restaurant. We tried to feed the ducks but they must not have been hungry because they would not come by us but we did get to feed some fish. We bought Raygan-Elise an adorable pair of shoes(pink squeaky shoes with white polka dots). We went to visit Mamaw Myres (we had to take the squeakies out of Raygan-Elise's new shoes!), visited at Aunt Joan's, and had a delicious supper including fried pickles...yum, yum! We can't wait to go back to visit!

ZOO and Ducks

2009-09-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed to new first with Raygan-Elise this summer.

July 6th--First, we took her on her first zoo trip. We went with the Long family! We met the Longs when we first moved here. Abby and Reese were the same age and both in my class for 2 years. Then, they were in K together and now 2nd. Gerry called and invited us to join her family and of course we did!! It was a fun trip. Raygan-Elise pointed all day long. Her little finger just pointed away. Pointing is her new trick of the month. (In fact, you can take her in the hall and give her two choices of places to go, and she will point to where she wants to go) She isn't saying anything and stuck to her paci, but she pointed! :) Reese's favorite spot was the bird exhibit which we almost didn't go into but was talked into by another friend we ran into- Michelle, Zoe's mom. Reese counted how many birds he caught the whole time. Raygan-Elise even love the birds, although she really wanted to touch one! We even walked to the farm so we could take a picture of Raygan-Elise in the egg! We have the same picture of Reese on his first zoo trip (with Stephen and Noelle). I need to find it and put them in a frame together! Although I think Raygan-Elise was much older on her first zoo trip. I'll have to look back and see.

July 13th--Next, Reese had his first football meeting at the city park and then we took both of them to feed the ducks. Reese enjoyed running around the whole lake at the city park (its pretty big) because just minutes earlier his football coach said they should practice running...so he did! Raygan-Elise was much more interested in feeding herself the bread. She was trying to pick it up until finally we just gave her some to eat. That was her favorite part! Next we walk to the playground area for a bit. Raygan-Elise enjoyed the swing, and Reese "enjoyed" being jealous of Raygan-Elise!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sprinkler Park Fun- June 26, 2009

2009-09-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

My goal is to catch up on blogging!!

We spent most of summer at the YMCA pool! Reese loves it and Raygan-Elise LOVES it. It is about the best way I could make her happy during the day. I also think that it really helped her learn how to walk due to the weightlessness of the water as she was moving if that makes sense. She also really enjoyed swimming. Dad says he's never seen anything like it. Her little legs just look exactly like a frog under water. You can put her in those $1 swim rings (not the ones for babies, just a plain old swim ring) and she will hold on over the top of the ring and swim around to you. Hilarious!! She also wasn't scared of going under. We played "jump" off the side everyday during adult swim. She is a water baby and now the only thing people comment on is her tan! She's got a good one!! Reese enjoyed swimming to the bottom of the pool this year and of course making friends with everyone. Each day he had a new friend. He isn't shy and will just walk up to the kids and ask them to play. He had a blast and he especially loved the snow-cone truck that is stationed there! Sour snow-cones were all the rage with him!

We made it to the sprinkler park once this summer. We went with John Aedon, Stacey, Vince, and Valerie. It was a fun afternoon. Raygan-Elise was unsure about things touching her feet as usual (the ground is rubber and peeling in certain areas and sticks to your feet). You can see her doing this in one of the above pictures. She hates for things to touch her feet and LOVES shoes!

Delta Jubilee June, 09

2009-08-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

So last year, while Raygan-Elise was in the NICU, Reese went to spend time with Anna and Shaun Leigh in Clarksdale. They took him to the Clarksdale Delta Jubilee. Well, as summer came around, Reese (of course) remembered and wanted to go again. I have not been in probably 10 years. So off we went for a trip to Clarksdale. We went to family night and took Raygan-Elise and John Aedon. We had a ball until it started pouring down so we went to eat mexican. Raygan-Elise slept for about 3 hours and we kept checking her. She was so exhausted from swimming earlier in day. Anna and I took Reese by himself the next night, and I even rode the rides with him!! Reese loves all the rides, especially the big ones. He wants to ride them all- we let him go up to them so the man turns him away b/c he will never believe us that he is too short. Somehow he is tall enough to ride the one that goes about 10 stories straight up and then just drops you, and he loves it!

Swim Day at La Leighs on June 2!!

2009-08-15T17:24:00.000-07:00

We took Raygan-Elise swimming for first time at La Leigh's in Cdale with all the cousins there. She loves the water. I even let go of her several times. She didn't swim like I've heard babies do but she didn't sink either! Kind of in-between. One time she flipped over!! We had a great fun day!! As you can tell, by the end, she was exhausted!

Lots of firsts---

2009-08-15T17:13:00.001-07:00

Catching up on a lot of first that have happened to Raygan-Elise! She is growing up SO fast--

First time eating with spoon- June 14th-

1st time Painted toes and fingers- purple for her purple/pink party

First Time eating in high chair- Bday present from Mommy and Daddy

First Time outdoor water play, May 30th!!
Raygan-Elise LOVES THE water!!!

2009-07-04T18:55:00.001-07:00

Summer is passing quick. Reese has finally finished this season of baseball. He always looked like he enjoyed the games, but he says he still doesn't like it really. He says he likes football and soccer best! We have been swimming at the ymca. Reese loves it and is a fish! Everyone is impressed with how good Raygan-Elise is while there. She plays and splashes. She can even "swim" while holding on to a swim ring. She holds on and swim like a tadpole! Everyone comments on her tan and reese says she might have "tan-e-litus".
Reese did a week of football camp last week at center hill high. He loved it. He was sweaty every day but had a blast. While we were there on wednesday, june 24, raygan-elise took 2 steps with one foot-her left. Then Saturday (while on a shopping trip with noelle, collin, john aedon, me, and raygan-elise) she took 7 steps at burlington coat factory!! Now she tries everyday and has taken about 10 at most! She still loves to eat-likes blueberries, oranges, cheese, and turkey. Still babbling and occasionally gets out bye or bubba or ma but we still aren't sure if she means to do it. She also is funny crawling on hands and feet (not hands and knees).
Reese will be on the cowboys this year for football! We bought his shoulder pads! He is very excited! He also loves talking!! His new thing is to say what if... For example- "mommy what if we called this store and hammie worked there and she answered the phone but we didn't know she worked there and we were like what? We didn't know you worked here. Mom what if that happened?" New pictures coming soon!

What are Raygan-Elise and Reese up to now??

2009-06-08T20:46:00.000-07:00

Reese is 7 and loves his DS handheld game. He is into Zelda right now and talks about it ALL the time. He got his first call from a friend today. It was Lake (I work with his mom). Not sure what all they talked about b/c when I asked Reese said "nothing really." He got out for the very first time tonight in baseball and cried. He is a very sensitive child but is also very competitive. . He is very excited to play football in the fall, which makes Brian excited! I'm nervous b/c it is tackle, but the coaches say it sounds worse than it is at this age. He has started randomly singing these army chants. Pretty funny! He mastered his multiplication facts this year! He is a thinker and likes to know the order of things. He asked SL this past week- "So we have 2 more stores, then lunch, then swimming?" He has finally started sleeping in till 8:00 or 8:30 am! Yay!

Raygan-Elise is now 1!! Baby food didn't last long. Maybe 3 wks. She likes food. Real food and lots of it. At about 10 months she ate a roast beef sandwich. Everyone comments on what all she will eat. It is very raw that anything is spit back out. She ate a whole huge strawberry the other night. Hammie gave her cabbage. She loves mexican and fruit. Basically she likes to eat. She has said bye about 3 times, but isn't consistent with it yet. When she is mad she will say mamamamama but not sure if she is really meaning me yet. She loves the water! She has gone swimming and I finally let go of a baby in the water. She didn't really swim like I've heard they instinctively do, but she didn't sink either. We practiced it a lot. She never cried. She really wants to walk and is starting to stand up for about 5 sec on own. She likes walking behind things- her push stroller and her new pink car. She loves putting things in and out of anything. She is a drama queen and loves throwing her head down when she's mad. She likes "making a bridge" with her body and looking at you through her legs upside down (hard to explain, but so funny). She loves singing Itsy Bitsy Spider (hammie taught her) and she does motion at the right time when you say down came the rain. She still loves her soothie (pacifier). At her one yr. visit she was 18 lbs. 10 oz and was in the 10-20%. Doc says her top 2 teeth are right under her gums and should pop through soon. Iron was great. Go back at 15 months for shots.

I wish life would slow down. They are growing so fast. I love each new step but it seems to come and go too quickly.

BIRTHDAYS!!

2009-05-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

We survived our first year of having 2 birthday within one week! Yes, Reese is now 7 and Raygan-Elise is one!

This year Reese wanted a spend the night party. Together :) we decided on having a rockstar party. He invited 5 friends and 3 were able to come-- Robert, Aaron, and Bryant. I took them home after school on Friday and their parents picked them up at Mcdonald's on Saturday. Reese wanted a white oreo rockstar ice cream cake! I think we found him one he liked! :) We ordered pizza and he wanted to eat it right from the box. He picked out everything he wanted at Walmart for the party-- Mountain Dew and Root beer (as he put it -- the mostest caffeine and the 2nd mostest of all caffeine), popcorn, 2 huge bags of candy (so they could drink and eat sugar and stay up all night he said), and a pancake breakfast bar (syrup, whip cream, chocolate syrup, sprinkles). We ate, open presents (2 friends gave him barakagons, 1 a gift card and we got him the DS with Zelda that he had wanted for a while), ate cake, and tie-dyed tshirts. They did stay up pretty late but when I went upstairs at 3:30 am they were asleep...well robert was awake. The next day we ate breakfast and got "rockstar ready" for McDonalds! It was a lot of fun and I think he really enjoyed it. Although he did tell me later that they ate the candy at the wrong time. Reese is excited about the summer and about going into 2nd grade. He still loves to draw and make things. Now he is creating a Zelda game that he has named, created big bosses for, etc that he is going to mail to the DS people so they can contact him about really creating it (or so he says). His new thing is to grunt when he is mad and I hate it! I take something away every time he does it and hope it stops soon!

On Raygan-Elise's real bday we went to eat at the Mexican restaurant and let her play in her 1st smash cake! She loved getting her hands on the cake and then clapped the icing all on the table and her hands!! The waiters sang happy birthday to her! This past Saturday, Raygan-Elise had her 1st birthday party- a pink and purple party. She really had a great time. We had it at our house and everything was pink and purple. She enjoyed her 2nd smash cake and playing with all her new toys. I was very sad to have this day come and go. She was great at the party...with her we are always nervous because you never know! But she played and took pics. She hated the hat that I took my time to make. She kept her bow on most of the time and wore her tutu until I took it off! She enjoyed opening presents and pulled out the tissue paper and smiled at each new toy. After the party, she fell asleep on my shoulder as I was changing the channel on the TV and she slept for 3 hours. She was exhausted!

Both birthdays were wonderful. I cannot believe this past year has already gone by! Our family is so special and I am blessed to be a part of it!!!

The next day...Sick Princess Baby

2009-05-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

Catching up on the blog...March for babies was great, and then came Sunday night. Raygan-Elise fell asleep. After about an hour, I noticed she was breathing heavier and felt her...She was burning up. 30 min later, her temp was 103 (without adding any degree). We called Mamaw, cooled her down, gave tylenol, and hoped it was ear infection. The next morning, I got an appt. at 10:00 am. When I got there, her temp was just above 99. They said ears and throat looked great and did blood work. White count was really high so they suspected urinary infection. Tried to bag for urine. After 1.5 hrs., they said needed to go to leBounher ER for a cath. So, Raygan-Elise and I by ourselves drive to the ER. WOW! They were packed. I signed in and waited for my name. It was called pretty quick but just to fill out more paper work. BUT when they took her temp it was 104.9 and quickly they got her stripped down and moved up quickly to top of stack for an ER room. That day was awful. Both of us, by ourselves in ER room. They tried to cath her 10 times and did some other procedure where they stick needle through stomach into bladder. Didn't get any urine. They did blood work, chest xrays, and a bladder ultrasound. Late that evening, we were assigned a room. Brian and SL came that night. SL spent the night. Most of days are kind of blurry. Her blood culture started to grow something so they put on antibiotic. Urine was fine. Later we learned she had a live germ called strep pnemo in her blood stream. They did a spinal tap, changed antibiotics, she had a red-man reaction to one antibiotic- very scary, started iron bc very anemic. She cried anytime doc or nurse walked in the room. By Wed, she was better, then Thursday ran fever again and feeling worse. Disease control people in and out of room. Changed IV from arm to foot. Finally Saturday we were better and ready to go home. We appreciate so much the docs and nurses at Lebouhner and especially Dr. Barrett at our clinic who sent us there. This was so very serious but could have been worse had it not been caught and diagnosed appropriately! While in the hospital Raygan-Elise passed the time by watching Baby Einstein, sleeping, and even learned how to "feed the baby" by using a pretend baby bottle toy mom bought her. I enjoyed ordering for us off their cafeteria menu which was really nice!! Raygan-Elise is now well and doing great.

The next day, my mom was also put into hospital and had the same thing in her lungs and blood. They've discovered a blood disease as well as a enlarged spleen. She is now doing many follow-up appts. to get more information.

Posting pics of Raygan-Elise in her hospital gown/bed. They are in mixed up order. Not date order...and yes, I took pics of her when she was sick. Bad mommy! It wasn't a comfortable week with us both sleeping in the hospital crib. The week after we got out I would wake up having flash backs of being in those crib bars and scared she would fall on concrete hospital floor! What a crazy couple of weeks...I'm still recovering from it all!

March for Babies 09

2009-05-27T18:10:00.001-07:00

Lots and lots going on and I'm trying to catch back up on blogging! First, we had a great time at our first March for Babies event on Saturday, April 25! Our family team-- Me, Raygan-Elise, Bethany, her son, Jack, Anna, Mary Ann, and Shaun Leigh-- raised $1000 for March of Dimes! I must admit that although excited about the day, I was nervous I wouldn't make the whole 4 miles. But, I did and she did and so did everyone else! The night before we stayed at a hotel and went out to eat. Raygan-Elise had a grand time! The big even was bigger than I ever thought. Cars were backed up trying to get to parking. It was wild!! Bethany's mom made Jack and Raygan-Elise cute outfits and I think our shirts (Designed by Andrea Dancy! THANKS!!) were the best there!! Lots of fun, lots of sweat, lots of babies, lots of laughs! Can't wait till next year!

Easter 2009

2009-04-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

Easter started off pretty scary...On Saturday, Reese, Raygan-Elise and I took off to go to the Snowden egg hunt (we go each year). They started the hunt a little early about 5 till 11:00 and Reese took off. This egg hunt is huge and I couldn't get Raygan-Elise stroller over into egg area. With all the people, Reese got lost! Never before have I lost him, but it happened. For about 15 minutes, I was desperatlely looking. Finally found him. He had been looking for us, was scared, had no eggs, had crossed the (blocked off) road to the play area, but then came back to egg hunt area where I was! So so scary. He was mad that he didn't get eggs. So, I promised after he played on playground and bounce houses we would go buy any eggs he wanted at Target and make our own egg hunt. We also discovered how much Raygan-Elise likes ice cream while eating at McDonalds. Boy, she screamed loud if we weren't shoveling it into her mouth.

Easter morning was pretty interesting now that Raygan-Elise is crawling and cruising everywhere. Although the Easter Bunny was generous to both of them, she really wanted Reese's toys and candy! And Reese was not happy about it. Usually he loves and loves her, but he wanted his stuff! Reese is also started to "learn" some of the language from church masses. Here's what he thinks it is: "Osama on high" and "When the bow breaks, take away- the things of the lord, have mercy on us, mercy on us."

Raygan-Elise 9 month PT Dismissal!

2009-03-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

Raygan-Elise is now 9 months old. We went for her physical therapy session today, and she has now caught up to her birth age in her physical goals (instead of her corrected age b/c of prematurity). This means that she is 9 months old and physically can do 9 month old skills--crawling and pulling up, etc. So, she was dismissed from PT today! We will miss Ms. Jodie! She was so wonderful and gave us lots of tips throughout the past months.

Although she was dismissed from PT, Ms. Jodie does a developmental check of things that do not relate to PT. For social development and fine motor development, she was between 6 months and 7 months and for language/speech, she was 6 months, which is a little behind. This is close to her corrected age. We were told what goals to watch for over the next 2 months. If she hasn't mastered them, we have to call another doc at the same Rehab place and set up an appt.

Overall, Great news and a Great day! Raygan-Elise came to school with me after appt. and the kids loved on her! Reese created his usual signs/stories and hung them up everywhere around the building! He has another loose tooth (noticed it about 2 weeks ago), but he says it was a mistake and he's trying to keep this one in! HA!

All about the Myres Children in February!

2009-02-25T15:40:00.001-08:00

REESE--guessing but thinking right Under 1 month old

RAYGAN-ELISE-- 3.5 months old (love digital prints b/c it tells you the day you took picture!)

***Reese and Raygan-Elise in above picture wearing same gown (although one is lined with pink and the other with blue)

Raygan-Elise turned 9 months old on Feb. 21
Things Raygan-Elise is doing Now:

Real CRAWLING everywhere and crawling fast (really started Feb. 10)
Claps and smiles to Patty cake (1st time to get clapping Feb. 17)
On Feb. 18, Brian and Hammie said she said her first word-- Patty Cake...I was in the room and it did sound like that but being that grunting and raspberry sounds is all she every makes, we must have all been dreaming!
Pulling up and starting to try to "walk" down the furniture
1st and 2nd Tooth coming in (1st tooth-Feb. 14, 2nd tooth- Feb. 25)
Finally figuring out how to open mouth when eating, but still doesn't always do it-Throughout Feb.
Just started eating 3X's a day and also just started eating a whole jar at a time. So now eating 3 full jars a day--This week!
Loves Green Beans!
Loves Bouncing!
Is still not sleeping through night and wakes up 2-3 times a night: usually around 1 am, 3 am, and 6 am.
Starting to cry for me in the mornings when I am leaving for work (started this about 1.5 wks ago)
Enjoying Kindermusik Class with Mrs. Courtney--Have been to 3 classes

Reese 6 yrs. and 9 months :) --
We are so very proud of Reese for "making the grade" on the 1st test for Spotlight (which is our gifted program). He made 92% percentile! So he will be tested again in a one-on-one setting to see if he gets into Spotlight!
Loves playing Zelda on WII!
Enjoys singing rock songs, especially Nickleback "RockStar". Every morning on the ride to school he says, "I call my song."
Loves learning new jokes and then telling them (One day this month, he came outside after school with a bloody tissue on his nose. I, of course, freaked out! He laughed and laughed and showed me that it was only a tissue he drew red spots all over!)
Loves playing outside with neighbors
Started practicing for Spring Soccer and is on the Teal Tigers! Aaron is on his team again!
Eats a Pop Tart every morning!
Still is a picky eater and usually takes a lunchbox to school. Eats in cafeteria on chicken nugget and chicken tender days and taco days.
Still get very upset when he makes a mistake on his spelling sentences.

First Snow

2009-01-31T21:12:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday we had our first and probably only snow of 2009. School was, of course, cancelled. Reese was thrilled! He immediately asked where his new sleds were that Aunt Joan gave him for Christmas and wanted to go outside. Neighborhood friends came over! They all had so much fun! They played outside for couple of hours, then all went in to get cleaned up. Next, Noah, Samantha, and Reese played the WII at our house and ate pizza rolls. Later, they went back out in the snow/mud! This was Raygan-Elise's first snow experience. As you can tell in the photos, she wasn't that thrilled! When I first sat her down, she was okay, but then she went to touch it! That was the end of that, and the tears began to roll!

This is what motherhood is all about...

2009-01-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

So, this may be a little graphic for some. :)

But I have a true mommy story. First off, Raygan-Elise can't stand to be left alone. Literally, she will scream and scream as soon as you walk out of the room. She can be perfectly happy playing with her toys...you can be behind her and walk away...and she stops and screams. She makes herself so upset and will get out of breath, etc. So now, Brian is out of town at a training session for his new job. I have to go to the restroom! So I take her with me into our bathroom and put her on my lap. Quick and simple. Then, Reese walks in too! He just starts talking and playing with Raygan-Elise. Doesn't act like it is any big deal. So, here I am...trying to potty...with my 8 month old on my lap and my 6 year old dancing in front of me. Who needs privacy!?! Not a mommy!!

L-I-K-E-! with a capital K!

2009-01-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

Tonight, out of the blue, Reese came into my room and laid down with me and Raygan-Elise. He said," You remember Jorja from last year? Well, she likes a boy in my room." I asked which boy and he replied, "Collier." Then he went on to say, "I mean likes- L-I-K-E-!- capital K." Those exact words! Oh my, we are in the first grade! He says she chases him around the playgroud. :) He repeated what like means and then said, "like, L-O-V-E" and got all giggly. I asked him if he L-I-K-Ed anyone and he said let me think. Got all giggly and shy. Finally said, "no, I like my baby sister. That's all"

Shopping Adventure!

2009-01-25T16:07:00.001-08:00

So I took Reese, his friend, Aaron, and Raygan-Elise out yesterday shopping for deals. Here are some of the events of our day:

Reese "yelling" at Aaron- "It's because of clearance. Clearance you know. Clearance. Clearance makes the price go up." He was really meaning tax.
Reese reading all the price tags for Aaron on all the toys, and Reese asking me what was on sale. All of this made me realize that Reese and I go shopping together way too much!
Noticing that we lost Raygan-Elise's lion toy after we got to car. Having to go all through Target looking for it. Finding it!! Then, having Reese tell me, after we were 10 minutes away from Target, "Mom, I think I dropped the toy on the ground at Target when getting in car." I was so mad. Pulled over. He was sitting on it.
Reese telling me that I should cut the wires on my breast pump and pump directly into Raygan-Elise's mouth. (That was before we picked up Aaron and I was thinking aloud about how I was going to nurse her with Aaron with us. I ended up nursing her in a restroom stall while the boys stood outside the stall, but in the bathroom, in a corner. I told them I was changing her diaper.)
The boys starving because it was 3:30 and we hadn't eaten lunch. So, they said they were going to "loose their appetite" if they didn't get food. They were "starving"! Oh my!
Eating at McDonald's and watching the grandfather next to us get SO upset with his granddaughter.
Reese and Aaron mixing a drink using the drink machine. Adding all flavors together. Reese wanted me to try his but I said a big NO thanks!
Everyone saying how tiny and cute Raygan-Elise was! I think so too!
Not finding any good Deals! Reese bought a Ben 10 DVD, and I bought Raygan-Elise a 2 sleeper gowns and a diaper wipe holder. 5 Hours of shopping and that's all we got!!

But Friday night I did find a great deal at Target. I had a gift card from the Sunshine Club for Raygan-Elise. They had a 2-in-1 learning kitchen on sale but not the 50% off like it was marked on shelf. So, I took it up to counter and asked. They sold it. So I got it for $24! Yay! originally $70!! I put it together today. She's not that into it yet, but Reese had fun. He "cooked" soap and played with all the little accessories!!!

She's mobile...he doesn't want to tell me I'm wrong.

2009-01-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

Raygan-Elise--- Well, we are mobile. She started trying to scoot several weeks ago and can now go (when she wants to go) anywhere. She is also trying to get on knees and crawl. She made it 3 knee-steps this week. Her other new trick is making a new "rasberry" sound. She has also had a couple of bad days- Coughing, choking, projectile and the pattern goes on and on... Took her to doctor. Paid $156 out of pocket to go over her entire history (new doctor) and for him to tell me it was her reflux acting up and cold. Poor Thing! Also, he says I have to start feeding her again. :) She started baby food about 1.5 months ago, but then I stopped when she kept refluxing and sleeping worse at night. He says that time to start again and start with bananas which she took ok at first. She also tried drinking out of a cup this past week. Didn't drink much but LOVED playing with the cup!

Reese---He is so so sweet. He doesn't like to tell me that I'm wrong. He was in the living room with Hammie and said it was so cold. Hammie told Reese to come tell me that BC Hammie always says its cold, and I say it is not! He refused to tell me. Finally, he came. So, I asked him if it was cold and he said- "Well, just 1% cold." Later he came back and said, "my whole body is 1% cold. My head is 1% cold. My arms are 1% cold. My legs are 1% cold. etc" He was also very proud today that he went outside and played with the neighborhood kids without crying! He is also on Multiplication facts at school. His teacher says that no one has ever got to multiplication this early in the year. He is on the facts for 6, 7, and 8. WOW! He also loves asking ?'s-- Hey, Momma, Hey Momma, or Hey, Daddy, Hey, Daddy...questions always follow! Here he is reading a book:

I have a loose tooth...Want to know about it?

2009-01-18T18:02:00.000-08:00

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This story starts back in October when Reese noticed his bottom tooth wiggled. For months he would mention it every once and a while. But then came today...I woke up to the loud sound--"Mama, Mama, my tooth, my tooth, pull it out it hurts." Then, all day long it hurt. It "bothered" him (his words). He hardly ate. He didn't even eat his whole quesadillas, which he loves. Tonight, he wanted it out. We called Poppa, who said he'd come by and pull it tomorrow. But after more hours of listening to it bother him...I decided to just pull it. He got a little nervous, but I pulled. He yelped "ouch" and then touched inside and said "it's gone." For me--Quick and simple! Over so fast! He was surprised by how little the tooth actually is and that his tongue can now fit in the hole in his mouth. He called Poppa and Hammie first. He says- "You want to know about my loose tooth...wanna know about it...it came out!" He told Aunt Joan, "Yeah, but I didn't push it back and forth. My mom just yanked it out." We are excited. He is really wondering if the Tooth Fairy will know it was coming out today since it was bothering him.

Sign! I did! Prevent Early Births like Raygan-Elise's

2009-01-03T21:50:00.001-08:00

The March of Dimes has a Preemie Petition that they will submitting. This petition also has a report card for each state as it relates to preemie births. As a mother of a preemie, it is heartbreaking to know that some premature births could be prevented by education and health care to women. With Reese, I went into labor early (32 wks) while at the hospital for my weekly monitoring, and since it was caught so early they were able to prevent labor. Raygan-Elise's birth was caused after PROM (premature Rupture of Membranes) and a low biophysical score. She had many complications due to early delivery- Apnea, Jaundice, Hypoglycemia (IDM), Illeus, and Abdominal Disfunction. Please read and sign the Petition for Preemies. I do believe research would help to discover why many women (like myself) who did have health care, prenatal care, and "followed the rules" still deliver premature. These are pics of Raygan-Elise's NICU stay and first days home.

Please look and consider signing petition. Maybe one day the number of premature deliveries will be reduced.

Christmas fun!

2009-01-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

Raygan-Elise loves her Daddy! She has him wrapped. Today, She bumped heads with Reese and was crying. I got her calmed down and happy again, but Brian came upstairs to see what had happened. She looked at him and started crying again. I have never seen such a little baby do that just to get sympathy. My 3's and 4's in my class do it all the time. Start crying again to make a parent feel bad, but never a little one only 7 months old. We all laughed b/c it was so so cute!

Left to Right: Sister, Anna, Cousin, Shaun Leigh, Brother, John, and Me

L to R: Anna's son, John Aedon, Reese, Raygan-Elise, and Hammie

Reese laughing at the autographed book, Charlie Peanut, that SL gave him. They kept calling it naked peanut and would laugh so hard.

Raygan-Elise loves putting anything in her mouth, so she loved all the wrapping paper!!

I cannot believe another Christmas has come and gone. This was an unusual Christmas b/c for the first time ever we didn't have it at my Ruru's Christmas Eve night (which is our family's tradition) . But this year it was moved up one week b/c my Uncle Bill was getting married on Dec. 27. We had Christmas with the S.L. and family on night of Dec. 20. S.L. had the house decorated so cute! She made individual Christmas tree cakes and had the kids ice them and decorate. We opened gifts and enjoyed food and drinks! As S.L passed out gifts, Reese kept looking at Tags and then finally asked "Who are the Free Mans?" Of course, Freeman is their last name and the tag said From, The Freeman's. Everyone laughed so hard. I guess in 6 years we have really never taught him last names in our family except ours. That became a joke throughout the night and the next day. Raygan-Elise loved trying to eat the tissue paper and bags. I tried to take cute pics of them together but never got a great one. We stayed up late and spent the night at S.L.'s. The next day we had Christmas at Ruru's. It was a mad house as usual. Lots of family! This year we had to have it in the small den, instead of living room. That was strange. It was also strange having it on Sunday afternoon, instead of Christmas Eve night. We had a vegetarian meal b/c after shopping they left the bag with turkey at store. Then, the butcher replaced it with a frozen one. Everyone buys for the kids, so they had tons to open. Reese enjoyed it so much. And everyone kept joking-- That is from the Youngs, that is from the Kings, etc. Raygan-Elise was very overstimulated and cried and cried. So, Mom took her into the other room, and I opened her presents. She gets upset when there is too much going on in small space! Reese's big present from Ruru, Mamaw, and Hammie was Rockband for WII (which he doesn't have). When he saw it, he said but its for WII. Hammie said, "No! I thought it was for your computer." He said, "It's Ok...Santa is bringing me a Wii for Christmas." And of course everyone laughed!! Raygan-Elise got her first Cabbage Patch kid (a preemie just like her!) from Hammie. Although she opened it after Christmas. On Dec. 23, we visited Brian's Aunt Joan and Mamaw for the day! Again, Raygan-Elise wasn't in the best mood, but the visit was nice and the food was good. Reese loves going to Louisville so he has a blast. They got more toys and cute clothes!! It was very strange not attended St. Elizabeth's packed Christmas Eve mass, but the mass at Holy Spirit was beautiful! And since I was in town, I was able to go to the Hospital and hold Baby Jack (Bethany's little boy) on Christmas Eve when he was less than 12 hours old!! That is such a sweet feeling to hold a newborn on Christmas!!! It was also so much fun for our little family to have 2 children this Christmas! Reese was very excited while visiting family! Of course, he was quiet and shy when seeing what Santa left him. He always is...I think he gets overwhelmed by it all. He just walks in the room and looks around. His big present from Santa was a WII and Wii games and game table. Now, we have all been playing WII for 6 days straight. It is a lot of fun. He also got Magnetics (which he's asked for for 3 years) and many Barakagun items (his new character). Raygan-Elise got a new jumper toy, blanket, soft doll and toys. We got Reese a Ben 10 toy he wanted and got Raygan-Elise her 1st baby doll- a Baby Alexander doll. We enjoyed spending the day together. I was very sad to think that this would be our last time for Brian and I to have a 1st Christmas with a new child. I cried. Now, we have been resting from all our travels, taking it easy, staying in our pj's all day and resting!!! School starts back soon! I think Reese will have WII withdrawals when classes start back, and I will definitely have withdrawals from not being able to stay home with Raygan-Elise and Reese all day! It has been nice!

Lots of things going on around here...

2008-12-17T19:53:00.000-08:00

Haven't had time to post in a while. Life seems to get so busy. Lots happened in November. Here's a summary: Reese-- Molars starting to come in (He told his teacher something was in his mouth. I guess she looked, bc she told him they were his molars. HA!) Had his soccer and football parties and got his trophies for playing Made his first F on paper bc he didn't understand how to circle the correct answers (he was upset) Very excited bc he had his first boys night with Poppa and Uncle John, they played board games Took a friend (aaron) bowling and to see Daddy play in his new band-One Eyed Jack Raygan Elise-- Discovered and now loves holding her feet Meaning to touch and hold things now Put paci in her mouth by self 1st illness and then 1st ear infection Likes Peek-a-Boo 1st time to be kept by someone other than family member (Melissa, Aaron's mom) Fell off bed for 1st time while at Mamaw Corrine and Reese dropped her on same day :( What a busy time! They are both growing up so much. We enjoyed Thanksgiving! Got to visit C'dale, Louisville, and Clinton!! Enjoy the new pictures!

2 Sick Children

2008-11-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

Well, we had one sick halloween week. On Monday, Raygan-Elise ran fever all day and wouldn't eat. We went to doctor at 5:00. They ran blood work and everything...then, said it was just a virus and she was dehydrated. We gave her Pedialyte out of syringe to get liquids in her. She slowly began feeling better. Then, Thursday morning Reese ran fever, and by that afternoon he was sick sick. So this was our first experience with having 2 children and them passing their illnesses to each other. No trick-or-treating for us! We stayed home and passed out candy. Raygan-Elise wore her trick-or-treat shirt, and Reese laid on the living room floor so he could see costumes.

ZOO BOO 2008

2008-10-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

This past Friday night was our annual trip to the Memphis Zoo Boo. This year besides having our new little girl, Raygan-Elise, AKA Princess Baby come along for the event...John Aedon and Nana joined us too. The costumes-- Reese was Johnny Test (a cartoon character he watches). His hair was a HUGE HIT! It was too cute! John Aedon was a pirate. He loved the gun and sword. And Raygan-Elise was an adorable pumpkin (Thanks Aunt Joan!). The children had a blast. John Aedon was so cute. He leaned over to Nana once and said "I so happy." We loved the magic show as usual. We ate ice cream when it was cold, as usual. Reese enjoyed dancing this year under the disco lights, which was a first. His other new thing was to have a characertuer (sp wrong!?) drawn of himself. He also said the hay ride was not scary. Reese and I rode a spinning ride together. He loves those! Raygan-Elise slept and looked around. We saw one of her nurses from the NICU. It was one that mostly wasn't nice to us. I spoke to her and showed her Raygan-Elise. I know she was probably thinking that I should just not have this preemie baby out this late and with all this crowd. BUT we kept her covered and away from people! John Aedon had one accident b/c we forgot to take him to potty. All in All...It was a wonderful night. Enjoy the pics...

Why does time fly?

2008-10-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

First off, children grow up too fast. I want them to grow and experience things, but couldn't they do it at half the rate. It just goes by too quick. Everyday Reese takes a lunchbox to school (which is everyday but chicken tender day and maybe an occasional other day) I have always sent him a note in his lunchbox. Well, Last Thursday, Reese said kids in his class teased him b/c I had a heart on his note. I asked him what he said to them and he just grunted and said that is what he did. I told him to ask them next time if their moms loved them b/c I bet they do!!!! Then, asked if he wanted me to stop sending notes in his lunchbox. He looked really sad, and shook his head no. Then said, "but can you just hide them so only I can see them." How sad!! He is growing up! So it has been also been almost 5 months since princess baby entered our family. That is just amazing and so sad BC I have to go back to work tomorrow. I am so upset. I have had a wonderful time off. 5 months has been great!! Now it is back to the real world of teaching....

Possible First Laugh

2008-09-26T11:16:00.000-07:00

Picture after the soccer game- Reese, 6 years, Raygan-Elise, 4 months

Last night, Reese had a Football game at 6:00 and soccer at 7:30. Raygan-Elise and I tagged along with Daddy and Reese for the fun filled sports night!! Football was exciting as usual. Reese pulled one flag and got to run the ball once. He said it was "more boring than usual"...possibly because they didn't win. :( After football and a quick change in the car, it was off to soccer. Raygan-Elise slept in her stroller during the first half. Reese was off a bit at first (probably bc he just played football for over an hour). He even started to kick the ball the wrong way, but quickly recovered and then was right on track again. In the second half, he played defense and was way down the field from us. Raygan-Elise and I walked the field to go get some pics of him. While we were down there, there was a great play where the ball was right in front of the goal line with 2 kids trying to kick it in and 2 trying to kick it out (Reese being one trying to kick it out). The crowd was yelling for their teams...Raygan-Elise was on my shoulder staring at the man behind us who was yelling "Kick it, kick it" along with doing some arm and foot motions. Then, beside my ear, I heard a funny noise. Could it be her first laugh? At this random man? We've been smiling and playing with her for weeks. I'm still not sure b/c it was hard to hear over the yelling, but I really think that was it. It was so sweet. We are eagerly awaiting to hear it again. And Reese kicked the ball out, so no goal for the other team. We won 1-0!! GO, Blue Snakes. (Yes, they are the Blue Snakes, and that is another long story. Reese came up with it and the team all voted! He was so proud.)

First Shots...

2008-09-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

So, I took Raygan-Elise to the doctor on Monday for her first shots...she is now 4 months old. She weighed 12 lbs. 3 oz, so she has tripled her birth weight. Everything was great. She can take a whole prevacid now, which should help her GERD. Shots, of course, were not fun and neither was Monday night or all day and night on Tuesday. In fact, last night she cried so much that Reese started crying. He was worried something was wrong with her. But this morning she woke up smiling, so all is right in Princess baby's world again. Here are pics take n after church on 9/21...her 4 month b-day...

And then came along Princess Baby...

2008-09-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

After having a high-risk pregnancy with Reese, being put on bed rest for 8 weeks, and delivering a sick baby that had to stay in the hospital, it took Brian and I a little while to decide to have another one...plus Reese was so much fun and we got to spend so much one on one time with him. But the time did come where I was eager and very impatient about wanting another baby. When we found out I was pregnant, we were thrilled, but didn't want to tell anyone until we heard the heartbeat, which was the most amazing sound in the world. Reese was the first person we told, and he was so excited! 5 Weeks later, our world was thrown around again, as I was already put into high risk and seeing my doc. plus a specialist. I went to the doctor once a week, but we got to find out she was a girl at only 13 weeks pregnant and we had 4D ultrasounds every other week...so there was an up side to it!! I knew with all this watching that this baby was going to turn out just fine and this pregnancy would last till 40 weeks just like Reese. They stopped it that time when he tried to come at 32 weeks, surely they could do it again. That all changed as I got out of my car and walked across the parking lot to
go to a regular doc visit. As I crossed the street, my water broke. I was 33 weeks. Though I should have been scared, God protected my worries by making me think of random, crazy things that needed to be done and I made lists and sent people after things--we needed a car seat, a baby book, a mommy brag book, pajamas, the room isn't done, etc. The docs wanted to hold off a week, but it didn't happen. On Monday they were trying to stop labor all day and night and by Tuesday it had stopped. Then Tuesday afternoon, we had a biophysical of the baby and it showed that she wasn't doing what they wanted her to do and they gave me pitocin to start labor. How funny! At 12:49 am, we welcomed our little girl Raygan-Elisabeth Ann (Raygan-Elise) weighing exactly 4 lbs. After brief moments with her, she was taken to the NICU, and she and I stayed there for 2 weeks. She didn't need oxygen, but had trouble with her stomach, apnea, and jaundice. She is now doing good (except for gerd/reflux) and is going to have her shots tomorrow!! WOW...Time flies!! Pics: in NICU, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months.

My First Blog

2008-09-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to try this blogging thing. I got an email from Ashley Pollan about Ella's and I'm now giving it a go...let's see how I do..

A little Background-- Brian and I met my senior year, dated all through college, and married in 2000. In 2002, we welcomed our son, Reese, into this world. He came to us weighing 8 lbs. 11 oz. with pneumonia. I didn't know that was possible, but he had to stay in the hospital a week until his lungs cleared. We lived in Duncan, then Clarksdale, then Cleveland, then Olive Branch, and now have our wonderful home in Nesbit...where we hope to be for a long time. I teach in Olive Branch, and Brian is the QC Director for MMC Materials. Brian also plays drums in a hard rock band, One Eye Jack. We're still waiting on him to grow up, LOL. Reese is now a healthy 6 year old in first grade who loves sports, running, and playing on the computer. He keeps us laughing all day long. I'll have to get some baby pics of him later, as we didn't have a digital camera then...but here are some current pics of our little man. .

Reese's First Day in First Grade

Just Playing in the Rain!