As they grow, I will miss-

* 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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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!