Happy Halloween!

Birthday Party for Katelyn

Today is cousin Katelyn's 1st birthday. We enjoyed celebrating at her birthday party. Happy Birthday Katelyn!

Reese and Mammy in their party hats.

Katelyn & her cake. Reese kept saying "Mess" over and over while Katelyn was eating. We actually let Reese have a piece of cake (without the icing), and what do you think the 1st thing she asked for upon waking from her nap was? "Cake!" Has a monster been created?

Sewing update:

I made Reese a Halloween skirt. Since she loves spiders, I picked out a silly spider pattern.... and it's reversible to black with white polka dots. I had a little trouble with the waist band, so I'll have to work on that.

Pumpkin Patch

We took Reese to a local farm to pick pumpkins and enjoy the other fall activities. She had a great time running through all the pumpkins!

Reese's 1st ride on a tractor.

We went on a hay ride. It was pretty chilly!

Reese's 8 second ride. She's got pretty good form!

She loved the chickens, goats and turkey..... but could have cared less about the lamas.

Catching a ride with the pumpkins.

Happy Birthday Sheppard!!!

Happy birthday baby bro! Since you are celebrating it in Afghanistan I figured I'd try my hand at posting a video. Hope you have a good birthday. We'll see you next month!

Sesame Street Live!!!

Lee and I took Reese to her very 1st show..... a Sesame Street Live performance called Elmo's Green Thumb. Reese absolutely LOVES Elmo, Abby Cadabby and Zoe, but I was a little afraid of how she was going to react at an event like this. Would she like it? Would it scare her? Would she stay in one place for so long?

Thankfully, she had a blast!!! She was dancing while shouting "Elmo Melmo" and "Abby Dabby" over and over again.

Daddy picked out a Zoe doll (which you can see sitting in her lap) as a souvenir from Reese's 1st show. She hasn't let go of this thing since we left the arena.

These are the $8 Elmo balloons that were selling like hot cakes. They brought them out during intermission and people swarmed to them. I couldn't believe how fast people were buying these up. Reese was deprived when it came to these balloons. She was almost successful at taking the one from the little girl sitting behind us though.

We had good seats too. If this were a hockey game we would have been sitting right behind the glass mid-ice. We had no trouble seeing the stage and Telly Monster even walked right past us. Reese reached out her arms like she wanted him to pick her up!

Even Lee and I enjoyed it. We hope to do it again sometime!

Pizza.... a family tradition

Lee's family has been in the pizza business for a long time. He spent much of his youth working at the family owned pizza place in Philadelphia, so he knows a thing or two about how to make a good pie. Last night we started what we think will become one of our own family traditions... family Pizza night.

Reese helping Daddy put on the pizza toppings.

She kept stealing the toppings and eating them.

The 1st pizza getting ready to go into the oven. It's a white (no sauce) spinach and tomato pie. We also made a plain cheese pizza.

Reese & Georgia cleaning up (aka eating) the mess on the chair. "Mmmmmmmmmm!" was Reese's favorite saying for the night.

Reese eating her yummy pizza.

Bow Holder, Climber, Mom-mom

Here's what I made over the weekend..... a bow holder. Reese has tons of bows and we needed a place to put them all. Cute... huh?

Reese loves to climb. She climbs on everything she can. Georgia. The sofa. The coffee table. Her crib. You get the point. She's a climbing maniac.

We went and visited Mom-mom who is Reese's great grandmother. Mom-mom and Reese had fun playing with Ernie (a stuffed Sesame Street character), sticks, leaves, and grass. Reese was able to get a few smiles out of Mom-mom!

Smith Mountain Lake

We're back!

Reese in the knit hat from Bumba.... who Reese now calls Gamma

We just spent a week at a house on Smith Mountain Lake (in Virginia) with Lee's parents, his sister and her family, and his cousin and her family. With 4 children under the age of 3, we had quite a fun trip!

The 1st 2 days we hung out on our own private beach and swam. The next day we rented a boat and had a great time exploring the lake and tubing. Lee even took Reese out for her 1st tubing experience. Then we had a wine tasting at a local winery.... yum! The next day Lee & I rented jet skis and explored the lake on our own while Lee's parents looked after Reese. We made sure to take Reese out for her 1st wave runner experience though. She LOVED it and had a huge smile on her face! (Lee's dad has the pictures of that on his camera, so hopefully I can get copies of those soon!) The last day we went to the beach area at the Smith Mountain Lake state park. It wasn't crowded at all so we had plenty of room to enjoy ourselves.

Such a great trip!

Reese driving the boat!

Reese's 1st tubing adventure.

Corey, Angelina, Reese & Billy in the bath

Reese & Mama swimming.

Reese loves the water. Whenever she could see the lake she would point and say "swim lake." We would put her floaties on, put her in a tube and let her go. She would kick her little legs to get where she wanted to go. Adorable!

Reese on the beach

I made a dress!

A few weeks ago I finally figured out how to use my sewing machine and have been doing lots of little sewing projects. I decided to buy a pattern and see if I could make a dress for Reese. Here is the result!

4th of July 2009

We had a GREAT 4th of July! This is one of my favorite holidays. We took Reese to her 1st parade in downtown Cartersville. She had a great time listening to all the horns and sirens, but her favorite was the guy in a duck costume. When Reese saw the duck she started yelling "Quack Quack Quack" and got mad when the duck had to move on. She really enjoyed seeing so many American flags..... this child LOVES the flag. If there is a flag anywhere near us she knows exactly where it is and expects you to start singing "Hooray for the red white & blue." Then she dances to the song and pretends to wave a flag in her hand. It's really precious!

Reese & Mama waiting for the parade to start.

Reese & Mammy waiting for the parade.

After the parade we went up to the lake and spent the day swimming and visiting with friends and family. We had a huge low country boil for supper which was followed by fireworks at dark. Reese loved the fireworks and wasn't scared of them at all. She was really tired from staying up so late and immediately fell asleep in the car on the way home. Hooray for the red, white & blue!

Reese & Daddy coming in from swimming. Reese is a little fish in the water!

Daddy giving Reese a bath in the lake. The 1st of many to come. She was filthy from playing and scooting in the dirt all afternoon.

Mammy with an exhausted Reese just before the fireworks.

Lake Pics for Sheppard

Baby bro, who is overseas, asked for some pictures of the lake..... here ya go. Hope you're being careful over there.