Week 90- October 2 – October 8, 2017

It’s been a fun few weeks recently with all of the talking you are doing lately. You are saying more complete sentences and are asking more questions. A few of my favorite things you are saying:

“Who did that?” / “What is it?” / “I want a purple one.” (referring to princess popsicles) / “I love you so much” /

You are also in a big hugging phase right now were you want to come up and give us hugs all the time. It’s the best thing ever! You also love playing with your new dollhouse that Grandma Carol gave you and all of your stuffed animals. Especially the white Christmas puppy! This puppy plays the jingle bells tune and we originally bought it to send to Granny in Austin, but you spotted it and had to have it! You love that thing!

We went to our first pumpkin patch in Ohio this weekend with Grandma Patti. It was called Burnham Farms and it was about 20 minutes away from Sandusky. The first thing we did was take a hayride through the orchard. Grandma Patti didn’t ride with us because it was a little rough for her heart surgery recovery. It was a fun ride through the orchard and you seemed to have a great time. We also went to the pumpkin patch to pick out a few pumpkins to take back to Grandma’s house to decorate for the fall. The best part of the trip was visiting the market and bakery. You loved the apple cider slush and the pumpkin donuts and cookies. It was a great fall day and a great family outing!

Week 91- October 9 – October 15, 2017

Week 92- October 16 – October 22, 2017

Week 93- October 23 – October 29, 2017

Week 94- October 30 – November 5, 2017

Week 95- November 6 – November 12, 2017

Week 96- November 13 – November 19, 2017

Week 97- November 20 – November 26, 2017

Week 98- November 27 – December 3, 2017

Week 99- December 4 – December 10, 2017

Week 100- December 11 – December 17, 2017

We took you to see Santa on Saturday and you loved it! We weren’t sure about it, but you had a great time! You smiled and didn’t even cry. We also went to see the Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo. That was alot of fun as well, but you kept saying you wanted to see more animals because we were at the Zoo. You did love the lights and all the sounds. The traffic getting in and out of the parking lot was the worst ever. You can ask your mom about that…

I have always loved Christmas time, but now that you are getting older it is way more special.

Week 101- December 18 – December 24, 2017

Merry Christmas week to you Reese! We are heading up to Sandusky to visit mom’s family for the weekend. While I do miss my side of the family, it’s hard to get to Texas considering I don’t have many vacation days. But it makes me extremely happy to get to spend Christmas with your mom’s side of the family. I know Grandma Patti is so happy to spend Christmas with you this year. She is still having some minor heart pains, but having you around helps take her mind off her heart and eases the pain. I think the thing she is most excited about is frosting the cookies with you.

On Saturday, we woke up to snow!! The first thing we did was get dressed and go outside to build our first snowman. It took me a while because your mom forgot to tell me there was an actual technique where you roll the snow into a big ball to help build the body parts. But once i got that information, we built a pretty solid snowman. You helped with the arms, eyes and nose. Me and you definitely enjoyed building the snowman more than your mom. She was cold!  Later that afternoon Uncle Link came over and we built about a 500 lb. snowman. It was huge!  We also frosted cookies! I didn’t really do much frosting myself, but I loved watching you, mom, and grandma frost the cookies together. It’s been a tradition for so long and it was special to just sit back and watch you ladies frost away! I did my part and quality checked a few cookies throughout the day. Saturday evening we went to Main Street Tavern for dinner. it was a nice dinner because it was just us, grandma & grandpa, and Link & Heather. We don’t get to eat with all of us together very often so it was a special and fun evening. I need to stop for a second and mention again how well behaved you are when we go out for dinner. You love eating and you love looking around at everything that’s going on around the restaurant. Your mom and I can’t thank you enough for being such a well behaved little girl. After dinner we went downtown to look at the display of lights. It was freezing cold so we took a few pictures and went home!

Sunday was Christmas Eve and we relaxed around the house for the first part of the day and then went to the children’s 4 pm Mass at Church. After church we went to our cousin Jason’s house for the annual Christmas Eve party. Aunt Beth made roast beef sandwiches and everyone else brought different apps and side dishes. Grandma of course brought her world famous cheesy potatoes! You were part of the kid’s gift exchange and you got your first set of Play-doh. You loved it! But you did get a little mad when we didn’t let you play with it right away. Eventually we of course gave in and let you play with it for a while. All in all it was a great evening at Jason’s!

We did have a pretty scary moment when we got home. Mom was changing your diaper while you were playing with one of your “points” or quarters. Before she could say anything, you put the quarter in your mom and started choking. Like really choking to where you were turning red and was gauging. It all happened so fast, but I hit you on your back a few times and then placed you face down on my leg and hit your back hard a few times until you threw up a littler and out came the quarter. It was the best site to see that quarter come out of your mouth. Your mom was seconds away from calling 911, but luckily I was able to get it out before she had to make that call. Needless to say, it was scary! You were okay, but it taught us a lesson about paying more attention to what you have in your hands and get rid of smaller things around the house that you might be able to choke on.

Week 102- December 25 – December 31, 2017

Merry Christmas Reesey!

We had a great morning waking up and opening presents at Grandma & Grandpa’s house. You were so excited to open presents and see what was inside. You got some little people sets, a Percy train, and a Chase doll. Your Great Grandpa Sonny came over and joined us for a delicious brunch. We hung out for a while and then headed back to Columbus. The roads were icy and snow was blowing everywhere so the drive was not that enjoyable but we made it back safely.

We still had a few presents for you when we got home. We got you a Thomas the train set and small table and chairs set for you to eat and play on. You love both of them! Steve and Jan also got you a cute little stroller for your baby dolls. When you would open presents, you would say “oh yeahhh!, oh yeahh!” It’s the cutest thing ever.

I love how excited you get for Christmas presents and how you love the lights, trees and ornaments. Christmas will now have a much deeper and enjoyable meaning for us because of you.

Thank you for being you!