Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

It must be a photo-dump night! Here's photos from Thanksgiving at my parent's house last Thursday. Zane was at his mom's that day, so it's pretty much all pictures of Raegan, with a few of Zac's stepson Koen mixed in.

Trying to figure out how to get on the rocking horse by herself

I just added this one because it shows what a little fashion plate Raegan was that day. lol
Koen having fun on the rocking horse

Not sure what she was talking about here....

Refusing to look at the camera

You see that look she's giving me?
Oh yeah, *that* is an onery girl right there!
Trying to make it rock by herself.

Nummy!

Raegan still isn't a big fan of meat of any kind: turkey, chicken, beef, pork, you name it, she doesn't like it. The only ways we've really found to get her to eat meat are to (1) hide the meat in something (i.e. mix up turkey in her mashed potatoes), (2) give her a dish that has meat mixed up in it (spaghetti or tater tot casserole), or (3) give it to her in a sandwich. For the longest time we chopped up Raegan's sandwiches, and she would just pick out the bread and cheese and leave all the meat sitting on the plate. She's a punk like that. :) Then we discovered that Raegan loves biting off of whole foods. Now we make Raegan her own half of a sandwich, and she usually eats every bite. She's pretty good about taking small bites and not choking too! (I think she just likes anything that makes her like a big girl. Or like Brother.)

Enjoy it while we can!

Some pictures from when Raegan and I went outside last week. You can tell from the lack of hat that it was before this ridiculously cold weather and wind set in. :(





My girlie loves playing outside more than anything! Sometimes she will throw a fit when we let the dog out and she doesn't get to go out too. We don't even have all that much for her to play with outside. I have some pictures of her from yesterday when we braved the cold and all she's doing is walking around carrying rocks. I'm so glad that she likes being outside though!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

So many blessings

Happy Thanksgiving to all friends and family who read my blog! I hope you all are enjoying a relaxing day with your family and loved ones.

This post is for giving thanks for all of the blessings I have in my life. I feel like I am blessed in so many ways that I can't even list them all here, so here are the top ones:

-I am so thankful for my family. I have such helpful loving parents. My husband makes me laugh, and Zane is so talented and silly. Raegan is such a joy every day, and I love being a Mommy more than anything. She is such a fun, sweet, smart little girl, and I am so glad that I can be her Mommy and watch the person she is turning into.

-I am thankful for my education and my job. There have been many days lately when I have not been very happy with my job, but overall I am very blessed to have the job that I do. I feel that I have a certain measure of job security, and my job helps provide us with many of the extra "perks" we get in our lives. I am thankful for my education because it gives me some flexibility in case I should ever decide to pursue other options for employment. I am also thankful for the friendships that I have made through my job. I work with some wonderful ladies, and I enjoy the fellowship.

-I am thankful for my health. I tend never to get sick, which I am so thankful for with flu season here!

There are many more things that I'm thankful for, but those are the main things. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Update

I'm being a bad blogger lately. It seems like we've just been going, going, going every weekend for awhile now, and when I do have down time I would rather curl up with a book and a glass of wine than do anything else. :) No pictures for this post, just an update of what all we are up to.

Raegan:

Raegan is fully weaned now. Three weekends ago I just started telling her no and giving her a cup of milk before brushing teeth and bed. The first couple nights were rough, and she was PISSED. :) But after the first few nights she adjusted to it very well. We have a pretty good routine now: bath, jammies, cup (usually with water now)/snuggle/book (if she'll let us), brush teeth and bed. Sometimes if she's still a little riled up we'll let her walk around and play for a few minutes, but no crazy times with Zane.

Raegan's vocabulary is expanding every day. I'll try to list it all here but I'm sure I'm nowhere close to remembering all of them. Right now she's saying: hi, hello, bye bye, ni-ni (night night), drink, nak (snack), baba (cup), up, no, Mama, Dada, kitty, Daisy (sometimes just Daiz), bubba, uh oh, ow. I'm sure there's more! Raegan also shakes her head yes and no, very accurately to tell you what she wants. If she wants a drink she'll go to the refrigerator and stand by and start going "eh eh eh" (it's a very specific sound that she uses just then). If she's hungry she'll go to her high chair and try to climb up in it. When we tell her it's time for a bath she'll walk to the bathroom herself, and when we tell her it's time to get dressed she'll go to her changing table. She'll also go to the door when we say "time to go bye bye".

One of Raegan's favorite things to do right now is buckle the straps on her changing table. She's done it several times now. She also likes to put the shapes in her shape sorter - she's not to the point where she can match them on her own, but if you put the right hole facing up she can get the shapes in pretty smoothly. She has this ladybug toy with shapes you push into the ladybug, and she will push them all in then hit the top of the bug to make them all pop out again. She also loves rocking in her rocking chair and talking on her cellphone. She'll hold it up to her ear (sometimes her neck) and say "hello". It's too stinkin' cute! One of Raegan's other favorite things to do still is peek-a-boo. It's so fun to hear her crazy laugh when you get going with that game.

Zane:

Zane turned 12 yesterday! Where does the time go? He's still doing very well in sixth grade. He's doing much better at not talking as much during art class, and his high A reflects that. :) His biggest challenge right now is remembering to turn in his practice sheets for band (and his B, as opposed to the over 100% he had last quarter, reflects that). It's a lot harder without me reminding him every week. His first middle school band concert is next month. I'm excited to hear how much the band has improved since last year.

Zane's really into Greek and Roman history and mythology right now. If you ever have a question about either of these subjects, let me know. I'm sure Zane knows the answer! lol

Hmmmm, what else? It's hard to find as much to write about Zane, because he's older and he doesn't change nearly as quickly as Raegan does. Which is good, because I don't think I could keep up with the both of them if they both developed so quickly!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Book time



Just doing a little reading before bed :)

Zane's birthday party

We had Zane's birthday party today. Hard to believe that he's going to be 12 on Tuesday!




Another Halo birthday cake :)
 


Waylon and Sarah's daughter Jacy


Raegan was working Granny and Grandpa both for CAKE!







One of our gifts to Zane was a giftcard to Waldenbooks. I think he likes it!


The big present was Force Unleashed 2

Jacy loves putting everything in her mouth right now!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Peek-A-Boo!

Raegan loves playing peek-a-boo! She initiates it all the time now. :)

Friday, November 12, 2010

Getting faster!

Here's a video of Raegan and Zane playing together. Look at how well she is walking!

Back again!

Long time, no blog. It's been another hectic week at work, and I've been tending to veg out in the evenings. My goal to run a 3 mile race on Thanksgiving morning is being challenged by my laziness, so I need to start getting off my butt again. Tomorrow. :)

Tonight was Family Fun Night with Raegan's child care. I didn't get any pictures, which I am majorly disappointed about, but the camera fell out of the diaper bag and was out of commission during the festivities. Angela said she does these a couple times a year, and she just rents out the Friendship Center here in town so there's enough room for all of us. She had a bean bag toss, corn and scoops, ink and stampers, flashlights and a sheet in a dark room, some puzzles, and a table with a train track. Raegan mostly wanted to practice her fabulous walking skills, but she did spend a lot of time at the corn and in the dark room walking back and forth through the sheet. We decided it was time to go when halfway through eating some crackers and cheese she started bawling hysterically. (It was almost 7:30 at that point, which is her typical bedtime.) You know there's something wrong if Raegan is crying instead of eating! hahahaha

So instead of pictures of Famly Fun Night, I'm posting a couple pictures of Raegan coloring at the desk my mom found at a garage sale. Raegan decided today that she LOVES coloring. She was quite put out when it was time to go back upstairs because she was having so much fun.


Sunday, November 7, 2010

More milestones

I think I could probably blog every day about the new things Raegan does, and still not totally keep up with it all. This is such a fabulous age! I could do without the tantrums though.... :)

Raegan talks all the time now. She has so many words! Let's see how many I can remember: hi, bye, kitty, Daisy, up, hey, no, mama, dada, bubba, nana (banana) ni-ni (night-night), deen (drink). She also shakes her head yes or no to questions (and usually means yes or no, and isn't just doing it for fun anymore!). These are the words she says consistently, but she also repeats a LOT of what we say. She lifts her arms up when she wants up, and often says "up" along with lifting her arms. She's getting really good at pointng or going after something when she wants it. Just this morning she was getitng fussy, so I said, "Do you want a snack?" and she nodded her head yes, then took off into the kitchen, stopped at her high chair, and started patting it. Also, along the lines of receptive language, she also can pat or point to her belly and her nose when you ask her where one is, although sometimes she pats more of her mouth than her nose.

I would say that Raegan is about two steps away from taking off and running. One day I let the dog out, and Raegan was in the kitchen, and she almost started running to try to get to the back door to get outside. Man, does that child looooooooove going outside! We spent almost an hour outside this afternoon. She walked around the backyard and climbed up and down the steps to the deck and played with leaves and sticks in her waterless water table.

Raegan also is really into carrying things right now. She has this carboard box that has some cardboard nestling blocks inside of it that her daycare provider gave her for her birthday. It has a rope handle on it. This weekend she's been carrying that thing everywhere, slung over her shoulder. She'll carry it around for a couple minutes, then put it down and try to stand or sit on it. Luke got this bag out of her closet that we got a while back as a gift and filled it up with a few of her books and showed Raegan how to put it over her shoulder. She LOVED that!

Raegan also loves to help dress herself. She lifts up her feet when you hold her socks and shoes up, and she's learning how to pull her socks off once we loosen them off her heel. Now that we've switched from a finger brush to a real toddler toothbrush, she does a much better job of letting us brush her teeth. Raegan also really likes to pick up her toys. She puts all of her bath toys into the basket after bath every night, and will also put her wooden blocks back in their sack and her toys back in the tubs on her toyshelf. She likes to help me put her laundry away, which always ends up being more unhelpful than anything.But good for a laugh. She'll grab a piece of clothing out of the basket and wad it up then smush it into her drawer. I always ask her if she's learned how to put away laundry from her brother! :)

Oh, and two of her back teeth (what are those, molars) on the right side have come through. Which would probably explain her fussiness in the middle of the night last week. Raegan has slept through the night the last two nights, although with the time change she was up at 6:00 this morning. I wish kids could tell time!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Trampoline fun

I'm in a picture posting mood tonight! Here's a few of Zane and Raegan on the trampoline last week:





Halloween pics!

Here's all of the pictures I took Halloween evening. In case you can't tell, Zane in Neo (from The Matrix). He's never seen all of the movie, but I'm pretty sure he that's what he wanted to be so that he could wear a trenchcoat. He's obsessed with trenchcoats now for whatever reason. :)

Checking out Grandma Jones' dogs
I just like this one because it's a little blurry around the bottom
Cousins Bailey and Jacy were there the same time we were!
Raegan wasn't really sure what was going on with so many people in the house trying to take pictures
Emo Zane is very emo with this costume :)
I like this one, with Zane's snurled lip


Oh, the cuteness just slays me!
Also love this one!
Singing in the car on the way to Rick's house
We go see Luke's friend Rick every year. They always go all out for Halloween, and this year was no exception!
Raegan wasn't too sure what to think of some of the decorations
Waiting at the door for Zane and Daddy to get back
Do you see that mouth hanging open and those wild eyes? It's almost bedtime....
Eeeep! Tough guy!
And bedtime!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

A little preview

I'll get around to posting all of the pictures from actual trick-or-treating at some point, but I want to leave you with a couple of my favorites for tonight. Raegan was so excited and proud to walk house to house. I can't wait until next year when she'll be able to walk really well on her own!


KWU Fall Fest

Saturday I took Zane and Raegan to Fall Fest at the local college. I've always wanted to take Zane, but it's always fallen on a weekend that he was at his mom's. Really, if Raegan hadn't been there and he wasn't such an awesome big brother, he would have been too old for it. And Raegan was really too young for it. But I guess if you average out their ages, it was just right? haha


Zane making a bug mask for Raegan. We got there right when it started so we missed the enormous crowd that was there as we were leaving!
Whatcha doing, Bubba?
Raegan was supposed to throw the rat in the bucket, but three guesses whether she did or not? :)
Zane playing Plinko for candy
Carving our pumpkin afterwards
Look at that cute pup begging for some pumpkin innards!
It's Nightwing (from Batman) if you didn't know.
For some reason the flash decided to go off so I got this nice picture even though it was night.