food!

reeser had her first bites of rice cereal this week....

visitors

Reese finally got to meet her Aunt Louann and cousin Annie a few weeks ago when they came to visit. 

This past week my mom and her brother (my uncle Brian - who is a missionary in Africa and is on furlow until Januaray) came to stay with Reese and I. It was such a huge blessing to have them here to take care of me :) I was so sad to see them go!

Reese had fun too!

this was the sweetest thing... she fell asleep in uncle brian's arms on the swing in the backyard.

'

My dear friend Kristen (who I grew up with) and her hubby drove through Amarillo and stopped to say hi on Wednesday.

she loves to stand up!

i love my momma! Thanks for all you did this week :)

Reese found her toesies! 

This weekend my brother, Eric, came to stay with us. He's living in Dallas for a few more weeks so he had to come hang out :) We had a blast!!!! I'm so so so glad he came!

He set up this new toy for Reese! She was pretty excited about it

oh hi.

and he took some fun pictures of reeser too. {look at all those rolls in her arms! i love it }

rolly polly

This is from sometime in July when we captured Reese rolling over on video!

Reese's Dedication

FBC Amarillo July 25, 2010

4 months

I think I say this every month, but I seriously cannot believe how fast the time is flying by. Reese is four months and one week old! wow. She is growing into such a precious little girl more and more every day. She loves to be sitting up and is trying so so hard to do it on her own already. She can do the "tripod" sit on her own (thats what mark says its called). she loves to play with her piano as she sits up :) She has learned to arch her back and whine and moan (uh oh!). She has tried rice cereal a few times and it was hilarious! Not sure she actually swallowed any but she didn't cry about it :) She's outgrown most of her 3 month clothes and is wearing many 6 month things. Those cute chubby legs just can't be contained :) She's definitely getting a bottom tooth and is drooling and putting everything in her mouth. She's also found her feet!! It's precious. The little nugget loves to grab her toes or her socks all day long and she has the biggest smile the whole time. She just thinks it's so fun. Her little personality is coming out more and more everyday and I just love it. She's so sweet and patient but is also living up to her name and acting very passionate and fiery. what a doll. I just can't get enough.

fall like rain

my teaching motto for this year:

“Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” Deut. 32:2

vaca

this is totally overdue, but here are some photos of our fun trip to Kansas City/Branson a few weeks ago....

Mark and Reesie boo before we left Amarillo:

FINALLY got to meet her cousin-aunt Anna in KC:

had her first gymnastics lesson from her Gigi:

spent some fun time with her uncle Eric before he left for Dallas:

My parents threw a super fun wedding shower for Lucas Cooper and his sweet fiance, Rebekah, in their backyard.

it was beautiful...

always such a special time when the coopers and staples are reunited {background: we grew up with the coopers as our second family! we lived about a one minute walk through the woods to each others houses and played together from birth until today! }

greatest surprise ever: Mark came to Branson for the weekend!!!!

Swimming at Kanakuk:

such a fun trip! but it was the saddest thing ever to leave mark in kansas city and come back to Amarillo without him :( only nine more weeks.

ps. I cannot say thank you enough for all the comments, calls and texts over the past few weeks! God is good and we will get through this. 

home

Home again home again jiggity jog. Reese and I got home last night from our fun Branson/Kansas City adventure. It is so unbelievably sad to be home without Mark but we're trying to be strong and thank goodness for ichat/video. It's so precious the way Reese really does seem to see and recognize her daddy on the computer screen or on the phone. I just love it. That will definitely help get us through. In just this first day I've had about a million moments of needing my man around the house! but I must say for the record that I, Elizabeth Mason, fixed the water heater all by myself today! Yes, I might have been texting Mark and on the phone with my dad, but I did it :) Maybe we will make it after all. I start work days at school tomorrow and am not looking forward to leaving my little Reesie bear! At least I know she'll be in good hands with my mother-in-law who is coming to our house everyday to take care of her. and I can come home for lunch everyday too. oh man, here we go. Lord Jesus, please give me strength to get through this phase of being a single, working mom. I CANNOT do this without you.

more fun pictures to come from our branson/kc trip.