visit from sam

A few weeks ago our dear friends came to visit for a few days. Reese was just beside herself with excitement that her best friend was in her new house!! They were holding hands pretty much 24-7 while they were here. It was just too cute. SO thankful for Kara and Sam (and Charles for letting them come). It was so refreshing to see them! 

they learned how to drink out of the hose ha.

played at the park

fed the ducks

ate tcby

I dont think I wrote this down and just don't want to forget... Reese woke up one morning last week screaming crying like she had had a bad dream and then stopped pretty quick so I just listened on the monitor. I then heard her saying, "Sam ate my ice cream. I wanted another bite." and she was sniffling and sort of whining and kept saying it over and over. When I went in to get her I asked if she had a bad dream and she said yes and started crying and again told me sam ate her ice cream :( haha poor thing. It was so hard for me not to laugh. I'm sort of glad to know that her "bad" dreams only consist of this though. What a sweet and tender heart she has. I pray that God will use that quality in her in an awesome way as she grows up.

anyway... we had a blast with kara and sam and can't wait to play again soon. also, will someone please tell me how to teach reese that des moines and columbia are in separate states and we cannot drive around the block to see sam or addy anymore :( It's so sad when she asks for him and Addy everyday! 

.....

in keeping with pictures of reese and sam, here are some cute pictures from Sam's 2nd birthday party the day before we moved in June. So glad we got to celebrate our sweet friend!! 

the three musketeers :) R still talks about sams bday party ALLLLLL the time. 

life in Iowa

mostly random iphone pictures to catch you up on what we've been up to on a daily basis in Iowa (from last month- July)

we have a new member of our family - Blue, the fish

discovered the little shopping carts at hy-vee. makes the grocery store trip take about 3x longer but this little girl is quite the shopper :) she LOVES to push her little cart around and pick out her own "snacks"

 4th of July playing in the backyard in a billion degree heat

 then we watched the symphony and the fireworks at the state capitol. 

got a new pool

spend lots of time giving the giraffe a "check up" and just mainly moving the water around from one bucket to the next

found this AWESOME splash pad/kiddie pool/park in our neighborhood! literally a few streets down from us. sooo fun!

someone has decided she doesnt want to take naps anymore. help us!

we love to have picnics on the back deck for most meals of the day but especially breakfast

made the mistake of getting R an icee at target ONE time and now its just about the end of the world if we don't get one every time we walk in. oops. 

we still love feeding the ducks

weekly lunch dates to chick fil a :)

still a texas girl at heart :)

she LOVES to water the flowers

one saturday afternoon we were crazy people and drove 3 hours to kansas city to see our dear friends Nat and Jessie (who live in Houston but were visiting her parents for the weekend). We got to play with them for the afternoon and eat dinner and then drive all the way back that night. it was crazy, but worth it :)

 we loved their puppy Sawyer! he was too cute!

Saying reese is OBSESSED with reading books is an understatement. it has become one of her favorite things!! She loves "big girl" books! Like not board books but ones that have an actual story. She will sit for 30 minutes and "read" to herself. She'll look at the pictures and tell the story and sometimes really say the phrases that are on the actual page! I've been very impressed and I love to see and hear her little voice reading to her animals :) so sweet. she loves to read in the car too.

We've gone to the library about a billion times already and she likes to pretend to be a big kid and play on the computer. so funny! she doesn't know how to use the mouse and the games hold her attention for about 10 seconds but she LOVES to sit at the computer and wear the headphones :) ha.

car wash.

lots of cheering for the USA happening in this house for the past few weeks. We've especially loved cheering for Gabby -who lives in Des Moines if you don't already know!! so EVERYONE here is totally obsessed with her. It's been really fun! and her host family here (and her) go to the church where we've been visiting. Her host "parents" spoke at church this past sunday about how they got connected with her two years ago, about being in London and how incredible it was to watch Gabby stand for the Lord in everything she does! so awesome! Reese was so cute when we would watch the gymnasts she would always ask, "is that gabby?" and then when she came on the tv she would cheer and cheer "go gabby go! you can do it! good job!" what an awesome role model! side note: i may or may not be signing reese up for the tots class at Chows gym here :) I mean why not?? 

yummy iowa corn!

I guess because daddy has been using his tools so much lately to fix things and hang things ect. reeser has become really into using tools too! and silly daddy came home from work the other day with a little kid tool box filled with tools and R thinks she is just the coolest kid around! too cute.

update on baby #2: I'm now 18 weeks along. Finally, sort of, starting to feel better. maybe getting a little more energy back. I went to my new doctor here last week and she seemed great and said everything was looking good and healthy and on track. praise the Lord for that. we scheduled my big ultrasound for 20 weeks (the end of the month) where we'll find out if it's a girl or a boy :) I really sort of thought we might not find out this time... but now I'm thinking that I really am ready to get our house somewhat put together and knowing boy/girl for the nursery and for putting away some of R's things would be so so helpful!! and I just dont think I can wait 5 more months!! I'm just too excited to add another member of our family! and I also think it would be easier to prepare Reese for a new baby if she could know if its a brother or sister and what it's name is, etc. anyway...  we'll know in a few weeks! yay. 

ok thats all for now. xoxo

oldie...

just found this video and i don't know how to download it to my computer so I thought I'd just put it on here so I am sure to always have it. i just can't get over how little she was!! what a punkin. time sure goes fast.

reesers first steps... (14 months old)
http://yfrog.com/jmhnjz

goodbye columbia

I've had this post started for about a month now and nearly every time I sit down to write it I just start bawling about missing our friends and life in Columbia. This week I think God has changed my heart. Don't get me wrong... there is nothing harder for me than moving to a new city where we know NO ONE {and this time I've felt so unbelievably sick and its a billion degrees and my husband has been at the hospital about 90% of the time... its been hard!} and it still is hard. but I think my stubborn heart has  finally accepted this for what it is and started to move on and try to embrace this new place. Our dear friends Kara and Sam came to visit for a few days last week and I think that really helped me. I think it made me feel like this was "my" city and "my" house and showing it to them helped me feel more at home here (does that even make sense?) anyway... I'm thankful that I can rest in my Jesus and know that HE has a perfect plan for us and HE has brought us here for a reason. and instead of just searching and looking and waiting for that reason I need to just enjoy each day that He has given us and pray He would be glorified through our family and that we would walk with Him each moment. 

so...

before we moved our fantastic small group threw us a little going away dinner at the Les Bourgeois A-Frame over looking the beautiful Missouri River. It was on our places to go before we moved and we never got around to doing it so it was so exciting to get to go! Everyone brought yummy food and we had a picnic and just talked and had a blast. We sure miss everyone but couldn't be more thankful that the Lord brought them into our lives - even just for a short time. Thanks for blessing our lives soooo much! You have no idea. 

and just another picture of these little cuties playing before we moved. reese seriously talks about addy and sam EVERY single day (if I'm being honest it's about 700 times every day). She ALWAYS asks if they'll be wherever we're going and when I say "no they still live in missouri and we moved to Iowa." then reese responds with "its ok. maybe the come? maybe mommy."like she will never give up hope that she will play with them again someday soon {which she will because we'll be visiting soon I'm sure!}

Praise the Lord for friendships!

dr. reese

reeser giving her baby doll a check up (just like doc mcstuffins) she does this about a billion times a day to her animals, to me, to her fishy etc. and lately she's even been throwing the animal across the room then running to it and saying "you ok teddy? you need a check up?" too cute. just had to document it!

i.love.the.beach!

again, more than a month late in posting this ... but here we go.

My absolute favorite week of the year! Beach week with my family. We went back to Orange Beach, FL and we were there the last week in May/first of June. We flew straight from Joel's wedding in Dallas to New Orleans where my dad picked us up and drove us to the coast. 

Sadly, Mark had to work so he couldn't go this year :( we missed him a ton. Aimee's husband, Kyle, only got to stay a few days because he had to work too and Taylor didn't get to come at all either because he was at Kanakuk. So it was a little different not having EVERYONE there but we still had a blast. Our condo was awesome and Reese absolutely LOVED the beach, the sand, the shells, the pool, her beach toys, and having so many people to play with. As usual, I'll let the pictures do the talking... 

our spot every day {the umbrellas closest to the water on the far right. my sweet servant dad would get up at 7 every morning and set it all up for us!}

R checking out the sand for the first time with Uncle Eric. She wouldn't put her feet down at first haha but quickly realized it was pretty fun!

"pajoe" was her favorite playmate :)

he made a "slide" in the sand all the way to the water and she LOVED it :) it was hilarious.

building sandcastles

my sweet sweet cousins! aimee & anna. Aim is going to have a baby too!! She's due in December. So excited for our babes to be so close in age :) 

uncle eric taught R how to wink 

uncle trent spent hours with R organized shells from one bucket to the next. so sweet.

most of the week the waves were really big so we didn't get in the ocean much but the last day it was perfect and reese LOVED the waves - obviously! i think it might be one of my favorite things as a mommy to watch my child experience new things and get so excited about them! 

papajoe got reese her own beach chair and she thought she was pretty cool.

we had the BEST time. {besides the fact that I didn't really feel that great and was 7 weeks preggo- i think.} we still had a blast. Usually after family trips, once we get home we all email back and forth and make a list of all the memories :) It's one of my favorite things to do. Kinda like the trip will now really live on forever. highlights from this year:

1. Eric surfing with a real surfboard (lightening potential!)

2. Bo perfecting the skipper board technique (and never giving up)

3. The lady with the poofy hair playing cards all week (and her sidekicks)

4. Trent and Joey's productive trips to the store (experts in shopping)

5. Reese's smiles and excitement (playing with shells with Uncle Trent)

6. The best meals we've ever had at the beach (thanks Holly and everyone else that cooked)

7. Bike rides in the morning with my sister:)

8.  Family time:)

 9.  Tractor, Tractor Harvesting the wheat:)

10. m&ms in a cup

11. waiting 4 hours for dinner- worth the wait!

12. beating the college co-eds in volleyball (to anna and elizabeth- "ya'll are so good, why would you stop playing?")

13. Caribbean like water

14. everyone being pregnant

15. RIP The Warf --> Long Live the SUGAR SHACK

16. losing 50 cents and winning 9.50 in quarters (who cares if we started with 10?) we still won back 38 quarters and had a priceless amount of competitive fun.

17. watching the two little boys play with the toys and destroy the footballs right in front of our eyes

    18. dip n dots

    19. the weird brown cloud

    20. reeser in the pool

    21. uncle trent and reese playing with the shells (and R watching as uncle trent brought the cooler down and her saying "he got it mommy! there it is" :)haha

    22. sting rays!! and kite boarding

    23. reese saying everyone's name around the table :) she LOVES all of you so much!

  24. Looking out my window every morning and seeing the "complete" beach set up! Thanks Joey

    25. Oh yeah - Winn Dixie!

    26. Is that me tingling or was I just stung by that jellyfish - HaHa!

    27. I'm 52 and I finally have a real beach chair!

    28. Bike rides to the park with the beautiful weather

    29. Burn Bo Burn - now that's a man - Vaseline is for sissy's

    30. Maybe Uncle "T" will share Reese with Polly next year - HeHe - Maybe not

    31. Looking at opening an Alvin's in Baton Rouge! Beach wear and 10 quarter machines - OK OK Five!

32. Trent and Joey winning the spades tournament again (by default- the Holly and Jeanie wouldn't play us!)

33. The elevator (though fast- I went to the wrong room twice!)

34. Incredible Hulk walking the beach

35. Playing tennis with Mom!

36. Reese not wanting to put her feet down

37. The golf duel (thanks for taking it easy Bo)

38. Incredible food!

39. almost full moon reflecting on the ocean

40. cool lightening strikes from the balcony

41. cooking sons-n- law  awesome jambalaya and breakfast burritos, my girls married well!  Thank you boys!

42. incredible beach set up every morning before 7 am 

43. fresh tuna, never frozen

44. fixing the umbrella with a bobby pin

45. watching Reese slide on her sand slide

46. getting a phone call from Taylor!

47. Reese's Big Sis shirt! 

48. Baby flip flops :) 

49. Gulfport!!! 

50. Gulfports food court-- every "restaurant" was open and running! Haven't seen that in years! 

51. Lunch in one condo, dinner in the other. 

52. The movie that never happened. 

53. Capri sun on the beach (and milky ways and snickers of course!) 

54. Pink shorts dude. 

55. That huge poodle that was being led around the parking lot (Trent, I think y'all should get one of those!)