Random things

1) Reese got her first hair cut last month.These are the before pictures. I didn't even bother taking pictures of the "after" as it pretty much looks the exact same, only less scraggly.

She did really well and held perfectly still. When we were walking in I asked her how she was going to ask the lady to cut it and she said, "like a coronation girl." I guess that meant she wanted to look like Princess Anna or Elsa from the movie "Frozen". When we left I asked her if she liked her hair cut and she told me no, because she didn't make her look like a coronation girl. I told her I could try to do that for her, cause I thought all that entailed was a braid and some sort of up do, but then she told me I needed to get ribbon for her hair as well. That sounds way out of my skill set but luckily Reese has a memory of a gerbil and hasn't mentioned this again since that day.

2) Reese is super strong. She told me she can cross the monkey bars at school and I will be damned if she didn't do it! Just got up there and went all the way across like she has been doing it for years. I think she might be part monkey. Below is the pic of her on a vine on mothers day on a hike her and I almost took. My mom's dad took my sister and I on a hike when we were little and I remember him letting us swing on one of these vines and I still remember how happy it made me. So when I saw this vine, I knew what I had to do. Up you go little girl!

3) Donovan has a girlfriend. Like super serious stylie. Her name is Amelia and they met at pre-school. I first learned about her several months ago. She is adorable and blond and I love her because she LOOOOOVES Dono. Like loves, loves. She writes him love notes (see below), calls him "Donnie" (a nickname I HATE but like when she says it as it is too cute), plays well with Reese (sucking up to the future sister-in-law, I like it) and always comes over and says hi to me (sucking up to the future mother-in-law, I LOVE it). They hug goodbye some days and even give each other "kissies". Dono talks about marrying her, and when they move in together, and even has told me that he is not going to let her work on a crabbing boat like on the show "The Deadliest Catch" as it is too dangerous for her. I think they are going to be really sad when they have to say goodbye later this summer :(

4) Dono talks about himself in the third person and I love it. As in "The Dono wants to go to Culvers for dinner." and "Ohhhh, the Dono likes that." It's not all the time, but enough to be funny and not annoying.

5) The other day Lou got out into the garage as the kids and I were getting ready to leave for school/work. I loudly said, "Dammit Lou! Get back here!" To which I hear an angry response from Reese, "Dammit Lou!". I told her that was an adult bad word and that she cannot say that word. She told me very convincingly, "No, I didn't say 'dammit', I said 'JAMmit'" Sure you did sis. Sure you did.

Happy belated third birthday Reese!

So this girl is big stuff now.  Homegirl's birthday was last tues and she had a really good day. She started off waking up with lots of balloons in her room, just like her brother did. She assured me that when it is my birthday, she will blow up lots of balloons and put them in my room. So thoughtful of her.

Then it was off to school where she got to share treats with her friends in her class. She has just recently gotten moved up to the 3 yr old class and seems to have transitioned no problem. Now her teachers are Ms. Kim and Ms. Jackie. Ms. Kim said she was "more than ready" to move up a classroom so that made me feel good. As we walked into school that day kids were telling her "happy birthday" right away. So sweet!

That night she got to pick what she wanted for dinner (she turned down the a favorite McDonalds for food from home in a shocking turn of events). Then she opened her presents, an Ariel and an Aurora dress. Dono had given her some glass slippers that morning so she was all princessed out!

Doing a curtsey.

Reese at three gives us a run for our money. These are a few of my favorite recent Reese stories:
- We had 2 cars at Donovan's baseball game and afterwards the boys left together and the girls left together. I gave Donovan the one water bottle we had for the ride home and Reese was NOT happy about it. She wanted to know why he got it and not her. I told her "Because Donovan was playing really hard, so he needs to drink more than you do."  She replied with an extremely whiney, "But Mom, I was sitting really hard!". I had to ask her what she was saying a couple times before I realized what she was saying. Too funny.

- Reese watching Petey and Lou playing and chasing eachother. "Mom, they're chasing theirchother."

-Tucking her into bed on her birthday I told her I had to go as I was going to do yoga. She then told me she does yoga at her (pre)school too with her friends and that her teacher, Mr. Ian (a very macho- soccery dude) is the teacher of the yoga. I was impressed with his progressiveness and then she showed me some of her yoga moves, which looked like downward dog. Then she told me "Then Mr. Ian says 'orange' and we go like this (indicating moving a hand to another spot). Then Mr. Ian says 'blue' (same thing)". So I said, "Is your yoga called Twister?" Reese: "YEAH!!! That's what our yoga is called!!!" Love her

She is so spicy, confident, funny, pain-in-the butt, sweet, stubborn and wonderful. Happy 3rd birthday to our little boss lady! We love you! 

First baseball game pics

It is the eve of Donovan's second baseball game so I thought I would finally get around to sharing the pictures of his first game. I am fully aware that I have just uploaded WAY too many pictures but this is my blog so I don't care. Look at this little leaguer, he is the best!

Not many of the kids on his team shared his level of concentration so I think he is the real deal. I think I saw cardinals scouts there jotting notes about him too.

And of course, the main cheerleader. She spent most of the time flirting with our old neighbor Trevor but she let us enjoy the game so that was nice.

Birthday boy!

Our little guy turned five today. Wow. How did that happen? He has been counting down the days until his birthday for about the last three weeks so it really is strange that this day has come. This morning both kids were awake when I came out of my room singing, "Happy Birthday" to Donovan and Reese told me I had to stop singing as I did not have his cake ready. Well then.  Donovan woke up to a room filled with balloons, which he told me we were going to do for him for the past several months so Tom and I did not dare to disappoint.

Dono had pretty high hopes for 5.  During our morning getting ready for school and work he asked/told me the following:
- Could I still pick him up? (answer, yes, but barely)
- I need to start buying him all size 5 clothes (really most of his 4s still fit our shrimp but ok Dono!)
- Can I take the back of his booster seat off yet? (no, not til you are seven or something)
And my personal favorite, "Mom! Today is my last day of pre-school and then tomorrow I get to go to kindergarten!!!". I had to break the news to him that while I said he would be 5 when he went to kindergarten, I didn't mean exactly when he turned 5.

Dono spent his day at school with his friends. When I dropped him off all the friends in his class all hounded him and were adorably telling him happy birthday. He told me that they all hid in the gym later and jumped out at him and said happy birthday too and that he got to blow out a candle after they sang to him and ate the cookies we brought in. When I picked him up his fiance friend Amelia (they have a hot and heavy relationship which has already resulted in a mutual decision for marriage) gave him a good bye hug and told him happy birthday as he left. So sweet. In the car on the way home he told me today was the "best day of my life! (short pause) For lunch I had meatloaf, corn and juicy pears!" All his favorite foods for lunch, what more could a 5 yr old ask for?

Then I picked up the kids early tonight so we could get ready for his first baseball game!! The kid one the award for "largest fan club" as both sets of grandparents and his uncle Nick came as well as Tom, Reese and myself. It was adorable. It was a comedy of errors watching the kids run, or not run at the wrong times. Dono did really well and got three good hits. They only play 3 innings and each kid gets to bat once during each inning. Donovan's friend Tyler (old neighbor) is on his team and Ian was on the opposing team so we had plenty of people to cheer on as well. My dad took somewhere between 200-3,000 pictures of which I will download soon whenever I get a copy of them. Donovan was so proud of his cheering section. He looked over at us right after he got to first base after his first hit and was making sure we were all cheering and paying attention. Coupled with the great weather and fabulous company and it was a great night for a baseball game.

After the game we came home for presents and cake. Reese got him a lego set and we got him a bike. He is such big stuff.

It was just us three singing to Donovan this year but Reese held her own so we sounded more like a huge group :)  All in all a great day for a wonderful kid. I am so blessed to be his mommy. I hope I get to celebrate 50 plus more birthdays with him! He is the greatest.

Our family has grown by one

So during this long blog hiatus we did lots of fun stuff, and the latest is adding a cat to our crazy family!

Voila! Here he is! His name Lou, he is approximately 1 yr old, and we got him from a local rescue group.  We picked him up yesterday after going to the St. Patrick's day parade.  We (mostly Reese and I) have been wanting to get a kitty since before Christmas but we were told by the cooler head in the family (Tom) that we had to wait until we got back from Disney (oh yeah, that's the really fun thing we did during our hiatus).  So we dropped by an Adoption event yesterday and ended up walking out with this gem. The rescue group had him for about a week and found him with a group of feral cats but said that they don't think he is really feral, but more likely was dumped. He really is the perfect fit for our family. He is young enough that he is still playful, but he loves a good snuggle in your lap. (See most of the pictures taken from today). He also is SUPER patient with the kids (read: Reese) and lets them pick him up and carry him around constantly.  He did give Reese a warning bite today after about the 40th time she trapped him and picked him up in a span of about 2 minutes but who could blame the kid.

So far we are all pretty obsessed. He is a petite little thing but they tell us he is full grown so that is nice. Also the rescue group told us that adult cats, and black cats are the hardest to adopt so we are happy that we got to help and give him a home. Petey (our dog) has been a dream with him too. Has not barked at him and really could care less. Lou on the other hand has been a little bit of a turd to him for the first 24 hours. Lou was getting jealous last night when he was on Tom's lap but then Tom would reach over and pet Petey. And he has gone after Petey several times but after a few too many of those this morning Petey finally fought back and swiped him pretty good and ever since Lou has backed off. I think Lou was just trying to let Petey know he was going to be the boss, but what Lou didn't know is that Petey already knew that and he didn't have to assert any dominance for Petey to let him win. Now Lou just wants to sniff and check Petey out but Lou has burned that bridge for now and Petey is keeping a close eye on Lou when he gets too close. Tonight they have done really well so I hope that they have just figured each other out and will start being friends.

Poor Reese was really lobbying for a girl cat to make the girl to boy ratio in the house even. She even had the names picked out, either Elsa (from the movie "Frozen") or Tinkerbell. When we were at the adoption event she really liked him until she realized that he was a boy. Then she cried because she did not want a boy. So to calm her down I did what every desperate parent would do. I lied. (We were running on no naps people, desperate times call for desperate measures!!!) We pretended that he was a she for a little while until we got out of the store and she could cry without scaring all the animals and pi**ing off the workers. She took the news well but now both her and Donovan call Lou a "she" half of the time. She really does love him and I don't think any other animal would be as tolerant as Lou is of her so it all worked out in the end.

The first and second french braid I have ever done

Little wedding girl