January

January is here and we are ready to hit the ground running! I love a Monday for a fresh start to the week and January feels like one big Monday. I have been cleaning out closets, cabinets, throwing stuff away (feels so good!), working on getting our digital scrapbook caught up, procrastinating Reid's baby book, and putting everything back together again after Christmas. We have been enjoying lots of outdoor time with our neighbors, playing with cousins, and Reid even got to have his second play date with Bentley. It went a lot better than his first play date where he cried every time baby Bentley crawled toward him. Hudson has started going to a workout facility that focuses on training young kids and is loving it and Harrison and Preston have started karate and they can't wait until they get to the board breaking part. For the first time this spring all three will be playing baseball/t-ball! I'm sure it will be a busy time, so for now we are enjoying some weekday after school activities and low key weekends. 

The mustang is about to be retired but for now Reid really likes sitting in it and "driving" it

Reid's first inauguration 

 

Reid Lately

 Reid at almost 17 months....

• Talking a ton-consistently says dada, dog, bubba, no, oh look, pretty, hi, sit, bye without prompting; attempting to say and imitate all kinds of things we say - Harrison, belly, toes, to name a few
• Walking everywhere and FAST
• Loves to look at books 
• Walks backward into your lap "sit sit" he says and then wants you to read to him
• Beginning to climb on everything (climbs on the train table and then yells until someone gets him off)
• Super proud that he can climb up on couches, chairs etc throughout the house
• Loves to go outside 
• Prefers to ride in the little blue push car rather than his stroller to take walks, loves to "drive" it
• Loved the arcade and driving games at Big Cedar Lodge...cried big tears when we had to leave
• Getting more interested in Rudy, petting him and approaching him rather than just heading in the other direction
• Still taking two naps but I think those days are numbered
• Still taking a bottle before bed...OOPS. We need to work on that
• Not a great car traveler we learned on our 7 hour drive to Missouri
• Loves the bath and walks there when you say let's take a bath
• Doesn't like water being poured on his head
• Easy to put to sleep/difficult to stay asleep
• Had a good stretch of sleeping through the night and now are having some issues again; we have resorted to turning off the monitor and you usually figure it out shortly
• PICKY with food but randomly enjoys olives and broccoli 
• Grabs things out of his mouth that he doesn't like at lightning speed
• Started randomly saying hi to people in stores or people we pass, even a couple of kids in Missouri 
• Still hasn't been to the church nursery but that is hopefully changing soon
• Thought about putting him in Mother's Day out for a minute and then quickly changed my mind
• Aside from saying hi to other kids from a distance, wants nothing to do with other kids aside from his brothers
• Calls Hudson "Bubba" and yells it anytime he sees him 

Reid's First Haircut

According to Kellen, Reid has been overdue for a haircut for a while but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I kept thinking that it would start to have a little bit of curl and I didn't want to cut it before it was able to develop precious little baby curls. Well, that never happened and it was looking so scraggly and I couldn't take it anymore. 

Has no clue what's about to happen to him....

These pictures look so calm and composed....the videos paint a different picture. I quickly realized that I needed Kellen to hold his head still while I did the cutting and Reid hated that. Hudson took over the video and Reid pretty much yelled and cried the whole time. He was so mad! He finally recovered and he no longer looks like he has a mullet. It's not perfect because he was just so over it, but oh well! 

Snow Day!!

The boys were so hopeful for snow while we were in Missouri, and we didn't get any. Then a couple weeks later the forecast for DFW had snow in it they were beside themselves! We kept checking the weather and they played outside all morning just waiting for it! It was an exciting day! Mary sent us pictures of where they live in Fort Worth blanketed with snow and we were eagerly waiting for that to happen for us....but then it never did. Finally, around 1:00 when none of the snow was sticking at our house we packed up and headed to Gram and Grandpa Bill's house! 

Their snow tracking supplies

Reid's first snow!

The very first thing the boys did when they got out of the car was have a snowball fight! I'm pretty sure that was their #1 reason for wanting snow! They were so excited!! Preston has never seen so much snow and the last time it snowed like this Harrison was 1.5 and Hudson was 3.5! We were not exactly dressed for snow in tennis shoes(oops) and terrible gloves but we did as much sledding and snowball throwing as we could stand and then walked back to Gram's for hot chocolate and to sit by the fire. Then it was time for round 2, I stayed at the house with Reid and Gram. Kellen and Grandpa Bill took the big boys back to sled for a little while. They had so much fun! The boys rode home half dressed and soaking wet with a heart full of contentment and excitement.

Sledding at the soccer fields by Gram's neighborhood

Happy New Year!

Our New Year's Eve celebrations were low key, just like the rest of 2020! We popped over to Megan's to give her birthday present to her and hung out the rest of the day inside. It was super cold and pouring rain all day! Hudson ended up going to spend the night at his grandparent's house, so the rest of us ordered pizza and watched a movie. We showed Harrison and Preston a countdown and fireworks show from the other side of the world around 8:30 and then they went to bed! Kellen and I watched While You Were Sleeping and I just barely saw midnight as the only one awake to ring in 2021. Hudson stayed up later than all of us living it up with the grandparents. 

We kicked the new year off with Babe's fried chicken and introduced the boys to black eyed peas! The middles also enjoyed some hot tubbing! Here's to a new year and a fresh calendar!

Big Cedar Lodge

As part of the boys' Christmas gifts we surprised them with a trip to Big Cedar Lodge! They were so excited when they opened the present! We were so hopeful that we would get to see snow there, but unfortunately, the weather forecast changed. But we enjoyed a great trip, there was cozy cabin lounging, fire building, ice skating, arcade games, laser tag, bowling, go carts, rock climbing and bumper cars! We weren't able to enjoy as many outdoor things as we had at during our first stay because the weather was just too cold, but we loved being back at BCL and ended up being in the same cabin so that was fun!! Harrison was thrilled to have a new sleep mask, he wore the first one for almost two years straight! We learned that Reid is not a great car traveler, he slept about 30 minutes total on the seven hour drive and he really wasn't enjoying being strapped in. Good times, hopefully he'll be distracted by movies the next time we have a long drive. 

The boys definitely enjoyed their new Christmas present from Santa

These two were a riot on the "ice skating" rink. It is some type of synthetic thing and truly much harder than actual ice skating and they fell no less than 50 times, but they loved it! They played tag and Marco Polo with a friend they made. I hung near the side because I knew I wouldn't recover from falling as well as they did.

Harrison was fire obsessed and was never far from it while it was burning.

Time for bowling! Preston and I ended up cutting out early, but I think Hudson beat everyone with no bumper help! 

Reid LOVED the arcade! He danced most of the time and he could be as loud as he wanted and nobody noticed. He liked this driving game the best and cried when we had to leave it. 

Giant milkshakes for dinner, yes please!

One last night cozy by the fire