.:15 Months:.

How did our baby get to be 15 months? It seems like Reece just barely turned one. She just changes more and more everyday, and I catch myself looking at her sometimes and being surprised that she's turned into a little girl and isn't a baby anymore. I love this age, and all of the curiosity, exploring, and personality that it has! (Her doctor's appointment isn't until January 5th, so I'll have to post her stats after that.)

At 15 months Reece loves:

- talking

- laughing

- fake laughing

- walking

- running

- playing on the couch

- pushing her stroller and walker around the house

- baths

- BOOKS!!!!!!

- being silly

- cell phones

- remotes

- jewelry

- exploring

- screaming

- babies

- animals

At 15 months Reece doesn't like:

- being restricted

- being held

- getting her face wiped

Some fun facts about Reece:

- Her vocabulary, including animal sounds, includes: Dada, Mama, baby, Reece (this one sounds mostly like 's' and 'z' sounds!), hi, up, ball, bear, 'shhhh', animal sounds for: cow, duck, dog, cat, and tiger.

- Reece knows four signs: milk, more, all done, and please.

- This is a fun time where Reece understands directions. At bedtime, you can ask her to close the doors and turn on her fan, and she does it! She also knows how to do laundry! She will put the clothes in the washer or the dryer, close the door, and push the start button. She loves helping.

- Reece doesn't enjoy getting her nose wiped very much, but she will blow on the tissue which helps you get in there for a quick wipe!

- We got Reece a potty. We're definitely NOT trying to potty train or push that with her, nor do we plan to anytime soon! We just figured we'd get it and let her get used to it - especially since it's rare that I get to use the restroom alone! She LOVES sitting on her potty, and thinks she's so cool. It's really cute.

- Reece loves to turn on the fans in both her room and our room. Even if you turn it right off, she'll immediately stop what she's doing to go turn it back on.

- I don't know that Reece will ever be a huge juice drinker. I tried giving her some, along with gatorade, powerade, and soda when she was really sick with the stomach flu. She didn't want anything to do with any of them! She loves her milk and her water!

- Our girl loves to shake it! She has the cutest dance moves I've ever seen, which include happy feet, swishing her arms back and forth, and head nods.

- Reece loves getting her teeth brushed. If you tell her it's time to brush teeth, she will say, "Ahhhhh", and run to the bathroom.

- Reece still loves her baby einstein movies! They are often my go to if I'm trying to cook dinner and don't want her underfoot!

- Reece has a couple of dress up necklaces. You will find her wearing them most of the time! She loves to put them on and go about the business of playing.

- Reece prefers books to any tv show or movie, and a lot of the time, to her toys. She loves looking at all of her books, and I probably have to put them all back on her bookshelf a good 6-8 times each day!

- Reece is pretty good about giving hugs and kisses. One thing I love about her hugs, or just when I am holding her, is that she will pat my back with one of her hands. It's super cute!

I could go on and on! She is just such a joy in our lives, and I can hardly remember a time where her sweet face wasn't part of my everyday life. We are so blessed to have Reece as part of our family!

.:Naughty or Nice:.

I'm guessing this doesn't fall in the nice category....

I'm glad I didn't pay to have Reece see Santa this year! This is at our ward Christmas breakfast this morning. I've never seen a kid fight so hard to get away from Santa before! I think she was the worst freak out of the entire ward.

Maybe next year will be better!

(PS - If you look at my pregnancy countdown, we are officially in double digits as of today! I remember when that thing said over 200 days left! Crazy!)

.:Strike 2:.

The pregnancy stupids have struck again!

First there was the accident - this was only a week ago. Strike 1.

Strike 2: Last nite, Josh and I had a date nite (soooo nice!) and we went to see Blindside, and then out to Olive Garden afterwards. Naturally, I had a lot of Diet Coke to drink during the movie, so I was in need of a restroom. I asked the host where the bathrooms were, and he told me straight down the hall, last door on your left. So, I go straight down the hall, to the last door on your left. Walk in, and there is a GUY standing there washing his hands. I was fully in the restroom at this point, and I think he was wondering what the crazy pregnant lady was doing in there. Of course, I'd like to blame this on the host because I was just following his directions, but really....shouldn't I have seen the sign on the door, or the women's sign on the door that was at the end of the straight hallway?

(Yikes, I think there's actually a strike 3. I put something in the microwave today that had foil on it. There's a nice black mark to show my stupidity. Should I be trusted with two kids?)

.:Christmas is Coming:.

I can't believe how quickly Christmas is coming! Here are a few pictures to show what we've been up to lately!

My little candy cane girl. Isn't she the cutest?

In her green fur dress. She looks pretty cute sitting on that present!

We've been doing some holiday baking.

Thin Mints

Peppermint Bark

Chocolate Candy Cane Whoopie Pies

I think she liked being my helper, what do you think?

We started doing an advent calendar with Reece. I made this out of a mini muffin tin. Obviously she doesn't get the counting and just lives for getting her candy out of there each day, but I figure it's never too early to expose her to some numbers!

We also got our holiday ornaments. My parents have always given each of us an ornament for Christmas with our name and the year on it. Josh started getting them when we got married, and now they give them to Reece! I love looking at our tree and seeing all of the fun memories! We decided to do this as a family, too. Here are our ornaments for this year.

My baking is done, presents are wrapped (mostly), and Christmas cards are going out this weekend! We're loving the holiday season!

.:24 weeks:.

Sunday marked 24 weeks for this pregnancy! (Or 25 maybe if you go by what my doctor and all the nurses were calling me all last week! That sounds much better!)

Besides the accident last week (we'll just refer to that as the day pregnant brain took over), things have been going great! This little girl is starting to move a lot more, which is always reassuring. I feel like I kind of plateaued with how big my belly was growing for awhile there, but now it seems to be busy growing again. I can feel it in my ribs and my hips! But I absolutely love having a baby belly, so bring it on.

This pregnancy is just flying by! I think the holidays, combined with taking care of a one year old, definitely keep me busy and not so entirely focused on being pregnant. Lately, my healthy craving of choice has been clementines. These are much better for the sweet tooth cravings that are constantly there. I'm back with my Diet Coke drinking, but I'm trying to limit it and still take in more water than soda. I've been exercising about 4-5 times a week, and while it feels good to stay active, I'm not sure it's helping slow down the weight gain all that much! :) Probably the only unwelcome thing going on right now are the bloody noses that I seem to get every morning. It's not entirely surprising given the problems with my nose I've had in the past, but still annoying!

Overall, things are just going great! I love being pregnant, love feeling this little girl bump around in there, and just can't believe that we get to meet her in a few short months!

(We're still taking name suggestions!)

.:The Accident:.

Want to feel like the worst mom ever? Get in a car accident being five months pregnant and with your one year old in the car, and then take your one year old to get two shots afterwards. That's what I did on Friday. Way to ruin someone's day, right?

Friday started out as not the greatest day. I was feeling stressed out after a busy week and a ton of errands to run on Friday. Apparently that left me feeling very distracted. On my way to take Reece to get her second doses of both her seasonal flu shot and h1n1 flu shot, I somehow managed to run a red light, hitting a car in the intersection. (Nope, not on my cell phone at all!) I realized my mistake but wasn't able to stop or swerve the other car completely. It was sickening to hear that sound and know that I had Reece in the car with me. Luckily, she was completely unfazed by the whole thing! She didn't cry or make a peep, and ended up falling asleep a few minutes after it happened.

The other driver and I were both able to pull off to the side of the road. She was SO nice about it all. We exchanged information, and I filed the claim with my insurance right then. Luckily, she also had Allstate insurance, so that waives our deductible. As long as her damage isn't over $50,000 then we won't have to pay anything out of pocket. I think we're safe there! My poor car looks pretty beat up. But all the insides seem to work just fine, so that is a blessing. We won't pay to fix the outside - the damage will cost over half of what the car is even worth. I'll just be driving around a beat up car. The bad part about that is that we were hoping to get a tiny bit of money out of it when we go to buy a new car in a year or two, and now that won't be possible. Oops.

I called my doctor's office, thinking they would just tell me to pay attention that the baby is moving x times per hour or something. We weren't going super fast, no air bags went off, and I know my seat belt was under my belly and nothing hit my belly. Well, she wanted me to come in to get monitored. Josh was at his clinicals, so I dropped Reece off at a friend's house (thanks Sarah!) and headed to labor and delivery.

They hooked me up and my doctor came to see me about four hours after I got there. She said the baby was looking 'gorgeous' - great heartbeat and just doing really well. But protocol was still to keep me there until it had been 24 hours since the time of the crash. Which meant a stay overnight in the hospital!

My mother in law came to get Reece and stayed at our house with her. (Thanks Kerri!) Josh stayed with me until almost 10:00 that nite, and then went home to get some sleep before work the next day.

I was monitored all throughout the nite. Apparently I was having some contractions (didn't feel them) but baby sister handled everything well, and those contractions went away after some rest. I was able to leave the next day at noon.

It was definitely not how I had planned to spend my Friday and Saturday. It was terrifying to think that something could have happened to Reece or baby sister because of my carelessness. I know my mommy guilt won't go away for awhile, but I'm so grateful that both of my girls (and the other driver!) are safe and sound. Josh was so wonderful about it all, and is even cracking jokes about it now! We really appreciate everyone who helped, visited, offered concern, prayers, and helped us out during that 24 hours! We're so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives!

.:Baby Sister's Loot:.

Here are all of the darling new things Baby Sister got at her shower in Oregon!

This is the quilt my mom made. Isn't it so adorable! Of course, I love the black! We all helped tie it together.

Some new clothes and jammies

And I just cannot wait to get her little bum in all of these onesies!

.:Thanksgiving:.

Wow, what a fun week and a half we just got back from! I really don't like living so far away from my family, so it's nice to be able to get some good time in together when we can. This post is going to be LONG and full of pictures!

Reece and I headed up to Boise a week before Thanksgiving to spend some time with my sister Dani, and her family. They recently moved up there for my brother in law to start up his chiropractic business. It's much closer than we used to be, so hopefully we'll see each other a bit more! We just ran errands, hung out, and let the kids play. We always discover that we have bought our girls the same clothes, so we had to try to get a picture of Reece and Andi in their almost matching shirts!

On Saturday, we loaded the kids up in the mini van and headed to Oregon! The kids were all angels the entire time in the car, we were so proud of them! When we got there, my sister in law Sharon was there with her kids, and my other sister Nikki in law was flying in that nite. We started off our vacation going to watch my sister Alli sing the national anthem at the basketball game and dance during the halftime show. Then it was home where we started our whirlwind days of crafting things like this:

My mom bought all of the kids matching Christmas outfits. We had them all wear them to church that weekend. That's a pretty great looking bunch of kids!

That evening, after naps and dinner, Grandma Z had a special treat for the kids. She had baked up some sugar cookies and let the kids frost theirs and decorate them. Obviously Reece can't do this well, so I got one ready for her and let her go to town. She started off with the frosting, but soon discovered that the cookie part was good too!

We spent one day taking the kids to run errands, and then to the park. There were geece there that were twice the size of Reece! It was nice to be able to get them outside for a little bit!

Monday nite we surprised Nikki with a baby shower! She and I are due technically almost two weeks apart, but the way we've been measuring, probably less than a week! She and Sam are having a little boy in March, and we wanted to do something special for her/them. We said we wanted a girl's nite out, and surprised her when we got to the restaurant. It was fun to see all of the new things baby boy Stewart got! These pictures are of the amazing quilt my mom made for her, and her opening up the tie onesies I made for her. And also of all the gals out to dinner!

When we got home, turns out the joke was on me! There was another surprise baby shower waiting to happen! My dad and brother in law had set out the stuff for them to all surprise me once we got home. I soooo wasn't expecting it, so it was such a fun surprise! Baby sister got some great new stuff, including yet another amazing quilt (I'll have to post pictures of it and everything else some other time - didn't get one at the shower!) I know we're having another girl, but it is fun to get some new girl stuff just for her! Big thanks to my awesome family!

The boys got in the next day, and pretty much spent most of their time playing the Wii or playing with this new toy my parents got:

Another picture of cute Reece and Andi in their matching shirts (I can't wait to dress up my two girls together!)

Then it was Thanksgiving! We spent the day cooking, eating, and decorating the Christmas tree! My mom got all of the kids matching turkey headbands to wear. Reece was a cranky girl, and wouldn't wear hers, so that's why she's holding hers in the pictures! She sure did enjoy eating her Thanksgiving meal, though! You'd never know from how skinny this girl is that she loves to eat!

Grandma Z and Grandpa Paul were nice enough to let each of the grandkids open up a present. It was a fun Christmas book. All the adult couples got a nice Christmas book, too. Reece liked tearing the paper - she's already done it to three of the presents under our Christmas tree back at home!

We did our typical day after Thanksgiving tradition and went to the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree! Reece was not a fan of the cold or snow, but she was a trooper! Plus she looked super cute in her snowsuit! My parent's ATV burned up a couple of weeks ago, but my dad was able to get a new one just in time for the tree hunt! We all had fun taking turns on that, drinking hot chocolate, and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire. It never gets old!

After we all got home, and showered the campfire smell off of us it was time for our annual gift exchange. We draw names among the adults, and we also draw names along the cousins. The kids were beside themselves with excitement! They started out with new jammies from Grandma Z and Grandpa Paul. Adorable, as usual!

Then on to the presents! Reece got a stroller for her baby, which she is loving pushing around the house. Baby girl got a cute dress, and I can't wait to put her little body in it! Us adults waited until the kids had gone to bed to do our exchange; we were able to enjoy a little more fully that way! Everyone was generous and thoughtful!

The next morning we had family pictures. We haven't seen the the pictures yet of the entire fam, but Sam and Nikki took individual family pictures. I think ours turned out really great! (Can't post it on here since my hubby doesn't want to be on the blog, but look for it in a Christmas card coming soon to you!) We also got a cute shot of all the girls and all the guys. Reece was being a stinker that morning, so hopefully the group shot turned out okay!

After that we gave my parents one of their gifts: SNUGGIES! We've been making fun of these as a family ever since we saw the first commercials, and thought it was finally time that someone give them a try. It was pretty funny! Raise the roof!

That nite we started a new tradition: Bingo! My dad found a Bingo set at the store, and thought it would be fun to start playing that when we're all together. We did have a really fun time playing for yummy goodies as prizes! It was a great way to end our time there.

We had such a wonderful time crafting, playing pool, eating, playing Donky Konga (super fun!), and just being together. Reece loved being with her grandparents and her cousins. She especially loved baby Taytum (minus all of the eye poking!), so I'm hoping that love of babies will hold for the next four months! Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful week and a half! It went by way too fast!