Reese's Pieces

Chef Pieces

2012-02-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

Couple of pics of Reese in her Chef's outfit that Frumpy and Yack got her for Christmas to use on her kitchen that Tim, Tressa, and Riley got her for Christmas.

Gotta get the oven mitt on...no matter what one is going to whip up...

You'd think that putting this oven mitt on was as difficult as me sliding into a size small spanx...

Almost got it...

Finally! Got it!

Now, what may I whip you up for dinner?

Pulling the hat down all the way over her hair makes her look less "Beaker-ish", no, Bubba?

Oh What A Fiesta It Was!

2012-01-17T17:07:00.001-07:00

On New Year's Day, Frumpy, Yack, Pieces and I hopped a plane to Phoenix to go cheer on the Pokes in the Fiesta Bowl. When we arrived, we quickly ran into some of the kinfolk and Alyssa (3) and Reese (2) were fast friends. We were all staying in the same hotel, so we got to play quite a bit with the relatives.

The first thing Reese and Alyssa did in the courtyard was head for the fountain. As you can see, Reese's outfit was completely soaked by the time they found the oranges.

Is this where "Orange Power" came from?

I never knew that one could almost have "too much" of a smile :)

Guilty much?

On Monday, we got out and explored a bit. And by "explore", I mean we found the nearest playground for the kids, i.e. Reese and Yack. We found a cute park that had a fishing pond and we took a break for a few pics on the pond.

Such a cute group with such nice smiles!

Tuesday, before the game, we happened upon some of my old college roommates doing a little tailgating. We only got to see Acree and Cherish for a few minutes, but it was still fun to run into them nonetheless.

Finally, it was game time! We actually had pretty decent seats and were able to see fairly well (despite my poor pic below.)

Reese had a blast. She milked Frumpy for at least 2 ice creams during the game, but she really came to life when OSU scored. It was a pretty exasperating game to be at during the first 3 quarters, but the last quarter made it all worthwhile. Every time we'd score, Reese would say "Can we do the 'Yay! Yay!' mommy?" and I would throw her up in the air. After tossed into the air, she'd stand on my shoulders and high five the entire row of people behind us. They all knew her name and she was loving the high-fiving!

Pieces and Yackster are exhausted after us score our final TD!

Oh, but wait--it wasn't really a TD! Everybody had to clear the field...

And finally, the REAL infield celebration -- OSU 41, Stanford 38. What an awesome time to be a Poke! Despite it being 11 pm at night, Reese was crying when we left because she didn't want to leave all "her friends" that she made during the game. When we convinced her that the game was over (i.e. people on the fiend) and her friends were leaving, too, she finally accepted it.

So glad we got to go to the Fiesta Bowl with Frumpy and Yack. We had a great time and can't wait for the next bowl game!

Amarillo By Morning...

2012-01-15T17:07:00.001-07:00

Having a rare two entire weeks off over Christmas, we decided to make the most of it and add in a trip to Booker to see Tressa, Tim, and Riley before they loaded up and moved to Florida.

As usual, the girls were joined at the hip the moment we arrived. Reese thoroughly enjoyed getting to play with all of Riley's toys....especially her makeup.

I didn't realize what they had until it was too late. Reese was all over it...although I think she was going more for "warpaint" than "makeup."

She also kind of favored the "Hitler" look...

The finished product...Peacock or Pieces?

Riley before Reese "prettied her up"....

Riley after Reese's beautification project is complete. Good thing we didn't let her out on any corners in Booker that day...

A quick pic with the girls before tossing them in the bathtub immediately.

Although we had a rough night the last night before we left with Reese getting sick, she thankfully was over it before we got on the plane to come home. And I'm terribly excited that this is the last trip we will be making to Booker, as Tressa and Riley are en route as I type to their new home in Jacksonville, FLA (with Tim to follow soon....)

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T20:46:00.000-07:00

What a grand time we had at Christmas this year. Although we were off on Friday, we got a bonus head-start on our holiday vacation after receiving 15" of snow on Thursday. Frumpy and Yack flew in Saturday morning, and we joined up with Joel, Jill, Cooper, Lauren, and Jim and Judy that evening for some dinner at Pasta Jay's. Pasta Jay's is always good, but I do believe Jim was rather disappointed that the Thursday Night Special--Chicken Julianna--wasn't available. We filled our bellies and then went home to await the arrival of old St. Nick.

The curly red head in our house was incredibly wound up. I let her stay up and play with Frumpy and Yack until 9:30 (thinking that she'd be so tired she wouldn't fight sleep at that hour), but my plan failed abysmally. I was dead-set on drugging her at 11:30, but she finally drifted off at 11:15 that night.

I heard the sound of reindeer hooves and sleigh bells around 4 a.m. that morning, so I was a little slow to come around when Reese bound out of bed the next morning. After gathering up Frumpy and Yack, we ventured downstairs to see if Santa had left anything. Sure enough, there were toys all over. A Potty Elmo, a horse barn, and a choo-choo set got lots of attention. We played for a bit, but soon thereafter had to load up the presents and food and head to Longmont.

We arrived in Longmont around 11 and started unloading boxes of presents. Cooper was incredibly interested in all the gifts. When I walked in, I hear a little voice say "Excuse me, Sarah, but will Reese share?" I assured Coop that Reese had brought the presents specifically to share!

Pooker needing a higher vantage point to survey all the presents.

Yackster contemplating whether or not he could get away with opening his presents with "the kids."

Cooper taking a little rest between presents.

Reese decided that some of Cooper's old toys were just as fun as the new toys.

How sweet is this boy???

If you look really hard, you can see Lauren sitting on Jim's lap and peeping out behind the stack of presents.

Yackster's STILL waiting to open his presents.

Cooper checking out another present in the golden rays.

As much as Reese and Cooper loved unwrapping the presents, they actually did pretty well checking out the gifts themselves.

Lauren checking out her presents with both grandmas watching on.

"Stretch" getting in s good stretch after opening her presents.

A little glimpse of the destruction left behind...

Bubba gets into the toy action a bit, too, by "helping" Cooper with his fire truck from Anne. (Note that Cooper was nowhere around when Bubba was "helping" him.)

Yeahhhhh, not sure what the look on Bubba's face is, but it amused me and got included on the blog anyhow.

"People, this present thing is okay, but I'm hungry!!! FEED ME ALREADY!!" Lauren may be only 15th percentile on the weight thing, but trust me, this girl can eat! When there is food around, you'd better watch your digits or she will rip them off if they get in the way of her dinner!

"Pleeeeeaaaassssseeeee feed me?"

Once we filled everyone up, Lauren and Grandpa Jim had a little fun in the tunnel.

Cooper got a motorized marble run from Frumpy and Yack, but Reese decided to help Bubba get it set up while Coop was napping.

And we're talking hours of building on the marble run.

Happy, happy girl despite NOT taking a nap the entire day.

The resident engineer, Yackster, stayed away as long as he possibly could (mainly while he was napping off his turkey.) Once he regained consciousness, though, he headed over to the table to supervise the building of the marble runs.

More tunneling with Grandpa Jim.

A sleepy Pooker finally got up and joined the marble run crew. He did the obligatory "cheese" pose, but could barely keep his eyes open at that point.

We had a wonderful time with all of the family together and all of us continually questioned how we ever thought we were actually "celebrating" Christmas before we had the kiddos to entertain us. One way or the other, I certainly think this was the best Christmas ever. And the fun will continue into next week when we go with Frumpy and Yack to Phoenix to meet up with the rest of the Oklahoma family and watch the Pokes eliminate Stanford from National Title contention.

Snow Day!

2011-12-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

Pardon my French, but I think the term "we got a shit load of snow" is appropriate today. We're so used to hearing the weathermen play Chicken Little and tell us that the world is coming to an end, but yesterday they just said it would be 3-8" of snow. They were right, except that we got about 5" more than the 8".

Our emergency alert system woke me up and we finally made our way outside to dig out around 10. The Tahoe was barely visible and I was a little afraid we'd lose Reese in the snow!

The neighbors were outside, too, and Reese had a blast playing with Andre and Melanie.

Melanie let Reese use her pint-sized shovel.

We finally got done with shoveling and Reese had to be drug inside. Gonna have to find this girl some warmer gloves if she's going to work this hard on snow days.

So excited to start 2 weeks of vacation with a snow day! Just hope that we're done with the snow now so it doesn't disrupt Frumpy/Yack's travel plans this year!

Bad Santa? More like Bad Mama!

2011-12-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

...for not posting in over month! I can't believe a month has flown by without me posting a blog. We've had lots of changes (Samson is selling), but lots of fun, too.

Last weekend was chocked full of socializing (Reese garners many invitations, not her mama!). On Saturday, I took Reese to see Toy Story 3 on Ice at the Pepsi center. Reese loved it and hardly moved a muscle (I, on the other hand, could have left at intermission and been happy.)

Reese's "pose" for me before the show started.

Pieces, with her Woody hat, has a smile for a pic with mama.

Barbie doing her dance during the show.

We even got a glimpse of the Fantastic Five before Toy Story started.

Saturday night, we went over to Becky's for dinner. Reese was thoroughly entertained by Cory's dog, Cash.

Cash was a pretty good sport...

...but it appears in this pic that he's pleading for Reese to go home!

Cory made some cookie dough and he and Reese were chefs for the evening.

Pieces got a little iPad time in with Aunt Becky, too. And I got to sit back and chill out with a glass of wine instead of being the "constant entertainment" for Reese on one night!

A little pose with Becky and Cory before heading home for night night.

Sunday evening, Reese and I met Shannon, Jaxson, Jamie, and Trenton at the zoo for Zoo Lights. It was a nice night in the thirties, so we all got to enjoy the lights. Reese liked the lights, but was kind of disappointed that we didn't get to see the animals.

There was an exhibit set up as the North Pole, and Reese was having no part of it until she was assured that "Santa was at the REAL North Pole making toys." Once convinced, she was game to take a couple of pics with Jaxson in Santa's sleigh.

Reese is very excited about Santa bringing her presents next weekend. Every time I ask her what she wants Santa to bring her, she says "a pink present." When pressed further about what kind of pink present, she told me that she wanted pink M&M's!

Dear Abby

2011-11-13T15:19:00.003-07:00

Reese and Abby got to have another play date a couple of weeks ago when we went to Abby's house. Upon arrival, the girls were all smiles when they got to see their long-lost buddy.

We got a little hugging in, too.

Since we'd been graced with such a gorgeous fall, we decided to head out to the park and enjoy the beautiful sunshiny day!

"Come on already, the playground is calling our names!"

We all got into the fun to be had at the park. Erika and I showed the girls how to roll down the hill and they hopped right to it.

Abby on her way down the hill, with gravity getting the best of her.

The girls decided to get some running in, too...the trip back was at a slower pace.

Abby's new baby sister, Kate, wasn't all that impressed with the weather or our frolicking.

Abby was a bit cautious when it came to the twirly slide, so Reese was more than happy to show her how to hang on tight and spin away.

Love the smile on sweet Abby's face as she hangs on to Reese for dear life!

Had a great time visiting Abby and her family and look forward to our next play date with them!

Best. Halloween. Ever.

2011-10-31T14:26:00.000-06:00

It's funny to think that I avoided Halloween for years, but now that we've got rug rats running amok, it's one of the most fun holidays I can think of. In fact, it looks like we celebrated Halloween for weeks prior to it actually getting here.

Reese and Cooper had to try on a couple of the ill-fitting ladybug outfits on one of our Wednesday night date nights.

On the weekend before Halloween, Broomfield put on a big "Trick or Suite" party in the 1stBank event center. Reese and I borrowed Cooper Friday night so he could accompany us to the event and help Reese "practice" trick or treating.

The munchkins putting on their costumes in the car...

All ready to load up on candy.

This was a pretty neat event Broomfield put on. For $5/kid, they got to go trick or treat at all the suites upstairs, then after they were done trick or treating, there were huge bouncy houses and slides and games for them to play.

The next weekend, Tressa and Riley came to stay with us through Halloween. The weather was a bit lacking, so we got the bright idea to take Reese and Riley to Chuck E. Cheese's Friday evening. Seriously, what were we thinking??? I have never seen so many rednecks gathered in one place...and I lived in Oklahoma for 30+ years. It was a bit disappointing, but Tressa and Lauren got some quality time in while we were there.

The only other pic I bothered taking while were in that nasty place...this will be Reese's one and only souvenir because we will not be going back.

Since Halloween was on a Monday, Riley got to go to school with Reese and join in the festivities. The girls were all smiles on the way to school that morning.

Riley LOVED going to school with Reese. Reese, as usual, cried when I dropped them off that morning. When Reese started crying, Riley just looked at her like she was crazy and took off and started playing with the other kids.

At 3:00 pm, the costume parade began. "Costume parade" with twenty 2-3 years olds is synonymous with a bunch of unidentifiable ghouls and goblins running around in sixty different directions.

A picture of Riley and Reese in their costumes getting ready for the parade.

Reese's friend, George, (yes, that's a homemade turkey costume) joins the girls for a photo op.

Not sure if this was Reese channeling one of my "Go!" moments or not?

GREAT pic of these three beautiful girls!

If I recall correctly, this was Riley and Cooper giving their best dinosaur "ROAR" and wasn't just them screaming their heads off for no reason...

Pieces still isn't all that sure about all that "Roaring."

All the trick or treaters posing for a shot before heading out to get some candy!

Riley wasn't shy, she was ringing bells and taking names...

We had quite a posse out in full force. And, for the second year in a row, we had awesome 60+ degree weather.

Quite possibly one of the cutest little elephants I've ever seen (although I do recall seeing an equally cute one about 3 years ago....)

Riley and Reese hitting our neighbors, Julie and Terry, up for some sweets.

Bubba and his baby girl.

We had an awesome Halloween this year with Tressa and Riley and really enjoyed having Jojo, Jill, Cooper, and Lauren down to haunt the neighborhood with us.

A Day Out With Thomas...and Cooper and Lauren!

2011-10-21T14:34:00.000-06:00

Seeing as how I'm almost a month late in posting this excursion, there are a lot of repeat pics from Bubba's blog, so I won't go into detail on each pic. But getting them posted nonetheless.

Reese's First 5K

2011-09-20T13:26:00.007-06:00

The Children's Museum had a 5k fund-raiser a couple of weeks ago that was stroller friendly as well as a Toddler Trot afterwards, so I signed Reese and me up to do both. We had been talking about it for about a week and Reese seemed excited and gung-ho about it. Then, when we got up on Sunday morning and got in the car to go, she started crying and telling me she didn't want to race. Yes, I have a "thinker" on my hands.

Anyway, after much reassurance that it wasn't a "race" and that it was just a fun walk, she agreed to still go.

A little pre-"fun walk" playground action.

Reese actually really enjoyed the 5k -- she rode in the stroller and waved to all of the volunteers on the course. A post-race pic....Reese getting a little antsy about doing "her race."

Love this smirk...

If you'll look closely under the start line, you'll see the main "issue" Reese had with her Toddler Trot...the "EVIL BUNNY" that was out to cheer everyone on was OBVIOUSLY out to get her!

She survived her race and we celebrated afterward with a little more playground time. Yeah, I'm not sure what this pose is all about, but it still made me laugh.

All in all, we got to enjoy a beautiful Colorado fall morning and get a little exercise in in the meantime.

Hiking at Heil Ranch

2011-09-11T15:18:00.000-06:00

After the stomach bug(s) have made their way through the White families (yes, plural), it has been a long time coming on getting our crews back together. Reese had been asking to see Cooper for weeks, so we finally got together today at Heil Ranch to enjoy beautiful fall weather.

I think Cooper had already hiked about 3 miles by the time Reese and I got out of the car and got geared up to go. No, he still was not worn out.

Although Pieces has gotten much faster over the last few months, she's still no match for Cooper--he's the red blur in the background.

A little rock-climbing adventure during our hike as well!

"No boulder is to bold for us to conquer!" (Yes, it's the same boulder as in the pic before.)

Coop and Bubba atop another boulder.

Pieces finally makes her way up as well.

And we're done with the rocks.

A hike is not a hike unless you have your hiking sticks!

...and, of course, a hug!!!

Check out the blue skies over us!

And check out the cheese on this one!

We saw all sorts of interesting things on our hike, but the coolest thing by far was the wild turkeys we saw on the way out after our hike.

Finally got the casa painted--waited until the HOA forced me to, but it probably needed it shortly after I moved in 6 years ago...

Hard to see the improvement from afar on a pic, but MUCH, MUCH better in person and up close.

Top Ten (or Twelve) Reeseisms....through Two!

2011-09-09T15:02:00.025-06:00

Since the child was able to speak, she has been cracking me up. I've posted most of her "best ones" on Facebook, but wanted to capture them on the blog so I'd be able to read through them and laugh and remember why I love her so much when she's a teenager and making me want to pull my hair out. So here's a compilation of some of her best lines to date:

-->I'm drying my hair this morning and see Reese pointing up on my dresser at my jewelry box. I turned off the hair dryer and said "That's mommy's jewelry box." Reese looks at me and says "We have to share, mommy." She got the jewelry box.

-->We were at the grocery store today and when I got my card out to pay, Reese grabbed and said she wanted to sign it. So I held her up to the CC machine and she swiped. I was going to put her back down when she said "No, wait! I need to sign it!" The checkout boy then said he wanted to see her signature so she "signed" it and said "There! There's my signature."

-->Every day we drive by Coors Field to get on the HOV lane for our drive home. And every day Reese says "Go to baseball game?"

So today the Rox played early in Cinci and when we drove by Coors Field, Reese said "Where are all the people, mommy?" Confused, I said "What people, Reese?" To which Reese replied "The purple people."

(Granted, it's only funny if you know the Rox' colors are purple and black.)

-->Out on our nightly dog walking tonight, Mia had some let's call it "loose stool." Reese watched this and then proclaimed "Oh Mia! We'll go get you some Desitin!"

-->Picked Reese up today from school and on the way out to the car, I asked her "Reese, what did you do today?"

She replied "I went to school."

I was hoping we'd at least make it to the teenage years before she started thinking I was an idiot.

-->Yesterday, a friend from Reese's school asked me "Has Tatum bitten Reese yet?
She bit my son this morning."

When I dropped Reese off this morninReese's report card today: During play time, Rese was busy riding the bicycle, gathering hula hoops, and playing "If you're happy and you know it..." with her friends. During work time, Reese was busy supervising all of the other kids.

Some people are just born leaders! ;)g, Ms Gail said that after "the biting incident" yesterday, she had asked the class "We do not bite our friends. What do we bite instead?" (thinking they'd say the teething ring) and Reese responded "Bite Tatum!"

-->Should I be concerned that every time Reese picks up a stuffed animal she repeats "I'm sowwy, kitty! I'm so sowwy!" I'm scared to find out what she's sorry about!

-->Reese's report card for 6/1/11: Ms. Gail had to remind Reese and her friend that they are not the boss of the class.

I honestly don't know where she gets that! :)

-->Reese's report card today: During play time, Rese was busy riding the bicycle, gathering hula hoops, and playing "If you're happy and you know it..." with her friends. During work time, Reese was busy supervising all of the other kids.

Some people are just born leaders! ;)

-->It's REALLY, REALLY hard not to laugh when you hear your 19-month-old say "Oh dammit!"

-->"Reese, I've got to clean this house up before Aunt Becky gets here or she's going to have a cow!" Reese runs over and grabs her stuffed animal, a cow, and says "Here, mommy, you can have a cow too!"

-->Reese's report card 9-7-11: Reese really likes the practical life work. And I noticed that she really loves to help her friends finish their work. Good teamwork, Reese!

TRANSLATION: Your kid thinks all the other kids are too dumb to do the puzzles, so she finishes them for them.

My personal favorite was definitely the "Bite Tatum" line (an eye for an eye, suckers!) But I'm continually amused by the way this kid's brain thinks.

It's a Zoo Out There!

2011-09-05T16:31:00.040-06:00

School was out on the Friday before Labor Day for Professional Development Day, so Pieces and I set off for the zoo to meet up with Shannon and Jaxson and Trenton.

Reese doing her best "Joe Cool" pose while waiting for her buddy, Jaxson, to get there (notice how cockeyed the glasses are.)

These two have only been separated from each other for a week at school (Reese moved to Mini's), but you would have thought it was ages. They immediately grabbed hands and were both giddy.

Still not letting go...

Reese says "Look, Momma! It's Uncle Bubba!" :)

If you look closely behind the log, you'll see a little red gorilla...it's hair kind of looked like Reese's when she was born and the back of it stuck out everywhere.

It's "Serious Jaxson".

A little bongo action

Always good to have something you can bang on!

Reesey loves Trenton! Every time she's around him, she goes back to school asking Ms. Gail "Where's my brother?"

She kept hopping into the stroller with Trenton to leave Jaxson riding in her wagon.

Shannon, Jaxson, and Jaxson's "Mini-me" Trenton, who looks very happy to be getting to ride the choo-choo with the "big kids."

Gotta love equal opportunity couples!

We took a spin on the carousel, too. Jaxson showing the zebra who's boss.

Pieces taming the tiger.

Shannon letting Trenton get a ride on the zebra with Jax.

So cute!

Even Shannon got a ride in--she and Trenton gave the stork a test drive.

Wonderful weather (65 degrees) and a great way to spend the Friday before Labor Day! And so glad that Reesey and her buddy, Jaxson, got to spend some time together.

It's My Jury Duty...and my Birthday!

2011-09-04T19:52:00.018-06:00

Last week, I was lucky enough to draw jury duty and had to be there at 7:15 a.m. Since Reese's school doesn't even open until 7, there was no way that I could get downtown and drop her off, then make it back out to Westminster for my civic duty. Fortunately, MJ said she was free and wouldn't mind coming out to stay with Reese, so I found some $59 flights on Southwest and was happy to have the matter taken care of.

Even better than MJ coming out by herself, Yack decided he could get away for a few days, so they both came out to play. Although my jury duty got cancelled, we were still glad to have a few days of playing with Frumpy and Yack to end the summer.

On Friday night, we met up with Jill, Joel, Lauren, and Cooper in Boulder for some margaritas. The weather was so nice and the margs were so good, we decided to go ahead and dine at The Rio early and then enjoy some time on the Pearl Street Mall.

Lauren was all smiles as she got to check out the action.

Bubba and Pieces watch the fire juggler as MJ smiles over them.

Pieces loves her Uncle Bubba!

Crappy pic of the juggler, but you get the idea...

Lauren's still happy after a couple of hours of "hanging out" in the bjorn.

I love the "Pooker smiles"....his eyes always disappear!

Yack doing his best "Pooker" impersonation.

"What? I didn't do it!"

As Reese puts it, "Cooper's my boy!"

Not sure what these 2 were up to, but they look guilty!

Then again, maybe it was just the rounds (yes plural) of margaritas that made everyone look "funny."

I am pretty sure I have the cutest nephew in the world.

And this one's pretty cute, too.

We all had a really good time just getting to hang out and play for a few days. A couple of us had a rough night that night, but hopefully everyone is feeling better and will still reflect this play time warmly. And thanks to both MJ and Yack for coming out to help me out with my Pieces conundrum with dreaded jury time!

Lions and Tigers and Dinger?! Oh My!

2011-09-03T14:52:00.000-06:00

I ordered some peaches from The Wildlife Sanctuary's fundraiser last spring, and they came in a few weeks ago. In order to pick them up, we had to go out to The Wildlife Sanctuary. Since we were out there, we took a few minutes to go check out all of the animals, including the newly rescued lions from Africa that Bob Barker saved.

Reese was very much intrigued with the animals, but didn't quite understand why we couldn't go pet the kitties!

This big guy was hot...

...and maybe a little "bothered" by this pretty girl.

They had a cool pipe to go into (although the lion was sitting on it in this pic) where they could go in and escape the heat.

Love this pic--she really wasn't roaring at us, just caught her mid-yawn.

Some more of the lions enjoying their 3-tiered condo.

This tiger was enjoying his poolside nap.

As was this one...

And my little tiger was VERY much in need of a nap by this time, so she's looking a bit bleary-eyed in this pic.

By the time we got back to the exit, she was tired and hot and cranky. I got her to stand still for about 2 seconds to take her pic with the bear, but she was not happy about it!

Later that night (after Reese's lengthy nap), Becky and Reese and I went to the Rockies/Dodgers game. All Reese had talked about for weeks was hugging Dinger when we went to the ballgame. So despite the fact that Dinger was all the way out in Centerfield and we were behind home plate, we trekked over in search of Dinger. When Reese caught sight of him, she quickly began to retreat saying "No want Dinger! No want Dinger!" We were able to stand within 10' of him long enough to snap a few pics.

We watched other little kids taking their pics with Dinger, but she still wanted no part of it.

The game turned out to be rather lame, mainly because the Rox rather suck this year, but we made it through most of it. Reese was once again in need of sleep when we took this pic right before heading home.

BFF's

2011-09-02T20:23:00.000-06:00

One of Piece's best friends, Abby, moved to a different school when she turned two, and Reese has been missing her immensely. Abby's mom, Erika, called and apparently the feeling was mutual, so we got the girls together for a little play time.

Pure joy is what emanated from them on the tire swing that day.

All smiles!

And we couldn't go anywhere without holding hands!

A little more togetherness.

No visit can be complete without hanging out with the cows!

This particular cow wasn't interested in cake, but Reese and Abby had fun playing with him anyway.

Sure do wish Abby was in Reese's new Mini's class, as I think it might help us with the ugly "transition" we've had this week. But, in the meantime, we'll make sure to get them together every few weeks so they won't get horribly severe withdrawals.

Birthday Week Continued

2011-08-13T15:22:00.000-06:00

A little montage of all the videos I took last week during Birthday week.

What. A. Week. Birthdays Galore!

2011-08-08T22:19:00.001-06:00

Pooker's Birthday was on Monday, so we started out the week with a little celebration in Boulder as part of the build-up to the real "party" this weekend. After enjoying a nice dinner at The Lazy Dog, the kiddos got to run around and play on the Boulder boulders for a bit.

Lauren decided that she was going to ham it up a bit as to not be outdone on the "cuteness" factor.

Happy campers hanging out in Boulder.

Not sure what she's laughing at, but it was obviously VERY funny!

Lauren and me watching Pieces and Pooker frolic.

On Friday, Reese had her long-anticipated Birthday party at school. She'd been telling Ms. Gail for weeks that on her Birthday she was "going to bring Mickey Mouse cupcakes and fire." Thankfully, Ms. Gail alerted me to this so I was prepared.

Although she was excited, she was also pretty sleepy and decided that she could cry at her party if she wanted to.

I'm not even sure who this little newbie is in her class, but he REALLY enjoyed the cupcake. In fact, I'm pretty sure he got a couple of them!

Pieces diving into her cupcake as well.

Still some remnants of tears ten even after we broke the sugar out.

Not sure if Owen is more angry about the flash going off in his face or the fact that ran out of cupcake!

Cullen (Reese identified him for me) still enjoying his cupcake and Reese's BFF, Jaxson, still trying to wake up and figure out what was going on.

On Friday, Frumpy and Yack and Tressa and Riley all arrived. We met up for dinner at Benihana and had some great grub! Reese concurring that Frumpy is indeed a "funny girl."

Riley (aka Penelope) hamming it up.

The chef's hats were big hits!

Tried to get one pic of all three of them in their hats, but to no avail.

I'm quite certain that Reese was telling the Benihana chef that he wasn't doing it right in this pic.

Some post-dinner love with Yack. Reese was saying "Yack" and Riley would say "No, that's Grandpa!"

Cutie patooties!

Having three 2/3 year olds does not make for easy pictures....I thought if I took enough pics, I'd get a decent pic of each of them at least once!

...see what I mean?

Feel the love!

Every time I think of Riley, this is the image I get in my head! Can you say C-U-T-E!

That's one fine looking group of peeps!

Rub-a-dub-dub, three babies in a tub...

Despite what it looks like on film, this really isn't a scene from "Caligula"....

Got to have a little story time after bath time!

Time for some lovin' from Pooker.

The balloon fights were a big hit during the party...

Jaxson's little brother, Trenton, and Baby Lauren. This is the difference between "99th percentile" and "15th percentile"...

Our super-nice neighbors, Terry and Julie (who are big fans of Reese and vice versa) brought her a little red wagon for her Birthday. And she was not a happy camper when momma told her she had to get out of it to go to bed!

The "day after" all the partying, PIeces showing off her awesome outfit from Frumpy and Yack.

T-Rex and Bubba catching up while the kids were playing at the playground.

Frumpy, Yack, and Baby Lauren getting in some quality time at the playground.

Top quotes heard over the weekend:
3) After a couple of crying episodes during the party on Saturday, Cooper went up to Frumpy on Sunday and told her that he'd "had a rough day yesterday."
2) Reese was telling Tressa about Baby Lauren and when Riley (aka Penelope) overheard her, she said "Oh yeah, well I had 2 babies last night."
1) Me stating that this weekend was "the hardest I've 'partied' in years!" ha

We very much enjoyed having Tressa and Riley come play with us as well as appreciated Frumpy & Yack coming out for the party. Also, many thanks to our friends Shannon and Jamie for bringing Jaxson to celebrate. Last but not least, thanks to Becky for coming over to hang out at a 2/3 year old party before her date! And thanks to everyone for the scads of presents -- Reese is a very lucky girl to have all of you (as am I!)

I have tons of videos from this week to post and will try to get them up this weekend. Now on with the recuperating!

One Pic Is Worth 1,000 Words

2011-08-08T22:16:00.002-06:00

Lots of Birthday pics coming soon, but wanted to post this pic of our neighbor, Melanie, and Reese playing in the pool last weekend.

Sprinkler Time

2011-08-01T20:00:00.000-06:00

Some videos of Reese and Cooper playing in the sprinklers at The Orchard Mall last weekend.

Slip N Slide

2011-07-31T15:40:00.003-06:00

My first attempt at editing videos of my little movie star!

Bear with me as I figure out the movie editor on my new Mac!

Winnie The Pooh...and Reese & Cooper, Too

2011-07-17T15:05:00.010-06:00

Above: Happy campers eagerly awaiting the star of Winnie The Pooh.

Pooker has been talking about "The Winnie The Pooh" movie coming out for months and the day finally arrived on Friday. Jojo and Jill invited us to go with them to the Saturday morning showing at 9:30.

I was a little concerned about Reese before we got there, because she kept telling me "No wanna go to the movie", but I figured we could try it for a few minutes and if she didn't like it, we could leave. Fortunately, I think she harnessed some of Cooper's enthusiasm and was pretty happy once we got seated.

Lots of trailers and commercials ensued prior to the movie, but Cooper kept us entertained throughout. A trailer for Cars 2 came out and after it was over, Cooper looked over and exclaimed (at the top of his voice) "Sarah, that looks amazing!" The entire theater cracked up. A few minutes later, a parody of The Notebook came on (read: not animated) and Cooper turned around to Joel and said "This is not a very good video!" He is very funny boy!

Reese and Coop got a little squirmy about the 45 minute mark, but a bag of grapes kept them occupied for the duration of the movie. We grabbed some lunch after the movie, and then we had to take the obligatory choo-choo ride (we were at The Orchard.)

Reese, Cooper, and I hopped in the yellow car and then we had to wait about 10 minutes for others to get on. In the meantime, I snapped a few pictures. Hilarious to see the variety of expressions on these two in just a matter of minutes, but you can judge for yourselves:

Jojo and Jill waving and smiling at us despite us not having left for the ride yet.

Still waiting for the train to start...

...but they had a lot of entertainment watching all of the kids playing out in the water fountains in the plaza.

Cooper telling us something VERY important...obviously!

Reese's turn to tell us something poignant.

This look cracked me up.

Nice morning with the kiddos and an equally nice nap with the Pieces that afternoon.

Fabulous 4th (and 2nd/3rd/5th)

2011-07-08T15:00:00.000-06:00

In keeping with a tradition we started last year, the fam rented a mountain house for the 4th of July. I headed to Winter Park Friday evening with 2 dogs and one almost-two year old to meet up with Jojo, Jill, Coop, Lauren, and Baloo and Molly. Frumpy and Yack would be joining us the next (Saturday) morning.

I waited until after Reese took her nap to head to the mountains, and apparently everyone else that resided in Denver had the same idea. It was touch and go until I bailed off of I-70 and took the side roads to Empire. Once in Empire, my old habits of driving like we were going to the slopes kicked in and I tried getting around all the slow cars/semis/RV's going up the pass so I wouldn't get stuck behind them on the way down. I didn't think much of it until we got over the pass and I heard an eruption behind me. I turned my head to see Reese spewing all over the back seat. Apparently the twists and turns of Berthoud Pass didn't agree with her tummy.

After a quick detour to pull her out of the car seat and rid her of all puke-related items, we headed back down the mountain into Winter Park. We got to the mountain house around 6 and let Coop and Reese reunite for a few minutes before heading into town for some dinner.

On Saturday, we headed to Winter Park resort to check out all of the activities there while waiting for Frumpy and Yack to arrive.

Coop and Pieces playing the wind chimes at Winter Park.

Look at that concentration!

Baby Lauren wasn't all that impressed with Coop & Reese's musical abilities.

Winter Park was having some kind of "Kid's Day" and had several people on stilts. This is one of the "butterflies"...the kids weren't sure what to make of her!

The Coca-Cola bear was a big hit every day we went to WP. I was trying to get Coop & Pieces to pose and told Cooper to "put your arms around Reese"...and he did--you can see him bending his arms backwards while he's in front of Reese. Cracks me up how literal they are!

Once again, Lauren was not impressed.

Jojo and Coop posing with the bear on the playground.

MJ and Yack arrived shortly after we got to Winter Park and Pieces was excited to see them! Got a little pose of Yackster and Pieces before we headed in to WP for more fun.

Coop and Pieces had to show Frumpy and Yack how to "work the music."

Yack, Frumpy, and Coop on Reese's favorite ride, the gondola (think there's any connection between her favorite ride and Jojo's favorite, the MONORAIL, at Disney World?)

Hanging out at our mountain house and enjoying the patio on a 75-degree day.

Frumpy and Reese getting in some QT.

We had lots of "playground" time while in WP. Took this pic after dinner at the main park in WP. I told Reese to "look up" so I could take their pic...and she did. :)

On Sunday, we went back to Winter Park to do some of the rides/play the games. However, it was pretty crowded that day, so we only had time to let the kiddos play putt-putt. Here's a pic of Bagger Vance (aka Cooper) proudly displaying his iron and Pieces.

Grabbed a pic of Cooper channeling his "inner Jojo" and looking down the bear's scarf.

More hanging out on the mountain house porch while watching the "baseball game" that Jojo, Reese, and Cooper were playing.

Reese and Coop were having a ball playing with each other and shared lots of "hugs" throughout the week, especially right before bedtime.

MJ and Yack had to fly out on Monday, the 4th, after two very short days. When Reese and Coop went down for their naps, Bubba and Jill took off for a mountain bike ride while Lauren and I had some quality time in the rocker. Got her laughing at one point, although I'm sure it was probably AT me instead of WITH me.

After several hours of debating on whether or not to go back to work on Tuesday, I decided to blow it off and stay another day in the mountains. That evening around 8 pm, we loaded up all of the kiddos and headed down to the park where Fraser was putting on their fireworks display.

We had been telling Reese and Cooper all day that "the fireworks will be very loud, but they're very pretty and won't hurt us."

I still put $10 bucks on Reese crying before Cooper did. Thankfully, the kids had had good naps and were happy campers waiting for an hour and a half for them to begin.

Bubba, Jilly, and Lauren pre-fireworks. The best line of the night was from Cooper. After waiting about an hour for the fireworks, Cooper said to Joel "I don't have any money!" Joel asked Cooper "Why do you need money, Cooper?" To which Coop replied, "I need money so I can fix the fireworks!"

Pieces getting some love from Auntie Jill and Lauren.

Every time the red flash light comes on the camera, Reese reaches out to grab it (which is why I have thousands of pics with her holding one arm out...)

Jilly with all of the kiddos.

Me getting some love from Pieces and Coop getting some camera time.

Much to my surprise, there was no crying by anyone (even Jojo!) during the fireworks. We hung out and watched them until the very end and had a great time.

On Tuesday, we got up and went back to WP since Cooper had been telling us all that it "was a good day to go play putt-putt" every day for the last 3 days. So we had to get some more posing in once again with the bear on our third trip.

There was some serious golfing to be had by Pieces...at least until she tripped over the club on the first hole and would have nothing to do with it after that. She did get all kinds of practice throwing and kicking the golf balls, though.

Video of Cooper golfing and Reese "doing her thing" on hole 8.

Cooper setting up his tee shot.

Now we know who Coop got his "skillz" from...

Video of Coop on one of the last holes. I love his concentration!

Piece's favorite hole--the one where she could play in the water!

Wasn't sure I would ever get her away from the water!

There was a bouncy house at WP as well. Reese would have loved it IF it had been off limits to everyone else. She was not a fan of the other kids bouncing in to her and instead chose to do her "bouncy, bouncy, bouncy" with Uncle Bubba outside of the bouncy house.

We had a quick break to get some lunch and Baby Lauren was a happy camper...

...and Pieces was not. I wanted to channel my "inner Yack" and tell her I was going to twist that bottom lip off if she didn't reel it back in, but I was too busy laughing at her dramatics.

After refueling with some pizza, we hit the Alpine Slide again. Got a pic of the happy boys riding the chair lift.

Bubba and the kiddos at the top of the Alpine Slide.

The line was fairly long, so Coop killed some time by picking some flowers "for Mother's Day."

The boys loaded up and ready to get their slide on. Bubba, being the gadget nerd that he is, was getting his gps/timer ready to see how fast he could make it down the hill.

14 mph...fast, but not fast enough to catch Reese and me!

All that sliding made the crew hungry, so we stopped for some ice scream.

Good day on the mountain capped off with some yummy ice cream.

I think someone was getting a bit perturbed with the camera flashing in her face.

This little camper, however, was not irritated by the camera at all!

Just as we were finishing up our day, the clouds started rolling in. Reese and I went back to the house, loaded up our stuff and our dogs, and headed out. We got a nice view of the mountains clouding over on the way home...

...well, actually I was the only one who got any view on the way home. All 3 of the back seat passengers were out for the entire duration of the trip back to the house.
Reese evidently taught me quite a lesson on the way to the mountains, so we moseyed home and took it easy on the switchbacks on the way back into Denver, not that any of my passengers would have noticed!

We had a great time in the mountains and were especially glad that Frumpy and Yack got to come escape the horrid hundred-degree temps in OK even if for just 48 hours. I think renting the house over 4th of July might just be one of my favorite "traditions" in this family. It was good to relax and hang out for a few days going in to the next couple of months of work.

M-I-N N-I-E M-O-U-S-E

2011-07-06T21:52:00.005-06:00

Couple of shots of Pieces playing in the pool in her new Minnie Mouse swimsuit.

My only guess as to why I couldn't get her to smile is because the water was frigid! But that didn't stop her from playing in it for a couple of hours.

Summer Daze

2011-06-26T14:00:00.019-06:00

Well, summer is finally here and it has been WARM the last few days. However, warm Colorado days are still conducive to being outside and playing! Yesterday, after a morning of swimming at the Westminster Rec Center, Reese and I met up with Kim, Terry, and Zach at Lion's Park in Golden.

In addition to a great playground and pond full of geese, Clear Creek goes right through the middle of it. The creek was clipping along rather quickly and kayakers and tubers were getting some chilly water time.

If you look closely, you can just see a leg sticking out of the rapid.

Fear not, he came back up on the other side.

Terry watching the tubers while Zach enjoys a beverage (hey, isn't that backwards?)

One of the kayakers showing us his moves. It's stuff like this that makes me wish I grew up in Colorado--hard to teach this old dog new tricks like this, but it sure looks like fun!

Pieces trying to figure out how she can get in the "row, row boat."

Soon, the novelty of the kayaks and tubes wore off, so Pieces and Zach looked for more interesting things....like rocks to throw in the creek.

Reese checking out one of her finds.

Zach looks like he's thinking about taking out one of the tubers (I doubt they would have felt a thing--they all seemed rather "numb".)

Good times on the Clear Creek.

Reese has a fascination with water falls these days, so snapped a few shots of her in front of the "Flat Irons Mall Falls."

I think the paci makes the outfit.

My little fashionista...

More water gazing.

One last pose with the waterfall before getting a little shopping done.

Hiking & Trekking It To OK

2011-06-23T21:44:00.026-06:00

Apparently my google account got hacked and they disabled my account. Never fear, we're back!

The Longmont Whites and the Westminster Whites went to NCAR a couple of weeks ago for a little hiking action. While the first 10 minutes of the hike started out a little rough (LOTS of crying), we finally got settled in and had a nice hour and a half hike.

Bubba getting Lauren ready for her hike.

Lauren looking a little less than impressed about the impending nature walk...

Great pic of Bubba, Jill, and Lauren. Coop, however, wasn't feeling very photogenic and ducked his head behind Joel the minute I said "Cooper, say cheese!"

Just a pic to prove that Coop was really in the Sherpani.

Crappy iphone pic after our NCAR hike, but the expression on both of their faces is funny.

Last weekend, Reese and I flew in to Oklahoma to visit Frumpy and Yack and check out their future house. From the time I told Reese that we were going to Oklahoma, she was on a mission to feed cows and nothing was going to stop her.

Is it any wonder she loves going to the farm? She gets to drive with Yack when we're feeding cows!

Some hungry girls, but they still look pretty in pics!

Pieces doing her best cow whispering (although the whispers were cancelled out by the 100 mph winds!)

Waiting for a "taker"...

Tux preferred to help herself to the entire bag of cake rather than eat it one-by-one out of Reese's hand.

Happy girl(s)

Getting some petting in while Tux was munching.

Pic of Frumpy & Yack's new ride before it was their new ride (it was in Denver and I went by to test it out before giving it a thumb's up.)

It was too hot and windy for Reese to ride Dandy while we were in Oklahoma, but she got a ride on a pseudo-Dandy at the grocery store Sunday night after we flew back to Colorado.

We had a whirlwind of a trip to Oklahoma, and despite the horrible weather (105 degrees & 50 mph winds), we were glad to see MJ & Yack and the cows. And it was Father's Day/Grandfather's day as well.

Mother Nature has not been kind to any of them, but I was relieved to see that they were faring pretty well nonetheless. Now if we could just divert some of the floodwaters from ND/MT and the Eastern half of the US to Calumet, OK!

Since I'm only getting around to blogging about once every month as of late, here are some other random pics from throughout the past month.

One of many "mug shots" of Pieces before school in the morning...

...and another, but I love this expression.

Happy Froggy Girl on the playground.

My little bathing beauty...

...or is she more of a mermaid?

"Cleo" the cat and Pieces setting out to walk the dogs after school/work.

Another crappy iphone pic (if it's moving, it's going to be bad...), but it still makes me laugh. We were leaving school one day and Griffin and his parents were on the elevator with us. Griffin and Reese started holding hands in the elevator and then made a bee-line once the doors opened. I'm glad his smiling little face will be in her Mini class when she moves up in August.

Baby Lauren chilling in her carseat during one of our weekly dinner dates.

Reese and Cleo romping around in the grass last week.

This morning's mug shot...

And she's out! Gonna have to get a bigger bed!

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-30T20:42:00.020-06:00

It has been an eventful couple of weeks. A few weeks ago, Joel, Jill, and I took the kiddos to the Rockies game. Despite cool temps, they seemed to have a good time.

Pieces styling!

On Tuesday, May 24, 2011, all hell broke lose in Oklahoma. I had been watching the storm forecasts and called mom on her way home from the courthouse. We spoke at 2:15 and got off the phone about 2:30 when she was pulling into the driveway. At 2:57, I got an email from her saying "Huge tornado coming, at Greg's basement, will call when passed." At 3:10, mom called back to say that they were fine, but everything was gone. And by everything, I mean their entire place--trailer, cars, barns, everything.

On Wednesday, we started rounding up clothes and necessities to send to them. Mom and Dad didn't want any of the kids out there, and so Joel flew in to help them out on Thursday while Jill and I stayed home with the babies. (More on this on the next blog, but I figured MJ & Yack would prefer to see pics of Reese rather than the destruction for this blog.)

After much debate and figuring out that I couldn't do much to help while at my house, I decided to go ahead and continue on with my plans of going to Durango with my friend, Becky, to Durango for the weekend. She was participating in the Iron Horse bike ride (ride 50 miles from Durango to Silverton over TWO mountain passes...yes, she is nuts) and we were her support team who drove the car to Silverton to pick her up.

On the drive, Becky and I were asking Reese if she knew where we were going and she told us that we were going to Durango. When I asked her where Frumpy and Yack were, she told me they were in Oklahoma. Then I asked her where we were and she said "In the car!"

While we didn't actually get to ride the Narrow Gauge train on this trip, we did go to the Rail Road Museum for Reese to check out. This is one of the passenger cars that was open for people to get in.

At one point, I asked Reese "Reese, what do they say when you're supposed to get on the train?" and she responded "Get on!" We worked on "All Aboard", but she really is right!

They had a huge miniature train set up -- Reese dug watching all of the different choo-choo's going through the various tunnels.

My baby girl is getting big!

Pieces intently watching the model trains.

Becky and Pieces testing out the "dog house" at the Railroad Museum.

Checking out the wooden model train.

Reesey REALLY, REALLY wanting to ride the old firetruck on display at the museum.

Posing with "3 baby Dandies!"

Sunday evening, we went over to one of Becky's friends for a cookout. Reese wasn't very interested in anything to do with the cookout, but she was infatuated with "Harley" the cat. He was a pretty good sport and let her rub on him most of the time we were there.

Durango was a great place for my little dog-lover. I am pretty sure we petted every type of dog that exists, from Chihuahuas to Newfies and all sizes in between. And if we didn't get to pet a dog, it was a crisis. (Fortunately, there were very few that weren't available to pet.)

Finally, my favorite "Pieces" moment of the weekend. This little garden area was right next to our hotel and I kept telling her that we could walk through the garden. When she wanted to go into it, she would say "Go to the 'Olive Garden'?"

While we had fun in Durango, it would have been a lot more fun had Frumpy and Yack been able to join us. Unfortunately, the "winds that came sweeping down the plains" (as Yack put it) prevented us from all meeting up. But we look forward to going to see Frumpy and Yack in a few weeks when they're settling into their new place.

Bathing Beauty

2011-05-29T19:35:00.000-06:00

Couple more pics from Reese's swim lessons last week...

All smiles!

Playing Catch Up

2011-05-08T13:01:00.022-06:00

Since it's been a couple of weeks since I even had a chance to get my computer out, much less blog, we're going to do a "fast forward" version of the last few weeks with a couple of pictures posted to tell the story.

Everyone in tutus after one of our Wednesday-night dates with Auntie Jill and Cooper and Baby Luaren.

Baby Lauren is in there...somewhere...underneath all that tutu!

Last Friday (April 29th), we went to the Rockies game. Unfortunately for us, it was about 45 degrees and snowing during parts of the game. And to top it all off, the Rox lost. We're definitely going to have to go back in better weather!

This week, Frumpy came in to play a few days before the weekend. Jill, Frumpy, and I took all the kiddos to the zoo on a beautiful spring day! Cooper and Reese were good about holding hands and not getting lost!

A little more hand holding.

We were also all about teamwork. Similar to how Jojo and I used to "drive" Laura's Chevette, Reese would push the stroller from below and Coop did the steering.

Happy camper after seeing the animals at the zoo.

Yesterday (May 7th), we started our Parent/Tot swim lessons. Pieces was quite the bathing beauty...

...and she knew it! We had fun and even got her underwater 3-4 times.

Reese's friend, Jaxson, and his mom were in swim class with us. After having a fun time in the pool, Jax and Reese did a little celebratory hug in the locker room.

Then Pieces got a kiss from Jaxson, too. Going to have to make sure these two are chaperoned!

After swim lessons, we took Frumpy and Yack to meet up with the Longmont crew at Rock Bottom. Since everybody was good, there were train rides after lunch. Pieces waiting on the train to arrive.

Onery much?

Everyone's "all aboard."

Checking out the scenery.

Coop giving it the once-over while doing his best "Bagger Vance" impression.

Those windows seem to be just the right size for peaking out.

And finally they were off! I think this is the train version of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

Cute Baby Lauren was all smiles despite not getting to ride the choo-choo.

Lots of celebrating over the weekend for Jojo's 35th Birthday (Happy Birthday, Bubba!) and for Mother's Day. So happy to get to spend the weekend with the family and look forward to many, many more.

A pic of MJ and Jojo approximately 34 years ago...

Since I managed to not get any decent pics of Frumpy and Yack this weekend, borrowing one from Memorial Day 09...

Mother's Day was always about Grandma Mary when I was growing up--hard to believe that not only Grandma Mary is gone but that this is our first Mother's Day without Mar-Mar, too. We miss you, Mar-Mar. Here's to many, many more great Mother's Days with Bebe and Frumpy!

Happy Mother's Day, Frumpy!

Tutu Good

2011-04-22T14:47:00.019-06:00

Several months ago, Frumpy made the statement that "Reese is just not a tutu girl" and I started harassing her as to why exactly was Reese not a "tutu girl?" She was absolutely right, but a tutu was in the mail to Reese the next day.

When we got it, I was excited and tried to get Reese to try it on. Granted, she had barely learned to speak at this point, but she managed to scream "No! No want tutu!" every time I tried to coax her into it.

Ever since then, the tutu has been laying on the changing table where Reese gets dressed every morning for the day and every night for bedtime. And every single time we change clothes, I torture Reese by asking her if she wants to wear the tutu today/tonight? The reply, of course, is always "No! No want to wear the tutu!" (Yes, Frumpy knew Reese better than did I--I thought she was still at the age where I could con her into doing anything...um, not so much. That ended around age 6 months.)

So ever since Jill and I have become outnumbered, we've opted for takeout at my house on our "date nights" rather than 2 of us trying to wrestle three under-3 year olds in public at a restaurant--which results in way less stress on all of us.

Our routine is typically to let the wild banshees run amok until dinner is delivered, then bathe Pieces and Pooker and get them ready for bedtime and story time. After bath time this past Wednesday, I repeated the "Reese, do you want to wear your tutu tonight?" question and got the usual response. I then threw out "Well, maybe Baby Lauren could wear it? Or should we see if Cooper wants to wear it?" Cooper was more than willing to try it on. Cooper has always been pretty enough to pull off a tutu!

Like anyone wearing a tutu should, Cooper was prancing around, so it was hard to get a pic that wasn't blurry. Despite the blur, you can see the look on his face and you know that he "feels pretty" in this pic!

Two cutie-patooties!

Reese thought she needed to get some backup blackmail pics just in case the ones on my camera didn't pan out...

A bit of overkill on the "pink kitties" with jammies AND rain boots!

Regardless of the ensuing chaos, Reese is infatuated with Baby Lauren and always wants to hold her. Baby Lauren looks a tad bit frightened, but she's usually a good sport and lets Reese hold her anyway.

I'm not real sure what was causing the stoic look on Reese's face, other than concentrating on holding Baby Lauren "just right."

Baby Lauren is almost as big as my baby Reese!

And finally, just some random pics I took today while the "happy girl" was doing her best to stall for naptime!

Whirlwind of a Week

2011-04-15T13:57:00.025-06:00

Last weekend, Pieces and I hopped on an airplane to go see Frumpy & Yack on the farm. When we got there, Shorty, Yack, and Frumpy greeted us at the airport and then we headed to Charleston's to meet up with Laura (Rother) Westermeyer and her daughter, Lucy. Reese thought Lucy was pretty cool, and they hit it off immediately.

All smiles from Pieces and Lucy on the way to the farm.

Since Reese slept on the plane, she wasted no time in heading straight out to the barn to get cake to feed the cows.

Unfortunately, the orphans weren't very cooperative, so Reese just had to wave to them instead of "feed...cows...hand" as she puts it.

We loaded up some cake and went off in search of some hungrier cows...and boy, did we find them! I LOVE the look on Reese's face in this pic--you can tell this kid is in cow heaven with Frumpy holding on to her as the cows come running to greet us.

And Pieces wasn't done feeding animals yet--she wanted to give carrots to Dandy and "ABC" (as Reese called B.C.), too.

Yackster heading out to the horses with his girl.

Dandy and ABC anxiously awaiting their carrots!

Here it comes!

Yack and Frumpy had to work some calves Saturday morning, so Reese and I amused ourselves by walking around the pond. I have never seen frogs this big--these things were huge! When we'd get within 10', they would fly out into the middle of the pond to Reese's delight. Who knew Frumpy and Yack also raised Jeremiahs? (There's a frog on the left side, too, sticking out of the hole.)

After we scared off all of the frogs, we went over to the cows that had been let out and started feeding them some cake (this kid never tires of it!)

Reese toting her bucket of cake--a girl's gotta pull her weight on the farm!

Bucket...is....heavy....NEED HELP!

The cows were a bit rambunctious this round (as opposed to last year when she was feeding them out of her hand), so Pieces was quite happy just putting cake out on the tailgate instead of sticking her hand up near their mouths.

You've heard of star gazing? Well, Reese prefers "cow gazing."

Not exactly the "traditional straw hat" that most farmers wear--this kid's got style (and having a personal stylist named Frumpy doesn't hurt, either!)

On Saturday, we went to Apache and met up with Bebe and Uncle Boob. We went down to Medicine Park to grab some lunch and then took Reese down to the river to feed the fish and geese.

Yackster helping Pieces get the fish food out.

Giving it a good toss into the water.

Pieces checking out the fish fighting over the food.

Reese thought the fish were okay, but Pete (Bob's dog) was by far her favorite animal of the weekend. She was still talking about Pete 3 days later.

Sunday was a blur of getting ready, getting to the airport, and then coming home to prepare for a long week. But it was worth not having much sleep to see Frumpy and Yack and let Pieces be a farm girl for a weekend.

As much as Reese liked being a farm girl, she still missed her girls. A pic of Pieces and Dora getting in some "puppy love" when we got home.

I guess Reese really took being a "farm girl" to heart, because on Monday morning when she got up, she wanted to wear her horsey jeans with the shirt with the boots on it. She added the piece de la resistance by putting on her rain boots to complete the look.

Fortunately, she tired of the rain boots before we left for school and decided her sparkly shoes would be just fine, but I couldn't resist getting another shot of this ensemble.

Outnumbered

2011-04-06T20:41:00.010-06:00

Tuesday night, we met Jill and Lauren and Cooper and Kim and Kate in Boulder for dinner. It was our first foray being out when the kids outnumbered the adults (yes, I usually do count Bubba as an adult.)

However, as ominous as it sounds, it really wasn't bad at all. Lauren seems to be quite a happy go lucky baby and I've hardly heard her make a peep unless she was hungry. And Miss Kate was a happy camper as long as I didn't get near her.

Cats aren't easy to heard, but cats in car seats are much easier to keep track of!

The cats were still long enough for me to take TWO whole pics!

Got a pic of one of many hugs between Reese and Cooper...

And now for the random pics...

I have been stripping Reese down after dinner and making her take her dirty clothes to the laundry room. Every time we take her clothes off, she proclaims "Naked baby!" and starts running around the house. The other night, she decided she'd do some cleaning while she was a "naked baby"...

I kept having flashbacks to the Seinfeld episode with the naked chic and the comment about "some things just are not meant to be done naked."

I'm not sure what the appeal is of rubber boots, but both Cooper and Reese have a fascination--bordering on obsession--with them. They especially like the boots when they're au naturel or in diapers as is Pieces in this pic...

Happy, Happy Girl!

Fun in the Sun

2011-04-02T13:26:00.023-06:00

Springtime is here! So today, we got out and hit the parks. Of course, we had to don a new outfit (from our most excellent stylist, Frumpy) and it HAD to have a big floppy hat.

We gave the new playground over by the Westminster Rec Center a whirl today...

Taking it all in...

A little breather to sit and play in the grass...

Serious Reesey...

"Serious" didn't last long...

Oh boy!

There MAY have been some tickling by mom right before this pic...

When I tell Reese that "I'm gonna get you!", she comes running TOWARD me instead of running away. I think she might like getting "got."

Yes, it appears as though she does enjoy it.

Of course, there's the obligatory "splat" that inevitably happens when she "runs"...

But, it's all good and we're up and "running" again...

This particular piece of playground equipment was definitely Reese's favorite.

Giving it a whirl.

Checking out the view...

...and what a nice view it was!

Oh so glad spring is here and so happy to have a computer up and working again! (Thanks, Bubba!)

It's About Time!

2011-03-19T14:17:00.019-06:00

I have been horrendous about blogging lately...BUT, in all fairness, my computer is on the fritz and NOW my camera has died as well (hooray about the camera, though! Hated that one anyway!)

Nonetheless, I did want to put up some really cute shots of Cooper and Reese when they were awaiting baby Lauren's arrival at the hospital. Hard to believe that's already been almost a month ago!

Baby Lauren was born on February 25th, around 8 p.m. We got up to the hospital just in time for all the "action" to start, and Reese and Cooper were feeding off of each other's energy despite how late it was.

Getting pics of these two smiling was sure easy this night!

Talk about an excited little boy!

Pooker's excitement is contagious.

Reese gives Cooper a congratulatory hug on becoming an older brother!

Welcoming baby Lauren into the fam!

Everyone is excited about the new baby as we're leaving the hospital..

Cooper stayed the night with us after the baby was born so he could go with us to the Colorado Railroad Museum the next day for their friend Zach's birthday party. They were so wound up after leaving the hospital that it took me about an hour to get them bathed in and bed and asleep.

Dora had just had ACL surgery, so were "camping out" downstairs on an air mattress. Reese dug it and Cooper thought it was pretty neat, too. However, after looking at the pic below, is it any wonder why I am the only one that didn't get any sleep this night? I decided the couch looked like a better option than trying to "scooch" anyone over...

Coop and Reese checking out the view of the other trains from the caboose where they were having Zach's Birthday Party.

Reese getting a little time with the Birthday Boy, Zach.

Reese & Coop digging into the birthday cake...they devoured that entire piece in about 5 minutes!

They had a million "real" trains at the Railroad Museum, but the kiddos were much more interested in the one mini one they could ride!

The Birthday Boy, Zach, showing Reese & Coop how to drive the train.

Pieces & Pooker taking a turn on the mini-train.

"Faster, Pooker, Faster!"

They had a huge miniature train set and tracks with tons of bridges.

Little boy, BIG train!

I think the kiddos had a big time at the party because they both crashed within 5 minutes of getting home despite the sugar rush from the cake!

Finally, just a couple of random pics I've taken of Reese over the last few weeks that I haven't had time to post.

Reesey doing her best "Mr. T" impression...

This girl LOVES the bling!

Had to put up a couple of pics of Reese in one of her Birthday shirts from Aunt Bebe and Uncle Boob--it looked so cute and she knew it!

Easy to get a smile from her when she's got "Sam's ball"....she loves the neighbor's Corgi, Sam, who is obsessed with playing fetch. She's never been around dogs that fetch. Every time we throw a ball in our house, Mia & Dora just look at us like "What? You threw it, YOU go get it!"

Now, off to get a new camera AND soon will be getting a new computer so I can find other excuses as to why I haven't been good about blogging!

Viva Las Vegas

2011-02-12T21:29:00.020-07:00

Last week, despite numerous obstacles, Reese and I made our way to Vegas to see Tressa, Tim, and Riley. Unbelievably, it has been NINE months since we saw them--basically half of Reese's life!

Although they hadn't been around each other much, Reese and Riley were fast friends. (It must be in their genes since it happened to T-Rex and me, too!) Just a few minutes after arriving at the condo, the girls were having a blast.

Much like the odd phenomenon in which I can seldom get a good picture of Pooker and Pieces both at the same time, Reese and Riley presented me with the same issues--one would look away while one gave me a brilliant smile. I guess I should just get more up to speed on my photoshop skills.

Since Reese was a world-champion traveler once again and slept during the entire duration of our plane ride, she was raring to go Friday afternoon. Thus, we set out for Circus Circus.

We hit the horsey carousel first, and Reese wasn't really much of a fan, so it was probably a blessing in disguise that she was 3 inches shorter than the minimum height requirement to get on most of the rides. Riley, however, was fearless--she hopped on every ride like she did it every day (which she might?)

There was much more playing to be had that night before bedtime (which, thankfully, was 8:30 for all of us except Tim...we are OLD!)

Lots of hugging...

Pieces fascinated with Riley.

On Saturday, Tim and Tress made the mistake of letting me pick what we were going to do that day. Since the weather was so gorgeous, I thought getting outside was the route to go and opted for the zoo. Little did I know that the "Vegas Botanical Zoo" was definitely NOT the real zoo. It was a complete farce! They basically had some poor little pygmy goats and a few pathetic monkeys that tried to avoid getting pooped on by all the pigeons.

No one believing that we paid money to get into this place.

Got a pic of Tim, Tress, Riley and Pieces--easy to smile when surrounded by something completely ridiculous.

And a final pic to "commemorate" our special trip to the "botanical zoo."

By far, Piece's favorite thing in Vegas was the monorail. From our room in the condo, we had floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the monorail "aka choo-choo" that ran every 5 minutes all through the day and night. Before we left on Sunday, we took the girls to ride the choo-choo.

I think me taking pictures was getting on Riley's nerves...

Love Riley in her pigtails!

We had a great time hanging out and it was so cute watching the girls play together. And, as Tress dubbed Tim, he really is "The Child Whisperer." Reese LOVED him. Every time Tim would leave the room, she'd ask for "Temmmmmm?" We vowed not to let another 9 month span go before getting together next time; and we're already looking forward to the Disney World trip in a few years!

Pooker Time

2011-01-23T13:39:00.019-07:00

It was snowing on Wednesday this week, so it messed up our weekly date with Jill and Pooker (and sometimes Jojo), and Pieces was having Cooper withdrawals. I knew it was bad on Friday when I told her we were going to get some dinner (aka take-out) and she started crying for Cooper when we got to the restaurant. So I vowed to get her some Pooker time and called to see if we could meet up for dinner Saturday night.

We met up at Carrabba's in Louisville (and THIS time Jill and I managed to go to the same one...) At dinner, Joel said when he told Cooper that they were going to dinner with Sarah-Reese, Cooper replied "Go eat dinner with Sarah-Reese then go stay with Sarah-Reese?" And who can turn down that cute face? So after dinner, we whisked Cooper away and took him home with us.

We weren't in the car 15 seconds before Pieces and Pooker were cracking each other up and laughing hysterically. And they continued laughing at each other for the next 2 hours.

Wound up on ice cream and adrenaline and reading books until I went hoarse, I finally got them both to bed around 8:45. Then I heard hysterical sobbing this morning at 5:30 a.m. and went in to find that Cooper had thrown blankie out of the crib and "just want blankie." I finally found blankie crammed between the back of the crib and the wall and made the rookie mistake of asking if he wanted to come into my room. He said "yes", so I told him to be very quiet and not wake up Reese. The next thing I heard was him whispering "Good morning, Reese, did you have good sleep?"

Although I explained to them both that the moon was still up and it was dark outside, so we had to go back to night-night, it was to no avail. The minute they saw each other, the giggling began and then the jumping commenced. At 6, I gave up and we went downstairs to have breakfast.

For having had very little sleep, they remained in good spirits and had fun playing for nearly 5 straight hours this morning. Here are some pics from their romping around.

Instead of saying "Cheese!", we tried howling like doggies...not so great for picture-taking.

Neither is making the "who, who who" sounds of an owl...

FINALLY! A good one of both of them...and in the same pic with no photo-shopping!

Soon after this pic, Jojo and Jilly got here to pick up Super Cooper. But first, we had to have a round of "Squish Uncle Bubba."

Cooper having no hesitation about hopping on pop.

Pieces joins in on the pouncing.

Tickles all the way around.

It was nice having Pooker here today to wear Reese out--she went down for a nap in 5 seconds flat and I got some things around the house done while he was entertaining her earlier.

The only usable pic I got from the OSU vs CU game last weekend. Pieces and Pooker holding hands for good luck? Guess we should have asked them to hold both hands because we needed more luck!

Had to take a pic of Pieces in one of her Christmas outfits from Frumpy and Grumpy. Ignore the blinding reverb from the flash, as this was in the elevator Monday morning on the way into school.

National Western

2011-01-15T16:09:00.033-07:00

Last Friday evening, Reese and I met up with Jojo, Jill, and Cooper to go to the National Western stock show. It's amuses to me think that we are now the "city folk" that we used to make fun of when we were showing animals at the fair.

The weather cooperated nicely for us and we got to the fair just in time for the Mutton Busting. We couldn't help but laugh about our attempt to watch the mutton busting last year, in which we had to leave immediately after they sang the Star Spangled Banner because the clapping and cheering freaked Cooper out. This year, however, was a completely different story. Pieces and Pooker were all about watching it up front and center. And it's oh-so-much fun to see the fair and animals through the eyes of a one-year-old and a two-year-old.

This pic cracks me up--Pieces was wowed! Who knew you could RIDE sheep!

Taking notes on what to do/what not to do so they can have the advantage next year!

Pooker's various faces while watching the mutton busting were cracking me up!

Pooker giving one of the lower scoring kids the obligatory "golf clap."

After watching the mutton busting, we headed over to the petting zoo. Getting her hands on the animals was more to Reese's liking; she doesn't understand why we couldn't pet all of the cows and horses like we do at Frumpy & Grumpy's house!

Pieces and Pooker and giving out the love.

They should have called this place the hugging zoo instead of the petting zoo since virtually every pic I have of Pieces is her hugging a goat or lamb.

More baby goat love...can't have anyone feeling left out!

The entire time Reese was in the pen with the goats and sheep, she just went around saying "MAAAAAA!!! MAAAA!!!!", even though she was staring at the chicken and rooster in this pic.

This pic catches her in the middle of a "MAAAA!"

Pieces quite interested in the baby goat drinking the wa-wa.

"Ugghhh! Mom and that stupid camera...I can't go anywhere without paparazzi!"

Another goat friend to say "hiyooooo" to.

Baa Baa Black Sheep Have You Any Wool? Reese has been singing/making me sing Baa Baa Black Sheep ever since we saw this guy last week.

Pieces making sure that Baa Baa Black Sheep feels the love as well.

Pieces petting a pint-sized Eeyore.

Reese telling me what the donkey says...

This tired little guy (or more aptly this extremely full little guy) was getting double the love.

Llama Llama, Cooper Cooper. I think Pieces may be channeling her inner-Mary Ellen since every word that has the Spanish "double l's" is pronounced like a "y". So hello is "hiyo" and Halle is "Hal-ye".

While Reese is primarily interested in anything that's breathing and furry, Coop's favorite things are the tractors like on Grumpy's farm. We were killing a little time while Jilly was rounding up a funnel cake, so we got a couple of pics of the kiddos in the tractor tires.

Reese and Coop both fit into the inner well of the tire this year, but I'd venture to bet they won't be able to get into them next year.

It was fun getting the kiddos out and letting them see/pet the livestock. Even better was watching Cooper give Jojo the signal for "ice cream cone" and Jojo not realizing what the signal was...since he pretty much invented it while showing Wilbur at the OKC fair.

Snow Daze

2011-01-14T17:00:00.013-07:00

My happy little snowbounny!

It's been a couple of wild weeks around here. Off work/school the week after Christmas, only to be snowed in for 3 days before going back. I suppose we could have tried harder to get out and about, but the thought of getting stranded somewhere with Reese made it much easier to just stay put. We finally got out on January 3rd and stopped at the McDonald's playland so Reese could get some sliding in. Unfortunately, the playground is still a bit out of her realm, but she had fun watching all the other kids run around.

Pic of Pieces at McDonald's playland after being snowed in for 3 days over New Year's.

Although the days before getting snowed in weren't exactly tropical, we still bundled up and got out to walk the dogs and play on the playground for a spell.

Oh so happy to be outside playing...

We do love the playground!

Last Saturday night, Pooker came to stay with us and then we headed out to The Children's Museum on Sunday morning. It was snowing like crazy Sunday, so we basically had the place to ourselves for an hour or so.

Pieces having fun in the treehouse.

Coop the cook whipping us up some pizza

It's a lot easier to be a chef if you can see over the counters.

Still cookin'

Coop going underground...literally. He found the tunnels and the gopher hole to crawl through.

Pieces finding an acorn and insisting that it was a "football!" Close enough, kiddo, close enough. Then again, she also insists that the Dairy Queen sign is a football.

Cooper finding another "football."

Pooker trying his hand at gardening.

I may or may not be up to something...

We got some good playtime in before heading up the highway to send Pooker home with Bubba and Jilly in the snowstorm! This time, however, we weren't sissies about getting out in it!

"HiYoooooo" (aka "hello")

2011-01-13T22:55:00.006-07:00

A couple of quick pics before I get to a "real" blog...

I wanted to take a pic of Reese yesterday morning in her dachshund outfit before we went to school. I asked her to sit down in her chair, but I did not ask her to give me this goofy face--she came up with it all on her own :)

We've reached a huge milestone around her this week...Reese now has enough hair that we can actually put a barret bigger than a fingernail in her hair. Perhaps some day I'll get her to leave it alone long enough to document it in a pic.

Reese's fascination with babies has gone farther. Last night, she found the "baby pac" and decided she needed to have it. She was cracking herself (and me) up with this hilarious big green paci in her mouth...

...and kept on hamming it up all the way to Boulder.

So glad the weekend is upon us so I MIGHT be able to catch up and put the last 2 weeks of pics on the blog!

Penguins & Butterflies

2010-12-29T14:14:00.019-07:00

Had to take a pic of Pieces in her penguin coat & outfit....soooooo cute! (You did good, Frumpy...as usual!)

We were planning on going to the Children's Museum with Pooker this morning, but Jill called and said he was under the weather, so we opted to save the Museum for another day. However, after staying at the house and catching up on a million chores, I was ready to get out and decided we'd try The Butterfly Pavilion since it's literally a mile from our house.

Pieces enjoying the front-and-center view of the fish.

I think she's not real thrilled that I've gotten out the camera again...

Upon entering the tropical rain forest where the butterflies are housed, Reese was quite intrigued as she spots some of the fluttering creatures.

I will never be able to get enough of that smirk!

Taking it all in as she strolls along.

Gotta stop for a better look.

Some of the flora and fauna...

...and a really cool moth from Ecuador. It was actually "sleeping" like this. And notice the tip of the wings--it's designed to look like snakes to help ward off predators.

"All right, I've seen the butterflies. What else ya got?"

Checking out the water fountain and the koi pond.

The butterflies were interesting, but I think the spinning coins were by far Reese's favorite...until they went down into the bank.

I tried to get Reese to hold "Rosie" the tarantula, but she wanted no part of it whatsoever. And she wasn't real sure about me holding the tarantula, either. So when I asked her to pose in the tarantula cutout, she was a bit unsure of that, too.

Grasshoppers, however, are much less scary and Reese gave me one of her million dollar smiles when posing in the grasshopper!

Hopefully Pooker will be feeling better tomorrow and we can get down to The Children's Museum to play, as the Butterfly Pavilion was a bit slow for Piece's tastes.

Somebody Must Have Been Really Good....

2010-12-28T13:44:00.016-07:00

...because Pieces hit the goldmine over Christmas. I'm not sure she really even needs to be good for Santa because she has Frumpy and Grumpy (and Grumpy doesn't care about that "being good" stuff!)

Frumpy/Grumpy (similar to SarahReese) got in about 2 Friday afternoon, so Jill and Jojo dropped Pooker off at the house to take a nap while they went to pick up Frumpy/Grumpy. I was doing my best impression of being a domestic goddess and cooking--hopeful that the food would be good enough to help everyone overlook the clutter all over the house. (I swear, it does absolutely no good to clean everything up as long as you have a 1-year-old within arm's length.)

Jojo and Jilly got back with Frumpy/GrumpyAnyway around 4, and Pooker and Pieces got up from their naps in time to play with Frumpy/Grumpy for about an hour before dinner was ready. The turkey went "ding" around 5 and we all sat down to a nice meal. I'm pretty sure Pieces only ate mac'n cheese and rolls, but I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. Pooker stood up after being quiet (and in one place) for about 30 minutes and said "Thank you for cooking up this dinner." Ahhhh, such a sweet boy!

This sweet boy, however, was the same one that declared "Reese, you should know better!" when she knocked over some of the blocks Cooper was playing with. The quote machine continued on a few minutes later with "Reese, you're driving me crazy!" after Reese got in the way of Cooper's playing once again. Reese may have been driving Cooper crazy, but Cooper's quotes were leaving the rest of us in hysterics!

After several more hours of playing and a round of baths, Bubba, Jill, and Pooker went north to Longmont to get ready for Santa to make his appearance. Meanwhile, Pieces caught some z's despite her anticipation of Santa and his reindeer.

Santa did, in fact, stop by our house that evening. And, thankfully Santa had some help (known as Grumpy) in putting together Piece's new ride since Santa had to skedaddle and get on down the road. Even with Grumpy's fortitude in "following directions", it still took a couple of hours to assemble Reese's new ride, a tricked-out-trike!

I wonder if she'll still have this big of a smile on her face when she turns 16 and gets a bicycle? :)

Grumpy taking Pieces out for her first ride on her trike from Santa.

In addition to an entire wardrobe of awesome clothes, Reese also got some really cool toys from Frumpy and Grumpy. One of which, was a tiger that's almost as big as Dora. I'm sure Dora will appreciate the cat giving some "rides" instead of her.

Pieces smirking as she rides on her new "kitty kitty kitty!" She apparently didn't inherit my tiger allergy...

Getting some love from Grumpy and Elsie.

We finally got cleaned up and headed out to Longmont on Christmas morning around 11. (It takes awhile to load up 5,000 presents!) When we arrived, we thought it best that we get a good start on opening up some presents!

Pooker digging the walking/roaring dinosaur Frumpy & Grumpy got him.

Frumpy getting some help from Pooker opening her present.

Frumpy cracking herself up....something about vegetables???

Anna-Banana once again outdid herself and sent presents to Pooker and Pieces. Reese's outfit is adorable and I can't wait to get her toy hooked up and running. Cooper's toy was hilarious--the perfect toy for a wanna-be "Tigger" that is constantly bouncing on his own. Mom gives him a little help in this clip:

We had a Christmas that was as great as it was fast and furious. I didn't do a very good job of capturing many of the festivities on film since it was 90 mph, but the moments in my head will last forever. Thanks for everyone for the wonderful gifts and I hope your Christmas was as memorable as ours.

Zoo Lights & Borrowing Pooker

2010-12-19T21:00:00.001-07:00

I'd been hearing a lot about Zoo Lights lately, and since Pieces has been so into the lights lately, I decided to take her to check them out. On Tuesday night, it was a wonderful 65 degrees, so Pieces and I loaded up and went to the zoo after I picked her up from school.

I tried to get a pic of Reese while we were at Zoo Lights, but all of the bright, shiny objects were very distracting!

I am not often impressed by things, but Zoo Lights was really cool! In addition to having thousands of lights in the trees, they also had all of these "animals" scattered around the park.

Of course, Reese's favorite zoo light animal was the "kitty kitty kitty!" Check out Reese's awesome new fleece Patagonia jacket from Becky--she loves that it doubles as a blanket and a jacket!

On Saturday, Reese and I were bored and hadn't had enough Pooker time lately, so we called Jill and Jojo up and asked if we could borrow him. Pooker came home with us after lunch and gave the monkey bars a thorough workout. After some pizza, we loaded up and went back to Zoo Lights. I think only us and 3 million other people did the same, but we managed to get out and see some lights and walk around the park despite the throngs of people.

I didn't get any pics at Zoo Lights because I was too busy herding the cats, but once I got them strapped into their car seats after Zoo Lights, we got a pic to prove that everyone still had smiles on their faces!

My 2 kiddos were done after we got home from Zoo Lights, so they got baths and were immediately put into bed. I was amused thinking about the "not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" line since they were both out cold as soon as their heads hit the pillows.

Thankfully, everyone slept until 7 this morning and were quite happy when they woke up. We gave every toy some attention and made especially good use of the monkey bars. I'm glad that Cooper gives it a workout since Pieces isn't really "there" yet...

We decided to meet up in Boulder at the 29th Street Mall for lunch and to let the kids run around the play area for a bit:

Pooker and Pieces getting their climb on as Jojo watches.

Serious Pooker...

"I see you down there with that camera trying to blind me!"

And then we hit Pei-Wei's to refuel. Pieces is not a fan of Chinese Food...so oranges were her favorite part of the meal.

Pooker's best Paul Frank imitation.

We had fun playing with Pooker this weekend and look forward to seeing him and the rest of the family more this upcoming weekend!

180 MPH.

2010-12-17T21:48:00.035-07:00

It seems with short nights and so much to get done on the weekend that I've been very lax in catching up on my blog, so here's a mishmash of the things we've seen and done in the past few weeks.

On December 4th (after visiting Santa in the morning), we bundled up and met Kim, Terry, and Zach downtown for the Parade of Lights. Having never been a fan of parades, I wasn't exactly gung-ho about standing out in the cold, but I figured Reese might get a kick out of it (and kept in mind that I could always tell her it was over and leave!) Bad mama!

Anyway, turns out I was totally impressed. Maybe I've just been going to the wrong kind of parades...you know, the ones were someone piles a bunch of unwashed kids in the back of a truck and hangs some tin cans around the trailer hitch and call it a "float." The Parade of Lights was nothing like that. It was a really cool parade with marching bands and balloons and a gazillion lights.

Nugget and Pieces gazing intently at the parade.

Pieces chillin' in her chair after the Denver Parade of Lights. Probably needing to catch her breath after dancing to ALL of the marching bands in the parade!

We finally got the Christmas tree up last week as well. I decided we could at least get the lights on it one evening and then Reese could have her bath and go to bed. I undressed her and told her it was bath time and she thought running around the tree naked was much more fun than going upstairs to get in her bath.

No, Santa, I really have been good!

Nekkid baby looking awfully onery...

My friends, Bill and Chris Houston, were in town from Bangkok and we met them out at "Chez Brey" Friday night for dinner. Zach and Reese were having fun with "the big kid" and I actually got to talk to everyone else instead of chasing Reese around!

Closest I could get to getting all 3 of them to look at the camera.

Zack and Pieces getting entertained by Uncle Spidey-Bill while taking their bath.

Hanging out on Zack's Thomas ride before heading home and going night-night.

It was pretty chilly last weekend, so we got up Sunday morning and ran down to the Children's Museum to get some of our energy out.

Loving the bubbles at the Children's Museum

Aunt Becky came over Sunday to help us decorate the tree and hit Pasta Jay's for some tasty fare. After we finished decorating the tree, we took a few pics in front of our masterpiece.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but we have managed to go and do a lot!

Naughty or Nice?

2010-12-04T17:10:00.010-07:00

After visiting The Children's Museum a few weeks ago with Shannon and Jaxson, I decided to get a membership because it was a great place to go to entertain Pieces during the cold, winter months. Fortunately for me, the timing worked out great because they had a "Members-Only" hour this morning and we to be the first in line for pictures with Santa.

A few pics of Reese in her Christmas outfit with her pups before leaving for the museum.

I really do need a better camera! So frustrating to get 2 dogs and a 1-year-old to pose perfectly only for the camera to blur one of the pups!

This girl loves her puppies!

Awwww...hugging MiaMiaMia!

Pieces got about 45 minutes of playtime in at the museum before we had to get in line for Santa. This kid has one serious smirk!

We were about tenth in line to see Santa, so the wait was minimal. I thought that if I explained to Reese what we were going to do, it would help out. Unfortunately, while I was "splaining", one of the girls in front of us started bawling hysterically when she was put on Santa's lap. And, being the sympathetic child that she is (no idea where she gets that!), Reese started crying, too. I finally got her calmed down about the time it was her turn, but the minute she got put on Santa's lap, the tears started pouring.

Poor Pieces! She wants NO part of Santa or his stinking elves! She was, however, somewhat interested in the goody-bag full of treats that the elf gave her after she sat on Santa's lap.

After we exited the room with Santa in it, I asked her if she wanted to stay and play. She gave me an emphatic "No!", so we headed out to get away from the man in the red suit.

Apparently this Santa only needed one reindeer to fly around, and the reindeer was out front for us to see as we were leaving.

I think I was more interested in the reindeer than Reese was...I had never seen one in person before and thought it was pretty cool. (I can't say "pretty cool" without hearing the SNL chic doing her Miley Cyrus imitation...)

Or the issue could have been that Ms. Clause was in with the reindeer and Reese had had enough of people in red suits!

Rudolph likes hay, who knew?

I now feel I have completed my obligation as a parent to make sure I have at least one "sit on Santa's lap and cry" photo. I can't help but wonder if the reason Jojo was terrified of all the people dressed up like characters at Disney because of an early encounter with Santa that left him scarred for life? :)

November Has Come and Gone

2010-12-04T14:15:00.007-07:00

November was a blur -- it seems like it just got here, yet it's already gone. Reese is pretty keen on football these days, so I snapped some pics of her in her Champ Bailey Broncos jersey one afternoon.

She's more interested in playing fetch than the dogs are...

Thought this was a cool pic--yes, I realize there's too much light coming in and it's over-exposed, but it still seems a bit ethereal.

Mia was sitting on the couch--just chilling--when Dora decided she was going to sit on the couch, too. And she proceeded to sit directly on top of Mia. I thought she needed a dose of her own medicine, so I sat Reese on top of Dora.

Every time we go to King Sooper's, Reese gets a balloon. For some reason this day, she wasn't about to let it go and continued to hang on to it the entire time she ate her snack.

Pieces & Pooker at The Children's Museum

2010-11-13T21:08:00.040-07:00

My friend, Shannon, invited Reese and me to go to The Children's Museum with her and Jaxson (one of Reese's schoolmates) this weekend. From what I'd heard about it, I thought Pooker would enjoy it, too, so Jill dropped him off this morning and off went Pieces, Pooker, and me to test it out.

This place really is awesome for kids--they can run around and get into everything without getting into trouble. When we first went in, we headed upstairs to where the bigger kid stuff was (just to check it out) and found the "Whole Foods Store" where they had pint-sized shopping carts and even aprons for the kids to wear.

The kiddos digging the little shopping carts.

Pieces checking out the produce.

Cooper likes "cake" so much he'll even try to eat a plastic piece of cake!

I guess plastic oranges are really exciting!

More produce picking...

...and more...

This is where it got a little scary--the shopping carts really should be marked with warning signs. Mia and Dora should thank their lucky stars that the only things Reese tries to ram them with are plastic instead of metal shopping carts!

Got a clip of the out-of-control driving Pieces was doing with her shopping cart.

After Mr. Toad's Wild Shopping Cart Ride, we decided to move on downstairs to the 0-4 year old area so we wouldn't be quite as lethal. But we didn't go without a fight. When I took Reese's shopping cart away, she threw a walleyed fit! It was almost like I'd tried to serve her roast and potatoes and carrots again for dinner.

Once I wrangled Reese downstairs, she soon saw that her Mama was right! (It may be the last time I am ever right according to her.) There was an entire floor marked off for the little guys...and it essentially had padded walls for all sorts of bumping into.

Coop and Reese were liking the pillows in the reading room. However, there was absolutely no way either one of them was going to sit still long enough to even think about opening a book.

Reese looks outside one of the stores where they could get stuff from the garden.

There was even a boat with fish!

Shannon getting Jaxson and Reese settled in the boat. I love this sequence of clips with Reese and Jaxson "fishing" in their boat...

Got to get the fishing rods going

Jaxson reels in a big one!

Got our fish and we're done!

One of the few pics I got of Cooper that wasn't just a blur of orange running by! He was digging the letters that had a ball inside that you used a magnet to drag around.

Two things amused me about this clip: 1) You get to see Reese when she gets mad that the ramp won't "let her climb up it" and spanks it and 2) This clip is NOT sped up--this was Coop's actual speed for 2 straight hours this morning. I wish I had his energy.

Pieces checking out the tunnel.

Um, yeahhhhh, I have no idea WHAT this was all about, but it sure did make me grin!

Playing is SUCH hard work. Shannon offered Reese and Jaxson some Puffs and they pretty much inhaled them!

This was so funny to me...we left the Museum and Coop and Reese held hands practically all the way home. (Yes, I did take it while driving but I did not turn around to do so--I just snapped a few pics and hoped one of them would turn out.) Hopefully someday Coop will remember that Riley is supposed to be his first wife and Reese will remember that she is betrothed to Nugget already and we don't have to worry too much about them being "kissing cousins." j/k They really do like`each other!

It was a great day and I think I'm just going to buy a membership to the Children's Museum since it will be a great place to take the kiddos during the cold weather.

Finally, had to post a couple of pics of Pieces in the cute jacket that Jill brought her from Alaska! Thanks Jilly, it's awesome!

Long Lost Cousins

2010-11-11T21:02:00.009-07:00

Jojo and Pooker were in Oklahoma last week while Jilly was in Alaska visiting her newest niece, and Pieces was having severe Cooper withdrawals. Every day this week, she has said "Cooper? Cooper?" at least a couple of times. This morning, she even got the "Bubba?" in there. So when Jill emailed this afternoon to see if we could meet up, we hopped on the invite and met up with the Longmont crew.

Coop dishing out the hugs and kisses to Reese.

I'm not sure what the look on Coop's face is about, but it cracked me up! You can kind of see Reese's "owie" that had to have ER attention on the left side of her forehead....I think she'll make a full recovery so her modeling career isn't in jeopardy.

Reese going in for the "hug" with Cooper.

Pooker not understanding why Pieces won't stand by him for a pic!

In the process of herding cats...

...hooray, we got the cats herded long enough for one snapshot.

The girl is nice and "colorful" today...but very warm. I was amused at Bubba telling Pieces he "almost wore the exact same pants!"

Good to see the crew tonight and hopefully we'll see them again this weekend despite the cruddy weather.

Elephants are Big

2010-11-07T19:42:00.025-07:00

Mice are little. Or so says Reese's book, "Big Little." So yesterday, Reese and I went to the zoo to checkout the elephants and see just how big they were.

The weather could not have been more picture-perfect yesterday...especially considering it's November in Colorado. The last time I took Reese to the zoo, she hadn't yet learned to walk and she didn't really "see" many of the animals. This trip, however, was completely different.

Since we were there with the opening rush at 10:00 a.m., we opted to do the zoo in a counter-clockwise direction and were instantly rewarded for our decision. This tiger and her 4 awesome cubs were out playing. They were born in May and are full of energy...and the momma tiger just sat there looking like she could use a drink. (ha)

The first thing Reese did when she saw them was give out a big "ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!"

Lots of babies are now at the zoo---including these 2 new giraffes!

Pieces had a blast being untethered and getting to roam around anywhere she went.

I finally got a shot of her "waving to her friends" like we do to the cows at Frumpy's and Grumpy's.

She found lots of "friends" at the zoo, although she didn't understand why we couldn't feed or pet these friends like we do the cows.

She likes "kid-watching" as much as she likes "animal-watching." As we were walking around the zoo, she would say "Hi!" to every passerby.

This little boy was hopping like a kangaroo in front of the sign. Reese didn't understand why he was jumping, but she was intrigued nonetheless.

Taking a little timeout to enjoy the scenery...

...a very little timeout since she's way too busy to actually sit for over 10 seconds at a time.

I had never actually seen flamingos before--thought they were pretty cool!

We happened upon the elephants while their trainers were showing us their bag of tricks.

Reese was a little concerned when she saw Mimi climbing over the fence...

Reese found all sorts of fun places to explore at the zoo.

And this was the jubilant expression on her face the majority of the time we were checking out all of Reese's "friends."

I hadn't even pulled out of the parking lot before this little animal-lover was out cold.

It's amazing to me how much fun the zoo is now that I get to see it through Reese's eyes. Looking forward to checking out "Zoo Lights" with the family at some point this Holiday Season.

Fall 2010

2010-10-31T20:57:00.014-06:00

It has been an insane couple of weeks, but we have survived. Actually, now that I think about it, it's only been 1 week--it just feels like it's been 2 or 3.

Reese loves "moos", and last week we were in Oklahoma for 24 hours--long enough to go to Mar-Mar's funeral and to go feed the cows before we got back on a plane to Colorado. I took a video of Reese feeding cake to the calves--just makes me smile watching her dig it so much. And I was amazed at how gentle these calves were with her (the older, piggier cows, not so much!)

By Sunday, we'd recuperated for the most part and played outside most of the day before Halloween. We had a bunch of leaves to rake up, but had some fun doing our work.

Dora substituting as Reese's horse.

My wonderful neighbors Julie, Andre, and Melanie.

Reese getting some "Dora-Love"

A couple of pics with all my girls...

They may knock her down and bowl her over, but at the end of the day, Pieces loves her doggies!

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T20:38:00.031-06:00

After a much-anticipated wait for Halloween, it was finally time to get Pieces all dressed up in her costume. After her bath, she got dressed and we had a few minutes to wait before it got dark enough for trick-or-treating. While we were waiting, Reese decided she needed to get a ride in...

I can't tell if it's "go-go-go!" that she's saying or she's trying to say giddy up.

I tried to get Reese to pose with her stuffed cow, but she wasn't liking it...

After her horse ride, we went out on the porch to wait for trick-or-treaters. We saw some trick-or-treaters across the street and Reese couldn't figure out why they weren't coming to see her.

A heifer and her dogs...

Does this mean that Mia and Dora are officially "cow dogs?"

The look on Mia's face reminds me of that Halloween email with dogs in costumes saying "This is why dogs eat their owners..."

Nearing bedtime....my little cow is getting sleepy and rubbing her eyes.

Tired little heifer. I hope that she got a little "taste" of how fun Halloween can be, despite the crying episodes every time the scary goblins rang the door.

Go (Home) Broncos!

2010-10-24T19:16:00.021-06:00

My buddy, Tony, hooked me up with Broncos tickets and Joel, Jill, and I took Pooker and Pieces to see the football game. Fortunately, we had a nice 70 degree day today before the storms roll in tonight.

The game started at 2:15, which meant that we had to leave the house at 1:15--smack dab in the middle of nap time. Reese went down for a nap with a fight, so she really only got about a 30 minute nap before we had to scoop her up and put her in the car and I'm not sure that Cooper slept a wink. Lucky for us, VIP parking also came along with Tony's VIP tickets, so we basically got to parking which let us drive up and practically park next door to the stadium.

Pieces getting comfy with Uncle Bubba for the game.

We were happy to get there for the very start of the game since 0-0 was the only time it was considered close. The Raiders scored on their opening drive and then the Broncos threw an interception that got ran back on what seemed like the very next play. And it just got uglier from there. I think the score was 31-0 Raiders before the first quarter was over.

Reese and Cooper were getting restless and I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything by not watching the game, so we went to the clubhouse to walk around. During our walk, I found the Champ Bailey jerseys and made the mistake of trying them on Reese and Cooper. I knew I was going to buy them, but by that point I think the Broncos should have been paying people to wear them. The game was seriously terrible...and I went to OSU during the days of Pat Jones being the head coach.

Pieces wondering how high the numbers on the scoreboard can go...

Pooker loving on his mommy!

Reese got bored with the game but was very interested in all of the guys behind us. Every time I looked up, she was high-fiving a couple of kids on the row above.

The game was a wash, but Coop and Reese were a hit when we were leaving--everybody was making comments about them. And how could they not, right?

We wanted to get a pic of Reese and Coop after the game, but snapping that pic is a very elusive chore. If one's sitting still, the other's running 90 mph. However, we did manage to get a couple of cute shots of them.

Enough posing, the rocks are more interesting...

...and we're done. The kiddos were troopers despite not having naps today. We made it through the game and dinner (takeout, of course--we're not stupid) without any meltdowns.

The game wasn't the greatest, but it's still neat to get to go check out the atmosphere and let Pieces and Pooker get to people-watch and "watch football game!"

And, finally, a sneak-peak....of what Reese is NOT going to be for Halloween...

Apparently lions can lead you to water

Pieces checking her bad-lion-self out in the mirror.