I'm the mom of a toddler...what??

As much as I love summer fun, I'm really excited for fall to start.  I love when the weather cools down, the leaves change, and let's be honest...the food! I love being able to use my kitchen without working up a sweat!  I thought I was excited for last year's festivities, I can't wait for this year! Reese grows every day and his funny little personality always makes me smile.  He's about 17 months now...I say the words but it doesn't seem possible that he's that old.  Please tell me time slows down eventually because otherwise my emotions can't handle it! I also can't keep up with all of his milestones.  The most fun has been his talking :) He started talking at 10 months with the normal mama and dada, then bye-bye and hi followed close behind.  He'd wave bye-bye backwards to make sure he did it right :) His next word was puppy, which was so cute because he'd always whisper it, it sounded more like pupp-hee.  Then of course uh oh, baby, ball (his favorite toy), nana (his favorite food), please (one of my personal favorites), yes, no (not so much of a favorite), tractor (Morgan was very proud!), thanks, dog, kitty, touch, ow, pa/papa (for grandpa) and just recently he learned how to say his name when people ask...seriously it melts my heart every time! He also said mommy and daddy funny...it's more like dad-eye and mom-eye, which I guess is how it's said in Portuguese so that's cool! Now I can't even keep up with all the words he says because he'll repeat just about anything.  I'm holding my breath for the first time he says something like "turd" (not my word) in public! Oh he also knows and recognizes "stinky" and "wet", and while he does announce those in public, I'm really hoping it's an early sign that potty-training is coming!  So obviously Reese became quite the chatterbox early on, but he had NO interest in walking until about 14 months, and he "officially" (meaning taking more than 2 steps) started walking on my birthday, which was the best present! Now he runs...everywhere.  And he also discovered that hiding from Mom is SUPER fun! ...So that's great :P Since I'm on a bragging rant, I'm going to continue :) 

Reese loves loves loves fruits and vegetables...and he'll chose steak over french fries any day.  I'm thankful that so far he's not a picky eater.  I'm sure that will change but for now I enjoy being able to feed him whatever we're eating.  Some of his favorite hobbies...getting into everything, throwing balls, snuggling with his "B" (aka stuffed animals, but mostly his bear Santa gave him for Christmas...that started around 1 year and I'm not sure where he came up with it but its adorable), playing with cars, going for walks, swimming/taking baths, making shopping a nightmare, and riding in the tractor with daddy!

Funny story about B...when school started back up again I started watching my friends baby during the day, for the extra income plus I'm hoping it'll help me and Reese when we decide we're ready for another baby :) anyway...tangent...I was laying Reese down for a nap and he burped and spit up on himself, me, and B.  It was quite traumatizing but the worst of it was me deciding that he could take a nap without his B.  He cried for the hour it took to get that bear washed and (mostly) dried.  Once he had the bear back in his crib he fell right asleep...little turkey.

Now that everyone has stopped reading because I went on and on about Reese...let's see what else has happened.  We got a puppy in March...Breezy is a Lhasa Apso and Mini Schnauzer mix and she's quite the spitfire but that's been fun.  Now that Reese isn't so tipsy he likes playing and running around with her.  Ellie needed some time to adjust but I think she likes having a playmate.  

We've also done quite a bit of work on the house...as soon as Morgan was able to ditch the crutches he ripped our master closet out and started building a new one!  Then we put in carpet, new baseboards and crown molding, painted the walls and ceiling and ta-da...brand new room!  Then we got a new bed and now I have a much harder time getting up in the morning :)

Anyway, there's still so much more to come but for now...have a nice day!! :)

Where did the last 6 months go???

Ok needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) I'm way behind! My baby is almost 10 months old! So much has happened I don't even know where to start.  I think I've been putting off writing because just thinking about how much Reese has grown gets me all teary-eyed.  He is such a little man now...no more snuggly tiny baby :( But I am loving how much fun he is!  But now I'm getting ahead of myself...here's a little recap of the last 6 months... (Warning: major picture overload)

Rexburg Rapids for Aunt Courtney's Bday in August

Riding in the tractor with Daddy for the first time!

And of course falling asleep in the tractor :)

Lagoon! No Dippin' Dots for Reese...sorry buddy

Cabin trips...relaxing, playing games and watching movies.  Doesn't get much better!

I don't think our little man will ever have to worry about not feeling loved :)

Eastern Idaho State Fair

Emotion Bowl...go Skyline!

We bought a house! We hadn't really been planning for a while but the money kind of came together and I started looking online and immediately fell in love with this cute starter house.  It was one of the first ones we looked at, we looked around some more but kept coming back to this house.  They accepted or second offer and we closed on October 10th!  I thought having a baby made me feel all grown-up...buying a house made me feel old! lol  Moving was quite an ordeal...babies have so much stuff! But we are so happy here  :) My next post will be the projects we've completed so far (I'm actually writing this while carpet is being put in our bedroom yay!)

Picking pumpkins! 

Happy Halloween!  There aren't enough of us for the whole cast of the Wizard of Oz (nor will there ever be!)  I am proud to say I made all of the costumes!

Rawr!

Six months old and growing way too fast

Eating yummy rice cereal for the first time!

Family pictures (thank you Karly!)

The day after Thanksgiving, I was at home getting ready to go to the cabin for the weekend and he calls telling me he's going to Community Care because he hurt his ankle, but he was pretty sure it wasn't broken.  Come to find out, not only was it broken, he was going to need surgery.  It was a rough couple months but I think it helped us appreciate each other and we grew closer. But I'm so glad it's over :)

Merry Christmas to all!  There's no feeling quite like Christmas time and I had no idea how much fun holidays are with little ones.  Reese didn't really know what was going on and it still was a blast!  

Best Christmas present ever! But Morgan's already regretting getting it for me lol

Loving the Christmasy feeling at the cabin

First time sledding...Reese wasn't sure what to think

But he does love the snow machine! He's his daddy's boy for sure!

So much has happened in the last 6 months!  It's been a wild adventure but I'm so grateful for my little family.  Morgan and Reese make me so happy and I'm so thankful that they're stuck with me :)