May's Update

OLIVIA is still crawling around, standing up on everything, but is starting to "cruise", meaning that she's walking along the couches, chairs, or whatever she can stand up on. She's such a fun little girl with a BIG personality. She gets very jealous when Emma and I are cuddling - she wants to be on it too and starts to hit. She loves to bite her daddy's fingers and "groom" him, like she's a mother gorilla or something. It's really funny. She loves to crawl around with Alex & Emma, playing "puppy". She's great at playing peek-a-boo and singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Adorable doesn't begin to describe that cute baby girl.

EMMA is starting preschool tomorrow! I've been doing things with her at home, but it's time for me to allow her the opportunity to make some friends outside her siblings. Our stake was recently re-organized and we still don't know which ward we're in, so my chances for making more friends at church have been limited. I'm really excited for her, I know that she's going to love having fun with other kids. She's a very sweet, tender-hearted beautiful little girl, and thinks her big brother is the coolest person ever. Emma follows Alex around everywhere, I love it.

ALEX just finished first grade! I can't believe it, he's growing up much too fast. He's going to be attending a reading group put on by the school district four days a week for the month of June. I'm really excited for him. His reading level was tested towards the end of school and most kids scored between 35-40 and Alex scored at 82. I signed up both he and Emma for the town summer reading program and Alex has read 7 books in the past two days. He's really excited to get the prizes! Alex and I will also be meeting a friend of mine and her kids for movie days once a week as well. He's working on memorizing the Articles of Faith, he has the first two down pretty well so far, not bad for a 6 year old anyways! He's such a good boy and we love him very much!

TONY is officially enrolled in college. He's got a very full schedule and we're really excited to start this new adventure. For the month of June, he's taking English 101 and Intermediate algebra. For July, he's taking English 102 and maybe Sociology (hopefully his prior credit will transfer so he doesn't have to take it!). And we've already enrolled him for fall classes - starting August, he's taking College Algebra and Biology 101. And we don't have to pay a cent. Because of his income and our family size, he qualifies for the Pell Grant, which has/will paid for his tuition, books and some supplies (like a $200 calculator he'll need soon) for at least the next couple of years, and probably towards future years. Unfortunately, little, if any, of the law enforcement schooling that he did in academies will transfer towards a biology degree. Such a bummer. But we have a course plan set out for the next 2 1/2 years, which after that he'll transfer to a university as a junior and do probably two more years there, if not a semester less. And then he plans to apply for med school. We've discussed the possibility of dentistry, but he's also interested in anesthesiology. We've considered Stanford (Anesthesia) as a goal. Seriously. I know that it sounds like a long ways off, but the next 9/10 years (Stanford would add more) are going to fly by. He'll be working full-time the next 4ish years until med school, then he'll have a full school schedule and won't have the time to work, so we'll have to live off loans for the med school years. But the way we look at it (and what well educated friends in the same situation have told us, is that) paying $1300.00 a month in student loans when you're bringing home $12,000.00 a month (dentistry; more than double that if he goes for anesthesiology, which is min. $315K/year). So it will be time well spent. . But what is exciting is that he will be making great money being his own boss and getting to spend more time with our family. Oh the fun we'll have together. And the money that we'll get to put away for retirement/traveling. And we plan to pay for our kids' mission(s; Alex, and the girls if they choose!) & at least each of their four-year degrees (but we're hoping for scholarships!). And showing our children that education is important to us - that will be a priceless lesson to teach/show them. We've got goals. And they're awesome :)

ME . . . I'm busy trying to keep it all together, taking care of the usual, taking care of it all while my hubby is working hard on our future. I admit it, I'm pushing him pretty hard to do all of this schooling, but he and I both want a better future...and honestly, my hubby is a super smart guy, his intellect is very impressive and it's time he puts it to good use. :) I really appreciate and admire his willingness to work so hard to better our family situation. I feel so much better about our future now that we have some goals set. We just wish we had set these goals 5 years ago! But NOW is a good time to start on them. :)

So that's the Reese's as of May 25, 2010. It's going to be a very busy and stressful and wonderful and exciting next decade or so, but we're going to take it day . . . by day. . . by day. Good times :)

So many blessings, so much to be grateful for. Our future is bright, and we're very excited to get started :)

Curls galore

These pictures are dedicated to my sister-in-law Marcy,

who is the mother of Megan, Emma's little curly haired twin. :)

Livvy's got lots of curls too!

February & March 2010

Emma talking to her Papa (my dad).


Emma & Livvy playing - Emma was teaching Livvy to clap. Have you ever seen two sisters who look so different? Poor Livvy has eczema on her face - it's more under control now, poor baby :(

Livvy and I enjoying girl time @ Alex's first Flag Football game!

Go Alex, Go!! :)

Emma and Livvy

Emma & Livvy...if you don't currently speak 2 y/o, Emma's pulling Livvys swing up & saying "Ready, GO!". It's a game they play. I'm so sad the movie is dark, but you get the idea. And listen closely and you'll hear Livvy giggle. My girls are CUTE! :) Enjoy!

Sisters

Poor Livvy wasn't feeling well and Emma was thoughtful enough to give Livvy a blessing. hahaha Apparently Emma's been given and seen her daddy give his family blessings plenty of times.

Her blessing went like this:

"Wivvy, la la la la la thankful for day la la la la Amen."

At least her heart was in the right place.

What a great big sister Livvy has!

Nasty

I've set up a little "changing station" for Livvy next to my bed. It's made up of a 4 drawer plastic Rubbermaid thing that's stocked with diapers, wipes, burp rags, blankets and a touch lamp on top. It comes in pretty handy when the little one wakes me up at night and I'm still not awake while trying to change her diaper & feed her.

This afternoon, I was trying to catch a little bit of a nap, but was awakened by the feeling of something cold on my rear. A little startled, I rolled from my left side to my right to find Emma at my bedside. She had gotten out several wipes and decided that I needed a cleaning. I looked at her with a questioning look in my eyes, and she got in my face and said "MOMMY NASTY", and went back to (I guess) attempting to change my diaper - (which kinda looks like a diaper...I'm still wearing pads since I'm still graced with that fabulous 3 week period after having a baby).

And yes, nasty is Emma's new favorite word. Everyone's nasty...Alex nasty, Dada nasty, this world is just nasty.

Two-year olds are awesome like that. Or at least mine is.

Our Big Girl

Emma's been considering potty-training! Yay!! She just turned 2 in January, but seriously, if I can get her mostly potty-trained by the time this next little girl arrives, that'll be awesome! She'll usually tell me if she needs to go, or we'll notice her holding her diaper and/or grunting, so we'll take her into the bathrooom and sit her on her little potty. She's really doing great! She wants to take her clothes & diaper off several times a day, which is kinda blah, but I'm willing to play along if she'll go in her potty! I took some cute pictures of her on her cute pink pot, but my camera is being dumb and didn't transfer them to my computer and now they're gone :( Grrrr! Either way, here's a cute picture of her just after she did her doo. :D With her super relaxed personality, I had anticipated her taking forever to take interest in potty-training, considering that it took her almost a year to start crawling, but it's really all about her. Alex potty trained at 2 1/2...one day he woke up, decided he didn't want a diaper anymore and has had only 2 accidents that I can think of since then, and he's almost 6! But that's just his little personality...once he decides to do something, there's no going back. But really, I'm in no rush for my cute kids to grow up...they're growing too fast as it is!

HORRAY FOR EMMA!

Bye bye, baby frizz!

Emma got her first haircut! Yes, she's 2 years old, but her hair has grown slower than anything else on her little body! At least it's finally coming in. She still had some of her newborn frizz and it was becoming really hard to manage, so I decided to cut it off! I actually just had her in the bathtub and went thru the back of her hair and layered it. She also had a random longer section in the back that I cut off so that it all looks pretty even now. Her hair is super curly and is absolutely adorable. And of course I saved her "first curl" to put in her little baby book :)

I have NO idea what they're doing here... :)

Happy Birthday Emma!

Our sweet little Emmie turned 2 on the 18th! It's hard to believe that my baby is already 2 . . . man alive, where does the time go? We had a fun little BBQ at the park with my dad, his girlfriend, her granddaughter, my aunt and uncle, and my bro & Jess. Nothing too extravagant, but it was perfect. The weather couldn't have been better. Note that Emma is in shorts, in January! Alex picked out a rainbow chip cake mix along with chocolate frosting that I made and Tony did a great job BBQing hamburgers & hot dogs for everyone. Here's a few fun pictures of her day. Enjoy!

Emma sporting her super chic sunglasses . . . and my dad, pulling the kids up the hill in the wagon; watch the video to see what happened next! My dad is such a great Papa, my kids really love him.

Sweet Emma and I on the Sunday after her birthday. Isn't she so cute?!?

Happy Birthday, Emmie! We sure love you!

She Walks!

Our little Emma has quite the mind of her own. She does exactly what she wants, when she wants to, and there's no coaxing her into doing things any other way. With that being said, she recently decided to start walking . . . at 20 months old :) Here she is, chasing her dada around the living room. Gotta love our strong-willed (lazy) baby girl!