Thursday, January 14, 2016

Reece 4 Months Old

And just like that - Reece is 4 months old! 



Mr. Personality he is! Always making noises and faces and smiling and cooing at anyone that will give him some attention! And this sweet little thing is a hugger and a cuddler - clings on to you like a little monkey :)

Reece is 13 pounds and 14 ounces. and he is 25 inches tall. He is still waking up 1-2 times per night depending on the night and taking 2 short naps during the day and one longer nap. 

Reece likes to be lifted into the air above our heads and also likes to fly like Superman on Mommy and Daddy's legs. He absolutely loves mirrors. He will smile every time he sees himself in the mirror and sometimes shriek at himself. He likes rolling over and sitting in his new Sit Me Up. Reece still is not a fan of his car seat. He hates when we have to clean his nose at all. He loves to roll over onto his tummy but then he gets mad when he can't roll back over the other way! 

Some of Reece's favorite games he likes to play is being tickled. He is especially ticklish on his legs and tummy. He likes to have his belly and neck "eaten" and raspberries. He is starting to really like chewing on Sophie the Giraffe and loves a little snail toy that makes noise and has a mirror on it. 

Reece has learned some new tricks this month. He has rolled over from his front to his back just a handful of times and usually scares himself. He has learned to laugh and it is one of my favorite sounds! He also screeches and screams when happy to make his voice heard. And right near the end of the month, he found his feet and is playing with them and pulling off his socks often. Reece can often push up onto his hands when he is doing tummy time.

Reece had some fun firsts this month! He got to meet the Brucks family for the first time and he loved them all and all the love and attention they gave him. He went to the zoo for the first time this month at the Phoenix zoo with some dear friends and their kids. He went to his first parade when we attended the Christmas Light Parade in downtown Flagstaff. He went for a ride in the stroller without being in his car seat for the first time and then he also took a bath without having to be in his newborn sling for the first time. And Reece got to experience his first Christmas where he was very blessed and spoiled. And he got to celebrate his first New Years Eve!

Reece is our handsome little joy of a baby and Dustin and I often talk about how blessed we are to have him in our lives! Ember really enjoys being his big sister as well and often comes over and says "Reece, I love you so much!" as she gives him a hug and a kiss. She is smitten with him as well. He has stolen our hearts! 

Here are a few more pictures from the month!






Friday, January 8, 2016

Christmas!!

Ember, Reece, and I headed down to Phoenix a week before Christmas because the Brucks family was coming to visit Grandma and Grandpa Flin's house and we wanted to take advantage of seeing them as much as possible. Dustin came down for the weekend and then back down the evening before Christmas Eve to enjoy some time with my sis and her family! 

We had a wonderful week of seeing family and friends and just getting to catch up and watch the kiddos play. Since we almost did everything together - I will post Ally's link to her blog update on this trip because it was that good and mine would be essentially identical (and most of my followers have probably already read hers anyway)

http://caabrucks.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50

(THANKS ALLY!!) 

One extra special highlight from this trip was Reece got to meet his Uncle Chris, Aunt Ally, and cousins for the first time! And he was dearly loved by all!





The Brucks had to head home on Christmas Eve but we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house for the evening and next morning.

Here are our little cuties on Christmas Eve night!


We woke up Christmas morning and opened some gifts in our PJ's. 


Reece's 1st Christmas! 
It was exactly 1 year ago from this Christmas that we found out we were pregnant with baby #2. We couldn't be more grateful or blessed with who little baby #2 turned out to be! 





Reece loving his new Sit Me Up gift from Gma and Gpa




Family Picture :) 


Then we headed over to Verrado for Christmas with Dustin's side of the family!


Cousins playing


The day after Christmas, we all went out for breakfast and then used Corbin's new nerf guns for a nerf war!


Dustin also showed Kiley the card game SNERTS


Uncle Jared and Reece are matching


We then headed back to Mesa and Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to watch the kiddos at their house once they went to bed so that Dustin and I could have a date night to the Suns game. Dustin's mom won some tickets that she was unable to use so she gave them to us. The Suns lost to the worst team in the league but it was still really fun to go and hang out with just my husband! 



We were blessed with such a super Christmas season! God continues to richly bless us with more than we deserve! 






Thursday, January 7, 2016

Neighbor Christmas War

We LOVE our next door neighbors. We have so much in common - fellow believers, business owners. daughters 6 weeks apart, love for Settlers of Catan.... and apparently a sense of humor! 

When we put up our decorations for Christmas, our outdoor decorations consist of 1 small entry way tree and a wreath on our door. We set it up as normal and thought nothing of it.

A few days later.... I spotted something out our front door and called Dustin over to see. Our neighbors had set up a 5-6 ft full size tree complete with ornaments in front of their door to outdo us! And so the war begins!! 

We took their tree and added it next to ours so that they had nothing by their door.

They proceeded to move the trees back to their side - actually plugging ours in to light it up - and adding lights around their window


They also blessed us with a Charlie Brown Christmas tree


We then moved everything back to our side and plugged both trees in plus gift wrapped our door! 


They proceeded to move all the Christmas stuff back to their side adding a gift wrapped door and lights around their window. And they decorated our house for Halloween.


We came back with once again adding a little more to our Christmas decorations - lots of tinsel on both trees and 2 lawn signs 


And we heart attacked their door in early preparation for Valentine's Day! 


They ended this years "war" peacefully by putting eat tree in it's respective place and adding a blow up snowman between the two.

It was a lot of fun and we are already worried about how we are going to out-do ourselves next year without getting any HOA violations ;)




Festive Christmas Activities

Here are some of the Christmas activities we had fun doing this year! We didn't get to do everything that we would have liked up in Flagstaff since we headed down to Phoenix for the whole week before Christmas - but our memories there with family and friends were worth it! 

Decorating the Tree
Ember was so helpful and excited to help with anything and everything she could this year. It was so fun to see her excitement! 



Reece was happy to watch all the busyness and listen to the Christmas music! 


Advent Calendar
 Dustin's parents (Mima and Pappy) surprised us with this adorable personalized gingerbread house advent before December and Ember LOVED opening a door every morning and finding a "special treat." It helped her with her numbers too :)


Every day in December we also:

 - Found The Elf on the Shelf - named Sparkle
- Unwrapped a Christmas/Holiday themed book and read it

Snowman Pancakes


Sugar cookies!!



Snowman Pizzas and dinner by the Christmas tree



Snow angels and snowmen! 



We also were able to:

 - Pick out an ornament
- Flagstaff Downtown Light Parade
- Cut out paper snowflakes
- Christmas movie - Elf

Such a fun and busy time of year!