Early Christmas

My brother, T.J., and my sister in law, Ashley, will be out of town with her mom and grandparents this Christmas, so we had an early celebration last Saturday at their house.

As soon as we got to their house it was time for Reese to eat. My grandma fed him and he just stared at her the whole time.
Claire loves Reese and was wishing he could drink out of her Christmas cup.

The cousins together for a picture before present time.

Reese was the first of the nieces and nephews to open his gift from Aunt Ashley and Uncle T.J.

Dane was next and he was so excited!

Dane says firetruck several times a day and rides around the house on his little firetruck with his fire hat on. He was excited to have another firetruck!

Silly, happy boy!

Claire got dress up clothes and was all dressed up for the rest of the night.

We had a fun night celebrating and will miss Aunt Ashley and Uncle T.J. on Christmas!

We are really excited that we will have Baby Rau with us to celebrate next year!

2 Months

Sweet baby Reese is 2 months old. Time is going by so fast! He is still such a happy, calm baby. He has started to smile and it is the sweetest thing. He will just lay on the floor, look around the room, and smile away! He is very alert. His eyes are usually wide open and he looks scared to death. Don't know if he is watching for Dane or what!


We started Reese on a schedule after his 6 week appointment and he is doing so awesome! He is so much more alert and happy since we started it. He eats every 4 hours during the day. A bedtime routine was just what his boy wanted (as well as his mom). We did the routine one night and he has been going to bed every night with very little, if any crying at all. He just falls right to sleep on his own, in his bed. He goes to bed at 8:30 right now and was getting up at 1:00 a.m. to eat. The past two nights he has slept right through the 1:00 feeding and woke up between 5 and 5:30 a.m. I will go in and rub his belly or head and he goes back to sleep until 6:00 a.m. I don't know how much longer he will be staying up until 8:30. Now that he is more alert and active during the day he seems to be getting fussy about 8 or 8:15 and is ready for bed.


Reese's naps are getting pretty predictable as well. He is on a pretty good eat, play, sleep schedule. He will nap anywhere; in his crib, on the floor, in his bouncey seat or the swing. I usually put him in his crib for the longest nap of the day.


Reese is getting so big that I had to pack up all of the newborn clothes and return four boxes of size 1 diapers. We have a box of 276 size 1 diapers open right now and I am just hoping we can use all of them before he needs size 2!


Reese had his first babysitter for an extended period of time. He went with Aunt Katie when Dane went to play with Tom's nephew (Katie's soon to be nephew), Connor. Then he spent the night at Mama and Papa's for the first time without Mommy and Daddy.


Dane continues to "love" on Reese ALOT! Sometimes he is real gentle on his own and other times we have to remind him.


This past month Reese has celebrated family birthdays and enjoyed family traditions of the holiday season. He went to cookie making at his great grandma's house, saw Santa at the Lake Forest Kids Christmas Party, went for a ride on Santa Express, and celebrated one family Christmas already.


It is hard to believe that we will spend our First Christmas as a family of four in just a few days. We are excited and looking forward to lots of Christmasy fun this week. I know the time will fly by.


I will return to work on January 4th and Reese will join Dane at Tracey's everyday. It is going to be strange taking two sweet boys into daycare. So thankful we have her to watch Reese as well.


Happy 2 Months Buddy! You have been so much fun to have with us and we love spending every second with you!

Lake Forest Kids Christmas Party

This past Saturday was the Lake Forest Kids Christmas Party. I was in charge of it and had so many cute ideas, but things have been a little crazy here, so I had to do a simpler party than I would have liked. I am writing all of the ideas down for next year though!

The party was at 10:00 in the morning, so we had munkin donuts from Dunkin Donuts, fruit, and milk. The kids each had a craft to do. The highlight of the party was a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

When it was Dane's turn he was excited to see Santa, but said, "Hold my hand mommy."

He had told me he wanted trucks and trains for Christmas, but when he got to Santa he just smiled.
When Reese went up to see Santa and Mrs. Claus Dane was so worried about why Reese wasn't holding his present that I couldn't get Dane to look at the camera.

Our family at the Christmas Party.

I didn't get any pictures of the tables, Dane with his friends, or the kids making the crafts. I was busy with food and handing the gifts to Santa and Dave took pictures of all of the kids as they sat on Santa's lap. Thank goodness to some friends who held Reese while we took care of some things. It was a fun party for the kids and we enjoyed seeing our friends.

Cooking Making!

This past Friday Dane, Reese, and I gathered at my Grandma's house with my mom, sisters, nieces, and nephew for our Annual Christmas Cookie Making. I was busy baking away, so I don't have any pictures of the adults or any of the delicious treats we baked up. Every once in a while I would stop baking and snap a couple of pictures of the kiddos, who were as wild as ever and loving every minute of their day together.

Claire loves "Baby Reese" as she always sweetly whispers to him

This little man was so alert all day. He seemed to have his eyes wide open, watching for a big brother or cousin that may come up and kiss or grab him at any time!
Finally got Dane to kind of sit still for a picture.

Mom sat and watched Polar Express with the kids for a bit so we could finish up a batch of cookies before lunch.

Sweet boy can slip in a nap anywhere!

My Grandma made her traditional lunch for all of us and then we started the kids' cookies. Kara supervised while Amy and I finished up some of our cookies from the morning.

Concentrating as he cuts out a cookie.

Everyone was so patient waiting their turn.

We had a great day! The kids LOVE going to my Grandma's house. We made gooey butter, chocolate gooey butter, toffee, cake balls, peanut butter fudge cookies, and Oreo balls.

Party Weekend!

We partied all weekend!

We celebrated Joe's First Birthday on Saturday.

My sister had a lunch to celebrate and then we opened presents.

Joe was very excited when it was time for cake!

He started using just one hand.

After a bit he decided to just dig in using both hands.

He sure enjoyed his cake.

Trey and Joe winding down after the party.

Joe was worn out from all the excitement!

Dane had a blast! I don't have any pictures of him from the day because ran and ran the entire time. He played with "the big kids", as he kept calling them.

After naps for Dane, Reese, and Dave we got ready to head to our second party. I don't have any pictures from our evening party, but it was a fun evening celebrating my sister's 40th birthday! Once again we had great food, a good time, and Dane ran with the big kids!

Once we got back to my mom and dad's house for the night the party seemed to continue for Dane. All of the cousins spent the night and he was just too excited to sleep! He would just talk and talk in bed just to keep himself awake.

Dane recovered from the party day on Sunday with a 3 hour nap!

Reese Is 6 Weeks Old

I had originally done a one month post and scheduled it to post. I didn't realize until a week later that it never posted.

We had Reese's 6 week appointment on Monday, so I figured now that I have stats I will go ahead and post a 6 week update.

Reese was 6 weeks on Monday, November 28th. He weighs 12 lbs, 2 oz (55%itle), and is 21 3/4 inches long (25%itle). His little head is only in the 10%itle. I looked at Dane's stats to compare a little bit. Dane had an appointment when he was 8 weeks instead of 6. Reese is shorter, but weighs more at 6 weeks than Dane did at 8 weeks. Dane also has always had a big head. He was always 80%itle.

Reese is now out of newborn diapers and newborn clothes. We are in size 1 diapers and wearing 0-3 month clothes.

Tonight is Reese's first night sleeping in his crib in his room. He has napped there a couple of times. We are starting to get him on a schedule. I like routine and figured I don't want to get him in a routine of sleeping in our room.

Reese has transitioned to eating every four hours. He takes 6 oz., 4 times a day. He is still waking up at night for a night time feeding at least once, many times twice a night.

Our little guy is transitioning well to a eat, play, sleep schedule. He loves to lay on his play mat and look around. He has to be protected from Dane during this time as Dane likes to lay next to him, sometimes a little too close. Lately he loves to sit in his bouncey seat or lay on the floor by the Christmas tree and look at the lights. He also loves the swing, but it puts him right to sleep so we have to watch how much time he spends in it.

He loves a warm bath at night. If he is ever a little cranky before bed I can put him in the tub and he totally relaxes.

Reese has slept over at Mama and Papa's house many times already! He always gets lots of attention when we are there.

Reese has celebrated two holidays with us, Halloween and Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to the first Christmas season with our sweet boy.

We are so happy that Reese is such a content little guy. We love him to pieces!

Thanksgiving 2011

It wasn't the best Thanksgiving. Dave worked, I was with Dane, and Reese was at my parents. I managed to get a couple of pictures of our little guys. We are so thankful for these sweet little boys!

Dane wearing his Kirkwood-Webster Turkey Day Football shirt, even though we didn't make it to the football game.

Our boys....yes, Reese looks scared to death!
Thankful to be brothers!

Thanks to Aunt Katie for taking some pictures of Reese's First Thanksgiving.

I am guessing he had a great Thanksgiving and was worn out!