Happy Birthday Reece!!

I can't believe that my little monkey turned THREE! This little one is such a determined, spunky, and fun girl-she definitely keeps us on our toes! It's so fun to watch her personality from when she was a baby evolve into who she is today. She does not want to left out with what her brother and sister are doing, knows what she wants and will do whatever it takes to get it, STILL doesn't sleep very well (as in waking up a few times a night and being wide awake at 5:30 a.m.), LOVES her daddy and grandpa, loves her blanket, loves to dance/perform, is one of our better eaters, and is obsessed with anything that Ashlynn does/says/has. I love being able to have a few hours with Reece while Cason is napping. Since her birthday is September 10, she misses the school cutoff and she will be with me another year, and I'm really excited for it! She makes me laugh with her random stories and spends most of her time dancing and saying "Mom! Watch this! Look at me!" :)

 This girl and the band aids!! I swear that she thinks they are stickers. I was feeding Cason and she managed to unwrap two boxes of band aids and stick them allll over.

 Instead of waiting for me to break off a container of yogurt and take the lid off, she rips off the top and starts eating it...impatient like her mama!

 Opening her birthday presents!

 She loved the stick horse that she got from Grannie and PoPo.

 Being a crazy girl at Ryder's soccer game

 Another day, another box of band aids open and stuck all over

Silly girl hid her big princess storybook that she got from grandma and grandpa in her sheets, thinking that I wouldn't notice her reading it while she was supposed to be sleeping! We sure LOVE this little girl and don't know what we would do without her!!!

Lagoon

We were all so excited for our annual trip to Lagoon with Ryan's work. Grandma and Grandpa were so awesome and took Cason all day for us....and although it was nice to be able to ride all of the rides with the kids and not have to cart him around, I sure missed him!

 This was one of the ONLY rides that Reece would go on..Wally the Whale. At first she wouldn't go on by herself, so Ash was so sweet to ride with her a few times.

 Then she got brave enough to go by herself only if Ashlynn was in front.....of course it was probably our fault for scaring her. The first ride that we took her on was the log ride and then Rattlesnake Rapids which terrified her!

 A huge thunderstorm was coming so it got hot and humid....if only I could be that cute lifting my shirt up like that in public!

Ryder was thrilled to finally get to ride this car ride. We bribed him to ride a roller coaster, and Ryan almost dragged him on one (tears and all.) After he went on it, we couldn't keep him off of the roller coasters! He thought that they were so much fun, and luckily Ash would ride with him because I started to get sick of all the ups and downs.

Eventually, a thunderstorm came through with lightning and a downpour-so we called it a day and headed home! But I'm so grateful for Ryan's work and how good they are to the employees and their families by always trying to do little trips or get togethers.

My little dancer

 Reece was sooo excited to start dance and go to class like Ashlynn. I love watching my girls dance! And Reece loves to dance and was looking forward to her Christmas performance for weeks!

 These are my attempts at getting a picture of her smiling before class started...but you can tell that she's watching the other girls get ready and wasn't quite sure of what to think!

School 2013

We had such a fun summer, and I was not looking forward to school starting. I'm sure Ashlynn and Ryder were because after Cason was born, a lot of our time was spent at home while I recuperated after surgery, and it was so hot to go outside and play/swim or whatnot with a newborn. We went to the "meet your teacher" night to meet Ashlynn's teacher. I went to high school and graduated with Ryder's teacher, and was able to request her, so I already knew his teacher. I really liked Ashlynn's teacher and it made me sad to see that they got lockers this year :( My baby is growing up too fast. A mom that I knew was in the hall, so we were chatting while our kids got inside the lockers and closed the doors. Reece managed to figure out how to open it from the inside, but poor Ryder didn't and started to freak out. It wasn't funny because he was scared out of his mind screaming for me, but I didn't know which locker he was in out of the wall of lockers, so he had to wait a few seconds while I found him. 

I can't believe that Ashlynn is in 3rd grade! I'm so proud of her and her hard work. She's looking forward to learning to write cursive this year and having a signature :)

And then to make it worse, my little man started kindergarten. I'm so grateful that it's only 1/2 day here instead of full day like it was for Ashlynn in Oklahoma. Gives them time to get used to going to school. Ryder was soooooo excited to start, and I was one sad mama on the way home after dropping him off without Ashlynn and Ryder in the car with me.

Sooo thankful for good friends! Carson lives across the street from us, and the two boys are joined at the hip. His mom and dad just moved here from Minnesota, and so she requested Ryder's teacher so they could be together. Such a small world, but his mom and dad were great friends with my twin sister and her husband while they all lived in Reno together. Now they are back from his residency at the Mayo Clinic and moved in across the street from us. All three of our kiddos are the same age and love playing together. 

After I got home from dropping Ryder off at kindergarten, it was time for naps. Although Cason rarely takes a good nap during the day unless he's being held, he did stay asleep with Reece (not in the same bed, I put him in his own bed after I took this picture) for about 15 minutes. My house was so eerily QUIET!! Reece still takes naps because the little stinker wakes up at 6 or earlier each morning. I swear when she's a teenager and wants to sleep in, I will have payback!!!! 

Because Ryder goes to afternoon kindergarten, and wasn't dressed when Ashlynn went to school, I was able to get a picture of them together when I picked them up after school. They both loved their first day! 

Ash, my social butterfly, has loved school since it started. Poor Ryder had a second week meltdown and did not want to go back to school. His friend Carson and him would just be in tears when we dropped them off. I was so thankful that he had Carson to be his buddy, but it broke my heart because they would both have huge tears in their eyes when they were walking in the classroom. Thank goodness it only lasted a few days, and they are back to being excited to go to kindergarten. Ryder loves coming home and showing me what he has learned, like patterns, numbers, or the crafts they made. Poor guy really does not like coloring or crafting, but has been a sport about it because it's pretty much all they've done since they started!

Going to the fair

We had fun taking the kiddos to the County Fair. Grandpa was awesome and took Cason for us so we wouldn't have to drag him around in the HEAT! The kiddos were excited to see the animals and ride the rides...luckily they were good sports and waited to ride rides for the next weekend when we went to Lagoon. But we had fun spending time with Grandma and my brother Gary and his family. 

They loved the bean filled pool with the tractors. I loved seeing all of the bean seeds that my dad used to grow in there.

This boy loves any and all kind of tractors!

My little prisoner....I love how Ashlynn is always willing and enthusiastic to take pictures with me :)

My clueless prisoner...I told him to pose and he was paying attention to something else.

But he did want a picture of him "riding" the bull

Ryan showing Ryder how to throw the loops around the cow head thingy with horns.

There was a building that had two HUGE train tracks/little town set up. Ryder thought it was the coolest thing and we spent quite some time watching the trains drive and disappear in the tunnels. 

Poor girl got hot and missed her nap so she wanted to spend most of the time hanging out in the stroller.

Milking the "cow." Too bad that we didn't have a cow because they were good little milkers!

We went to meet up with my mom and brother. They told us that they were over at the stage at a presentation. When we got there, I was looking around for them and asked Ryan if he saw my mom. Ryan pointed to the stage and said "Is that her up there?" They were playing a game and called my mom up to play. So we all had fun watching her play a game where they asked them questions, and if they knew the answer, they hit the hat on their head with a soft mallet. Ryder and Ashlynn thought that watching grandma on stage was the best part of the fair!

Trouble

This little monkey has always been my mischievous one, but ever since her little brother came and has to eat every 3 hours, she's realized that I am busy feeding him and not paying much attention to her. She has been getting into EVERYTHING! She helps herself to whatever she wants and never asks for help. She is my incredibly independent child! 

 She wanted yogurt and instead of waiting for me to break it off and open it, she came into our room licking up the one carton that she could open.

 Ryder had hurt himself, so she opened up every box of band aids that we had (which was 3 boxes....Hello Kitty for Ash, princess for Reece, and Spiderman for Ryder) and opened up each and every one and stuck them around the house...I guess it somehow helped Ryder feel better?

So I put the band aids up higher thinking she wouldn't be able to get them...but 2 days later I came out of our room after feeding Cason to find band aids opened and stuck all over again. Why do my kiddos tattle on each other constantly, but never when I really need them to tattle???!

Random pics of the past month

Here's some random pics of the past month-

 Lazy, lazy eater. Good thing that he is so SWEET!

 One night after dinner, the kiddos did the dishes for us. It was awesome! They did such a good job while Ryan and I sat and watched them work :)

 Always getting snuggles from someone

 Snoozin' in the carseat

 Little man is so little, he practically falls out of the baby bjorn!

 Bath time with Grannie when they were visiting

 He almost looks like he has chubby cheeks here!

 For the whole summer, Ryan was playing on a city softball team. A lot of the games we didn't go to because they started at 9 or it was sooooo hot and being almost 9 months pregnant and heat didn't sound too fun. After we had Cason, we were able to make a few more games. I love watching Ryan play and his team did really good! They got 2nd out of the whole tournament. The kiddos loved going because we'd get drinks or milkshakes at Sonic after every game :)

 Hi!

 Baby unicorn..they thought that they were so funny.

 Close-up of Ryan after his championship game

 PoPo and Grannie were able to come watch one of Ryan's games while they were down.

 Baby unicorn again...my pictures are out of order. Too tired to fix it......

 More snuggles

Two cuties!