Santa Visit 2012

Reese figured out last year that she could ask Santa for different things at mom and dad's house....smart little stinker! Every year in the summer when she wants something I start telling her to put it on her birthday list. As her birthday comes around we start the Christmas list. This year she must have said 5000 times when we were at the store..."I want to put this on my birthday or Christmas list". Most of those were random impulse "wants" and by the time Christmas rolled around she really only had 2 little things on her list. So the day before we were going to see Santa I started trying to help her figure out what she wanted to ask Santa for. She looked through many catalogs and narrowed it down to makeup, a locket and bracelets. She even took the catalog to show Santa what makeup she wanted...

My girl is becoming a pretty little lady...sniff sniff!

The Dallas Marathon 2012

This year the White Rock Marathon changed it's name to the Dallas Marathon. While it was basically the same race and similar course the biggest difference from last year was the heat and humidity. Last year it poured down rain the entire 26.2 miles! While that was miserable, the warm temperatures were almost as miserable. After doing the exact same training with the Frisco Running Club as I did last year I felt stronger and better prepared this year, until I got sick. Three weeks before the race I got bronchitis and immediately went to Care Now and got antibiotics. A week later after the antibiotics were gone I was still sick and getting worse. I went back to Care Now and they said I had walking pneumonia. I cried..literally. Three days before the race I am a little better but still nowhere near 100%. I finally get in with my primary care doctor who happens to be a runner. He said, "I'm not going to tell you not to run, because you won't listen!" Ha! He gave me cough medicine and two inhalers and lots of good stuff to get through the race and he said I was going to feel like S$*T the next day. My mom had been trying to talk me into not running all week and had started working on getting Jeff to convince me not to run...she's crafty like that!:) Apparently he told her he would wait until the day before and see how I was before deciding to try and persuade me either way. The day before the race I laid in bed and coughed my head off. He came over and quietly said, "maybe you shouldn't run." I had invested way too much time and energy and heart training for this race...I was running and I agreed to turn back with the half marathoners if I wasn't feeling well. Haha yeah right! On race day I felt pretty good and the cough medicine was helping. It was so hot and miserable that people were dropping out right and left. Really good runners from the running club were stopping to walk. Kim was feeling the heat and started slowing down around mile 9. I was still feeling pretty good and I was afraid if I slowed down that early I would never finish. I pressed on by myself.

Fortunately Jeff was following me on the course and I was able to see him around every 3 miles. He carried Kleenex and cough pills and inhalers and by the end I stopped to take something almost every time I saw him. He said other runners were asking to borrow medicine and wondering what all he had in the bag..ha! This picture was a few feet from the finish line...yikes I was tired!

The hard earned and highly sought after finishers medal:)

Kim and I after the race. So HAPPY to not be running:)

Next year we are running the Chicago marathon....so stay tuned...

Build a Bear Birthday

Reese has fallen in LOVE with Build a Bear and decided she wanted to invite a few friends their for her birthday. Fortunately i made the cut:)

and Nanny too! Poppy was a few days away from having neck surgery so he had to sit this one out. She was pretty happy to have Landry and Elyse building a bear with her and since it was a small group they got to pick whatever they wanted. Score!

Cookie Bear even smells like a cookie...YUM!

After the bears were all built, dressed and ready to go we ate lunch in the mall before having...

BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!

Happy 5th Birthday Sweet Baby Reese

This birthday was harder on me then any so far..how in the world did she get to be FIVE years old! I suppose me turning 35 a few days later may have added to some of my dismay about this years birthdays. Regardless of my chagrin Reese is turning 5! One thing I know for sure, this little girl certainly never lacks in personality!

We had her birthday pictures taken and she put on even more of a show then last year for the camera. My sweet friend Missy took the pictures and Reese had a blast playing in all of her dress up clothes. Love this picture..

Reese has been wearing her hearing aids for one year now and has never even missed a beat at school. She takes dance classes and karate and loves them both. She LOVES to sing and is almost always belting out a song at the top of her voice...literally:)

I'm constantly amazed at the little lady Reese is growing into. She is one of the most perceptive and observant five year old's I know.

Sweeter then sweet when she wants to be and super duper sassy at times too...watch out world!  God has big plans for this girl!

Dear My Sweet Reese, I am proud to be your mom and thankful that God picked me for the job.
Happy 5th Birthday baby girl!
I  Love You!
Mommy

Until next year.....

Halloween 2012

This Halloween was the first year that little miss had a really hard time deciding what she wanted to wear. She started out wanting to be an Indian Princess and bounced around a bunch of other ideas before she finally saw this cute little monster girl in a catalog and her mind was made up! I think she was a pretty cute little monster:)

Of course Reese insisted on a costume for Molly monster! Poor Molly was so NOT digging the clothes but we got her to jump around a little for a picture. Boomer Sooner Molly!

The little monster at Trunk or Treat at Primrose.

Happy Halloween..BOOOOOO!!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere

Reese and I visited several pumpkin patches this year..these are a few of my favorite pics...

Not sure what she was doing here..but it reminded of all the crazy planking pics everyone was doing for awhile. Ha!

Momma was playing around with the settings on Mr Jeff's fancy pants camera...Reese was happy to oblige.

Love.This.Kid!

Without a doubt the prettiest pumpkin of them all...:)

Karate

Reese started taking karate last year at Primrose. The instructor comes one a week at school and she has the option to go to the studio on evenings or weekends for extra practice if she wants. This year she decided she wanted to keep taking karate and has gotten a lot more interested in it. They sent home a video of moves for her to practice. She asks to practice quite a bit and I am happy to oblige. I like that she is taking an interest and most importantly I like that she is exercising.

Last week she tested at school for her yellow belt. She passed the test and got a stripe on her yellow belt until she could come to the studio and get the new belt.

So proud of this little yellow belt!!:)

Plano Balloon Festival Half Marathon

Pretty sure I've lost my mind but I committed to running the White Rock Marathon again this year. Actually they have changed the name to the Dallas Marathon but basically the same race. My running club ran the Plano Balloon Festival Half Marathon as one of our training runs. Reese hadn't been to a race in a long time so she was pretty stoked to get to go and the balloons were an added bonus.

It was a hot day and not one of my best races but seeing my little race crew every few miles gave me the inspiration to keep running.

I wasn't sure how often we would see them but every time we approached them I heard Reese's cute little voice before I could see her. She was such a super cheerleader! Love that kid more then words!

Reese is normally pretty excited about the medals but after the race she was ready to go hit the games and stuff at the festival.

Thanks to my little fan club for coming out to cheer!

First Day of Primrose Kindergarten

We decided at the advice of the school to bump Reese into the Private Kindergarten class at Primrose so while she thinks she is going to “real” kindergarten this is in fact going to be her Pre-K year as she will more then likely go to public school kindergarten next year. Nonetheless she was pretty nervous and excited this morning. The kindergarten class has to wear uniforms..they are red, white or blue. Reese will insist on wearing pink shoes She asked me to use the flat iron to straighten her hair this morning…she didn’t want the little curls:( Can’t believe my baby is growing up so fast!

Meet Molly!

Back in January when Reese and I moved into our house we started talking about getting a dog. I was really missing sweet Nike and wanted to make sure I wasn't rushing into getting another dog after he died. Since I wasn't sure we were ready and I didn't want to potty train a dog in the cold we waited. I finally decided this summer that I was ready to get a dog. Reese was gone more then usual in August for her summer vacation time with Bob and I was having a hard time with the empty house. We had initially talked about getting a little white Westie so I started looking for one of those. After already having sweet Nike, I kept coming back to wanting another lab. I really wanted a dog that would be able to run with me and also give a sense of security when home alone and I started thinking a 10lb yapper wasn't going to fit the bill:) So I looked at some chocolate labs and then fell in love with this sweet little blonde girl:)

Seriously...how sweet it she?!?!

I brought her home over the weekend when Reese was gone so she came home to a surprise.

She acts like a total nut running around crazy and then she passes out and sleeps forever. Reese calls her "Molly Molly Monster" when she is acting crazy. We love our funny little doggie:)

Florida Waller's visit Oklahoma

The last week of July my brother and his family came from Florida to Oklahoma to spend some time with Nanny and Poppy, attend my brothers class reunion and catch up with friends and family. Since we don't get to see them very often Reese and I made a trip to Oklahoma to hang out. My niece, Danni is 6 years old and Reese's only girl cousin. They hit it off from the start and spent a lot of time playing dress up, giggling and just just hanging out together.

The kids all LOVE to hang with Nanny..she is a no fear Grandma. She went down nearly all the water slides despite having a horrible fear of heights.

On the second day, the Oklahoma Wallers came to meet us at White Water Bay.

There was a local radio station at White Water that day giving away prizes and playing games. Mom entered into us into a drawing for a trip. If your number got drawn you got one of these Floating Coolers and entered it into a race around the Lazy River. We both made it to the final round but neither one of us won the trip...all we won was a silly floating cooler. ha!

Nanny and Poppy have a new dog "Sissy" and Reese was thrilled to get to meet her. After sweet Nike passed away a few months ago Nanny and Poppy decided they really really enjoyed having a dog. She is so cute and funny.

On the 3rd day we took the kids to a really cool Children's Museum. They have TONS of fun things for kids to play around with like driving a boat...

Grocery Shopping...

and flying an airplane!

Since we don't all get together very often we had some pictures made. I think these are the only picture we got of all the adults.

As always Reese has a great time with her cousins Andrew and Zach. I can't believe how big these boys are getting...makes me kind of sad:(

She also really really liked having a girl cousin around and Barrett kind of tolerated the two little girls pestering him:)

Sweet Reese is looking so grown up to me too. What happened to my little baby...sad?!

Love this pic of all the grands with my folks...we had a great time getting together and hope we get to do it again sooner then later.