Date with Oscar

Rease got to play with her boyfriend Oscar the other day. We had a play date at his house and he showed her all his cool toys.

She is a little bit of a scaredy cat and hasn't ever been brave enough to go through these fun tunnel toys. But Oscar showed her how it was done and by the end of the day she was loving it!

I love these shots of them reading together. Rease seriously loves books, so it's good to see them reading to each other.

Aww, how sweet!

Thanks Oscar and Heidi for letting us come play and continue the betrothal. Only 20 more years to go!!

Funny things Rease does

Lately Rease has been up to some crazy things. She is on the verge of saying words that are actually real ("happy," "hot" and "this" are some of the most clear ones) and she is so so curious! I am constantly finding her doing funny things. I caught a few of them on camera.

This toilet paper incident wouldn't have been a big deal, but we were literally on our way out the door for the weekend and I had the house all clean. The last thing I was going to do was get Rease dressed and in the car. I found her like this.

She is for some reason fascinated with toilet paper and toilets. The other day I handed her the toothbrush to brush her teeth and a few minutes later I realized she was dunking her toothbrush in the toilet and then brushing. I was so grossed out. But she looked at me like, "duh mom the toothbrush has to be wet to use it." She's crazy.

These pictures in the bathtub are from our hotel in St. George. She loved climbing inside and just sitting there.

I found Rease like this after her nap one day. She had such a poopy diaper that it seriously barely hanging on. Plus, I have no idea how she sleeps in this position.

Rease loves her nalgene bottle - it's by far her favorite cup to drink out of. She disappeared with it one day and I found her in my room in the clean clothes just relaxing with her drink.

I love this girl and she is so so fun right now! 16 months is a great age!

Catching up...

I wanted to catch up on a few pictures of Rease and some of her favorite things to do these days. (Oh how I wish we had our other camera back - sorry for the bad quality of some of these pictures.)

She gives great kisses and reserves the best ones for dad.

Josh bought these slippers for her and she had a hard time getting used to them at first, but once we pulled out the camera she of course struck a pose or two...

(Don't you just love the chunky legs? I thought she was starting to thin out but when I see these pictures I am thinking maybe not.)

She also loves to draw and color.

This picture captures a couple of things that she does - first notice the shrugged shoulders. She just started doing that last week and does it all the time now.

Second - she is our little errand girl and throws away her diaper everytime she gets changed. She's on her way to the garbage, slippers and shrugging the whole way.

Rease has a stack of books that I straighten at least 10 times a day. She will go through her books and bring them one at a time to anyone who will read to her. She doesn't very often last through the whole book because she's quickly on to the next one. Her favorites books right now - "Personal Penguin," "Pile of Puppies," and "The Twelve dogs of Christmas." Random I know, but she loves them and we learn to love them because we read them so often to her. This time she caught Uncle Andy to read to her.

Dutch oven night

We were invited to a dutch oven cook-off last weekend with some cousins and friends. This was our first year, but they have been doing it for a few years now and it was quite the competition. We each had to bring a main dish, side dish or dessert and it had to be cooked and ready to eat within a certain amount of time. Then we judged all the dishes and each category had a winner. We love to dutch oven so we weren't overly worried about our dish, but we were not prepared for some of the things others brought. The winner was a pork loin with this yummy sauce on it and the runner up was a stuffed beef tenderloin. We made enchiladas and I think we came in third. Regardless - we had a great time and the food was outstanding! We are already thinking of our dish for next year.
Rease had no problem keeping herself busy while we cooked. She found this little wagon and filled it up with whatever she could find...

Shoes first.

Then grass.

That's quite a load.

This ball also kept her entertained - even though it's almost as big as she is.

Let me take a minute and tell you about this hair of hers. Yes it's straggly and makes her look homeless when her clip comes out or when she takes it out herself - which is usually within 5 minutes of me putting it in. So I'm torn. Her hair is at that awful in-between stage where it's not short enough to stay out of her eyes but not long enough to tuck behind her ear. I'm not sure that I want to cut it and make bangs because I would rather it all grow out and be one length. But I don't know how long I can handle this look...

The boys had a quick but tough game of soccer while we waited for dessert to finish cooking. I wish I had an after picture because Josh was seriously beat - sweat running down his face and breathing harder than I've seen in a long time. Now this wasn't a long game - maybe like 10 or 15 minutes, but it sure took it out of these guys. I can't decide if it's because they were playing hard or if they are all just out of shape and old. Hmmmm...

Relaxing after stuffing ourselves with dessert and everything else.

We had a great night with everyone and can't wait until next year! And yes, we just came straight from the BYU game (which they won 44-0 against Wyoming) and that's why we have our BYU blue on. Go Cougs!

Update on the babe

I don't have any pictures today but I do have just a quick update on our little one. I went to my 15 week appointment this week at Dr. Smith's (love our doctor by the way) and everything looks great. I was actually 14 weeks and 2 days when I saw him and he measured me and said I am measuring just over 15 weeks - which is great and just means that Josh and I have big kids (remember Rease was 8 lbs. 2 oz. - 2 weeks early.) Heartbeat is 145 and Dr. Smith says it sounds nice and strong. Yeah for healthy babies!

As for the sex of the baby - we find out in a month, but I am fairly sure it is a boy. I don't know why, because with Rease I really had no idea. But this one I'm thinking boy. We'll see. Anyway, all is well and I am still feeling good. Next time I'll have a picture of the little guy (or girl) since my ultrasound is coming up. We'll see if I'm right.

Fun at the cabin

I forgot to post these pics from the cabin a few weeks ago. Chad, Britt and Nolan left for Italy for 3 weeks and as soon as they get home, they are heading to Dallas for work. We had one last weekend together before they left.

Rease and Nolan found the piano and played a duet - it was lovely!

They didn't want grandma and grandpa to sleep in too long, so they dragged their books in and read them stories in bed.

They spent a lot of time down at the park and loved swinging, playing in the sand and sliding on the slide. Such good friends and cousins!

Moving in for the kiss...

Who's child is this anyway? Messy hair, clothes too big, no shoes - she looks like a ragamuffin!

Later, Rease helped plant some moss in the yard with grandma and grandpa - such a good helper!

15 months

New stats from Dr. Erickson on our girl...

Weight - 25.79 pounds-87%

Height - 32.05 inches-91%

Head - 19.4 inches-99+%

Yes, she is a big girl but oh how we love her. Dr. Erickson said she is about the height and weight of a 2 year old. We go back in next month for another VCUG which is to check her kidney reflux again. Hopefully she grew out of it, but this is our yearly check. If it doesn't look like it's gone then we will keep her on her antibiotics for another year and check again. Worst case scenario - surgery to repair it. I'm not too worried about the surgery thing because she was only a level II and usually they repair themselves. So it's back up to Primary Children's we go. Rease saw a lot of that place in her early months but hasn't been there for a while now. We'll see how it all checks out. As for now, she is a normal, healthy 15 month old and so so fun to have around - we love this age!

Flower girl

I woke Rease up from her nap this afternoon and she wasn't the happiest camper (she takes after her dad and hates it when someone wakes her up - cranky!)

But I thought this was so cute - a perfect imprint of the flower on her quilt. I guess she was sleeping sound enough to stay in one place long enough to get a mark.

Hawaiian hottie

Since we don't have a camera still, I have to rely on other people to get pictures of us. I just found these pictures on my mom's camera from the day we got home from Hawaii. We got Rease a hula skirt and a coconut purse. She is such a girly girl - she carried her purse around all day.

I love her chubby belly - she is losing her baby fat other places, but the belly stays.