todd working on his new year's resolution

The train table has become Griffin Rock and Todd has been accomplishing his goal of playing Rescue Bots in 2015!

neighborhood playdate

One reason we have loved our neighborhood is the number of young families that live here. Our HOA is also great at organizing activities for us to get to know our neighbors like a cookie exchange in December and Fall Fest one Saturday morning. When we get lucky and have a warm day some families will gather down on one of the cul-de-sacs and let the kids ride and play. The other day we had 22 kids out at one time. It was so fun! Elle especially loves having one of her classmates a few streets away. Todd was very cute with two other little boys with similar vehicles who rode together. And Reese loved watching all the other kids and having some time outside. (For their privacy I haven't loaded any photos with the other kids since we are still getting to know them.)

Reese @ 5, 6, and 7 months

It's starting to fly by just like that! Reese is so sweet and is starting to show more personality each day! She's getting so big, and we love her more and more!

@ 5 months:

started rolling all over the place, can hold self up really well on tummy, and spin in circles, can sit up assisted with pillow, enjoying new foods

@ 6 months:

14 lbs, 25 3/4 in
started sitting up on her own, gets really excited to see Chris when he comes home, eating baby food 3 times a day, loves mops!

@ 7 months:

sitting up really well without having a pillow behind her, saying ma-ma, dada, squealing, hates peas, loves her water cup, still must face out when being held, loves playing with momma's phone in the car

new year's resolutions 2015

This year we made new year's resolutions and documented them as a family. I found this printable and we filled it out tonight at dinner. I hope to put it up somewhere to remind us of what we want to work on.

I was really proud of some of the answers Elle came up with. Todd...well, let's just say maybe next year he'll get the concept. And it was fun to think of things for Reese together. I pray we can all keep each other accountable and strive for our goals together. Here's what we came up with!

This year I really want to:

Elle: go to Disney World

Todd: play Rescue Bots

Reese: play with toys

Chris: run a half marathon

Danielle: decorate the house

I really need to:

Elle: learn my phone number

Todd: do Rescue Bots

Reese: grow teeth

Chris: publish some stuff

Danielle: lose weight

I want to be better at:

Elle: cartwheels

Todd: going to the doctor

Reese: sleeping through the night

Chris: loving my family

Danielle: documenting our family life

I want to learn to:

Elle: get along with Todd

Todd: Rescue Bots

Reese: walk

Chris: improve at my job

Danielle: sew

merry christmas 2014!

We've had a "sickmas" rather than the traditional Christmas, but there's still joy to be found in the blessings of these three! And to keep it real, it's so hard to get a shot of all three smiling and looking at the camera at these ages. These are only a few of the shots I took.

edmond electric open house 2014

Edmond Electric has an open house each year, but this was our first time to attend. As soon as we got the flyer in the mail I knew Todd would love it, and that we had to go. I knew Elle would have fun too, but you could see it on Todd's face that he was so excited! He was running around and checking out all the trucks. He got to bowl with a backhoe, climb all over a fire truck, play with power lines (not connected of course), and see the bucket trucks. The kids were too little to go up this year. They had free hot dogs and hamburgers, face painting, and lots of other free goodies from the city. Elle did fall down at one point, but the EMT fixed her up (she chose to put the band-aid on her nose). Definitely going again next year!

the beginning of fall 2014

Elle requested going to the pumpkin patch, and it's hard to say no to her since she's at school now so much during the week. Going to WINGS was on our fall bucket list and I'd heard that they only run the hay ride and pumpkin train on the weekends so Saturday was a good day to go. Not too mention it was the first day that started out like a true fall day. It was beautiful, and a fun outing. WINGS supports a special needs community and the "patch" is located on Boulevard in Edmond near Memorial Rd.  Besides pumpkins, flowers, and hay for sale, and the hay ride and pumpkin train, they also have cute pumpkin cut outs for fun pictures, bunnies and chickens, "cow" milking, a hay slide, and bowling. Not a ton, but enough for little ones to do and you don't have to pay to play. Plus you don't have to drive a ways to get to it.