Reese Is Turning 1!!!

This coming Tuesday our baby girl will be turning 1! I can't believe how quickly the year has gone. She is so much fun and we have loved every moment of the last year. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday with a few friends. Here are some pics from her birthday and a few of her in her new car:).

Well, hello:). I know I have been MIA lately but we have been super busy! My mom was in town for 3 fun filled weeks and I had no time to blog while she was here. It was so nice to have her here, it was the perfect balance of sight seeing and relaxing. Micah even took a couple days off of work to see the area with us. The only bad thing was that Reese was pretty sick for the first 2 weeks of my mom's visit so we were pretty busy taking care of Reese. I was so happy my mom was here when Reese was sick becuse she hasn't been sick too many times and it was nice to have the help. But now my mom is gone and life is getting back to normal. It surprised me how quickly "normal" became having my mom here. I got very used to having a companion during the day. It was nice to have someone to shop with, drink coffee with, and just run errands with. It made me appreciate her all the more. So anyways, here are a few pictures from her visit, we had a lot of fun and I can't wait for her to come visit us in California!
Here is a cathedral and estate house we visited. It is amazing how extravagent some of the houses people used live in are.

We went to a castle called Castle Riesing and these are some pictures of us enjoying the day there.

And here is a picture of a crazy guy playing guitar in a garbage can in Cambridge. It will never cease to amaze me how low people will stoop to make a buck.

While my mom was here she taught me how to crotchet and here is Reese wearing a hat a made her:).

What A Week

Wow, we have had quite the eventful week. Monday was a big day around here with Reese turning 9 months! I just had to take a moment Monday morning and think about my life 1o months ago before Reese...I can't really remember what I did with my days. I can't believe how fast these last few months have flown by. I know everyone always says how fast they go and you need to cherish every moment but I never really understood how true that was. Now with Reese being a whole 9 months she thinks she's a rock star! She pulls herself up on absolutely everything and has to walk along the couch and coffee table and anything else she can pull up on. Another Reese milestone is that she is routinely waking up at 7 or later every morning! She has even hit 8 a couple of mornings! This is huge because she has always been a 6:15-6:30 girl. That extra 1/2 hour plus is amazing! If Micah leaves early enough for work in the morning I even have time to drink a cup of coffee and read my Bible all before she wakes up!

Monday was also a big day for me because I finally finished my Master's!!! I am so excited to be 100% done with school for the rest of my life! All week I have had the strange feeling that I need to be doing something....but I don't:). I am so happy that now I can really enjoy Reese's nap times. I may even get a chance to read a book for my enjoyment.

Today is what the Air Force calls a "Family Day". We seem to have a lot of these living in England. A Family Day is a day when Micah gets to stay home from work and be with his family. We LOVE Family Day's around this camp. We will maybe take the train into Cambridge today and do some browsing through the market. It will depend on Reese though because she is threatening being sick and I just can't quite read how the day will turn out yet.

On Saturday Micah and I took Reese to the cutest town ever, Lincoln. It was one of those days that we will forever remember. It wasn't that something amazing happened, it was just one of those days. You guys know what kind of day I'm talking about. One that is fun and easy and goes just the right speed. We started the day going to Starbucks because we we're out of coffee and you know that is no way to start a day. After coffee we grabbed some breakfast, which we rarely do, and headed to Lincoln. There is a cathedral there that is just amazing. I thought the Ely cathedral was nice but this one totally beat it.

We also went to the Lincoln castle while we were there. I can't believe we live in a place where on the the weekends we can go visit castles and cathedrals. Next time I catch myself complaining about how inconvenient it is living here I need to remind myself about all the amazing things we get to do and see while here. Unfortunately we only took pictures from the top of the castle.
This is the only good picture we got of the castle wall. I don't know why we didn't think to get better pictures outside of the castle. Next trip that way I will have to remember to snap a few more pics!

Well, I'm not sure if you've heard, but Micah got his next assignment last week. It looks like we are headed to California next April! Both of us are so excited about this move it is definitely what we both have been wanting. Because of the job that Micah is going to be doing he won't be flying much over the next three years but he is okay with that. When our 3 years are up in Cali then Micah will go and learn to fly a new plane, so he still has some flying in his future. I know this wasn't much of a post but I just wanted everyone to know that time is running out on your window of opportunity to visit us in England, so book your tickets soon:).

Crawling

Since Reese has started crawling she doesn't want to stop moving! It has been so much fun to see her become more and more mobile. Sometimes I find her sitting right outside the living room door, just chillin'.
At other times she gets caught up in something, usually her floor mat. We are not quite sure how she does it, but she oftentimes finds herself stuck in the soft and pliable toy:).
And overall, she just loves to crawl. This pictures sums up the joy.
But the thing in life that still brings the ultimate joy...the bath. As much as she loves to crawl I think this little fish will always prefer good old H2O!

It sure has been a while...

Well, I think it is safe to say that I am a blogger failure. But don't blame me, blame motherhood:). I realize a lot of moms can be a mom and blog all at the same time, but it is super hard! Reese, who is a whole 8 months now, has me running all the time. And believe me, I am NOT complaining. I absolutely love it! But it is time consuming. Now that she is getting a bit older though and can play by herself for a bit perhaps I will find more time to spend on here. I guess time will tell. I only ask you to please not give up on me:). Check back ever so often and I will try to have posted some current pictures of our little life.

Not much new. Micah is busy with work, I am busy with Reese and my Master's and Reese is busy crawling. With a semi-mobile baby life has become more interesting. We have lately been introduced to baby gates. Wow, whoever invented them should get a gold star for functionality, but not some much for ease of use....I don't know if I am just slow but they are hard to install. Anyways, like I said Micah is busy with work and he is hoping to hear soon about where our next move will take us and he is hoping to get a new job soon too, so time will tell. I have been busy trying to complete my Master's, as of today it is 4 weeks and counting until I will say farewell to school for quite some time. I can't wait to be done!

So here are some pictures, I know that is why you come, just to see what we are up to:) I have posted a lot of these on FB so if there is a lot of repeats, sorry:).

more pictures

So here are a few pictures of Reese taken over the past couple of weeks. I know that I haven't been putting too many new pictures on the blog, it has just taken me a while to get them off the camera and uploaded.


I absolutely love this sleeper! Some may say it is for boys but I don't care. I get so sick of all the pink stuff. I sometimes wonder if the people that make baby clothes know that girls wear other colors besides pink. So I put Reese in this sleeper as much as possible.

Our little baby burrito all ready for bed. She loves to stick her tongue out.

Reese loves going in the bathtub! Micah and I are so happy that we don't have to fight her every time she has to go in. In fact, sometimes if she is being super fussy we give her a bath and it calms her right down. The only problem is that when it is time to get out she throws a fit:).

Can you believe that Reese is already 9 weeks this week?!?! I know, me neither:). I should be doing homework while she naps this morning but instead I thought I would take a minute to share a few Reese stats with you all. She had her 2 month check up this week. Obviously the doctor was super impressed with her. She is 50% in all categories. She weighed in at 11.6 lbs. and she is 22 1/2 in. long. We are really happy with her growth and she seems to be happy with it also. Reese is a lot of fun these days. She is making a ton of noise. It is so funny to me how one day she can wake up and be doing all this new stuff that she didn't do at all the day before. She smiles constantly, especially when she sees Micah. I am hoping to snap a few pictures of her this afternoon so hopefully I will be posting some new pics later today or tomorrow.

Okay, it was brought to my attention today that I have been neglecting this blog. Which is really nothing new for me because I am the worlds worst blogger, but I thought when I had Reese that I would step it up and keep everyone up to date with what is going on with us. I had a very warped idea of what life with a baby would be like:). I thought it would be a lot of sleeping, cuddling, and eating. While those three things do take place everyday, there is also a lot of crying! Sometimes the day is over and I wonder where it went. I start back up with my masters classes today and I am a bit nervous that I will not find the time to get my work done. Reese takes up a lot of my time. But, I would rather be wiping tears and holding my little girl than cleaning my house or doing school work anyways.

Reese was 7 weeks old yesterday. I just can't believe it. Time is flying by. She is changing by the minute, or so it feels:). She has recently discovered that her fingers fit in her mouth and she quite enjoys them. Sometimes it seems like she would rather keep her fingers in her mouth rather than eat. She is so alert when she is awake these days. She recognizes voices, especially Micah's. When Micah starts talking to her her eyes move around and look for him and she gets a huge smile on her face. She is a big smiler. The three things that bring smiles to her face are her dad, bath time and diaper changing time. Those are pretty much the best things in her life right now:).

Micah will be gone for the next couple of days so it is just us girls for a while. I am kind of looking forward to this time with Reese. I will actually only be alone for 2 days because my friend Tara is coming on Friday and she will be here for a week. I am looking forward to the visit and I am excited for her to meet Reese. It will be nice to have an extra set of hands around the house too to help out with Reese.

I was just reading a friends blog and she said something that really spoke to me. I really liked it so I thought I would share. She said something about how when our babies wake up in the middle of the night and we find ourselves feeding, holding and rocking we should take that time to speak with the Lord. Lately when I get up with Reese I am just so tired all I want to do is get it over with and go back to bed. But after reading what my friend said I think I will take those precious moments and spend some time with my Lord.