They better stay blue or ELSE

James' eyes are very blue. But I guess because I am not a professional photographer in a nice white studio with great lighting, his eye color sort of gets lost in the photos I take. Well here is a random one of him eating and for once you can see how blue his eyes are!

Sorry I have been so bad about posting lately. James is a little over 7 months and just got his first tooth and is crawling everywhere! His favorite person is Reese and he can just watch her all day long. Reese is talking in sentences now (although she is pretty shy so you will probably not hear it if you aren't me, Jeff, or Mimi!). Everything is "AMAZING!" and she just discovered carrying her baby around the house in the Bjorn. She loves to swing at the park on her tummy, blow bubbles in the pool, and play with "baby jaze" (as she calls James). Every time she gives kisses she has to kiss you once, then hug, then kiss again. It's hilarious!

It's Not Working...

Reese's new thing lately has been to point out things that are not working.

*Every time she colors with the light beige crayon, she runs it over to me and says "Mommy it's not working" (it is just so light she cannot see it color on the paper).

*We have several toys out of batteries and she is always quick to point out to James, "It's not working" (said in a cute childish voice with an emphasis on "wor" in working).

*Our neighbor Deanna gave Reese a ring that lights up and when Reese cannot turn it properly, she brings it to me saying "it's not working".

Well this next story, I am sure Reese will kill me when she is older and sees I blogged about this. Today she told me she wanted to use the potty. I put her on the potty and she sat there a minute. She usually pee pees right away. Well this time, she pointed to her private part and exclaimed, "It's not working!". She says it a few more times all the while pointing in between her legs and I am pretty much dying laughing. I told her to push real hard and then she started to pee pee with a huge smile across her face. I guess she got it working again...:)

6 Months!

I can't believe it - our Sweet Baby James is 6 months old today!



And not to be outdone, here is Reese's new trick - Ta daaaa!!!!

Flirt

Morning Muffins with Reese!

We had a little birthday party with muffins to celebrate Reese's 2nd birthday. We had a blast with kids running all around with tons of banging on the piano. My friend, Jennifer Van Zant took professional photos but I do not have them back yet. Here are some photos I stole from Alison's blog that she took on her iphone (thanks Ali!).

Pin the tail on the donkey! Jack was the only one that played blindfolded!

Our beautiful 2 year old. Her dress had an "R" on it like Laverne.

Yes, I am wearing an apron. You want to make something of it?

The best part of the party! I LOVE Aslynn and James crying hysterically on the floor!

We can't believe our baby girl is 2! She is no longer the tiny petite thing (goodbye 10th percentile weight!) and is just right about average (and hey, we are proud of that!). She is 40th percentile weight and 60th percentile height. She's just right!

We are also happy to report that she is not allergic to peanut butter and her new favorite lunch is crackers with peanut butter and raisins on top. The entire lunch she says "more reese peas" which means "more raisins please".

She has also started calling Daddy by his first name "Jeff!". When we tell her his name is Daddy, not Jeff, she promptly starts calling him "Daddy Jeff Dell". Kids!

She also has started saying "oh" when you ask her things. For example, "Reese, would you like some milk?". She then says "ohhh yeshh". It cracks us up! She is also Reese the Repeater. She repeats everything we say these days and is making the cutest sentences. She also knows all her numbers and can point them all out at random and knows the letters A-E perfectly and several others like J, K, O, P, etc. Just a few weeks ago she was calling everything blue, but now she can distinctly pick out orange and yellow. It is so fun to see that head filling itself with knowledge!

Reese is quite the budding artist and LOVES to color and draw. She can color for pretty much an hour without stopping which is nuts. Her favorite thing to draw is an apple :) She also draws an awesome picture of Daddy which pretty much looks like grass. We are so proud.

Our favorite part of our 2 year old are the hugs and kisses we get. She seemed too busy just a few months ago to hug and kiss us but is back to snuggling. She LOVES butterfly kisses and those long lashes of hers are killer! She is so sweet and loving to "Baby Jas" and is always bringing him a lovey, paci, etc. She is "mostly" a joy to be around and is such a happy girl!

Reese is 2!

Presenting....Reese Dell!

We have started telling Reese that her name is Reese Riddell. Reese begs to differ and is going by "Reese Dell" these days. We have to get it on video it is so funny! We will say "what's your name?". Reese responds, "Reessssshe" (with the ssss drawn out on the end and pointing to her chest). Then we say, "Reese what?". And she says, "Reese Dell!"!!!

Here are some super cute photos of Miss Reese Dell at her pal Jack's 4th birthday party taken this late Summer. Jennifer Van Zant, our good friend from Coppell days, is an awesome photographer and works at Vim Studio in Dallas. Check them out and use her for all your photo needs! She took my favorite photo of Reese to date - one that captures her so well - hair a crazy mess, frosting on the face, and the lashes that go on for miles. Such a beautiful portrait of my beautiful little girl! She is going to take James' photos soon so I will post some good ones of him when I get them.

My favorite photo of Reese - God gave us such a perfect girl!

Our little ham LOVES sunglasses!

She also loves pretzels...

James the Cutie Patootie

When Reese is down for a nap, James and I love to have photo shoots. It is great to actually have a child that will A. Look at the camera B. Smile and C. Doesn't try to grab the camera out of your hands with grubby fingers. Lets just say there aren't a whole lot of photos of Reese right now because she refuses to look at the camera or attempt a smile. James is a great subject though! He is all smiles and giggles and cooing these days. And what a cuddler too!

Who couldn't love that face???

News Flash!!!

Reese pooped in her potty for the first time today! I don't think I have ever been more proud, and of poop of all things!!! If anyone has suggestions on the best way to clean up the potty after dumping the poop in the toilet, let me know. I am a little grossed out on the best way to clean it up.

Naughty and Nice

Our friends took part in a fundraiser in which you can get Santa to come to your house for 30 minutes. I was so happy they asked us over because I just knew after the great, happy photo we got with Santa when Reese was 10 months old - we would not get the same from the 22 month old Reese of today. So glad I didn't wait in line for hours to get the following photos...although James of course was a gem. But he has no fear of the white beard....yet...

We decided we needed to get them both with Santa. Reese jumped off his lap and I snapped this photo as she was running away! Merry Freakin' Christmas!

Lets take a look back at 2008 - So young, so innocent, so not afraid of the big man in the red suit...

Still happy..

2009 - James looks pretty happy

We thought Reese would cheer up a bit

She started chewing on her hand in crazy desperation...

Then it got so bad we stopped laughing and thought she was going to make herself throw up. Yeah, we are great parents...

Call me Suri...

I kept fighting back the urge to cut Reese some bangs because I knew they would be about a 5 year commitment before we would go through all the awkward growing out stages with clips and headbands. Reese's hair was always in her face as she stubbornly refused to keep a bow or hair twisty in her hair for more than about 5 minutes. I finally gave up and got her hair cut. It is so cute I don't know why I didn't do it sooner! Of course, about the time I got her hair cut and wanted to share the cute photos, Reese is refusing to look at the camera or smile. So this is the best I could get. But I promise she looks super cute!!!

Chillin'

Brother and Sister

Bath Time. For the first time in awhile it is Reese that is happy and James that is upset.

So sweet...

I love this photo, Reese with her lovey patting James' head and James saying "hmmmm".

Hanging out in the rain forest together!

Impromptu Photo Shoot

One of my bffs Jessica R. was over a couple of weeks ago and was playing around with our camera and got some awesome photos of James! She was being all funny acting like James was a model and kept telling him to "work it" and funny phrases like that. I got a good laugh while she was taking the photos and some great photos of him. Thanks Jess!!!

I think after this one Jess said something like "ok let's try this again, your eyes were closed". James listened and opened his eyes and she snapped the photo above!

James's or James'?

I think modern grammar prefers James's but my old school ways prefers James'. What do you all think - James' or James's as in "Here is James' room" or "Here is James's room"? Leave me some comments and tell me what you think is proper.

Happy Halloweenie!

Sums up our 2009 Halloween experience...

Reese with pals Cooper and Peyton, she was weirded out that Peyton was Elmo

We found James in the pumpkin patch :)

Reese with her Mimi

After the first and only house Reese trick-or-treated at...

I am calling this one "Total Meltdown Whilst Clutching A Snickers"

Happy photos from the day before (trial run with the costume)

Call it lack of sleep, but I am so confused where I post photos now with it being the Facebook age and all. Sorry I am just now blogging about Halloween! Halloween seems to be Reese's least favorite holiday. She cried last year at the Baby's 1st Halloween Party we took her to and this year, because of total lack of sleep (woke up 2 hours early and only napped for 45 minutes that day), she only made it to one house for trick-or-treating before we had to take her home and put her to bed. Of course, the one piece of candy she received was a Snickers and the poor thing has not had peanuts yet! She was clutching the Snickers and I kept whispering frantically to Jeff, "she hasn't had peanuts yet! don't let her have it!". When he got her home, he was able to pry her claws off the Snickers and replace it with a Starburst that she never even ate.

Even though Halloween was full of tears, we got some cute photos of our little bumblebee the day before trying on her costume, sweet photos of our sweet lil' pumpkin James, and some pretty hysterical crying photos of Reese on Halloween!