The Holidays Bring Friends In Town

One of the many reasons that I love the holidays is that it brings friends home. I guess I used to be one of those people always going home to Corpus for the holidays but now that my parents have moved here, we are able to stay in town and see the friends that come home to their families :)


First we saw the Pharrs at lunch at Baker Brothers this week! They are in from NYC and are some of our favorite people. Matt is in the running for one of the funniest people ON EARTH (in my world anyway). He keeps us laughing the entire time and the conversation is always great. I say this a lot but they are such a breath of fresh air around here! Just super easy to be with and always a good time. I'm really glad they asked us to lunch b/c we were originally supposed to see them for happy hour later that night but didn't make it. More to come on that...

Here is a picture of us with the Pharrs at their first going away party when they were moving to London a couple of years ago.

Here's a crazy story - we actually also missed the Pharrs' second going away party when they were moving to New York earlier this year. I was about 8 months pregnant and that party was supposed to be just about the highlight of my month! :) However, while our friends were seeing them off over cold beers...this is what I was doing:

An unexpected trip to Labor and Delivery that, as we all know now, ended with no Labor or Delivery. Anyway, I hate that we keep missing them but that's why we enjoyed our long lunch so much! :)


The same day as the lunch, we also had plans to meet up with the McAllisters for dinner. Justin was a groomsman and Katie read at our wedding. They live just outside of L.A. but get home to Texas about twice a year. We met them and Deran and Sarah at Maggianos for our annual holiday dinner. It was great to see them and catch up even though I started to feel sick during the dinner. Boo. 


Why do I not have any pictures of us with the McAllisters? Probably b/c Beau is Beaugarting them on his computer. Get it? Get it?...never mind.


My parents kept Grayson that night (since we thought we were going to the Pharrs HH afterward) and thank goodness b/c I was miserable all night and I later found out that Grayson was up all night at my parents' house with a cold. Good news - we are both better! :)


All in all, an awful evening with a cold, but a great day with friends made it all worth it. Miss them already!

Baby Food Maker!

It IS a baby food maker, not a baby maker as I keep calling it. So. many. jokes....

I am really excited about my decision to make Grayson's baby food! I am doing this for several reasons - primarily because it saves a lot of money and it's healthier for him.  But an additional perk is that overall, it's better for the environment than bottled food. Also since I'm staying home, I have the time/ability to do this. I would never dream of doing this if I had a full time job so I'm totally not knocking the bottled food! 

My parents gave me this fabulous baby food maker for Christmas! It comes very highly recommended from friends and professionals/critics from various things I've read. It's sold at Williams Sonoma and so far, SO GOOD! It's makes things easy enough that it's still fun. :) It does everything in this one little machine. I have successfully made bananas so far only to find out that bananas don't need to be pureed. You just add water and mush 'em [sigh]...oh well, next up apples and pears today. It all freezes really well so I plan on making about a week's worth of food. Grayson has liked everything he has tried so far (including plastics, rubbers and cottons) so hopefully, the streak will continue so I don't have to throw it all out! 

Christmas Gift - New Pendant Light!

My sisters are UH. MA. ZING. I have been dreaming about this pendant light for my breakfast area for almost a year now! You may remember it from this post. I kept talking about it and looking at it and it just never quite seemed to be in the budget. I put it on my Christmas list with other items that were more practical so I just assumed that I wouldn't get it. However, Andrea and Amanda are the best at not getting people things that they would normally get themselves. I should've known! ;-)

Here are the pictures from Christmas Eve (I only wish they could have been here with us!!)....

This is a "before" of the breakfast area (you will have to look over my unshowered-Christmas-morning shoulder to see it)....

And voila! The most perfect fixture to complete my breakfast area. And I LOVE the soft light it gives off. Way better than that sharp, exposed light from before. This was taken during the day so it doesn't do it justice but trust me, it really proves that lighting can totally set a mood. I'm much more relaxed in this room....which makes me want to change the lighting throughout our house! ;-)

THANK YOU SISTERS!!! I love you with every way-more-chilled-out-because-of-my-new-soft-relaxing-light bone in my body! xoxo

Next up: window coverings! Beau and I are locked in mortal combat over roman shades in this room. I will warn you my fellow roman shade friends, the outcome isn't looking good. Stay tuned...

Grayson's First Christmas

What a perfect first Christmas for baby Grayson! Picture perfect in fact and what better way to document our wonderful memories than with pictures of Grayson with our families....

My beautiful boys

 Yaaay more presents for my gummy mouth!

 We have confirmed that all gifts can and will be chewed on.

 Pure joy. We wonder if his mouth aches from smiling so much :)

 Jeff got a #1 Pop mug! 15 oz. of course :)

 Being spoiled by Beau's family with the Santa Sack that just kept giving :)

 Very serious "opening gifts" face

 With cousin Payton

 Four generations of Reynolds men (this was only the beginning of Grayson's new refusal to nap. look at those tired eyes!)

We will never forget this Christmas! There are about 100 more photos of this first Christmas but I'll spare you :) I'll dedicate a post to some other fun Christmas pictures and gifts. Until then, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas with your loved ones. We look forward to all the new blessings that 2011 will bring our friends and families!

Christmas Lights Tour

Beau and I decided to look at Christmas lights the other night and we really enjoyed it! Now that my Mom lives here, we knew she would want to join so we picked up hot chocolate at Starbucks and went down to Deerfield in Plano - a neighborhood that is well known for their Christmas lights tour. They even have horse and carriage rides - if this doesn't get you in the mood for Christmas, nothing will! The neighborhood had a route for traffic that kept things flowing smoothly and because of this, we managed to only snap a couple of photos. It really is house after house looking just like this :)


Ever since I moved to DFW back in 2003, this neighborhood has peaked my interest and I have always thought I would love to live there someday. Granted I haven't seen a fraction of the neighborhoods in the metroplex but I just love how charming this one is - it's not cookie cutter as you would think the suburbs should be but it's still uniform and consistent - tough to manage. A beautiful neighborhood indeed!

Making of a Christmas Card

Rewind to about a week ago - I was admittedly disappointed when I realized that I had run out of time to get the 3 of us together for a family picture AND get Christmas cards ordered, shipped and then addressed and mailed out. So what does one do when this happens? I would imagine a rational person would find an existing picture and place the order for cards or better yet choose a pretty card that doesn't need a picture. I, on the other hand, called my Mom at her house and my Husband at work freaking out that I wasn't going to get Christmas cards out in time and that I was giving up on the idea altogether and focusing my efforts on Baptismal invitations (which is also right around the corner). Within an hour, my Mom was over dressing up Grayson in his outfit, Beau was home for lunch setting up the tripod and camera and a photo shoot was underway! If one can't be rational, it's good to have rational people in one's life. ;-)

Maybe next year I will actually order enough cards to complete my list :/

Merry Christmas to all!

The Nutcracker

Beau and I went to see The Nutcracker ballet at the Eisemann Center last weekend. This ballet is truly one of my fondest memories of Christmas time and I really want to make this a tradition with my family as my Mom made it for us. I was actually in the ballet for three years when I was young in Corpus (shout out to all the mice and angels out there!) and that's when I really fell in love with it. Everything - the storyline, the music, the beautiful costumes and of course the dancing! So I was really excited to take Beau - it was his first ballet ever and he said he really liked it! I've always thought it kind of drags toward the end of the Walt of the Flowers but otherwise, it kept his attention, which made it a success! He even bought me a gorgeous Nutcracker for our house - I kind of want to keep him up year round ;-)

This particular performance is done by a pre-professional ballet and they are all local so of course it's not going to be like a performance by one of the professional international companies but it was done very well for a local group!

In case you are looking for a recommendation on this ballet, here's my take:

Wins

• Nice, intimate theatre
• Great prices
• Really nice costumes
• Mother Ginger - anytime they make her really big where the kids hide under her dress is a big win for me!
• Precious little girls! Some of the cutest angels and mice I've ever seen :)

Not so wins

• TINY Nutcracker dancer! Seriously he was shorter than Clara, which doesn't make for a very dramatic fight with the Rat King
• Dinner Party Scene - it was nice but they didn't have many adults, maybe 6 couples. Which makes it difficult to explain the 40+ kids on stage (waaaaay too many). And I have always liked when the couples dance - they always had a lot of adults in the one in Corpus :)
• Some contemporary twists - I'm uber sensitive about people jacking with traditional pieces of work. So a partial booty dance by the Rat King was a big miss for me
• The Russian Dance - we were robbed! My favorite part is the male dancer(s) like the ones in this video but this one just had 2 female dancers. It's just not the same.
• There was no orchestra :( The sound system was amazing and I didn't even notice after a while but it's just cooler to have the musicians there with you

So there you have it. I really didn't intend to critique this ballet but it looks like I did. I recommend it for an easy, fun night out. However, I really want to do the Moscow Ballet's Russian Nutcracker next year! We passed on it this year since their Dallas stop was the weekend before Thanksgiving and I refuse to get THAT in to Christmas before Thanksgiving!

First Word?

Doubtful. But Beau SWEARS that Grayson's first word was "Dada". My Mom even told me that he said it for her. However, I believe he has to know what he's saying for it to constitute a real word. Otherwise it's just sounds being put together, right?! ...you be the judge. Of course with everything he does, he said it a billion times but by the time I found the Flip, he would barely say it....





First word or do I still have a chance for it to be Mama?!

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Baby Grayson!

Happy 6 months to my beautiful, perfect-in-every-way-except-sleeping-through-the-night baby! You are full of curiosity, discovery, thrill-seeking, SO many smiles and some really sticky fingers (figuratively, of course)! 


This feels so far away...yet so recent too...
(sorry for the boy parts. I should've trimmed. The video, not the...never mind)

• You roll over from back to stomach all the time now
• Grabbing everything - in true baby fashion, you have a knack for remotes, cell phones and anything with buttons and/or that glows!
• The motive behind every quick grab is that you want it in your mouth! You're fast too!
• You are still waking up about 1x per night. We had a week where you slept through every night and no matter what we do (short of hopping on one leg, rubbing our bellies and patting our heads), we can't seem to replicate it. 
• You are responding more and more to the babies in our play group and at Musical Story Time! You BEAM through the songs and even the other moms enjoy watching you :)
• When we put you on your hands and knees, you rock back and forth but no crawling yet. The inevitable lunge to reach whatever we are enticing you with is adorable. You want to get up and go so badly but it will be here before we know it!
• You are eating sweet potatoes, more and more avocados, and rice cereal. Next up, oatmeal and more veggies. Mama is slow to introducing you to something new every week. I'll get better!
• As you can see in the recent videos, your laugh is contagious and if you are 1/2 as happy throughout your life as you are now, I think you'll be just fine ;-)
• 6 month ped. appt. is the first week in January so no new stats just yet. 
• You are so strong! Everyone says it - not just your gushing Mama ;-) You can stand with support from the coffee table and still prefer to stand rather than do anything else.

I often think back to the times before I was pregnant and I would read blogs from new moms and they would talk about this love for their babies, and how their lives have changed and how motherhood is like nothing else. I couldn't fathom it, was terrified at the thought of change and couldn't understand loving something more than my husband (It's an equal love, Beau. Promise!! :)) But I SO get it. I cry sometimes just looking at you and when I think about how blessed we are. My heart feels this inexplicable pain when I think of anything happening to you (even bullying - you are going to have the most protective Mama!) and I thank God every day for you!! 


Happy 6 months, Grayson! A billion hugs and eskimo kisses coming your way!

Grayson "walking" - Part 2

We had so much fun with Grayson in that last video, that we thought we would play around with him some more like that the other night. :) It was close to bedtime so Beau didn't have him as worked up. I actually want to post this video because of the very end. The expression on Grayson's face when he realizes that Beau isn't holding on to him is pretty precious. 


The video below is labeled Playing with Daddy - Part 1. If you just absolutely can't get enough of this cuteness, check out Part 2 here.

My 5th Love

only after Beau, Grayson, Shelby and Brinkley.....

ADDICTED. Pure perfection in a tiny little packet. I panic when I'm running low on these little bad boys and I'm afraid I will never enjoy coffee again that isn't Cinnamon Spice-flavored. I don't even enjoy going to Starbucks to get a latte anymore. It's all about the Via, baby. 


I ran out earlier this week and, for whatever reason, kept forgetting to swing by Starbucks to load up and I have been hurtin'. We're talking caffeine headaches (that proves the addiction right there), dragging in general and reducing myself to the old, stale $2 bag of Aldi coffee in the pantry. Ick. So when Beau showed up with TWO 6-packs of Cinnamon Spice Via this morning, an intense feeling came over me that I can liken only to what I expect a druggie feels when his dealer gets out of prison (or comes back from vacation or whatever drug dealers do). Oh, the joy-relief-excitement-love-"fix" of it all!


Merry Cinnamon Spice Via Christmas!

Grayson "walking"

This is by far my favorite video of him to date!

Music from a 5 1/2 month old

We just can't get enough of this!

Santa Baby

Grayson had his very first visit with Santa yesterday! The line was short, the Santa was good and Grayson did really well. He asked Santa for a couple of toys and a remodeled kitchen. Silly goose....


Hey Santa, over here!

Italian Lesson - Sort of

You have seen Beau's spanish abilities here but have you seen him channel his inner Italian? It's not pretty ;-) Fortunately, Grayson loooooves it.


Grayson has a special little treat for you if you can make it to the end of this video. Baahahahaha!

Giving Thanks

It goes without saying that I'm thrilled that I was able to spend so much time with my sisters and their guys over the long holiday weekend. This was the first time that we all brought someone to a holiday and it was so cool to see the boys bond over hitting golf balls into the lake behind my parents' house, frying shrimp with our dad and of course, eating and drinking. Aaaand repeat. :)

Since I could go on and on about all the things I'm thankful for, I'll keep it simple....

Amanda's twinkle - She has this sparkle in her eyes when she smiles and especially when she laughs that is contagious. I just want to keep laughing with her so that I can see it all the time.

Andrea's ideas - She has big ideas that make me want to talk to her for hours. Decorating, fashion, her career, real estate, politics, it's all in that brain of hers and it makes you want to dive in to learn more.

Andrew's laugh - Andrew is Amanda's fiance and gets the Trooper Award for being around our family for FOUR solid days and kept us laughing.

Rogan's calm - Rogan is Andrea's boyfriend and one of the coolest people I've met. He is the calm to everyone else's chaos and anxiety (not that there is ANY of that in our family! ha). He can joke with just a simple look, not even saying anything - I've never seen anything like it and he makes me laugh. Only after he's made me chill out a bit. :-)

Jeff  and my Mom - They make their house a home even if it's not the one we grew up in. It's filled with so much love and laughter (and a full fridge). We never go without. No really, you should see their inventory of aluminum foil. ;-)

Beau - he's just so good. I feel like I say this all the time and I'm left lacking for the perfect words to explain how perfect he is. Supportive, loving, positive and he has his own calm that I admire so much. And it's just so cool to see him with Grayson!

It was so special to watch everyone else with Grayson, too. Even the guys were wonderful with him and I didn't really have to parent the entire weekend! I love watching Amanda and Andrea with him - they are going to be great mamas!