What I Learned...

...from the latest issue of The Key that came in my mailbox today. {for those of you not savvy with Kappa Kappa Gamma, The Key is the quarterly magazine of the greatest sorority on the planet.}

1. Recruitment terminology has changed. For example, instead of preference card, it is now membership recruitment acceptance binding agreement. Instead of party, it is now event.

2. The largest new member class for 2010-11 was 105--pretty sure that's my Gamma Nu chapter at the University of Arkansas.

3. An LSU alum is now a couture wedding gown designer in New Orleans.

4. An Iowa State alum is a member of AscenDance, a rock-climbing dancing group that made it to the semi-finals of America's Got Talent.

5. This one made me tear up just a little. An Arkansas alum was hosting a KKG reunion get together at her home in Hot Springs in 2007 when her husband and two daughters were killed in a small plane crash as they headed to Fayetteville for a Razorback basketball game. This past spring, Gamma Nu hosted a luncheon in honor of this alum and in memory of her daughters, unveiling a painting that is now display in my beautiful Kappa house.

6. Lo Bosworth is a UCLA Kappa, and on page 90 of her new book about dating and relationships, she lists all the things she loves about herself. "#17. I am a Kappa Kappa Gamma!"

7. One of the semi-finals in season 14 of America's Next Top Model is a Texas Tech alum.

8. I seriously want to take a Kappa Travels trip one day. Greek Isles, anyone?

If you are a Gamma Nu, I HIGHLY recommend you check out all that's going on right now. The Kappa house is about to get a HUGE makeover/renovation, and it will be absolutely stunning.

My two sisters. By Kappa and by marriage.

My besties. {Seven Kappas and two honorary.}

Happy Easter, y'all.

It was a fabulous celebration yesterday. Jesus Christ is Risen! If my children learn nothing else, I want them to know Jesus and celebrate the importance of his resurrection in their lives. So, yesterday was a good day because we got to expose Reese to a beautiful worship service, family who love her unconditionally, and a story of love and mercy greater than any other. It was a wonderful weekend.

The celebration started on Saturday morning with the big Easter Egg Hunt at Gran and O'Pa's house. All eight grandchildren were there, and the five big kids searched for eggs while the little three either slept or watched in awe. It was a lot of fun with a lot of smiles to be found. Of course there were a few breakdowns, but we all enjoyed the rainless weather and good food before Wes and I headed back to the Frost home for the night.

With some good Mexican food and amazing pie in our bellies and a baby down for the night, we watched Waiting for Superman. If you like documentaries and are somewhat interested in the school system, you MUST watch this. Oh man, it was good.

Easter morning, Reese woke up to find that the Easter bunny had come. That bunny spoiled this little girl twice (once at Mopsy and Popsy's and once at Gran and O'Pa's), and my mom broke the news to me that the Easter bunny had finished visiting me. I get it. We got ready for church, and then Wes, Lovemore, Reese, and I sat in the balcony in the church I grew up in listening to Mopsy and Popsy in the choir and witnessing the story of Jesus' death and resurrection shared with the congregation.

My mom prepared a fabulously delicious Easter meal that we enjoyed after church. Lovemore (our "adopted" brother from Zimbabwe) joined us, along with my 97 year old great-aunt and 90 year-old grandmother who brought the deviled eggs.

We spent a little down time at the Walker home before making the rainy and stormy trek back to Bentonville. We are so thankful for all of our family and friends, and we are so blessed to share this holiday with those we love. Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice and love.

Enjoy the MANY pictures of the weekend...

Gran explaining the "rules" to the egg hunt. This is prior to Morgan's meltdown about the chocolate bunny prize.

Wes and Reese during the middle of the hunt.

Of course Reese found a Reese's inside an egg.

The whole egg hunt crew.

Back at the Frost home, Reese got to open up the big egg for her little Easter happy.

Sweet. Sophie the Giraffe. We couldn't be out of the loop here.

She loves her already. And those socks are pretty awesome, too.

Happy Easter morning! Still in her sleep sack but couldn't wait to see what the Easter bunny brought her.

Oh man, she was a happy baby.

At FUMC.

Mopsy and Popsy with their little sweetpea.

Granny and her great-granddaughter.

97 years apart.

Lovemore has the baby touch. Reese was just so relaxed in his arms. So sweet.

I pray you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday. He is Risen. He is Risen indeed!

Sweet and Dainty

Those are the words Chelsea Sloneker used to describe Reese, and I think they fit perfectly! The pictures she took at her 6 month photo shoot are fabulous, and now you get a chance to take a peek! PLEASE go to Chelsea's blog and comment at the end of Reese's post, so that I can win a free 20x20 print for my house! Here are a few I stole off the blog. She has a lot more for you to check out! Go! Comment! slonekerphotos.blogspot.com

SEVEN Months.

Yep. Count 'em. Reese Peese is SEVEN months old today. It's 11:45 am, and I'm pretty sure seven months ago at this second, I was thinking my sweet girl would arrive at any minute. I had been dilated to 8 cm for almost an hour, so surely I was close to the finish line. Ha. She was born at 4:26 pm. That moment will forever be stamped in my memory as one of the most incredible feelings. For me, it was a moment of "woah." I was done with labor (PRAISE THE LORD), and I had birthed a baby, my beautiful daughter. I looked at Wes who was grinning from ear to ear, and then the blurry few days began. Maybe mine began earlier than most, but I've learned I must accept that my blurry-ness came when it did. I remember talking up a storm right after Reese was born, and then I remember holding her for a few seconds, the nurses taking her back to check on her oxygen, and then my family came in a few at a time. Regardless of the blurry times, all I know was that I was in MAJOR love with this little baby. All that mattered was taking care of her. The cars zooming past the hospital on I-540 didn't factor in to my day one bit. Forget everything else. My new little family was immediately my world. Normalcy returned a few weeks later, but it's a new normal. I still do the same things I used to, but I get to do all of these things with the most incredible gift from the Lord.

Reese, I love you more than you could ever imagine. I am speechless when it comes to how much I care for you. And to know that Jesus loves you even more than I do is mind boggling.

Here's what you are up to at SEVEN months old.

*Not so sure why, but you are waking up earlier these days. Around 6 or 6:30, and I'm trying to figure out how to push it back to 7 like it used to be. This morning, however, you decided 5 am was time to get up. Daddy and I didn't let that happen.

*You go to sleep between 6 and 7 at night. Lately, you really fight sleep. You fuss and cry for quite a while before settling in to deep sleep. This happens sometimes at naps as well. If you can calm yourself down enough, you can pick up one of your pacifiers and put it back in to help you fall asleep.

*You take two or three naps anywhere between 1 and 2 1/2 hours in length. 2 1/2 is REALLY rare.

*You nurse 5 times a day. No more dream feed. I dropped this right after you turned 6 months old. You are loving all of the new food you get to eat, too. All different types of fruits, vegetables, and grains. Of course you favor the fruits. Who wouldn't, right?! You eat solids 2 or 3 times a day.

*You sit like a champ. This gives you the ability to play with whatever YOU want.

*You are still my content and observant little girl. I bet you are taking in a lot more than I think.

*You are going through a little phase of stranger anxiety/separation anxiety.

*No teeth yet, and I'm not sure when they are coming. I bet your bottom ones are on their way, as the doctor thought he felt the ridge there, but we shall see.

*I'm done taking your car seat in and out of the car as much as I used to. Just a bit too heavy to lug around.

Enjoy the SEVEN pictures of RRW's SEVEN month photo shoot.

{Okay, so I just started a photography class, and my camera was not on the right settings when I started. I'm hoping to really learn a lot in this class because I am still a bit lost on week one's homework...shutter speed and ISO stuff. These first two are a bit blurry but still pretty adorable.}

{Hey, mom.}

{Reese LOVES Scout.}

{Yes, I'm eating my foot. So what?}

well-deserved

Wes, Reese, and I took another trip to Conway this weekend, and this time it was to honor my dad. The James E. Major Service Award was given to him during the Hendrix Alumni Weekend as one who has given meritorious service to Hendrix College. Anyone who knows my dad knows this is truer than true. Here is the write-up that was found on the front page of "The Cabin" yesterday morning.

Frost will receive the 2011 James E. Major Service Award, given for meritorious service to the College. The award is named for Dr. James E. Major of Little Rock, a 1940 alumnus, Senior Vice President Emeritus of Hendrix and a minister in the Little Rock conference of the United Methodist Church.

Frost joined the Hendrix Admission Office after completing a master’s degree at Vanderbilt University. From 1976 to 1988 and from 1995 to 2009, Frost witnessed the growth of Hendrix in size, out-of-state student enrollment, and national stature.

He joined the Development Office as Senior Development Officer in August 2009. He is a former president of the Conway Morning Rotary Club.

It was a fabulous morning, and I am so thankful that my dad got this award that I believe he has deserved for a long time. Lots of family and friends came to witness the awards ceremony, and I couldn't be more proud of Popsy. His speech was perfect, making sure the audience knew some of the crazy experiences he has endured on behalf of Hendrix College. He mentioned that thirty-two of his sixty-one years have been at Hendrix. He met my mom when they were both sophomores in the choir at Hendrix, they married there in 1973, he started working in Ellis Hall in 1976, my brother and I grew up biking and roller-blading around campus, Wes and I married in Greene Chapel in 2006, and my dad is now an integral part of the Development Office.

The only downer from yesterday was that I was too busy with Reese to take more pictures, and my mom's camera ran out of memory after the first picture she took. So, I don't really have any good pictures of the whole family to share, but I'm hoping to get my hand on a few of the professional ones that were taken. Here's what I captured:

{yes, that's a toad suck shirt. reese needed to get a bit more comfy after the big ceremony, and luckily mopsy had purchased this 30th anniversary toad suck daze shirt earlier in the week. if you don't know anything about toad suck daze, i'd be happy to fill you in at your request.}

Sedoin' It and More

You may be wondering what that means. When we planned this beach trip, we figured we would have to take two cars because of all of the stuff that comes along with two babies, four adults, and a 12 hour car ride. The more we got to thinking though, we figured we could rent a third-row SUV or even a minivan for the drive. It would be way more enjoyable to ride together, plus it would make each outing much easier. Much to my dismay, we settled on the minivan after some research and talk with minivan friends, and we were treated to the Kia Sedona for a week. If only you could have seen this packed out van with two luggage bags on top. The boys up front, kids in the middle, and girls in the way back. I think Wes wanted to rent the minivan to get me on board for actually purchasing one when our family grows. I just don't think it worked. Maybe it was due to the 21 hours I spent in the way back, or maybe it was because of the amount of work it took to get in and out of that thing. Carrie and I had to climb in from the front. There was no way to get around those car seats through the sliding doors. Anyways, I'm sticking to my original thinking that we will be getting one of my favorite third-row SUV's one of these days. And I'm saying this just because I know I could eat my words and "bite the minivan dust" as several of my best friends have done in the past year or two. We shall see. I really like the look of the Volvo XC90 more than the Honda Odyssey though.

Okay, so everywhere we went, we used the phrase "sedoin' it" in whatever we were saying. It was just so humorous to see us all packed out in that thing that we just lived it up and laughed at ourselves the entire week.

We kept talking about taking a shot of all of us lined up along the side of the van, but it never happened. We finally took a picture of each little family when we made it to Bradford and Carrie's house yesterday afternoon.

Here are the Walker's "sedoin' it."

I learned that my husband loves a good puzzle this week. He started one of the 1000 piece puzzles on Thursday afternoon, and he was hooked. Carrie loves herself a good puzzle, too. Those two worked relentlessly until it was complete at 10 pm Friday night. Of course there were a few breaks for beach time, baby play time, Masters watching, and packing, but it definitely took over the final day at the beach.

Here's a little photo shoot of the final hours.

My pediatrician told me that most eye damage occurs in the first 5 years of life and that most people don't think about putting sunglasses on their babies. We squint when we are in the sun, and they do, too. So...I was on the hunt for some Baby Banz for Reese, and thankfully we found them early on in the week. They actually stay on Reese's head, and she got used to them after a while. It was clear that she figured out she could see with them on, so she quit messing with them. Here are the Walkers with our sunglasses on. No eye damage here.

This trip was fabulous and far exceeded my expectations. I will always be so thankful to Wes' Aunt Margie and Uncle Alan for giving us such an incredible gift. The condo was perfect and such a relaxing retreat. The way the kids acted in the car was basically unheard of as far as I know. The two babies didn't really cry or fuss the entire way there or on the way home. Reese and Walker were so content and seemed to actually enjoy themselves. Carrie and I were in shock and so thankful.

Happy Sunday! We are home now. The other three (Wes, Reese, and Emmett) are napping while the final round of The Masters is on in the background. Most of the unpacking has taken place, and now I'm ready to start the week. I'm hoping to clean a lot, work out a lot, and eat a lot less chocolate. :)

Ridiculous

It's ridiculous the number of photo opportunities that arise while you are at the beach (and especially a baby's first trip to the beach). Here's what I mean... (I apologize for the number of photos...this is the easiest way to keep the grandparents happy while we are here.)

Baby Einstein before bedtime. So cute.

A little jumperoo action for Reese. And what a view she has!

Oh yes, we did. Matching whale onesies...with their names embroidered on them.

Love these faces.

{insert sarcasm} Really glad Wes left his sunglasses on in this one.

Matching whales on a pier. Pretty sweet.

Hmmm...I'm still collecting my thoughts on this beach thing.

Right before Reese fell asleep in Wes' lap.

Just lounging around in her pajamas.