The Beach

This beach trip is still going so incredibly well. We are LOVING every minute. Here's what we have been up to the past few days...

Fabulous set-up: Baby pool inside the baby sun dome. Can these two get any cuter?!

Just checking out the waves.

Her new Baby Banz shades. Not the cutest, but her eyes are protected. That's the point.

Just so you all know that it's not 100% rosy around here. :)

But those tears are usually gone quickly, and then we are back to happy times.

Wes and I had our date night last night, and it was my perfect evening. Seaside shopping and The Red Bar dining. Now if only we can bribe Bradford and Carrie to give up their date night and let us go back to another Seaside restaurant I want to try. Haha!

A FULL Day at the Beach

After an incredibly smooth 12 hour road trip to the beach on Saturday, we woke up to the beautiful, clear blue ocean yesterday morning and hit the ground running. In order to get these kiddos used to the beach, we decided to take a casual stroll in regular clothes before throwing swimsuits, beach, sand, lots of people at them. Both Walker and Reese were ready for naps after the stroll, so we hung out in Wes' Aunt Margie's gorgeous condo until everyone was up and ready. Then it was on. We beached it up for a while, enjoyed the heated pool for a bit, and then the babes were ready for another nap. We knew we needed a laid back evening, so we went to a very casual oceanfront/dockside restaurant and had incredibly fresh seafood. One of the MANY reasons I love the beach. Enjoy the pictures of day 1 while I go soak up all I can here on day 2.

Oops.

Wednesday went by, and I didn't post WIWW. That's because I'm taking a break. Yes, I know I didn't last long, but that wasn't the point. I am now getting out of my pajamas and getting motivated to get more done. If I start slacking, I may start it back up for a bit.

On to the more exciting things in my life...

We had Reese's 6 month pictures taken yesterday, and I CANNOT wait to get them back. Chelsea Sloneker took them, and we worked for almost 2 hours to get that girl to smile. I kept reminding myself that it was the end of a long day, she had shots that morning, she's teething, AND she is kind of a tough audience in the first place. Reese will smile and laugh all day with me, but when new people and new settings are introduced, she gets a bit shy. Her personality is really developing. However, the timing of the photo shoot wasn't too great on my part. Reese went to sleep as soon as we got home. Chelsea, next time you come, it may be at 7:30 in the morning. I'll make some coffee. :)

These next two days are filled with laundry and packing. I do have a lunch date today with a very dear friend who was my mentor teaching when I was going through the MAT program, so that will be a nice break from washing, drying, and folding. When the reason for the laundry and packing is a trip to the beach, however, it's not so bad. I'm packing the cutest little bitty swimsuits (for Reese--NOT me. Ha!), sweet little cover-ups, springy dresses, and lots of toys to keep sweet girl busy and happy. Some of our good friends from Little Rock are going with us, and it's sure to be a fun-filled, memorable trip. (If you think about it--pray for our drive on Saturday.) I'll try to post some pictures from the beach next week!!

In preparation for Reese's photo shoot yesterday, I got out my camera to capture the usual happenings of an afternoon around here. She really doesn't need the Boppy any longer, but I prop it up when I'm not able to watch her at every minute.

SB 2011

Some of our dear church friends loaded up on Thursday afternoon and headed to Lake of the Ozarks in the middle of Missouri for the weekend. It's the fourth year this crew has taken the trip (our third), and it's quite fabulous. It gets better each year. This is so probably because my friendships with these folks have grown, and of course we have some fun new little people added to the mix. (However, we SEVERELY missed the Lutz family.) I vowed to take more pictures this year as I only took one last year (and it was at Bob Evans on our way home), but I'll have to promise myself to actually take pictures of us girls in the future. For some reason, the boys and the kids are the only ones photographed this year. Oh well. I made progress. Instead of describing everything about the weekend, I'll just list the major moments:

1. Four hour car ride with an 11 month old and a 6 month old=incredibly impressed. These two girls were rock stars.

2. I did some MAJOR damage at the J.Crew outlet. MAJOR. Therefore, instead of continuing my shopping spree, I played "stylist" for the other girls the rest of the day on Friday. I had so much fun just sitting in the fitting rooms discussing sizing, fit, and style. Loved it.

3. Daniel masterminded two amazing dinners on Friday and Saturday nights. Grilled chicken, burgers, veggies, and beans on Friday. Chicken fajitas on Saturday. Yum.

4. Hot tub. It was unusually cold (as it always is on our SB trips), and the clean hot tub was the perfect place to relax each day/night.

5. Oh yeah...Daniel also prepared breakfast, and it was delicious. French toast, eggs, and sausage one morning. Biscuits and gravy the next.

6. The rest of the weekend included lots of basketball watching, great conversation, and playing with three really cute baby girls.

[Please disregard the mauve carpets and early 90s decor. The owners of the house must have a love for pastels and southwestern US.]

Reese and Sarah just playing around.

Reese in her little bunny onesie and doing what she does best--jumping.

Sarah and Blair with Becca. Sweet girls.

Wes and Sarah playing a little Wii golf.

Utz cheese balls are a staple. I had my first taste this year, and I won't be adding them to my grocery list.

The girls. Blair, Reese, and Sarah. Don't worry, mom--Reese had a cardigan and leggings on with her dress, but this was right after a diaper change, and I thought we better snap the pics while we could.

Yeah, we put her warmer clothes on right after this. :)

One of my favorite things about the weekend? I LOVED really getting to see R's personality. Being with two other kiddos, certain characteristics really stood out for each girl. Reese=content, quiet, "takes it all in", and she needs some alone time. She would just smile and laugh when we brought her in our room, and she laughed the entire drive home. This was one of those alone moments. LOVE her.

A good picture of the weekend for the boys. Baby monitors, dominoes, and drinks.

Oh, look. Wes took a pic of his girls on Friday morning with my phone. See? I actually was there. And that owl hat is getting a bit snug. Look back at pictures from October to see how much that cute noggin has grown.

WIWW Vol. 4

I did it! I did much better this week and actually remembered to take pictures every day. Workout clothes still occupied much of my week's wardrobe, but I workout. It may be later in the day before I can get to it, so I may spend the entire day in those clothes. I'm not sure how long I'll keep this up because I'm sure it won't be a forever thing, but it has been an incredible motivator. Here's WIWW Vol. 4:

Why did I pose like this? It totally didn't show that this was actually (in my mind) a pretty cute outfit. Anyways, this was a day filled with helping high school cheerleading tryouts. Fun, fun!

Jacket- Gap

Blouse- Old Navy

Jeans- Ann Taylor Loft

Sandals- Ugg (Dillard's)

You will be seeing these A LOT this spring and summer. They are so incredibly comfortable (Ugg knows how to make a comfy shoe), and I think they couldn't be cuter.

Lunch with a friend and errands day.

Jacket- The North Face

Tank- Old Navy

Pants- Gap Body

Shoes- New Balance

Watch- Polar (You can't see it, but my green heart rate monitor has been quite the staple for a few years now if I'm in somewhat workout clothes)

Lunch date and errands day.

Necklace- Banana Republic

Jacket- Under Armour

Shirt- Old Navy

Pants- Gap Body (yeah, I wore them two days in a row...they were washed in between though)

Hanging with Walker family day.

Cardigan- Target

Jeans- Seven

Flats- Rocketdog

Church day.

Dress- Gap

Leggings- Target

Sandals- Gap

Picnic in the park after church day (the wind was whipping up my dress, so I ran home and changed).

Cardigan- Target

Tank- Target

Silk gray shorts- TJ Maxx

Sandals- Gap

Stay at home all day to catch up on R's schedule day.

Jacket- Christmas gift from my mom.

Pants- Nike Outlet

"Comfy Pants Night" (This is what my friends call our get together nights where we just sit, talk, and snack for hours at one of our homes...this night's event was right here at our house)

Cardigan- J. Crew

Tank- TJ Maxx

Pants- Athleta

Flip-flops- Havaiana

Errands and visit sweet four day old Harper Hoyle day.

Pullover- J. Crew outlet

Watch- Michael Kors (my other staple when I'm NOT in semi-workout clothes)

Boyfriend khaki pants- Old Navy

Sandals- Ugg

And because I can't have a post without sweet girl, here is our happy Reese yesterday in her Polo from Auntie LC.

Happy Half-Birthday.

SIX months old TODAY! Can you say, Happy Half-Birthday?! We have had a full day, and it's only half way over right now. It started with her 6 month checkup, and she looked great. She's just about the best baby and such a trooper. I love her way more than I ever imagined. A catnap followed the appointment, and then we were just tickled that we got to eat lunch with Jenessa and Dyer at the one and only, Chick-fil-A. (We have been spoiled this week with awesome Chick-fil-A lunch dates--yesterday, we enjoyed dining with Katie and Sawyer!)

We are really looking forward to a laid back weekend before our fun lake trip and beach trip in the next few weeks!

Here's what Miss Reese is up to at the big six month mark:

*RRW weighs 16 lbs. 15.8 oz. (At birth, she actually weighed 7 lbs. 15.5 oz. and they rounded it up to 8 lbs., so I'm going to go ahead and say RRW is at 17 lbs.) 63rd percentile.

*Reese Peese's head is in the 85th percentile.

*Sweet Pea is 2 ft. 1 1/2 in. (25 1/2 inches)--making her way right down the middle of the chart.

*Peace goes to bed somewhere between 6 and 7 pm, has a little dreamfeed between 9 and 10 that I'm starting to attempt to get rid of, and sleeps until somewhere around 7 or 7:30 in the morning. Loving this full night's sleep thing.

*Sweet girl takes 2 or 3 good naps during the day.

*Reese still loves her jumperoo and Baby Einstein/Praise Baby.

*RRW sits up unassisted for a bit, but she's still not sturdy enough to hold it on her own for too long.

*Reese has a new found love for her play mat, and she just rolls, scoots, rotates on her belly, gets up on all fours and just plays with its toys and Scout (her Leap Frog puppy) a lot. I'm thinking crawling isn't too far in our future. Oh, and everything goes in her mouth. Everything she can get her hands on.

*Sweet Pea eats solids 2 or 3 times a day, and her favorite is definitely pears. We are trying to introduce all cereals, fruits, and veggies to her now, and it's going slowly but surely. Her tongue just keeps getting in the way, but we are making progress!

*RRW nurses 6 times a day, and hopefully we will be knocking 1, if not 2, of those out in the next month or two.

*Sweet girl was unswaddled for about two weeks before she got her ear infection. Now, we are back to weaning her; however, I am much more confident about the process. She needed the swaddle while she was sick, and I was just fine with that knowing that we can pretty easily get rid of it.

*Reese is a smily, laid-back, semi-quiet, and content baby. I couldn't ask for more. Her personality is starting to come out, and I just adore it.

Enjoy her six month pictures. Six pictures for six months. Or really I just couldn't narrow them down to one, so I picked six.

WWWW Vol. 3

As I confessed to Wes last night that I had completely failed at What I Wore Wednesday this week, he said to be real. Here's me being real: WWWW Vol. 3 has taken a huge hit. Reese got sick on Thursday. Mom came in town for the weekend, so I got side tracked (I even got some semi-cute outfits together, too!). I got pooped on several times (I'm not complaining though because we have been dealing with some major lack of bowel movements in the past month). Reese's tongue which still hasn't figured out how to get food off a spoon has flicked peas, pears, sweet potatoes, green beans, and beets all over her face, her clothes, my pants, my shirts, etc.

HOWEVER, my mom brought up a central Arkansas magazine that had a feature story about how workout clothes are ever so stylish these days. Thank goodness! I'm so glad to know that I am in style. My black Gap workout capris, black Under Armour (outlet!) zip-up, and a variety of my J. Crew deep v-neck tees (some outlet and some not) were worn over and over this week. You will just have to imagine what I looked like...I failed to take pictures. And it makes me so happy to announce that it is supposed to be sunny and 68 today and in the upper 70s tomorrow. I'm dreaming of outfits I will be wearing this week with my new sandals. (Thanks, mom!) Now I'm off to workout, shower, and then get all gussied up in something springy!

I vow to be much better this week. I can't promise there won't be a lounge day or two, but at least I'll take pictures. Here is my ONE picture from last week.

Cell group night.

Jacket- Gap

Shirt- ?? (My mom gave it to me for Christmas two years ago)

Jeans- Citizens of Humanity (Lefler's in Conway)

Boots- Born (Dillard's)