Classic

Reese has a cat piano that looks like a cat and plays all kinds of music. She really enjoys listening to the music and dancing, and likes for us to dance along with her. This morning while Ryan was still home before work, she started playing songs...and out of now where she yells:
"Come on everybody, let's dance, this song is really annoying"

I almost fell off the chair laughing so hard.

Moonwalk Mania!

Reese gets Highlights Hive Five....Highlights magazine, which I loved as a kid, only the High Five version is for pre-schoolers. She loves when her magazines come in the mail. Thanks MeMe and Grampy.
I guess she needed some time to herself to get her reading done. I wish I had the ability to use the bathroom myself...ahh the joys of motherhood.

This past weekend we had Moonwalk Mania! Stroller Strides of Corpus Christi celebrated it's 4th birthday so we needed to celebrate. Our good friends the Gratland's (see blog on side of my page) just invested in a Moonwalk company where they rent moonwalks to people on the weekends. So in honor of Stroller Strides and Emma Lu's Rentals they brought out 3 of their moonwalks to showcase. Two regular jumping ones and one with the slide. They also have one that is a water slide, which I have used before and is a BLAST. I am trying to talk Ryan into letting me rent it for him for his birthday next month. I know he would have fun and 31 still seems like an appropriate age to partake in activities such as water slide moonwalks.
Reese and I jumped our hearts out, despite ridiculously hot temp. outside. She jumped for about 3.5 hours on Saturday and then we came home and hit the pool for 2.5 hours. Sunday we celebrated our friend Ethan's 3rd birthday with a moonwalk AGAIN. So Reese jumped for about an hour on Sunday as well. To say this kid is pooped today from her long weekend is an understatement.

Jumping in the princess moonwalk. It's hard to see from the glare but Reese is jumping in the dead center of the picture and you can't really miss my big ass. I'm the only one in there taller than 3 ft.

Coaxing in my friends. Yes I jumped with kids under the age of 4 and had a BLAST. A great work out as well. I will post a video of our fun soon and I must say the moonwalk is the place where I perfected my cheerleader moves. Too bad I'm about to turn 30 and was never a cheerleader. I coulda been a contender.

In sad news, our beloved washing machine died. My parents bought it from Lowe's when Leslie and I moved into an apartment together in College Station in 2002. It has made 4 moves, done TONS of laundry and held up nicely these last 8 years (never needing a single repair). It literally died to the week of it's 8th anniversary with the Herbst family. It didn't pay to get it fixed because it was the world's cheapest washer so we took the plunge and got a new fancy washer. I debated for a long time about front and top loaders and despite wanting a top loader, Ryan (who does NOT do laundry) felt that it was more cost effective to buy a front loader. He also insisted that we get a dryer, even though ours was not broken. Sometimes boys are dumb. Esp. because the top loaders without agitators are JUST as energy efficient, but what do I know...I'm not the one working on my PhD for the ump-teenth semester in a row :) Love you Ryan!

I have to pick my battles so I would rather fight about him needing to graduate than a washer and dryer. I am still very nervous about the mildew smell I hear so much about but I am hoping for good things. Just in case I'm leaving the door open after I wash clothes. I'm not thrilled about that but such is life.

Obviously she's mesmerized by my new appliance. Thank goodness for the "child lock" feature on my machine.

Who needs toys?

Taco! Burrito!

I can proudly say that I taught her everything she knows. Including this lovely Spartan Spirit Cheerleaders song! We're working on the second portion of the cheer. I think it's important to teach kid some of the more quality cheers out there!

Video Recap

Here is a quick recap!

Build a Bear

We headed to Kingwood last week to visit Auntie Darlene, Uncle Tom and Uncle Bill, and to handle some family business. Reese had sooooooo much fun spending time with everyone, I am not sure who had more fun in the swimming pool, Reese or Uncle Bill. Reese stayed home with Stacey and Uncle Bill on Monday while Leslie, Dad and I handled some things for my Nana and Pop-pop. Sadly we dropped Stace off at the airport on Tuesday morning as she headed back to NY. The rest of the week we visited with the family and spent time making the rounds with all the grandparents. This trip was a little more chaotic than normal but Reese of course, handled it like a champ, as she usually does when we go to Kingwood. She never complains about going to visit everyone, is so friendly to all the old people she sees at my Grandma's assisted living community and tolerates spending hours in places without a whole lot of things for her to do.
I figured since she did so well I would reward her with her first trip to Build a Bear. She built a dog, which looks exactly like Thurman, and shockingly she named him Thurman. She really delved deep on that one. We built it with Uncle Tom and Uncle Bill, Reese was apprehensive at first about the process but warmed up afterwards.
Telling Uncle Bill all about it.

Slightly nervous

While in Kingwood we also played at the park with our good friends. Reese enjoys spending time with Talon Benton and Henry Chesser. Sorry no pictures from our excursion.

Reese's outfit from her Oma

I am currently working on uploading some videos of Reese swimming for the first time this year. Looks like she remembered all the things she learned last year in swim lessons, and that we'll be spending a LOT of time in the pool this year. I will try and post those later today!

This weekend is Beach to Bay...think of me fondly on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. (CST) when I will be running 4 miles on the beach for my portion of the race. Think of Ryan at 5 a.m. (CST) when he takes on the task of babysitting Reese and our friend Keaton (7 months old).

And we have a NEW patio! Can I get an Amen?!?

We'll start with the before.....and I mean really before when it still looked nice.
This is a picture we took the weekend we decided to buy the house. Over time the bricks became uneven, water pooled up on top of them when it rained and overall it was a GIANT mess.

After years of talking that we needed a new patio we finally got it in the works...We took the bricks up in the middle of March to start the process. It's going to be nice now that the dog, kid and husband won't be tracking tons of sand in the house everytime they go outside. It was a delayed process because it rained so much in Corpus. It NEVER rains in Corpus....I am so excited this is finally done!

Sand box of fun! Yes the dog got to run through this everytime he went out. Imagine how fun it was the day we got 1.5 inches of rain. He took the long way out that day.

Re-bar is down! Getting closer

Fill 'er up!

Reese loved watching them fill the motorized wheel barrow with concrete...then she would watch as they drove up the driveway and dumped it onto the patio.

Super wet

Steps down to the main area. We added color to our concrete so that it would be brown...thought it was a nice change to boring grey.

Patio...yes it's still messy because the concrete was still wet when I took this picture

Finished sidewalk. I will add some more pictures when it's dry enough for me to walk on.

Poor Poor Cinderella, she never even saw it coming. Thurman LOVES toys, esp. nice plastic toys that Reese (despite my constant reminders) leaves on the floor. Let this serve as a warning to her. I guess Cinderella will have to waltz one armed with the Prince. Sleeping Beauty just got her hands severed off...At least Cinderella has a few fingers left on the one hand.

My dog has also amazed me this week in two ways. First I let him out the other day and the back gate must not have been latched. He was free....but he came right to the front door, barking and pawing to come in. He loves us. Second...Ryan had to put him in our bedroom today and close the door while he had the backdoor open as they were pouring concrete. While Thurman was in there he jumped and pawed at the door handle and managed to lock the door...so Ryan had to pick the lock to get him out.

Dancing the Chicken Dance

We babysat for our good friend and neighbor Syndey a couple weeks ago. Reese was so excited to have a friend over. They took a bath together and had a great time. Reese was sad when I took Sydney home to go to bed. These girls really do like each other and we're so lucky to have such wonderful friends right around the corner. I can't wait to see these girls when they grow up...and dare I say get on the bus to school together...just like Kathy Mannion and I did ooohhhhh so many years ago.

Her pals

The look of awe as Mickey and Minnie came on the ice. She was screaming to them "Hi Mickey, it's Reesie (that is what she calls herself)" and was waving 90 mph. We're planning a trip to Disney next year and I can't wait to see how excited she will be.

Disney on Ice....so happy to see Cinderella. Pardon my poor photography skills. It was a hard to get a good shot in the small amount of room they had set up to see the Princesses.

Working at her desk!

LOTS!

I know it's been a long time. Here are some pictures from Easter. We spent time in Kingwood with my family. It was so nice to see everyone and spend time with my grandparents. Reese had a great time looking for eggs, mostly because she knew there were M&M's in them.

Sean was in charge of pictures so I can't explain why this one was so fuzzy.

Putting eggs in her basket. Not every 2 year old gets a Longaberger Basket...only those special enough to have a Meems who sold them and ones TONS!

Ryan climbed the tree for my Dad and got down some limbs that were just hanging on after Hurricane Ike. Why we sent Ryan up when Sean weighs at least 50 pounds less if beyond me...Ryan did well, I kept the phone in my pocket in case I needed to call 911 after a tragic fall, and I just kept thinking that at least I have an insurance policy on him.

Tied in around the tree.

He was pretty dang high.

While in Kingwood we visited our two friends Elizabeth and Kara who brought along their BRAND new babies. Reese got to hold James (pictured) and Raven. She was in 7th heaven, as you can see by the picture. She wants a baby sister so badly...poor kid. At the current rate Ryan is going on his thesis...she can kiss that dream good-bye...and so can I. Such is life. At least we can visit with other peoples' babies!

Reese and her BFF Claire

Getting ready for the hunt

The Air Show was in town a few weeks ago and we headed over to check it out. Reese had fun dancing to all the music while the planes were flying. My big question is what did the Air Show and Navy do before they had the Top Gun theme song to use??? I swear I heard that song 15 times.

Reese sporting her ear plugs

In the big Air Force plane with Dad

Aggie bombs??? LOVE IT!

You know you're kid is tired when she falls asleep on the floor protesting the fact that it's nap time

Herbst Girls!

Texas Bluebonnets!

Stacey....or as Reese calls her...Tastey

Next up: Our trip to Disney on Ice...which I should say Reese LOVED! I can't wait until we take her to Disney World in January....