I guess it's 2011!

So I guess it has been quite awhile since I found a few minutes to sit down and give an update. If you lived in this house though you'd understand why! The holidays have come and gone and Reagan had a wonderful time! We hosted Thanksgiving and made trips to Chicago and Indy around Christmas to celebrate with our families. We have battled illness all winter long and can't wait for Spring to be here! It seems we have all had our fair share of colds and bugs and now just hope we are on the mend. I can't take much more sickness! And well, as any of you with kids know, life with an 18 month old is crazy!!! The girl is into anything and everything. We are still amazed at how fast the family room can go from clean and orderly to mass chaos! :-) Her vocabulary continues to grow which is so much fun! Our tally I believe is well over 70! And boy do you need to watch what you say around this kid because she will repeat it instantly! One favorite was when Jim told Peanut he was a goofball and she promptly repeated, "GOOFBALL!"

She loves playing with her kitchen and babies. She has a great fondness for Elmo and her ladybug pillowpet. But I think her greatest love in the toy world right now is books. She can't get enough of all her books! It is so cute to find her sitting in the family room "reading" one of her books!

With all of the excitement has also come our share of frustration as she is definitely into pushing her boundaries and even finds mommy and daddy's scolding funny. UGH! But at the end of the day we wouldn't change her for anything! She enjoys walking Peanut around the house on his leash... which he is not very found of so we have been trying to get her to walk her stuffed animal dog around instead... it seems to do the trick!

We are gearing up for our first plane trip with the little lady. We are excited and nervous! We know she is a great traveler but that take off thing might be a bit much! Hopefully we don't annoy EVERYONE on the plane! :-)

Here are some picks of our last few months!

We kicked off the first snowfall of the season with sled rides around the yard. She LOVED it!

Sporting Mr. Potato Head's glasses!

Are you going to drink all of that or do you need some help?

Helping clear the drive after yet another round of snow this winter

So excited about Produce Delivery Day! She pulled her apple out of the bin when I wasn't looking and started eating it! She loves her fruit!

Sporting little pigtails! The hair is growing slowly!! :-)

Our 18 month old Cutie!!!

Phew... that was a fast October!

Time flies when you are having fun and the Murray house is having tons! R is now a walker! Two days before my big 3-0 (how am I that old??) the little lady just took off! Most people talk about their kids taking a few steps at first before they start really going. Not our girl. Jim stood her up in her room and before he new what was happening she walked across the room! Of course when I got upstairs for a repeat performance she declined. :-) But later that day she showed off her skills and walked over six feet before sitting down. And how quickly the days of crawling seem to be behind us. Very rarely anymore is she crawling. This week she ran to the garage door when she heard Jim come home and greeted him with her usual squeals and a great big hug. She has also discovered her voice and how she can make a high pitched squeal.... cute the first time, not so much after that! :-)

We ventured into uncharted territory as parents two weeks ago and went to NY for a couple of days while R stayed with Grandpa & Grandma H. While it was nice to get away, we missed her like crazy and quickly decided that extended trips without her were not going to be a part of our normal routine. But she had a fantastic time and we're pretty sure she barely noticed we were gone. :-) She even got to finish her visit in Indy by meeting her new second cousin Jenna, who is ADORABLE!

We have the costume all set for our little lady and just hope that she cooperates to keep it on! :-)

Here are some pics from the past month!

Surely a suitcase is a good place to sit.

The buddies checking things out in the front of the house

Pigtails!!!

The Things They Do

There has been some demand for a new post... I wish I was better about this but somehow time always gets away! I had full intentions of doing this post a week ago and here I am finally sitting down to do it. I thought I'd take the few moments that snack time allows me and give a little update.

Our world is constantly changing as Reagan continues to explore the world around her. While she is still not yet an independent walker she is cruising with anything that will move or not move. An example would be today when she spent what seemed like forever going back and forth between the two windows in our room walking along the wall back and forth, back and forth. :-) She has also discovered the stairs... one day she just went over and started climbing! We followed her up and she took them like she had been doing it for years!

We bought cabinet locks probably over a month ago in anticipation of her discovering cabinets and well,k the locks are still in their original packaging but as we knew would happen Reagan loves to open and close the cabinet doors... we really do need to get those locks on the doors! There is nothing as sweet as the sound of slamming doors while I make dinner. haha!!

Reagan has started standing without holding on to anything but only for a few moments until she realizes what she is doing and sits down! There is no pushing this girl along, she is going to do it all in her own time.

Her new word this week is outside. She is always wanting to go "outide" so that she can use her swing.

Enjoying the nice weather of Labor Day Weekend

Party Pics

The first birthday has come and gone! We had so much fun with family and friends for Reagan's first birthday party. Here are a few pics:

The party outfit

Cousin time!

Check out the new rocking horse!

"Cake Time! Did you know I'm one?"

Playing in the new tunnel with my little people!

Look out world!! I'm coming to get you!

"Now that was a good party!"

Do we really have a ONE year old??

AHHHH!!! Reagan turned ONE on Saturday!! It is so hard to believe a year has passed since she officially came into our lives. We had a great day of just the three of us. It was just what Jim and I needed as through out the day we remembered our long day of a year ago.. the midnight water breaking... Jim initially not being able to be in the room with me since I wasn't initially admitted to labor & delivery and it was 4 in the morning... the LONG day of labor... the eventual decision to have a c-section... to finally seeing our beautiful little girl at 9:18 PM. We remember being so thrilled and excited and EXHAUSTED! By the time we were in our room after it was all said and done it was nearly midnight and I at least had been up for 24 hours! But it was all worth it because Reagan is the best thing to happen to us. She makes us smile EVERY day. People always talk about how much kids change you. The biggest change is the amount of love our hearts are capable of. We have been blessed with a lot love in our lives but there isn't a love comparable to that which we feel for Reagan. While we continue to be excited for what our lives hold for us, we can't help but be excited for her and all that the world has to show her. We are truly blessed to be able to part of her journey.

Reagan's day started with presents! Is there a better way to start a birthday? We got her a chair, a few books, a phone (not to worry, it's a toy phone!) and a cradle for her baby doll. While she was a little unsure of the chair at first an afternoon viewing of Baby Einstein while sitting in the chair made it a real winner! It was then time for birthday pancakes.. yum!! We were lucky enough to have a beautiful day of weather on Saturday so we took the birthday girl to the zoo. I'm not sure if I posted about our first trip and the mania that ensued during the elephant visit but decided to avoid the elephants this time around just to be safe. Reagan had a blast. She loved seeing all the animals and was particularly fond of the rhinoceros and the gorilla. :-) We ate lunch while there and Reagan enjoyed one of her recent favorite foods... a cheeseburger. I don't know what it is about the burger but she giggles at some point every time she has one. Since her official party is coming up, we kept the cake low key on her actual birthday and celebrated with a cupcake. And just like her mom, Reagan LOVES sweets!!

Gorilla in the background.. she really did love him it was hard to get her to turn around for photo!

mmmm...cupcakes!

Our past month has been full of changes in the Murray house. Reagan is finally crawling. We thought she might never figure it out and then out of nowhere she just took off. It is awesome and so exciting for her! She has already found Peanut's food bowl and even sampled a piece(yuck!). She is also pulling up to a standing position using anything and everything. Gone are the days of needing Mom and Dad's fingers to leverage her self up... if Peanut would stand still long enough she'd probably use him! We keep waiting for those steps to start. She is a speed walker with the assistance of fingers and we know it is just a matter of time before she doesn't need us for that either. Oh how they grow up so fast!!

On the feeding front, baby food is a thing of the past. Reagan loves real table food!! The only thing she so far appears to not really care for is rice. I have no idea why but she has refused it several times at daycare. We are working on getting off the bottle and completely over to the sippy cup.. I think this one is going to be a challenge but we will get there.

The one year check up is Friday. My personal goal for her is 19 lbs 3 oz. Jim is shooting for 20 lbs. We'll see who is closer! Here are a few more pics from the past month...

Don't I look cool in the carseat box??

Family photo

Pool time is so much fun!!!

There is nothing better than a ride in the swing!

11 months....seriously?

I know I haven't been very good about updating... the days go so fast and by the time night rolls around.. .well, I'd rather be lazy!

Reagan continues to be an incredible kid! She has taken to table foods like crazy despite only having two teeth! She likes them so much that baby food is really not an option at all anymore. :-) You name it and she will eat it (for the most part.. she did refuse her rice pilaf at daycare last week).

Believe it or not but our little lady is 11 months old and quickly approaching her FIRST birthday! Where in the world did all the time go? She has become very interested in walking while holding our fingers. It is so cute because she takes off with a destination in mind and when she gets there she just lets go and sits. Crawling is still not her thing. She scoots a lot but usually backwards. After the past weekend and her new found love for walking with assistance I really think she is just going to take off one day.

Here are a few pics since the last post!

Happy Fourth of July!! (She insisted on the necklace)

Enjoying some pool time. She loves swimming so much and going under water in swim class that at one point she kept bending over to get her face wet... too cute!

So after finishing a bottle I had set it on the floor while I put her down on the floor. Despite the fact that it was empty the girl had to have it and scooted over to it and proceeded to do this.

Ahhh summer time fun in the sun!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day (a day late) to all the dads out there! Our day was rather uneventful, the kind of day Jim loves! We went to church, got some lunch, and Jim enjoyed the rest of the day playing with Reagan and watching World Cup games and the U.S. Open. Can life get much better than that? I know that Jim probably won't read this since I think he forgets that I still update this but I am going to take minute to tell everyone how great he is! :-) Reagan is so lucky to have a dad like Jim. He works so hard to make sure she is well taken care of. Every day when he gets home from work she lights up! She kicks her legs and waves her arms and grins from ear to ear. It is just about the cutest thing ever! While she can't say it yet, I know she is thinking how lucky she is! And while we are on the subject of Jim I just have to say how blessed I am to have him. He is my best friend, a wonderful husband, and a fantastic father. Our little family is so special!

In honor of Father's Day, here are a few of Jim and Reagan:

Dad with his two kids! :-)