A White Christmas

After an extended stay in Kearney (due to the big snow storm), we finally made it back home to Omaha today. Drew enjoyed his first Christmas with some fun new toys and lots of attention from the Grandparents and extended family. Santa brought Reese all of the desired toys - Digger, dump truck, race cars, football piggy bank (a surprise from Grandma)... the list goes on... The boys had fun, although sharing was a big struggle for Reese - a constant battle lately.

In other news, we are happy to be spending some time with Uncle Tyson, who is home on leave from the Marines. I will make sure and post some pictures of Tyson with the boys.

Our little fish

Reese has become quite the swimmer lately. On Novemeber 19th, Reese officially swam by himself for the first time. The lesson didn't start out great as he was putting up a fight about gettting in the pool... For some reason though, that was the day he decided to "push off" - as the teacher called it - and went out on his own. The past few weeks he's been making nice progress. It's fun to watch him learn and see how good it makes him feel to be doing this on his own. I don't like to brag about the kiddos, but I must say I was excited to see him take this big step. Way to go Reese. : )

Getting ready for Christmas

After the Furniture Mart having my computer for over a month, I am finally able to catch up on posting some updates and pictures. I guess I should say that the computer suffered some abuse from one our boys... I will not mention any names here, but one can only guess. Luckily, Gabe had the foresight to purchase the (what I thought at the time was very overpriced and unnecessary) warranty package. At a time when the boy was just a small, harmless, sweet infant and the thought of him pulling off the keys was unthinkable.

November was a busy month celebrating my mom's 60th Birthday in Kearney, Gabe's Birthday, Gabe's dad's Birthday (whew, lots of B-days in Nov) and then of course, Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe Christmas is right around the corner. We decided over the weekend to go and pick out our tree. There is this fabulous little nursery down by our old house that has the best trees. They are fresh, already cut (big bonus), and the nice worker guys net the tree and then rope it to the top of your car for you. Reese is having a good time checking out all of the ornaments, he yanks them off at times which isn't good obviously, but he's learning. Drew likes to look at the lights, we have colored ones this year. Enjoy the Holidays!

Happy Halloween

Three reasons to love Halloween this year:

1) The weather was beautiful...
2) Reese decided at the last minute that he would wear the borrowed pirate costume... and he looked so darn cute (if I do say so myself)
3) We had around 50 trick or treaters instead of the usual 200+ that we would have over in our other neighborhood...

Drew was pretty darn sweet in the baby pumpkin costume (worn by Reese as a baby too). He was a trooper and made it long enough for some pictures.

Getting settled...

We're slowly getting settled into our new home and we really love it. We are just patiently waiting for the close of our 53rd St house - we've had a few bumps in the road and we just hope all goes okay.

Meanwhile, Drew is crawling all over the place, he even climbed stairs for the first time Sunday evening. He has started cruising along the furniture and toys, exploring and very determined to keep up with Reese. He even cut his two bottom teeth a couple weeks ago.

Reese is loving the new house. Whenever I have to go over to the other house he says "No Mom, go back to the new house!" However, the other day he made it clear he likes our neighbor's very large and beautiful home... I happen to agree with him. That's what makes this neighborhood so wonderful - a hodge podge of homes with wonderful families and people of all ages.

Moving day!

The big day was last Tuesday and we are slowly getting settled into our new home. Reese was quite impressed with the BIG TRUCK and had a ball watching it back-up and maneuver it's way up our narrow 53rd street. It was a busy day, grandma and I took the boys to the children's museum to keep them occupied for most of the morning. We are enjoying our new neighborhood and have been spoiled with lots of treats and friendly greetings. We even got a pizza brought over to us on moving night... Great people here. We definitely miss the old neighborhood and I've already had my moments of nostalgia for the house we brought our two boys home to. A very exciting part of moving day was the fact that we got an offer on the house the night before the move. Needless to say, we were thrilled and shocked all at once. We just pray that all goes well and we close as scheduled. I'll try and get some pictures of the new house posted soon...

Drew learns to crawl, pony rides, moving...

We've been quite busy around here, so I'll have to squeeze everything together or I'll never get anything posted! First of all, our little Drew is starting to crawl. He really prefer the army crawl and still does that when he's in a hurry, but he really is crawling quite well now. He also started pulling himself up on furniture, he's proving to be the quite the busy boy - and very determined.

Another exciting, bittersweet actually, event happening in our lives, is Tyson leaving for the Marines. He has worked so hard for this and we couldn't be more proud of him, but we will miss him so much. He is such a fantastic uncle, brother, and friend. The picture below was taken yesterday when he came to say good-bye. We wish him the best and are so thankful to have people like him to fight for our country and freedom.

Most of you know by now that we are moving to another home in Omaha. The new hoop is a popular feature at the new house. Whenever we go, that's all Reese wants to do. Thankfully, my mom is in town for 5 days helping us out with the kiddos as we move our stuff. The movers come Tuesday, so that's when we'll officially be in the new house. So, today during our open-house (still trying to sell old house, we've buried two St. Joseph statues - we believe and pray every night for the right buyer!) we went to the fall festival at Christ the King parish, which is located in our new neighborhood. We walked over for the afternoon and Reese experienced his first pony ride. He didn't quite know what to think, he was pretty serious during the ride. He played lots of games, won prizes, had his face painted, all the fun festival stuff! He had a ball with grandma Ellen. My niece and I snuck out to do a little shopping... : )

The last picture is of Drew - I just thought it captured his happy personality.

I hope everyone is enjoying the fall so far... We'll keep you updated on any house news. We are so excited about our new home and what the neighborhood has to offer for schools, church, and friends... We believe it's just meant to be - although feel free to say a little prayer to St. Joseph for us!

First Nebraska game

Reese experienced his first Nebraska football game this weekend. As many of you know, Reese is a fan of all sports, football being one of his favorites. To be completely honest, it was a little exhausting just to park and get to the game, but once we got in it was all worth it to see his face and excitement. We only lasted a quarter in the game, and much of that time was spent sampling all of the local favorite food items - Runza, Vals pizza, Fairbury hot dogs... All so good! After we left the game, we ran around and played outside the stadium on the Cook pavilion practice field. The weather was nice and we had a really fun time - Reese fell asleep before we were out of Lincoln. Drew spent the afternoon and evening with Uncle Dane and Aunt Tammy...

trying to crawl

Drew is growing up so fast - already learning to crawl... I can't believe he's almost six months old. I feel like he was so tiny not so long ago. He is developing quite the personality too - not quite as "mellow" as I once described. It's fun to see babies develop their little personalities... On a lighter note, not sure why Drew is shirtless is all three of these photos. They weren't even taken in the same day.

Big brother Reese is doing well. Talking like crazy. Saying 5 word sentences.... The other day he said "mom, I want it now". My brother was impressed yesterday when he said (referring to his dog), "what is his name? Wesley?". Dane was like, wow, he asked a question and then answered it himself. It was pretty funny. He's certainly moved on from his "NO! NOT!" responses - I loved hearing him say it though - so cute! Reese is also learning to love his brother more and more. He'll bring Drew a tissue or hand him his toys. He's even been known to rub his head saying "it's okay Drew". Unfortunately, every now and then he'll lose his head and pop him one or give him a little pinch. Poor Drew... Baby steps...

Time for cereal

One of the many big moments in a baby's life is the introduction of solids. Last night was Drew's big debut with rice cereal. Surprisingly, he did pretty well, you just never really know how they will respond to it. He didn't push out the cereal with his tongue and he took some really good bites. He actually waved his hands around wanting more... Or maybe he was just playing. Who really knows... But we had fun and considered it a success. Big brother Reese was there to cheer him on. We have a great video, but I'm not quite savvy enough to figure out how to post it. Enjoy the pictures!

Trip to the mountains

We had a wonderful trip to Steamboat Springs, CO with Gabe's family this past week. We had a really great time with beautiful weather. It was very relaxing and the boys traveled well considering.... I wish I would've thought to take a picture of our jam-packed Subaru. We enjoyed our early morning walks with coffee and took in the scenery. Reese couldn't get enough of the mountains, he kept saying "oh my gosh!". Reese also had fun at dinner when he was able to sit on his very own saddle. That was one meal he stayed put the entire time. Drew was a trooper and took it all in stride, as usual.


One of many early walks

Sleeping in the same position

Giving Luke a high-five

Reese excited about seeing a hot air balloon.
Drew - happy to be outside, bundled up for the chilly mornings

Like father, like son

Wild weekend in Minnesota

We made the annual trip up to Minnesota for the BCS golf event. This is something we have been doing for 10 years, so we certainly could not miss it - even with two little ones in tow. It was such a fun and busy weekend, a little hectic at times, but so worth it to see good friends. It's been really fun to watch everyone start their families and see the kiddos grow and change over the past couple of years. Reese had some serious playtime with his buddy, Stella. The weekend consisted of bounce house action, carnivals, and many large gatherings with a fun group of people. Drew spent most of the time in the carrier on my chest, which seemed to be just fine for him... Thanks to Sara and Stella for a fun weekend!

About 10 other kiddos joined them in this bounce house later that afternoon - so fun!

Train ride for Reese, slow enough for Drew and me to ride

Bat fight! They won these by picking the "prize" duck...

Initially wanted the snake, I'm glad he changed his mind... A dolphin is much sweeter. Getting a little sleepy at this point - ready for nap

A short story...

This is the kind of stuff I deal with when Reese wants to play in the back yard, usually I intervene, but this time I just went with it.... This was yesterday morning, around 10:30. Enjoy the show... I'm sure he'll hate me someday for posting this.

Hey, why not play a little golf??

Getting bit by a mosquito, so we called it quits...

Grandpa Larry

This past weekend we were back in Kearney to celebrate Grandpa Larry's Birthday - he's had quite the year (in terms of health), so we are incredibly happy to be celebrating another Birthday with him! Grandma Ellen made an unbelievable cake, from scratch of course... We're still talking about how fabulous it was. Grandma and Grandpa Compton were there to celebrate with us, along with some family from my dad's side. Reese had a great time playing with everyone and especially enjoyed some football time with his cousin Brock. Brock instantly became Reese's buddy - toss the ball around with the guy and you've got a friend. : ) It was a fun weekend and most importantly, Grandpa Larry had a wonderful Birthday!!

Reese's new buddy, Brock

Grandpa Larry and Grandma Ellen with the grandkids...

"Papa Herb"


Big smiles