Reese: 2 Going on 12

Reese is such a delight to have in our family. She is so full of personality and spunk and is such a lively, dramatic and exciting child. She is also a mystery in the way that you just don't always know what you are going to get with her :). This first picture above says so much about who she is.

Reese came out of me with very strong, healthy lungs and a loud scream...and it's still the same. She can go from 0 to 60 in a couple seconds, but can just as easily turn it off as well :). She knows what she wants and she will work to get it. She loves to use her lungs!

Reese is such a smart child and loves learning and growing. She speaks in complete sentences, knows her ABC's, numbers and colors and desires to be as old as Emma and know as much as Emma. She is constantly asking questions about everything around her and wants to know all about the world. Reese is also VERY VERY independant and one of her favorite things to say is, "No, I do it myself!" She wants so badly to be older than she is and demands that she learn how to do things on her own. A good example would be when she is trying to put on her shoes by herself. She will scream and cry and get frustrated while trying to do it, but as soon as she gets them on, she immediately stops and says in a happy voice, "I did it!!!"

One of her favorite things to do is read books. She loves having Daddy and I read to her, but my favorite is when she just sits on the floor with books surrounding her and reads to herself. She will turn each page and talk and talk about each page she sees. It is so fun to hear her babble and try to figure out what she is saying. She will go through about 25 books before getting bored with it.

Reese is very good at entertaining herself. She is not like her older sister who at the age of two would follow me around from room to room and want me to be by her side for everything. She does like to be around other people some of the time, however, she plays and does her own thing a lot of the time as well.

She is such a fun girl and we are so grateful to have her in our family. She makes life fun and full of entertaining moments! We love her so much and can't imagine our family without her!

AZ Thanksgiving

My doctor gave me the okay to travel to AZ for Thanksgiving and we were grateful I was feeling well enough to go! Cade made me a bed in the 4Runner so I was able to sleep through the night lying down. If he hadn't have done that, I probably would have had to stop every two hours. With the girls sleeping in the car through the night, that plan woulnd't have worked very well.  But overall the trip was really good and the girls travel so well. They slept both ways all but maybe two hours each way. I'm very grateful that both girls travel so good through the night. Now...traveling 10-11 hours during the day would have been a nightmare :).

We had a great time with the family! This Thanksgiving was more intimate with only our immediate family and Great-Grandma and Grandpa there. It was small, but very enjoyable and pretty stress-free. This year's trip had to be pretty short due to baby Carter being born the Sunday before Thanksgiving and baby Noah being blessed the Sunday after. It made for a shorter trip than we would have liked, but still had a great time. Unfortunately, Grandma Close had to work every day except for Thanksgiving day- Thanksgiving week is crazy busy for the Post office! We loved seeing the kiddos all play so well together. Emma and Ashur LOVE being around each other and this year was easier than ever. Now that they're 4 years old, we don't have to keep a close eye on them all the time and wonder what they are getting into together. They are a lot alike and play so well. Reese and Taft are sure learning to play well with each other too. They are so funny when they chase each other around the room giggling :).

 The day after Thanksgiving, Tara and I drove to Phoenix and spent some time at Aunt Gale's house with a lot of the family. Aunt Virginia and Uncle Johnny, Aunt Kelly, Cousin Tamara and her little Miss Liberty were all there. We went to spend time together and learn how to make tamales. I mainly spent time talking with Tamara and it was SO much fun to catch up! Then we went to lunch with Tamara before heading back to Prescott.

The day after Thanksgiving was also Reese's birthday this year so we got to spend it with all the family on the Close side. Reese does not like cake so instead of making cake or cupcakes for her, we bought a donut with sprinkles on top and she LOVED it :). On her first bday, she gagged at her cake and refused to eat it. So the donut was exciting to her. Reese and all the other kiddos got some ice cream cones. 

We had a great holiday and most of all were extremely grateful I was able to be healthy and travel safely there and back. It was the first time we were able to even go to AZ for Thanksgiving since 2007! Every other year when it's our turn to have Thanksgiving in AZ with the Close side we have a baby :). This year we barely were able to make it...and it was great to be there!

I am also extremely grateful for God sending me these wonderful people in the pic below. I love Cade, Emma and Reese with my whole heart and feel so blessed to have them in my life.

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

Some funny/cute quotes from the girls this last 6 months:

Emma: Dad, I see a "U" on the mountain!
Dad: That's for Utah
Emma: Boo!
(not prompted or taught at all)

Emma saying prayers: Heavenly Father, thank thee for this day...(fart)...hehehe...excuse me! Bad air!!! (giggle giggle, then continues with the prayer. Cade is the one who taught "bad air" to our girls. It's actually really funny :).

Getting Reese out of the car and she's hugging her favorite Ariel doll.
Me: Reese, is Ariel your best friend?
Reese: No! (surprised me by her conviction) Emma my friend!
Me: Is Ariel your best friend too?
Reese: No! Daddy my friend!
(Conversation at 21 months old. So cute!)

Emma: Reese, look at my boots!
Reese: Oh, pretty.
Emma: No, they're not pretty!
Me: Emma, why are they not pretty?
Emma: because they're not sparkly.

Emma practicing her part for the Primary program at church. (Her part was "Heavenly Father's plan is a plan of happiness)
Emma: Heavenly Father's plan is a plan of the United States of America!"
Me: It's supposed to be a plan of happiness.
Emma: No, I want to say United States of America.
(Cade and I were really wondering if that's what she was going to say in the program. She didn't :(.

Emma's Princess Tea Party!

For Emma's 4th Birthday, it was very obvious what the theme should be...a Princess Tea Party. Emma LOVES both princesses and having tea parties and she was thrilled to invite some of her friends over to celebrate with her. Emma invited 7 girl friends over and between Emma and Reese and her friends, we had just about all the princesses covered.

It was simple and short, but fun for Emma. They started out by making a bead necklace when they got here. Then we had a tea party with Glass Slipper cut out PB & J sandwiches, princess sugar cookies, fruit and juice. They played a couple games, Emma got to open gifts and ate Ariel cupcakes. Then we took everyone home. Emma just loves playing with friends and was thrilled to have so many girl friends at our house and one time. It was a success :).

My 4 Year old all grown up!

I can't believe it's been 4 whole years since Emma entered our family! Four years ago she was in the NICU less than 3 and 1/2 pounds and trying to learn to breath and eat on her own. She has grown into such a beautiful, fun loving, crazy, entertaining, sweet little girl. We love her so much and cannot imagine life without her.

Emma is so full of life. She gets excited about everything in life- from seeing a dog on the side of the road to seeing someone she knows from church or preschool- she just screams with excitement. She loves learning and really enjoys going to pre-school. And anytime we see our extended family, she'll run up and hug everyone. And she makes friends wherever we go. Almost every person she meets is her "best friend". It's great to see her wanting to make friends with anyone she meets.

Emma also is a great sister to Reese. She plays with her all the time in her bedroom and teaches Reese so much (hopefully it will continue to be a good example :)). She always says, "Reese come follow me!" or "Reese, let's play hide 'n seek!" She loves having a playmate and even though they fight and scream over toys and sharing, they really play well together most of the time.

Emma is so sweet. There will be random moments when I tuck her in for a nap, or we cuddle together and she'll look up at me and say, "Mom, I just love you." It is so sincere and never has to be prompted. She is very polite and always says please and thank you.

She really likes routines and what's going on during the day. Every night and every nap time, she won't be satisfied unless I sing her "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" and "Mary's Lullaby". Even though those songs are getting a little old....I really enjoy that time with her.

Some of Emma's favorite things are:
Blue suckers
Playing hide 'n seek
Playing Duck, Duck, Goose
Anything princess (that hasn't changed!)
Tea parties and dressing up like princesses
Playing with her friends
Pizza and ice cream cones
Any animal, especially little dogs
Going to Kangaroo Zoo (blow up toy place)
Taking naps in Mom's bed

Cade and I are so grateful for this little gal in our lives. She is so full of life and personality and is going to be such a good big sister to all of her siblings. We love her very much!