Ryan's New Baby....ohhh, isn't it cute?

Does anyone want to know what this is a picture of? Come on.....you know what that looks like. I'll give you a hint.....think orange and spooky. Yep, a pumpkin.

Not just any pumpkin mind you. This "little" guy is a mere 3 weeks old. THREE WEEKS old. I don't know if you can really get a feel for the size....maybe you can see my hand at the edge of the picture. Not grotesquely huge by any means....yet. Now for those of you who aren't in the pumpkin raising field, let me tell you a little something. There are still, oh, 8 weeks left till Halloween. That means there are 8 weeks left to water and care for and GROW. We have a massive pumpkin. Our last "massive" pumpkin was this size at the end of October. Meaning it was full grown and orange and not going to get any bigger and it was still the biggest in the neighborhood.

But alas, this is no surprise to us. My husband is crazy. He planted this seed knowing full well that what he was planting was not your typical pumpkin. The seed came from some giant contest winning pumpkin. The average size for the pumpkins coming from these seeds is only 500 pounds. (Did I mention my husband is crazy?? Just making sure because I've also caught him feeding his "baby" plant food on a consistent basis just to make sure it grows enormous)

So, now we have a giant pumpkin growing. Where do you ask? Maybe in the back yard where we can care for it in the privacy of our own home. Oh, no. Smack dab in the front of my house. Because what would we do if our pumpkin really did grow to 500 pounds? How would we ever move a gigantic pumpkin to the front of the house for Halloween? Well, I can tell you I sure wasn't going to be picking up that sucker. So Ryan decided the only option was to disregard our Home Owner's Association and plant it in prime view (meaning right where the whole world can watch the freakish plant grow.) So far no complaints from the neighbors. I'm guessing maybe around the 200 pound mark we may start hearing from some. I can't very well hide it. I'm not really sure what it weighs right now but I do know that it isn't unusual for these things to grow 6 pounds a day. Yep, folks you read that right. 6 whoppin' pounds a day. And I thought puppies grew fast.

In my house....

1. I just got my baby to sleep after 40 minutes of pacing his bedroom floor. (My big toe has been numb ever since...maybe I was bouncing too much??? There's got to be an easier way)

2. I can hear the party going on at my neighbors' house. Which will mean that I will still hear them at 2:00 am.....again.

3. I'm wondering how long my bottom lip will be numb since I started talking before my liquid canker sore medicine fully dried. oops.(The canker sore is on my top lip:))

4. I'm making a mental note to call the juror's office on Monday to see if I can get out of jury duty. (Nursing totally has it's benefits!)

5. I really need to find some cute fabric to re-cover my couch pillows. The stuffing is hanging out and pulling on it has become a favorite past time of my 3 year old.

6. I could really use some ice cream right about now. Good thing I stocked up last week when it was on sale! "Very Cherry" has been my personal favorite for the last couple of years. YUM!

7. I'm hoping my new book is an "attention grabber"...it's been awhile since I've had one of those. Any recommendations?

8. I'm thinking Lexi looked really cute for soccer pictures today...but the team banner was a total BUST! (I can't really say too much about it because I did not volunteer any ideas or offer to help......hmmm.)

9. I can still smell the enchilada's we had for dinner tonight. Mmmmm. I really planned ahead and made enough to freeze for another night down the road. Whooohooo!

And last but not least...

10. I'm dreaming of bed!

Kyson loves to eat....NOT!

Kyson will hit his 6 month mark in two days....meaning it is time for the rice cereal. We gave him his first solid food yesterday and it didn't go over too well. So today I thought maybe he'd take after his mother and like something a little sweeter. Applesauce. I mixed it in with the rice cereal certain that I had a winner. Just take a look at the pictures. It went from...
"not sure about this"...to

"Do I really have to try this??" .....to

"Gag me....You can't make me swallow!!!"

This is him gagging. Seriously. Lexi was taking one picture after another. Documenting it all for posterity. He did not get one swallow down without going through at least 2 gags. Gagging on applesauce? I think I may be in trouble. Just wait til I get to the peas.

Family Week

We have been quite the little partyers these past two months....I feel like every time I update the blog I've been playing! This last week we went up to Angel's Camp and stayed at Gammie's house for the week. The whole Reese clan was there....well, minus a few males (meaning mainly husbands). Every year Greenhorn Creek puts on a Family week which is like a Camp. There is tennis, golf, swimming, arts & crafts during the day and then something at night like an ice cream social (my personal favorite). So we went up on Sunday night and kicked off our last hurrah for the summmer. We had a great time and Lexi even started to swim on her own! WHOOOHOOO! For those of you who have not been in on the "Lexi Will Never Know How To Swim" saga, it's been just that. A saga. A long, drawn out fight to get her to try to swim. We have been trying to get her past the extreme fear she has of getting into the pool without her floaties for the past two years. This past week she has really improved....I think the social pressure got to her. She was watching all of her cousins swimming and having a good time without her. She is still not ready to go off by herself but she has definitely made some progress. Here's a couple of pictures of the girls doing some crafts. They had a huge blow-up water slide outside which would explain the swimming suits. Kendri's favorite was the painting.

Anyhoo, we had a good time and Gammi always throws a good party! Kyson had such a good time during the day that he decided not to sleep at night....that got a little old after the first 3 days. Now he's in the habit of getting up a bazillion times even in his own bed. (I could possibly be the world's most sleep deprived mother. I'd be willing to run for the title because I do believe I'd come close to the gold.) And here we have all the girl cousins except for Kaitlyn....she may have been napping. Rachel, Lexi, Kendri, and Anna blowing bubbles.

This was the second day of golf lessons for Lexi. She got the hang of it pretty fast and seemed to really like it. Kendri wasn't old enough. She'll have to wait another year or two. Now on to other matters....Lexi had her first day of kindergarten today. Sniff, sniff. I couldn't believe I was sad and no, I did not cry. But her daddy did. Well, maybe not on the outside but certainly on the inside there were manly tears shed....He took her to school today and was a little miffed by how readily Lexi got rid of him. Here she is walking to her classroom.

Her teacher's name is Ms. England.

And here are some of Lexi's friends from the neighborhood, Evan and Jacob. She has 3 friends in her class! There are 3 different classes and Lexi managed to get all of her good friends with her in the same class. Watch out Ms. England!

So her first day of kindergarten was a success and she came home at 2:00 and crashed. Tired little thing. And Kendri certainly missed her big sister. She told me, "I sure do miss Lex" probably 7 times today. Maybe more. She was happy to have Lexi home from school. I think she may hate kindergarten by the end of the week. Oh well.

Oh, how we love the ocean.....

We are back from our vacation down at Newport Beach, and boy did we love it! We left early Saturday morning (last Saturday that is) and got there at about 4:30 in the afternoon. Mapquest told us that it should only take 6 1/2 hours from our house. It actually took us a little over 8 hours. I blame Kyson. He decided he was not excited about our little road trip. We had to stop a few times and let him play and look around before we buckled him back up in that awful carseat. (I really don't think carseats are awful but I think Kyson might...) Right when we got there we headed to Costco because Ryan and I were in charge of the meals for Sunday. (Did I mention it was a Reese Family Reunion? Well, it was and there were lots of people. Everyone was in charge of food for the whole group for a day.) Anyhoo, we made sandwiches and spaghetti. From scratch. Okay, I didn't really make the spaghetti sauce from scratch but I told everyone I did. (Prego, really pulled through for us :) Just kidding.

So, really all that was on the agenda was relaxing on the beach. I did manage to get together with two old roomates. We had a good time having a mini barbeque and swimming party. Thanks, Amber!

Lexi and Kendri loved the sand. They played in it most of the time. In fact, they played in it so much that Kendri blistered her feet. Yes, the sand was hot. She told us her toes were hurting one night as she gimped around on her heels. When I took a peek I saw that she had blistered every single one of her little toes. But she was a trooper and only mentioned it a couple of times that night and then she was back in the sand in the morning! What else did we do? We saw dolphins twice. Very cool no matter how many times you see them. We boogie boarded, played frisbee, made sand sculptures that were unidentifiable, and soaked up the rays! Oh, and Ryan and I took a cruise on the boardwalk on a bicycle built for two. See?

FYI, we did not ride on the sand even though this picture leads you to believe that we did. We did have a picture taken of us on the boardwalk. However, the man who took it turned it into a head shot. Totally defeated the point of having a picture taken on a tandem bike. I graciously let Ryan "drive" the bike even though I secretly questioned his qualifications for it. I mean, he did back into someone on our way down there not to mention that I have several years of experience behind me as a self-proclaimed "tandem bike chauffer". Amber and I used to have one. P.S. Can someone ask Uncle Brad where that is? And, here you have a couple of cute pictures of my little beach bums...

So, there you have it. We had a good 4th of July, but that will have to be for another day because this beach bum is pooped and in desperate need of some sleep!

Six Flags

Well, we have a busy summer planned. We kicked off the summer with Lexi's preschool graduation party. The school had a little ceremony for all the students and a program where everyone was put in a group of 3 or 4 kids. Then when it was their groups turn they went to the front and recited a nursery rhyme. Lexi's group recited "Baa, baa black sheep". She was excited and did an excellent job. Of course. (I mean, she was the class "valedictorian." Okay, maybe I should explain. One of the moms decided Lexi was the smartest of the group and asked her to present Teacher Nancy with the class gift. Of course I didn't argue. Now I tell people she was the class valedictorian:) So, after the ceremony there was a big after party. The biggest hit was the huge blow up pool that had 2 big slides and 2 huge water guns attached. It was a little chilly for June but everyone still had a good time. Ryan was able to take the day off so he got to hang out with the family which was really nice. Here's Lexi with her "ME" book. The moms made one for each kid. It's a scrapbook all about the school year. I even made one for Kendri since I knew she would be devastated if she was left out.

Now Lexi is ready to start kindergarten. She was asking practically every day, "When am I going to start kindergarten?" Luckily, she hasn't been bugging me about it lately. She still wants to know if I'm going to let her ride the bus to school. I was all for it until I started talking to the other parents. Apparently, everyone else is totally against it. I don't really know what the big deal is. It's not like I'm sending my kindergartener off to some inner city school in L.A. where they check for weapons at the door. I mean this is Valley Springs we're talking about, population of approximately 7,000. But now I feel like some delinquent parent who doesn't care about her child if I don't hold her hand and walk her to her desk. So long story short, I still haven't decided about the bus.

This past Saturday was our latest summer fun. Ryan's work paid for all their employees and families to go to Six Flags. Whooooo hooooo! We did have a lot fun and the girls loved going on the rides. Sadly, I managed to come down with a cold after kissing Kyson numerous times before I realized I was getting snotted on. Hmmm. A little disgusting even if it is your baby. So, I spent a lot of time popping cold medicine and blowing my nose. But we were able to see lots of animals and reptiles. They even reserved a dolphin show for us. We were close enough to get splashed. I liked petting the sting ray. Kendri did too, but for some reason Lexi did not care to touch them. Here we are at the dolphin show and penguin home....I know you like our matching outfits.

And last but not least.....You can see what my children were up to the other day while I was cleaning. This is the "before" picture.....

And here you have the "after" picture.....do you see the little matching clip? I knew it was only a matter of time bfore Lexi and Kendri got their hands on Kyson's luscious locks. After I surveyed the "damage" Lexi said, "Mom, don't you think he looks so handsome?" Handsome is not the word I would use...poor baby. I did have to laugh about it though. What a good sport!

We take off for Newport Beach on Saturday. And our summer of fun continues!

Pet Pollywogs

I have to write about our new pets....some of you are probably wondering, "What pets?" because you know that Ryan and I are allergic to animal hair (dogs, cats, and probably any other hairy creature). Our poor neglected child (referring to Lexi here) is always begging us for some sort of pet. She sees all of her friends with their dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, gerbils, hermit crabs, lizards (yes, you read that right) and anything else that can be captured.

So one day while we were on our walk the older neighborhood kids were selling tadpoles. Lexi immediately fell in love with the idea of having pet tadpoles. I, on the other hand, was wondering what on earth you fed tadpoles. Lexi got lucky. The girl in charge decided that Lexi did not need any money for the tadpoles. She got them for free!!! So off we went with our new pets. We let them go a few days later and I thought we were done with them. Boy, was I wrong. We made daily trips to the puddle to check on the tadpoles. Yes, it was a puddle and it was drying up fast. Soon I had been talked into a "rescue mission" so all the little tadpoles wouldn't die. Well, we went with Lexi's friend and caught about 20 for both girls.

Unfortunately after a couple of weeks, Ryan decided they needed some fresh water......just so you know, tadpoles thrive in their gunk. So the next day they were all dead. Devastating. But, once again we got lucky. Lexi's little friend who had captured tadpoles with her still had several. She gave us 4 more and the morphing began. It was actually pretty cool to watch the different stages of tadpole, pollywog, and frog. The girls loved it. And then one day our little babies hopped away. So now Lexi and Kendri have been on the look out for our pet froggies. They are only a little bit bigger than my thumb nail. So far we've seen two different frogs in our backyard. Who knows if they are the same ones we raised but they were awfully well behaved.....