It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It seems like it's been forever since we posted but we wanted to get something out there. We have been very busy with Thanksgiving in Rockford and really enjoyed the long weekend with Grandma Margie coming to town to watch Reagan while we decorated. We'll get right to the pics:
The tree is up and the garland is on the railings!


Self portrait:



More tree (I don't have any shots of the outside yet)


Here are a couple shots of Reagan's 1st Birthday in Rockford. Shortly after we left for the Bahamas and we didn't get a chance to post. It was a great time!


Reagan kept everyone laughing by playing and GIGGLING HYSTERICALLY on the couch.


Lastly, a shot from Navy Pier this week when my brother and I actually saw the Bears win a game this year!

Bahama Mamas (and grandpa, mimi and daddy)

What do the Bahamas and a baby add up to? One excellent vacation. The last week was spent in the Exuma islands of the Bahamas. We made the trek (including 3 flights and a few moving walkways in the ATL airport) to the sand and surf without problems! Grandpa and Mimi met us in Nassau and were thrilled to see Reagan!

I won't go into too many details because the pictures are worth thousands of words. Let's just say that it was absolutely precious to see Reagan adapt to the island life. The week was filled with trips to Whales Tail beach, workouts in the morning with Mimi & Juana, trips to the 'club', a few Kalik beers, Reagan's adventurous spirit and new words; 'bay-bee', 'mi-mi', 'pa-pa', 'tuh-ck' and our favorite, 'book-ah book-ah'. It doesn't mean anything other than "I'm having the time of my life!"

My first shell!

Grandpa & Mimi

I love sand!

Seclusion at its finest.

Hi daddy!

Our diggs. Shabby little view....

Sunrise.

Sweet Bahama Baby.

Birthday and Halloween?!?!

Wow - what do you get when you combine Halloween, Daylight Savings Time, a 1st Birthday Party and a teething 1 year old into 48 hours? A great weekend best highlighted in pictures.


Reagan as Minnie Mouse (rare shot to get her with the ears on)



Trick or Treating at Grandma Candy and Poppa Bob's (note the Goldfish in her pumpkin)


In her chair as we started presents


Are all of these for me?


Reagan's cupcake that Sarah made


Digging in...


FROSTING!


All done...

It's a fog to me.....

I've been given the task, once again, to blog about the last week. And every time that Jeff asks me to do so, I can never remember what we did! And as I sit here trying to remember, it's still rather foggy. So here goes...

We had a rather uneventful last week (good way to start eh?). What I can tell you is that last Wednesday, Reagan and I went over to Joe and Lindsey's house to let our girls play together. It's really cute to see Audrey and Reagan together. You can tell they like each other but are still learning the concept of sharing. But they are only 1 right? It's a little early for that.

On Saturday we had a photo shoot up at the lake to get Christmas card pictures! Oh, and since our little cherub will be turning 1 in just 8 days, we wanted to capture this adorable age. Funny thing though. While she LOOKED adorable, she certainly didn't ACT adorable. She just wanted to run around on the dock unsupervised and that certainly was NOT going to happen. She sure does know what she wants and when she wants it.

We spent Sunday out at my dad's house. He cooked us a spectacular lunch and we watched the Bears game. (...through teary eyes. What the frick, Bears?)

I stayed home today to be extra cautious that our little one does not get the flu. Shirley's grandson has had it recently and we are just too darned nervous to take her back quite yet. But, that is F-I-N-E by me! I love being with her and it makes me so anxious to be a full time stay at home mommy! We have so much fun together!

Cute little update on Reagan: Her newest words are 'off' and 'shoes'. She actually says 'aw' for off but she truly says 'shoes'. It's amazing. She's amazing. Anyhoo, off to the pictures we go!

Cheesing for daddy....



Having a good time with mommy....


Playing around at Grandpa & Mimi's (we missed mimi!)

Cuddle bug.

Little towhead and her handsome daddy!

We were tagged!

I'll start this post out with the reason behind the title! We were tagged by our friends in North Carolina, Todd & Jen. Well, mostly Jen since she maintains their blog site. We were tagged to share the story behind how we chose our child's name. What perfect timing since we are soon celebrating our daughter's first birthday!

After months of trying to think up both boy and girl names for our gender-unknown baby, Jeff one day just said "How about Reagan?". And I fell in love with that name. It just fit us for so many reasons. Ronald Reagan was a great president, he was in the same fraternity as Jeff and it's just an all around cool name. Not to mention that our baby was due (and born) right around election day! Since we still didn't know the gender, I didn't get too attached to one name. But the moment the doctor said it was a girl, I remember (through operating room drug induced foggyness) saying to Jeff "Reagan right?". He said "yes!". And there she was. Our beautiful Reagan. I now tag Lindsey, Tami & Emily!


This last week was a busy fun filled week! On Wednesday, I had a very deserving night out with 6 other mommies at Biaggi's. We are all the parents of kids under 2. And between the 7 of us, there are 10 kids under 2. Good conversation, good food and good wine. It's nice to chat with other ladies about things only mommies can understand!

Reagan had her own excitement this week with a trip to the Children's Museum. We met up with our friends Lindsey and Audrey for a baby class! Reagan showed me that she has no fear by climbing on anything possible in the classroom. She was not afraid of the other parents and sometimes would just stand and smile at them. The most hilarious part of the evening was when she was the ONLY child standing in the middle of the circle and just stared at the class leader who was singing fun songs. So there I was, all by myself, patting, clapping and singing, while my kid just stared at the leader. She was cracking everyone up!

We tried to keep Reagan super busy this weekend so we took her to the ISU Homecoming parade on Saturday. She was slightly interested. She didn't really pay attention to the people in the parade, but was quick to say "Fffff, Fffff." when we tried to show her doggies. The Labor Day parade was much more fun! Anyway, on to the pics!



Mommy & Reagan at the parade.


Her pet "drag". She just needs a rope.....

Yeah, I'm cute.....


Grandma Margie bought me this cheerleader outfit!

Foggy Daze

Many apologies for the late post, it seems the weather change has hit this household and caused a couple campers to come down with a sore throats. Never the less, the show must go on, it will be a shorter show and there are no refunds, but here is the rundown. Friday afternoon Grandma Margie came down while we had a fun night out at dinner with some friends of ours. From there, Saturday had a lot of preparation as Sarah and I got ready for a Murder Mystery party hosted by one of our friends. Sarah was trying for a"young Hamptons" look and I was an 60 something business man who was well to do. The night was a blast with everyone playing their parts and staying in character for the night as we partied and solved some crimes...good times.

Sarah and I on the way to the party.


Group photo before we found out "who done it"


Reagan back at the pumpkin patch


Entertaining herself with Kleenex


Fascinating!

2nd Anniversary!

Another week where the sunlight gets shorter, the wind gets a little more brisk and we dig out our sweatshirts. We really do love fall - one of the best parts is our Anniversary. We celebrated in Chicago last week but the date was actually this past Tuesday, those pictures are below. It has been an amazing 2 years and we cannot wait to see what the future holds for us.

This week was pretty low key until the weekend - on Saturday Sarah headed up to Chicago with some friends to do some shopping while Reagan and I headed to the Children's Discovery Museum with some friends. We had a great time and Grandma Candy helped out in the afternoon by watching Reagan while I worked around the house to surprise Sarah.

Sunday we went to a cheese farm and pumpkin patch with our friends and Grandpa Bruce and Mimi. We had a great time seeing animals and looking at all of the pumpkins. It was a great day that really zapped everyone's energy.

Have a great week!


At the punkin patch!


Taking off her socks after a long day:

Here is us 2 years ago:

1 year ago:

Tuesday:

Sweet Home Chicago!

Even though it's not really home, it could be our home away from home. Since Sarah and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary this weekend, we decided to head up to Chicago on Friday night. Mimi and Grandpa watched Reagan on Friday night and Grandma Candy and Poppa Bob had her on Saturday.

Friday night we had a great dinner at Ruth's Chris with Andy and Bridget and enjoyed a couple of drinks after dinner as well. We called it a night pretty early and got on the road mid day Saturday for a relaxing day at home After a quick trip to visit Grandma Candy to get our Reagan fix, we headed home to catch up on some movies and spend some good time together.

Sunday we headed to Great Uncle Ken and Great Aunt Vickie's house to celebrate lots of Birthdays - Great Grandma, Mimi, Mikayla, Jeff, Jenny and Kent(it was a big cake). Now, we are settling in for a nice night at home and hopfully watching the Bears win!

Our reflection in the Bean:

Before dinner with 106 ounces of beer at our table:

In their Bears outfits:

More Sunday best!

Reagan and Grandpa:

That's all!

Toes in the water

In order to get pictures on lines, I'll cover this past busy week in bullet form:

• Kenny Chesney concert with our friends Joe and Lindsey. Row 2, eventually Row 1 and Kenny signs Sarah's hat.
• Sarah's picture in front of the Tour bus makes the local paper
• Our Blog turned 1 year old! Our first post was Sept 17th, 2008
• Great weekend in Rockford with Grandma Margie
• Birthday celebration on Sunday for Poppa Bob
• Sunday night - Bears win!

Bubbles!

Kenny and Zac Brown