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

Bear Down!

We're trying to post a little earlier today since tonight is the season opener for the Chicago Bears and they are playing Green Bay. Football rules are in effect, so we don't answer the phone or the door while the game is on and discussions around non football topics are limited to commercial breaks only. I know it sounds crazy, but Sarah gets kinda crazy during football season. In all seriousness, we are very loyal to the Bears but understand that life goes on (but we are kind of happy the Packer game starts after Reagan is in bed).

This week was very exciting for us, Reagan continues to walk around the house and has started using more words. The oven, stove and coffee are "HOT", flowers and breakable items are "PRETTY" and anything that falls warrants an "UH OH"!

This week Mimi came home and watched Reagan for a couple days along with Great Mimi, Great Grandpa, Great Great Mimi and Great Aunt Carol. We also went to the Labor Day Parade on Monday with our friends Joe and Lindsey and their daughter and then visited their house on Friday for a fantastic dinner. It is so cute to watch the girls play together and share their love of Mickey Mouse.

A little before nap time:


With her friend Audrey at the Labor Day Parade


The were passing out Favor Ice to the kids, so I decided to make them look like Light Sabres. The key here is I use my nerd powers for good and not evil.


Her best Captain Morgan impression


A long walk around the house

Life is TOO fun!

This week sure did fly by. We finally moved back into our home on Tuesday evening after having our floors finished (see previous post). We were so happy to get home, especially since Reagan started having problems sleeping at night. Our poor little girl is growing so much and is developing so many skills, that she doesn't want to sleep. She gets too excited about all the fun things that life now has to offer her; laughing with mommy and daddy, trying to climb stairs, blowing kisses and the best yet....walking! We promise, she actually is walking, although catching video of her doing so is like trying to get proof of Big Foot. In fact, we have pictures of Big Foot below. Just joking. But I bet you looked.

Our weekend has been packed full of fun stuff. Jeff spent Saturday golfing with Bob and our friend Joe, while Reagan and I hung out with my mom. Today we had lunch at "the club" with Joe, Lindsey and Audrey. Audrey is Reagan's new BFF, she just doesn't know it yet. It is really cute to see the two of them together. We are meeting up with them again tomorrow morning for the Labor Day parade. I'm sure we'll get some great pics of them for our post next week!

For now, check out our newest pics below!

Reagan 'helping' mommy reorganize her clothes:


Yes, those are matching outfits:


With Grandma Margie:

Playing on her mat:

A few steps: