26 mos and 9 mos

Its that time again...

Emily has begun to spit out new words and sentences everyday. Just the other day, after seeing a manger scene, she told Joe "Jesus... loves... me... YEP!" So cute. I guess she does listen when we talk. I used to sing her that song before bed almost every night (now Joe puts her to bed and they have their own routine). She has also learned to count hairthings and cookies. So far she has counted to 6 on her own.

Maddie is all over the place - she crawls everywhere and has begun trying to climb anything and everything. All this activity has slowed her growth rate. She is no longer gaining 2 pounds every month, which I think is a good thing :) She just got her first 2 teeth, but its nearly impossible to get a picture of her, much less her teeth!

SANTA!

Grandma and I took the girls to a fancy hotel on the Riverwalk to hear Santa read a book. Really, we heard there was going to be free milk and cookies! Anyone who knows me know that I can't pass up cookies. The hotel was really nice and the cookies were really yummy. Emily loved Santa's chair as long as Santa wasn't sitting in it and she refused to sit in his lap. Maddie sat in his lap but gave him quite a look.

Decorating the trees!

With Grandma in front of the fake tree on the middle level (to look pretty from the street, ha ha)

Here we are in front of our Charlie Brown tree

A Day on the Christmas Tree Farm

Early this December, our family and the George grandparents went to pick out Christmas trees at a farm called Devine Acres in Devine, TX. It was a great little farm with a couple of different types of trees and lots of stuff for kids to do. There was a petting zoo, fishing pond, mazes, hayride, playground, tetherball... the list goes on. We had a great time and bought two nice trees. Emily loved to feed the goats and llama and honk at the funny goose with a bump on his head. Here are some pics from the day.

Time with Aunt Sherry

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, we also got to see Aunt Sherry and her family in from the Houston Area. She has 3 boys so she loves to get to spend some time with little girls. Sometimes Emily can be very shy, but over that weekend, she really came out of her shell. She even helped Aunt Sherry and Kevin find leaves and bugs for his science project. That's not that surprising though because she loves to be outdoors looking at plants, animals, and bugs. She likes to dissect plants, especially when she thinks there may be beans inside.

Here is a picture of Emily, Aunt Sherry, and Christie, their family dog who has been around for 12 years.

Maddie also got to know Aunt Sherry this weekend. She is a big fan of standing in your lap to taste, oops, I mean admire all the jewelry you are wearing. Maddie rarely sits still, so when this happens, you have to take advantage of it!

Playdate with Baylee!

Once again, we were so lucky to get to have a playdate with cousin Baylee while we were in Cedar Park. She is such a smart, generous little girl who realizes that Emily is "bashful" - her words. Emily and Maddie love to get to see Baylee and all her fun toys. This time Emily was more interested in eating the fruity cheerios, but Maddie got her first ride on a push car. She was absolutely thrilled!

Here is Baylee sharing her Granmommy (Aunt Judy) with Maddie.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We went to Cedar Park where Aunt Lorrie hosted for 4 days in a row. She roasted a turkey and another turkey was fried by the Rushing guys and Nate. Everyone made something and it was all good. We also attempted to take a picture of all the Davies family in attendance - I'm still awaiting a copy of that from our photographer, Uncle Lee. But there is a pic of our smaller family

And here is one to make some of you laugh. Here are the guys of our generation (+ an old guy) doing the Heisman stance. It was the old man's idea. Notice Joe's Heisman stance - I think he played defense...

In the Texas Hill Country

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpop George and a pump, Joe and I were able to get away for a night to the Texas hill country. We stayed at a nice B&B outside Kerrville with a great view. We drove all over the place to Fredericksburg, Comfort, and everywhere in between and did touristy things like going to a winery, eating in a biergarten, and window-shopping.

Here is the view from our room with some early morning fog.

And here we are once the fog had disapated some. And yes, we always look that goofy.

Cooking from the garden with Emily

I can't sleep tonight so I thought I'd try blogging. I guess I'm that desperate to get tired again :)

Every once in awhile I am productive in the kitchen, maybe even Betty Crocker-ish. Most people are surprised at the domestic streak I sometimes have, probably because I spent most of the years before Emily was born on a softball field, or in a dark engineering building with 5 windows, or driving around trying find houses to buy. They usually have a shocked look on their face and say "I had no idea you were so domestic". Ha.

Anyway, who can resist working in the kitchen when you have fresh vegetables from your own garden and a cute little person to "help" you. One day last month (like I said, its only a streak, I'm not fully domesticated) Emily and I baked honey wheat bread, zucchini bread, and eggplant parmesan. Yum! There were also some cookies in the oven at the time of the picture. The eggplant parmesan had eggplant, tomatoes, and basil from our garden. The zucchini in the bread and the tomatoes in the salad were also from our garden. I think there was something else from the garden in here, but I am drawing a blank at this horrible hour when the rest of my family is asleep.

Here is a closeup of my little garden and kitchen helper. It has taken awhile to teach her that you only pick red tomatoes. And now I have complicated matters by planting a lime green salad tomato plant. It still has about 20 tomatoes on it now in December! Please pay no attention to Emily's shirt. We have no intention of raising a "glamour girl". In fact, she plays in this shirt and gets it as dirty as she wants, which is very glamourous

Eric and the San Antonio Rock 'n Roll 1/2 Marathon

This past weekend, San Antonio hosted its first Rock 'n Roll Marathon. My brother Eric trained for the 1/2 marathon which is his first attempt at such a crazy long run (13.1 miles). Of course, the night before was the first freeze of the year, so Eric and all the other runners had to deal with some pretty cold morning temperatures. My parents, Joe, the girls, and I bundled up and jumped in the van to witness Eric' participation. For those who know my brother, they know what an amazing feat this is. We had to be there to cheer him on!

The picture above shows the sign we made for him - it was a group effort. First, Mom grabbed Dad's fishing pole, and attached a flag I made for Eric's football team sometime in the early 90's. Then she made a little poster that cheering him on. Yeah, you couldn't miss us ;)

We raced over to just before the 5 mile mark and waited for what seemed like forever to Emily. Finally, here comes Uncle Eric... can you pick him out? He's going to kill me for this :)

Then we hustled over to another spot where we saw him at 8.5 and 9 miles. He was doing great, a little tired, and lacking energy because his belly was empty. Here's a picture right before the finish line, look under the yellow "go" sign. This was at the top of a long hill!

Here we are after the race. We are all tired, but extremely proud of Eric! Amazing! Of course by this time it's a warm, sunny 70 degrees. Gotta love Texas. Thanks to our tall photographer, Joe!

Emily 25 months and Maddie 8 months

Here are the pics we take every month with the "size frog" so we can see how the girls have grown

They love each other!

Smiling at Grandpop George while Grandma tries to take their picture

click on the link below to see a few more pics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32485222@N03/sets/72157609228086398/

Emily turns 2!

Here are some pictures from Emily's 2nd birthday party! We tried to go all out (within reason) with ladybugs! Her favorite book right now is 10 Little Ladybugs that her Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds gave her.

Here she is talking to baby Jake while everybody sings Happy Birthday

Here is the birthday girl's little sister

Here are a bunch more photos that Ben took:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benvolio/sets/72157608153985126/

More from Noelle soon!

Late Halloween pictures

Our Halloween was a little interesting this year because it fell during the same week that a stomach flu ripped through our family - including my siblings and parents and one poor unsuspecting friend. Emily was sick before Halloween and was able to trick or treat. However, poor Maddie spent the night throwing up so she didn't get to wear her costume. These pics show Emily as a "duck in a pond" and Maddie with a pumpkin hat right before she puked. Our camera has died so these are the only pics we have thanks to a kind neighbor.

Trip to Cedar Park

In October we went home to Cedar Park/Leander for a jam-packed weekend of a play-date with Baylee, visits with Aunt Lorrie, Uncle Eddie and families, and Shannon's high school reunion. Here are a few pics from the trip!

Here are the Ladies of '98: Shannon, Michelle, Paula, Robin, and Erin

Keeping Grandparents updated with pictures

Welcome to our first blog! I figured it was time to start one of these high-tech things to help me keep the grandparents (and other family and friends) updated with pictures and short stories about our funny little girls. Everyone's doing it. ;) Don't get your hopes up too high though - I am neither witty or a good story-teller.
And maybe it would be more gramatically correct to title it "Reynoldses in Texas" but I don't like the way that look or sounds, so I'm not gonna do it.