Hello Shadow!

This year we have not seen the sun very much, therefore Maleah is just now discovering her shadow....



She finds it pretty entertaining!




Who needs all those toys anyway! ;)

Memorial Day Breakfast

We went to the boy scouts Memorial Day pancake breakfast this morning:



It was a little chilly....but not raining!! :)



Reese was sure to capture the moment! She was so excited to watch them present our flag!



Daddy makes a good heater on a cool morning...



And a little sister photo shoot in the red, white and blue...

Memorial Day

Reese helped me to make this memorial day cake. We talked about this day for remembering people who died for our country... "You mean God right? How Jesus died for us?" Similar, but these people are soldiers who died helping to keep our freedom. Now she prays for soldiers during her prayer time...Soldiers and for "Miss Rebecca's twins to sleep at the same time and for cousin Emma to be a good baby." You know, the important things! ;)

Movie theater tents

Reese wanted to watch "Cat in the Hat" and Matt was watching the Mariners, so we set up her DVD player...and made a little movie theater.



She did not want to be "alone" for too long so as soon as the show was over, Maleah got to join her sister...




LOVE that Maleah has her hand on Reese in this one:



Can't wait to see the fun play these girls will come up with!

Cute Maleah

Just realized by looking at this picture:



that we could see a tooth any day, week or month(s) from now. But Maleah has been chewing more and a little fussy, which is out of the norm for her....we shall see...

Maleah has figured out what the camera is for...to smile and look cute!





Don't you just want to hug her? ;)

Going out to play...

Today it was a sunny May morning, Reese was eager to go out an play. She put her shoes on (the wrong feet...did not notice that till now...oh well) She can back rather quick asking for a jacket...and hat....and gloves! It is May right? Almost June!! Come on sunshine!! :)

Coupons and weeding....

Kinda of an odd pairing but just hear me out....

I am amazed and somewhat stumped by these people who can get all these things for free with coupons! We were watching the show "Extreme Couponing" and so confused as to how it all works. First, isn't there a limit to how many coupons you can use? My coupons say things like "only one coupon is redeemable per purchase"...so how can they use 100's of the same one?

Also, what stores double coupons? I shop at Safeway, Albertsons and sometimes Target but I am unaware if they double coupons.

I get finding a store sale, a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon and teaming those up to get great savings...and that is my goal with this process.

I really enjoyed this blog about couponing, although I doubt I will buy coupons from ebay, but I guess you never know. I mostly like the idea of stock piling for the lean times. This sure speaks to my heart as we are in the real estate business....we do have some lean times! I would love to stock pile things we use all the time for those months when sales are slow.

But this takes time....and is like weeding my yard. Some days I feel like I am really getting somewhere with the whole process, printing lots of coupons and matching sales, but other days I feel like I am a dog chasing my own tail! So it is with the weeds....somedays the yard looks better, but a few days later and I can't tell we did any work out there!

A slow process for sure, but if we can do it, one that is sure to be rewarding!



Sometimes Reese helps me weed by saying "Wow mommy! That is a big pile!" Followed quickly by... "Are you going to get those ones too?"



Maleah helps by taking good long naps and then by playing happily on her blanket in the shade...she is a great baby!

Princess playtime

Lucky for Maleah she got to play with a princess during morning play time! And just this week, these two are able to have a short morning playtime together! So great! I was telling Matt, I love seeing how much fun Maleah has with her big sister, kinda makes me feel bad Reese did not have a big sister to play with when she was little....but that is a never ending cycle for sure! :)

Bedtime cuddles

Reese started this new family routine. The girls take their baths, and then get ready for bed. Next Reese and Maleah sit together in the rocker.



Reese will sing songs to Maleah, talk about how much she loves Maleah and tell Maleah what a cute baby she is....not doubt Maleah loves this!!



Then Reese ends by praying for Maleah. So sweet watching these girls become best friends.



And to think a few short months ago we were having to rock Maleah to sleep for over an hour! I think I like this new use of the rocker a lot better. Just a good reminder that phases come and go.... ;)

Baby and a basket

Maleah is in that wonderful phase where she can sit in front of her basket of toys and pull out toys one at a time and be so happy for quite a while.



Sometimes she will take out her baby doll and give it kisses! So cute! I have yet to get it on camera though.



She really is a very happy, easy going baby. We all enjoy her sweetness so much!

Napping

Reese and Maleah have been wonderful at taking their afternoon naps at the same time. This gives me a chance to walk on the treadmill to loose some of that baby weight, which is much harder to loose the second time around!

Anyways, the girls wake up and Reese loves to have Maleah come sit in her bed with her. I leave the room to do laundry and Maleah makes these sweet sounds as she talks to Reese. She only makes these sounds for her big sister. So fun to watch these sisters bond.

Bathing beauties

Maleah sits well enough now to take a bath with Reese.....and she loves it! Anything Maleah gets to do with her big sister she is in! Reese loves it to and Daddy does such a good job guiding helpful Reese so she can wash her sister. I had almost forgotten that these two would get to interact, play and do daily life together. So fun to see this next phase starting!

Beach Day

Green water

Last week our color was green so we decided to see if we could turn these flowers (borrowed from my mother's day flowers) green by putting them in green water. I know this works with carnations but we thought we would try it with what was on hand....so far no change...

Racing

This past Saturday Reese ran in a race to raise money for muscular dystrophy. This event was created by two boys with MD who saw their parents constantly fundraising and thought they could do something too. So they came up with this race for kids!

Grandma Sue and Grandpa Dan are visting and blessed us by taking these cute pictures!

Warm up with Daddy...she was SOO excited!!



Cheering as the top fundraisers were announced.






Our joyful runner!




She won her 100 meter race! She was so proud.




We are pretty proud too....Mostly of how much fun she had! Now she wants to know when the next race will be!

Little people

I loved playing with little people when I was a little person. And now BOTH of my girls can play little people together, because little people are a lot bigger now a days and therefore safe for a 6 month old. Well most of the pieces are....this new stage of playing together is going to take a lot of supervision! Any tips on how to organize age appropriate toys? I do love to organize!



Someone is getting a little tired of my constant picture taking....

Red Day

Thursday was Red Day. That is the day that Keller Williams Real Estate does a community service project...all the offices nation wide do it on the same day.

This year, we got Reese involved. It was a can food drive and so she walked the neighboorhoods collecting food for "People who don't have any, not for us."



Skipping up to the door, she was so joyful about doing this work with her daddy. And she loves to be helping people.



Daddy requested that she go with him, he thought it would be more fun for him, and it turned out to be a great morning for both of them!

School Theme

Found another great preschool blog that helps me organize our learning time together. And it gives us a theme each week. This last week we did kittens. One thing we did was gather up all our stuffed kittens and play with them with yarn! So simple and fun!



I am finding that focusing on one shape, one letter, one number each week really helps Reese to pick those things out better. This week she has been finding diamonds every where we go, and those are hard to find! :)

Mother's Day

We had a wonderful mother's Day weekend. Well, Reese did wake up with a cold Saturday, but that has happened at least once each month since December!! Anyways, we still did our swimming date together, but we took it easy. Reese is back to having confidence when swimming again! So nice to see!

Matt made breakfast, lunch and dinner on Sunday! I got to teach Sunday school. The only bummer was having to leave Reese at home on Sunday, because she was sick. We have such fun together getting the church room ready for the kids. Reminds me when I used to help my mom in her class room!

Saturday and Sunday I got to take a nap and go for a run! That was wonderful!

Here are the Thomson girls on mother's day....The pictures are close to the same, but I like my smile better in one and the girls in the other so you get to see both! :)

Maleah pictures

Maleah is such a sweet baby. And she is very shy! She is very cautious as well as easily over simulated. So we work each day to find a good balance of activities for her.



See? She doesn't even want you to know her age! ;)



She is becoming quite the mover now! Hard to get her sitting still! And she moves all around her bed as she sleeps, rolling for front to back to side. Side seems to be her favorite.



She has grow a lot this last month! Moving from 75% to 90% in height! Daddy has basketball dreams in his head, but the Dr. says even a cm can make a big difference on the charts....



We sure love our sweet girl!