my sweet Grayson

yesterday today and tomorrow we are staying with my cousins the Mack's while their parents are in Denver where their dad has patients. I spent the first night by myself. Chris stayed as late as he could but still had work early in the morning and Gray had preschool so I put payton to bed and crawled into their massive high up king size bed in a large room by myself with a very silent fan. If you know me you know I have to have a fan not really because I need the air but because I need the fan. My mind and body can't seem to shut off when it's silent. Somehow I was able to fall asleep. Today Chris joined me around 1 and we've been picking up kids and making dinner and lunches for tomorrow. Now Bailey sits at the piano practicing with his teacher and the rest of us are stuck upstairs watching a barbie movie on the projector. haha It's been fun being in a big house and just having fun playing house as if it were our own. I miss having a kitchen and food in the fridge...not that we don't at my mom's but it's not my stuff and my mom lives there. Here it's just us and all these kiddos running around. It's a nice break. 

The reason I'm writing is because I had a sweet moment with Grayson and had to write it down before I forgot. When Bailey's piano lessons started the kids rushed upstairs so when I finished cleaning up after dinner I came up to remind Grayson to go to the bathroom. He obediently rushed in and I went back downstairs. After a few minutes Gray comes walking down and says to me... "Mommy will you do my pants for me?" I bent down to his level to button and zip them up and he tried to quickly rush off...I looked at him and said "can I have a kiss?" He quickly turned back around came over to me as I bent down for a kiss...I expected a nice one on the lips but he put his little hands to my cheeks and softly tipped my face towards his and kissed me sweetly on the forehead. I never want to forget that moment with my sweet boy. I hope he does this when I'm old and gray and still his momma. How I love that boy and am so blessed to call him mine.  

I wish I had a personal photographer around to catch moments like that...

Life...

It's April already! It breaks my heart knowing that Payton has been part of our family almost a full year now. Seems like just yesterday I was drinking castor oil trying to get her here and then finishing painting my nails so we could get to the hospital to get things moving! Those nine months go so slow and yet it's already been more than nine months that she's been alive. HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?! My baby isn't really a baby anymore. But then I see Gray and think...He's not a baby anymore. He's not even the cute sweet toddler age anymore. He talks and acts like a big boy getting ready for kindergarten! AH! I can't believe I'm going to have a kindergartener by next year. I'm kind of dreading the school phase. I never really loved school so I'm not even sure how I will make it through having a child that's in school. Whether it's helping with homework, dealing with kids that are mean to my kid, or having a bad teacher. I've heard of all of those. And even feel like I had them happen to me myself. School has never been myself. I love learning more now. I probably do more on my own but some things about school just terrify me. Hopefully helping my children through school will help me. : ) I actually have a few minutes to sit down and write a quick update. I'm not great at writing in my journal so I know I can at least make a quick post on my blog.

Chris:
-eager to buy his first motorcycle
-still has to take the test to drive a motorocycle
-taking an independent study class for Physics (blah)
-enjoying working for my dad and NOT being in classes all day
-loves coming home from work to relax and NOT have homework to do all night
-helping his sister and brother sign up for classes at UVU
-Signed us up at Texas Family Fitness here in McKinney!! WOOT WOOT
-takes me to the gym with him 3 times a week--I LOVE IT!
-still has a bad shoulder. hoping he can hold off going to the doctor until he gets on school insurance and then again he's had this issue for a year now.
-He turns 27 in a couple weeks! woah
-Still has no calling at church
-got asked (by my mom--she's the only one that knows he can sing) to sing for Easter Sunday. BEAUTIFUL
I love him more. Him being out of school has really helped him destress and relax for a few months. Not even just being out of school but not stressing about getting into dental school. Married life is good. I do slightly dread school starting again. haha

Scarlet:
-I spend most of my days chasing kids around the house or outside, helping my mom around the house, cleaning, making lunch when Chris and my dad come home, and working on dinner for the whole fam

-I work with my sister in law for my dad on his Advertising/marketing team. We meet on thursdays and discuss and go over things that we need to get done. Our most current project is a video for the website and office.

 For example: this was my day today. 

Wake up

feed payton,

get Gray dressed for school, 

get myself dressed, 

take gray to school, 

run to wal mart with payton still in jammies, 

go in get diapers and a few other groceries, 

come home feed payton again, 

head out the door for the office, 

spend a few minutes working on this flyer, 

payton is asleep in her carseat in my dads office, 

rush out the door with payton in tow (still asleep thank goodness) get to the fedex store have them start printing 300 flyers, 

rush back home with payton still sleeping, 

run in grab some diapers and baby food, 

run back out, 

head back to Gray's preschool to pick up, 

go in have him go to the bathroom, 

write out a check, 

leave for chick fil a with girlfriends at noon (first fun thing all morning haha), 

let gray play while i chit chat, 

leave chik fil a to pick up the flyers, 

take them all the way back to the office (gray asleep in the car now), 

run in find out we missed something, 

discuss how to fix it, 

rush back out to the car, 

head home. 

Finally now relaxing on the couch! 

-thank goodness not every day is like this. but with two kids and living at home with parents is definitely busier than i'm used to. : )
-I'm looking forward to having our own place.
-we have found a townhome that we love off of 635 but they only have one available so we are hoping it stays available. : ( It's 2 bedrooms and a study (no closet) 2.5 baths. upstairs/downstairs. washer/dryer hookups. 2 car garage.  2 patios (wasted space if you ask me but we still love it.) Great kitchen! 2 pools. 2 community gyms. other LDS dental students live there. We are hooked. haha
-I'm still nursing Payton about 3 times a day.
-I love working out at the gym with my hubs.
-he's helping me do all weights and some running for cardio. Hopefully we can keep it up.
-I loved visiting with one of my girlfriends from Nashville over spring break. We sure love them.
-My current project is turning a bikini into a tankini...if anybody has ever tried let me know how it worked out for you. I just bought some swimsuit material. I'll let ya know how it goes.
-Also I bought one of those skirts that are shorter in the front and longer in the back. This one I found goes to the middle of my knees in the front but the slip underneath is pretty short (mid thigh) So I am buying some fabric that will match that slip to add some length to it so it matches the top material in length. if that even makes sense. I'm excited.
-We have been considering selling our car and buying a minivan. Our pathfinder has served it's purpose....getting us through with no car in the snow and crazy utah weather, helping us make all of our trips from thanksgiving with my sibs, to christmas break, to moving to texas and fitting EVERYTHING we didn't send with ryan and jessi, and then our most recent trip to Nashville. Now we could use a better car for gas mileage. Gas prices are SOO crappy. I hate to say it but we are considering mini van. They are getting pretty awesome these days. haha. I do love our pathfinder though. Chris may make me give it up. oh well.
-You would think living with my parents would drive me nuts and put some issues there between my parents and us and just our marriage. I can honestly say I feel it has improved our marriage and life in general. It's been such a great blessing.
-I love my hubby and my children. What a wonderful blessing to be a mother and wife. Words can't describe how deeply I feel for them and love them. It's just a mom thing. I'm not sure I would understand that if I wasn't a mother.

Gray:
-LOVES PRESCHOOL!
-Loves living with Cici, Haha, Skyler and Clark.
-Has a LOVE/HATE relationship with clark.
-still doing great with big boy underwear. We have had a few accidents since moving here...mostly at night when it does happen.
-He's become a little picky with his bedtime routine when we are at cici's house. he has to be covered with all the blankets, given his special afghan blanket...not just any direction but with the end that has a black strip up at his face (so he can put his fingers through) then he has to have the white bear, his camel and the green alligator (the camel is the only one that is his...the rest are adria's.), then we have to have had the lights on in the room long enough so when we turn the lights off and fan on he can see the stars glowing in the dark on the fan and on the ceiling (from when adria lived there). Then everybody has to give him a kiss goodnight. OH BROTHER! guess it could be worse. We'll have to break the habit when we move out. haha
-he can pretty much sing any song that comes on the radio. Not the whole thing but I can tell he knows the tune and quite a few of the words. haha I have to be careful what we listen to. He's pretty good at Taylor Swift. : )
-Everybody tells me how well behaved he is...church, school, with friends/babysitters...not sure why he's not that way with me at home. Need to start cracking down I guess.
-His new thing is telling us "I can't" in an extremely whiney crying high pitched voice when he doesn't want to do something. For example: his clothes...if he has to put clothes on when he doesn't want to he does this and we have started some disciplining when he says "I can't". But when he want's to do it he does it by himself. so ridiculous. I know I should enjoy helping him while I can though because eventually he may not want anything to do with me.
-must teach him to wipe his own bum before kindergarten. hahaha

Payton:
-crawls everywhere
-pulls up on everything and sometimes lets go but doesn't last long on her own
-she's always at my feet
-very attached to me
-if I walk out of the room she cries
-she eats 3 times a day
-perfect sleeper
-naps twice a day
-loves any food we give her it's AWESOME!
-She has her two bottom teeth and her third tooth is starting to poke through but it's not what you would think...it's the second tooth over from the middle. if that makes sense. wish I new the real lingo. sorry. so it's gonna look a little funny when it comes in completely. haha
-she LOVES grayson. He walks into the room and she giggles and laughs at him until he comes to her
-she loves any kids really.
-she doesn't really giggle...hard to explain but she has a very diffferent laugh. haha quite funny
-still not much hair
-we have loved having her ears pierced and have yet to have a problem.
-Still wears size 3 diapers...but I'm tempted to start buying size 4. I can tell size 3 are slowly getting too small
-Has extreme control of her feet. she shuffles her toes, claps her feet, will sit back on her bum and pull her feet up so she's not touching the grass (crazy balance right there) she also claps her hands, shakes her head no at everybody to be funny and waves hello.
-she also loves her tongue right now.
-still drools a lot. some days more than others it seems
-I think she weighs about 20lbs. gotta get them in for check ups.
-I love her to pieces. love having a daughter and dressing her and playing with her. It has been a very different experience from grayson. I love grayson equally but it's been different. I think it's come down to nursing for me. She is attached to me in different ways than grayson ever was. If I'm in the room i kind of have to hide myself from her so other people can play with her. haha

We have a Packard Family vacation to Florida this summer where my parents got us a beach house with everybody for 3 days and the last few days are just us girls (and grayson, payton and amaya). Then Chris and I have cruise and stay at a resort for a week in Florida in july. Can't wait to have time away but I won't lie. I'm not looking forward to leaving my kiddos. I will have to be done nursing by then. : ( not sure how I feel about that yet. I don't know if she will be ready.

Gotta get on with life. Headed to Clarks baseball game. : ) I will try and add some pics later. But they're always up on facebook.

It's Been A While

We've finally moved back to Texas. We are loving it here and are so happy to be moving forward. On to Dental School! Chris stays busy working, I stay at home with the kiddos who keep me busy. I help my mom with dinners and sometimes doing them myself. 

I think I'm done blogging. I've been in limbo of loving it and hating it. I'm deciding that there are better/more productive things I could be doing with my time than sitting and typing up my feelings, complaints, heartaches, and yes the fun stuff memories and good stories about my kiddos. I've decided those things can be written down in a journal. I post plenty of pictures and such on facebook and instagram so if you still want to see you can find stuff there. I also jsut feel bad I've gotten so behind on blogging. So for now I'm done. : ) 

Wish I had some more recent photos but most of those are on my phone. 

See ya later from the Reece Fam. : ) 

SLEEP!

I think I've mentioned this but about a month ago I decided Payton needed to grow up and move out of our room. Since our place that we live in only has two bedrooms and I wasn't ready to put her in with Gray we moved her into the kitchen. She slept in her pack n play with a blanket over the top to keep it dark. She did well. She was only waking up twice at night which was much better than the every two hours she had started doing about a week before I kicked her out. Then on Monday she was only up once! Let me say that again... she was only up once and that wasn't until 6:45!!! I couldn't believe it.

So for another part of the story....I started babysitting my sister in laws nephew back in August and I planned to babysit right up until we left for our month of trips in December. This last week both the kids got Colds...Payton still has her and can't cry without a cough in between. poor girl. So I spoke to my sister in laws sister and asked if somebody was able to just take over. I was starting to stress over everything that needed to get done before we head out. Thank goodness a friend from our old ward volunteered. I loved Harrison. But with two of my own and then Harrison only being two months older than payton it made it really difficult for me to get out of the house (due to naps and only one car which chris took) so I could rarely get things done except cook dinner which usually happened when Chris got home so I could take the car to the store. That got annoying.

On with the story...Yesterday was the most productive day I've had in a long time. No babysitting so at 11 I got to take Grayson to the Paleontology (dinosaur) museum here in Provo with the playgroup. HE was in HEAVEN! Then we came home and I got busy....I was tired of moving the pack in play from the kitchen to the hall which blocked the laundry room and I never wanted to put it into a room because you have to take the whole thing down to get it through the door. IT was frustrating. So I went into Gray's room and started rearranging! It was fun! I felt like my sister in law. ( she loves re arranging : )) So when I started rearranging I decided I wanted to give this a shot and make them share a room. I talked to Gray about it all day telling him Payton was going to sleep in his room! He was SOOO excited. So because of how many things are in that room....two dressers a stand with drawers a large chair gray's bed and a large toy box I put Payton's pack n play in the closet to keep the room open. This way I can close the curtains and its nice and dark. NO more blanket. (THis was also something my brother and his wife did when they lived here. haha) I didn't feel bad having her in the close though because when we lived with my parents Gray slept in the closet for a few months before we kicked him out.

Once I put Gray down for his nap I went to the grocery store like a normal stay at home mom and took a real grocery list not just to get a few items for dinner. Chris was home for the day so the babies slept and I went out. It was so nice! I got home called the carpet cleaners and arranged for them to come a couple days before we move out. I put groceries away (babies still napping) started our potato soup in the crock pot and the Fridge fixer upper guy arrived! OUr fridge has been leaking since we moved in. He pulled out a TON of ice out of our freezer added a few things and was out the door. We will see how it goes. I put everything back in the freezer checked and checked on dinner. Payton was up so I went to feed her. Then I cleaned the kitchen....did the dishes, started the dishwasher, swept and vacuumed the floor. Dinner was ready. Then I went to hop in the shower after being nasty from all that cleaning. Before getting in the shower I cleaned and reorganized our WHOLE bathroom. It looks wonderful! haha. Then I got a little bit ready for people to come over for a November Birthdays get together....Made brownies, put Grayson to bed and sent Chris off to study.

Such a productibe day for me. NOrmally it's vacuum if I can...change diapers, put babies down for naps, feed babies, feed babies again, start the dishwasher and try to fold some laundry.

Back to the beginning. Around 10:30 I fed Payton and we were ready to hit the sack. So we wrapped her up, told her to be a good girl and sleep so Gray didn't wake up. haha Went in and laid her in her pack n play in the closet told Grayson that Payton was in there going to sleep (he smiled and fell back asleep.) We walked out and went to bed. I was up in the middle of the night around 3 I think mostly because I'm used to waking up...haha. No sound. Gray hadn't come in to tell me Payton was awake. Chris left around 7 to go clean the bank and at 7:20 Gray walks in to say "Momma...Payton's crying..." She did it! She slept all night! I fed her and she went right back to sleep and didn't get up until 10. Who knows...maybe it was a fluke thing and it just happened. We will see how things go tonight. 

Picture Update!!

 Late Night Games at the Cabin with Friends

 When I spoke to my mom at the Cabin she asked what Grayson does....this was an everyday thing while we were there. 

 My kiddos love cucumbers. Had to show this one because I didn't button payton's onesie and then didn't even notice it in the picture. embarrassing. haha 

Love this face. 

 Happy Halloween

Our Cowboy and Indian 

Our Pumpkin...well Chris' 

We arrived at the cabin late thursday night to absolutely NO SNOW IN SIGHT!! We were up around 7:30 and found all of this. BEAUTIFUL!!  

One of her new things we find her doing a lot.  

Gray's favorite part of the trip.

Loves tipping her head to the side like this. Looks like she's dancing.  

Our most recent photo session while big brother was nappin. LOVE that she's sitting up. Cracks me up that she rests her hands on her legs. haha

 Sportin our orange on halloween. 

 More of this stretching...except this time she was actually reaching for something. We watched her for a few minutes and she would move her toes closer and closer till she reached the socket. They had protectors don't worry.

Trying to do something fun Halloween Day for Gray...Orange Pancakes that were supposed to have faces...and Orange colored smoothies. YUM! 

Our Pumpkin...Well Chris' haha 

The Whole Clan. So glad Kevin and Gracie made it. : )

ELECTION DAY 2012

Well tomorrow is a huge day for our country! It's crazy to think it's been 4 years that Obama has been in office and it hasn't been good. It's time for him to be booted out and have a new president move in. Chris and I are residents in Texas so we sent in our early voter ballots weeks ago. We voted for MITT..... MITT ROMNEY. 

This picture has been all over the web. I love it. What a great thing! This is what our country needs. A leader who knows how to communicate with our Heavenly Father...who is in tune with the spirit. Somebody to lead us back to a better America. An America that believes in God. 

I'm nervous. My husband is more nervous. He just told me tonight that he has been having nightmares about election day. That makes me even more nervous! It could be a really scary night tomorrow night when they announce the New President of the USofA! yikes. It could be bad all together. 

This last sunday was fast sunday. I fasted for a new president! Even though my fast wasn't much, due to nursing and the headaches I've been getting when I don't eat/drink often, it was something. We are praying for the people of America to know who they are voting for and to make the right choice. We will keep praying. 

ROMNEY for PRESIDENT. 

(That's the extent of my political ness. : )) 

It's kind of a BIG DEAL

On one of my recent lists and update I wrote that I needed to get to the gym. WELL TA-DA!! I did it! I  signed up for a gym pass at Gold's Gym!!! HIP HIP! I was able to convince my friend Gracie to join in on the fun and her hubby went and got us a good deal. Basically I paid 48$ to get me in till December 14th (when we move) and I get FREE everything!! Also no cancellation fee. Pretty awesome. 

So our first class was an intro to spin. We were pedaling the whole time so we walked away with jelly legs excited to take a real class. haha Then we went to a Kickboxing class. We weren't too fond of that class. I didn't know they did three week rotations. Where they start a routine and do it for three weeks. Well guess what...we walked into the class on their third week so we looked like complete idiots. HA! We left after about 35 min and went to the treadmills. Not sure if i'll be doing that class again. This week on Monday we went to Power Pump and boy were we DYING! I loved it. Tuesday I was in pain and Wednesday was just awkward. haha sitting down, standing up, picking up babies everything was just painful. Last night we skipped the gym and joined in on a Zumba class a girl in our ward was teaching. That was fun and probably good to help our muscles adjust. Saturday we are headed to our first official SPIN CLASS!!! I can't wait! That's mu update on the gym situation. I'm loving getting out of the house, taking Grayson with to play with other kiddos and enjoying having sore muscles. 

For those of you that know me...this is a HUGE deal. We skyped with my brother on Sunday and he said "Scarlet YOU got a gym pass?!" hahaha He was shocked. I've never been in a gym EVER! I've never even really worked out. I've been running, and done a few things at an apt complex gym but nothing serious. 

Let's just say I'm proud of myself. : ) 

Updates: 

 Payton: She will be 5 MONTHS OLD on the 26th! I can't believe it. She's my baby. She's stinkin tall and has some great chub on her...not a lot but it's there. Just enough for us. haha She's about 15lbs and in the 98th percentile for height. crazy She rolls everywhere and has started pulling her legs up under herself but nothing more. We bought some rice cereal to try out. But we've given it to her maybe twice. haha She's much better at keeping it in her mouth than Grayson was. I'm really just focused on nursing and just that adding some rice cereal in there when I feel interested. haha I've officially kicked her out of our room. Our condo is the same size as our last place but it only has two bedrooms. And since she is still crying at night when she wakes up to eat I didn't want her waking up Gray. So I have her in our kitchen. haha sounds lame but I wanted her out of range from Gray and in a clean area...not the bathroom or laundry room or something. I started on Sunday and she has been doing so well!! Last week she started waking up every two or 3 hours and it was sooo exhausting...Lisa I don't know how you do it! (if you're reading this) So the first night I fed her around 11 and went to bed hoping she wouldn't wake up. SHE DIDN'T WAKE UP UNTIL 4:00!!! HALLELUJAH! Then she was up around 7:30. She's been doing that same thing every night since. She's up around 4 to 4:45 to eat the first time. She loves jumping away in her jumper, sitting in her bumbo watching mommy cook in the kitchen, and watching Grayson do everything. We love her to pieces. 

Grayson: What can I say about Grayson....haha there's too much now that he can do everything. It's so different from having a 5 month old who is slowly figuring out new things. I have been working on shapes with Gray. I point to them and he tells me what it is or I ask him to show me a certain shape. He loves to sing! He makes us laugh everyday. He seriously knows every song that comes on the radio and HE SINGS IT!! it's crazy! He's getting better at trying food. He will sit down for dinner with us and try what we are eating. Pretty much every time he has liked it and every time I'm shocked. He loves eating, pickles, celery, carrots, grapes, cheese. His favorites are grilled cheese sandwiches, and peanut butter honey sandwiches. haha I'm just happy he's trying new things. It's a step. He's in the 90th percentile for height and for his height to weight ratihs he's skinny so we're working on it. I think he's just tall which makes him skinny but we don't want him to be a stick his whole life. He loves his Uncle Yaya and aunt Sass. He also LOVEs going to any sports game we'll let him. haha 

Chris: Well Chris quit his job and has been off for two weeks now. It's been so nice. He can actually get his homework/studying done and have time to be with his family. He's back in the gym!! yay! So proud of him for working hard. We don't hear anything from Dental Schools until December 3rd so no news there. 

Some pictures...but you've probably seen them all from facebook.

7 weeks until our Holiday Vacationing begins!!! 

Then and Now - All about Me - Self Boost Post

So I've been trying to get over this I feel crappy about myself stage that I'm in. Whether it's trying on new clothes and doing different things with my clothes. And most recently going through pictures. I'm silly for not being happy with how I look. So I went back through pictures from after I had Grayson and that helped a little. : ) I think my biggest problem is because I am still nursing that is adding some extra pounds and once I am done I will be back at my pre pregnancy weight. I could also go and get my booty in the gym and that would help too. haha I've got to stop being so down on myself. My days are always better when I get myself ready in the morning, get the house clean, dishes in the dishwasher, dishwasher started, laundry going, laundry folded and put away, babies down for a nap and then I get to have a little me time. Luckily all 3 babies went down for a nap at the same time. crazy! Anyway so I went through and found these pictures. 

This first one is NASTY!!! This was a few days after I had Grayson and we were headed home. I believe I left the hospital weighing around 138 from 153 when I got there.

This was the closest thing I had to the age Payton is right now...Gray was 3 months in this picture. If you look closely you can see my belly. yuck.

This was in April 2009 so Gray was about 4 months. I'm hiding behind Chris but I can tell my face looks full still. 

This was in June 2009 Gray was about 5 months. 

Finally a FULL YEAR after Grayson was born I was back to my normal weight of 124.

 Here I am 5 1/2 weeks Pregnant with Payton.

I weight 154 at 40 weeks and 5 days. 

Here I am about a week after Payton was born. I'm kind of hidden but not too bad.

Here I am with Chris on the 4th of July...Payton was about a month and a half old. I was weighing about 127.

This is me today...Right about 125. Haven't really moved from that in the last couple months. BLAH. But I feel good about that because I wasn't this far weight wise after I had Grayson.  

I definitely still want to get to the gym and tone/tighten some things up. haha 

I just like this picture because you can see my face doesn't look swollen or chubby like it did in the picture from after I had Grayson. 

I've got to stop whining and just be happy with how I am. I can always work to improve things but some people have it worse than I do. That doesn't mean I don't get to have a downer day. hahaha Everybody deserves some of those. : )