Happy birthday, Reagan

Reagan turned 5 on December 11th. How is that possible??!! Anyway, we opened presents in the morning, then had a party with her friends, then had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa that night. It was great fun, but it wore her out completely!

This is how excited she was the day before her birthday.

 Her new outfit from Grandma Rusch. So cute!

 We found tiaras for everyone at the party! Because everyone needs a tiara!

Things I want to remember about Reagan turning 5:

• She LOVES her brother and is the best little sister ever. After dinner was over, she said, "Hey, Davis, do you want to play Barbies?" And of course, he did. Living with your best friend is pretty great!
• She is very creative, and loves to draw, cut, color, and tape anything. She could, and does, spend hours doing it almost every day.
• She is a great self-entertainer. We are home together most of the day, and she really entertains herself while I do my work and my mom stuff.
• She loves Barbies and princesses. Anything princess. Princess Barbies are the best.
• She is very independent (always has been) and is pretty sure that she's just as old as Davis. She is working really hard on learning how to read, and I'm sure that she will pick it up in just a few minutes.

We love our Reagan girl, girlfriend, and sweet girl!

Happy birthday, Davis

It was Davis's birthday on November 20th! He is 7 years old! How did that happen??!!

Because life is crazy, we had his birthday sandwiched in between a trip to Phoenix for Mom and Dad and a trip to Chicago as a family. Both trips were lots of fun, but that's a different post. Anyway, we had a birthday party with family on the evening of his birthday, and a birthday party with friends on Friday.

Things I want to remember about Davis when he turned 7:

• He is the NICEST kid ever. He is a great friend, and a fabulous big brother. He honestly has always been nice.
• He is such a good reader! It is amazing the words this kid can read! And he loves it!
• He loves LEGOs and superheroes. Superhero LEGOs are the very best in the entire world.
• He has a bunk bed in his room, and loves sleeping on the top bunk. It's awesome.
• Clothes and food are usually just something that need to happen in order to exist. They are not a priority at all.

We love 7 year old Davis! He is getting baptized NEXT YEAR! Wow!

Spring break 2019

We had a fabulous Spring Break, despite the fact that we just stayed home! It was wonderful! We stayed home because:

• It was Chris and Davis's Spring Break, but not Tina's. We were going to go to Island Park, but . . . 
• This story made us think that it was maybe not a good idea.
• So we stayed home. And it was glorious.

On MONDAY--
We went to the Lego Movie 2. At first, I wasn't the biggest fan, just like with the first LEGO movie. However, by the end, I decided that it was pretty good! And Davis and Reagan loved it! We also had adventures with our car, which we found out later needed some help!

on TUESDAY--
We went to the Public Library, because they were having a LEGO party. I promise the rest of our week didn't have to do with LEGOs! It was pretty fun though!

On WEDNESDAY--
We celebrated the first day of spring by going to get free ice cream at Dairy Queen:

Reagan enjoyed it.
Then we went to the Museum of Idaho. They had an exhibit about Archimedes, which was super cool. But, as always, the kids play place was the favorite!

On THURSDAY--
We got the teeter-totter set up by Dad, which was awesome. The swing for our tree is soon to come!

The kids also played Candy Land in the morning, which they loved. I'm not sure what rules they played with, but they sure had fun!

Oh, and also, Davis lost a tooth!

The tooth fairy forgot to leave him money on Thursday night, which he was very upset about. He left a note for her, and she gave twice what she normally does, so all was forgiven!

On FRIDAY--
We played at the Artitorium, which was great fun! The kids had a lot of fun playing with their toys there! We also went to dinner at Chick Fil-A, and Chris saw some long-time family friends there, so that was fun.

On SATURDAY--
Daddy wasn't feeling good, so instead of going to the Museum of Clean, we just hung out at home, and took a quick trip to the mall. We will do the Museum later!

Also, to note, we are now OUT OF CREDIT CARD DEBT! This is a really big deal, and we are really grateful to not have to pay for it any more. And, we got some major blessings with being able to pay for the fixing of our car too, without going into more debt! Hallelujah! Feel free to contribute to our gofundme page, though. Just kidding!

It's been a great week, with lots of blessings! And now, starting this week, I'M ON SPRING BREAK! Yay!!

Halloween 2017

Halloween 2017 was definitely a success! Even though we are currently undergoing issues with unemployment and Chris, we were still able to have fun with the whole holiday! First, we had the ward trunk-or-treat:

Davis was a pirate for this, because no masks were allowed. Reagan chose to wear the Tinkerbell costume, because she could.

The day before Halloween, we went to see the hay bales in town that were decorated to look like Star Wars characters:

They do this every year. We really should make it a tradition to go see them, because they are very cool, and not too far away!
Then, of course, the pumpkin carving:

Davis wanted his pumpkin to be a ghost, and Reagan wanted hers to be a kitty cat. Chris is an awesome and skilled pumpkin carver, as you can see!
On Halloween, this little girl sat with me in the family room and watched Halloween kids shows while I was folding laundry. I know it's not too exciting, but there you have it. This was the only part of the festivities where she wore the original costume I got for Halloween, which is Belle. But that;s not really the point of getting costumes, right?

On Halloween, we went to the Halloween party at the library. It was a lot of fun!

Reagan was the very first one to dance along with the music before the festivities. And she decided to wear her Snow White dress for it.
And then, the real event, the trick-or-treating:

Davis was a storm trooper, and Reagan was Snow White. Notice the snow coats under their costumes. I love living in Idaho! We mostly went to see family, which was super fun!

This morning, Davis was disappointed that we still had Halloween decorations in our house. So, we promptly took care of those and put up the Thanksgiving decorations.

Davis is sitting by the boy scarecrow, and Reagan is sitting by the girl. Because duh!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!

Prayers again!!

We are SOOOO blessed! Each time we have done in vitro, it has worked, and we have two beautiful children; one boy, and one girl! So, here we go! For the third time! Another round of IVF! This time, we are being as aggressive as possible, because we nearly didn't get Reagan last time. We are excited and nervous and every emotion wrapped in one! But we are asking for your prayers in our behalf! Thanks! We will keep you posted on what happens!
A HUGE sigh of relief happened last night . . . I talked to the nurse, and she said that we can make it so that all of my cycle can be done here in Idaho Falls. This is huge! Child care will be easier, and we won't have to travel or get a hotel or anything like that! Phew! And medicine is ordered, so it's getting REAL now!

Growing Kids

I took the kids to our pediatrician on Friday. Here are the stats:

Davis:

• 42.5 inches
• 39 pounds

I can't remember exactly, but he is in the 70th ish percentile for weight, and the 88th ish percentile for height! Yep! Just as expected!

Reagan:

• 24.12 pounds, 42nd percentile
• 37.25 inches, 57th percentile
• 19 inch head, 89th percentile

The doctor was asking about milestones, and asked if Reagan could make three-word sentences. I said, "Yesterday, she said to me, 'Mommy, can I have some Cheerios, please?'" So he wrote down that she is far above that!

Summertime

With fall starting, I am getting sentimental about the summer. Yes, for a couple of weeks every summer, I hate our house because it does not have built in Air Conditioning. But I also love that kids go outside to play when they get bored. And that I can open the windows when it's cooler outside to get some relief. And that kids ride their bikes past our house every now and then. And that I can go outside without bundling myself up. Yes. I love summer. Here are some fun things we have done:


Trains are always the best:

 At Rigby Lake with the Activity Day girls and our best friends:

 At a baseball game:

 Mom forgot to pack the swimsuit, like she usually does. #momfail:

 So Davis stuck his head in a hot tub:

 Making cool hats at the library with friends:

 Talking on the phone at Daddy's work:

Playing in the pool with friends:

 Reading books with Casey and Hilary:

 Going to the summer movies, and actually WANTING to be with mom's friend! Yahoo!:

 An exploding blender. Pretty sure I will find things around my kitchen for years, perhaps decades, to come:

 Going to Bear World with my family. There was a train there, so Davis HAD to ride it:

 Playing with trains at the cabin. Do you sense a theme to Davis's life?:

 Giving hugs to Grandma:

 At Mesa Falls:

 Walking with Grandma:

 Watching the Olympics. We were sick that week, so clothing was not happening:

 Reagan got a new car seat. She loves that it's like her brother's, and that she can buckle it every time. So cool. We also love that she can sit up and see out the window!: