Texas Thanksgiving, Greenburg, Bodacious, Whataburger and All.

This blog took long enough, huh?

We went to Texas for Thanksgiving to see Jim's Grandparents. Which means Reagan had her first plane ride. I don't think she even noticed! We stayed in Denver the night before our flight because we heard a snowstorm was coming. Was it ever! It took them about an hour to de-ice our plane...a process which seems like it should only take about 15-20 minutes. Hopefully all the people with connecting flights made it home in time for Thanksgiving.

Here is our family portrait from the plane (thanks Mikey...or was it Julie??)

We ate our way through Texas, making sure not to miss the traditional favorites. Of course, there was Greenburg at the Lamb's. I decided that from now on, I'll be eating mine with barbecue sauce, pickles and onions. We got to go to Donna and Gary's (Jim's aunt and uncle) for authentic Tamales...a new tradition. And, as is usual, we stopped at Bodacious for lunch on Black Friday. We even went shopping, but to Jim's delight, I bought nothing. And you better believe we didn't miss the Whataburger on our way out of town. For the record, I'm not crazy about Whataburger. To me, it doesn't beat a Carl's Jr. Famous Star with cheese. And their onion rings don't even come close. Rather, it's the tradition of being in Texas and eating Whataburger that excites me. Strangely, it makes the trip feel complete. I suppose it's hearing all the stories about Jim and Julie having to stop there when they were kids, and hearing Julie and Debbie call it "Waterburger".

We had a great Thanksgiving (3 to be exact), and it was great to see everyone!

Here we are with the Lambs

And the Reeds.

Thanks to everyone who fed us! :) Hope your Thanksgivings were equally delicious.

And, for those of you who are wondering, Reagan is now crawling forward!!! She army crawled for the first time to her Aunt Julie. She will take a couple of "real crawling" strides forward and then she realizes she can get there easier by army crawling. Her new target: Scout. If only she were quick enough.

Yesterday she pulled herself up to stand. Her favorite way to try to get somewhere is
on her hands and feet. So...how long until Reagan walks??

Tricks!

Not much to say tonight.
I mostly just wanted to show and tell the new tricks that Reagan is learning.
In the last 2 weeks she has learned to:

wave andhold on to furniture while standing up (when she does these things together it makes everyone a littler nervous...)

get up on all fours (and move quickly...backwards)

and give kisses. There aren't any pictures of this yet, but I'm sure they'll come in time. It's funny because she does the open-mouthed, slobery, baby kiss. But she does it upon request, which is the cool part. :)

And I guess I just thought she looked too cute and grown up in this fancy black outfit. (And look! She finally has grown some hair!)

We are going to Texas next weekend. Any tips for babies on planes are certainly welcome and appreciated!

You may also notice our new ottoman. It's awesome! It stores all of Reagan's toys...slowly but surely we're getting our living room back.

Thanks to Bill for the new profile picture. :)

Oops, I forgot something.

I was looking through the pictures and realized I forgot to mention Reagan's newest favorite activity...pushing buttons. Of any sort. Especially the buttons she sees Mom and Dad pushing frequently; the laptop, remote, and cell phones.

I snapped these pictures of Jim trying to contain her from attacking the laptop, and his reaction when he was unsuccessful. I felt they were too good to leave out!

Nearly Crawling, Constantly Grunting

It's hard to believe that Halloween has already come and gone!I am dreading writing this, especially after everyone was nice enough to vote in the poll about Reagan's Halloween costume, but, she didn't get to have one. Jim and I decided that it was hard to justify spending $20+ on a costume that she would only wear for an hour or so... So I found a good compromise outfit. I thought she could wear it on thanksgiving too, since it's more of a "fall" outfit than a Halloween specific outfit. It has Pooh coming out of a pumpkin. (Winnie the Pooh, sillies.) ;) On Monday night, Mikey and Julie came over and helped us carve pumpkins. When I say us, I mean me. There was one for each of the 3 of us, and I got my pumpkin topped and carved, and I gave up. I always end up cutting myself, so I figured it'd be safer to let Mikey have his way with it. And I must say, he did a much better job at the Longhorn than I could have.Reagan stayed up for the trick or treaters, and got to watch the dogs (Scout and Tank) get excited every time there was a knock at the door.Last night one of Jim's co-workers had a bar-b-cue at his house. Reagan got to go and meet everyone, and despite being away from home most of the day (we also went to a baby shower in the afternoon) she was extremely well behaved. I was so proud of her! She barely made a peep the whole time we were there. I even forgot to bring toys for her, so she sat on the floor with some Tupperware lids and a few old toys the hostess was able to find for her. She couldn't have been more content.

Her new favorite sound is grunting. Not cute, little baby noises, but full out grunting. As if she were a cantankerous old man! She does it all the time, especially when she is displeased with something. It's hilarious! She has mostly mastered creeping backwards. She can't seem to get the concept of one limb IN FRONT OF the other....but the backwards is no problem. She gets herself up onto all fours and rocks. I know she's trying. And she gets plenty frustrated when it doesn't work...so I'm guessing it won't be long....oh my. Our house and dog are not ready for a mobile child!