The Batchelders

Summer is here!

2009-06-26T10:51:00.007-06:00

We're so glad the weather has finally decided to get warm! We've been doing some fun things lately. We've gone to the duck pond a couple times. Once with my mom, and then Barrett and I took Reese another day. She loves watching the ducks. When Barrett and I went, we tried to get Reese to help us feed the ducks, but when we gave her the bread she would immediately eat it instead of give it to the ducks! (she loves bread) Our friends Veneita and Bryan had a free ticket to Lagoon so they invited us to go with them last week! I love Lagoon, or any amusement park for that matter. Lagoon just happens to be the closest. They have a daughter a little younger than Reese, so we were able to switch off watching the girls and go on rides! So that was fun.

We went to the Raptors baseball game their opening night. We sat in the front row on the third base line and Reese kept wanting to lean over the wall and look at the players down below! They lit fireworks from the field after the game and Reese didn't quite know what to think about them. She cried a little at first when the loud noises started, but then she just stared up at them the rest of the time. It was fun to be right under the fireworks, except ash kept falling on us.

Reese has never been swimming yet, kindof sad, I know. I guess we just don't swim that much, and last year she was only about 3 months old so I only got her feet wet. So we decided to take her to the South Ogden splash pad to see how she would like the water. Once she got used to it she liked getting wet, but then she just wanted to walk down the sidewalk away from the water, so we left. But it was fun for a little bit. I love seeing her little belly in her swimming suit! Whenever we go outside, Reese wants to get down and practically run down the sidewalk, down the driveway, and up the stairs, which is scary because she has no caution. She wants to go down the sidewalk and see the neighbor's dog, and doesn't understand that we can't just go into other people's yards, so she cries when I won't let her. She just wants to go everywhere, it's exhausting! It's impossible to take pictures of her, she is constantly moving and won't look at me.

I wanted to post these pictures I took last week because I think she looks SO BIG!! She thinks that opening her mouth is smiling or something. Every time she sees me taking her picture she makes this open mouth face. I have so many pictures of her with her mouth open.Licking the water from the top of the blender in the dishwasher!

I got to go with my mom and sisters and brother to the play Singing in the Rain. (at Hale Center Theater in Provo) If you haven't seen a play there, the stage is in the middle of the audience. My sisters and I were in the front row and they gave us these ponchos to wear! They had a fun scene where it really rains and the guy dances around in it with his umbrella and gets everyone in the front wet. Then after the scene they come out and do a dance while sweeping the water to the center of the stage to a light post that I guess has a drain under it.

I have joined a Food Co-op, which has been pretty exciting. Every other Saturday morning I go get a laundry basket full of fruits and vegetables for $15. It's fun because you never know what you're going to get, it's different every time. The first week I went I got all of this stuff pictured below: Two romaine lettuce bunches, a bunch of spinach, green onions, celery, 6 ears of corn, cilantro, 1 avacado, 3 tomatoes, 1 pineapple, 1 canteloupe, 5 bananas, 5 apples, 7 mangoes, and 5 apricots. Today I got 1 romaine lettuce, 1 cauliflower, celery, 2 zucchinis, tons of green beans, 5 roma tomatoes, 4 lbs of red grapes, 1 lb of strawberries, a bag of cherries, 6 bananas, 8 braeburn apples, and 6 pluots (cross between plums and apricots? I don't really know what they are). Fun huh! If any of you live around Ogden you should really do this.

Watch Open House

2009-05-11T15:52:00.006-06:00

I am having an interchangeable watch open house! Here are a couple examples of the bands I have bought from her. I love them! It will be

Thursday May 14th

6:30 to 8:30 pm

at my house

If you don't know where that is, leave me your e-mail and I will e-mail you the directions.

Many styles and colors of watch faces and bands to choose from

Reasonably priced

open house -come any time

bring friends! -everyone is invited

Exciting times at the Batchelders

2009-05-09T00:07:00.007-06:00

So lets see, what exciting things have been happening with us lately? Well Reese pooped in her bath for the first time tonight, that was a joy! No it wasn't that bad, I could tell she was a little nervous that she did it, so I couldn't be mad or anything.

The real excitement is that Reese is starting to walk! It is so exciting seeing her take steps on her own! We love it. My sister wrote me a message on facebook that she had heard she was walking and looked on the blog for some video, and there was no video to be found. Terrible, I know. For some reason I've barely even recorded any of it! What kind of a mother am I? I've been meaning to put a video on the blog, but just haven't gotten to it.

The other excitement of the day was this morning when Reese and I were looking outside through the screen door, I saw that a bird has built a nest in my wreath hanging on the door! And not only built a nest, but laid three eggs in it! You can't see it looking at the wreath from the outside, (it's under that big flower) it's nestled right up against the window on the door, so you can see right into the nest looking from the inside.

I don't know what to do! I haven't seen the bird at all today, I've been peeking at the nest periodically, so I don't know if she has abandoned it or if she's still around somewhere. I don't really want to have little baby birds making all sorts of noise at my front door (I've had that experience in another house, there was a nest above the back door in the rafters somewhere, and boy were they noisy), and I really don't want to have the mother bird dive bombing whoever comes to my front door to protect her babies (also a previous experience from the other house). I would feel bad for the mother actually, because she would always be scared that someone was attacking them. She really should have scoped out a more private location...

We got a new bike trailer! This was the first time trying it out around the house. I'm so excited to go on family bike rides. Reese seems to like it, as long as it stays moving. I was afraid she would be scared in it, because she is a little scaredy cat about a lot of things, but she did ok. She would not keep her helmet on though, I don't know what to do about that.

Reese's birthday!

2009-04-11T13:34:00.008-06:00

This is Reese's new big girl car seat! (Her main birthday gift from us -how exciting huh). We started using it a couple weeks before her birthday, and she loves being able to look around in it.

She got a birthday girl crown as one of her gifts. She wouldn't keep it on for more than two seconds of course, but it was cute. The necklace goes with it.

Of course she had to have her own little cake with lots of chocolate frosting on it to get as messy as possible. At first she just touched the very top of it and laughed like "you're really going to let me touch this?"

This picture is blurry, but her face was so funny-her eyes got really big as she pushed her hand all the way into the cake.

Birthday guests -my Mom, brother Jade, and sister Micall. My dad and brother Ryan were there, they just came late and I didn't get a picture of them. My sister Kellie and her boyfriend Heath

My sister Krista and Reese in her new swimming pool she got as one of her gifts.

Barrett's sister Brittny and brother Wade

Our friends Brett, Debbie and Taylor Sims. I was glad Reese got to have some little girls come to her party too, not just grown ups!

Our friends Paul, Ashley and Brooklynn Giddings. Brooklynn was so cute to help Reese walk around and she loved helping Reese with her presents! Okay I'm going to copy you Ashley. This picture was taken when Reese was only about 5 days old. (Too bad you can't really see her huh :)And so we had to take another one at the party now that the girls are so grown up!

Thanks everyone for the nice gifts and for sharing the day with us! We had so much fun and were glad you all could make it.

Reese had her one year appointment on Monday. She weighs 21 lb 12 oz (65%), 30 1/4 inches tall (85%) and her head is in the 85% as well. She is already in the 85th percentile for height and is still skeletally immature (her soft spot hasn't closed and she's a little behind with her teeth), so the doctor thinks she is going to be tall. She asked if we have tall people in our families, which we don't really, mostly average. I just thought that was interesting. I don't know if I believe her, but I guess we'll see.

Now if I could only get her to drink milk. She takes one little swallow and then pushes it away. If anyone has any suggestions please share!

It's hard to believe...

2009-04-02T12:48:00.007-06:00

It's hard to believe that it's already been one whole year since our sweet little baby Reese was born!! She is one year old today. This has definitely been the fastest year of my life! I still remember that day so well. At the same time I don't even remember what is was like before Reese was part of our family, she is our whole life now. She brings us so much joy and happiness, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be her mother.

She has gone from this cute little thing......To this cute little (but bigger) thing. She loves us to help her walk, and to walk with her walker. I think it won't be too much longer before she can do it on her own. She stands up on everything and walks along furniture or the wall or whatever she can hold onto.
She has such a cute little personality. It's so exciting to see her learn so many new things all the time. Sometimes I get surprised by the things she knows and the things she can do. I've been asking her to point to things in books lately like a duck, shoes, socks, bird, ball, and she can point to all of them! She's learning where all of her body parts are, and sometimes she'll know a part that I didn't teach her, she just knew.

She loves to look at herself in the mirror and give kisses. She loves to give kisses to all of her stuffed animals and to animals and people in books.

I love this girl so much!

Happy Birthday Reese!!

I'm finally done!

2009-04-02T12:37:00.004-06:00

I'm finally done with all of the blocks I'm selling this weekend at the boutique! With only two days to spare! I could have been done a long time ago, but I've been procrastinating of course. So here are some pictures. You can't really tell how bright the colors are in the pictures though. I thought they turned out cute!

Family pictures!!!

2009-03-31T09:44:00.003-06:00

We had our pictures taken last Friday and you can look HERE to see them!

Reese's new trick

2009-03-28T15:32:00.003-06:00

Reese learned to walk with her walker a few days ago! Here is some video footage. She can only go straight though, so she gets to the couch or the wall and gets stuck. She is pulling herself up and standing all the time now, and moves along the furniture or whatever else she is holding on to.

Spring Fling Boutique

2009-03-14T12:12:00.005-06:00

I'm going to be selling blocks at my friend April's boutique! I'm doing some that say "Spring" and "Easter". Here is the info.

Spring Fling Boutique

Help us welcome Spring with Food, Shopping, Giveaways, Friends, and Fun

Friday, April 3rd 6:30-8:30

April Maw’s House

Our vendors include:

(To preorder or place a custom order so it’s ready for pickupVisit websites below and email the vendor for questions or orders.)

* Sweet Ruby- Baby and Children Accessories- sweetrubyblankets.blogspot.com

* Scentsy – scentsy.com/saras safestcandles@gmail.com

* Pampered Chef-pamperedchef.com dal.pass@gmail.com

* Addie Jane Embellished Words – ajembellishedwords.blogspot.com ajembellished@gmail.com

* Jewelry and dish scrubbies

* Beaded Watches – skye-thompson.blogspot.com

* Bows, bow holders, tutus, wands, and more – thechicbowtique.blogspot.com

* Holiday Blocks

* Decorative frames

*Photography- http://www.ashleymcfarlanephotography.blogspot.com/

*Simple Expressions Vinyl – http://www.chelseys-simpleexpressions.blogspot.com/

If you would like more info, address, directions, please email me, call me or leave me a comment with your email and I'll give you the info. We'd appreciate it if you would post about it as well.
There will be tons of food, giveaways from every vendor, just a good, fun night out with the girls.

This is for the grandmas

2009-03-04T17:04:00.004-07:00

Reese finally learned to crawl last week! She would get on her hands and knees a lot before that, but wouldn't go forward, so one day I had a bowl of cereal that she was reaching for, and I set it on the floor in front of her and she crawled a few steps to it. The next day she did it a few more times only when she was bribed with cell phones or something like that. Then the next day that was her mode of transportation! My mom wanted to see her do it so I put this video on for her.

Lucky

2009-03-04T10:12:00.003-07:00

Sorry it's wrapped up, but you can still see it. This was for my friend Boualay. She wanted me to do her last name. It was definitely the longest word I've done by far! (There are the same amount of letters in my last name!) I loved how it turned out. The paper was so pretty, I wish you could see it as well in pictures as in real life.

I'm a new woman

2009-02-20T09:10:00.003-07:00

BEFORE AFTER

Reese and I went to Heber this past weekend to visit my family. I have two sisters in hair school, so they were nice enough to give me this new do while we were there. One sister colored it, then the next day the other cut it. I love it.

Want a good work out? Try this.

2009-02-20T08:32:00.002-07:00

Reese is always kicking her legs up like this, and she'll sit and do it for a long time. You should try it! I wanted to have it on video so we remember one of the funny little things she does.

Love

2009-02-04T14:12:00.002-07:00

I made this for a friend and thought it turned out so cute. I'm thinking of making some for other holidays too, and I think I'll definitely do one that says "SPRING"!

2009-02-04T13:44:00.003-07:00

My camera does this cool thing where you can choose a color and it will only show that color and everything else is black and white. I thought it would be fun to use it when Reese was wearing this cute green sweater. It also lets me crop right on the camera, which I've been playing with a lot. So this is the same picture, just cropped. I can change the direction of pictures too. Outside on a fairly warm day, but we only stayed out for a few minutes. I'm so excited for warm weather and being able to play outside and take walks.

How Big...

2009-01-30T18:59:00.002-07:00

Reese Pot Pie

2009-01-26T22:20:00.010-07:00

For some reason, Reese pot pie is one of Reese's nicknames. Kind of funny. But I thought it was a fitting title for this post because I have all sorts of pictures of Reese that aren't really from a certain occasion, just here and there I've been taking a lot of pictures and I'm going to post lots of them all at once, just a warning that this will be really long. (I have a camera again, thank goodness, but I get a little carried away sometimes)

We had Reese's 9 month Dr. appointment a week ago (even though she's almost 10 months, I got behind in our appointments by forgetting one once) and she weighs 20 lbs 7 oz! Big girl! Her weight is in the 70%, she was 29 inches long (85%) and her head was in the 90%! So I guess she is tall and has a big head! I've never really thought of her as having a big head before (minus those cheeks) but I guess I was wrong. She sleeps at least 12 hours these days, sometimes more, which is great. She takes two naps, sometimes three if her afternoon nap wasn't long enough and she can't make it until bed time.

Here is what Reese has been up to in the last month. Her mode of transportation is rolling. (Still no crawling. I know when she does and I'm chasing her around all day I'll be thankful that she waited so long, but for now it seems like all the other babies her age are already crawling and almost walking!) She's gotten really good at rolling around everywhere and getting where she wants to go. She rolls to drawers and gets into them occasionally. She loved to roll under the Christmas tree and play (I moved the bulbs at the bottom that she could reach). She likes to roll under my console table in the living room.

Posing in her cowgirl shirt. Had to post this for Kellie!

She loves to empty things -drawers, baskets, her diaper bag. I admit I let her empty the DVD drawer just to keep her entertained!

She now has her own toy basket in the living room that she can empty. She gets a little ponytail in her hair now!
She likes to stand up in her crib or on the couch, but she doesn't pull herself up yet, we stand her up.

She likes to stand with her back to the couch too.

She loves to eat basically anything we give her. Mostly she eats the normal things -baby food, rice cereal and oatmeal. She loves Cheerios, Kix, graham crackers, and bananas. Sometimes she eats bread or toast too. Barrett tries to sneak in some ice cream, whip cream, chocolate, or things of that sort occasionally, which I don't appreciate, but he still does it. I've been trying to get her to drink out of a sippy cup, but she doesn't like it. I don't know what I'm going to do about that. Yeah I usually put a bib on.

Check out those teeth! She has two teeth on the bottom.

For a couple months now she has been doing this thing where she tilts her head back, smiles really big and squints her eyes. I think she knows it's funny and does it to show off. I love her regular smiles too, and her cute laugh.

Love those pretty blue eyes.

She jabbers constantly, mostly says dadadada, but all sorts of other made up words too. She waves, sometimes on command. She points at things a lot. She'll dance when she hears music -she bobs her head to the side and twists back and forth and puts her arms up. For some reason she likes when we sing her that Beyonce song that says "if you like it then you should've put a ring on it" For what reason we started singing her that dumb song, I don't know, but she likes dancing to it. She hates her hands being touched, always has. She will grab onto my hand when I'm feeding her, but it has to be her choice. She loves books and gets all excited and starts to breathe faster when we read to her. She likes to play peek a boo. When I tell her to give me kisses she will lean her face into mine and just breathe on me, it's so cute. (I could go on, but this is already really long, sorry, probably boring for everone else!) I just love that little girl! What a joy she has been in our lives, I feel so blessed to be her mom.

Reese clapping

2009-01-26T17:13:00.003-07:00

Reese loves to clap these days! She likes to clap our hands too. I tried to get her to clap a couple times but she would only clap my hand, then one day she just started clapping! A few days later I was watching Oprah and she was doing her show in a big auditorium because it was the day before the inauguration. Reese saw all of the people clapping on TV and she clapped when they did-it was cute. It's so fun to watch her learn to do new things. Now if only she would learn to crawl...(No she still isn't crawling and she's almost 10 months old!) I took this video last week.

Blocks

2009-01-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

I've been making these blocks for the past few months now. My sister-in-law and I made them for a party and then other people kept buying them from me, and I made some for Christmas presents. I've made some that said Noel, Love, Home, etc. as well. I just wanted to post this picture because I thought the paper on this one was so cute! Now if I could only get some made for myself!

Snowmobile party!

2009-01-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

We had the annual Hudgens family Christmas party in Heber this year. It was an eat soup/snowmobile/sled/eat some more/bingo party. These pictures were from my cousin's camera (which I wish was mine because it's nice :)

This is my cousin's daughter Ava. She is more than a year old and Reese is about as tall as she is! And Reese definitely weighs more.

Reese with Aunt Krista.

Ava's sister Ashlyn.

This is my mom. Isn't she beautiful?

After everyone got there and we all ate soup, it was off to the sled hill and snowmobile trail. We tied sleds to the back of the snowmobiles and pulled them down the trail.

That is Barrett in the very back with the black goggles.

This is Krista and I in the back sled. Nobody told us that we needed to wear goggles or something on our faces. We had snow and freezing cold wind blowing in our faces the whole time, we couldn't even open our eyes to see where we were going, but I guess that just made it more exciting and scary! We had two sleds on that time, and the back one gets even more snow and gets whipped around even more. We had icicles coming off our faces when we were done, but we laughed the whole time.

This is me on the sled hill.

My hottie husband.

Kellie (Jade in the background)

Russ looking cool just before falling into a snowbank :)

My dad, Russ, Jade, Nick

Caden

Krista

Crazy Ryan. This hill was straight down.

After sledding and eating more food, we all played Bingo.

Some of the Bingo players.

There were many wonderful prizes to be won in this Bingo game, such as this beauty.

Christmas

2009-01-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

This was when my camera broke, so these pictures are from my friend Laura. Reese wasn't scared of Santa at all, mostly just curious. She kept staring up at him and his beard.

This is my fam at my parent's house in Heber. We were all there for Christmas Eve so we got a picture. My camera was still broken for Christmas so I had to steal all of these pictures from my mom and sister. It was so fun to be able to spend the night at my parent's house on Christmas eve, and celebrate Christmas with them. We were able to spend three days there after Christmas too. It went by way too fast!

Reese and Kellie in their Christmas pajamas! Christmas morning.Reese had fun playing with the Wii controller covers and the bat, tennis racquet, etc.

My sister Kellie posted these pictures on her blog and I thought they were funny. They were seriously taken about 1 second apart. I guess she's moody already? She's wearing her cute cowboy boots!

Spaghetti

2008-12-19T10:23:00.002-07:00

Have you ever wondered what 22 pounds of spaghetti noodles would look like in your fridge? Well here you go. We had our ward Christmas party on the 17th, which Barrett was in charge of. We've been preparing for it for a while now. I should have taken a picture of the about 40 empty presents I wrapped in my living room for decorations. We were going to divide the spaghetti up between the committee members to cook, but the night before the party my dear husband told them that he would just cook it all the next morning. Well you can guess who got to do it. That would be me! What a process!

The party turned out really well. I wish I would have gotten pictures of the decorations and all the people, but we were busy. Last year at the party they had about 80 or 90 people. This year we had about 140 or 150! We had to set up extra tables. Luckily we had enough food. There was a live band, which was really fun, and Santa came. I sat Reese on his lap and she didn't even cry, she just gazed up at him. And that was the moment my camera broke. I couldn't believe it. (The lens is jammed and won't open or close. I'm very upset.) Luckily my friend Laura was right there with her camera and took some pictures of her smiling and looking up at Santa.

Early Christmas

2008-12-19T09:21:00.007-07:00

We had Christmas with the Batchelders two days after Thanksgiving. So we had already decorated for Christmas, listened to lots of Christmas music, and opened presents before December even started!Our Christmas tree

This is the annual looking through the doorway Christmas morning picture. We look a little cheesy, but Barrett's family always had this picture taken growing up before they could go into the living room to see what Santa brought them.

Reese has already been spoiled with lots of presents this Christmas! It was so fun to see her try to open this first present.

We bought these Christmas pajamas for Reese last Christmas before she was even born!

Every year of his life, Barrett has received at least one Christmas ornament from his parents, and sometimes he got them from grandparents too. So he has a whole box full of ornaments he has gotten throughout his life. He now has his own small Christmas tree to put all of his ornaments on. We still receive ornaments every year from Barrett's parents. These are this year's.

I'm posting these pictures for you Sherry so you can see what pictures we put in them!

The fam on our "Christmas morning"

This is at the Sims family Christmas party. Brittny was our team reindeer in the reindeer game.

Reese and Taylor

All of the "reindeer"

The Batchelder family. Reese was obviously not happy!

The Sims family

Grandpa and Nana come to visit

2008-12-19T08:56:00.008-07:00

The lights in downtown Ogden.

Reese with Grandpa and Nana

Reese and Aunt Brittny

Waiting for Nana and Grandpa to arrive at the airport. We had told them that only Barrett was going to be there to pick them up, and then the four of us were there to surprise them!

Getting all bundled up to go for a walk.

Playing with Brittny and Grandpa.

We were able to have Barrett's parents here from New Hampshire for Thanksgiving. This is only the second time they were able to see Reese so it was really fun for them to spend time with her and see how much she has changed. We went on walks, shopped, went out to eat, went to the Christmas lights in Ogden, had Thanksgiving, then had Christmas two days later.

Family pictures

2008-11-13T12:12:00.002-07:00

Now that Reese is getting older, I wanted to get a new family picture. About the only one we had before was when Reese was a month old. I was going to get some taken of Reese, and some taken of our family, but instead I bought a tripod and we went over to McKay Dee hospital and we took these pictures ourselves! I was pretty happy with how they turned out. Of course it's hard to get a baby to look at the camera and smile, but she did well. I also wanted to send out Christmas cards for the first time this year and they were having a sale on the photo cards at Smiths that day, so you will be seeing this picture again!

The Zoo!

2008-11-13T11:48:00.003-07:00

While I'm talking about things that have already happened a long time ago, I'm going to post some pictures of when we went to the zoo in September. For some reason I really wanted to go to the zoo before summer was completely gone and it got too cold. I hadn't been to the zoo since I was really little and didn't even remember it. Barrett and I were watching the Alder kids (Dr Alder is the Radiologist I work with) while they were on a cruise for 10 days. So we decided to take them to the zoo. It was perfect weather the day we went, not too cold and not too hot. We got this carrier for Reese to ride around in with Dad and she loved it! She loved to be able to sit up and look around at everything. She was perfectly content the whole time. What a fun little zoo we have.

Hollyn, Jeni, and Lauren on the merry-go-round.

I heard on the news the next week that one of the elephants at the zoo had died. How sad!

Our Halloween

2008-11-13T10:01:00.008-07:00

I realize that it's too late to be talking about Halloween, but that's the story of my life, I'm always a little behind! I'm terrible at posting things on the blog, it's always at the end of my list, and never ends up getting done. Anyway, I still wanted to post some pictures, I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on seeing mine and Barrett's halloween costumes. We never dress up, so it's a rare occasion that we did this year. We actually did more for Halloween this year than we ever do. First, Barrett got us tickets to go see Thriller! It's a halloween dance theater show. I've wanted to go to it for a few years, but we never have. One day out of the blue, Barrett decided that he wanted to take me to it, so he bought the tickets and took me on a date! What a fun show! I love to watch dancing, so I thought it was great. And it was so good for Barrett and I to go out and do something together. We don't do that often enough. Thanks Bear!

Then came the Sims Family Halloween Party! We had so much fun celebrating with the Sims. EVERYONE dressed up, we ate pizza, decorated cookies, and played games. This is Stan and Connie playing the secret prize game. They had three boxes on the counter and they would show a prize (such as this lovely Happy Halloween banner) and each person could either choose the prize they show, or choose one from behind one of the three boxes. It was so fun! The kids thought it was the best thing, and the adults probably had just as much fun. The prizes were probably the funniest part. Most of them were hand-me-down halloween decorations and Connie announced before the game that everyone HAD to take their prize out of the house with them when they left. Thanks Sims family!

Reese and Aunt Brittny

All of the Sims kids at the party.

Of course I had to show off our little bumble bee! I made the tutu, which was so fun and easy to make!

Then we had the Ward Halloween party. Barrett is the activities supervisor, so he was in charge of the party. I am not even on the committee, but I am involved by default I guess, and boy are we glad it's over! It went really well though. Everyone dressed up, including the adults, we had a trunk-or-treat in the parking lot first, then everyone came in and ate taco soup for dinner, we had a fish pond, cake walk, and pumpkin decorating. We don't have any pictures of it because I was too involved in taco soup. All I remember is taco soup, I didn't hardly look up from the taco soup. We had such a good turnout, we love our ward! Now we have the Christmas party to "look forward to".

..........................................................

And now, ta-da! the Mexican wrestlers! (Barrett and Lauren) When we were in Mexico a couple years ago, Barrett wanted these masks for his souvineer. So we decided to make them our Halloween costumes this year. I made the capes and little underwear things the night before we wore them. Barrett made our belts and his boots. Embarrassing. But it was actually pretty fun!

We put them on again on Halloween and went to Shopko to show Wade. He didn't want to be seen with us. Weird.

Red Sox: Part 2

2008-10-20T21:59:00.004-06:00

So the shirt did turn out to be good luck that night! The Red Sox won. (Too bad it didn't work last night) We watched the game with our friends Dan and Tara in Hooper. Well, mostly the boys watched the game, Tara and I made hair bows and talked (which I must say was more fun). We had such dedicated fans all in their Red Sox attire, we had to get pictures. Tara and I made the Red Sox blankets for our husbands for Christmas a few years ago. I think that Reese has gotten bigger than Bricey!

You're invited to a party

2008-10-20T21:16:00.006-06:00

I was going to post pictures of what I've been making for the past week, but I realized that I'm going to give them as gifts to my mom and mom-in-law, who both look at the blog, so I guess I won't post any pictures or tell you what it is. My sister-in-law Brittny and I saw these things at a boutique we went to, and decided to make them for ourselves and give them as Christmas gifts. Then Brittny's friend Morgan invited us to sell them at a party she is having, so we made 15 more this week. Anyone who wants to come is invited to the party, it's just kind of far away (it's in Liberty-about 30 min away from Ogden). Other things that are being sold (besides our secret item that I can't talk about) are:

At Home America (home decor)

Scentsy

Cookie Lee Jewelry

Miche Purses

Mary Kay

Caramel apples

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Thursday, October 23rd

6:30 p.m. Open House

5627 N. 3100 E. Liberty, UT

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Go up 12th street canyon (Ogden Canyon). Turn left to go over Pineview Dam. Turn left at the Maverick & Valley Market. Go 3 miles, turn left at the stop sign, then take the first right. House is on the left, look for the balloon.

Go Red Sox!!

2008-10-06T14:02:00.002-06:00

This post is for my Daddy, Uncle Wade and dad's friend Dan. I had to wear this shirt today so the Red Sox will have good luck when they play tonight. I hope they win! Either way, I look stinkin cute!

My baby is getting older...

2008-10-02T23:02:00.002-06:00

My baby is 6 months old today. I never imagined 6 months ago what it would be like to have a child. It is the best and scariest thing that has ever happened to me. I never thought I could love her this much. I was just looking at her sleeping in her crib a few minutes ago and thinking how much I love her and how I just want what's best for her, but I don't know if I do what's best for her... Anyway, she is so fun and is getting the cutest little personality. I love when she smiles and laughs, it's the best. It's so fun to see the new things that she does and learns, and I'm excited for each new step along the way as she grows up. I love you my sweet girl!

New Bouncer

2008-09-26T15:22:00.003-06:00

Barrett just had to buy Reese this bouncer a couple weeks ago. She didn't quite know what to do in it at first, but she got the hang of it. This video was taken a week or two ago (Time goes by so fast, I don't know when things happened any more) so she is better at bouncing now. It's nice to be able to have something else to keep her occupied. She is getting more attached to me lately, crying when I leave the room. It drives me crazy!

No she isn't crying...

2008-09-18T18:44:00.006-06:00

Reese is just laughing so hard it sounds like she's crying. It was pretty cute. This video is from this weekend when Reese and I visited Grandma's house in Heber. Grandma was playing peek-a-boo with Reese and she loved it! Too bad we didn't start recording earlier, she had calmed down a little bit by this time.

4 month checkup

2008-08-16T13:07:00.006-06:00

Reese had her four month check up yesterday, even though she is actually 4 1/2 months old. We had an appointment scheduled for August 2nd, and I just totally forgot about it. I feel like such a dummy lately, I keep forgetting things. I was supposed to go visiting teaching the week before and totally forgot about that, I just didn't show up. I didn't even remember until two days later. And I've forgotton other things too, I don't know what's wrong with me.

Anyway, we finally got to see how much Reese weighs since I remembered her appointment this time. She weighs 14 lb 12 oz, and is 25 1/2 inches long. Her weight and head circumference were in the 50th percentile, but her height was in the 85th percentile, so she is tall! She also got shots, so she's been fussier than usual, but it really hasn't been too bad. I took these pictures a couple days ago when we were out in the backyard enjoying the nice weather.

Reese keeps trying to be a thumb-sucker, and I keep trying to get her attached to her binky instead. (So I can take away the binky eventually, you can't take away the thumb) But this is how she does it. She doesn't seem to know that she can bend her fingers and it would be a lot easier, instead she keeps her fingers out and pokes herself in the eye!

She has gotten to where she pulls everything up over her face -shirts, dresses, blankets,toys, then gets mad because something is covering her face. She pulls her blanket up over her face while she's sleeping and wakes herself up at all hours of the night, so I haven't been putting a blanket on lately.

Welcome Kalina

2008-08-14T23:16:00.003-06:00

On our way to Bear Lake last weekend we stopped in Logan to see our friends Veneita and Bryan and their new baby Kalina. Well Bryan wasn't there, but we saw the one we came to see! Kalina was two weeks old. She was so cute and small. I felt like it was hard to hold her she was so little! They say that your own baby doesn't look big until you get them next to a newborn, and that was definitely the case! It was so hard to believe that Reese was actually that small once. She looked so big next to Kalina.

Reese didn't know what to think about this crying little baby next to her. She didn't make a sound, her eyes just got really big.

My sweet husband

2008-08-14T22:41:00.003-06:00

Last week my sweet husband brought home these flowers for me, just for no reason. How that just brightened my day. I think I was having kind of a hard day, though I don't remember why now. Oh I think I was stressed because I was giving a lesson in Relief Society the next day and I hadn't been able to spend very much time preparing for it, and of course I was just nervous to give a lesson. What a sweetheart he is to give me flowers. I am so grateful that I am married to my best friend. He makes me smile and laugh, and just makes me happy.

Birthday Twins!

2008-08-14T20:32:00.007-06:00

Sorry for stealing your title Tara, but it's perfect! We met our friends Dan and Tara through work and church about three or four years ago. They lived in our neighborhood before they moved to Oregon for two years. Tara called me one day to tell us that they were expecting, and I told her I was too! She was due April 10th and I was due April 1st. After Reese was born on April 2nd, we sent a picture and text to Dan and Tara telling them the news, and little did we know at the time that Tara was in labor! She had Bricey that same night. They have moved back to Utah, and we finally got together a few weeks ago (I am terrible at keeping up with the blog, so I am just now posting these pictures) We went out to dinner and them came to our house to play games. It was so fun to see the girls together and see their similarities being exactly the same age. And of course we had to have a photo shoot. They are so cute together, I can't even stand it! I love these pictures, so I am posting quite a few! We had a great time that night and hope to be able to get together again soon. Life just gets so busy!

I love Bricey's expression and her little arm on Reese's face.

I love their facial expressions and that's Reese's hand on Bricey's chin!

Holding hands.

Surprise!

2008-08-14T19:14:00.003-06:00

This was just a pleasant little surprise we happened to catch on video. We laugh every time we watch it!

Anderson Family Reunion

2008-08-13T23:41:00.005-06:00

We had the annual Anderson Family Reunion in July at the Lodgepole Campground near Heber City. It is my mom's side of the family. She is the second of ten siblings, and has five half-siblings. Just about everyone was there with most of their kids, so there were a lot of people! There are more than sixty grandchildren, and I am the oldest. There are quite a few great grandchildren now too. It was so fun to see everyone and catch up and see how all of the kids are growing. Some of us went on a hike to Daniel's Summit and my sister Micall showed me how to use the macro setting on my camera to take pictures of flowers. She is addicted to taking pictures of flowers, and got me hooked too. So these are some of my very first attempts at it.
All of the girls who went on the hike had to try on the cowboy hats at the Daniel's Summit Store!
Just have to add some cute pictures of Reese!

These are my cousins Andrea on the left and Shalane on the right of me. We are the three oldest grandchildren and have been close for a long time. I love them and I'm sad that we don't see each other or talk very often. It has been hard to stay in touch since we all got married, so it was so good to be able to see them both at the reunion. We all have girls of our own now!

Blake's Wedding

2008-08-13T22:54:00.004-06:00

When Barrett came home from his mission, he lived with the Sims family until we got married. Since then, they have treated us just like family. Their son Blake got married in July in the Salt Lake Temple. We were able to go to the sealing, which was really neat. It definitely brought back many memories of our wedding. I can't believe it has been more than three years since we were married! I just wanted to post this picture from our wedding day because we had our picture taken with Reese by that same tree at the temple.

Wade got to spend some quality time with his niece. He was nice enough to watch Reese at the temple while we went to the wedding.
Connie bought these adorable orange dresses for the three baby girls. They looked so cute! Especially when they were all together.

Boating

2008-07-21T22:14:00.006-06:00

On the 5th of July we went boating at Jordanelle. My dad took his boat, and Aunt Janna (his sister) was there with her boat. We took Reese onto Aunt Janna's boat just at the shore while we all ate lunch, then my mom took her while we went on the other boat to go on the tube. It was Reese's first time on a boat, and again, even though she didn't get in the water, she had to be wearing her bathing suit! I went on the tube with Barrett and Ryan. It was scary! I was never such a scaredy cat as I am now! Luckily Dad took it easy for me.

4th of July

2008-07-21T21:50:00.004-06:00

For the 4th of July we went to my parents' house in Heber. Reese had her 4th of July dress on, so of course we had to take pictures. I thought her little pose in this picture was so funny.

My parents have a fire pit in their back yard with two regular size benches and this miniature one for Reese (and other future grandchildren). It's so adorable. I thought we would keep taking pictures of her on this bench as she grows up, and this was the first time!

Swimming!

2008-07-03T12:08:00.000-06:00

Ok so Reese didn't actually go swimming, but we were at a water park in Boise, so of course we had to put her in her swimming suit for the first time! It was so cute! We did take Reese on the lazy river. I held her on top of me on a tube. She wasn't so sure about it and cried a little the first time around, but then she stopped so we went around one more time. She didn't like getting splashed with the cold water, but we didn't get splashed that often. It was nice to have a lot of Barrett's family there who volunteered to watch Reese while the two of us went on all of the waterslides together.

Our house

2008-07-03T12:01:00.000-06:00

Our house is done! Barrett and Wade did a great job on the siding. I'm so glad that my husband is such a handyman!

2008-06-15T23:41:00.001-06:00

Pink dress

2008-06-15T23:19:00.001-06:00

Reese looked so cute today in this pink dress, so I thought I would take some pictures. I feel like I haven't been taking as many of her lately. She's getting chubbier cheeks, and smiling and talking more often, although she's been smiling for a while now. I love that smile, it just melts my heart!

Our house gets a facelift

2008-06-14T14:46:00.000-06:00

BEFORE This picture was taken a few weeks ago just after we took out some big bushes that were in front of the windows.
AFTER This was taken today, still in progress, but almost done with the front.
BEFORE (One piece of siding up on the bottom right)
Barrett and Wade (Barrett's brother) hard at work. They are doing all of this themselves! I'm very impressed.
AFTER The back is done! And we have a new back door on the left.

Blessing Day

2008-06-07T17:55:00.000-06:00

We blessed Reese on May 25th. She looked so sweet in her blessing dress. What a special day it was, to have her blessed by her dad, and have family with us. She is such a happy baby, she loves to smile and talk to us, and always so alert.

Family

2008-06-07T17:20:00.001-06:00

We wanted to bless Reese while Barrett's parents were in town. It was fun to have both sides of the family there to share the day with us.

Grandpa and Nana

2008-06-07T15:31:00.000-06:00

Reese was able to meet her Grandpa and Nana Batchelder (Barrett's parents) when they came to visit for a week at the end of May. It was so much fun for them to finally meet.
We enjoyed spending time with them and doing fun things like bowling, going to movies, and taking walks. Reese went to her first movie and (thankfully) slept during the whole thing.
Nana, Aunt Brittny and Uncle Wade
We had fun going on a walk at the parkway, the weather was so nice that day.

2008-05-09T18:43:00.000-06:00

Bath time!

2008-05-08T20:03:00.000-06:00

Reese's umbilical cord finally fell off when she was almost four weeks old! We were excited to finally give her a real bath instead of a sponge bath. This is her first time in the bathtub! She didn't know what to think at first (as you can see by her facial expression in the picture), but seems to like being in the water, she only cries when we take her out.

Grandma

2008-04-25T16:27:00.000-06:00

We were lucky to have Grandma (Lauren's mom) come and stay with us for a few days when Reese was born. We are so grateful to her for being with us and helping out so much. She cooked meals, helped with Reese and was able to go to our doctor appointment with us while Barrett was at school, which we were so grateful for. Grandma sure loves her little granddaughter! Reese got to talk to Nana (Barrett's mom) on the phone a few days ago! When she heard Nana's voice on the phone she stopped moving and fussing and intently listened, it was so cute. We are so excited to see Nana and Grandpa Batchelder when they come to visit in May!

Daddy's girl

2008-04-25T12:42:00.000-06:00

Barrett loves to have Reese fall asleep on his chest like this. She is definitely Daddy's little girl! -he cannot get enough of her. He always wants to hold her, kiss her and he always tells her he loves her. I am so impressed at what a wonderful father Barrett is, it makes me love him even more. He is so good at taking care of the baby, but also has been so helpful with laundry, dishes and housework. I don't know what I would have done without him these past few weeks!

In the hospital

2008-04-23T18:10:00.000-06:00

The whole Batchelder family!

She's here!!

2008-04-23T17:45:00.000-06:00

Reese arrived on April 2 at 2:24 in the afternoon. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz, and was 20 inches long. She has lots of dark hair, which we were very excited about, because I thought she would be bald like I was. It has been a wonderful and overwhelming experience to have a child in our lives. I can't believe it has been three weeks today since she was born! The days are flying by and she's changing all the time.

Anxiously waiting.....

2008-04-11T16:38:00.000-06:00

40 weeks pregnant and definitely ready for Reese to come. Barrett was testing out his photography skills on me. Check out that belly button!