Birthday Twins!

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!

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

Anderson Family Reunion

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

Pink dress

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

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

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

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

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.

Bath time!

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.