HALLOWEEN PICS...finally

This is Olivia and Chris sketching out Dora for the Jack-o-Lantern


Trick-or-Treating at TxDOT

Liv was a princess and Jonah was Tigger

and finally after way too much sugar....it's bedtime!

Jonah Daniel Reed is here...

He was born on Thursday, October 16th at 7:19 a.m. He weighed 9 pounds and 5 ounces and was 20 1/4 in length. He came out of the womb with a booming cry that matched his hefty weight!!

He was absolutely perfect and there were tears of joy from us both.

Big Sister Olivia has been so sweet and such a big help. When people would come into the hospital room Olivia would throw her hands out and announce, "It's my baby brother Jonah!!!" to the visitor. She is so proud and still calls him My Baby Jonah.

Introducing Brother and Sister

We have had so much help from Gigi and Daddy Keys, Grandpa and Grandma, Meme (Tonya) and the Steeds who took Liv to the Homecoming game and had a sleepover.

Ready to go watch the Bobcats


Thank you everyone for the prayers, wishes, flowers/plants sent to the hospital, visits and food. We are so blessed and appreciate you all!!!

Childress High School, Childress High School, We love you...
1. Did you date someone from your school? Yes...
2. Did you marry someone from your high school? We went to the same high school but there' 8 years between us
3. Did you car pool to school? No
4. What kind of car did you have? 1) '85 buick park avenue with a horn that sounded like a train....until i went mudding and knocked the starter off....2) '92 white honda prelude...loved that car!!!
5. What kind of car do you have now? '08 chevy tahoe
6. (THEN) Its Friday night...where are you? childress bobcat football game
7. (NOW) It is Friday night...where are you? ummm, depends...sometimes at a ballgame other times out of town or just at home
8. What kind of job did you have in high school? i worked at my-t burger and united supermarkets
9. What kind of job do you do now? court coordinator AKA secretary
10. Were you a party animal? not hardly
11. Were you considered a flirt? i don't think so
12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? band my freshman year
13. Were you a nerd? no
14. Did you get suspended or expelled? never
15. Can you sing the fight song? of course...i can do the cheerleading routine.....C....H.....S....
16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? Coach Olson, Mrs. Connie Inman, Mrs. Gina Inman, Mr. Jenkins and John David, student teacher
17. Where did you sit during lunch? out or at a friend's house
18. What was your school's mascot? bobcats
19. When did you graduate? 1998
20. What were your school colors? blue and white
21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? nope
22. Did you have fun at Prom? yes
23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? yes
24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? ummm, not sure if there will be one
25. Do you still talk to people from school ? yes....a lot live here

Top Ten Movies



Chris' List

1. Pulp Fiction

2. Reservoir Dogs

3. Saving Private Ryan

4. Se7en

5. Bull Durham

6. The Dark Knight

7. Animal House

8. Gladiator

9. Wedding Crashers

10. The Natural



Tara's List

1. Grease

2. The Devil Wears Prada

3. Girls Just Want to Have Fun

4. Saving Private Ryan

5. The Dark Knight

6. You've Got Mail

7. Someone Like You

8. One True Thing

9. What Dreams May Come

10. Sweet Home Alabama

The other night I asked Olivia if she wanted to sleep with Mommy. She said yes and we get ready for bed. We lay in there for about 15 minutes and then she said, "Can I go get in my bed?" What child doesn't want to sleep in bed with Mommy and Daddy? I guess the one that's been sleeping in their own bed since they were 3 weeks old. I thought it was going to be such a treat for her....oh well, hope she likes her big bed as much as her crib.

____________________

In the mornings we get Olivia up and put her in our bed while she's "waking up." This morning I had my iPod playing and I asked her if she wanted to go eat breakfast and she said, "No, I want to listen to music." Music instead of breakfast?? Who is this child? She loves anything that relates to music and she has since she was about 6 months old. Everything from the theme song to her favorite cartoons, playing the piano at Mimi's or Gigi's, listening to Daddy play the guitar or dancing with Mommy. She can put on quite a show in our living room. We introduce her by saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight Olivia Reed will be performing some very special songs for you..." and she comes out from behind our curtains and does a set of about 5 songs - "Itsy, Bitsy Spider," "Twinkle, Twinkle," "The Alphabet Song," "Row, Row Row Your Boat" and "Jesus Loves Me." Now she is obsessed with The Little Mermaid so she throws in some Aw, Awww AWWWW song from the movie.

HAS ANYONE SEEN THIS MOVIE??



It premiered on Lifetime last night and we caught the last hour and a half of it. Yes, I say we (Chris and I). He would say he was looking at Eddie Van Halen's guitars on the internet, but I know better. He was really watching the movie because he kept making comments about it.

It originally came out in 1999 and I owned it on VHS until my garage sale this summer.

It is sooooo good. Of course, I cried at the end. It depicts the good, bad and the ugly of marriage.

The other night I was at sorority while I thought my husband and daughter were at the Steeds watching the football game, but instead I came home to this:





Liv getting her toenails painted. Is that not the sweetest Daddy EVER?

JUST BEAUTIFUL :)


This is our last month as a family of three. I'm trying to soak up each moment I have with her these last few weeks she has as an only child. She has no idea how much her life is about to be turned upside down. I hope there will be little or no jealousy, but I'm a realistic mother. I do know that Olivia is way sweeter than I was...I was quite mean to my little brother. She is always talking about Jonah and kissing my belly. I hope as a mother of two I can find the right balance.

To be able to experience this blessing again is beyond my understanding and I am just trying to be humble and grateful.

We bought some newborn diapers the other night so I could get my hospital bag packed just in case there is any truth in what people have been saying to me -- "You look like you're going to pop any day now."
I cannot believe how tiny they are. They are smaller than Chris' hand. It's amazing what you forget.

WEEKEND WEDDING

Two weekends ago we traveled to Brenham for Thad and Jenny's wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to. It was held at the Antique Rose Emporium and it was absolutely breathtaking. I was honored to be a part of it.

Our trip was in true Griswold fashion though.

On Thursday we headed out of town after lunch to stay at Mom and Dad's for the evening and so I could attend the Bachelorette party I had helped put together. We stopped in Wichita Falls to pick up some stuff for the party...Chris had way too much fun in the party store. He had never been to one and I think he could've stayed for a couple of hours trying on hats, masks and dressing up Liv.
We made it to Bridgeport with barely enough time for me to get ready and head to Jenny's....I'm late of course.

We drive to Fort Worth and have dinner at Joe T. Garcia's...very yummy...wish I had some of those tortillas right now. Then we were off to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar. Just one glitch...not all of us were 21 so we couldn't get in. Jenny had already talked to the manager and worked something out. Of course, it was a different manager working that night and he had no recollection of the conversation. Bummer. Jenny was sad. I got to hear them sing Sheryl Crow's "The First Cut is the Deepest" and then we were off. For being 8 months pregnant I was really looking forward to hearing them play all night.

THE BEAUTIFUL BRIDE-TO-BE


So we were off to 8.0 (pronounced 8-Os). There we opened lingerie gifts and read excerpts from her juicy, sex books....we laughed forever about some of the "tips." Jenny got to hand out some fun stickers to guys with the best biceps, best dancer, etc. And that was it. So back home we went. Nothing crazy here. Just a good time with the girls before the big wedding.

THE MAID OF HONOR AND SISTER OF THE BRIDE, ANNA, LAUGHING AT THE SEX TIPS


THE BRIDE AND HER GOOD FRIEND AMANDA


Friday morning we have breakfast at IHOP and then make our way to College Station which is where everyone stayed. We made a quick stop at the outlet mall in Hillsboro, a quick stop for some McDonald's fries and then arrived at the hotel with just enough time to get ready for the rehearsal. Almost late, of course.

THE HAPPY COUPLE AT THE REHEARSAL


THE RING BEARER CJ, FLOWER GIRL JADE AND FLOWER GIRL OLIVIA


CJ AND OLIVIA


OLIVIA AND JADE


My poor mom had been crazy stressed about the rehearsal dinner and had made cute souvenirs with our menu selections and pretty little keys (the new last name..clever and cute) and she had made some centerpieces for the tables, but sadly they were running way behind because she had gotten car sick as she was trying to put the finishing touches on the decorations in the back seat of the car. They had to pull over at a car wash to rinse the car and her hair that had already been done for the rehearsal. I felt soooo bad for her.

THE MENUS


They arrived 30 minutes late, to the great place they chose for the rehearsal dinner, a little Italian restaurant called Volare. Dinner was delicious.
Dad gave a toast before dinner and told them to never go to bed angry and that he knew they were going to be happy because they always made each other laugh. So sweet and at this point I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh, my little brother is getting married!!"

I STOP PAYING ATTENTION FOR 2 MINUTES...LIPSTICK EVERYWHERE!!


Most of the crew went out in College Station after dinner, but I went back to the hotel with Liv who woke up at 1 a.m. with a stomach bug. No fun. Then again at 4 a.m. Her poor blanket was ruined for the night and the hotel didn't have machines for me to use or any extra comforters. We did get a couple of clean sheets thank goodness. I was worried we were going to miss the wedding...but nope she woke up at 8 a.m. sharp asking for wedding cake! From then on things were good.

Except, Chris had woken up with a scratched cornea. One of them groomsmen had slapped his shoulder but caught his eye by mistake. So he was in pain and irritable.

We went to the mall to shop for Chris a shirt for the wedding. I had found him the perfect shirt that matched Liv's flower girl dress and it was on sale for $15. But Mr. Ralph Lauren just couldn't do it. Ugghh. Are you kidding me? He spent forever in the Polo section torn because he wanted to wear Polo, but he hates spending money and the shirt he wanted was $95--But his pretty wife was holding up a great shirt that was only $15....oh the dilemma. We left the mall with neither.

We were also looking for Liv some black socks...but Gymboree didn't have her size. She ended up with some Halloween socks from Target that said BOO on them...we just turned them wrong side out...perfect.

On the way to the wedding I rode in the very back of our Tahoe so the groom and one of the groomsmen wouldn't wrinkle their tuxes. We had taken the 3rd row seating out so we would have room for all of our stuff to make the trip so that was comfy for a pregnant lady.

Then we had 4 hours of pictures and waiting, but somehow we didn't get a big group family picture of us. Whoops. Some of our family had showed up at 6:30 just for this picture, but it didn't happen. I didn't even think about it until after the wedding.

Finally, 8 o'clock arrived and it was getting dark and with all of the lighting and flowers it was just gorgeous. They were married in the gazebo. The bridesmaids wore black dresses each with a different style and the flower girls were in these gorgeous green colored dresses. Olivia was a flower girl along with Jade and the ring bearer was C.J. The kids were such troopers and did a great job and they were just adorable.

THE ONLY PIC I HAVE OF MY BEAUTIFUL FLOWER GIRL


The ceremony was great. My brother looked down at me right before he put the ring on her finger and he just looked so happy and blessed. I couldn't be more happier with the spouse he has chosen.

Then we were on to the reception which was held outside under lots of white lights and the DJ was very entertaining. He had all of the guests involved all night up until the couple's departure at midnight.

BRIDE'S CAKE

GROOM'S CAKE



Some of my favorite moments from the reception were:

1) The DJ had them play this Mickey/Minnie Mouse game where they sat in chairs back-to-back while each holding a stuffed Mickey and Minnie Mouse. He would ask them questions like, "Who cooks more?, Who's family is wackier?, Who wears the pants?" Then they would answer by holding up the correct mouse. If they held up the same mouse we clapped, but if they disagreed we would tell them to "Kiss and makeup!" Too cute!

2) The dance to get the garter was classic. The DJ had Jenny sit in a chair across the dance floor from Thad and he played this sexy, dancing music and told Thad he had to show how much he loved her by doing his best dance across the floor to her. Then he gave Thad some sunglasses so he would feel invisible like the cute kid from the movie, "Big Daddy." Watching Thad dance was classic and so funny! Then it was Jenny's turn to get the bouquet from Thad. As soon as her music started she wasted no time making her way to him.

3) The best man, Bruce, had caught the garter and his fiancee, Angela, had caught the bouquet. They blindfolded Bruce and he was making his way to Angela to place the garter on her. He was very excited until he realized he was actually putting the garter on Thad because those hairy legs could not belong to his fiancee. So funny to see his face filled with disappointment.

4) The DJ had all married couples make their way to the dance floor for a special dance. Chris and I got to share a special moment on the dance floor while he was holding a sleepy Liv. Chris and I do not dance, but this moment was sweet and it made me feel not as awkward to have Liv out there. Chris is just so much taller than me and I always want to lead. Fortunately, it was a slow song.

5) The departure. They held hands and made their way to the car through an aisle of huge sparklers.

The day after....

We checked out of the hotel and headed to my aunt and uncle's new house in Waco. Beautiful house....spent some time with them and then got some directions on the different routes to get home and headed out.

Chris decided on the "scenic route". We were going to take Hwy. 6 to Wichita Falls so we can stop and buy some stuff for the nursery. Liv fell asleep and I popped a movie into the dvd player....love that I can watch a movie...in a car! Hours down the road we stopped at a gas station to spend a crisp $100. Ouch! Inside Chris looks at a map and then announces...

Chris: Tara, I messed up.
Me: Oh yeah, how so?
Chris: Well, here is Wichita Falls (way to the right) and here is Abilene (a little to the left) and here we are (somewhere in the middle)
Me: How far is Abilene from here?
Chris: About 40 miles.
Me: Okay, sounds good.
Chris: Do you guys want some snacks?
Me: Nope.

About 30 minutes later Chris starts talking about how we should've packed some sandwiches or how great it is that we had some lunch leftovers. I'm not getting it.
About 45 minutes later he asks...

Chris: Are you sure you don't want any of these chips?
Me: No, I'm just going to wait and eat in Abilene.
Chris: We're not going to Abilene.
Me: WHAT?????
Chris: Yeah, we're just going to take Hwy. 6 up to Crowell.
Me: There is nothing between here and Crowell...so we're not going to eat or buy paint or anything else?????
Chris: Nope.
I am devastated. What was another 40 minutes at this point? I should've definitely spoke up and told him what I thought the plan was way before now. Oh well, I decide to sit back and enjoy our "scenic route" home.

To top off our trip in Haskell he got pulled over for going 80 in a 70. He was so mad. What could we do at this point?
The DPS guy asked where he worked and Chris told him TxDOT.
After he signed the ticket and we pulled off he said...

Chris: Man, that TxDOT thing sure didn't work.
Me: Yeah, you guys are the ones that put these signs up...I don't see how it would. You should know not to speed.

We just laughed the rest of the way home.

Oh, I forgot to mention that it was the first Sunday of FOOTBALL SEASON! So we listed to XM Fantasy Football for 7 HOURS!!!! 7 HOURS! Now, I like football quite a bit and I love to watch it on TV, but how many times do we have to hear about Tom Brady getting injured or Vince Young or the fact that 2 rookie coaches with 2 rookie quarterbacks were playing? And about 10 other stories over and over!!!????

Overall, it was really one of the best trips we've had in a long time. All the laughter was well worth all of the Clark & Ellen Griswold moments we shared.

Here are the invitations I made for my FSIL's bachelorette party we're having tomorrow night....(next to a picture from my wedding of me with my good friend Whitney!)

Wish you all could go with us.

I had THE MOST fun at mine 4 years ago and we're doing the same thing for her. I can't wait. Dinner at Joe T. Garcia's complete with a lingerie shower and then on to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar....fun fun.

Gotta Love Being Pregnant

Lady: When is your due date?
Me: October 22nd.
Lady: I hate to say this, but you've been big as a house all summer. I thought for sure you were due any day now.
Me: Nope, 7 more weeks.

________________________________


another Lady: Dang girl, you huge! When are you gonna have that baby?
Me: Oh, I still have about 7 more weeks!
another Lady: When did I see you last 'bout a month ago? You was big then girl!!
Me: Hahahaha. I know, right?

________________________________

I hear Louis Vuitton calling my name...

THE Blanket

Since Olivia was about 6 months old she became attached to this beautiful, soft pink Amy Coe blanket, given to her by Donna. She has slept with this blanket every single night and carried it with her everywhere. No other blanket would ever do....EVER! I used to think she was so precious when she would curl up in her crib with her blanket and suck her thumb. These days the blanket is definitely a darker shade of pink, covered in stains from a well-traveled toddler and does not seem as big as it used to. I'm sure she will have this blanket forever.

Then she discovered this quilt. It was made by my FSIL, Jenny...it's navy and red and has Olivia the Pig on it.



Oh the tears that were poured out because she wanted to carry both blankets with her to run errands one afternoon. It was one of her more, shall we say, passionate fits and luckily I had my camera near.



What's a mommy to do? I suppose she'll carry them both until they get too heavy. She's very determined.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER

Spending Saturday night with panties our our heads and snacking on Oreos. Don't the Jasmine panties look great on Chris?

Silly Liv with her favorite Dora panties...





Posing with Mommy

Happy First Day of School!!!

Tonight at our study we will finish up C-O-U-P-L-E of the Energizing Cycle so come if you can....

Next week on Labor Day and we will do Chapters 15-18 over C-H-A-I-R-S

on Monday, September 8th we will do Chapters 19-22 over C-H-A-I-R-S

and then our final week of study will be on Monday, September 15th and we will do Chapters 23-24 over the Rewarding Cycle

Hope to see you there!!

Pregnancy Brain

Being the sweet wife that I am I have decided to let Chris not only name our baby boy, but pick out his bedding! Surprise, surprise it's a TxDOT related theme!

When it came to ordering though I had a little bit of a problem.

This is what I was supposed to order:




And this is what I actually ordered:



It came in the mail and Chris said, "Where are the dump trucks and the orange cones?"

Hmmm, I thought the colors were a little different, but they are pretty much the same to me!

I have ordered the correct set and it's on it's way. Who knew how important orange cones were??

Now if I can get him to forget the idea of making a lamp out of a TxDOT hard hat!

The Official Baby Name

We have decided on JONAH DANIEL

The story from the beginning...when Chris and I were dating his paternal grandfather John Daniel (J.D.) Reed passed away from pancreatic cancer...we always said that if we had a son his middle name would be Daniel. Olivia was almost Ava Danielle but we thought hey 50/50 chance our next one could be a boy so we saved it....

After we got pregnant this time Chris was flipping through a baby name book and found the name Jonah (which actually means dove *wink, wink*) He said he really liked it and that the kid would have not only his grandfather's middle name but his dad's (Jerry Don) and grandfather's initials. We had a boys name.

Enter Peter Jones} He discovered a way to make fun of the baby's name and make Chris change his mind completely.....so much that he was almost willing to use Jonah but not even Daniel!! Silly Peter....we still love you.

Then we found out it was going to be a boy...we poured over baby name books and involved fellow bloggers with my poll! I really loved Jonah Christopher, but Chris did not.

FINALLY, Chris decided it was going to be Jonah Daniel because of his grandfather and he didn't care what other people thought and no matter what the name was the men were going to come up with nicknames!

So to make a loooonnnnggg story long - there you go!

my 13 thoughts

1) i've got to finish our time cards
2) i've got to reschedule that juvenile hearing
3) i've got to do this 2008 planning calendar for Childress County before 3 p.m.
4) today is our 4th anniversary....i can't believe i actually forgot!!
5) Praise God for cool weather
6) my desk is NEVER going to be clean
7) now i'm addicted to dr. pepper & BLOGGER
8) liv either needs more sleep, more spankings or both
9) 8 more weeks
10) i'm tired of saying mean things that i don't even MEAN....silly, CRAZY CYCLE
11) i miss my mom&dad
12) i can't wait for thad's wedding
13) i hate dog hair and waterproof mascara

I had the best garage sale! For some reason I am one of those crazy persons that enjoys having a garage sale. I just LOVE bargains...finding them, selling them, etc. About a month ago I started going through my house, every room, closet, storage area, the garage...everywhere! I put everything into an empty bedroom and started sorting through it a week before.

Two nights before I went to Wal-Mart to purchase tons of big and little hangers for all of our clothes. I told my mom it was all about presentation...she laughed and said no one cares what kind of hanger it's on...."Mom, it's not about the type of hanger it's about having them hanging instead of folded in a box.... "
**edit** before I could even use all of my hangers I was selling them to people for the full price I paid...so I got most of my $$ back......but now I know that SHARON not only has lots of tables but hangers also!!! I also sold the stepstool I was using to stand on to hang my clothes up....I could've sold anything that morning....

The night before I worked until 1 a.m. taking everything out to the garage and placing it on tables some of my good friends loaned me. (Thanks to everyone else that offered tables and names of babysitters!!)

I woke up at 5 a.m. to finish taking things outside, hang my signs and price everything....but I didn't get to price anything or hang up any of my clothes because a huge crowd showed up at 7 a.m. a whole hour before I was set to "open." I had another friend that was going to have it with me but she ended up getting sick...so I was flying solo 7 months prego.

Fortunately, Chris was able to run to the bank for me, bring me breakfast, plastic bags and keep me hydrated throughout the day. It was so crazy...I had made over $100 before 8 a.m. and most of the stuff I sold was either 25-75 cents or $1...that just goes to show you how much stuff I had.

Women were laughing at me because I was practically giving my stuff away and I had about 7 people that came back to buy more. I really had a great time laughing with people and just freeing myself by letting go of stuff I had for over 10 years.

By the end of the day I had made over $500 and my husband was pleased with the outcome...my hard work had paid off.

Here are some tips on having a great garage sale:

1) Have it around payday...preferably the 1st

2) Don't price anything and sale it all really cheap--especially if you're just wanting to get rid of it--if you're wanting to make more $$ then I would suggest trying Ebay first

3) It's all about presentation - hang clothes so that people can see them better, organize things in groups of the like such as kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, kids stuff, books, etc.

Watching the Olympics at the Reed's

Chris: "Man, Michael Phelps just won another gold medal and broke another World Record."

Olivia: "That's crazy!!"

Biggest Loser starts on September 16th....I am so fired up about this. Last year was the first season I watched and we both loved it!!!

For weeks I have talked about doing the Biggest Loser contest with Chris after I have this baby. I told him that if I lost the weight I wanted to buy a Louis Vuitton purse (something I have wanted forever, but can't justify spending $800 on).

Last night we were discussing the contest...and I enthusiastically say, "I hope I lose X amount of lbs. and get a new purse....what are you going to get?"

Chris says, "A skinny wife."

I laughed forever....I know you just had to be there....but he was so quick-witted and at the moment it was hilarious to me and even a little sweet....I hope I can get a new purse and give him a skinny wife....

Last week when I would ask my daughter to do something or tell her it was time for bed she would look up at me and sweetly say, "No thanks."

This week her excuse for everything is, "No, mommy I too big." or "I too little." As in too big to take a nap? I don't think so missy. Not yet anyway.