Allie Grace Reyes

Yippee! My cousin, James, and his wife, Shelli, has their baby on Wednesday! She is so precious! Allie Grace weighed in at 6lbs 9oz and was 20 inches long!




Apparently, she looks lots like her daddy from the nose up.....especially the red hair! I love it!



Doesn't Shelli look great? Sweet baby girl!

Can't wait to meet you, Allie!

Sweet Lacey!

We did not have Mother's Day Out last week because of spring break. So, my lovely babysitter was off and graciously said she would watch Claire one morning so I would run errands. This is what Claire looked like when I got home! Apparently, Lacey took her down the street to her house and she played and played with all the kids. Claire loves older kids and I am sure was loving all the attention that she got from them! The stroller and pink bear were not ours when I left, but the kids thought Claire should have it! Apparently they have several extras around their house ;) With 6 kids, I am sure they have lots of extra everything!


And, C has never let me mess with her hair! She does not like to have it brushed. That is why I think she leaves her bows in.....doesn't want me messin' around with her!!!! Lacey said she let her do it with no problem! She thought she was too cute!!

Cookie Monster?

Claire got a few mini oreos after dinner! Do you think she is a fan or what?


I wanted her to stop running around and pose with Care Bear.......he was getting loved so much that he had a little oreo on his face!!!! YUM!

Happy Easter!

We had such a fun Easter! It started with an egg hunt and wine play date over at our friend CC's house! Claire was so excited to be outside.....here she is rolling in the grass ;) Winter has been a long season for us!


Claire and Carter hunting eggs!


She was really into it....diving after this one in the scary bush.

More playing with Carter and the screen door.

Then, we had another hunt at our house on Saturday and invited our best bud, Jack, over to play!

Shaking to see what might be inside.

Claire was not paying attention so Jack decided to see what she had ;)

The only group shot.

The best part! Opening the eggs to see what is inside.

More fun on Easter morning. What is better than an egg with Elmo inside??

So sweet to share milk with Ernie.

We met Jack, Amy, and Robert for lunch at the Marriot downtown. It was super nice and there was a bunny just walking around. Here he is saying hi to C!

These two hammed it up! They were allowed to walk only if they held each other's hands. It was seriously the cutest thing ever!

Young love!!

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!!!!

Update.....

We got another raccoon the next night! Poor thing had to sit in the cage all day until Strick got home. He said it became a "little agitated"!!!!


I have some funny pictures to post, but we are dealing with another house issue. It is under control now, but we had our sink back up and flood part of the basement. I am currently sitting next to all the things from our storage closet and listening to 3 fans and a lovely dehumidifier!!!! So, with all that going on I don't know if I can get my big butt back here to post anytime soon...we'll see.

Lazy Sunday????

....well, almost! We had great plans to get up and go to church, but Claire slept in until 8:30 and I did not have the heart to wake her. So, Strickland got up with her and let me sleep in! They came up to get me later and informed me that they were going on a bike ride while I got dressed. So, I helped Strick get her all ready and off they went! At this point I must tell you about our latest house problem.....Bitzy has been going crazy smelling and whining all around our front door. Upon inspection, we realize that something is probably living under our door step. Lovely!!! So last week while Strick was working late....Bitzy goes nuts and sees a HUGE opossum in our back yard. Nasty thing! Meanwhile, the neighbors fill us in on the fact that there are tons of raccoons, opossums, and even a skunk (which we already knew because bitzy got herself sprayed this summer). I have personally seen a bobcat and our neighbors have seen a ground hog..........I promise we don't live in the fields of Kansas, but we have a great pond and land behind us that is currently being developed and all these critters are coming over!!!! So we had invested in a trap hoping to get the opossum............we put it out back for several days and last night we decided we would have better luck out front near the place we know he or she is hiding. Well, as they are on a relaxing bike ride, I discover that the trap is full of something.

View of the trap....before the raccoon!!!!

So Strick comes in and this is what we find!!!!!! A HUGE raccoon! These pictures do not do it justice because this thing was enormous!

Strick with his catch!

Strick called the neighbors, the Rooney's, to come down and see. Lacey, the oldest, is our baby sitter and lives down the street. They have 6 kids and a 7th on the way!!!!!!!!! We love them and are so intrigued by their lives...........crazy as they are! So here is Jack with Strickland. Jack comes over sometimes and asks if Strick can play.....hilarious!

Maddie and Olivia came.....in their pjs......and played with Claire.

Miss Blanche came over to see the raccoon!

We called Animal Control and they would not come out....we would have liked to send him to raccoon heaven, but since we had 4 kids there (they were so concerned about what would happen to the "cute" raccoon) we decided to take him and let him go.

Here he is ready to leave the cage.

Here he is jumping off and playing. Jack said that he was so happy to get out of there!

So much for our lazy day!!!! But, it was so fun! We had great weather for 2 whole days and loved every minute of it! We soaked it up and are glad we did because it is now pouring and will get down to 16 tonight! Bet that raccoon will be wishin' we didn't kick him out of his warm den ;) Too bad! We did set it again to see if his mate might still be in there....will update you soon!