Thanksgiving

(sorry this is so overdue)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...a few days late! What a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday we had. Dowell had to work, so he stayed in Nashville. Reese, Cooper, and I went to Benton, Arkansas to be with my family for the holiday. My mom and dad, Nana and G-Pops, offered to pick us up and bring us home since it is the first long road trip with Reese (about 5 1/2 hours). They rented a mini van, drove up Sunday, loaded us up, and drove us to Arkansas...all in one day! My dad was a trooper and drove the entire way. What would normally take us 5 1/2 hours, took closer to 7 hours with the little one. She does not like her car seat and cried most of the way home, which almost made her Nana cry all the way home. Cooper got a whole seat to himself and loved riding. In the van, he was able to rest his head on top of the seat and stare out the back windshield. He LOVED it! Although I'm not quite ready for a mini van, I have to admit that it was nice to have all the extra room.



Reese had a lot of visitors while we were there. On Monday, Ashley Sexton (one of my very good friends from elementary school), her little boy Will, and her mom Cindy Douglass came by to meet her. It melted my heart to see them holding her and loving on her. They are such precious people. Will is 2 and 1/2 and was more interested in Cooper than Reese. He wanted Cooper to eat his food, so he would go into the kitchen, squat down beside Cooper's bowl, point and say "Coop, pood." He also loved "throwing" Cooper's frisbee and having him bring it back. However, everytime Cooper would drop it, Will would say "Tay", then pick it up and hold it where Cooper would take it out of his hands! He just laughed and laughed. It was adorable and Cooper was loving all the attention.



On Tuesday, Mom and I took Reese to meet Angie Young and her Baby Davis. Davis is 6 months old and super cute! His eyelashes are a mile long and has the sweetest personality. He was Reese's first baby friend to meet. They both kind of looked at each other like "hey, so you're a baby too?", then looked back at the toys. Angie let Reese play with some of Davis's toys and Davis showed us how good he was in his jumperoo! My good friend Anne, and her 14 month old little girl, Leia, drove in from Conway to meet Reese on Tuesday night. It's so funny to see the little ones interact. Leia would crawl over to Reese and look at her, but was more interested in discovering anything and everything on the floor. Anne is such a great mom and is so laid back. I have learned a lot from her already. She is so funny and really lets Leia play and discover without being overprotective. I still have a long way to go on not being overprotective :)



Wednesday, my best friend Kristen drove down from Northwest Arkansas and we got to spend the day together. It was awesome to see her and she couldn't believe how Reese had grown. She and her mother drove all the way to Nashville to meet Reese when Reese was just 5 days old! Needless to say, Reese looks like a different baby. My good friend Barrett stopped by with her new puppy, Napa, that afternoon. Cooper was super protective of Reese while Napa was there. He is not usually aggressive, but when Napa was jumping around close to the baby, he got between them, growled and showed Napa his teeth. I was glad that Barrett got to meet Reese. Uncle Mark (my brother) and Aunt Jamie (my sister-in-law) came in that night from Fort Smith for Thanksgiving. They love Reese so much and I absolutely love watching them interact with her. Uncle Mark would stand her up in his lap and do animal noises for her. Reese would just talk and coo...it was so cute. That night, when I went to bed I gave them both hugs and here was our conversation:



Beth: Good night Jamie

Jamie: Good night. I'm thankful for you.

Beth: (to Jamie) I'm thankful for you. Good night, Bub. I'm thankful for you.

Mark: I'm thankful for Little Reesey!



Thursday, when Reese started waking up, I had just begun to change her diaper and her Uncle Mark was already coming into the room to say "Good Morning little one. Hello love." to Reese. He just couldn't stand it! We went to Beebe, AR, to Mamaw and Papaw's house for our Thanksgiving meal, which is always delicious. There, Reese met her Great Aunt Lea and Uncle Denny, Sarah, and Michael Branscum. Aunt Lea had fun dancing for Reese and making faces that made Reese smile. Reese really liked looking at Sarah. When she held her, Reese would just stare at her forever. Of course, everyone had to fight Papaw to get their hands on her. Everytime I turned around, he was holding her. And when he wasn't, Reese's G-Pops was trying to get ahold of her. I had to sneak by Papaw, so that Mamaw could hold Reese while I ate. Sure enough, after I ate, I went into the living room and Papaw had her in his arms singing and talking to her! Papaw put it best when Reese fell asleep in his arms, he said "this is paradise!" She is definitely a VERY loved little girl. After our visit in Beebe, we all headed back to Benton to meet more aunts and uncles. Reese got to meet her Aunt Liz, Uncle Phil, Aunt Diane, Uncle David, and cousins Clay and Jennifer. She also got to meet Aunt Liz's mother, Nonna. They got to hold her and love on her. It was really a long, but awesome day. Reese was such a good girl!

On Friday, my parents loaded us up and drove us all back to Nashville. A much better trip this time, as Reesey slept for about 3 out of the 7 hours. It was so fun being with Nana and G-Pops, but felt good to be home. Mom and Dad stayed the night with us and left early the next morning back to Arkansas. Dowell's family drove up from Fort Worth, TX on Friday and got to spent Saturday with us. It was Darcey's first time to meet Reese! The camera got a lot of action...needless to say. Big Daddy was getting a kick out of Reese's smiles and funny faces. He was doing the "spaceship" with her where he picked her up above his head and made spaceship noises. She really liked that and would smile and make noises every time. The also brought up Reese's Christmas presents and, let me tell you, it seems that Santa came early! My dining room table was piled high with gifts.

After all the traveling and visitors, we were SO exhausted! I'm pretty sure that it took a few days to get back on schedule, but by Monday night, we were in hibernation mode. Reese slept for 10 and 1/2 hours straight! It's going to take us a little while to catch up, but we'll be back in the swing of things soon. I have to say, it was ALL worth it. I am so thankful for my family, the time that we all got to spend together, and the love that is so apparrent among us all. Dowell and I are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.