Pretending To Be A Photographer

I decided to play photographer and take some of my own pictures the other day. I had SO much fun with her! I was getting frustrated with my camera though, because it was taking forever to focus. I could've had a lot more great shots, but I'm super happy with the ones I got. Here are just a few...

Super Bowl XLIV

Because we were all recovering from a cold, we ended up staying home and having our own mini Super Bowl party. What a great game! Even though we respect Peyton, we were cheering for the Saints...I, myself, like cheering for the underdogs. Way to go Saints!

Cold...But Safe

Last night, Dowell and I babysat for a couple that lives in our same apartment building. Their baby girl is 2 months older than Reese and her mother and I were pregnant at the same time. We had a good time watching her and Reese look each other over. It's also amazing to see how much different they are developmentally with just a 2 month difference. It just goes to show how much Reese has grown and changed and also, how much she will grow and change in just a few short months. Dowell and I both wish we had a 'pause' button to push so that we could keep Reese at this age for a little while longer! There's so much to enjoy and soak up everyday.

After babysitting, dinner, and bath time, Reese was sound asleep around 9 (a little later than usual). We were all pretty tired and ready for bed. Dowell, Cooper, and I were watching TV before hitting the sack, when, all of a sudden, our smoke detectors started going off and we immediately smelled smoke that seemed to fill our apartment! Cooper ran to the back room and started howling. Dowell grabbed him, I grabbed Reese and we ran out the door. We didn't hear anyone else's smoke detectors going off, so we knew it was just in our apartment. My mind was spinning trying to think of what could have caused the smoke, but there was nothing...no candles, no oven, no heated devices of any kind.

Dowell, our fearless leader, went back in and turned our heat off, checked each room, then walked around outside to see if it could have been coming from the apartment downstairs (did I mention that it was 34 degrees and raining?). He didn't see, feel, or hear anything. After about 5 minutes outside, the smoke seemed to dissipate and the smell lessened, so we decided that we were safe...the culprit?...our heating unit! Thank goodness my husband turned off the heat before our entire apartment was filled with smoke! Praise the Maker that we were all safe! Needless to say, we all had to add an extra layer to sleep last night. And yes, the rain turned to snow this morning (our thermostat said it was below 50 in our house when we woke up), but maintenance came by and fixed us up temporarily, until they can fix our heating unit next week.

Little Piece of Heaven

I was laying in bed last night thinking about the day, saying a prayer, and thanking the Lord for so many blessings that I sometimes take for granted. Saying "thank you" for moments that make me feel so complete, make me feel so much love that I just don't know what to do with. I strongly believe that is the kind of love that God has for all of us. One moment, in particular, I just have to share.

Everyday, Reese takes several naps throughout the day and, as long as she gets enough sleep, she wakes up talking and cooing with sounds that are so precious, they will just melt your heart. Well, yesterday, while she was asleep, I was in the living room trying to take care of a few things and I hear her sweet voice in the bedroom. I walked back and peeked over her crib to see her beautiful eyes wide open and the blanket was pulled all the way up to her nose. I uncovered her little face and she lit up. She smiled a big gummy grin with squinted eyes and all. I melted. It was like an angel was smiling back at me...a little piece of heaven.

The Sweetest Sound

The snow outside our apartment

Getting ready to see her 1st big snow

Snow puppy

Mommy and Reese

Warming up inside

Reese laughed for the 1st time on Saturday and it was the cutest sound I have ever heard!!! Dowell was in the floor with her and I was playing hide-and-seek with Cooper. When he would find me, I would jump up and roar at him. Reese was smiling, squealing, and kicking her feet wildly every time I did this. Then, about the 4th time I did this, she let out a giggle than came straight from her belly. Dowell and I both looked at each other and said, "did you just hear that?" I kept hiding from Cooper and she kept laughing! It was awesome!

Reese and I are just now getting over a cold...yuck! The weather has been so unpredictable lately and I think it finally caught up to us.

We got quite a bit of snow over the weekend and it was so beautiful. It started snowing Friday morning and didn't stop until Saturday afternoon. We ended up getting around 3 inches or so, maybe a little bit more. It was so pretty coming down. I opened up the curtains and just sat and watched it snow. Cooper loved it the most, I have to say. I took him outside and he would just take off running. I'd throw snowballs at him and he'd catch them in the air. He was adorable! Dowell took him out Friday night and rolled around with him in the snow. Cooper did NOT want to come inside. If we would've let him, I think he would've stayed and played outside all night long.

Happy New Year!

4 months old

As Aunt Jamie says, "Too cool for her pool"

I know, I know...I'm still playing catch up. So, our new year was SUPER exciting! Wait til you hear about this...Dowell came home from work around 8:30 or so and I was giving Reese a bath. Reese and I had a pretend countdown after her story and she went to bed. Sound asleep. 2009 was a year that I resurrected my love for bubble baths, especially since we moved into our new apartment with the 'big tub'. So, I decided that I would take one last bath in 2009. I ran my bath water, turned the lights down and lit some candles. As I stepped into the tub, my hot bath was 'room temperature' at best. I tried to make the best of it and enjoyed it as much as possible, but I decided that I'd just take a shower instead. Well, my shower water went from warm to freezing! That was it. Thanks 2009. It was 11: 55 p.m. so I got my pajamas on and walked through my house to ring in the new year with my family. Reese was sound asleep in her crib, Cooper was sound asleep in the chair, and my husband was sound asleep on the couch. So, I found my old buddy Dick Clark and pretended that I was in Times Square! When it was 11:59.45, I poked Dowell and we counted down from 10 (he was only awake enough to hit about every 3 or 4 numbers), but nonetheless we welcomed 2010 with much enthusiasm :) About 15 minutes later, we were in bed. Gosh, we're old.

Since then, 2010 has been good to us. The Titans won their last game and finished 8-8. Bittersweet. Bitter because the Titans did not make the playoffs, but sweet to have my husband home. It's been so fun to have a little vacation with him even though we don't really leave the house. We had a little bit of snow this past weekend that was really pretty to look at, but not quite enough to play in. Not to mention, it's been in the single digits and low teens for the past few weeks. Only today has the weather been above freezing at a whopping 34 degrees. Brrr!
Cooper loves it! He'll go outside and just let the wind his his face for as long as we'll let him. His fur gets so cold, but he seems to stay warm.

Reese went to the pediatrician for her 4 month check up on Tuesday. She is 24 inches long and weighs 14 lbs! I'm so proud of her. The doctor was shocked when I told him she was sleeping about 12 hours through the night. His jaw dropped and he said that was awesome! Again, such a proud momma. She is talking so much now. Mainly squealing, but I love it just the same. She loves her new exersaucer and is able to sit up for brief periods when we play on the floor. I've posted a few of our newest pictures. Enjoy!

Christmas Eve

The Titans played on Christmas day, so Reese and I made the journey to Benton solo. My sweet parents drove to Nashville to pick us up and we spent Monday thru Thursday in Benton. A trip that literally flew. My family celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve this year and what a Christmas Eve it was! So different than any other year, but maybe my favorite one yet! If you've ever seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, this Christmas Eve was definitely one to compare! I don't know if I'll be able to describe the festivities to their fullest, but here goes...


On Christmas Eve Eve, it began raining and raining and raining...didn't stop and ended up being the worst flood Little Rock has seen in over 20 years! We woke up Christmas Eve morning to a vaccuum sound coming from the basement. My dad was already awake, trying to clean up over 1/4 inch of water that had flooded our basement. Usually, we open gifts in the morning, but we decided that this year, so we woulen't have to rush, we decided to wait until the evening. We loaded up the car in the rain and started toward Cabot to my Aunt and Uncle's house. As we headed to get on the interstate, we noticed that there were cars completely stopped for miles. The flood was so bad that parts of I-30 were completely shut down. We had to take back roads to get there (which were also very wet) and a trip that normally takes 45 minutes took almost 2 hours! The main highway that we take to Cabot, Hwy. 67/167 was shut down from Jacksonville to Cabot because of flooding. Luckily, we made it to Cabot safely and had a great visit. Papaw especially enjoyed having Reese in his arms again.





On our way home is where it got really interesting. The highway was opened up again, so we decided that we'd take it since it seemed that traffic was moving smoothly. And really, if there was serious flooding, then SURELY it would still be closed, right? Mom, Jamie, Reese and I were following Mark and my Dad in separate cars. All was well until we saw a little sign that read "Caution road flooded ahead", so we're thinking 'slow down because there is probably still water on the highway'. We saw cars ahead start breaking and all of a sudden, there was what looked like a tidal wave on both sides of Mark's car! No lie, there was at least 8 inches of water on that road!! The water was halfway up the tires of a truck and past the lower door jams of cars. We had no choice but to drive thru it and all of us in the girl's car were freaking out. When we finally saw the lines on the road again, I called my brother. He and my dad were both laughing so hard. He said that they didn't see the water at all until they saw break lights. By that time, they had already hit the water going about 60 and the flood slowed them down to 30 on impact! I'm glad they got a kick out of it, because we were so scared!





We made it home to Benton safely, praise the Lord! But we still had presents to open there. It was almost Reese's bedtime, so we had to hurry (which we were initially trying to avoid). We got about 1/3 of the way thru gifts and we heard, what sounded like a baby shrieking, outside. Mom jumped up and said "Winkie.." (the cat that hangs around our house). There was apparrantly another cat that was trying to eat his food and they were about to start fighting. Mom opened the door and yelled "get outta here!" but just as she said that, the other cat ran right between her legs and into the house. Luckily, the cat ran downstairs (in the flooded basement) and into the laundry room behind the washing machine. Eventually, mom and dad got the cat back outside, but we kept laughing about it well into the next few days. We felt like the Griswolds when the squirrel jumped out of the Christmas tree and they were chasing it thru the house. That was the only moment that I was glad Cooper wasn't there, or else he could've been like Snot, chasing the cat thru the house! Reese definitely had an eventful Christmas Eve. Mom and Dad drove us back to Nashville on Christmas Day. The sun was out and had dried up some of the water, but there was still A LOT of water left, 3 to 4 feet in the ditches!





Back in Nashville on Christmas Day, the Titans played the Chargers and lost 47-17 which ended their hope for a playoff spot. The Loggains were in town for the holidays, so we decided to celebrate Christmas on Sunday since Dowell had the day off. It was so much fun to be with Dowell and go Christmas shopping for Reese together. Santa made a special trip to our house on Saturday night and brought Reese several wonderful toys including her very own ExerSaucer! Santa also left her 1st pair of sunglasses in her stocking that fit her perfectly. Mimi, Big Daddy, and Darcey brought her a truckload of gifts that should last her for the next few years! Reese got a new stuffed moose that she really liked, but I think her favorite gift of all was her new ballerina baby doll with brown hair. When Dowell opened it and handed it to her, she gave it a hug and a kiss!!! It completely melted my heart! So glad that I got it on video!





We all had such a wonderful Christmas! Reese had a very merry 1st Christmas and we will definitely never forget it.