Birthday Party Pictures

Let the party begin!!

Opening up the presents
The Birthday Cupcakes



Not really sure about the sticky marshmellows.

"Come on mom, where's the ice-cream?"

Austin enjoying the birthday cake and ice-cream

Austin enjoying Mikayla's new toys

What a great birthday!!

Are you really 1 year old already?

1 year old stats:

Weight: 22 lbs 1 ounce (75th percentile)

Height: 31 inches (95th percentile)

Head: 47 cm (95th percentile)

(And as Craig would say "you Reid's have big heads")

Mikayla has really grown up fast the last several months. Her biggest accomplishment: walking!! She moves all around the house on her own and is starting to master walking on the uneven ground outside. She drinks regular milk (YES! $$$) and has learned how to use a sippy cup. Good for her but not so good for Austin when she tries to take his.

She is the best eater in my family.....like all kinds of foods and willing to try almost anything. So now I can make things like green bean casserole knowning that someone other than myself will eat it also. Of course she loves to play and likes toys....a few random things that she finds entertaining are her toothbrush, phones, remote controls, and the dishwasher when opened. She is finally sleeping through the night!!! It is wonderful!!! We finally decided just to start putting her in the crib and letting her cry until to went to sleep....and it worked....she has finally learned to put herself to sleep so now she rarely wakes up during the night.

She is becoming more entertaining to Austin and he is adjusting more and more to sharing and playing with her. In fact, the other night they were in the bathtub together and I don't remember how it started but they were laughing and laughing at each other. It was so nice to see!!! I seriously think that is the first time I have seen them just laughing hysterically at each other that way......and it just about made me cry.

Mikayla we love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our family!!

Pay Day

So today was one of those pay days. You know the kind--after countless efforts of teaching and singing and showing and teaching and singing and showing and then.....yes!! pay day!!This morning Austin wanted me to get out his blocks so we could build.....I usually build him the same thing every time (I've got it memorized down to every block). My creation has 3 tunnels and 4 stairs. It becomes his castle, or his tunnels, or more recently his car wash. And he loves it. So after building it today I left the room for a minute to get something. When I got back I noticed he had taken all the single blocks and stacked them up on top of each other really high. And then he said "look mommy, temple!"

A BIG PAY DAY!!

Dallas Texas Here We Come!!!

Our trip down to Dallas started out at 3:00 am friday morning as we (me, Craig, Andrea and Jeff, and Sara) loaded up and headed down south with Craig as our driver (who was just diagnosed with Bronchitis the day before but a great sport the whole day). First stop was to pick up Craig's brother Matt at the Dallas airport who flew in from Georgia. We arrived just in the nick of time--despite Beatrice (our GPS system) that led us the back way to the airport administration office.

After a big breakfast at Denny's we met up with the rest of the crew (Dave and Debbie, Kristi, Kelsey, and Jamie) at the JFK Memorial. We went on a tour with headphones that detailed the life, presidency, and assassination of JFK. It was a great tour that took about 2 hours but I learned so much about that period in history.

From there we headed off to B.B Owen's Park for a game of Frisbee golf which I came out as the winner (although I do play a par 4 since I am a girl).

That evening we went to dinner at Benihana (somewhere you don't go when your with kids)and enjoyed some Japanese cuisine where the food is cooked right in front of you.

And it was some yummy yummy food!!

We ended the day back at the hotel with a few games of Mafia

(a traditional Basting's favorite).

Saturday morning we again ate breakfast at Denny's which was right across from Six Flags. It has been a long time since I have been on a real rollar coaster (Kiddie Park doesn't count) because of pregnancy and Craig's weak stomach. And these coasters were definately not a dissapointment--there were some crazy twists and turns. Suprisingly the lines were so short that we road the Batman 3 times and Mr. Freeze all in under an hour. All great except it left me feeling pretty nauseous and I did puck up my guts (now I know how Craig feels).

Luckily after taking a break for a while I was able to continue with Superman and The Texas Giant--The world's largest wooden rollar coaster (and ouch ouch it hurt). We ended with the Titan which had the steepest drop and went so fast the my eyes blacked out....twice....I thought something was wrong with me until I found out that everyone else blacked out twice also.

Then the time had come.......

September 5th, 2009

at the new Cowboy's Stadium

and what a game it was.

The dilemma: I am mormon and went to BYU for 4 years but then went to OU for nursing school and graduated there. So which team do I go for??

Sorry OU....."True blue through and through"

and Craig.......

"Mormon by Birth, Sooner by Choice"

(funny sign that was at the game)

The BYU fans

The OU fans

Do I really even need to say anything about the game?? The stadium was awesome, we had great seats, the noise and excitement was continuous, and the whole game was intense. Both teams played great defense but at the end it was a Cougar victory 14-13!!! (Confession: I was actually just hoping that it would just be a good game and that OU wouldn't just run away with it.)..............but that game was worth every penny!!!!

GO COUGARS!!!

(p.s. thanks Andrea for the pictures)

Splash Pad

So one of our newest fun discoveries is the Splash Pad that was just built this year. I actually took Austin at the beginning of the summer but he wasn't a huge fan of the water squirting in his eyes so he stayed on the side and didn't venture in too much. But as you can see he doesn't mind it anymore and we made several trips at the end of the summer to cool off in the hot humid Oklahoma heat.

Plus it is free, gets out some energy, and I get to watch from the sidelines (most of the time).

This is one of Austin's favorite parts of the splash pad....actually it was Mikayla who crawled into it and discovered that you could stand underneath and not get wet!!
And of course the water sprayers are a hug hit as well.

So much fun....can't wait to come here lots more next summer!!!

Bowling

So while we had Brandon in town a few days, we decided to take a nice family evening out and go bowling. It has been quite a while since we have taken Austin bowling. This time he was able to pick up the bowling ball all by himself and put it on the ramp and had a fun time watching all the pins go down. He would should "Yeah!!" (while clapping) which is what he is doing in this picture although it looks like he is doing a karate chop or something.

And Mikayla also joined in on the "yeah" clapping but most the times just wanted to crawl around on the slick floor.

Here are the rest of the bowling participants:

The Girls

And The Boys

And our 1 spectator

So after the 20 min attention span of this 2 year old he started looking elsewhere for entertainment. Thank goodness for the M&M's that grandma bought for him. After sharing one M&M with the group, Austin went up into the seating so he could have the rest of them all to himself. While chomping down his M&M's and watching us bowl he would continue to shout out "yeah." He even started throwing his head back (which is what he is doing in this picture) and shouting and laughing when we knocked the pins down.

It was a fun time.

I was the winner from the girls team and Craig from the boys team.

Rematch anyone??