3rd Anniversary

I've been the queen of starting posts and not finishing them lately... I think it might have something to do with having an 8 month old thats on the move, so sitting down for more than a few minutes at a time has become a rarity. : ) 

A couple of weeks ago Mark and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! It fell on a Tuesday so Mark took the day off so we could spend some time together. We had originally planned on going to the beach like we did last year, but it ended up being super hot and we didn't really want to take Reaghan out there. We decided to go to the zoo instead - yea, it was still really hot, but we could make pit stops inside cooled exhibits and gift shops and walk through lots of shaded areas. :)

Our first stop was grabbing some lunch though! We went to Doumar's - a classic, drive in/eat in your car place in Norfolk, Va. thats been around for a few decades.

We had some yummy burgers and fries.

And Reaghan enjoyed people watching. 

This was Reaghan's first trip to the zoo!

She was happy as long as she had her water cup :)

We enjoyed watching this Orangutan groom himself.

And a picture by the elephants is a must.

We love elephants!

Every year we've been getting each other a little something that corresponds with the "traditional" anniversary gift list, but this year, since the gift was supposed to be leather, I had a brilliant idea! An autographed football! *pats self on back* Its leather and its awesome. I wanted to get him a Tony Romo signed football, but those were like $500 a pop, so I went with another of his favorite players for much less. 

(Okay. So actually my first idea was to get him an autographed Cal Ripken Jr. baseball - which I did - I got it super early and I was so proud of myself only to walk up into his office room and see a signed Cal Ripken Jr. autographed ball sitting on a shelf!!!! What?!? How did I not know he had that?!?! Wife fail. So anyways, I panicked, sent it back and got a football instead. I told him the story and he was really excited about the football, so I'll still give myself that pat on the back. ;) ) 

Later that night we took Reaghan over to my parents. They watched her for us so we could go out to dinner at the Melting Pot (my favorite!)

After the Melting Pot we really tapped in to our romantic sides and went grocery shopping at Trader Joes and Whole Foods! We never get out to these places because they're a good 35 minutes away from our house, but since it was right next to the Melting Pot we really wanted to stop in there and get some of our favorites! I did get a bouquet of wild flowers while we there, so that counts as romance right? Actually, we truly did enjoy ourselves. It's really doing the every day, ordinary things together that remind us so much of why we fell in love. : )

3 years in and a lifetime to go. <3 

OBX Vacation {2015}

Every year Mark's family spends some time down in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. His mom is gifted a free week at her boss's condo that's located on the water in Nags Head. Usually Mark and I go down for just the weekend, but this year we spent the whole week there with his parents and sister's family. Not only was it our first vacation of the summer, it was our first vacation with Reaghan!

Seriously, I felt like we packed our entire house. Since it was our first time going away with Reaghan for an extended time I kept thinking of all the possibilities, so I packed way too much stuff. haha when we pulled out of our driveway I turned around to look back at everything and realized it was a bit on the ridiculous side. I mean - there wasn't any room for another human to sit - so I'm really going to have to rethink my packing needs when the next kid comes along!

The first few days we spent most of the time out on the beach because the weather was perfect! We had quite the little set up with our umbrellas and blankets and baby pools!

The girls loved their pools! 

They weren't too sure about the sound of the ocean waves or the water splashing up on their feet at first, but they warmed up to it quickly.

Reaghan didn't mind the sand at all, and crawled all around in it! Thankfully she never tried to purposely eat the sand.

We loved being out on the beach and spent several hours down there. 

The girls were so easy going and Reaghan would eat and sleep out on the beach.

Here the girls are getting ready to eat their lunch!

Taking a rest with daddy under the umbrella :)

Reaghan loves sharing mommy's plums!

Our little surfer girl...

Fun building sand castles with daddy!

Of course we had to get a few family pictures while we were down there.

The second half of the week wasn't as beach friendly. It dropped down in to the 60's and got pretty windy most afternoons, even raining one evening, but we didn't let that get us down! We went out shopping at the outlets and beach stores, walked around the town of Manteo, and visited some yummy restaurant favorites!

During a walk in Manteo we bought the girls pin wheels. They figured out pretty quickly how they worked and would hold the pinwheels up as we strolled them around so the breeze would make it spin. They were mesmerized by it!

The girls, of course, wore matching outfits in the evenings. Because, well, I don't care who you are, kids in matching outfits are adorable. We even got a few "are they twins?!" questions when were out and about. :)

In the evenings we would go out and walk along the beach and Mark would fly his drone. We got some fun videos from the camera on the drone out on the beach.

Pinwheel fun!

In the mornings I would take Reaghan out for a short run. I snacked way too much and we had Duck Donuts for breakfast almost every morning, so going running was a must to help combat some of that! And the sleeping in on vacation option doesn't really exist with an 8 month old, so if we were going to be up we might as well be productive! Plus, running at the beach in the morning is invigorating! I even bought Reaghan her own pair of running shorts while we were there!

The only drawback to our vacation was that Reaghan and Brooklyn had a small cold the whole week. Reaghan ran a low grade fever a couple of nights and even threw up a couple of times, but thankfully that didn't last long. And their runny noses didn't seem to damper their spirits one bit! They both got a rash on their upper backs towards the end of the week as well, but they didn't seem to be bothered by it. We weren't overly concerned while we were there and after consulting with our doctors upon arriving home, we determined it was just a viral infection. But it will go down in Reaghan's baby book as her very first rash. : (

We loved letting the girls play together, Reaghan learned to bang toys together from her older cousin and figured out how to go from her belly/crawling to sitting! Here Mark is getting attacked by the girls because they saw that he was eating jelly beans! Obviously, they've never even had jelly beans, but they knew they wanted to try them! haha

A nice perk of vacationing with another family with a baby only 2 months older than yours? The girls would almost always take their naps at the same time, especially morning naps! And... well... I don't think I need to explain the beauty of nap times, especially on vacation. : )

We are so blessed to be able to go on vacation with family!

We enjoyed spending the time together and watching the girls play together and bond. They are going to be great friends as they grow up. Seriously, I'm so grateful for family relationships and the fact that in both of our families they are healthy, fun and thriving. 

Life is just so much better with family by your side, you know?  

It was a fantastic way to kick off the summer and we are looking forward to a few more vacations.

See Reaghan Grow! {8 Months}

Reaghan Eileen turned 8 months old last week! I wrote this the night before her 8 month birthday because we were leaving for vacation the next day, and planned to take pictures of her in the morning and quickly get this posted before leaving. But I totally ran out of time that morning trying to get the car packed and last minute things tied up. We got back yesterday so I just got around to taking pictures today and getting this posted! Here are some milestones, firsts, and struggles of her 8th month that are worth remembering!

• No check up this month as well, but she weighs around 17 pounds and wearing mostly 9 month clothes. 
• She has struggled with sleeping this past month! She was doing so well sleeping through the night but for some reason she will wake up sometime between 1-3 and almost like clockwork, it will take 2 hours for her to fall back asleep. We are trying to teach her to soothe and put herself back to sleep without being fed, I'm not going to lie - it has been a tough month. It's so hard to know if she's waking up because she's too wet, or if she's in pain from teething or if she is truly hungry because she is growing. I started giving her a bit of cereal before bed to see if that would help hold her over, and has seemed to help the last few nights but we are about to go on vacation so I'm sure thats going to throw things out of whack again. ; )
• She still takes 2-3 good naps (usually only 2) but she has also started to fight falling asleep so it takes a little extra work to get her down. 
• She says "mama" all the time, especially when she is upset! She definitely knows the word means me! She also is saying "dada" more and more but not sure if she associates it with her daddy.
• She is eating a variety of puree fruits and veggies, wafer crackers and puffs. I'll also feed her fruits and veggies from the table and occasionally letting her taste random things like pizza sauce, etc. She loves drinking water out of her sippy cup but hasn't figured out how to hold it on her own yet.
• She took her first visit to the  Zoo on our anniversary.
• She had her first beach days! She doesn't mind the sand and both times we've gone the sound of the waves have put her to sleep as we took a walk. 
• She finally learned to roll over from back to belly all on her own!
• She is army crawling everywhere and has started getting up and rocking on her hands/knees, but can't quite coordinate the movement for actual crawling and usually flops back down to her belly when she tries to move forward.
• She is becoming a super mama's baby. I keep trying to tell her that her daddy loves her just as much as I do. ; )
• She loves Piper and plays with her on the floor. Piper does so well with her. She loves to try to get into Piper's food dishes and even if Piper is eating she doesn't mind Reaghan being near.
• She is learning the word "No" and man, oh man is she not fond of it. She thinks she should get to do whatever  her heart desires... like get into Piper's food bowls ; )

We are so excited about summer time - I love all of the cute little rompers, tank tops and swimsuits and seeing her chunky thighs exposed! Our OBX vacation was a blast! I'll get some pictures up soon because Reaghan and her cousin Brooklyn were just adorable. 

We have a busy summer of travels/vacations lined up, so there will be many more firsts for our baby girl!