As we do every 3 years, my family took a 12 hour drive up to Ohio for a family reunion. Both of my parents are from Ohio so we have a lot of family still living up there. My brothers and sisters and I aren't strangers to the long road trip, but this was Reaghan's first time putting up with the drive and I was a little nervous about how she would do! (We did drive 8 hours from Atlanta, GA to home back in June but that drive started out at 3am, so Reaghan slept the whole time! I knew it wasn't going to be that way this time.)


To help us out a little, as well as give my parents a little more room in their vehicle, Noah rode with us. He and I would take turns riding in the back so there was someone to play with Reaghan and someone to keep Mark company while he drove - long road trips are not his favorite ; )


My mom's family are the ones who put on the Reunion Friday-Sunday. It was started for my Grandma Eileen's mom and all her children and descendants. My grandma is seated on the right of the bottom row with her remaining, living, brothers and sisters.

This was Reaghan's first time meeting many of her aunts, uncles, second cousins, and great aunts and uncles, and we had a lot of fun with all of the introductions!

I'm taking it back to the beginning of the summer with this one, but I feel awful that I never wrote a post about how awesome of a dad my man is - because he is pretty awesome at it.

As mentioned here in a post about our trip Texas, we were gone for Mark's actual birthday and didn't get home on Father's day until late afternoon. It wasn't fun or ideal, but we don't need to revisit that situation. Instead we'll just jump right into a sappy little tribute for a (super) belated Father's Day post.

It sounds cliche, we've all heard it said, but it undoubtedly true - Theres nothing that makes you fall in love with your husband more than watching him love on and play with your little girl. There's a special sweetness between a daddy and a daughter, one that I hope deepens more between the two as the years go on.

This is the latest I've been on posting a monthly update on sweet baby Reag. She is 10 and 1/2 months by this point and I'll have to post her 11 month pictures in just a couple of weeks, but I guess its better late than never! Thankfully I keep a list of her accomplishments and milestones throughout the month so I can refer back to it for this post and her baby book. Otherwise it would be extremely difficult to differentiate when she learned what!

• No check up this month, but her weight is around 17 pounds. She's a little bit, this one. 9 month  old clothes still fit her comfortably, but she can pull off a few 12 month items.
• Sleeping through the nights most nights... usually 8:30-9pm-7:30am. Being on vacation in July and then back out of town again for a wedding has thrown her off a little bit. Especially since I was more relaxed about bringing her back to bed with me for snuggles while we were away. But she did really well sleeping in her pack n play while we were gone and she seems grateful to be back in her crib now that we're home! If she does wake up at night, she puts up way less of a fight when I just lay her back down and walk out of the room. (Consistency has been the key to this whole sleep training thing!)
• She finally learned how to crawl on all fours - I love the way she follows me around the house during the day.
• She can pull herself up on furniture and in her crib and has even started to cruise a little bit. Our coffee table is her favorite thing to pull up on. Lots of baby proofing to do now!
• She will take steps if you are holding her hands, but still very wobbly!
• She has mastered clapping and loves to clap along in church or anytime she hears applause.
• She loves to dance to music.
• Will raise her hands up when you sing "How big is Reaghan?!"
• Her favorite song to have you sing to her is "patty cake". She likes it when you make her hands go through the motions.
• She knows how to give high fives! Pop-Pop loves to get high fives from her.
• Her hair was long enough to pull into a tiny pony tail and put a clip in it for 4th of July!
• Eating lots of table foods now, even without any teeth by the time she turned 10 months old. We have introduced eggs, strawberries and meats without any reaction so far. 
• Her first reaction to food lately has been to turn her head away and refuse. I basically have to force her to taste it and then she'll realize she likes it and will eat without protest. 
• She learned how to drink from a straw and thinks she should be allowed to have my Starbucks frappuccino's. haha
• For some reason she puts on an attitude whenever my sister Mallory tries to give her hugs/kisses. She's the only one that she will turn away from or try to push away... poor Aunt Mal-Mal. 
• She tries to "talk" to you - she'll look at you, put her hands up as if to say "why?" and make grunts and noises with her lips closed. Its adorable.
• Her tongue is always hanging out of her mouth - I'm pretty sure its because she doesn't have any teeth to hold them in! : )
• She loves to sit in her float in her grandparent's pools and splash and kick!
• On her 10 month birthday we woke up early and started our drive up to Ohio with my family- she was so easy to travel with and the 10 hour trip could have been a lot longer, but she was a delight as long as she had someone in the back seat to play with her! Her uncle Noah and I took turns.

Okay, so not trains, but we did travel by planes and automobiles on our trip to Texas last week!

My cousin Emma was getting married and I was in the wedding so my mom, sister, Reaghan and I traveled down to Texas for a few days to celebrate with family. It was Reaghan's first plane trip so I was a little nervous about how she would do, but I shouldn't have been! She didn't have any issues with ear pain, played contentedly in our laps, and didn't have a single meltdown the entire time. I had been praying for this trip for the last several weeks and I'm just so thankful that everything went well.