Reese's Pieces

8 months....

2010-08-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

Well, this is a little better, one post a month! McKinley turned 8 months on Monday and we celebrated that by taking her to the doctor! Turns out my baby girl had an ear infection in her left ear and the beginnings of pink eye! No fun! I have to say though McKinley smiled all day long. She is the happiest baby I have ever seen. I really wish I could be more like my daughter when it comes to that....smile in spite of everything!

Carleigh starts school on Monday. Unfortunately she did not make volleyball but has turned her focus to cross country. She is doing really well in cross country and we hope she makes JV or Varsity.

I am SO ready for it to cool off here though. This summer heat is never-ending and leading to some HIGH cooling bills!

Well, back to the grind. Hope everyone has a great week!

7 months...

2010-07-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

So,

I've done a horrible job on keeping up on this! I don't know how people do it! McKinley is growing by leaps and bounds! She is sitting up really well now and gets up on her hands and tippy toes and rocks back and forth. I forsee crawling in the not to distant future! Every day it seems like she gets bigger and bigger. I'm enjoying it so much.

Life has been a little crazy lately as Jodie is working ALOT trying to get the school portion of the church that he has been working on finished up. Carleigh has stayed busy with volleyball and choir camps. I can't believe the summer is coming to an end already. Carleigh has volleyball tryouts next week.

We did take our first "family" trip to New York City in June! We had lots of fun touring the city and hanging out with my parents and sister. I will say that traveling with an infant is alot of work. I am hoping next summer we can plan a trip to the coast.

Here are some pictures from New York and McKinley's 7 month photo shoot......

Easter Weekend

2010-04-08T06:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday we went to church to celebrate Easter Mass. We got there 30 minutes early and it was already crowded! I am amazed at how many Catholics only seem to attend mass at Christmas and Easter! I thought I was going to luck out and McKinley was going to sleep during mass...not so much, we made it about 20 minutes in before she started crying! I did thankfully remember to bring a bottle so that helped a little but she was still fussy. After mass we headed home and took some Easter pics and then headed over to my mother in laws for some lunch. We had some delicious ribs and then watched Sydney and Luke (McKinley's 2nd cousins I guess) hunt for Easter eggs! Sdyney and Luke were facinated by McKinley. We even managed to get a cute picture of them holding her. A little later we headed out to Rockwall to see Betty and Jim's new house. It's very nice! It's funny though because the floorplan is very similar to the one they have now except Jim has his "man cave" off of the garage! Looks like its going to take just as long to get there :( but we are happy that they are getting out of Mesquite!

This weekend we are headed to Poteet for the Strawberry Festival! I'm really excited to see all my family and for McKinley to meet Uncle Bryan and all his family! This is the first time in a long time (I think the last time was Grandpa's funeral) that we have all been together. Hope the weather is beautiful!

The cold continues....

2010-03-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

So McKinley has been in daycare for close to a month now and she has had a cold and cough for well close to a month now! I'm happy with the daycare and think the women that watch her are wonderful. I am just struggling with her having this stinkin cold so long! I know it's supposed to build her immune system but come on a month already?? When will she recover? Thankfully she doesn't seem to be affected by it too much. Her temperament is same at it always has been, sweet! I'm hoping with the warm weather moving in that she will get through this in the next week or so.

I decided since I wasn't taking her to the Easter bunny that I would have to take some of my own Easter bunny pictures. I was actually able to snap some cute ones of her. She is getting SO good at holding her head up now and she is talking up a storm. Happy Easter everyone!

First week back....

2010-03-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

I started back to work this week and its been hard. It's hard to get up at 5am everyday and hard to drop off McKinley at daycare. She seems to be doing well there. I just hope she doesn't forget who I am. That's what I'm most worried about, that she will forget her mommy and only want the people that take care of her at her daycare. Yes, I'm probably overreacting but I can't help it. I've been with her for the past 11 weeks and it's so hard to only get to see her for a couple of hours in the morning and evening. I can't hug and kiss her enough!

Introducing McKinley Alisa Reese....

2010-02-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

So, I'm incredibily behind on updating this blog! I do have an excuse though, taking care of McKinley is hard work! She blessed us with her presence on December 16, 2009 and time has just flown by since then! She is 2 months today! I can't believe it!

This is by far the BEST thing I have ever done! I am really, really enjoying being a mommy! There is NOTHING better than watching that cute little chubby cheeked girl give me a smile! I am sad I have to go back to work on March 1st but incredibily lucky I've had this much time with her. My company has been so amazing to my family.

McKinley is smiling and cooing alot now and holding her head up so well!! Believe it or not she is SLEEPING through the night (5 nights in a row now)!! What a blessing!! SO glad she is doing this BEFORE I go back to work! I have attached various pictures of her from birth up until today. Enjoy!! :)

We are almost there! 39 weeks and 6 days.....

2009-12-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

Well,

It's the night before McKinley's due date, I did not think this day would ever come. Her room is ready, the carseat is in the car and my bag is packed! I hope I'm ready! This has really been a pretty amazing pregnancy. Don't get me wrong I've had my good and bad days but all in all I've had it alot easier than most. As far as we know we've got one healthy kiddo in there waiting to meet us and that's all I could ask for. I've been SO very blessed to have such amazing family, friends and co-workers that have lavished, and I do mean lavished gifts upon us. We are so grateful for all of it, a thank you really doesn't do it justice for how I feel.

I pray that I know what to do when she gets here and a calm comes over me. Most of you that know me know me to be a tad high strung but I hope that melts away the moment they put McKinley in my arms.

For those of you that don't know I'm going to be induced Wednesday morning at 5 am if she hasn't shown up before then. I hope she comes on her own but will gladly take being induced at this point if it means I get to meet her!

Thank you all for your prayers, advice, friendship and guidance. Jodie and I can't wait to start this new chapter of our life!

36 Weeks!!

2009-11-18T07:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had my 36 week appointment!! I'm happy to report I am a whole 1/2 cm dilated!! Not much really, but it's a start! I really, really hope McKinley gets here early. I can't wait to meet her. My doctor guessed she is 5 pounds or so right now and will most likely be about 7 1/2 pounds when she is born which is about right considering Jodie and I were both 7 pounders. We went and toured Baylor Grapevine after our appointment. The labor and delivery ward is very nice and the nurses were super nice as well. I'm a little more relaxed because I know where everything is now. It's all a waiting game at this point, I have no idea when she will get here! For those of you that know me I'm a planner so not knowing is killing me! I just hope and pray for a safe, healthy and QUICK delivery though! :)
We traveled to San Antonio for my last baby shower this weekend. All I can say is WOW!! My family and friends are SO awesome! They definitely showered McKinley with many gifts! It was so great to see some of my high school friends and catch up with some other family friends and family members I haven't seen in awhile. I got a little emotional at the end of the shower. I can't put into words how much it means to me to have all of these wonderful people in my life. Kudos to my good friend Lisa, her Mom Bea and my sister on the shower, it was wonderful.
I was happy to see my parents and my brother and sister in law came down as well. It was a great weekend.
I will post pictures from the shower when I get them. Hope to have the nursery pretty much complete by this weekend......

Another Week Closer....

2009-11-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm 34 weeks now!! I can't believe McKinley will be here in another month or so! I am definitely feeling the pregnancy now. Everything hurts, my feet, legs, knees, eyeballs!! I know it's all worth it though. I have been pretty lucky this pregnancy with not getting terribly sick. I've had a cold the past week that's really knocked me on my behind but beyond that things have been going great. McKinley is right on target for her size and the best the doctor can tell is head down. I'm anxiously waiting for her to "drop" so I can have a little more lung capacity!

Last Friday my co-workers had a baby shower for me. It was SO wonderful and they went out of their way to make it very, very special for me! The majority of our office is men and they all showed up and sat there through all the opening of presents. I'm really, really lucky to work with such a great group of people. I will definitely miss all of them when I'm on maternity leave! The biggest surprise was that all of the outside sales guys in the office went in together and got me the jogging stroller I wanted!! I did NOT expect this at all! Honestly I registered for it so I could get the discount at the very end because I did not think for one moment anyone would purchase this for us!! Needless to say I was very excited!! Here are some pictures from the event! Thanks again to everyone that made this so special!!

So many changes....

2009-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

So I've been a little behind in updating this blog! There has been SO much going on recently though! Since my last post we have put our house on the market, sold it, bought a new house and moved! It's been a crazy, crazy couple of months but we are SO blessed that it all has worked out! I can't post this without mentioning everything going on with my family. My Mom was diagnosed (for the 2nd time) with breast cancer this summer and has been fighting, like a champ, with her surgery and now has begun chemo. As if that wasn't enough to cause worry my Uncle Bryan has melonama that is very, very serious. So I've got two people in my life battling for their lives while I am trying to bring the miracle of life into the world. It's quite a trying time! I must say that I have AMAZING family and friends that make each day easier though. Jodie has been great, working his behind off to get us moved and settled into the new house. I am very, very lucky to have been blessed with such an amazing husband. I don't know what I would do without him. Carleigh has also been WONDERFUL with the move and everything because I haven't been able to do much given my current HUGE belly!

I've had two wonderful baby showers over the past couple of months! One at my cousin's lakehouse and one at my mother in laws! We have received some awesome gifts! I don't know how people are able to do this without the support of family and friends because McKinley certainly would not have everything she does without all of them!!

I will try to update more regularly. I hope to have the nursery ready in a couple of weeks!

Love~Jessica

It's A Girl!!

2009-07-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today we had our 20 week appointment and found out we are having a baby girl! Jodie and I are so excited! We've already chosen a name, McKinley Alisa Reese. We really liked the name McKinley and Alisa is my Mom's middle name.

The doctor said everything looked great! Her measurements are right on for 20 weeks, she is weighing in at 11 ounces. Her due date is still December 15th!

Can't wait to start buying clothes and decorating the nursery!

14 Weeks and Counting.....

2009-06-19T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well I am 14 1/2 weeks along now and starting to finally feel a little more normal. The nausea has pretty much all gone away. Now I am experiencing lovely heartburn! It' also becoming increasing more apparent that I am in fact pregnant. Last week I told my work and everyone couldn't have been nicer! I am so blessed to work at a company that really cares about their employees. I pretty much work with all men and they are constantly asking me how I am doing and feeling. I actually think they are a little afraid of me now! No, but really, my company had delivered to work an awesome Edible Arrangements bouquet that was in a little piggy bank. They also sent a cute teddy bear. So the baby officially has his first piggy bank and teddy bear. I am relieved that everyone is being so great. That does definitely take a weight off my shoulders.

We had another appointment on June 12th and got to hear the babies heart beat again, 154 beats per minute. I freaked out a little because it took the doctor and couple of minutes to find it but she reassured me that the baby was little and sometimes it took a little bit to find the heartbeat and sure enough she did right after she said that! It's so amazing to me how loud and strong that heartbeat is and yet I can't feel anything at this point!

We have our next appointment on July 28th. I will be 20 weeks then and we get to find out the sex of the baby! Stay tuned!

Love~Jess & Jodie

More Than Souvenirs.....

2009-05-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

As most of you know Jodie and I traveled to Italy this past March and it turns out we came back with a little more than souvenirs......we are pregnant! I am actually 10 1/2 weeks, almost through the first trimester! We had our first appointment on May 8th and got to see and hear the heartbeat, 164 beats per minute! The doctor says everything looks good!
I have been extremely tired and felt nauseous but that (hopefully) is going to be the worst of it for the first trimester (fingers crossed). We will try and keep everyone updated as we progress. My due date is December 15th!