Happy 3rd Anniversary!

So much has happened in just 3 years . . .

Wedding Day - August 27, 2005

Our First New Home - Oct 2005

2006 brought trips to New Zealand, Sydney and Graceland!

And in 2007, our family of two became three when Reagan Caroline was born.

2008 has been filled with trips too ~ Mexico, South Dakota and then London.

On top of all that, John and I both went to school, worked full time (until now for me) and found time for friends, family and each other. Life is great, but exhausting!

9 Month Pictures

Jackie put up some pictures on her blog from Reagan's 9 month pictures yesterday. These are really cute!

www.jackieboldtphotography.com/blog

There is a slideshow at:

http://www.jackieboldtphotography.com/slideshows/reagan9mos/

And the rest of the pictures are on the gallery website:

www.jackieboldtphotography.com

Click on client galleries and enter the password: reagan9mos

Rochester

John's sister, Kathleen was home from Creighton this past weekend before heading back for the beginning of fall semester, so we packed up Reagan's things and went down there for Sunday afternoon. Grandma Mary had found some of Kathleen's old toys that Reagan had fun playing with, especially Kathleen's old shopping cart. The weather was so beautiful in the shade that we played outside for quite a while until dinner was ready. Reagan had a great day playing with Auntie Kathleen, Grandma Mary and PaPa Jim.

Looking at this picture of Jim and Reagan, I can see where she got her beautiful blue eyes!

Focusing on walking

I call this one "Me and my PaPa"

Pushing her shopping cart.

This skill came naturally to her, I think because of all the time we spend pushing the shopping cart at Target!

Oops! Too close . . .

Outside with Daddy

9 Months Old

We tried a new technique to take the pictures . . . We sat her next to Marley and then quickly added the sign. She was way to tired to be taking these pictures.

To cheer her up we gave her a maraca.

Oops!

Reagan turned 9 months old on Thursday and I can't believe the changes in her even from 8 months old. Every week brings something new. Here are some of my favorites:

• Reagan starts "dancing" when music is playing or if one of her favorite songs played (Itsy Bitsy Spider and 5 Little Ducks).


• Reagan is starting to really wave at people. Not on command, and mostly she'll do it when she's eating.


• She will start to make hand movements when you sing Itsy Bitsy Spider.


• Reagan loves to finger paint . . . her food, her spit up . . . I'm tempted to just plop some food on her highchair tray and let her go at it, but I'm afraid of the art that will end up on our walls!


• She is so excited to push her Auntie Kathleen's old toy shopping cart and practice walking.


• Sometimes, not all the time, she'll repeat back a sound that you make. If you cough, she'll cough back, if you "woof" she'll make a noise that sounds like woof.


• We still call a lot of things "Bob." We've decided to name her stuffed dog from London, Bob.


• The other day she started helping me rub her "lollies" (lotion) in on her leg.


• She is proficient at climbing the stairs. I still go up behind her, but I don't need to hold onto her tush anymore.


• She loves chasing her ducky ball around the living room.

We go to the doctor for Reagan's 9 month appointment tomorrow, so we'll get the official stats. My guess is about 19 lbs and 27-28 inches tall.

Teddy Bear Park

John and I ventured out to downtown Stillwater the second weekend in August. I have never really explored Stillwater and wanted to check out the cute Teddy Bear Park that our friend Todd Lehman helped design.

Reagan loved the tunnels at the park. She doesn't really have any shoes that fit right now, so it was too hot for her to stand on the ground in a lot of places. The tunnels stayed pretty cool.

Her new skill of the week was standing by herself. The day before I had left the room for two seconds and when I came back in, she was standing in the middle of the room without holding on to anything!

Getting our balance . . .

"I'm doing it!"

"Oops, I fell down."

Mommy and Reagan with the big teddy bear.

Daddy and Reagan with the little teddy bear.

We enjoyed lunch sitting outside at a malt shop. The highchair the waitress got us was sans straps to hold Reagan in and after three attempts we gave up and had to hold her through the meal.

After lunch, we were all tired and hot, so it was time to call it a day (even though it was only 1:00).

Blueberries for Reagan

I had some blueberries in our freezer and I thought I would see if Reagan liked them. I cooked them and blended them up and sure enough she loves them! Although as the stack of laundry (and stains on the carpet) grew, John and I started to like blueberries a lot less!

This is the widest she's opened her mouth for any food!

Yummmm!

General Mills Night at the MN Zoo

Reagan, John and I were lucky enough to spend another Wednesday evening with our friends (and parents to be of a baby boy!) Joel and Sadie. This time we took our show on the rode to the MN Zoo for General Mills night. It was a great evening to be outside and see all the animals.

Reagan's first taste of Cotton Candy. I think she liked it :)

Fascinated by the Grizzly Bears. I have to say, they were my favorite too.

Like the giraffes in London, Reagan was too busy watching the Grizzly to turn her head for a picture.

We couldn't get a good picture of the tigers, so we just took a picture in front of the sign.

Moving Day

Every once in a while we move our garden to a new spot in the living room. Today, Reagan thought it would look nice in front of the fireplace.

TC Bank

I anticipated that this would happen once John and I had children and I'm actually quite surprised it didn't happen sooner. My mom asked to take Reagan went on a mission last Sunday to get a TC the Bear Bank at the Twins' Game. Since it was an under 14 (or whatever) giveaway, my mom needed Reagan as bait.

This is actually my first time seeing the bank because we aren't allowed to open the boxes when we get Twins memorbilia.

It was a pretty easy deal for Reagan. She just had to go through the gates 4 times to get 4 banks. My mom had the hard part ~ Carrying Reagan to go through 4 different gates!

I went along to supervise this whole operation. Welcome to my childhood, Reagan!

Reagan and I didn't stay for the game. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing.