Happy, Healthy & Thankful

I am thankful for our happy, healthy son.

 

I am thankful for our happy, healthy marriage.

I am thankful for our happy, healthy pregnancy.

 

I have so much to be thankful for!  Happy Thanksgiving to our friends & family!

Getting a Jumpstart on our Holiday Cards

Today we met with Beverly to take some family portraits for our holiday card.  Knowing Bev, she somehow managed to capture some good ones even with our crazy little guy and crazy puppy!

What’s funny is that this was the calendar entry on my “Count Down to my Birth” calendar we have for newbaby:I guess it was a good day to take photos!

And then I remembered that my friend Kim did a blog post last week about free Shutterfly cards for bloggers so I decided to check it out.  Of course, there is a catch:  you have to do a blog post about it.  Well, okay.  I probably would have anyway…

For the past five years I’ve made Jer a calendar from Shutterfly with pictures of Sadie Belle for his office.  Last year she had to share the spotlight with Baby Reid.  (What’s new there?!)  So while Reid is napping, I’m working on Jer’s 2011 calendar.  He’s sitting right next to me…I think the surprise is gone.  :)  I think this photo will be my inspiration for this year’s calendar.

Good Customer Service

So many times, bad customer service gets our attention and sticks in our mind.  (For example, I will NEVER AGAIN shop at my neighborhood Walgreens.  Never. Ever.)

In the past week, we’ve had two great examples of customer service that are worth sharing.

Angie’s List sent Jer a big bag of M&Ms for referring someone to their service.  We enjoyed the M&Ms while sorting mail and paying bills.  It was a nice, unexpected gesture from a company we already like doing business with.

Today, Reid got a letter from his new dentist reminding us of the regular cleaning visits, and asking what he’s interested in so they could get to know him better:They included a photo of a serious Reid holding a giant toothbrush they took during the visit. Despite the look on Reid’s face, we had a great experience at the dentist.  And this was a nice way to follow up, don’t you think?

Flashback: Summer Fun in the Water

Reid *loves* the water. He loves baths… …pools……lakes……boats……fish tanks……hoses……Barton Springs……puddles…you name it!! 

We are especially lucky that our favorite neighbor offered to teach Reid swim lessons this summer.  She has taught every other kiddo in the n’hood how to swim, and Reid just adores Ms. Beth.  Our friends Stacey & Charlie joined us for lessons, but somehow I never snapped photos when we were together!  (Argh!)

Here are some fun pics of Reid learning to swim this summer with Beth: Thank you, THANK YOU, Beth!!  We are so lucky to have you as a neighbor and a friend!  Reid just loves you and your family…and so do we!!

October Fun with the Allaire Cousins!

How many snapshots does it take to get five kids to look at the camera?!?  Well, I wouldn’t know.  This is the best we could do (and there were three cameras going and each took at least 10 shots before one kiddo escaped!) Okay, let’s try again later and see what happens… Umm…no.  We’ll keep trying! 

A few weekends ago Reid and I spent a few days in Ft. Worth with my family while Jer went to State College, PA to have some fun (and beer and a clam bake and a tailgate and no babies and…).

Reid, Gramma and I went to Trinity Park in Fort Worth to ride the train.  He LOVED it! Reid and Grampa went on a bike ride and had fun making “music.”We went with the Flores family to a farm park to see the animals. Reid adores his big cousin Avery…can you tell? :)Reid & Carly check out the chickens.The only animal Reid wanted to touch was the baby cow.  Apparently, the test of a good pumpkin is how well does it sit. :)He’s our happy little pumpkin!

Uh oh!

It won’t be long now!

Our Little Pirate Says, “Yo ho! Yo ho!”

Last year, our little guy was a delicious little sushi.  He was crawling around, pulling up, laughing and generally being his sweet little self.This year, he went as something  slightly more grown up, but every bit as charming. 

Reid wouldn’t say, “Trick-or-treat!” but he would say, “Yo ho! Yo ho!”  (I attribute this to his favorite potty book.)Reid loved walking around and seeing all the big kids.  He especially loved the “Biiiig Cat!!”  (He’s still talking about this cat after more than a week!)We went trick-or-treating with our good friends Stacey, Jean and Charlie.  Charlie was a birthday cake for Halloween! :Reid left the eye patch and head wrap on the entire time!  We couldn’t believe it.  :) We had so many kids come through our neighborhood this year – it was great!  We even ran out of candy for the first time (whoops!)  When the last group of teenagers came through, I told them I only had a little bit more candy and that we’d give it to our favorite costume.  Wouldn’t you know it:  there was a giant Elmo in the group.  Reid went nuts for “dat big Elmo!”  :)

Happy Halloween!  (a little late…as usual…)