Rolling, rolling, rolling....

Daddy surprised with my very first bike when he came home from Sioux Falls last weekend! It was my reward for working so hard to stop sucking those darn fingers of mine! I didn't have any trouble at all figuring out how to ride the bike and rode it all the way over to Grandma and Grandpa's the very first day! Mom & Dad are certainly going to get their exercise chasing me around town! Thank you Daddy!

Spring!

We're going to try not to speak too soon -- this is South Dakota, after all, and winter could certainly come roaring back any second -- but, the weather has been gorgeous the past couple days and the rest of the week looks like more of the same! We got the stroller out yesterday and went for a long walk (made even longer by the fact that everytime we turned toward home, Harrison and I protested enough that we ended up staying outside all day long!). We walked up to the park which is still pretty muddy and wet, but found a few things to play on....





Stay tuned for more pictures soon -- Daddy came home after finishing up with the legislative session and helping Christie move out of her house and he brought me MY FIRST BIKE! I've been riding it ALL DAY! I love it! Thank you Daddy!

Daddy's Big Announcement in the Senate Today....

Today was the final day of the legislative session here in South Dakota. We headed down to visit Daddy and got to sit on the Senate floor with him again (and, again, Mom didn't have her camera....it was another impromptu visit). Anyhow, Daddy stood up and introduced us and this is what he said. "....my 4 year old daughter Reagan, my 2 year old son Harrison, and.....if all goes well, we will have Baby #3 sitting here next session!" I'm going to be a big sister again!!!! I have since then been blabbing to everyone that Mommy has a baby in her belly! I'm just so excited and so full of questions and I keep lifting up Mom's shirt because I just want to see it! I'm already asking if I can hold it and kiss it and rock it and feed it and play peek-a-boo! This sure is going to be a long wait for me! The baby isn't supposed to come until November 1st! Keep this baby in your prayers so that everything goes well! We're all so excited! Mommy found out about this a few weeks ago (and wisely waited to tell me!) but this is how she told Daddy --- (our school mascot here is the Battler....)

It's beginning to resemble a kitchen again....

Half of the cabinets are in! Just thought we'd post a few pictures for all of you following along....

Hip Hip Hooray!

So we were already at the top of Pops' "biggest fans" list -- he's a funny, generous, smart and silly Pops who we just adore. But it sure is nice when everyone else gets to notice how great he is too.

Marriott made a big announcement today: "Effective May 1, William J. Shaw, currently president and chief operating officer, will become vice chairman of the company..." read it all here:
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=PR&date=20090309&id=9678556

We couldn't be prouder. Congratulations! We love you!

Paint

It was two weeks ago tomorrow that they came to "take our kitchen away" as I like to say....  Amazingly, we are looking at getting the new cabinets installed this week already.  These guys have been terrific and fast and hard working.  Mom & Dad spent all day yesterday painting (thank you Jenna for being a rockstar cousin and babysitter and keeping us all day!).  It is still so weird to look in the room and see all the changes -- it all started with a simple wish to update the appliances and some broken cabinets -- I guess that's how most home improvement projects go! We're looking forward to the changes this week.  This is Daddy's last week in session with the legislature.  Everyone say your prayers and cross your fingers that they get all their work done and figure out a budget that everyone can agree on -- not an easy task this year!

Progress

Things are moving right along in the kitchen -- we are happy to report that it's all going much faster than anticipated and hasn't been nearly the headache that Mom thought it would be! Hopefully we will continue on that road and we didn't just jinx ourselves by saying how smoothly it's going!

With all the work going on here, though, we tend to get out of the house as much as possible, which can be tricky considering it is still very much winter up here! We spent a long time playing at McDonald's the other day and Mom had her camera with her to take pictures of kitchen stuff while we were out shopping so she snapped a few for the blog....

This is me in my gorgeous sweater from Gams -- I got so many compliments on it at church and I just love to wear it!
This is Harrison and me playing a skateboarding video game at McDonald's. Neither one of us could have possibly understood what we were doing with the controls, but we sure made it look like a lot of fun!I made friends with the Ronald McDonald statue....
Harrison made friends with a cheeseburger....
This is me doing the "LAST TIME" on the slide, which I did about six times before being really ready to go!

Harrison has been getting more and more ready to use the potty and has gone a few times and is doing great at staying dry, but he was starting to get a little afraid of the big potty, so we picked out a little one -- let's just say it's not helping. Fortunately, though, he hadn't used it yet so at least it was clean when Mom found him using it as a fishing hole....
Oh well, he'll be ready when he's ready, right?

Here's today's start and finish pictures of the kitchen. They say we could be painting by this weekend already!

Funny Girl

Last night, I was having a hard time going to sleep and Mommy and Daddy had to come upstairs a few times for the typical things: need a drink of water, have to go potty, what about the monsters, I have one more thing to tell you, etc.  So finally Daddy said that was it and here's how that conversation went:

Daddy:   Reagan, this is the last time I am coming upstairs.

Me:        Welllllll, you'll have to come upstairs one more time when YOU go to bed

Man, I'm smart!