Reynolds Family: 2013

Sunday, December 29, 2013

DELANEY ANN FREESE

Delaney Ann was Born at 8:59 p.m. on Thursday, December 26, 2013!

Shortly after the boys and I had gotten inside from playing out in the snow Thursday afternoon, Liz called to tell me that her water broke and her and Josh were on their way to the hospital. If I could have picked up and gone to Cedar Falls right then, I would have. However, since the boys were with me and Lee had to work the next day, I held off and decided to wait to leave until morning with the boys.

After the boys were put into bed Thursday night, I was on the phone with my mom while she and my dad stood right outside the door of Josh and Liz’s hospital room. It was torture to not be there!

And, at 8:59, I finally heard my mom say that there was laughter and relief happening on the other side of that hospital room door. And after knowing that this baby girl was born, I let my mom go enjoy the moment inside the room with Josh, Liz, and my dad. Everyone is so happy!

The boys and I took off right away Friday morning to go see Delaney, Josh, and Liz at the hospital. We were all so excited!

She is the most beautiful baby girl and we are so happy to have her as a niece/cousin!

It turns out that Tyler is absolutely in love with his little cousin Delaney! He held her for most of the time that we were at the hospital on Friday.

My mom and I took the boys out to lunch after being at the hospital Friday morning. While at lunch, Tyler said, “I can’t wait to go back to the hospital and hold Delaney!”

The boys have their very first cousin and they are extremely in love with her!

Grandma with her grandkids.

Grandpa with his grandkids.

My boys and my beautiful niece.

Me and Delaney.

I did get to hold her for a little bit and gave Tyler a little break. But he didn’t go too far!

Brady has been the one that has been so excited for Baby Freese throughout Liz’s pregnancy. He would give Liz’s belly kisses, he would talk of baby Delaney A LOT, he would always question as to when the baby would get here, but on the day when he actually got to see baby Delaney, it took him a little bit to warm up to her. He did however ‘warm up’, and was happy to hold her and give her kisses.

Birth: Nailed It! Good Job, Delaney! We are so glad you did!

Once again, Tyler holding her before we could leave.

Grandma Mary with her first granddaughter.

We always drive past these wind turbines when we travel to Cedar Falls. Some people think they make a place look ugly, however, the boys love to watch them and I think they are pretty darn cool. I had to take a picture of them on our drive home Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful winter day.

We drove back to Cedar Falls on Sunday (today) so that Uncle Lee could meet his new beautiful niece.

The happy Uncle with his little sweetie.

And we weren’t really sure if we were even making the trip to Cedar Falls today. But, Tyler woke up this morning and said, “I hope we can go to Josh and Liz’s today to see Baby Delaney!”

We couldn’t say ‘no’ to that!

Grandpa Freese was at Josh and Liz’s today as well. Here’s Grandpa holding his lovely granddaughter.

We are in love with Baby Delaney with all of our hearts and cannot wait to see her again. This next 3 weeks is going to take awhile!

A PERFECT WINTER DAY

The day after Christmas had temperatures in the 40’s, sunshine, and no wind! It was a perfect day to be outside and playing in the snow! Lee had to go back to work, but the boys and I were at home, playing with new toys, putting Christmas decorations away, cleaning the house, and playing out in the snow!

Here’s some pictures that captured the fun that we had out in the snow that afternoon. They scooped off the back deck, made snow angels, threw snowballs, shoveled up snow, swung on the swings, went down the slide, and had a terrific time being outside in wonderful winter weather!

I love being able to have this time off of work to be able to spend my time with these wonderfully amazing boys!

Brady wore these glasses pretty much the whole day that day.

And Tyler loves his spy gear from Santa.

Shortly after we got back inside, I received a phone call from Liz. Her and Josh were on the way to the hospital……!!!!

Like I said, it was a perfect Winter day!

Onto my next post….

OUR CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas!…

And what a wonderful Christmas it was!

With both my mom and Josh having to work on Christmas Eve this year, we had both our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day free for just our family time.

We had such a nice two days at home, loving each other’s company and Christmas spirit. The kids were full of excitement and joy and were in love with everything that surrounded them.

Brady had been wanting me to take a picture of him sleeping with his Chippy, and I had finally captured the perfect time to do it.

Christmas Eve started out with a special breakfast. They were served Santa pancakes, sticky rolls, and fruit. Delicious! I’m glad I took a picture before they began, because those pancakes didn’t last long on their plates. They were empty within just a couple minutes!

Besides having Lee take the kids into Des Moines to do some last minute Christmas Eve shopping after breakfast, we spent the rest of our day playing family games and watching Christmas movies.

They got Disney Headbanz last year for Christmas. Love this game!

When the boys got back from shopping, Chippy had moved spots in the house and left the boys a note. They were so excited and happy to have a note from Chippy. Tyler found it and laid down to READ this note to us! I love that he can read!!!

My mom made her way to our house for our Christmas Eve dinner. We enjoyed a great meal together, and then…

The boys got to open up one present, for the both of them, on Christmas Eve. They got 4 Christmas movies and some popcorn. So, we popped up some popcorn, sat on the couch, and watched some Christmas movies! I’d say it was a perfect Christmas Eve.

The boys seriously woke up EACH morning, since the day after Thanksgiving, with excitement, smiles, and wonder as to where Chippy was at in our house. They were actually very saddened to know that Chippy would be flying back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve and not be returning the next morning.

They sat down next to Chippy, under our tree, and said their good-byes.

They left some cookies and milk for Santa, an apple for Rudolf, and some carrots for the rest of the reindeer.

Santa came!

Spy Gear for Tyler. Stuffy for Brady. Hedbanz Act Up, Bop it!, and Despicable Me Fart Gun for both of the boys. 3 games for their X-Box 360 with Kinect and a new Kidz Bop CD for both of them.

Them running into our room first thing Christmas morning to see their stockings hanging from our footboard of our bed, is just awesome! To have that few extra minutes to go through their “little” things in their stockings before running downstairs is great. And, strangely enough, one of the gift highlights from the entire day would have to be one of those “little” things that they got in their stocking….they are in love with their Monster’s U hand sanitizer that attaches to their backpacks!

And then downstairs we go!!!

They both received exactly what they had asked for from Santa and were both so happy!

They had both gotten a Switch ‘n Go Dino last year for Christmas. It is actually a toy that they have continued to play with throughout the entire year, so I thought that they would like another. And they did!

Brady got another game (since he also asked Santa for new games), which is a Monster’s U version of the game ‘Guess Who?’, which they love and have played over and over again.

Tyler got a Dr. outfit to wear and dress up in. Tyler has wanted to be a Dr. since he was 2. Lately he has also said that he wants to play football and be a football player when he grows up. We continue to tell him that he can play football and then become a Dr.

Here they are opening together their new X-Box 360 with Kinect from Lee and I. The box wasn’t that cool and didn’t get much excitement from them. However, when Lee hooked it up and they started playing, they were beyond thrilled!