Category: Holidays

Alison, Holidays, Reed

Christmas/New Years

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We realized not too long ago that when Reed gets home and is cranky after his full day at daycare, it’s because he gets bored at home and had nothing to do or play with. It was so bad that he refused to come inside from the car, and wanted to stay in the garage to ride in the stroller or his wagon. Julie and I are not the type to buy toys for him on random occasions, so the last new toy he got was for his 1st birthday…. in March. Call me crazy, but I think the kid has had a little bit of mental and physical development since then, and his infant/toddler toys just don’t cut it for him anymore.

So, this Christmas we planned to make a concerted effort to beef-up his toy box and plan for toys that he will grow into. He has taken a huge interest in cars, trucks and trains. He also has an obsession with any type of ball sport.

This was also the first Christmas in our new home. We have been extremely happy with the additional space and couldn’t wait to actually have a place for a Christmas tree! As silly as it sounds, it was one of those things that we were so acutely aware of in the last house that it was important for us in the next one.

We had a an extremely restful vacation between Christmas and New Years. Julie and I were both off of work the entire week, so we would send Reed to daycare for the majority of the day and get a few things done around the house. The “stay-cation” was much needed R&R time for us, and well-timed before Baby Alison comes.

Our family will never be the same after this holiday season. We anxiously await Alison’s arrival, but we are not too quick to let go of this time we have as just the three of us.

-RB

Holidays, Reed

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

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Reed’s second Halloween was certainly more interactive than his first. As you may remember, as a Garden Gnome, he pretty much just sat there for us to take pictures, and Trick-or-Treating was us following the older kids around with Reed in a stroller. This year was our first as parents of a child that got excited about candy.

Reed as been blessed with a fairly round noggin and his bleach blond hair makes him look pretty much bald. He’s a little short and stocky with a pretty calm demeanor… remind you of anyone? Charlie Brown, of course!!

I’ll credit Julie with this costume yet again, but she nailed it… and probably at the perfect age. She found a “Cartoon Charlie” shirt online a few months ago and had to guess at what size he would be come October. Luckily she guessed right. The other trick was finding some black shorts in the Fall, when all the summer clothes were gone… Walmart came to the rescue… in the clearance rack. She then found some little brown converse tennis shoes that rounded out the costume. However, there was something missing that need to make this a “costume” and not just an outfit…. Snoopy!!

I scoured the stores on the afternoon of Halloween, looking for a store that would have a Snoopy doll. Target… no. Walmart…. no. Off to the mall. There were no stores that had Peanuts merch!! Finally I stepped into the Build-A-Bear and asked where I could find a Snoopy doll. Fortunately the lady there had seen some stuff at the Hallmark store just a few shops down. I thought to myself… Hallmark? Probably the last place I would have looked. Lo-and-behold, the store had tons of options! I asked why the scarcity on the Peanuts merch, and the cashier replied, “Hallmark own the rights to Peanuts.” Well… there you go.

Back to Snoopy. I picked out the best option that Reed could possibly carry around in his backpack while he was trick-or-treating around. Reed has never taken an interest in stuffed animals, so this was a long shot, but I figured it would be good for some pictures at the very least. To both of our surprise, Reed latched onto Snoopy when I came home and pulled him out! He immediately carried him around and treated him like is new favorite toy. It was perfect! Score one for Dad.

This was Reed’s first year to trick-or-treat. There are plenty of older kids in our friend group that Reed just had to follow in order to catch on. He caught on pretty quick that all he had to do was hold out his basket and these people would put stuff in it…pretty easy. The hard part was keeping up with all those kids with much longer legs!!

We brought along the wagon as the group of adults moved down the street with the kids. Reed would go to a few houses and then need a rest, as he used the time to also sort through his loot. “Pregnant Peyton Manning” pulled the wagon down the street as “Nolan Ryan” followed “Charlie Brown” up to the front doors.

We had a blast, and Reed did too. It was fun to watch him learn such a big tradition right in front of our eyes as he started grasping what was going on around him.

RB

Holidays, Randy

Father's Day 2010

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My second Father’s Day was not one I would care to remember. I came down with a stomach virus at about 5am and spent the next 6 hours making trips to the bathroom for more than one reason… I was down for the count.

Needless to say, I missed out on the Father’s Day plans that we had to spend at my parent’s house with Mama B and Papa Roy as well. Instead, Julie took Reed to her parents to spend it with her dad, as well as allow me to get more rest with a quiet house.

I am blessed to have had such a great First Father’s Day, because this one was not one I care to remember.

RB

Holidays

Easter party pictures

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I found several pictures that I love and never posted.

Holidays

Resolutions

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We had an uneventful New Years.  We invited a few families and my parents over to the house for a laid back evening.  That’s not quite what happened.  Our house is flat out too small to host any more gatherings if we can’t be outside.  We were bursting at the seams with only a few people!!!

Now to the point of my post…Resolutions.  I go back and forth on whether or not I agree with or believe in resolutions.  I believe in goals, I believe in constantly bettering yourself (drives Randy crazy), but I don’t believe in only doing it once a year and making the resolution for an entire year.  Small goals are much more achievable.  All that being said, I think I have a good one this year.  My resolution is to stop taking myself so seriously.  The girls in my accountability group know all about my shortcomings and my self induced drama, but the rest of you might not.

I am so hard on myself at all times.  It starts with my weight, and continues to my house not being perfect, and not being the smartest person at my job, and not dressing well enough, and I don’t spend enough time in devotion with God and I’m not a wonderful girlfriend, and I don’t write thank you notes…the list literally goes on.  I never give myself a break.  To illustrate how bad I can be, when I was a kid in school my parents never once punished me for a bad grade.  My mom’s logic was that I was already punishing myself enough so she didn’t need to.  And she was right!

All of this nonsense is taxing as you can imagine.  So my resolution is to give it a rest already.  I will lose this weight slowly, we will buy a new house one day that has the space I want, I’ve only been in my job for 3 months obviously I won’t be the best, etc.  This year more than ever I truly pray that I can keep my resolution forever!

J

Holidays, Reed

Reed’s First Christmas

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img_6911I love Christmas.  But Christmas is not Christmas without children.  I have felt that for many years and especially since Randy and I have been married.  This year Christmas was Christmas again!!

Christmas Eve we went to Victoria to be with the Pribyl family (Randy’s mom’s family).  They are huge family and I have such a wonderful time with them.  It only stinks that we only see them once a year.  I wish we could find another time to get together.  I love that celebration, but it is a very tough day.  We left the house around 8 and didn’t get home until 8.  Lots of driving, but lots of love and fun.  After we got home we had to wrap all of our presents (one of the things I had planned to do but then got sick) and ‘disassemble’ the toys we bought for Reed.  Why do they make those toys SO hard to get out!!??

Christmas morning Randy and I woke up early like a couple of children.  We opened our presents to each other (not much after the TV) and then woke Reed up.  He opened played with his new toys (a set of whiffle balls that cost about $5 were his favorite) and then I started the coffee and put breakfast in the oven.

My family came over and spent the morning with us.  It was a wonderful morning.  We relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company.

Randy, Reed and I spent the afternoon relaxing and napping and then Randy’s family came over.  More present opening and family time.  All in all it was a fantastic Christmas and I am excited for next year 🙂

J

Holidays

Thanksgiving

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img_6501Thanksgiving might be my second favorite holiday (next to Easter) because I love to cook and I love to plan and I love to hostess.  This year we wanted to eat Thanksgiving dinner at GG’s house (my dad’s mom) because she has the most space.  My only request was that I get to help cook and hostess.  GG came one step further and said I could cook it all if I wanted to, so I did.  Two weeks before Thanksgiving I started making a menu, a grocery list and a timeline.

Mom, Diana, Adrianne and I went to GG’s house on Wednesday night to prep and have some family time.   Dad couldn’t stay away so he joined us too.  It was a fun night of laughing and cooking.  Then on Thursday I went to work and cooked the whole dinner except the mashed potatoes.  It was a busy day but a wonderful one.

I won’t speak for Randy, but this has been the best year of my life.  Its also been one of the hardest between caring for a newborn and saying goodbye to Alison and Shiloh.  On Thanksgiving I couldn’t help but think about Alison and Shelly and be sad that neither of them had children in their short lives.  Reed has changed us forever and I can’t wait to watch him grow up.  His smiling face makes me smile from the inside out.  (I wish he would let me squeeze him more because I can’t seem to get enough!!)

To all of my friends and family, thank you for being a part of my life.  I am happier and more fulfilled than I ever dreamed I could be.

Julie

Holidays

Halloween!!

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img_6289I absolutely love Halloween, always have.  I’m a nerd, but I have always pictured my sweet family trick or treating with other families.  I dreamed of a group of friends with children around the same age to grow up together.  All I can say is God is Good!  You will see from the pictures that we had a very animated an colorful group for trick or treating on Saturday!!

The Swayze’s invited us all over for photos with the kids and trick or treating to follow.  We had lots of laughs and I think the kids got lots of candy (Reed didn’t collect, we just walked with everyone else).  I couldn’t have asked for a more fun Halloween and can’t wait to do it in years to come!!

gnomeWe dressed Reed up as a garden gnome.  There is a short story behind that…3 years ago the Thomas’, Tutts and Berrys decided it would be fun to fork our yard.  No, we are not in high school, but those things are still hilarious!  Not only did they fork our yard (ie: 500 plastic forks stuck in our lawn), but they wrapped Randy’s truck in saran wrap and left us a garden gnome. That gnome (see right) still sits on our front porch to this day!

We have taken turns getting each other back in the last 3 years (in fact, we and the Thomas’ got the Berry’s last year on Halloween night!)  Last September I was pregnant but didn’t know if we were having a boy or girl.  I saw a picture of a garden gnome costume in a magazine and loved it!  Thankfully we ended up with a boy or it would have been sort of weird.  I doubt that I will ever have Reed’s costume picked out a year in advance again, but you never know!

Happy Halloween!!!

Holidays, Reed, Travel

July 4th

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img_4292July 4th weekend at Lake LBJ was significant for many reasons.  As previously mentioned the lake property has been in my dad’s family for many years and I spent most weekends as a child up there.  As I grew up we started bringing friends to join us and July 4th turned into a big party weekend.  After I moved to San Antonio the party weekends stopped, but then Randy joined in and it became a family weekend.  This year was the best ever because it was the first time Reed was at the lake.

This weekend was especially sentimental to me because I found out I was pregnant with Reed the Sunday after July 4th 2008.  All weekend I kept thinking about how much that one moment changed our lives forever.  The last time I was at the lake before this weekend was when I told my family I was pregnant.  I am so thankful that so many important moments happened at such an important place.

Reed also had a few firsts this weekend.  Obviously it was his first time to swim in the lake.  He has been swimming in the pool, but not the lake.  It was also his first boat ride.

But the most important first is that he rolled over for the first time!!  Sunday morning (the day after his four month birthday) he was playing in his pack n play while we packed up and I happened to look over at him as he rolled over from back to front.  I am so proud of him!!  Then, yesterday I put him on his belly for tummy time and within 10 seconds he rolled from front to back.  And so it begins….

Holidays, Julie, Randy, Reed

Proud to announce… Reed Matthew Baldwin

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Merry Christmas!!

We have picked today to give Baby Baldwin #1 an official name, Reed Matthew. The name has been circulating for several weeks now amongst our family and friends, but with all the new babies we have visited and announced, I felt the announcement and the title might have been lost in the mix. So I picked our “Christmas post” to make it official.

For those that don’t know, the initials “RMB” have been in my immediate family for 3 generations already. In the Baldwin extended family, all the boys at least begin with an “R” and have various middle initials. I have never wanted a Randy Jr, so the search for boy names started in the Rs and ended in the Ms.

Neither “Reed” or “Matthew” hold any significance in our families. My goal was simple, but distinctively a boy name. Not too trendy, but not old-fashioned. For the longest time, “Ryan” was my first choice, but within the last 3 years we have met a number of Ryans, so it was losing its uniqueness in my mind. To me, “Reed” fits the same mold as “Ryan”, and we’ve had a great response from it. The next challenge was to find an M-name that matched… and Julie picked “Matthew”.

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!

-RB & JB

ps — After MANY requests, we finally have a belly pic to show everyone!