Before the rain

Yesterday Mommy took us to the Nellie's Cave park for a little while before it was supposed to rain. I was in dire need of a slide, and Mommy hates the baby swings at the park across the street from our house. Emma Grace and I LOVE to swing. We're swinging fools. In fact... I didn't even want to slide once I got in the swing.

After about 30 minutes of swinging, Mommy's arms were about to fall off, so she voted for a nature walk before returning home. She wanted to find some big sticks, so we set off.

We eventually arrived at a small little quiet area where there were benches, GIGANTIC rocks, and some really pretty flowers. It provided the perfect place for Emma Grace and I to do some more exploring. Emma mainly played in the dirt.

I ran around like a chicken with head cut off... or a 2.5 year old... whichever you prefer. :) There were so many neat things to touch!

Emma Grace branched out and also played with sticks. Here she is trying to use her voodoo mind spells on Mommy.

Eventually we had to head home because of the rain. Now back to the sticks. Mommy got this idea from the crafting blog to the right over there. Daddy bought Mommy half of a whiskey barrel for their 5 year wedding anniversary (traditional gift is something wooden) with the intention of making a sweet little garden together. The thought was there, but the energy and follow through weren't... not to mention the surprise trip to Iowa and birth of our Emma Grace. This worked out though because I'm super interested in gardening right now, so Mommy and Daddy bought me my own little Oscar the Grouch tools from Lowe's, and we're determined to make a garden for my green beans. Okay... anywho... so one of the crafts on the site is painting sticks to make a stick garden. The finishing product is really beautiful, so Mommy and I began working today on my very special stick garden to add to my green bean garden. :) We're also going to be working on my own sign!

Pantsless mermaids?

Hello world. I would like you to meet Mermaid Elizabeth Pattison; she's from California. I just learned that my full name was Reese Elizabeth Pattison, so now everyone's name is ------- Elizabeth Pattison. :) Well except for Emma Grace's... I understand that combo. Mommy and Daddy have also informed me that their names are in fact Mommy Pattison and Daddy Pattison, but to be honest, I'm not buying it.
On another note... I'm too sexy for my piggy bank, too sexy for my pants... what you think about that? (Sung to the tune of "I'm too sexy" by Right Said Fred.)

10 months

Rachel here. I can't believe we'll be celebrating my butter bean's birthday in 2 months! Where has the time gone? She is the sweetest most precious little thing... completely different from her sister... yet equally as charming.
Emma Grace is crawling like a crazy person these days, and has even been known to crawl on her hands and feet as opposed to knees. I caught her yesterday trying to climb the stairs... successfully having gone up one. :) Emma is really trying to perfect her pull up. She can successfully pull up to her knees on EVERYTHING, and is really good at pushing up to her feet. Meaning... she'll crawl over to me, push herself up off of my leg and onto her feet and grabbing onto my shoulders (I'm sitting down of course). It's only a matter of time before she's cruising! :)

As far as eating... she's still enjoying 7 meals a day. Four 7oz bottles of 4oz formula and 3 oz breastmilk. We've decided to hold off on the sippy cup drama until she's on whole milk, and just switch everything all at once like we did with Reese. She more than likely won't eat for a couple of days, but it'll work itself out. We bought some jarred foods for her the other day, and I'm working on my last batches of homemade food. Each meal, I've been giving her something she can pick up and eat with her fingers and then baby food after. Some things she loves to eat by herself are bananas (seriously all of the sudden she likes them... try try again!), peas, puffs, yogurt melts, toast, mum mums, green beans, and macaroni noodles.

LOVES: playing screaming games with Reese in the car (dueling banjos style), playing with Reese's toys as opposed to her own, riding in her stroller (as long as it's moving), chasing after her big sister, eating ANYTHING... whether it's edible or not, and having free reign of the house.

LOATHES: sitting still while getting her diaper changed, when Mommy leaves the room, when she can't get into a room due to a baby gate, and the first 1-2 minutes of a car ride.

I am in full party planning mode! Most (if not all) of the decor has been purchased. I still have to make her invitations, but I'm waiting for a nice warm day for a special addition to add to them. ;) There is a variety of food that will need to be ordered, but there is plenty of time for that. Until next month!

Gone Fishin'

VT was hosting their annual fishing something or other today at The Duck Pond, so Daddy decided it would be super fun to take me to use my new Cars fishing pole! We started the morning bright and early (it was like 9 am... hehe) looking for night crawlers. Daddy found like 4, so we ended up stopping by "Snuffy's" for a container... of which I probably used 1. :)

When we arrived, it was chilly and SUPER windy. Emma Grace was smiley for about 5 seconds... just long enough to get a cutie picture. Don't you just heart her ponytail?

Soon Daddy and I were baiting my hook. As soon as Daddy would cast my line, I would reel it back in. This approach makes it just a tad bit difficult to catch a fish, but I digress.

I caught not a darn thing, and we lasted all of 30 minutes, but by god it was a blast!

3 years ago...

4.16.10. 3 years after our community was changed forever. I say community because the school is forever growing, the students are forever changing, but the spirit of the community remains the same. We all came together once again to celebrate the lives of 32 Hokies. While attending many of the activities has been deemed nearly impossible with 2 wee tots, we did manage to make it to campus for the picnic on The Drillfield (Bryan was able to work from home, and took some extra time at lunch to come with us). We were lucky enough to find this AMAZINGLY beautiful tree to enjoy some quality family time.

This is Reese's new cheeseball smile. For the love!

We made our way to the memorial to pay our respects. It's always neat to see the things people leave behind...

The university also made an addition to the memorial... these beautiful benches in honor of the survivors. They were dedicated the day prior to the anniversary.

Reese made sure to model their use for the world. :)

While we were making our way to the memorial, we were stopped by a local reporter. Mommy must have a sign written across her forehead because this is not the first time she's been interviewed in relation to 4.16.07. Mommy does a whole lot of choking up, but we thought it was a lovely piece nonetheless, AND I make my television debut!

Bryan and I were students before this tragedy, and now we're residents after the tragedy. Blacksburg is our home, and the home of our children... while they will never remember what happened, we'll be damned if they ever forget about it. We will always live for 32.

Scared out of my mind...

Rachel here. So tomorrow Bryan and I are packing our car with Reese and Emma Grace to go across town. To. Look. At. A. Preschool. For. Reese. Can you sense the drama. I literally feel sick to my stomach just typing that. :( The school we're taking a peek at tomorrow is for those that are 3 by Sept. 30, which Reese is not... she missed the cutoff by 11 days... this will be the topic of many fights until we have her in Kindergarten. This particular facility says they do in fact take children who are close to the cutoff if they feel the child is ready. There was another facility in The Burg we were considering, but they don't offer a part time schedule. Since we have the possibility that Reese would be in preschool for 3 years, we'd like to be able to ease her into it. As an educator, this milestone in her life is so special and important to me. I know starting her early will allow her to learn so much before she's even technically in school. I've been able to work with her some here at home, but it's extremely draining to work with her and tend to Emma Grace and the house at the same time. HOWEVER as a parent, I am so sad and so scared of letting her go. Yes, I understand... it's just preschool... not college... BUT this means I'm handing over control of my child for 3 hours twice a week, and frankly I don't like it. :) I'm VERY nervous leaving my children... even if it's with family. My children are very loved, but they are MY (well Bryan's too... hehe) children, and I take pride in how they've turned out thus far. Once they start school, they'll want the newest sneakers, the hottest shirts, and the most up to date electronics. How the hell do you raise children with old school morals and dreams in today's world? Who knows... maybe we'll go tomorrow and completely hate this place, and then I can go on in my happy little family bubble for another year. :)

The O.C.

Rachel here. UGH! I can not even tell you how much fun we all had in California! It was a much needed vacation for me, and I don't think I could have spent it with better people. It's nice that so many years can go by, and you can still have a great time with old friends. Girls... it was a blast, and I can't wait to do it again!

Thanks to Callie for these great pictures! I traveled cameraless because our rule is "the camera stays with the girls," but tons of pictures were taken, so I should have plenty more to share. :) Our original plan was to head to San Diego right off the plane to go to the zoo, but we decided it would be way more fun to just take it easy, eat as much as we could and do some shopping. So instead we headed to Laguna for some lunch. I had the yummiest chicken caesar wrap with avocado. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! After lunch we meandered on down to San Diego and Coronado for a peek at Balboa park, drinks, and dinner. By the time we got back to Callie's, it was in the wee hours of the morning back home, so we were beyond pooped.

Day 2 brought lots of shopping and goofing off in Laguna. We began at this yummy cafe for breakfast closer to Callie's if I remember correctly. It didn't take us long though to get into trouble. Kristen decided to relive her "Laguna Beach" watching days. :)


The beach was beautiful! While waiting to get into a hotel bar for some yummy drinks before dinner, we wandered down to the water and took some cutie pictures.

That night for dinner we went back to Callie's neck of the woods and ate at the cutest little place called The Cellar. It was a piano bar where we drank some wine/beer and ate some super yummy cheese. The dinner was phenomenal! This is where we decided we'd spend the rest of the trip sharing our meals... BEST IDEA EVER! The food in California is unlike anything I've had before!

Saturday was to be our last full day out west, so we spent it doing the greatest thing ever... tasting wine! Beyond fun. We made it to 3 different vineyards before making it back to Laguna for some Mexican food (where we took some HYSTERICAL pictures and saw Jonah Hill, but I believe Kristen has those ;)).

While I was out west, Reese and Daddy were back home working on the perfect souvenir for me. :) It's California... full of traffic, an airport (including helicopter pads), a thoughtful bike trail, and the beach... full of umbrellas and REAL sand! :)

SO.MUCH.FUN!