A New Start

I am not going to apologize for the delay in updating...Life has been much too busy and stressful lately to bother with recreational activities or blog posting. I posted an incomplete posting just now before this one about house hunting. Well we were successful! So, as you can imagine we have had our hands full lately, but hopefully we can keep you posted more frequently from here on out.

We closed on our house towards the end of May and moved in the second weekend in June. Our family helped us and I think it was the fastest and easiest move ever. We really can't thank them enough. Life has been much different for us coming from our tiny condo into a decent sized house. We have much more room to spread out, and a lot more empty spaces since we don't really have enough furniture right now, Ada thinks it's great to have so much room to play. We also have new responsibilities, such as yard work and lots more to clean. It has taken some getting used to, and we are still adjusting. All in all I think it is a big improvement for our family. We technically are living in a different city now, Peoria which is really just part of Phoenix, but since we never spent much time on this part of town before it really is like a new city to us and we are having fun exploring our new neighborhood and finding new places to eat and things to do, I especially like Rita's an Italian ice shop nearby.

Ada has grown a lot since my last post both physically and as a person. She turned ten months old on friday. She has been crawling for a few months now which has meant some baby-proofing for Mom and I and a lot more freedom and fun for her. She has also been eating lots of people food, it has been fun to see her reactions to different things. She loves rice and hates beans, really likes cheerios, bananas, and pancakes, but doesn't really care for cheese. We have also been working on sign language with her. So far she has successfully picked up, waving "hi" and "bye", milk, more, clapping for things she enjoys and to say "Yea" and food. She can also shake her head yes and no. It makes a world of difference having some type of communication with her. One of the best things in the world is that she routinely shows affection towards Jennie and I. We pray as a family before bed every night  and for the past week at the end of every prayer she leans towards me for a kiss goodnight, it is the sweetest thing in the world.

There is probably a lot more I could ramble on about but I will save some for another post. I hope everyone is well and enjoying their summer. Hopefully, we are back blogging again and will have more to share with you soon!

Our new house

The inside of the house the day we got our keys

Ada on the Fourth of July

On vacation in Sedona

Onward and Upward

I didn't have any work today so I decided to stay home and play with Ada. I thought it would be a good use of time to update you with what has been going on in the Reese household, and post some cute pictures of Ada of course. Hopefully this post will explain some of the absence of new posts.

Jennie and I never seem to sit still for long. I wouldn't really think of us as active people, but we are rarely idle in life and always seem to move from one project or endeavor to the next. Recently that has meant shopping for a new house. Every since Ada has been born it has been very clear to us that our current residence was not going to work for very long. It is a mere 800 something square feet big, and is not located in a great neighborhood for families. It was fine when it was just Jennie and I. It is centrally located, cheap, and requires virtually no maintenance. But we are a family now and we wanted more for Ada, like a nice yard to play in, a good school to go to, and room for a little brother or sister. The only real reason not to move is that we, like nearly everyone else in America were upside-down  on our current mortgage a fact that had haunted us for months as we lay awake at night trying to find a solution to get out of it. Finally I urged Jennie to at least call a real-estate agent to find out what our options were. To Our surprise he informed us that we were in a great position to get a new house and be able to rent our condo, thereby saving our credit and even protecting our chance of one day cashing in on some equity from it. We couldn't be more thrilled, at first...

It had been quite some time since we had been house shopping, and we were quite excited to dive right in. Our constant diet of HGTV had led us to believe the whole process would be a lot of fun. Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of house hunting will know that we were very mistaken. I will spare you the details and just say that we have been at the Six Flags of emotional roller coasters over the past few months. After many failed attempts though we are very close to closing on our new home!

Sorry For The Wait

I know it has been a long time, stop yelling at me...I could start out this post with a long line of excuses about why it has been so long since I have updated. I'll spare you and lets just agree that life gets busy. With all of that business I must have a lot to tell you about, you must be thinking. Well, you're right, so lets get to it.

Ada will be six months old on Tuesday! I can't believe we are already that far along, but here we are. On the other hand it feels like she has already been with us forever. She is such a big girl already. I guess the big news is that she is eating solid foods now, well, mush anyway (thats what we call her rice cereal; in reference to a book that we read her at night) and as of this week some vegetables and rice crackers. She seemed to like green beans alright, but flat out refused to eat peas. I don't blame her. Although I did try some of them myself and they weren't all that awful. I have eaten much worse and lived to tell about it. I hope she is not a picky eater since Jennie and I are somewhat adventurous with our taste in food. I think we are going to try sweet potatoes tonight I don't see how she could not like those, too bad she will have to wait awhile for Dads sweet potato casserole...maybe by thanksgiving.

In Other Reese family news we took our first family vacation at the end of February. We were kind of anxious about traveling eight hours in the car with Ada. Every since she was born she hated her car seat; I know, "Thats so weird babies usually love car rides" "My kids always went right to sleep" Ada is not the typical baby a fact she like to constantly remind us with when we try to do normal baby stuff with her. Miraculously however, about a week before our trip I picked her up from Jennies sisters house and she fell asleep on the way home, hallelujah! We were heading to Ruidoso, New Mexico which is about eight hours away so we decided to leave at night and get a hotel halfway to break the trip up a little bit. That way if she screamed the whole way we would only have to hear four hours of it. To our surprise she slept the whole four hours and then another four after we snuck her into the hotel room. The next morning she slept most of the way to Ruidoso as well. We had a nice little timeshare condo up there and Nana and Pops and met sister Meagan came to stay with us as well. It was Dadddy's birthday so we got to celebrate that while we were there, and it was one of the best I can remember having. Ada and Pops hit it off right away and were best friends the whole time we were there, it was very sad watching them have to leave each other at the end of the trip. Nana did what Nana does best and spoiled us all to death. There is a downtown area with lots of gift shops and galleries and things and Nana got us all something special, it was a really good trip despite being very windy and a little cold, which kind of put a damper on doing more outdoor things. The trip home went well also, and we are already looking forward to our trip to Sedona with Grandma and Papa Sheahan over Memorial day weekend.

I have more things to share but I don't quite have time right now, so how about a to be continued and a goodbye for now. I promise the next one won't take so long. With Love.

Check out this place in Ruidoso. We have an Ada Bear!

Ada and Pops BFF's!

In a big girl high chair

A face full of mush 

Happy Anniversary

I haven't quit blogging. We have just been very busy with work, Ada, and life in general. Things have been going good and there are lots of new things going on in the Reese house and beyond. It is hard to know where to start and I don't want to ramble on so I will try and hit the high points.
Ada is growing like crazy she is reaching the limit in her size 0-3 clothes and I think it is just about time to start putting her into the 3-6 month ones. She turns 4 months tomorrow and has a doctors appointment in the morning, which is kind of a bummer knowing that they are going to give her shots. She is also progressing quite a bit developmentally as well, she has made the transition out of our room and into her crib at night, it has really helped us get a better night sleep and it is funny to see how far she wiggled in the night. She has been staying with Jennies sisters now that Jennie is back to work and seems to really like playing with her aunts and cousins. She has also started falling asleep in the car seat which gives us hope that we will some day be able to travel, which is good because we have a vacation scheduled for next month in New Mexico. She is getting very good with her hands. Her new favorite game is taking her pacifier in and out of her mouth it is really cute.
We have also been up to all kind of things but mostly just boring adult stuff. Today is our three year anniversary, it is weird how different or lives are since our wedding day. Jennie had to work today so we are taking Ada to aunt Lynda's tomorrow and going out to our favorite restaurant tomorrow night. I got to have a nice guys night on tuesday that was pretty fun. I went with a friend to the Barrett Jackson auto auction. I had been before but it had been a really long time. I am not hugely into cars, but there was a lot of really unique things that I had never seen before and it was really good to have a night out with a friend   just hanging out. Well, that is the cliff notes version of things. I will try and do a better job at making weekly updates, and now for some pictures.

When I was younger I liked muscle cars but now I like the little ones

Reminds me of the Jetsons

Prettiest smile ever

With aunt Heidi watching soccer

Christmas Pictures

Ada's cousin Dalllen gave her, her first Christmas present ever. 

Our funny Christmas outfits

The Kitty is the only one who ever gets to see Santa

Opening presents from Nana Claus

Oh Awesome Present!

 We will resume our normal blogging next week. Happy New Year!

Tolstoy Stole My Title

It's Christmas Eve, we made it! I would like to be sleeping in, but I have a sinus infection and am having trouble seeping. Oh well, I'll live. I've had a lot on my mind so I figured I should put this restlessness to use. Normally a post like this one is something that I would save for my personal blog, but I know more people read this one, and I feel it important that this message reach as many people as possible. You see, I have had a couple of events happen in the past few days that have made me realize that we are all in big trouble and there may or may not be a way out.
I have to tip toe around this first one to avoid violating any policies I may have signed. In the course of my usual routine this week, I came in contact with two people whom I regularly deal with in a non-friend sort of relationship. In the past I have had bad experiences with both of them and I generally make an effort to avoid interaction with them as much as possible. I guess I would describe their personalities as: a wild self interest, perpetuated by egotism, and motivated by material gain. Both of these individuals happened to be in the same place this week though, they had family members that were seriously ill and in the hospital. I myself had a sister-in law in the hospital whom was very sick. I found myself wanting so badly to connect with these people on a human level, but I just couldn't when I thought about our past. It is still eating at me now that I let these people hurt when I could have offered them something, at least shared my own struggles. I really have to ask myself am I any better than they are if I see someone hurting and do nothing to try and help? It's not that I didn't want to I was just too afraid, of what, I am not quite sure.
This isn't the first time that I have encountered something like this. I am sure that you have been in this situation as well. You see someone hurting, and you want to reach out to them but its like there is a force field inside or something. It kills me when I know the right thing to do and I ignore it out of fear. Fear is such a weak emotion and I despise it in myself. I will freely admit that fear has been the cause of almost all of the shortcomings in my life. It has held me back from doing so many things that I have wanted to do it's kept me from being the type of friend, husband, boyfriend, student, employee...lets just say Person that I really wanted to be. We see the possibilities; but we are afraid of the judgment, or vulnerability, or failure that might come with it. So we freeze hoping that we can gather the courage or find the right moment to act, but alas, the moment slips away and then we must deal with the guilt and regret. We fail to become our potential...to ease someones pain...in the words of Thoreau we "lead quiet lives of desperation."
My other epiphany came during a lunch I had with my brother-in law Paul. We had a very nice, albeit to brief conversation about politics. Normally it is not a conversation that I would have with someone, but Paul is intelligent, thoughtful, and openminded and I feel safe discussing almost anything with him. We were discussing why I don't care a great deal for Phoenix and I relayed that it was a bit too conservative and I feel out of my element. He had asked me why I dislike political conservatism and I we had a brief discussion about it and some of the presidential candidates. It was kind of a weird coincidence because as of late, I have been studying a little about different types of economic and political systems.
In the few days since our conversation something keeps nagging at me though. As the Presidential election approaches there is all of this political fervor and anger in the air. Everyone is looking for the person to go in and fix this mess in Washington and restore this country to greatness! The thing is, it is the same rhetoric I have been hearing since I was a child. Washington has always been a mess the country has always been in shambles. So when exactly was this idealized utopian America that people dream of, and what does the restoration of that look like? How exactly is someone going to single-handedly come in and restore us to greatness?
The truth is, the revolution must come from within us. No one is going to fix this world, no politician, no government for that matter. We must take responsibility for our lives, and our brothers and sisters lives as well. The problem with politicians is that they tend to poses "a wild self interest perpetuated by egotism and motivated by material gain." If we are to get anywhere each and everyone of us needs to ask ourselves "What am I doing here?' If you can't answer that for yourself, then how can you reasonably make a decision about anything else in your life? What is the point of doing anything, without something that motivates our actions? And how do we know how to act without a goal or end in mind? If we truly desire peace and happiness in the world and not just "things" then shouldn't the majority of our actions and decisions reflect that?  We have the power to end wars right now if we decide to put down our guns. We can end hunger if we feed someone who is hungry. We can stop poverty if we stop greed. Its too simple to actually work; that is the problem. We already have everything we need. We have just become conditioned to accept the current state of the world as the only reality that exists, but it is a self imposed reality.
The Bible says that there was a man born 2000 years ago that told of another way. I am very confused as to wether or not I believe this story to be true, or if this man was really God as he is claimed to be and quite honestly wether there is a God at all. I tend to lean towards the notion that it is true. I have seen the power of this story in the world with my own eyes and have read of thousands of other accounts about the power of this story in other peoples lives. He taught of another type of government "The Kingdom of God" where no one goes hungry, we take care of our brothers and sisters, we love one another even strangers and people we disagree with. I will admit that I fall way short of this message but at this moment I feel compelled to make sure that I spread it. I don't know if it is true, I really don't. And I am definitely not a poster child for Christian living but I like what Jesus had to say wether he was God or not. I think he was on to something. So tonight I will go to church and sing Oh Holy Night and light my neighbors candle to honor Jesus and the power of his words, and I will ask you to remember his message as well and remind me of it when you think I need to be reminded. Because if there is a way out of all of this mess it seems like a good plan. God Bless you and Merry Christmas.

A Beary Merry Christmas

The fourth trimester is officially over, Ada turns 3 months old tomorrow! She is such a big bear. She barely fits in her bassinet now so we have to start transitioning her into her crib soon. We have had a lot going on in the last week, so much so, that I have had a a hard time making time for a post.
She has been a much happier girl lately. She seems to get grumpy for a week and then happy for a while. We think she is just going through growth spurts and so her sleeping patterns change and she gets tired, but then again I only play a doctor on tv. It is a good thing that she decided to shape up this week, because yesterday was Jennies first day back to work, and my first day alone as a parent. Everyone one seemed worried about us, which seems a bit sexist to me. Like I told Jennie, I take care of myself and my life is much more complicated, so I can't see why taking care of her should be any more difficult. I think we did just fine, we were both happy and i had her fed and down for naps at her regular intervals. So chalk one up for men.
In other family news we have spent a lot of time celebrating the holidays. We spent most of the weekend with the Bennions doing Christmas activities. Saturday we made gingerbread houses and had pizza, and Sunday we went over and watched "Its a Wonderful Life" and I made snowflakes with the kids it was a lot of fun! Tonight we are having a family Christmas get-together and singing Christmas songs, drinking wassail, and eating goodies. I can't wait for this weekend but i am sad that the holidays are almost over. Well, I just wanted to do a quick update for you that follow this thing. I will write a longer more well thought out one when things slow down a bit. Love you and Merry Christmas!

My Gingerbread Church with Gummy Nativity

All The Houses

Most Reesent photo of Ada

Jennie thought this picture was funny because I had on camp and she
is wearing green and brown she said I should post it.