Play Date

I am absolutely loving my time at home with Miss Reese, but the one worry I have had is the lack of interaction she has versus being in childcare with other kids on a daily basis.  Luckily, we get out and about just about every day and have great friends in town with little ones to get together with and play! 

We had a great time last week with Lindsey and Caroline and look forward to this being the first of many play dates.  I could just tell by the look on Reese's face (even though these photos don't show it) that she just loved playing with Caroline.  Of course, Caroline has 4 months on Reese and is able to do a lot more with her toys and move around, but soon that age difference won't matter a bit and I know they will be fast friends.  Another plus, getting to play with someone else's toys is always refreshing for all of us.  And don't forget their other friend Elle Ehlert...I know she will be the ringleader of the whole crowd!  We can't wait!

5 Months

Wowzers!  We're almost to the half-year mark.  Our little lady continues to amaze us and keep us smiling!  She continues to communicate with her voice, ranging from giggles, to laughs, to screeches, to coos and da das.  Of course JP says she is saying "Daddy", but of course we all know she isn't consciously calling out his name.  Everything goes straight to her mouth, even the soap in the bathtub!  Her feet have become her favorite toy, and just today I noticed she had her big toe in her mouth, too!  It amazes me how flexible babies are! 

As for other milestones, she has yet to rollover.  I feel like she gets somewhat close, but honestly I don't think she has any interest in it right now.  She is almost sitting up by herself, so I think she might sit up completely unassisted before she rolls over, which quite honestly is ok with me, considering I will have to be much more diligent in where I set her and not turn my back.  Of course, I want her to reach these milestones on time, maybe even early, but I'm kind of ok just the way things are now.

We have spent quite a bit of time the past 3 weeks in Brenham for various events.  It's been fun hanging out with all of the grandparents and cousins, too!  Ta ta for now.

cousin love!

with Grandpa and Finley (yes, they are only 4 months apart)

our attempt to get all 4 cousins in one shot

and this is what it turned in to...Reese was huuuungraaaay!

loving outside with Grammy

loving her daddy on Father's Day

Finally made it into Uncle Mike's arms

Way to go Cubs!

What a great game to take home the State 4A Championship!  We were thrilled to make the short drive up to Round Rock and watch our alma mater play at Dell Diamond.

Tuscany in Texas

We didn't have major plans for Memorial Day Weekend this  year, which was a nice change of pace.  So, we decided to jaunt out to the Hill Country for a little winery touring and tasting.  I absolutely love that we can drive less than 2 hours and have such neat places to visit, and still make it back home that night.

I love the Texas Hill Country.  We drive through Fredricksburg several times a year on our way to the ranch, but usually we are trying to get there fast and get home fast, so we don't stop and take the time to visit some of the great places along the way.  We had grand plans to visit several wineries, but it didn't quite turn out that way, but we had an awesome day, nonetheless, that I would be happy to repeat again!

Our first stop (and only winery stop) was Texas Hills Winery, just outside Johnson City.  For all of you non-Texas readers, Johnson City is in fact named after our late president Lyndon B. Johnson and his family's ranch is situated just outside of town.  We really liked Texas Hills.  They have a great Pinot Grigio that actually stands up pretty well to the famed Santa Margherita.  One of our other faves was the Kick Butt Cab.  If you're ever in the area, it's a great place to stop and have a taste!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that we stopped in Drippin' for breakfast and here are my two main squeezes

Then, we ventured into Fredricksburg to meet The Rankin's and their new baby boy, Miles.  Our timing was off a bit, so we found ourselves at Lincoln Street Wine Market enjoying the offerings while we waited (darn!).  Another great place!  You can get ANYTHING they have by the glass!   Their noshes are great too....I recommend the chevre gouda and some proscuitto....yummy!  Miss Reese loved the wine bar, too.  She is such a little trooper and can't help but like being out and about.  JP and I have truly made her a part of our busy lives, not holding back on much, and she's loved every minute of it.

chillaxin' on the sofa

the little man and me...it was so great to meet you!

We really enjoyed seeing The Rankin's and meeting their newest addition!  We finally decided to forego our "Tuscany" theme and headed over to Auslander for some beer battered mushrooms.  I really don't have any other recommendations there, but their beer battered mushrooms are THEBOMB.COM!

the boys enjoying some true German fare (the order and a half of 'shrooms weren't enough, I guess)

Awwwwwwe!  Two happy families!

So, I'm really looking forward to our next trip to Italy--Tuscany, to be exact--but in the meantime, I'll settle for an 1.5 hour drive to the Texas Hill Country and play pretend.

4 Months

...and  yet another month has come and gone.  Where the time goes....I haven't the slightest clue!  Reese reached the 4 month mark this past Saturday and my was it a busy month.  First there were Matt and Shell's wedding festivities, then my 1st Mother's Day (which, by the way was a great one and I have a beautiful blue topaz ring from my husband and daughter to remember it by), and I've gone back to work....sort of.  This post is all about Reese, so I don't want to bore you with too many of the details, but Graco (teutonia and Aprica, too) has contracted me to work on all of the details for the 2010 ABC Kids Expo in October in Las Vegas.  So part of my day is also dedicated to this, which makes things CRAZY BUSY!

So, back to Reese.  She is a growin' little girl.  We went to the doc yesterday and here are her stats:

Weight: 15 lbs 4 oz (85th percentile)

Height:  25 1/2" (90th percentile)

Becoming quite the "long chunk".  My mom calls her "chunky monkey".  She is really starting to have fun with her toys and of course everything goes straight to her mouth.  She continues to be quite the little chatter box, too!  The girl just doesn't quit...the only time she really sits still is when she's sleeping.  And speaking of sleeping, she doesn't want to miss a thing, keeping her up during the day more than the average baby.  She does sleep great at night though!

getting used to her entertainer...her favorite is for me to sing along with Old MacDonald

these are her two bff's

I recently bought her the Jump N Jive doorway jumper (the musical mat is awesome!), and I can't wait until she understands how to use it like Will  I'm a little biased about this product, too, because I worked on the commercialization plans for it while I was at Graco.

So, basically, we are just chuggin' along and loving our little lady more and more everyday.

Here she is lately....

with Daddy in the pool

in her float

enjoying an evening on the patio...note the bug on her cheek

loving the duckie

loving bathtime with Daddy

Bluebonnets

Yes, I know they have come and gone in our great state, but I did have Reese's first spring in the bluebonnets documented.  I mean what would life be like in Texas, without photos like these?  I would be a horrible mother if I didn't get some. And for those of you out-of-staters, the bluebonnet is Texas' state flower and every spring you see the sides of the highway littered with people taking pictures in them.  I'm proud to say that these are NOT on the side of the highway.

There was this great deal through Alicia Cargile Photography that I just couldn't pass up.  She was offering the sitting fee for $20 for bluebonnet shots and all of the proceeds went to the Brenham State School.  Hello!?, even if there was only 1 good shot, it would have been worth it.  Now the bad thing is, there really isn't a bad shot and we have to make some decisions.

Reese was only 2 months when these were taken, so sitting up in the bluebonnets on her own wasn't going to happen, so I had the bright idea to use this antique red rocking chair.  It was my grandmother's dad's and I think it really turned out to be a great prop!

These are a few of my faves.

Another House Divided

Last weekend, the time had finally come...Shelley and Matt's nuptials.  We've been looking forward to this for quite sometime, and let me tell you, the weekend did not disappoint.  There was literally no detail left undone. 

A quick history of this lovely couple, for those of you who don't know:

• Shelley: one of my besties from Texas Tech and Theta sister!
• Matt: friend of JP's from UT...they worked together for the football team while they were students and now Matt is Equipment Manager for UT Football

These two are so special to us and we are absolutely thrilled to have two great friends ready to spend the rest of their lives together.  And we must not forget, they are now members of the UT/Tech House Divided fraternity....woo hoo!!!!

Thursday: A fab Tex-Mex dinner at Matt's Famous El Rancho and then on to the Broken Spoke for a little two-steppin'.  Shell's fam was in from out of state so they enjoyed dance lessons, too!

Friday: The Bridesmaid's brunch at Iguana Grill overlooking the lake while the boys played golf at the UT Golf Club.  The spread was amazing...my fave was the fried eggs on top of toast and ham with poblano cream.  Of course, great margaritas for lunch on a Friday were all I needed to get the party started! 

Then we headed over to the Lakeway Resort to check in and get settled.  Of course, the highlight of Friday's festivities was the rehearsal dinner.  It was at the UT Club at DKR stadium and absolutely not one detail was left undone.  When we arrived by the provided transportation (awesome, I must say, to have a few drinks and not worry about who is driving home) we were greeted by Bevo himself.  Funny thing is there was quite a bit of foot traffic around the stadium and there were lots of crazies trying to get their pic with Bevo, but we kept shooing them out of the way, because really he was there for OUR party. 

Shelley had worked to get the Masked Rider there too, but Transfer of Reins to the new rider was 2 weeks prior and there was already a Tech event scheduled that day for the rider to be at.  Up in the club we were greeted with amazing decor sporting a tailgate theme and the godzillatron was in full effect congratulating Matt and Shelley. 

There was even a video toast recorded from Mack Brown himself given to the lovely couple.  I know it was so special for them!  We had drinks galore and feasted on typical tailgate fare with a slider bar...it was yummy!  Except for the venue of course being in Austin, everything was divided between Tech and UT.  Even the cocktail napkins were UT and Tech jerseys.  We ended the evening with a trip down to the field for a few pics and practicing our run through the endzone.  It was such a great party and of course a great primer for the big day.

Saturday: Pretty much consisted of a laid back morning and afternoon of gettin' ready, yummy food and mimosas.  It was just so fun to be in a wedding with so many other GREAT friends!  The wedding itself included another mention of the Rutherford "house divided".  The night was so "shelleyfied". Hot pink and orange lighting EVERYWHERE lit the entire venue overlooking Lake Travis, coupled with beautiful flowers and feathers.

Food was amazing...cedar plank salmon with dill, grilled veggies, pasta salad, broccoli salad, mashed potato bar complete with french fried onion strings, caviar and blue cheese, brisket sliders and mac and cheese!   Can I go back and get some more?  My only disappointment was not getting any dessert (wedding cake, of course, along with fried pies and Blue Bell homemade vanilla for the grooms cake) due to my gallivanting on the dance floor.  And my little lady was such a trooper all weekend...she didn't want to miss a thing!  I don't think she slept for more than 30 minutes at a time on Saturday and even those little cat naps were few and far between!

thanks to Maurer Party of Five for a great family photo!

"And after the show, it's the after par-tay, and after the par-tay, it's the hotel lobby..." And what would a great wedding weekend be without an exceptional after party!?  Honey was gracious enough to let Reese sleep in her room, so JP and I, accompanied by a tub of Cheesy Poofs (which Erika is kindly displaying) enjoyed the evening...errr morning to the wee hours.

Sunday: RECOVERY!

So here's to The Rutherford's (man, I'm gonna have to get used to that!)...may God bless you as you enjoy a lifetime of happiness and a very happy HOUSE DIVIDED.

5 Year Jaunt

Wow...time really does fly when you're having fun!  JP and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary last weekend and what an amazing ride these past 5 years have been, especially this past year as we welcomed Miss Reese into our lives.

We weren't quite ready to head off on a big trip without Reese, so we decided to just enjoy this great city we live in for the majority of our Saturday.  As we both mentioned earlier, Reese was well taken care of by the Beverly's, so we decided to jaunt around Austin and enjoy the beautiful day.  The rule was we couldn't go to any place we had been before...and we stuck to it!

Our first stop was the Shuck Shack on East Cesear Chavez.  Such a great outdoor place, complete with a bocce ball court and horseshoes.  We were really looking forward to some raw oysters and come to find out, their shucker doesn't arrive until 4:30, so no raw oysters until then.  Instead we had the ceviche, which was quite good.

Next stop, 2nd Street District.  We headed into Lambert's for a refreshing cocktail and their gourmet frito pie.  Let me just tell you that this thing is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! It's basically fritos, a little bit of brisket, goat cheese, homemade green chile queso and a little pico de gallo...I could have eaten 3 orders of it on my own!  Then we headed to La Condesa, which is supposed to be famous for their ceviche, but since we already had our ceviche fix at Shuck Shack we decided on the nachos.  They weren't your traditional nachos, but oh-so-tasty!

My friend, Megan (who recently moved to Austin) met up with us and since she lives downtown, we decided to go soak up the evening sun a bit on her rooftop pool.  It really has such an amazing view of Lady Bird Lake, the Congress bridge and the Austin skyline.  We hung out until the sun went down and even watched the bats fly...something we hadn't done yet, either.

that line in the sky are the bats

Finally, 9 o'clock rolls around and we figured we should probably go grab some dinner.  We decided on Vespaio on South Congress and it did not disappoint!  I think we got on the wait list around 20 minutes after 9 for a 45 minute wait, but luckily we were able to find a tall top in the bar a little sooner.  JP and I love sitting in the bar, but Reese is usually with us and it doesn't work so well with a baby, car seat, etc, so it was a treat!  The food was AMAZING!  They had a special of the day, which was gnocchi with a tomato cream sauce, avacado and lobster, but much to our dismay, they were sold out.  Of course, my wheels start turning (I was determined to taste this treat) and I'm thinking they are probably sold out because they were out of lobster, so I asked about just getting the gnocchi without the lobster and it worked!  Even better...they added shrimp to it!  JP and I shared that along with the veal saltimbocca.  Oh and how could I forget our awesome appetizer...just made fresh mozzarela on top of an artichoke puree and tomato puree served with foccacia bruschetta....DELECTABLE!

So, can you tell we are foodies?  A good cocktail or glass of wine accompanied by a good plate of food and conversation is all we need to celebrate and remind us of what an amazing 5 years it's been.  Love you, babe!

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

Heidi and I took Reese down to UFCU Disch-Falk Field to see the Texas Longhorn baseball currently ranked #2 in the country play a Saturday afternoon game against the Kansas Jayhawks.  AS always we hung out for a while in the left field corner with some friends...Reese hung out in the Baby Bjorn while daddy had an iced cold cocktail to get primed for the game...

When it was finally time to go grab a few innings from the seats, Reese was ready and eager to see what was going on...

The Hittin' Horns didn't disappoint my baby girl, and thus Reese is 1-0 at UT Baseball games...My little lucky charm!!!

This last weekend before setting off for a day of bar hopping, Heidi and I took in the Annual Brenham Day down at the Disch...Though we didn't stay long, we saw a lot of friends from Brenham and Washington County.

Otto Kemper and Ricky Seilheimer always make this event great for family and friends to come and hang out at the ballpark, even if you don't go into the game....

The Maurer's Party of Five were in attendance, of course, and we got to chat it up with them for a while.

Austin, Avery, and Caleb took a liking to Baby Reese and kept her company while we chatted with Wes and Jamie.

Finally it was time to go...Reese got to take in more baseball at Cousin Reed and Chase's baseball games in Pflugerville while Mom and Dad celebrated their 5th Anniversary downtown with a few stops at the Schuck Shack, La Condesa, and Lambert's (their Gourmet Frito Pie is AMAZING!!!) before have a very nice Italian dinner at Vespaio.  Here's to another 5 years, Babe! And another...  And another... And another....