Extra long weekend

We have been looking forward for this three day weekend since oh, the last three day weekend!  It started off with the most perfect Saturday morning, I only wish we could spend every Saturday morning this way.  Reegan was very good to us this weekend and slept until 9:00 every morning!  We then headed downtown to City Market for some fruit/veggie shopping and then to the Roasterie Cafe for some coffee and bakery goodies.  Saturday night we headed to a BBQ at Jason's families house.  Sunday night, we went to the French's house for a cookout and yard games and Reegan was able to play with her friends.  We didn't take any pictures that night unfortunately, but you can check out their blog, they may have some pics.  Monday was a little less exciting, Jason went out to play golf with the guys and Reegan and I went to our friend Jamie and Haylee's house for a nice long walk.  In fact, the walk was so relaxing that both girls fell fast asleep.  Before the walk they were able to enjoy some time together.  Don't they look thrilled.  They don't realize their mommas are going to make this bff thing happen whether they like it or not!  :)

changes

The Heine Family is going through some changes.  Some good, others are not bad but more trying and a little frustrating.  For starters, the past 2 years Jason and I have been working towards this goal of me finishing school and entering the workforce again.  Now, I am a mere 2 1/2 months away from graduation.  It is so exciting, but I am slowly getting nervous about what is to come...capstone placement (where I am paired up with a nurse and I work their shifts with their full patient load), passing the national certification, and finding a job.  Mt last term started this past Monday and I thought it would be easy and all down hill from here, we only have 1 test and it is open book.  Wow, was I wrong. Instead they gave us a million papers and 3 group projects.

This week I made some adjustments to my schedule, a sort of mid-year New Year's Resolution.  I not only wake up every morning by 5:45 (I know I know, it's not that early, but we like to sleep in as late as possible) and work out before I go to school.  I also decided to start planning out meals and making dinner again.  My domestic skills have gone a little downhill over the past few months.  Nothing too fancy, but we had mini meatloafs last night, italian sausage and red beans and rice tonight, salmon tomorrow night, and greek chicken on Friday!  I even roasted a ton of veggies for dinners the next couple of nights and for Reegan.  Poor thing eats the same veggies just about every night for dinner, its no wonder she is getting bored of them.  Jason was not too excited about the brussel sprouts, his exact words were "who buys brussel sprouts?"  I do, I buy brussel sprouts.  We've never eaten them before, so we're going to given them a try.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Onto the not as good changes.  We have entered the toddler stage.  Reegan is trying to be as independant as she can at only 15 months.  She is throwing tantrums and doing just what we told her not to!  Time out is becoming a regular event.  I am even tempted to breakdown and read a parenting book.  Now, I love to read, but am not the parenting book type of person.  All kids are different, so I just don't feel one book can cover all children.  Plus, I know Reegs the best, so I should be able to find the right discipline plan that fits her right?  I still think this is true, but I am beginning to believe that I could use some help.  We'll see, I am not going to go get a book tomorrow, but I could be heading that way...

Until then, is it too much to ask for a little more of this every now and then...

Graduation!

Jessica's youngest sister, Ashley, graduated from Butler University this past weekend.  So we packed up the car and headed over to Indianapolis for the commencement ceremony.  It was Reegan's first road trip longer than 4 hours (and this one was 8 each way) which we weren't too sure about, but she really did pretty good.  Oh, and did I forget to mention she had a fever over 102 the entire time?!  No, well despite that she was a real trooper. 

But that's not the real focus here...we were excited to be able to celebrate Ashley's accomplishment.  Excited to get to see some more of Indy and the Butler campus.  Excited to have some great family time and have Reegan finally get to meet her other great-grandparents from Oregon!  It was a great weekend.  Here are the highlights of the graduation...

Everyone getting ready for the ceremony to begin...

Reegan's great-grandparents on the Larson side.  She had a lot of fun entertaining for Nana and Papa!

Graduation took place in the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse...it was used to film the movie Hoosiers.  Pretty cool.

Here's Ashley right in the center...just taking her seat.

The entire university graduates at once (about 1,000 students at once), and there was quite a crowd.

Here's the graduate crossing the stage!!

Right after commencement ended, we got all of the family photos with Ashley...parents first...

...then grandparents...

...then sisters...

...then Aunt Lisa and cousin Dalton...

...and last but certainly not least - niece Reegan!!

Reegs really wanted to hold the diploma.  :)  She's ready to be done with school already!  Ha!

All of the sororities at Butler put some sort of symbol on top of their mortar boards...Ashley was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Also graduating on Saturday was Ashley's boyfriend Joey. 

It was such a good weekend.  We had great food, fun, and lots of laughs (mostly courtesy of Reegan).  Fever or not, our girl was the star of the show.  She wore us out just watching her and I think it's safe to say she was quite exhausted by the end of it all too. 

See what I mean...

A Girl's Life

Reegan is officially 15 months old today!  It seems hard to believe our little bitty baby is growing up so quickly and becoming this precious little girl.  We thought we would just share a few pics from the last couple of weeks to help update everyone on her latest development.  :)

Reegan is certainly a very active toddler...VERY active.  She is on the go non-stop, and most of the time she would rather not have to pause her day with nap time.  She got this car toy for her birthday, and lately it has been her favorite thing to play with.  She loves to open then seat compartment, climb in, and stand there and wave.  She doesn't wave to us or to anything in particular...she just waves...like she's in a parade or something!  It makes us laugh every time.  :)

The other day, we took a walk down to a nearby playground.  While Reegan isn't quite big enough to climb on everything just yet, she still LOVES being outside and running around.  Plus she really enjoys going down the slides on our laps (and who are we kidding, we love it too!). 

For the most part Reegan just likes to watch the other "big kids" play on the equipment.  She has always been a "studier" of others.  She watches people so intently as if to try to learn every move they make so she can do it too someday.

Don't worry, she's not crying here...the sun was bright that day, and I think she looked right at it!  It actually makes a pretty cute picture...

You've probably seen this polka-dot chair in pictures before (she got it for Christmas).  Reegan loves to climb into it and rock like mommy and daddy do in their big chair!  She also loves having all of her stuffed animals sit with her too.  :)

Here she was watching some cartoons next to dad...

And this moment between mother and daughter was just too cute.

You may recall from our last post that our friends the Frenchs were helping us take pics over the weekend.  Well, their oldest, Ellie (about 11 months older than Reegs) was there too.  She and Reegan were SO cute together.  Holding hands...

Giving each other kisses...

And smiling at each other...

It was so cute to see them interacting.  They are becoming best buds!  Hopefully they have a lifetime of play dates and sleepovers and much, much more to look forward to!

Reegan has already gotten so big!  At her Dr. appointment last Friday she weighed in at 22 lbs., 5.5 oz. and was 30.5" tall.  She's right in the 50th percentile for height and weight...PERFECT!  She is so animated, and curious, and investigative, and smart.  You can really tell she's understanding what we say to her these days.  While she doesn't have a large vocabulary herself just yet, she definitely knows what to do when you tell her just about anything.  It's so amazing to see her thinking and figuring out.  We are having so much fun watching her grow!  Let's just hope she takes her time before she becomes too independent...  ;)

Family Pictures

It's been WAY too long since we got a photo shoot in for our gorgeous little girl, so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday and we went out to the Overland Park Arboretum.  Our friends, the Frenchs, came and met us to help capture some fantastic family moments.  (Thanks Chris and Allison!!)  The kids got to interact as well, which we'll post about next time, and we took some photos of their family too.  It was tough to slim down this post to just a handful of pics (from the 125+ that were taken...), but here are our favorites.  Enjoy!  :)