Tooth Count

Total amount of teeth = 7

And yes, he bites.

What Not to Say

The other night I came home from the store and greeted Reese with a kiss. I thought I smelled a dirty diaper, and asked George if he knew if Reese had a present for me. He said he didn't think so, and I replied,

"Maybe I just smell what you're cooking for dinner."

Oops. Not exactly what I meant.

Thanks for the falafel, it was good. : )

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Speaking of falafel, here's a picture of us with the Bennetts at Fadi's right before they moved to Missouri. (Andrea, you need to take over that blog, so we can get our Cole and Joanna fix!)

Reese, George, me, Andrea, Cole, Jay, and Joanna's arm and leg

Sprinkles

When my wonderful husband got home from church today, he surprised me with two Sprinkles cupcakes! They are way overpriced, but soooo delicious. If you've never eaten one, head to the closest Sprinkles pronto.

Milk chocolate and carrot cake cupcakes

I had to stay home from church again this week, because Reese has a runny nose. I don't think he's sick, because it's clear, and he always gets a runny nose when he's cutting new teeth. The doctor also said he looked fine on Tuesday, but I didn't want the nursery workers to buzz me to come pick him up when his nose started running.

Yesterday I spent a few glorious hours outside of the house ALL BY MYSELF! I should be the one bringing cupcakes to George, since he stayed home with Reese for almost 3 hours. I got my hair cut, treated myself to a Starbucks hot chocolate and went to my new favorite store... wait for it... Goodwill.

More about Goodwill soon.

Inaugural Photos

Photo from news.yahoo.com.

If you're like me, you just can't get enough of yesterday's inaugural festivities. Here are some great behind the scenes photos from the historic day. I especially like the one of former President George W. Bush in the helicopter leaving Washington. (Notice the Lifesavers and other candy on the helicopter.) I wonder what was going through his mind. Love #6 as well.

My niece, Madison, attended the inauguration. Can't wait to hear about her experience!

9 Months

Reese is 9 months old today! We spent most of the day watching the inauguration. Here's a photo I took to remember the day:

That's President Bush (41) on the screen.

He fell asleep just before Obama took the oath, or I would have snapped a picture of him with President Obama. I'll be sure to tell him all about it someday.

We went to visit Dr. Johnson this afternoon for Reese's 9 month checkup. Reese weighed in at 18 pounds 14 ounces, which puts him near the 50th percentile. He's 28 inches long, which is also the 50th percentile. They drew blood for an iron test and gave Reese 2 shots, and he didn't shed a tear or even grimace. (He gets that from me. His dad would have cried and then passed out.) His 6th tooth has broken through and his 7th is not far behind. I'm very happy to report that teething is going much easier this time!

Here are a few more shots from today:

Deines Family Lunch

George has declared Thursday to be Deines Family Lunch Day throughout 2009. Every Thursday he will come home to eat lunch with us. We are glad he only works 10 minutes away from home now!

Here are some pictures I took while he was home yesterday, as well as some others from throughout the day.

They still look alike.


Gimme a kiss!


Reese knows to smile at the camera now.


Bath time

I Want My MTV!

When I was in 5th grade my best friend at the time, Melissa, got cable. We discovered MTV and spent hours watching video after video. We sang along with George Michael, Terence Trent D'Arby, Michael Jackson and Belinda Carlisle. Debbie Gibson and New Kids on the Block soon became our favorites. We loved watching VJs Adam Curry and Downtown Julie Brown, and said "Wubba Wubba Wubba" whenever possible. My family got cable shortly after Melissa, and I've had it ever since. That is until now.

Since we are a one-income household now, we could not justify spending $50 a month on cable. We thought about the cost of it in the long run, and noted that if we go without cable for a mere 5 years, we will save $3,000. And that's if the cost does not increase, which is unlikely. $3,000 is a lot of money for us, so we did what we did not want to do. We called our cable company and told them to turn it off.

This past Saturday I was watching the premiere of the 21st season of Real World, thinking I could really get into it this season. I've watched every season except for one since its premiere in 1992. (The season with Pedro and Puck was my favorite.) The show went to a commercial and then the tv went fuzzy. I noticed Rudy was barking at something in the backyard and it dawned on me. He was barking at the cable guy. He had cut our cable!

I know I spent way too much time watching tv, so not having cable will be a good thing. It will allow for more reading time and for more conversation. But I will miss my favorites:

The Hills
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
Real Housewives
True Life
Run's House
Top Chef
Project Runway
The Rachael Zoe Project
Dress My Nest
Flip That House

I could go on. See what I mean? Way too much time spent watching tv. But thanks to Netflix, I will hopefully hear this again:

This is the true story... of seven strangers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World.

Christmas Recap

I'm a little late getting these pics posted, and I'm also late getting our Christmas letter mailed out. Well, I haven't actually even written the letter yet to be honest. Look for it in your mailbox sometime in 2009.

After attending a beautiful Christmas Eve service at New Saint Peter's Presbyterian Church, we had dinner with my family arrived at my mom's 30 minutes later than we expected and everyone had completely finished eating by the time we got there. So, we had to eat by ourselves. Someone had to eat all the food that George had spent hours preparing.

Here are a few pics from the night.

Reese's first Christmas gift

Me and sweet Bella - They (Bella and Pearl, the other
chihuahua) were dressed in their new Christmas collars.

Cousin Mackenzie and Cousin Riley, opening Riley's
Hello Kitty sweats

This year my family decided to make gifts for each other for Christmas. George made Chex mix and I made these decorative letters for my nieces and their parents.

For Mackenzie, Madison, and Morgan

I had quite a few to make!

On Christmas Eve, we started a tradition with Reese that comes from my childhood. We gave him a new pair of pajamas to open, which he slept in Christmas night. Then on Christmas morning, George read a little about Jesus' birth before opening gifts. George and I don't buy gifts for each other, so Reese had the only gift to open. We plan to always keep the gift-giving to a minimum in order to keep Christ the focus of Christmas.

Ready to open his gift!

We spent Christmas day with George's family in Denton and had a delicious, quiet meal. We opened presents after lunch, visited for a while, and then headed back home. We ended Christmas day with a nice visit with my dad.

A new book from Grandma and Grandpa

Now on to that Christmas letter...

Adios 2008

2008 in pictures:

January
At Jan's baby shower
(Thanks for this idea, by the way!)

February
In my work "uniform"

March

April
Exactly 1 week until Reese's surprise arrival!

May
Friends already

June
Can you tell this was a difficult month?

July

August

September

October

November

December

What a year!

When It Rains, It Pours

This picture pretty much sums up our past 2 weeks.

If you know anything about George, you know that
spit up on the face is almost the most disgusting
thing that could happen to him!

Happy New Year! I think we're all going to live. A few days ago, I wasn't so sure. The past few weeks have been pretty painful at the Deines house. It started when I came down with a 24 hour stomach bug. The next day George got it, but worse. Thank goodness Reese avoided that one.

Last Friday, I woke up with my second case of mastitis. I ran fever for 5 days and thought I was going to die at times. I think it's the sickest I've ever been. Twice I had a fever of 102.5 with Tylenol. Not fun at all. My sister Tracy, a nurse, advised me to go to the ER if the fever didn't come down. Thankfully it did. Sunday when I woke up I was worse, so I got a stronger antibiotic. No improvement. I had to end up going to the doctor on Monday, because they thought I potentially had an abscess. By the time I finally got in to see the doctor that afternoon, I was feeling a little better. He said there was no sign of abscess and he thought I was starting to recover. I'm feeling MUCH better and am almost back to normal.

Saturday night George was working on his Sunday school lesson and was leaning on his elbow while typing on the computer. He apparently developed a pinched nerve in his shoulder blade from the way he was sitting. He is now in severe pain when he moves. And for some reason, the pain is worse when he sits. I know he was in quite a bit of pain while caring for Reese when I wasn't able to get off the couch.

Unfortunately, Reese wasn't excluded from the fun either. His top 3 teeth are partially in, and he has been in quite a bit of pain at times. He fell on his new Christmas present the other night and his gums bled a little. He has been a CRAB this morning and he's sitting here whining as I type.

We just keep reminding ourselves that the pain we experience is a mere shadow of the hell from which God has saved us. Man, oh man, am I glad He has saved us. I pray He will do the same for Reese.

When I get a break from the whining, I'll post a Christmas recap. Here's a sneak preview...