I know I have my own, but I want some of yours!

This is typical Reese. She always has her own cereal, waffles, pancakes, dessert, you name it, but if Mommy has some too she wants to eat mine instead.

Last night after looking at the foundation we treated ourselves to one of our favorites 'La Vista'. Matt and I split an entree and splurged on brownie a la mode.

You can see that we didn't enjoy it at all!

We have a foundation!

Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. they began pouring the foundation. Matt was out of town, not arriving home until later that day, so Reese and I got up early and headed over to watch the process.

Reese did not like the loud noise the concrete trucks made, so while I held her close, Kimberly from Allegro, took a few pictures for us. Here is the progress they had made by the time we arrived at 8:15 a.m.

This corner is the study. The powder room sits just outside the study. The opposite side is the dining room.

This is the front of the house - the porch/stoop.

The plumbing you see is for the powder room.

There were 8-10 guys working in synchronization. It is quite a fascinating process.

By the time we arrived, they had already gone through 4 concrete trucks. About every 15 minutes a new truck would pull in and relieve the empty one. The trucks that were waiting their turn drove up and down Buffalo Speedway waiting for Ivan (owner of the foundation company) to let them know it was their turn. I was pretty impressed to know all those trucks were circling for us. (I know - complete dork - but it was cool.) Reese liked the green one!

One of the workers had placed his boots between these signs - I just liked the picture.

This is the progress they had made by the time Reese and I left around 9:00 a.m. Reese was getting bored, so we left to run errands. I drove back by around 10:45 a.m. and it appeared the big truck was pulling out. At 11:30 a.m. the workers were having lunch letting the concrete set.

Matt got home around 5:30 p.m. and guess where we went first? Right, to look at the foundation!

He and Reese walked the lot. The concrete setting to the left is for the brick wall. The dirt between that and the foundation will be our side yard.

To the far left, you see the garage, then the kitchen. The punch out is for the breakfast nook which sits off the kitchen.

The middle of this picture is the great room. The part that steps down leads to the side yard. It's a long narrow porch area.

Reese and Matt were impressed with the work!

On Sunday morning we just couldn't help ourselves - we had to go back and walk on the foundation. We took the plans, some donut holes and inspected the property.

This was Reese saying "New house!"

It was nice to get a better visual of everything. Much easier than looking at dirt and rebar. They are delivering the lumber this week and will start the framing as earlier as end of the week!

Allegro says it'll take 6-9 months to complete the house from this point forward. Let's hope it is closer to 6 months!

The name we love!

After much thought, many discussions, countless family and friend ideas and lots of page turning in our name book we have chosen a name for our baby boy!

Lane Matthew Sicinski

It is unexpected, right? But we just love it!

And it meets our criteria (which changed a little day to day):

- It is nickname proof
- Does not begin/end with S
- It is one syllable (like Reese and is easy to say with Sicinski)
- It is manly (and a little country - that was not criteria, but it is true)

The contenders were:

- Anderson Lee (but everyone said - oh, you'll call him Andy?)
- Reid Matthew (love love love this name, but it is really close to Reese and it puts us in the R category if we have a third child)
- Miles Joseph, Hudson Lee, Clark Lee (all great names, but they never felt quite right for this baby)

Lane had crossed my mind but I had dismissed it. Then on Saturday we were watching the movie 8 Seconds about the bull rider Lane Frost. We both had the same idea - what about Lane? We have a great friend from San Angelo with the name. Why not?

It felt right from then on. We said we'd try it out for the week, get a feel for it, and it's made us happy since. I started telling people and calling him Lane and now it's official! Oh and Matt's on board too! ;) I'm just more social about the whole thing.

We had been calling him Anderson as that was really our top name, but the "Andy" nickname was shying us away from using it. We wanted a name that couldn't be nicknamed where you would lose the original. Reese is still calling him Anderson, but only a few more reminders that his name is Lane and she'll be good. The past two nights she has kissed Lane via Mommy's belly.

Oh, the name makes my heart smile! We hope you love it as much as we do! I've got to get monogramming!!!

Conversations with Reese

Reese and I have the best conversations! These happen to be my most recent favorites.

1. Last week, on our way home from Chick-fil-a kids night, I said to Reese, "Tonight was a lot of fun!"

Reese replied, "I had fun too! What was your favorite part Mom?"

(My heart melted! What a sweet thing to ask. I knew she had remembered the question from her Dora shows, but this was the first time she had ever asked me that question.)

I replied, "My favorite part was when the clown painted a ladybug on your wrist. What was your favorite part?"

She happily replied, "French fries!!!"

2. When I picked Reese up from school on Tuesday, she ran up to me, gave me a big hug and said, "I had a great day at school Mom!"

(She always runs up to me smiling her biggest smile and gives me a huge hug, but her comment made this day even better!)

I replied, "I am so glad you had a great day at school. Mommy had a great day at work. What did you do today?"

"I played with my friends!" she exclaimed.

3a. When Reese climbs into her car seat she points to the seat beside her and says, "Baby brother's car seat goes there!"

I reply, "Yes, baby brother is going to sit next to you in the car."

3b. Then when she walks by his room, where the crib is set up, she says, "That's baby brother's bed!"

I reply, "That's right! And you have a big girl bed now."

3c. The other day at GiGi's Reese wanted to get in the exersaucer again (even though she is almost too big). I told her, "You can get in and play. When baby brother gets old enough he will play in this too."

She played for a few minutes and then said, "I'm finished! It's baby brother's turn."

What a sweet heart! I am so happy that she is expressing so much interest in her baby brother. I know she will be a great big sister!

A year has passed

Yesterday was Matt & Scott's 34th birthday and also marked the one year anniversary of Sam's death. We did lots of family stuff to celebrate and keep ourselves busy over the weekend.

On Saturday morning, we met Pat, Mom, Grandma, Aunt Sharon, Chris, Scott & Lauren at Cadillac Bar for breakfast. Yes, we decided to change it up and try a new place! We weren't sure about the chips and salsa at 9:00 in the morning, but the breakfast was pretty good. The latino music would have been better enjoyed with a few cocktails, but who's complaining.

On Sunday, Matt moved the toddler bed from Reese's room and converted it back into a crib for baby brother. Reese received a Cars comforter from MaMa Pat and this cute headboard for her new big girl bed! She was pretty excited about it and slept in it for most of the night on Sunday.

Later in the day, we headed to Mom's for dinner. Her house is all painted and I think her projects are finally coming to an end, so she and Grandma can relax and enjoy the new kitchen, carpet and paint!

On Monday, Reese and I hung out while Matt worked a bit. She finally passed out for her nap around 4:00!

We took this picture of Sam's grave on his birthday, August 6th, when we were in Abilene for Maylee's shower. It was neat that we were able to visit on his birthday.

We miss you Sam and think of you, Joe and all that have passed before us often.