Reagan's Birthday Bash

Reagan woke up on her birthday to see her new bike, a gift from mom and dad and Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen! My dad made his famous stir-fry. It was one of the best meals we have had in a long time. We even put in the baby corn on the cobs, just for Matt.

My mom and I made a double chocolate pecan brownie cake for Reagan. I didn't have enough of that writing gel, so that is why her cake reads, "Happy Birth R." Ghetto, I know.
Reagan didn't know what to do with the candles, so she stared at them. She tried a couple of times to blow them out, but since it barely caught the flame at all, I ended up blowing them out for her.
She sure did love the ice cream, though. Chocolate Malted Krunch from Thrifty's!!

She opened her presents. Do you like her shoes?


Grandma and Grandpa Roundy gave her the rocket from Little Einsteins to ride on.
It was a great day and I think Reagan really picked up on the mood of the day, that it was all about her.

Lindsey and Loni come to visit

We had my two sisters, Lindsey and Loni, out here last week to visit. Loni put some cute pics on her blog if you want to see them, and here are a few of mine. We had a good time.

Lindsey and Loni love accessories and Reagan loved that she could steal them from their suitcases and the bathroom and she would wear them around.
Lindsey did Reagan's hair almost every single day, which I loved. Doing her hair isn't my favorite part of the day, but I have been better this week. Driving around was pure entertainment for Reagan. She never took her eyes off L&L. Except for this photo, where she was really really tired.
We spent last Saturday at Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk. It was overcast and a little chilly, but we still had a great time.

Reagan and Matt played with this football for a while. Matt would toss it and they would chase after it, pushing each other out of the way. Reagan was laughing her head off, she loved it.
Despite the chill, Matt (as always) had to somewhat venture into the water. His cast kept him from completely immersing in the waves.
Before we headed home, we had to get one shot in front of the H20.
Proof that you CAN still sunburn in the overcast temps! Matt's mom is our own personal pharmacy consultant and she advised us to use barbasol on the burns. The next two days, Loni and Matt were spreading this stuff all over their faces, arms, and legs.
Feeding the ducks at Newhall. Reagan would not leave the bike. It was one of our first outings with it and she loved that I could push her. She threw bread from her parking spot.

Lindsey got in a little "scuffle" with this duck. It was extremely greedy and would get out of the water to come get bread from us. Lindsey would pat it on the bottom and scoot it back in the water, yelling at it. She didn't like his (her?) attitude.
Reagan is a professional eye-roller. We laugh daily at her when she does it, but here is a dark, but somewhat okay pic I finally caught of her starting to give me the "I'm gonna roll my eyes at you" stare. Hugging Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory bear outside the store in Vacaville.
Fishermans Wharf this week was sans Reagan and Matt. It was chilly and Loni was really smart and wore a dress. Lindsey bought Roland (her husband) some pants at the Alcatraz store and Loni begged her to let her wear them. Here they are at the famous Pier 39.

Waiting for the cable car, it was an hour wait! But towards the end, we had some slight entertainment when a guy popped out in a straight jacket and chains and attempted to undo the chains from himself. I was laughing because he looked JUST like Michael Scott does in the beginning of that episode where he is trying to be a magician and drops his key and Jim covers it up with his foot. Anyways, of course, the dude asked everyone to pay up, and Loni did give him a dollar because he was a total riot, even though he flashed his plumbers crack at everyone a few times.
We had to have Boudin again. If you had asked me 5 years ago if I would ever someday enjoy clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, I would have laughed at you. Now I love it. I used to hate sourdough bread and although I still do not like fish, clam chowder is pretty dang good. Oh yeah, and Boudin's chicken salad sandwich is the best.
After we dropped Lindsey and Loni off at the airport, I wanted to cry. I was so sad for Reagan especially. She had been surrounded by family and undivided attention for the last 10 days and now it was just me and Matt. Don't get me wrong, we love Regs and give her plenty of attention, but this kind of attention is different, you know how it is. Reagan still wakes up every morning and says "where Loni go?" However, since we will be spending the last 2 weeks of July in Utah, I don't feel so bad now for her now :):):)

Word to the Wise

This is what happens when you get mad in basketball and punch your hand into a wall. I DO NOT recommend it. Thanks.

Weekend with the Parental Units

Last weekend, mom and dad Roundy flew in for 4 days. They were here on Sunday, Reagan's birthday and that was the main event they came in for, but we managed to do a few more activities while they were out here. My dad had never been to San Francisco, so we made sure he saw most of the hot spots. It was 100 degrees for the first 2 days they were here and Northern California felt like a freakin sauna for 24 hours a day. But on the plus side, it made for beautiful skies, totally clear and 100% fog and haze free.

We went to the Oakland Temple. My dad also felt the need to inform the sister missionaries in the visitors center that they needed to update their First Presidency photo, which had Pres. Hinckley in it. "It's on order," was the response.
The view from the temple ground was spectacular.
We went to Tilden Park and had some more great views, even better than the temple.
Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Dad and a tired Reagan. She hated to sleep the entire time, for fear that she would miss out on any fun.
Steam train at Tilden Park. Since Reagan loves "choo-choo's" these days, this was a total hit for her.
Oh, the food, the food!!!!!!!!!!! Since my parents lived in Southern California, they--like all of us--really dig In-n-Out burgers. In addition to that, we found Rubios (fish tacos) and Chocolate Malted Crunch Ice Cream from Thrifty's. I don't think they had the last 2 since they moved to Utah over 4 years ago.
A trip to Ghirardelli Square is not complete without a hot fudge sundae. We downed these things in minutes. Reagan wanted her own spoon and quickly became a sticky mess.

The best food by far on Fisherman's Wharf is the clam chowder that is sold from the market vendors and fresh sourdough bread from Boudin. It tasted so dang good, even in the 100 degree heat (yes, I think it truly was that hot on the Wharf). Matt's face below does not show his true feelings for the chowder. He loved it!
Matt and Regs playing down by the GG Bridge.
Riding the cable cars. My dad kept taking pictures and sending them via phone to all my siblings. It was great.
Our cable car ride began in Union Square. Matt dropped us off and drove Reagan down to the Wharf, where she napped and they waited for us to return.
This pic is for EASTON!!! He is our little pirate guy and such a stud-muffin. Gramps wanted to get a pic in front of the pirate for him. Here you go, buddy!
A very nice man took this photo for us. The best part was he was a tourist, so he didn't ask for money after taking the photo.
We had a great time touring the sights with mom and dad! It was great fun and we are doing it all over again this week for my sisters, who are currently here. Busy, but good good times!!!!!

Birthday Girl!

Today our little girl turned 2 years old! We had a most excellent day, which fit right in with our great weekend we have been having. I have a gazillion pics to post, but it is rather late, me is tired, and so I will just post a couple. Reagan woke bright and early this morning to ride her new bike. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Rasmussen for the bike! She loves it! Reagan also spent a good portion of the day enjoying her Little Einstein car. Grandma and Grandpa Roundy gave this to her.
Reagan is one lucky girl and she had a great day. She took a 4 1/2 hour nap (not kidding) and ate tons of food and played with toys. She was up at 5AM and went asleep at 10PM.

We love our 2 year old to pieces!

Fodder's Day Fun

Father's Day was fantastic. This year, there were no hang-ups. Father's Day 2006 was Reagan's due date, so I spent the entire day expecting my contractions to start and when the sun set and I realized that nothing was going to happen that day, I was bummed! Father's Day 2007, Reagan and I made Matt a book where I accidentally referred to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as the A's. Dumb mistake.

This year was no problem. Despite the fact that the cinnamon rolls took a while longer than thought and we ate breakfast at 10am, things went smoothly! Reagan and Matt made a fort which Reagan kept standing up in the middle of. Matt sported a tie that Reagan made him the week before. And Regs even took a nap! We are so grateful to Matt for the husband and father that he is! He is amazing!
Our own dad's are very special to us as well! We love them very much! Reagan with Grandpa Rasmussen...

...and Grandpa Roundy (on Halloween...my dad really doesn't dress like that!)

Things I Have Learned This Week

1. Never take breathing through the nose for granted. I hate allergies and this week they seem to have cleared and I can sleep, eat, breathe better and I can just sit on my couch for hours and marvel at how easy it is to keep my mouth shut and breathe through my nose. It is a beautiful thing.

2. While on walks with Reagan, it is necessary to point out every dog, bird, sprinkler, squirrel we see. If there are some every few feet, they keep her entertained.

3. Subways 5 dollar foot longs would have been an excellent bargain if I were still in college and eating like a bird, but since I eat more like a horse now, I can down it in one meal instead of two.

4. Reagan is excellent at chasing birds in the park. Today she chased one about 50 yards away and lost sight of me. I wasn't worried because I had her in plain view, but she immediately started looking around for me and calling out "mama" over and over again. It was really cute and I savored the moment.

Check-it-out

Reagan rocking out to some tunes. Also rockin a pair of mom's socks. The most comfortable position to sleep in.
Don't bother me; I'm eating!
Beautiful brown eyed girl.
Okay, mom, this is seriously like the fifth photo of me eating, just leave me in peace with my strawberries!
Things have been pretty uneventful for us lately. You may have been able to tell due to the lack of postage. We have some visitors arriving a week from today and will be around for 10 days, so that should spice up our summer a bit! Plus an awesome holiday is coming up, Independence Day, which is always a humongous reason for us to celebrate. One of my four favorite holidays (yeah, I narrow them down quite a bit.)

Reaganator

Oh, how I love my little Reagan these days! She is talking more each day and just watching her little personality blossom is such a treat. We have our moments (and days) where she accrues 5 timeouts in a 20 minute period, but hey, someones gotta discipline.

Her hair is getting long, especially in the front. I need to trim her bangs, but I am sure not to do it right and I doubt she would let me anyways. So I watch her all day long brush her hair out of her eyes, as demonstrated below. I usually try to pull it back in a clip or pony, but not always.
I got out of the shower the other day to catch her doing this! She had gotten into my purse and pulled out all the diaper-changing essentials and was changing her baby's diaper! I was beyond impressed. The best part is--I didn't realize this until I saw the photo--that baby is clearly not the one in need of a diaper change!

Other things I love about Reagan these days:

She loves to ask "where dad go?" and usually asks me once an hour, at least. Normally when Matt is home, and not with Reagan, he is either sleeping or in the bathroom. So around noon she will ask me, "where dad go? In the bathroom?" I have to laugh at that one. I am trying to explain to her the concept that dad goes to work during the day, but it really hasn't clicked yet.

She has added lots of new words to her vocabulary. As described above, some new words are "sleeping" and "bathroom." She also knows "park" "bird" which actually sounds like "bup," and "flower." She likes to pull the flowers around the complex off and I am trying to teach her to just look and smell them, but again, hasn't quite grasped it yet! For now, I really hope that our apartment manager doesn't see her tearing apart the flower bushes.

We are going tomorrow to get her 2 year photos taken! I am excited and nervous and praying that she behaves and smiles! You never know how these things can turn out! Its been a year since we had her photos taken last.

She has a few favorite books that we read before nap and bedtime. We usually cycle through "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" "Good Morning, Good Night" "The Going to Bed Book" by Sandra Boynton, and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." She knows the 5 Little Monkeys by heart and will bump her head when they fall off the bed and will wag her finger when the doctor says. "no more monkeys jumping on the bed." In the Going to Bed Book, she will brush her teeth using her finger and scrub her belly when they take a bath. She can point out the moon in the book as well, which was something we worked on for quite a few nights! After stories we say prayers and I am still taken back when she loudly proclaims "Amen!" at the end. She is really cute to watch when we "say prayers." She just leans against the chair and puts her head in her hands and will watch me. I say the prayer and she says "Amen." Someday she will be praying on her own! Then we sing songs and she can now sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Rockabye Baby." I seriously LOVE my bedtime routine with her. Its such a cozy and bonding time for us. If even one little thing is left out, then she is quick to remind me!

Funny, but not so funny

Last night while we were eating dinner, Matt and I were wowing over how much Reagan has grown up lately. She sings songs and answers our questions.

Matt said to Reagan, "Wow, Regs, you are growing up so fast! Before we know it, you will be 16 and pregnant."

Funny, but then again, really not.

7 Things You May Not Know About Me

Thank you to Marianne for the tag! You may or may not know these things about me.

1. In my prior life (a.k.a. before Reagan was born) I worked at Jelly Belly. My degree is in Food Science and I pretty much get to play around with food and formulas for a living. It was the best paid job ever and I worked with the most amazing people who are my friends for life. I was a Regulatory Compliance Technician, meaning I got to do a lot of fun random stuff, but mostly I helped to translate the candy formulas into an actual process and also did ingredient statements and nutrition labels. Plus I got lots of free candy. I did not like sugar candy until I worked there. Now I like it.

2. I have a temper when it comes to watching my loved ones play sports. I always struggled when watching my siblings play in their soccer and baseball games. I usually ended up yelling out mean comments to the opposing players such as "Keep your hands off my sister!" Then when Matt and I were engaged, he played intramural soccer and I almost got kicked out of his game because of my yelling at the annoying freshman team they were playing as well as the blind refs. For this reason, I usually do not attend his current baseball or basketball games. I am wondering how this will play out when my children are playing sports. Sorry, but everyone better hope that their children are not on the opposing team.

3. Matt and I almost died on our honeymoon. This sounds so somber and crazy, but we seriously saw our lives flash before our eyes. We were driving back to Utah from Southern California and we were almost to Baker. It was pretty much the middle of the desert. A semi truck on the lane next to us either didn't see us or pretended not to, because he started to merge into our lane, while we were right next to him. We honked our horn, but he didn't stop merging. We had to use the shoulder of the road which was luckily soft dirt because we were going so fast. We tried to get the license plate number because that wonderful temper of mine had flared and I was ready to put his you-know-what in jail, but he TOTALLY slowed down once he saw that we were trying to get it. Jerk.

4. I was in love with the Backstreet Boys when I was younger. I was 18 and on my way to college. I got my friend Lori hooked on them. We were convinced I was going to marry Brian and she would marry Nick (ironically she did marry a Nick, but one much better than the BSB Nick!) My dorm room was decorated with pictures and posters of them. Stacy must have thought I was crazy! I owned every video and cd. In my first semester at BYU, they came to Salt Lake for a concert and Lori flew up from Southern California so that we could go to it. We ended up going and taking about 5 rolls of film each (our seats were nosebleed). I wore a blue shirt (Brian's favorite color) and Lori wore a green shirt (Nick's favorite color). We followed the band bus to their hotel (Hotel Monaco) and waited outside with all the 13 and 14 year olds to see if they would come out. Of course, they never did. They had a second show the following night, so we bought some tickets from scalpers and went again, a second time. We had so much fun!! One of my favorite memories from college.

5. I have 5 siblings and every one of our names starts with the letter L. When my oldest brother was born, Lorenzo (Loren for short) was always going to be his name and then my next brother was Lance. Both were names they liked and didn't mean to do L's on both, it just happened. Then I was born and my dad was all about naming me Robin, but my mom put her foot down on that one. Since I would "probably be the last" child, then they figured they ought to go with another L-name. They got my name from Lacy J. Dalton, a singer. Then my brother was born just a year and a half after me and they must have decided that the "L" thing was cool because it stuck: Landen, then Lindsey and finally, baby Loni. As a side note, my baby sister graduated high school last friday. We are all growing up too fast, I want to cry! :(

6. I am scared of fish. I love being around the ocean, but I really don't venture out in it much because of how scared I am of these funny looking creatures. When Matt and I were dating in college, we went down to Zion National Park with his ward and hiked through the narrows. Some parts of these narrows are shin to waist deep and I was fine until I saw these little white things flashing through the water. I made him carry me almost the rest of the way. Two and a half years ago, we were in Hawaii and it took 30 minutes of coaxing to get me to put my face in Hanauma Bay.

7. I am in love with roller coasters. I don't know what it is about the thrill of being on one, but I literally crave it and dream about it. I remember going to Magic Mountain for the first time when I was like 8 years old and there was a roller coaster that had a loop that, if I wore my hat high enough on my head, I could barely be tall enough to ride. It was the best! Then Loren and Kelly took me for my 11th birthday. I have been numerous times since, the most recent time was in August of 2003 and my parents rode X-treme, the newest ride at MM and the first 4-dimensional roller coaster on the planet. It was insane and I really feared that the parental units just might have a heart attack. I am going to embarass Lindsey by saying that she chickened out at the last minute, after waiting in line for like 3 and a half hours! Matt recently bought me RollerCoaster Tycoon for the computer and I can't wait to open it up and design my own park!!!!!!

If you are reading this, you are tagged! But if you are Matt, Lindsey, Loni, Melanie, Jeff, and Selly, then you are REQUIRED to do it!!!! :):):)