Reagan is Six Months!!!

Hello friends and family! I can't believe that I'm just now updating our blog for the first time since the end of October! Really?...two months?...I guess that's a testament to how busy our lives have been. My goal is to update at least once a week...so we'll see how it goes. Reagan is doing so many new things that I feel like I need to update everyone that often just to keep our family in the loop.

Reagan just turned six months this past Monday. She is such a precious little girl and really has begun to develop her own little personality. She has learned how to growl wand does it most often when she's frustrated! The first few times she did it, I thought "where in the world is that coming from..." Then last night when I was fighting with the vacuum cleaner cord, I growled in frustration! I stopped my self and said "OH NO!!!" she gets that from me! YIKES! Mommy will have to work on harnessing her frustration especially in front of Reagan! She is rolling all over the place...from front to back, back to front, she's even really good and balancing herself on her side, now! She has just begun to push herself up on her hands and knees. We still have seen her crawl although she is a master scooter! I don't know how she does it, but she can scoot herself anywhere she wants to go. We have been eating rice cereal and oatmeal for about a month now. She still thrusts her tongue forward to push the food out, but sooner or later we get to the bottom of the bowl, so we know she's swallowing it at some point. We also started Squash and Sweet Potatoes this past week. Now that she's doing well with those, we will begin some green veggies. I think that green beans and peas are next on our list. We added a video of her eating her squash for the first time. She's super funny with all her crazy faces. It's sure to give you a little laugh! We'll add more about Reagan next weekend. She has her little costume all ready to go. You'll have to wait to see what little critter she will be... :)

Quick Catch Up...

Hello everyone! Well it has been over a month since we last updated our blog and pictures! So much has happened in the last few weeks, but we will update you slowly so you don't have to read through a novel just to catch up. We went on our first family vacation at the beginning of August with Thom, June, Brandon, Nancy, Kristian and Noah to Sedona, Arizona. We had a blast and everything went very well. Reagan was such a trooper and did amazing while we toted her around everywhere. We hiked the Grand Canyon, did the Pink Jeep Tour, Krissy and I rode in the Bi-plane, among various other activities. We'll hopefully have pictures up soon. :)

Starting school this week was very exciting but super exhausting! I have been so busy at school and during my conference times that I haven't even really had time to worry about Reagan. Justin has been doing an amazing job of getting Reagan up and going in the morning. She is still sleeping when I leave, so I don't see her until I get home around 4:30-5:00. I have a very sweet class and am looking forward to the year! We did lose one of our Kindergarten sections, so that means that they had to split up a class amongst the five remaining kinder classes. I went from having 19 students to now having 21! We are all a little stressed about having such big classes, but we've come together and are ready to bite the bullet and start fresh on Monday! :)

Cake, Clean-Up, and Kidney Stones, oh my!

The Rana household as been quite crazy since last Saturday morning. Justin has been so wonderful watching Reagan when he's home so I can have a little "me" time. However, last weekend our sweet little Reagan decided she no longer wanted a bottle...only ME! Not good! Justin had to call me home from running errands all over town because she totally refused taking bottle! This continued all week. We tried different bottle brands, different nipples, different nipple flows...and so on. I was a bit relieved when Justin found a blog with tons of posts from other moms also stating their child had gone on "bottle strike"! As of Friday afternoon she has been taking bottles off and on so I think we're at least making progress in that area.

For the past two weeks now I've been taking cake decorating classes at Hobby Lobby. I love it! It's so much fun and gives me a little break from life on the home front with the baby. Here is a picture of the first cake I've decorated for class. We had to make the icing from scratch and frost the cake. Then in class we learned several techniques for filling in shapes, designs, writing messages, and we learned about the different types of decorating tips. Because the All-Star game was on Tuesday night I was inspired to create my hubby his very own baseball cake. :) Thursday night Justin called and told me that he and his friend Chad wanted to completely revamp the sound booth at our church. I think this was going to be a very tedious project, but encouraged to do it. Needless to say, they pulled an all-nighter working from about 8:30 Thursday night until 9:00 Friday morning. Justin slept for three hours and went back up to finish everything before our conference started at 6:00 Friday night. Everything in the sound booth looks amazing! It's super clean, organized, and getting to all the equipment is so much easier now! Good job boys!

To complete our crazy weekend, Justin started having these horrible pains in his lower back on Saturday night. Justin has a very high pain tolerance so when saw how much he was hurting I was kinda freaked out! We have a doctor friend that recommended we go to the ER to have him checked out. We were pretty sure he might have kidney stones but wanted to know. So after 5 hours at Denton Regional and a CatScan, the results showed a small stone in his left side. He's been drinking lots of water and taking it easy. The meds they gave him totally wipe him out, so he's been pretty out of it the last 24 hours. We are praying that it passes quickly! I can't imagine having to push something like that out of a small hole in the body....oh wait...yes I can! I just had a 7 pound baby! I can't really compare though seeing as how I had an epidural. I'm totally kidding and know that kidney stones are way different than having a baby :)

So that's been our past 5 days...above is a pic of the cake I made. I know it's not super detailed or anything, but I must say, I'm very proud of myself! :) Reagan also turned three months today! We didn't get to take any pics since Justin was asleep most of the day, but we'll work on it this week and have those soon! :)

Fourth of July Fun!

We had a wonderful Fourth of July holiday! It was Reagan's first and oh so perfect! We started out the morning visiting Justin's parents house. We cooked out, swam, and played our annual water polo game. We had so much fun with the Rana clan, B & N and Kristian and Noah, and our friend Chad! :) After we spent the day at Thom and June's we made a pit stop at the firework stand. As I'm sitting in the car waiting for Justin and Chad to come out, I'm observing all the other people coming out with a small bag here and a couple bags there. As Justin and Chad emerge from the door, they both are carrying a huge box on their shoulders full of fireworks, sparklers, and many other types of explosives! I just sat in the car laughing! We made our way over to my parents house about 5:00 for the annual Janssen 4th of July cookout. We had about 40 people over for food, games, fishing, and fireworks. We had a blast there as well! As night fell, the boys took all the boxes of fireworks to the backyard. My parents and their friends all set up their chairs on the back porch and the young crowd gathered down by the lake to shoot our fireworks. We had so much fun! :) One of my favorite parts of the day was seeing everyone's reaction to Reagan's precious outfit! We found this adorable onesie at Old Navy that says "Daddy's Little Sparkler." Ohhh she is so cute! :)

Cutie Pie's... a hungry father's saga

Hello everyone - this is the DAD's first post on this blog... I am announcing my presense confidently and with great anxiousness in my heart to tell you of the saga of the hungry father.

Today, my family and I (Jessica, Reagan, and myself) were out and about visiting some stores in the Southlake area. We finished up our business and were going to head home. Somehow, we ended up by Grapevine Mills mall which wasn't necessarily our intention. The baby was crying and I was trying to drive to quiet her - but then realized she was hungry. So we got off of 121 and pulled into the Bass Pro parking lot so Jessica could feed Reagan in the car (with a bottle mind you)... Reagan sucked down her feed and as I was listening to "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" by the great Michael Jackson (RIP), I suddenly realized I was rather hungry myself.

We meandered around in the Bass Pro parking lot (which by the way is the most ridiculous way to try to get over to Grapevine Mills - it borders on impossible). Once I realized that I would not make it to Grapevine Mills via the parking lot of the ADJACENT STORE - I got out of there and intended on heading towards highway 26 to get to Grapevine Mills and find some grub for dear old dad. As we were about to turn right onto 26, I spotted a place that I knew nothing about and had not seen before - a quaint little restaurant (roadhouse actually) called Cutie Pie's. I asked my wife Jessica if she would like to try it - her response: "Sure! Sounds good!" We parked our Ford Explorer - whose air conditioning was doing quite an admirable job in the 100 degree heat - got out of the car, got the stroller geared up and headed for the front door of what was sure to be a great eating experience.

Well we got inside and THIS is what we found:

Yea - I know. Questions abound from my readers at this point. Geez, Justin. When you realized that this was a cowgirl hooters, why didn't you get your family out of there? Answer: I was in shock - and my wife was leading the charge! We sat down and I looked at her and said; "Oops."

"Oh, no. It's ok. The food looks good and the atmosphere seems ok," Jessica said.

I looked down at my 2 month old daughter.

"Wow. Those uniforms look like something I would want to wear when I'm 18," said my daughters silent eyes.

I quickly spoke silently and sternly back to her and we began to parouse the menu.

The food looked quite good. I ordered some Fried Pickles. Review: pretty good - on par with other good Fried Pickles from other restaurants. Jessica had the Brisket Sandwich and Mac and Cheese. She says that the Brisket Sandwich was a 9 out of 10. For my meal, I ordered the 2 meat plate with sweet potatoes and baked beans, all of which were VERY good. The best thing about this place (including the girls) was the Bar-B-Que sauce. Some of the best I've ever had.

Now you may be asking yourself why I'm sharing all of this with you...my point is this. We found ourselves in a place we would normally not go into (especially with our 2 month old) and we decided to stick it out and see what came of it. Turned out to be one of the best meals I have had in quite some time. And here's another tidbit of information - if you like places like Hooters, Twin Peaks, etc. - you need to try Cutie Pie's. Although the girls were dressed in attire that didn't necessarily make you think they were morally sound in all areas of life, they were some of the nicest waitresses we have had...and guys, they have $6 pitchers every day. So skip Hooters and all the others, and try Cutie Pie's...but just remember to get a babysitter!

Happy Father's Day!

The Rana's had an amazing weekend! To start things off, Reagan turned two months old on Friday! I can not believe how quickly the time has passed. I still feel like it was just yesterday that Justin and I brought her home from the hospital. Everyone knows that along with the celebration comes a trip to the pediatrician for the dreaded vaccination shots. Reagan had three different shots. She did very well and after the initial screaming she was back to her cheery self. We were so thankful that she did not have any side effects! Praise the Lord! Dr. Jones was very impressed with how well she is growing and developing. Reagan can hold her head up very well while on her tummy and has even rolled herself from her tummy to her back! She's only done it once so far, but we know she'll be doing more often in the days to come. Reagan now weighs 11 pounds and 1 ounce and is 22 1/2 inches long. She is growing perfectly!

Saturday was a very chill day around here. Justin watched Reagan for a few hours while I went out shopping for a few Father's Day gifts. Saturday evening we had our friend Chad over to watch our church's First Fruits service on the web.

Sunday was one of the most special days we've had with Reagan. Not only did we celebrate Justin's first Father's Day, but we also were able to dedicate Reagan at church. My mom and brother were there along with Justin's parents and his brother, sister-in-law and their two children. Unfortunately my dad was out of town on a trip, but he was able to watch the service through the church's webcast. Chuck, Robert and Justin all made the dedication so special and something we will always cherish and remember. We hope you all enjoy the video clip from the service.

7 weeks & 7 hours

We have made it! We have completed seven weeks with our sweet little Reagan.  Justin and I are thrilled to announce that she is now sleeping 7 hours through the night! WooHoo!  She has been doing this now consistently for about a week and a half.  We actually discovered her new sleeping talent by complete accident.  One night my alarm didn't go off for her middle of the night feeding.  I think I woke up around 5 o'clock and she was still sleeping! From that point on we have let her sleep as long as she wants during the night hours.  

We will have an exciting weekend ahead.  Reagan will turn two months on Friday! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone.  We go to the pediatrician then for our next visit and her first round of shots. Our prayer is that she gets through them with little or no side effects. We also will be dedicating her at church on Sunday, so we are hoping she is in a wonderful mood for her special day!