Summer Fun Has Begun!

summer has arrived here in minnesota (apparently we just skip spring now!)...cruz has enjoyed being out and about and loves meeting more new people all the time!

check out his new beach chair from "auntie" kim:

not sure how he feels about grass:

crawling around with my friend avery. her baby brother, oliver, was born today! congrats degel family!

this weekend we head to iowa on our first road trip with cruz! wish us luck! should be a fun weekend introducing him to all of heath's family.

stay cool!

A Few More Photos

cruz continues to grow & change every day! he is now 11 months old and is crawling around everywhere and is starting to pull himself up on things. he loves to chatter and mimic us (especially daddy). he's such a good baby - still very happy and easy going. it's making life as a working mother that much easier! enjoy the pics.

enjoy your memorial day weekends!

April Showers Bring May Showers?!

yes, it's true, cruz and i were lucky enough to have two, yes TWO, more showers thrown in our honor during the month of may! on saturday, may 21st, my godmother shelly and two of my cousin-in-laws hosted a wonderful shower for my mom's side of the family at shelly's house in owatonna. cruz got to meet several of my cousins, aunts and great aunts and we all had a fun time sharing some laughs, eating some yummy food and enjoying each other's company. it seems like it's so rare that we all get together any more (weddings & funerals!), so it was so nice to spend time with all of them. here are a few photos from the beautiful day:

two of the hostesses: kelly & shelly; diana was in california!

aunt darlene & cruz

chloe & cruz (he loved her!)

my great aunt "tanta" tillie & cruz

the following afternoon, the ladies in our neighborhood spoiled us rotten at annette's house! hosted by annette and sandy, cruz and i spent the afternoon enjoying some amazing food, chatting with the ladies (the neighbor girls loved him & he loved them!) and opening lots of presents. annette & sandy had some adorable decorations and we played a fun 'match the celebrity with the crazy babies' names' game (of course i got them all - thank you people magazine!). we had a great time and even found some more babysitters that live close by!

laura & cruz

kelsey, cruz & the kitty!

thank you to everyone who helped celebrate cruz! we are truly blessed.

Let Me See You Move!

it's official...cruz is crawling! grandpa johnson thought he noticed a little forward action on wednesday and erika mentioned the same thing yesterday when i got home from work. when i was in the kitchen later last night, i looked into the family room to check on cruz and he had climbed onto the lower shelf of the coffee table! (wish i would have taken a picture!) i figured he had to be moving forward to do that, so i put him on the wood floor in the kitchen to see what he would do. sure enough, he started moving forward! what a big boy!

life as a working mom seems to be going well so far. i am getting back into the groove at work and cruz seems to be enjoying his sitters (thank you erika and grandpa!). feels good to be back on a more 'normal' schedule. :)

we have two more showers for him this weekend (he's seriously starting to get spoiled!), so i will post more pictures next week. looking forward to spending time with the schmidt women (mom's side) and the neighbor ladies.

have a great weekend!

Back to Work!

time has FLOWN by and as of tomorrow i will no longer be a stay-at-home mom! i last worked on february 9th which kinda seems like forever ago and yet i can't believe how quickly time has passed. three months and eight days later i will return to the office as a mom...my priorities have certainly changed and i know i will miss cruz so much while i'm away. who knew how much a sweet little colombiano could change our lives?

cruz & i enjoyed one last day together before our new routine begins. we started the morning with a trip to the zoo followed by some shopping, errands and a visit to cruz's 'school' (primrose). he won't start school until june 20th, but we stopped in for a visit and he seemed to like his classroom and was intrigued by all of the other kids and all of the fun toys and activities. for the next month, cruz will be at home with a variety of sitters including our friend erika, grandpa & grandma johnson, tia melissa and our friend allison. a big thank you to all of them for helping us out until primrose is ready for him.

it's been quite the ride these past 3+ months!

february 14:

may 16:

good night!

A Big Week!

wow! what a big week we had! the past week included:

-diente numero cuatro! cruz now has four teeth - two on top & two on the bottom

-daddy's 39th birthday on thursday: daddy took the day off and we all went to lunch at shanghai bistro in stillwater and ran some errands together.

-kone baby shower/luncheon on friday: my co-workers threw a baby luncheon at axels for the three newest additions to the kone family: cruz, rozlyn mcgregor and soon-to-arrive brody campbell. it was so good to see everyone again, eat some yummy food, share some laughs and celebrate all of the babies.

-great aunt helena's 90th birthday party: my great aunt helena (cruz's great, great aunt!) turned 90 at the end of april and her daughters hosted a birthday party for her at st. john's church in claremont. it was an honor to be able to introduce cruz to her! she looks wonderful for 90 and is as sweet and kind as ever. happy birthday helena! we hope you celebrate many more.

-cruz's baptism & my first mother's day: we had the privilege of having cruz baptized at our church, king of kings, on mother's day! what a special day it was for our family. we chose tia melissa and our good friends brandon and courtney to be cruz's godparents. mel and the ulstad family all came to our house on saturday afternoon to spend some time with us. brandon said he wanted to meet cruz before he accepted the role of the godfather! ha ha ha...here he is checking him out:

we had a fun afternoon & evening hanging out with everyone while heath smoked ribs and brisket for the big baptismal luncheon.

the ulstad kids showing off their colombian gifts from cruz:

court & cruz:

sunday was the big day! cruz was baptized at the 9:30 service at king of kings...baptism was to take place right after the sermon. well, cruz decided to fall asleep during the sermon (sorry pastor jon!) and he fell asleep HARD. as baptism was starting, we had to stand up and he woke up...screaming mad! he cried hard for the next couple minutes and could not be consoled (this from the baby that hardly EVER cries!). he finally settled back down and did a great job during the actual sprinkling of the water and blessing by pastor liz. i have to say, he looked so handsome in his little sweater vest, shirt & pants from colombia. what a little sweetie! after the service, we headed back to our house for a delicious lunch, cake and gifts. thank you to everyone that made cruz's big day very special, including grandpa & grandma johnson, tia melissa, the ulstad family and special 'aunt' kim for making his cake. he is a very lucky, blessed little boy.

the greatest mother's day gift ever:

thank you to everyone for an amazing week!
xoxoxo,
the reedys

Farm Babies, Cousins & Diente Numero Tres

despite the nasty weather here in wonderful minnesota, we enjoyed a pretty fun week. the sun finally made an appearance again on friday, so cruz and i took full advantage and we headed back to the zoo. we were able to hit some of the outdoor exhibits, including the farm babies. cruz got to pet a baby goat (a kid?!)and he loved it! he's definitely not afraid of animals...guess he gets that from heath, not me! :)

we also made a trip through the tropical trail again. did you know that colombia is a hot spot for several animals? we love the shout out to colombia and captured it on film this time:

on sunday, all three of us headed over to the skala residence in eden prairie...we had high hopes of playing some catch to loosen up our arms for our first softball game this week, but the weather did NOT cooperate (in fact, there were snowflakes flying!). my cousin erin & her husband adam were back from chicago with their two kids, conor and riley, so we got to see them as well as leah, andy & carmen and laura. the kids had a fun time interacting and checking each other out! this was the best photo of all four that we could come up with:

carmen (5 mos), cruz (10 mos), conor (3 1/2) & riley (1)

tooth number 3 also made it's appearance in cruz's mouth late last week. he now has two on the bottom and one on top. he's been such a trooper throughout! it's looking like the second one on top could pop through at anytime as well.

fingers crossed for warm weather soon....
ang