Reagan Eleese Baker

Two and a half years after we got married, Derek and I felt it was time to get started on our family. We got pregnant with Reagan right away and she was born in Virginia on December 24th, 2002- What a Christmas gift!

Reagan at 3 days old in our home in Alexandria-December 2002

We spent lots of time driving between our home in Virginia and Maryland where our parents and church were. Nana's house was a common stop!

Reagan at 13 weeks old laying on a quilt that Nana made- Easter 2003

Reagan gets dedicated at church and experiences lots of fun in the church nursery with all her new friends. I get to go to my first Mother/Daughter Banquet! I'm so happy to have a daughter!

Reagan at 5 months old-Mother Daughter Banquet-May 2003

Reagan learns to roll over quickly and then crawls at 6 months and takes her first steps at 7 months. She takes continuous steps and never crawls again at 8 months-Labor Day 2003

Reagan walking around on Nana/Papa's patio at 8 months- August 2003

Reagan celebrates her first birthday at the Conrad Home. We decorated with butterflies and flowers. She had lots of family friends over and enjoyed the boxes the most.

Reagan turns 1 !!! Oh what fun!!!-2003

We move into our house in Maryland and get adjusted to MD life. We are 10 minutes from Nana/Papa and 10 minutes from Paw Paw's house. We love being just 3 minutes from church.

Reagan at 2 in our new home She celebrated her 2nd birthday with a Dora the Explorer party!- 2004

Time definitely doesn't stand still. Reagan continues to grow. She gets to hang out with her cousin everyday and they love to play outside.

She soon discovers the world of Disney Princesses and Dresses and Sparkly Shoes! She celebrated her 3rd birthday with Disney Princesses. A few days after her 3rd birthday she got a big present....a baby brother...Austin Vaughn on the 28th of December.

Reagan at 3 -Easter 2005

Reagan has grown into a very sweet little princess. She is quite the young lady in her dresses and princess outfits (that she wears everyday). She cries if she has to wear pants, the only compromise is to be able to match mommy, so we will often wear matching jeans and a solid top with our brown shoes! If we can't match- no deal!

Reagan a few days from turning 4- December 2006

Reagan continues to amaze us. She is growing into a lovely young lady.

Reagan as a flower girl in our friend's wedding-2007

Princess Reagan turns 4 !

Princess Reagan celebrated her 4th birthday with a My Little Pony birthday party on Christmas Eve. I tell her she is so blessed to have a birthday the day before the Lords birthday. I don't know how long she will believe me! Right now it's just a frenzy of gifts for 2 days, and now with her little brother's birthday just 3 days after Christmas.....it's the best week of the year for our kids!

Her special day included waking up with a special Birthday Barbie on her pillow, followed by getting to wear a beautiful long black and pink dress to church with pink sparkly shoes. She was allowed to have 4 friends over after church for some princess time. She had her best friends Halyn, McKenzie, Katie, and Abigail over. They ate McDonalds happy meals in their favorite princess garb (except Katie...I think she preferred being a dog). They played princess and watched My Little Pony all afternoon. Reagan blew out the candles of her My Little Pony cake and opened up some great gifts from her best buddies. They got all princessed out and returned to church that evening for a wonderful Christmas Eve Service!

Reagan had a wonderful year of growth. She is 40" tall and 37 pounds lean. She is quite the little lady. She only wears skirts and dresses, always wears tights and "clock clocks"- dress shoes. She is all girl and is a bit disgusted by anything boy related. I never thought that I would have an emotional daughter, but she is half Derek, so I should have known. Reagan is not one for holding back the tears over anything- she seriously sits in front of her closet sometimes and cries because she can't decide what to wear! It is not often that we make it through a day where she only had one outfit on. For a while I couldn't figure out why my laundry load was so much each week. Then, I realized in a three day period that I had 6 pairs of panties, 3 tights, 3 shirts, 3 skirts, and 3 dresses all belonging to Reagan in the basket!

We are so proud of her. She is doing very well in The Baker Pre-School. She has quite the teacher! I can relate to her so well! :) I think we will request to have her again next year! Reagan read her first word "bat" and first sentence "Tom can run" this year.

We can't wait to see what is in store for our little/big girl this year. She is about to begin some cooking classes, science classes, and it's a toss up between ice skating and "gee-nastics" she says!

Happy Birthday Princess!

Cousin Anthony turns 5-Bowling Party!

Cousin Anthony had a birthday bash this year! Anthony turned 5 and Papa turned 5...something!

We started the day off with a P.E class at church like we do every Friday morning. After class the moms got to enjoy Ladies Bible Study and the kids went to hang out in the nursery. Anthony invited his two favorite cousins along with his best friends from church (8 of them) and old friends Yolanda and Brandy to join him in his first big birthday bash. The kids piled in cars and headed for the Bowling alley.

They ate cheese pizza and fries before hitting the lanes. Three groups of 4 were lined up at each lane. They had a great time watching those scores soar! Anthony ended his game with a whopping 88!

This little outing also served as our first P.E field trip for the school year. The kids were able to practice a little bowling etiquette as well as form (as much as possible with 6 pound balls).

Thanks Cousin for a great time!

Austin's First Year!

I can't believe Austin's first year is over. Each time I am able to hold him still I just smile in amazement at how well he fits into our family. He looks more and more like me and less and less like daddy! We're amazed at how totally different than Reagan he is. Reagan could snuggle in your arms and gaze at you for hours. Austin only looks around you to see what's going on. He is in constant motion if you are trying to hold him still, but will sit for long periods of time if you want him to come to you quickly.

In the past year he has grown to a whopping 23 pounds and is about 28" long-(hard to keep him still long enough to measure), gotten 6 teeth, and can say dada, mama, nana, and papa, dada (dog) and "guys". We're pretty sure he only knows what one of those means...guys (Anthony and Reagan). He started crawling at 6 months and walking at 10 months....and he never looked back.

His namesake Austin Kerby went to be with the Lord after 93 years here on this earth, baby Austin attended the funeral.

Overall Austin has been much healthier of a baby than his sister was. We only dealt with 2 ear infections, pink eye, and some occasional breathing treatments. He is delighted to be held by people and loves to watch kids play. I do sense a bit of a temper coming, but we'll see if we can squash that before he gets too comfortable!

Did anyone say "time to eat"? This boy loves to eat! He is more and more like his mommy everyday! He is not a picky eater, but does inspect everything before you put it into him mouth...that he gets from daddy. His favorite foods are any types of bread, mashed potatoes and Aunt Shelley's sour cream/paprika chicken and rice (he does a little dance for this one).

I'm sad to see him grow so quickly, but happy that he is learning so much on his own joining the ranks of his big sister. We celebrated his first birthday with a cupcake cake that John John bought him and his family there to watch him smear it all over his face. If you don't know- my kids have very "gifty" birthdays being that they are in the same week of Christmas. As you can see he enjoyed his cake!
Happy Birthday Baby!