best mother's day gift ever. thank you mom. these infant rings belonged to my grandmother, my mother, and me. so special! love this so very much. what a keepsake. she even kept a second ring of mine so i can make it into a necklace for reese. LOVE.

goodbye to my faithful girlfriend, mckenzie. you were there for me at every twist and turn for the last 12.5 years. from single gals in uptown to married life to kids and everywhere in between. you will be missed, sweet, sweet girl. it was so hard to see you go, but i am so glad you are no longer in pain. until we meet again...tell norman hello and you guys take good care of each other!!!

the pritchards are moving! jay is always looking at real estate, sending me houses and i am usually telling him to chill out, we don't need to move. but the fact is, it was time. and a couple of weeks ago he sent me one i really wanted to see. we did, we looked, and we put in a contingency offer. kind of a "what the heck and we'll see" move.

well, 24 hours later we had four contracts. our first offer came 15 minutes after we put the house on MLS. it was amazing. i was praying for clear signs and we have had many. it was time for the move. we are excited and definitely need the additional square footage. our new house is in the exact area we wanted and very near a lot of our best friends and church. there is even a neat story about the street. my brothers and i called my grandfathers "bobo" growing up. the street is bob-o-link. :) kinda cool. like a tribute to my dad's dad, nelson link. :)

anyway, we are moving april 2nd. looking forward to a new chapter and a fun beginning for our little family. it will be hard to leave our first house together, the house we came to as newlyweds, the house we remodeled from the inside out, the house we brought our kids home to, a house with many memories and great neighbors we will miss so much. but, it's a new chapter and a new beginning and we are thrilled that this has all come to be.

now i just need to pack... :) more to come! we move on reese's half birthday. can't believe our little gal is almost six months old. it is a big year over here! :)

5 months

reese - a whole month has passed since my last post, and she is another month into her first year. unreal. we celebrated her fifth month with a trip to the hill country with some of our dearest friends. four families, each with two kids, all in one house. it was as crazy as it was fun and we enjoyed every moment. hikes every morning, lots of good food, a couple of game nights, and even a winery (that was happy to let the kids run wild) made the mix of the long weekend. it was a long overdue trip for most all of us and we were all due a weekend away. so relaxing and so fun!

happy five months, sweet reese. we love watching you grow and change every day. literally every single day. you seem to be growing and changing by the moment. and speaking of growing, link's teachers today swore he had grown since last thursday. ;) he is now 42.5 lbs, 3'7" and wearing a size 12 shoe, size 6 shirt and size 5T pants. the kid cannot stop growing!

so much more news on the horizon - part of which, we sold our house in 15 minutes less than two weeks ago. literally 15 minutes on MLS and we had a full price offer. 26 showings and 24 hours later, we had three back up contracts. working on finding and closing the perfect house now, but regardless, looks like the pritchards are moving in less than a month! C-RAZY.

some recent pics of our crazy life!

reese - at 5 months

reese entertaining link and his buddy, hudson

reese with her godparents, scott and camille

happy neighbors

reese and mommy

happy baby in her car, inherited from big bro

all the kids eating together this weekend (reese was having a bottle with daddy)

willie nelson's favorite hill country spot, did not disappoint

my sweet friend, camille, and her baby addie, with reese and i at hamilton pool

scott, ellie, link and jay

cutest little biscuits

hamilton pool with the fam

reese had her first rice cereal with her girlfriends - good times!

happy customers and friends at blue bonnet cafe!

4 amazing months

our little reese turned 4 months old last week. unreal. i always tell my friends when they have their first baby that the first three months are like a dream, then you kinda start to wake up and BOOM, you are at your kid's first birthday party. in other words, this is about the time i want time to STAND STILL!!

reese-y,

we love you so much. i'm loving watching you bloom into your own little person, the smiles, the giggles, the coos, it's all so sweet. you love trying to imitate our sounds, which means you say "mama" a lot (because i say it to you). i know you don't know that's my name yet, but it still makes my heart melt to hear you say it. :)

so proud of yourself. :)

sweet brother and sister

that FACE! i swear you are the cutest little girl!!!

"do you see what i put up with here, people?" - reese

typical. you smiling at your crazy brother "playing swords"

your check up went great with dr moore. we have you on meds now for acid reflux because you were a spitting up machine!! but you've still had no trouble gaining weight and growing, little one. lookin' good! you take about 6 oz each feeding, several naps each day, and go to bed about 7:30-8pm most nights. you wake up anywhere from 6-8am (a lot of that depending on what time your LOUD brother gets up and starts terrorizing us all). :)

weight: 14.3 lbs (58%)
length: 25 inches (75%)

you have become so aware of your brother the last few weeks, and you cannot get enough of him. every time you two are in a room together you both just laugh and giggle at each other. link ADORES you and is so proud to show you off and introduce you to people. he is so proud of your new accomplishments so when you roll over or stand up holding the couch he screams, "look at her! she's so cute! reese is a sweetie" so sweet. can't wait to watch you guys grow up together.

we love you with all our hearts, baby girl.

love,
daddy, mommy, and link

well 2012, i started the year with a post saying that we had high hopes for this last year. and that i love looking back at the previous year's post and reading about my own naivety about the year to come.

tonight i read the last couple of years new years posts and just couldn't believe how much my life has changed so quickly. when i wrote the 2012 post, i was eagerly hoping to become pregnant soon, and sure enough, a couple of weeks later, i was...with our precious reese!

so this year was spent chasing a two year old, while pregnant, doing house renovations, celebrating a new three year old, watching close friends move away and making new ones, celebrating having A BABY GIRL, welcoming and loving her, and enjoying family, both family moving closer and family visiting and family GROWING. so yeah, it's been quite a year.

so many changes, and they just keep coming. so 2013 is again full of promise. this week we have been potty training link, slowly starting reese on more formula, recovering from a family-wide illness, a busy work week for me, travel for work for jay, and stuck-inside-praying-that-this-cold-weather-will-kill-off- the-mosquitoes so we have a mosquito free spring and summer ahead! :)

reese turned three months old on the 2nd - and is the most precious baby ever. so sweet and so perfect in every way. she is thriving and we love to see her smile.

time with the family at the heart of dallas bowl, that jay helped plan! go pokes! :)

at the cotton bowl with jay - not a fun outcome, but a fun night together. we love our date nights - thanks to some great family and babysitters they are not as rare as they once were.

love 'em

link is obsessed with super heroes. esp captain america and spiderman.

avengers, assemble!

link and his buddy wade - they are SUCH great friends. so adorable how much they love each other and how excited they get to hang out. :)

cheers to 2013. bring it! we cannot wait for a fun year with our two beautiful children and each other. may this be a year of worship, growth, family, friendship and new horizons. God, grant us the wisdom and courage to follow where you lead.

christmas, birthdays, snow (in dallas!), family, FUN!

WHITE CHRISTMAS! reese wins!!!

i don't even know where to begin! but i want to do a a quick recap here so that reese can hear all about her first christmas someday. :) 

we have had so much fun this last week. of course this is our little reese's first christmas, and it's also the first year that link was TOTALLY on board and into the whole idea of it all. jesus birthday, santa, the excitement of the season - which just meant it was the best christmas ever for jay and me. :) the tiny wonder of our sweet new baby girl and the excitement in our three year old's eyes were just enough to make my heart bubble over every single day of this wonderful season.

so we started out last friday night with my brothers' families, my parents, and us. we went up to see my brother jarrod's new house (or as link calls it, carson's castle - carson is my youngest nephew :)) it is a beautiful very large house, so fair enough. :) then saturday we had our first family christmas at my parents new house in dallas. oh-what-fun. we had our annual link family football game, lots of food after, and lots of fun being together. 

christmas eve was a beautiful service at our church with both of our parents and dinner at kirbys after. the service was so special. link listened intently and loved singing the songs, lighting his candle, and sweet reese slept calmly in all the beautiful sounds of christmas. i LOVED every minute of it. like a dream, and what a beautiful celebration it was! christmas day we had brunch here with jay's family and my parents, and opened gifts. link came riding the scooter santa brought him into our room at 5:45am, screaming, "look what santa brought me, a lightning-the-queen scooter!!!!" (yes, i know it's lighting mcqueen, but link has his own way of saying it) so we did presents in the darkness of our living room before sunrise. :) oh my early riser! killing me! :) 

but we had a blast and then had a lot of friends come into town the days following christmas, so we had a lot of fun catching up and sharing in birthday celebrations. 

and now, a TON of pics. forgive me.

my cute kids in link's new jeep

north park santa outing

santa baby

christmas cookies with hunny

is there a better pic of xmas morning? new slippers, toy blower, superhero t-shirt? what more could a boy want - oh right, some goggles. :)

my three favorite girls - and my nieces, who inspired me to realllllllly want a little girl. LOVE THEM.

the tulsa crew got to meet reese for the first time, and they loved her oh-so-much

cousins having fun :)

three wise pritchards :)

love. ;)

getting ready for "hunny's nativity"

i mean it - i love this with all my heart!

christmas eve dinner

the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

adorbs.

friends celebrating

the early morning gifts - see how it's pitch black outside? and the clock shows just before 6am? told ya. ;)

link taking his friend finley for a ride in the jeep

celebrating zetta's first birthday!

we love this sweet girl - happy birthday z!!!