Lillian Anna Reynolds

We are pleased to announce the birth of our precious daughter Lillian Anna Reynolds. She was born on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 6:49 am. She weighted 7 lbs 7 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She has beautiful brown hair and brown eyes. It's hard to believe she's already been with us for almost 2 weeks. We're loving her sweet spirit, the mousy sounds she makes and the way she stretches after eating! She's so cute and we can't be more blessed to have her in our lives!

Spa Shower - September 20, 2008

My dear friends here in Ithaca wanted to throw me a baby shower. I decided that I wanted them to be spoiled as well so I recommended manicures and pedicures! It was so much fun! We have a great spa here that caters to parties. My friends made the arrangements and I just showed up! They made delicious finger foods and had the cutest pink cupcakes. We had a blast and we all got a little pampered! One thing is that they didn't listen to me about no gifts - they gave Lilly Anna a collection of story books and wrote the nicest little messages inside the cover! So sweet and something she'll enjoy for years to come! Thank you girls!!!

Disclosure: Josh was not invited to the shower. I asked him to drop me off and take a few pictures so we would all be included! I think he wished he could have stayed...

Our Texas Trip (August 16 - 26)

Josh and I had an amazing trip home a couple of weeks ago. We spent a lot of quality time with family and friends - of course we would have loved spending much more time. We even made a trip up to Arkansas to see Mimi (Josh's sweet grandmother)!

My mother-in-love's sweet friends Donna and Julie had a baby shower and my dear friends (Andrea, Emily, Mary Marshall and Meredith) & sister-in-love (Heather) had another shower the next weekend! It was so much fun! Lilly Anna's is all set! She's going to be the best dressed baby in Ithaca! Below are a few pictures (the link should take you to the Snapfish album) from the week home:

Visiting Mimi Ambort

Lunch with Dad, Rosemary, Brad, Ashley & Drew













The adorable decorations at the girls shower













The delicious food and decorations at Donna & Julie's shower!

Ogunquit, Maine August 9 - 11, 2008

Josh and I had the opportunity to celebrate the completion of his internship by taking a trip to Maine! It was so beautiful and relaxing. We stayed in the cutest little beach town named Ogunquit http://www.ogunquit.org/ at the Hartwell House Bed & Breakfast. We ate a lot of seafood, window shopped at the cutest little boutiques (couldn't resist buying something for Lilly Anna - see picture below), walked the perimeter of the beach, took fun pictures and just had a wonderful time! Now we're off to our next trip - TEXAS!

Hartwell House B&B














Ogunquit, ME Beach














Josh picking out his lobster














CHOW time!!!














Lilly Anna is ready for the beach next year!!

A Very Special Name

Since we found out last month that baby "Larry"/"Lorena"/"Texas"/"Burp" is a girl, my first instinct was panic! We had pretty much agreed on 2 boys names (first and middle) and hadn't quite agreed on anything for a girl! We both wanted to use family names, so without hesitation I suggested naming her after our grandmothers. Josh LOVED the idea! So we're excited to share that her name will be Lillian Anna and we'll call her Lilly Anna!

Mimi Reynolds (Lillian Gertrude)

Lillian Gertrude was Josh's paternal grandmother. She went by her middle name, but everyone called her Trudy. She was a wonderfully Godly woman whom I'm so blessed I had the opportunity to have known. She spent her last few years living with Josh's parents in Dallas which was great because we got to spend a lot of time with her. She had the sharpest mind and would tell the best stories! I really miss that about her. We think she's feeling pretty special right now in heaven!

Grandma (Anna Beth)

Anna is after my grandmother, Anna Beth. Not only is she extra special because I'm named after her, but because she has to be the coolest octogenarian! Seriously, she's tech savy (has been emailing for YEARS and will snopes.com you any day if you send her false forwards), taught us about the TiVO probably 5 years ago (says it was invented for old people because they fall asleep during the evening news so when they wake up and rewind they don't miss anything) and she has such great taste that I sometimes borrow her jewelry and shoes! She even designed my bedroom in college that we still use for our guest bedroom - it's a mixture of Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger prints! Not only is she awesome in that sense, but she's one the most caring and thoughtful people you would ever meet! A true southern belle! Oh, we're so blessed!

So there you have it, our little girl is going to have a really special name that we hope she will be very proud of!

Livin' for the Weekends

Our summer is about to come to an end - thank goodness! Josh's last day of his internship is Friday - 8/8/08!! I can't believe it's been 10 weeks. Luckily we have seen each other every weekend. Either I've gone to NYC or Josh has come here to Ithaca - which is no easy task because it takes 4.5 hours to drive it and 5 hours to ride the terrible Greyhound bus (Josh has some incredible stories from his rides)

It's been worth all the sacrifice because we've had amazing weekends just being with one another. Our favorite weekends have been in Ithaca because it's so beautiful and relaxing - we've made it a tradition to visit the Farmers' Market. Every Saturday late morning, we head straight for the breakfast burrito booth - oh, it's so yummy! Then we head to the beautiful arboretum and read, relax, take pictures and talk. It's been wonderful! If the pictures don't sell you on coming up for a visit, I think the summer weather will. It's been perfect - usually in the low 80s during the day and low 60s at night - makes for sleeping with the windows open the best (we don't have A/C and don't even need it!)

The Breakfast Burrito Stand!

Fresh flowers - they are so cheap, too!

Lily pads at the Farmers' Market
Relaxing at the arboretum. The view was beautiful, but the bugs were bad on this trip!

It's a...

GIRL! So I don't think this is a real surprise to many of you - we found out last weekend (7/12)! I've been so bad about keeping up with the blog because I've been daydreaming about our little girl since then! We are so thrilled and beside ourselves! This was somewhat shocking to me because I'm so used to little boys - we have 3 nephews, 1 niece and most all of our friends have boys! So watch out boys, here comes our little princess (actually, watch out for Papa Josh...he's already worried about Travis Wakefield and Peyton Yates - just to name a few...)



So our little girl is already spoiled. Just in a week's time we've received several "pink" things from friends and family! Can't wait to see what she looks like in all these adorable clothes! Thank you to everyone for sharing in our excitement.

From Tina & Chris!














Thank you Ben & Lauren (Ben picked it out!)














From Grandmommy & Aunt Heather

What keeps me company:

1. My dear new friends here in Ithaca!

While I definitely miss Josh a TON, I'm very thankful to be stuck in one of the most beautiful places with some of the best girls around. We get together often, probably 2-3 times a week! We either cookout at each others houses, go out to dinner, on walks, plays, movies or concerts. Anything to keep ourselves busy. It really has been fun. Here are just a few pictures of my new friends.

Lisa and Jen - making pineapple mojitos! The virgin one was delish!

Lisa and Liberty (who's a TEXAN) enjoying the great outdoors.

Lauren - Friend, co-worker and neighbor (that pink thing is her interpretation of her husband)

Amy - Another friend and co-worker (on our road trip to NYC a few weekends ago)

Thanks, girls, for keeping me company!



2. My new camera!

Josh and I bought a new camera a few weeks ago from a woman I work with who does sports photography as a hobby. I've been wanting a fancy camera for sometime and now that we have one on the way, it was our goal to get one over the summer. I'm super excited. I'm hoping to figure out how to use it before the baby comes. Here are some of my amateur shots.





Empire State Building - it was actually taken by my other camera.

NYC June 13 - 15

Last weekend I went to the city and had a blast. My wonderful cousin Anna had us over and grilled fajitas! She has an awesome patio and is the best hostess. We had a great time with her and my other cousin Laura. We also got to meet Anna's friend Steve who was what we expected - wonderful and a very talented banjo player! Thanks for the delicious food and fabulous company. Can't wait to see you again - hopefully next weekend!
Steve, Laura, Josh and Anna


My wonderful cousins - Anna & Laura


Talented Steve rocking the banjo!


Anna showing us her talent as well - she's really good!

Our visit home (May 23-26)

These pictures are a little old now, but I still wanted to share them. They are from our last visit home! We already miss everyone so much!

Our nephew Cason - 3 months old

BBQ in Fort Worth with Mom & Grandma!

Enjoying the lake with little Travis Wakefield - 2.5 months

The Reynolds Clan

Our dear Dallas friends!

The Coopers Rock Ithaca!

My wonderful brother, sister-in-law and 1 year old nephew blessed us with their presence this past weekend! Even though the weather was cold and rainy, we still managed to have a great time. Thank you Brad, Ashley and Drew for sacrificing so much of your time and energy to make it all the way up here! We had an amazing time with you and will welcome you any day or time!




Drew opening his birthday gifts!


Wine tasting at Bet the Farms Winery

Drew walking across the suspension bridge


Drew admiring the gorge below!

"Slope Day" & JGSM's Annual Mustache Competiton

It's hard to believe that Josh's classes ended Friday. "Slope Day" is an annual Cornell tradition that takes place on the last day of class. Its history is really interesting - it started in 1901 and has had performances from a few notable bands: The Grateful Dead (1977); the Ramones (1984); Kanye West (2004); Snoop Dogg (2005); Ben Folds (2006)...unfortunately the bands were not exciting this year with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Gym Class Heroes and Hot Hot Heat??! I got to work all day and enjoy the loud music and screaming undergrads from my window. Josh got to sleep in and go to a friends house where they played Poker, drank Bloody Mary's and ate breakfast tacos. Being from Texas Christian University, this was all a complete shock to me...I saw kids walking around in a daze, passed out on the lawn outside my window, hugging trees to brace themselves (or really hide themselves while they proceeded to vomit!) Glad I had gotten past the queasy stage - I would have been embarrassed to have had someone I work with see me "react" to what I had seen and not know I was pregnant! Would have been hard to explain...anyway, in case it's hard for you to imagine what it's like:

My "tree" example...

I had a package waiting for me on my doorstep when I got home. My dear friend Andrea sent us a handmade journal and the cutest little onsie for baby Reynolds:

On to another Cornell tradition - the Johnson School's annual Mustache Competition...I knew Josh was competitive, but I didn't think he would be so disciplined or so creative with his costume. He worked on his mustache for at least 3 weeks. Unfortunately he didn't win "Best in Show" but he did win in his category...which I'll let y'all imagine what that category was (after all, this blog is being read by 80+ year old women:))

Josh and the Best in Show winner