Reece Matthew Varney

Baby Reece was born Tuesday, November 16th, 2010 at 7:59 am, 8 lbs, 1 oz and 19 inches long

Everyone is doing great so far. Will try to give more updates and pics later.

Here's a pic of Royce holding him for the first time. :)

We're multiplying!

The other big excitement of the day was that I found out I'm pregnant! Little Varney #2 is on the way! It was a great day to find out since we had almost the whole family together for Royce's birthday. Matt and I told Royce that he was going to be a big brother right before we came inside for lunch. Then Royce announced to everyone, "I'm going to be a big brother!" I don't think anyone really understood him at first, so I had to repeat it, but then there were hugs and granddaddy was flabbergasted and yelling. LOL!

So I kind of new I was pregnant because, despite my recent attempts at dieting and exercise, I've gained weight. With Royce I gained all but 5 pounds of my weight in the FIRST trimester and it looks like that's the way it's going to go with this one too. I guess I didn't pick the best shirt to wear today (a peasant top that actually looks like a maternity top), because everyone insisted they KNEW I was pregnant. Haha! I guess it is about time! The kids will be almost 4 years apart. I think my due date will be sometime around November 21st.

Will keep everyone posted on the baby news!!

Royce's THIRD birthday!

Royce got his birthday started early on Wednesday with presents from Aunt Sally. My camera was dead, so no video. I just snapped tons of pics with my phone. He got some cool toys (Melissa & Doug wood toys, which I LOVE). There was a block puzzle, a box of big wood beads and string, and a box of animal cutouts with holes around the edges for lacing (he calls it his "sewing"). The sewing was his favorite, but he played with everything. The puzzle was a little complicated though. :)

The pic above was where he first saw the sewing. He was so happy he was VIBRATING!

I LOVE when he does that! HAHA!

He wore this around his neck when he finished...it weighed like 4 pounds!

Saturday we had his little party at mom's. My sisters were there with their four girls, Matt's mom and sister came, and my friend Tiffany came with her little boy, Athen. Royce was a little crabby because he stayed up late with his cousins Friday night, but hey...it's his party and he can cry if he wants to.

LOVE the look on Athen's face! LOL!

A GIANT box of chocolates from Uncle Matt. THANKS alot Uncle Matt! The card was HILARIOUS though! (It's the one with the little girl on it next to the box he's opening.) When you open it, it says, "I got some chocolate and you don't have any...NaNaNaNaBooBoo!"

The card from Aunt Liz...he was dancing, but the camera didn't really capture it. It played that Conga song.

Nana got him a craft...garden stones!! He wanted to do them NOW! But will wait and do them with Nana at her house. Maybe we'll get pics of that up later. :)

He wanted the same cake that I got for my dad's birthday two weeks ago...a chocolate ice cream cake (with Oreos smooshed around the outside). He's VERY excited if you can't tell. :)

Christmas pics and TONS of news!!!

We did the big family Christmas at my mom's house on New Year's Eve. My sisters, Jenn and Anj, were there with their husbands and their kids. Anj has 3 girls (Julianna is 11 and the twins, Ally & Emme, are 10) and Jenn has a girl named Morgan who is 9. Don't have a pic of what I got - it was an adjustable dressform. Jenn and Joey had mine and mom's names, so she got it for both of us since there's a $50 limit. Matty got a toolbox and the wrench set he wanted. Royce was SO excited about his cash register and groceries and wallet with a Sonic card - as you can see from his :O surprised face!

Matt and I went to my cousin Jeremy's house after to ring in the New Year. It was a great night and has been a great year so far! SO thankful for Matt's new job!

Matt went to do all the paperwork etc for the job at the prison yesterday. Looks like he'll be starting work on January 19th instead of going to training first, like we had initially thought. He's going to work for a couple of weeks (I'm guessing to see if he can hack it) and then he'll go to training in February. The training will be 5 weeks in Forsyth, GA, but he will get to come home on weekends. He's really looking forward to getting in with the special Emergency Response Team, but they kinda have to pick YOU, so we'll see how it goes.

ALSO...our other big news is that Royce is going to start preschool!! I talked with the school the beginning part of December and she said they had two openings in the 2 1/2-year-old program, but there was a waiting list for the 3-year-old class. SO...with it being right before the holidays and us not knowing about Matt's job situation, I put off signing him up. But the school started back today and the lady called and told me they still had an opening! Friday morning we're going in to meet the teachers and kids and hopefully Royce will want to stay and finish out the day. He'll be going Mon, Wed, Fri from 9 - 12. It's only $100 a month and supposedly this is one of the best preschools in town. I'm VERY excited for him to meet some kids, but the BEST parts are: they will work with him on potty training so hopefully he'll get the hang of it SOON (with other kids around, I think he'll figure it out) AND if he's in the 2 1/2-year-old class, then he instantly gets a spot in the 3-year-old class that starts in the Fall. YAY! No waiting list. Will have more pics and info after Friday. :)

Great News!!!

Matt got a job! It's not with the police department like he was hoping, but it's not a bad second. He's going to be a prison guard. He goes in next Tuesday to find out a little more about the job. He'll be starting training *we think* on January 19th. It's 5 weeks of training up in Forsyth, GA. He'll get to come home on weekends though, hopefully. After that, he'll be POST certified (which is what he needs for the law enforcement job anyway). We're SO excited!!! GREAT news for Christmas!

Christmas 2009

My family has an odd tradition of celebrating Christmas on New Year's, which is actually great because that means we get to have a whole week of Christmas instead of just one day. On Christmas morning, my mom and dad and Matt's mom all came over to see Royce open presents. Well, they were actually a little late, so they didn't get to see all of them. Royce was too excited to sleep in and I was not going to make him wait.

The only two things Royce asked for this year was a dog and a shopping cart. We adopted Rocky the first part of December, so that took care of one; and "Santa" (Aunt Jenn) got him the other. Matt's Aunt Sally in Oklahoma sent another of Royce's faves: LeapFrog's Tag Junior. Look it up - it's pretty cool. Basically it's a little plastic robot that you move over the pages of books and it reads them to you. Royce is VERY into books right now, so it was a BIG hit! Lots of DVDs and books for Royce this year.

I got some very nice kitchen/dining room stuff. Matt got MarioCart for the Wii and we've been addicted!! We finished out the day by going to see more family - grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins...played cards until after 9 and came home to play more Wii!!

My sisters and their families are coming in on Wednesday, so we will have the big family Christmas then. Royce is getting the scanner and cash register and more groceries to go with his shopping cart, so I'm excited to see how much he loves that! More pics coming next week.