Reeves' Rantings

Turning a corner...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:48:00 +0000

This sweet little girl takes every last ounce of my energy. I was telling Dan that some days I feel like I can't get anything done... let alone blog. He suggested just posting these types of pictures... since that really is life right now. Thankfully she's beginning to be slightly less intense each day.

And these moments help to make up for all the exhaustion. I was so worried about them connecting since they are almost four years apart (and a boy and girl)... but they are the best of friends. I love it!

A New Year...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:04:00 +0000

So... I'm not one to really make New Year's resolutions... but this year I decided that I really want to fit the blog back into our crazy schedules. I'm still trying to decide how I want to incorporate the business and Joe's Place sides of life into the blog... so for now I'm going to keep it all here. The simpler the better. I'm planning a series of posts to quickly recap 2011 soon... the biggest change being the addition of weddings to what we offer at 2R. I had the privilege of 2nd shooting 5 weddings for another St. Louis photographer this Fall, one on my own in November, and another with Dan in December. We also had the chance to work with some awesome families on Christmas card photos, a couple of sweet newborn sessions and an engagement session with an incredible couple. September, November and December were an INTENSITY that we've never known before... but we are so thankful for every moment of it and are really looking forward to what 2012 will hold. I wanted end the post with one of our attempted family Christmas card photos (we decided our tradition is always going to be self portraits) that didn't make the cut... but there's still something I love about it.

It's been a little while...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:59:00 +0000

But we're still here. We LOVE our life here at Joe's Place... we really, really do... but sometimes it's nice to have a little break. Having three residents graduate at the same time for the 2nd time in two years was AMAZING... but also a little exhausting. Because of that, we decided we were going to stay here in St. Louis and relax for the summer instead of taking our normal big trip out West. The only problem is that there is no such thing as relaxing when we're here. The constant stream of people in and out of the house, combined with the extreme heat this summer and the fact that a lot of Dan's family had not met Claire yet... caused us to load up the back of our car (we decided to leave our trailer in storage because of gas mileage and speed) and take off the morning after Dan got back from a conference in Orlando. We knew we were going to end up in Seattle... but other than that we didn't know where our stops would be on the trip. We hoped to drive through Nebraska... but flooding there caused us to take the Kansas route. Oh Kansas... if I never see you again I'll be a happy gal. Here are some pictures from Western Kansas:

You would think we have lived in Missouri long enough to recognize signs of a tornado... but I guess not. We drove from beautiful clear skies into the most terrifying hour of my life. Right after Dan snapped these pictures we were blown practically off the highway. I've always experienced these storms from the safety of our basement. I've recognized the power of weather since we moved out here... but I don't think I've ever really understood how powerful until now. We were in the middle of nowhere... no buildings anywhere. It was raining so hard that we could hardly see the cars in front of us. We put on our hazard lights and drove about 10mph until we finally reached a rest stop. Thankfully we never ended up having to get out of the car and the kids were oblivious to the entire thing. We finally pulled out of the rest stop when the rain slowed a bit and drove out of the storm into this...

And this was what we saw when we looked back...

We are so thankful for the Lord's protection. It really was such an amazing reminder of how quickly life can change.

We ended up driving through some more weather in Colorado that night and made it to just outside Wyoming to rest for the night. Next post... our hour spent in the middle of a Wyoming highway...

Hungry

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:04:00 +0000

I have a love/hate relationship with our basement. It was our garage when we first moved in... but was turned into a rec. room (along with a bathroom, office and storage room) about 6 months later. The boys all spend a ton of time down there, we have a little area for Carter's toys, and our guest room is down there. That is all great... but because our house is the lowest spot in the neighborhood... we have had to deal with multiple floods where a lot of stuff was ruined. A neighbor actually told us recently that our street was the pond for a family farm before our neighborhood was built. Makes total sense! The flooding issue has been fixed... but our backyard is a muddy swamp for most months out of the year. Anyway... Dan went downstairs during Carter's rest time on Sunday to grab some meat out of our deep freeze and found Carter sitting on the couch watching a snake (that I'm assuming had snuck in from our backyard under the back door) move around his play area!!! He was so excited that he didn't think to come up and get us! Dan brought it up and we kept it in a vase for a few hours. Carter named in Hungry and was devastated when they had to release it. I was proud of myself that I only really screamed one time. :)

SO glad Dan was home that day to deal with it...

Carter making a drawing of Hungry for his journal...

WE DID IT!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:23:00 +0000

The amount of pictures in this post will hopefully make up for my lack of blogging the last few months. I have LOTS to catch up on... like a certain little girl turning one, prom and finding a SNAKE in our basement. Anyway... the reason for this post (and a very mobile one year old) is actually why I haven't had much time to blog lately. Three of our boys graduated from high school on Friday. I really don't think I can come close to putting into words how proud we are (I already have tears in my eyes)... so I'll let the pictures tell the story...

Not long after I took this picture it started to pour! So... our outdoor party got moved into our "not ready for an indoor party" house. Oh well... it all worked out. Dan and I still can't figure out how many people were crammed into the main floor for our house. It was pretty awesome!

Our 6 graduates! 2 pictures, 2 years apart. So proud of these guys!!!

We're not in California anymore...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:37:00 +0000

Well... we actually haven't lived in California for almost 8 1/2 years. Even thought it's been that long... I don't think I'll ever really get used to the storms we have here. I had no idea when we moved to St. Louis that basements were used for more than just another living space.... they are actually necessary for safety. We've had a love/hate relationship with our basement here at Joe's Place... but that's a story for another day. Anyway... it stormed last night. It wasn't as bad as a storm that came through about a month ago... but the sirens did go off a couple times. We spent about an hour outside on the porch watching the storm roll in. I'll never get over how much the sky changes in such a short period of time!

I took this with my phone earlier in the day while we were on a walk... totally didn't realize until later that I got a plane in the shot!

You can see a few blowing leaves in this picture... but just about 10 minutes before I took this it almost looked like it was snowing leaves in front of our house because of the wind!

Ty wanted a few shots with his basketball with the changing sky in the background... even though he's in baseball season now. :)

He told me he wanted lightning strikes behind him in this one. We made sure we were inside before that happened! I did hear on the news this morning that there were some tornados near St. Louis... but thankfully we didn't see any!

Still here...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:55:00 +0000

Still busy. Be back soon...

Senior Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:09:00 +0000

Earlier this month I took two of our three seniors out for a little photo session (our third senior decided to wait to have his pictures done). It's amazing to me that two years after our first group of three seniors graduated... we will have three more graduating at once. I overheard one of our boys explaining to someone this week that Joe's Place is the only reason he's even in school right now. It's not been an easy year... but he will be putting on his blue cap and gown in just a few months. We are so proud of him and our other two that have worked through so much to get where they are now. There was actually another story done on Joe's Place and the documentary that is set to premiere on Saturday. You can read it here. We really are so thankful for all the people that have bought tickets and donated so much to make this place possible. 6 graduates in 4 1/2 years... now that's something to celebrate!!

Joe's Place on NBC

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:07:00 +0000

Our local NBC station did a story about the upcoming Joe's Place Documentary last night. Just a reminder that you can get tickets by calling 314.644.4400 or you can donate online here: http://www.joesplacestl.org/donate.html. The film will premiere Saturday night at 7pm in the MRH Theatre. Hope to see you there!!

Joe's Place: The Documentary

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 14:28:00 +0000

Next Saturday night, April 2, is an evening that we have been waiting for with much anticipation. Two years ago we were approached with the idea of having a documentary filmed in our home at Joe's Place. Over the span of the 08-09 school year there was a video camera following the life and events of our group of then seniors in their final year of high school. We were excited about the idea... but also a little (ok... a lot) nervous. Life here is not perfect. It's actually far from it. It would mean the imperfections of our life and the boys would be recorded forever. It would also mean that there would be shots of our house in all its unorganized glory on a giant screen for everyone to see. But it would also mean that three boys who have been through more heartbreak in their short lives than most people experience in a lifetime would have their last year of high school documented showing their resolve and resiliency as they overcame an incredible amount of obstacles. So... Saturday night we will be attending The Premiere of Joe's Place: The Documentary at 7pm in the MRH High School Theatre!! The filmmaker, Matt, has spent an incredible amount of time on this project. Not only did he film and go through hours and hours of video... he flew out to Hollywood to meet with David Oyelowo (best known for his role in "The Last King of Scotland") who volunteered his time to narrate the film.

This Premiere will be the main fundraiser for Joe's Place this year!! The cost for the film is $10... or $35 for the film and the wine reception following. You can purchase tickets by calling the MRH Central office at 314.644.4400. If you live out of town and cannot attend... but would still like to contribute... you can visit the Joe's Place website here. It's hard to believe we have lived here for almost 4 1/2 years with 14 different boys. We are so thankful to be a part of this unique community, school district, and program.

And... just in case you haven't had a chance to see it yet... here's the trailer....

A little break from Spring...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:51:00 +0000

Earlier this week we were able to leave the house with shorts and t-shirts... this morning we woke up to more SNOW! I love winter... but I am so seriously ready for Spring! Our Spring Break was last week (it snowed then too) and Fred's Spring Break is this week. We were thankful we were in town and it worked out for him to be home for an extended period of time! Carter is the one who's really been soaking it up! Last night he even talked Fred into watching a little Dinosaur Train with him...

Ryan Kirby ~ Postcard From Vermont

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:23:00 +0000

Last month we had the honor of photographing and designing the album for a friend and incredible musician! We have known Ryan and his wife since we first moved to St. Louis 8 years ago... so it was really so fun to get the chance to work on this project with them. We're so excited for his CD release party next week! To learn more about the album, performances or to purchase a cd... you can check out Ryan's website and music here: www.ryankirbymusic.com.

11 Months...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:15:00 +0000

I keep telling myself that I'm going to get back to blogging... but it just hasn't happened! In the last 14 weeks... we've had visitors or been out of town for 9 of those weeks. I'll take friends and family any day over sitting at my computer! :) Anyway... we have a few exciting things coming up in the next couple weeks that I'm going to post about soon... but until then... here is our sweet Claire on her 11 month birthday today!

My little birds...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:17:00 +0000

This was taken from "my nest" in our kitchen. I really feel like I spend 75% of my day standing in the same spot feeding Carter and Claire. What can I say... they (well... really Claire) like to eat. That's been a big reason for my absence from the blog... that and 4 teenagers and 2rphoto. The photo business has been such a recharging part of life for me right now. It's been so great to have this tiny avenue amidst the craziness of life to chase my dreams. I'm so thankful for an amazing husband who makes sure I have the time to make these dreams a reality. More updates coming soon!

The scoot...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:07:00 +0000

So... I've been freaking out a tiny bit that Claire is not crawling yet. Not only is she not crawling... she's refusing to be on her belly at all. She seriously can't stand it. We see the pediatrician tomorrow for her 9 month appointment... so I'm kind of anxious to find out if we should be doing anything differently. On the plus side... she has figured out how to move without using her hands and without being on her belly. I've read a couple different places that the fact she is figuring out how to move is what's important... even if it's not crawling. Here she is (along with her crazy brother :))...

A little Reeve photo shoot...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:39:00 +0000

For the longest time I've been trying to come up with a place indoors to do photo shoots during the winter. For the most part... my sessions have been scheduled on days where it worked great to be outside... but there have been those few days where it's just been way too cold. Since I try to only use natural light (although I've decided to buy a flash so I have the possibility of shooting events at night)... I've needed a place that is not only warm... but also has great light. After a year of trying to come up with a place... I've finally found it... and it's only like 10 feet from my desk. I am seriously so SLOW sometimes! Our dining room faces the perfect direction... and the house next door is like a built in reflector! Geez! The light is AMAZING! A couple days ago I decided to use the kids as models... and mess around with some different backdrop options. There are some things I don't love about the pictures that I'll need to do differently next time... but I still couldn't resist sharing these!! Carter wasn't quite as into it as Claire (who can't move :))... so I didn't get as many of him.

This one really makes me laugh... Claire is almost as big as Carter!!

My mom made the quilt in this one...

The black background was my favorite... of course I only got one good shot of them in front of it. I won't be using the white again.

Getting there...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:32:00 +0000

I've posted twice in one week now... we're starting to get back in our flow... hopefully! :)

Today marked a huge milestone in our house... Carter finally moved out of his car seat and into a booster. It was a decision that I thought about for months! I would have left him in his car seat for a lot longer... but Claire grew out of two different car-seats and we needed to figure out something else for her. The poor girl was starting to cry when we would buckle her up. So... she's in his old car seat. I remember when we first put Carter in that seat at 6 months! It goes by so fast! Claire also grew out of her winter hat a lot faster than I thought she would. The girl knows how to eat! I asked a friend (who is an incredible knitter) if she would make Claire a new hat. Carter has had the same knit hat since he was about Claire's age. I wanted her to have something unique that she could wear for a long time as well. This is what my friend dropped off tonight (do you see the owls?). Amazing!!!!

I also had to include this picture... Carter with his sweet friend Manna earlier today. I love that I have pictures of these two next to each other in infant car seats!

Still here...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:24:00 +0000

Wow... the last three weeks have really flown by! We had a great Christmas and New Years! The awesome thing about our two weeks off was that it really felt so much longer than two weeks! Hopefully I'll get around to updating what's been going on around here soon. We have 4 boys in the house now (3 of them are seniors). We're going to focus these next months on soaking up our time with these guys before they graduate. I can't believe we'll have three graduating at the same time again!!!

Wanted to at least get one updated picture posted! Here are Carter and Claire right before our Christmas Eve service at church. So fun to have a little girl to dress up!

It's that wonderful time of the year...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:36:00 +0000

It's been a rough couple of months. We love our boys and we love living here... but lately it's been... well... rough. We have been counting down the days to Christmas break for weeks (all the guys will be spending time with family and friends until January 2nd). We're just a LITTLE bit excited. Probably the biggest thing I'm looking forward to is having the freedom to leave the house whenever we want (and only having to pick up after 2 kids instead of 6). We are so thankful for these times of getting to recharge and prepare for the next semester. I know we will look forward to the guys checking back in... especially looking back at this video from last week of Ty're coaching Carter on how to do flips on the couch...

Salt

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:27:00 +0000

I know it's not officially winter yet... but the entryway to our house sure looks like it is. Growing up in the part of Northern California that I did... I don't think I ever fully understood what cold was. I also did not understand salt outside of baking and seasoning. After almost 8 years in the midwest... I understand. During this time of the year... we have a daily battle with the white stuff. I am SO thankful that we don't have to worry about anyone falling on our front walk... but with at least 7 pairs (usually more) of shoes constantly in and out of the house it is a losing battle. I have a rug and blanket at the front door where everyone takes off their shoes... but it doesn't matter. Salt is everywhere... and it drives me CRAZY. Thankfully the floors were cleaned tonight (not that it will last long :)).

Dealing with the mess on our floors makes me glad this sweet girl isn't crawling yet. Here she is with two of her favorite guys yesterday...

One of the reasons I really love that picture is because it reminds me of this post from almost three years ago with Jude's older sister.

And... continuing with the winter theme... here is a picture of our living room. Pay close attention to the bottom, left side of the tree and to the cranberry topiary above the fireplace. The tree was decorated by Carter... and Carter only... and the topiary was my attempt at some creativity this year. BAD idea! One of our boys jokingly said that it took me like two weeks to make. It really didn't... but it sure felt like it... and the cranberries have already gone bad! Oh well... maybe next year I can try something with salt. :)

Ending on a good note...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 01:16:00 +0000

It was a crummy roller coaster of a week. I actually wrote an entire post this morning that I could not bring myself to publish. Let's just say we are SO thankful Joe's Place exists for the kids in this school district!

Moving on... about a month ago we transitioned to a cash budget... which has made us drastically cut back on eating out... one of our favorite things to do (it's actually been a lot easier than we thought). Since it was such a rough week... we decided a visit to our favorite restaurant (Schlafly Bottleworks) was in order tonight. Those folks make us feel so loved! Carter always ends up with his favorite juice (fixed just for him by one of the awesome bartenders) filled to the top with cherries. And sometimes they even deliver a special fruit face on a plate to the table for him. It's just so nice to feel known when you walk into a place. So... after an awesome dinner there... and then spending some time in front of the fire with a sweet chubby baby... you can't help but feel a little better. :)

Staying at home...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 03:17:00 +0000

When you have a baby and a 4 year old and it's like 10 degrees outside... there's really not any point in going anywhere if you don't have to. That is really hard for me... but today that's what we did. Actually that's what we've been doing a lot lately. I really don't even bother getting Carter dressed MWF... because he doesn't have school. I am so thankful that I get the chance to be home all day with my kids (although there are days I want to run screaming out the front door as soon as Dan gets home :)). I know there's a lot of parents that don't get to. Anyway... I figured I would put up a few pictures from our day at home...

And then there was one...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:43:00 +0000

It was a sad day in the Reeve family yesterday. On Sunday Dan dropped his not so trusty truck off at our mechanic to have a few problems checked out. On Monday our mechanic called and said... "Not even a doctor can save her." We were more than a little shocked. We had the glass replaced in two different windows last week... and were planning to have her cleaned up since we've been needing a 2nd vehicle more lately (the truck is usually just parked in back of our house). So... we are back to being a one vehicle family. I always say we really could live without any vehicles... I just wouldn't want to (we are a block from Dan's work, 3 blocks from Carter's school, 6 blocks from church and just a few blocks from two different grocery stores). I've really had a love/hate relationship with that truck... but we do have some great memories with it. Just to name a few... it drove Dan down into the city for his first teaching job (where he had to walk through metal detectors to even get into the school building), Fred took his driving test in that truck and Carter spent hours sitting in the cab pretending he was driving. We had to go drop the title off with our mechanic yesterday and clean some stuff out of it... so we let Carter take a few minutes to say goodbye. He was trying so hard not to cry. We took him for a chocolate milkshake after we left the shop. Here's our goodbye picture (taken with my cell phone). We'll miss you old, dirty, white truck!

She may not be able to roll over...

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:50:00 +0000

But she can jump! :) I'm not a huge fan of video on the blog. I would usually rather put pictures up... but when you live so far from EVERYONE in your family... I figured a little video can be nice at times. :) Claire has been hilarious lately in the Johnny Jump Up. It's funny because she's not a big fan of trying to move once you put her on the floor... so it's nice to see her actually try to get somewhere. She tries to jump as far out from the door frame as possible and then finally gives up and swings back... it's pretty cute!

She goes nuts in the exersaucer too... but of course wouldn't do it once I had the camera out this morning. She just had lots of smiles (and a few coughs :))! Still kind of figuring out the video function on my camera... that's why she keeps jumping out of the frame.

Thanksgiving Week

noreply@blogger.com (Alyssa Reeve) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 02:34:00 +0000

We had an incredible Thanksgiving break. We missed being with family... but we did not miss the traveling. We actually stayed in our pajamas until 3pm on Thanksgiving day... it was great! Skype has made holidays so much easier since we've lived out here. It's so nice to chat face to face.

So... here's a little picture recap of our week...

Headed to gym with Daddy for an end of the school day basketball game...

With Ty before the high school team started practice. Just to show how awesome Ty is... the ENTIRE high school basketball team was standing right behind me while Ty played a little game with Carter.

Claire on her 7 month birthday. Totally forgot to do a picture earlier in the day! I don't have a flash on my camera... so I wore a head lamp. That's why the color is a little funny.

Ty with his uniform before his first basketball tournament of the season.

Our three oldest boys on Thanksgiving eve. They came for dinner and ended up staying for five hours hanging out, laughing, looking at pictures and talking about favorite memories from their time here. Really wish we could see these 3 more!

Our first "snow" of the season on Thanksgiving day!!

Our low key, but very delicious, Thanksgiving meal.

On Sunday... Dan, Carter and Ty went and got our tree.

Carter has spent the last 4 days decorating our entire tree by himself! I'll have to post pictures of that later. Some parts of the tree have a ton more ornaments than others... it's pretty awesome!

Such a relaxing week. Can't wait for Christmas! :)