McDaniel Family 2012

Well, the McDaniel Family will be a little larger in 2012!  On July 1, we found out that God has blessed us with the addition of a child.  Reid and I were extremely shocked but excited for this opportunity.  We have had our first appointment and had an ultrasound to confirm that everything looks good.  Our official due date is March 3, 2012.  If you know me and my family then you know that our birthdays always seem to fall on other birthdays or special days.  For instance, I was born on my mom's birthday and my older sister was born on our grandmother's and cousin's birthday.  Well March 3 just happens to be my father's birthday and the day before happens to be Reid's sisters birthday.  So, this baby may just follow in my family's footsteps!
My pregnancy so far has not been too bad.  I have been sick once but only because I took my vitamins on an empty stomach...won't do that again!   I am working full-time so by the time I get done I am pretty tired and try to be in bed between 9 and 930.  I am still making it to the gym 3 or 4 times a week but have toned down my workouts.  My biggest battle has been nausea that comes and goes.  The best thing I have found is to chew a piece of wintergreen gum and it seems to subside.  Our next appointment is August 10, we will keep you updated as things progress!  Thanks for all your love and support, we are excited for this journey!

The New House!

HOME SWEET HOME!!

This is our new house, and we love it!  We are out in the boonies and border the BLM property on one side and a few neighbors in the far distance on the other side.  This house and property is much larger than our previous house but it is nice to have the extra space in the kitchen and to have a designated space for Reid's office.  He now has an entire living room designated his office and will be spending lots of time in there once the semester starts in August.  Here are a few pictures of the house while we were still unpacking:

The living room...to the left is our kitchen and dining room and to the right is our two guest bedrooms and bathroom.

The wonderful friends that helped us move and build our bed!  Thanks Patricia, Flint, Stacey and Gabe!

Our great backyard!  We love our pool, it has been very enjoyable during the hot summer months!

As many of you know Reid is passionate about his vegetable garden, so we attempted to plant one at our new home.  I am sad to say that we had to go to war with the rabbits and sadly we lost.  The rabbits demolished our garden two times so we are making weekly runs to the grocery store to get our fresh supply of vegetables.  

A beautiful sunset from our front porch...heavenly!

Our first rainstorm since October 2010...we were thankful for the moisture!  Since July 4th we have had some wonderful rainstorms and have actually seen a few of our plants in the garden starting to come alive...we will see if the little bunnies destroy it for the 3rd time.  We love our new home and do not regretting moving out into the "country."  I must say it amazing to see how much better I sleep when I don't have Spanish music playing until 3am and fights at the neighbor's house.

PS: we have plenty of room for any visitors that need a break from their everyday life...come on down!

Mr. and Mrs. Reid McDaniel

Well, lots has happened over the past 8 months Reid and I got engaged and have since been married.  We spent a lot of time deciding when and where to get married but seemed like we were never going to please everyone so we ended up getting married on March 26th and were so happy our family and friends were able to celebrate with us.  We knew we wanted a country feel to it and that is exactly what we got.  Reid and many family and friends helped cook the food and it was absolutely wonderful.  My cousin Jennifer came from Dallas and made the beautiful wedding cake and unique grooms cake.  We were pleased that Reid's mom, sisters, brother-in-law and three nieces were able to make the long drive to join us for our special day.    Here are a few pictures from that day!

My Parents

My sisters and I

Paege and I...she was so happy she could wear her wedding dress!

Reid's Family

Myself and Reid's sisters

Me

My husband

Us

Our First Dance

The Wedding Party

Boots all around

Our beautiful cake...Thanks Jenn!

Reid's Cake

Our rings

Praying



My flowers and boots

Happily Ever After!



Thank you all for making our special day so wonderful, we are truly very blessed!

The week we arrived home there was a swat situation on our street and had to have our house and yard searched my police.  We decided that it was time for us to move so we started looking and found a great house for us to start our new life in.  We will be moving April 23 and will be posting pictures soon!  Now we have lots of room for visitors...come on down!

Weekend of fun

This weekend my friend Laurie came down from Albuquerque to see me.  We hadn't see each other in almost a year is it was so nice catching up with each other...the weekend went by too fast!  She got here Friday evening and we went to dinner and caught up with each other's lives as Reid listened to all the gossip!  Then Saturday morning we got up and went for a walk like old times and came back to the house and I made breakfast for the three of us while Laurie and Reid watched some college football.  Then it was time for the girls to go shopping so we were off to the outlet mall in Texas...a girl could really spend the entire weekend there!   We got back to Las Cruces just in time to prepare for a nice dinner and a night of dancing.  Here is a picture of us girls ready for the night of fun...take a close look between us and you will see Reid trying to pop through our hair, he is such a goof ball!

Here is a couple shots of Reid and I:

A new experience...canning tomatoes

Reid and I have been able to freeze so many veggies that our freezers are completely full.  We have had to turn to other alternatives in order to preserve as many veggies as we can.  Reid and I have learned to can tomatoes and boy is it a process.   We have been able to can three gallons so far.  However, our processing of veggies has slowed dramatically because two weeks ago someone raided our garden and took most of the produce and left many of our plants trampled and died.  The only plants we have left are our tomatoes.   Here are two pictures of the canning process, the before:

After:

The Garden is Producing!!!

Seems like the last three weeks the garden has been producing faster then we can put the items up.  We have had a ton of squash, our freezer is almost completely full...good thing we both really like it!  Here are a few pictures of two of our days pickings in the last week, it has been really great production because of lots of rain.

I am sad to say that our corn did not do too good, we actually tore everything down last weekend.  Thankfully we were able to get a few ears and will be enjoying them in the near future.

My favorite thing lately has been our purple hull peas, if you are like me you are thinking, what in the world is that!  When we first began talking about a garden, that is all Reid kept saying and I thought he was crazy because I never heard of them.  I was pleasantly surprised, they are soooo good, I will definately put them on our list for next year.

Reid is finally happy to have his home grown tomatoes.  He has enjoyed many tomato sandwiches for lunch...still kinda odd to me but he loves them!  We planted 8 tomato plants and they are all really starting to thrive in the next few weeks I think we are gonna have too many on our hands!

Tonight Reid is cooking some good ole squash and onions, beer butt chicken, candied carrots and green beans...who is ready to join us???

July has flown by

The last few weeks have been busy for both of us.  For July 4th we spent the weekend in the Jemez Mountains with my Aunt and Uncle and their family and friends.  It was an adventure to say the least!  Our tent did not have tent poles so our plans for camping out in our tent were not able to happen, but thankfully there was room in the cabin for us to stay. Rooster and Houla had a blast running free on the land and even found some cows to play with!  I enjoyed taking Reid to my favorite place, that has so many wonderful memories from my childhood.  The weather was beautiful and the nights got cold, but unfortunately we had to return to Las Cruces to the 100+ weather.  Here is a picture of the dogs on our drive home, boy were they tired!

Reid spent a week in Denver for a conference with fellow Animal Science grad students.  He presented his research that he has compiled thus far and then spent time enjoying other presentations and talking to people in his field.  He then returned to Las Cruces to help a fellow student with her research on Dairy calves...I think they are supper cute!  Then he spent two days in Clayton getting ready for another study to begin there.  Thankfully he is back in Las Cruces for a little while...hopefully!   Here is a picture of me with one of the dairy calves, they are so cute and fun to play with.

Reid and I have enjoyed a few sessions of racket ball at the gym.  Although, I don't know that we are exactly playing by the rules, we still have fun no matter what!

We were able to go to Albuquerque for a weekend with my family.  My aunt and uncle always host an ugly shirt bbq and Reid has been determined to win since he found out about it in December.  I am happy to say that he won...but of course with a little help from my wonderful taste! Here is a picture of the winning shirt and of course Reid's trophy for the year.

Last but not least we were able to spend a night bowling with friends.  They asked if we were good at bowling and Reid said no he is awful.  I said that I hadn't been bowling in ages and not sure how I would be.  Well, for those of you who know anything about me, I spent many years on a bowling league.  The truth was still that I hadn't bowled in years.  Although it was not the best scores all that matters is that we had a great time.  Thanks Cody and Marissa for a great night!