What we spend our time doings...

...Being Parents! Raegan is now 5 months. It is so crazy how fast time flies. She is very interactive and knows who her momma is. She loves rice cereal and candy canes-and pretty much anything John will feed her while I'm not looking :) She rolls all the time now, sits up-as long as we are supervising, talks ALOT, laughs and she moves on her back around the floor. It blows my mind how fast they learn! We have lots of fun with her. Raegan loves the snow, she even loves to eat it. haha!

This is our first pony tail. I didn't keep it in very long cause i couldn't take it seriously! haha we still got a little ways to go before we wear pony tails... But we are close!

John and I were able to get a little deer hunting in this year-he got went lots more than me, but we thought it would be fun to dress Raegan up in camo when Grandma Jo watched her. She looks like a chunk in this picture. haha i love it!

For Thanksgiving we were able to go up to my parents in Washington. We had a lot of fun and can't wait to see them for Christmas!

Raegan playing the Wii with Papa.

Grandma and Raegan on thanksgiving

4 months

Raegan turned 4 months on the 5 of November. We went to her 4 month check up yesterday and the doctor says she is doing great. She weighs 13.7 Lbs and is 24 3/4" long. She is such a good baby and loves to play now. Her hair is starting to finally fill in and get longer as you can tell in this picture. She is such a joy to have around!
This picture is for aunt Morgan-she loves zebra! :)

Oh, and.....


DON'T FORGET TO VOTE for the cute little Candy Corn!!
(read the post below)

VOTE for Raegan

Hi everyone,

My friend Jessica was having a halloween costume contest, so we entered Raegan hoping we'd win the $50 dollars to go towards a photography session with Jessica Calderwood photography jessicacalderwoodphotography.blogspot.com/ If you wouldn't mind taking a couple minutes and following these instructiont to vote for Raegan #3, I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks a bunch!
Hope everyone is doing great!

Love, John, Karie & Raegan Strong

All votes can be emailed to jessicacalderwoodphotographycostumecontest@hotmail.com

Contest opens today Monday, Nov 8th and closes on Monday November 15th at midnight. You can have one vote per person in a household from one email, or two votes per email. (ex: you and your five kids can vote from that one email, and those 5 kids can also vote under the other parents email, or if you don't have anyone else in your household, your email can count for 2 votes.) In the email include either name or number of the contestant.

You can view the contestants here: http://jessicacalderwoodphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/2010-halloween-costume-contest-driggs.html

Our Little Family

It has been a busy fall so far. We have been all over the place. John spent the last 3 weeks up in North Dakota for work...and Raegan and I were up in Washington at my parents. It was a last minute decision to go but i'm glad we went. We were able to go to my sisters Volleyball and soccer games, hang out with grandma and papa, and do a little shopping while we were there. We had a lot of fun.

Raegans 1st time on the tractor with Papa

Raegan is a daddys girl. She looked like him for quiet a while, but now everyone is saying she is starting to look like me. She is 3 months old now and is so much fun. She rolled over on the 14th of Oct. I knew she was getting close, and John did not want to miss it while he was up in North Dakota working. So i didn't give her much tummy time. Well, on thursday-the day John was driving back home-she rolled over, 4 times. He was kind of sad he missed it, but luckly i got at least one roll recored. She hasn't done it since, mainly because she got the stomach flu the other day as well as a cold, so now she is a little under the weather. She is slowly feeling better though. There is nothing scary than a little baby puking her guts out-it was the sadest thing ever!

We found what had been eating our ducks...we first thought it was this coyote so john waxed it one night. Than a couple days later the last two ducks disappeared so we knew it wasn't the coyote eating the ducks. So on our way to church I spotted this fox...so I had to take care of him. Ha-ha

Here are a few other things we've been up to:

We ended up butchering our turkey early because we ran out of feed and didn’t want to buy anymore. It was so crazy cause while cleaning her out we found some eggs that she was about to lay. She was such a cool turkey. She would follow us around everywhere, especially John; I swear that turkey thought he was her mom. ha-ha

I havent made much time for crafting, but here are a couple things Ive done lately.

Sweet Summer Time

This summer has gone by so fast. This has probably been one of the best summers I’ve had in a long time. We have spent a lot of time with family and friends and have enjoyed every minute of it. I thought having Raegan this summer would have slowed us down with doing things we enjoy…but there hasn’t been a change at all. She is going to be one outgoing little girl and I love it!

Here is Raegan at 2 months (picture below). She is actually starting to get fun and i know she appreciates me...haha! She smiles all the time and coos.

The last few weeks have topped the summer off just great. John and I celebrated our anniversary on the 23rd of August, I can’t believe it’s been 2 years. We went over to the Oregon coast for a night. It was pretty cold but we still played in the ocean…you can’t go all the way and not. It wasn’t so bad after your body went num. haha.

We stayed at my parents for a couple weeks and while we were there we went to the Benton-Franklin Fair, (of course) and helped grandpa with the horses. Went jet skiing, a lot! Haha way fun! We also blessed Raegan while we were there. It was a very neat experience.

I thought this was a funny picure. Us wives were all carring the babes while the husbands were behind following like good boys with the strollers ;)

This is a picture of My friend Emily and I and her cute baby, Wyatt. We kept teasing that Wyatt and Raegan were going to get married one day. He is exactly 6 months older. I can't even imagine Raegan being that size. They grow so fast.

Raegan is the 3rd generation to wear this blessing dress. Great Aunt Maggie Edler made the beautiful blessing blanket for Raeagn, we love it!

We have now adjusted to having Raegan in our lives. She is a pretty good sleeper at night and i am glad for that. She slept 9 hours last night, it was the best night sleep i've had in a long time.

It was so much hotter in WA than here in Driggs and I already miss it. It is definitely fall here and I am not ready for it. But that does mean its huntin time and we are both excited for that.

6 wks old

Well we have survived so far. Raegan is growing so fast. She is a fairly good baby, she seems to be colicky and will cry for hours at a time and nothing seems to soothe her. I'm just waiting the day till she sleeps though the night...I don't think being a mother will be so bad once that happens. haha.
John is such a good daddy. I couldn't be any luckier. He loves our little girl. He even helps at night, even when I tell him to just go back to bed cause i know he has to get up early for work.

Raegan is spoiled by her grandma and grandpa Anderson. They have come down to visit and have been such good help. We wished we lived closer cause it would make being a mommy that much easier.

My sister, Morgan, came down when Raegan was born and stayed with us for 3 weeks. She was such good help. She was even away from home for her 13th birthday. I think she changed more diapers than me the first few weeks of Reagans life.

My sister Alison is down here now and we are loving having her stay with us. Here is a picture of the cute blanket she made Raegan. Morgan made one too but I don't have a picture of it yet.

Though Raegan is only 6 weeks old. She has been a pretty outgoing baby. haha Her are pictures of some of Raegans "1st".

1st time squirel hunting. 3 weeks

1st time boating. 3 weeks. (teaching Morgan to knee board)

1st time going to a Draft horse show.

And her some some random ones. She is such a strong baby. She holds her head up so well already and she even rolled over from her stomach to her back at 5 weeks. We love her so much and are so glad to be parents!