Two Men and a Little Laney

The Rest of our Time in Nocona!

2012-02-11T12:08:00.000-08:00

We got to stay in Nocona for two more days after Christmas, and the kids obviously enjoyed waking up and rough housing with Aunt Jenna!!!

And playing with Uncle Colt and his iPhone.

The brothers got to wear their cool new coats and hats out to the farm!!

I am including this picture because of how all the boys are trying to fix my car. The battery kept dying the week before Christmas and I kept having to get it jumped. After we left the farm, Pops disappeared for a bit and when he got back, we found out that he had replaced our battery for us on the sly!! So sweet, that Pops!

Back at the house on our last day, the kids bundled up to head outside and play some catch!

I think that Pops read this entire Children's Bible to the brothers while they sat cozy in his lap!

Miles loved these little finger lights from Nae Nae! He wore them for days until they ran out of juice!!

My Pinterest Ornament Creation!

2012-02-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

I saw these photo ornaments on Pinterest and absolutely loved them. It took me way longer than it should have to figure out how to create a photo strip and Todd had to help me with the "Merry Christmas," but I am in love with how they turned out. I want to make them every year!!!

Christmas Night!

2012-02-08T18:33:00.000-08:00

We left Grommy's and drove to Nocona to celebrate Christmas with them! The kids were showered with even more sweet and thoughtful gifts!!

Laney got a Mickey Mouse game from Colt and Jenna. We played it immediately and had lots of fun. It is so fun to get to play games like this with her!!

A giant floor puzzle for the brothers from Colt and Jenn!

Laney got a paint craft kit which makes her crafty heart happy!!!

We really hit the jackpot with these two!! We are love love loving that they live so close to us! We at least get to seem them every Sunday at church and oftentimes even more!!! The kids could not love them or feel loved by them anymore! So blessed!!!!

Laney got some games for the Wii. This princess one and Kids Just Dance!!!! Hilarious!

Laney asked for Sparkly Shoes for Christmas and Nae Nae hooked her up with these adorable Twinkle Toes!!! She loves them!

The brothers got some cute "farmwear" hats and coats from Pops and Nae Nae. Their Carhart hats and coats match Pops and Grandaddy exactly. Pretty stinking cute!!

Some thank you hugs!

Colt and Jenn got the brothers an Angry Birds bean bag toss game that their Itouch loving hearts fell instantly in love with!

Pops being silly with one of our new front end loaders serving as his hat!

Christmas at Grommy's!!!

2012-02-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

After our church service on Christmas morning, we went to Grommy's house to celebrate with her and Granny and Aunt Hailey! The kids got to start opening presents right away and they were so excited. Laney had been talking for weeks about passing out all the gifts at Grommy's house. She was the cutest "elfkie" ever!!!! She and Aunt Hailey, who fills that role every year, got all the gifts to their rightful recipients!

Laney got to open her first present!! Lots of teaching stuff to add to her classroom collection! Grommy and Aunt Hailey completely hooked her up!

The ever excited gift opener!

They all got to open that was for the three of them!

Boom-a-phone instrument from Grommy!! So fun!!!

A hilariously worn bike helmet to match Laney's Hello Kitty bike!

Purple, sparkly, light up duckie!!!

After the kiddos finished opening their gifts, the brothers went down for a super late nap, and we exchanged gifts with each other. Laney switched roles into the "trash-kie" and took her job of collecting the wrapping paper trash very very seriously!!!

Once the brothers woke up, we had our Happy Birthday Jesus party with this super cute cake from the Gromsters!!!

Miles got some squinkies from Grommy and he was loving them!

This face is so Miles!!! I can hear his silly voice loud and clear looking at this pic!

2012-02-03T05:39:00.000-08:00

On Christmas morning, everyone woke up early which was perfect because Todd had to leave for work. I was worried that they would sleep later because we were up so late at Bobbis and GPK's the night before, but they must have been too excited!! Todd held them off in the hallway so that I could run in and take pictures of them running into the living room and seeing their gifts!!

Laney got a bicycle horn in her stocking!! She has been really wanting one and she was so excited!

This toolbench is from Bobbis and Kev last Christmas. We kept waiting to take it out of the box and set it up in the garage until the garage wasa little more organized. So, we decided to put it together for a Christmas morning reveal. The brothers were so excited that Santa took the time to put their toolbench together while he was our house!

Stocking play dough!

Laney is in love with playing school. Santa brought her this chart paper to add the classroom materials that she had already been racking up this Christmas. We have since rearranged her room so that she can have a whole area converted into her own little classroom!

The brothers saw these Dinosaur Train toys at Barnes and Noble when we were there for Sister's school night. They asked about them over and over after that. We hardly ever watch that show around here, but I do love it! Speaks to this adoptive mommy's heart when they talk about that sweet Pterandon mommy loving her T-Rex baby!!!!

Sam was taking his time unloading his stocking! He is an easily excited kiddo and probably would have been perfectly content to just play with his stocking stuffers all morning!

Laney stopped to make sure that Santa and his reindeer enjoyed our cookies and carrots!

Cars tatoos!

Sam got a Winnie the Pooh electric toothbrush, and I have to include this picture of him with it. Everytime anyone asked him what Santa brought him this year, his reply was, "A Winnie the Pooh toothbrush!"

Buddy!!!

Laney got a $5 gift card to Claire's.

The kids got little flashlights to match one of Daddy's!

Miles got a Cars toothbrush and some Cars vitamins!

Some sweet shades for everyone....except Mommy!

The kids paused in gift opening to bust into their stocking Nutella for some breakfast.

We opened the final door to our countdown calendar and got our chocolate Santa pops!!!

The brothers each got a Cars book that they were so so so thrilled about. We have read them about a jillion times already!

Our newly potty trained boys got a potty seat that easiley unhooks from the potty for cleaning purposes. Really bad aim happening in our bathroom these days.

Laney got a set of lip glosses. She can literally never have enough!

Floor puzzles for our puzzle loving boy!

A new Bible for Laney Bug.

Miles's book, Meet the Cars. He saw this book at the store with me and fell in love with it. He looked at it for ten solid minutes at the store before we had to leave. It has all the characters from both Cars movies and their bios. He loves it!

Nerf guns for all three kiddos. We can have a real battle now!

A moment of enlightenment!

Miles got another cool hat from Santa!

The kids opened their presents from each other and were so sweetly excited about what they picked out for each other!

Miles got Laney some chocolate cookies and costume jewelry. Five bucks goes a long way at Big Lots!

The kids got a pirate ship and castle handed down from Kevin's grandson, Will. We put it on the kitchen table for them to get to play with on Christmas morning.

Laney got a pointer to go with her new classroom calendar!

Todd surprised me with a new KitchenAid mixer! Apparently it was a steal of Black Friday deal, but I was still shocked!!! It is awesome! So thoughtful, that husband of mine!

Christmas Eve!

2012-01-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Eve service at our church was amazing! My mom came with us and we met up with Aunt Jenna as soon as we got there. There weren't enough seats for all of us together anywhere, so we ended up sitting in the sound booth behind Todd and his team all very hard at work! It worked out perfectly for us! Each of us held a very well behaved child and got to experience a beautiful time of worship and acknowledgement of Christ's unbelievable act of humility in becoming a baby in a manger so that he could be our Savior!

After church, we went to my mom's house for dinner and a gift extravaganza!! Her house was beautiful and the table was set so beautifully as well!!!

Our service ends 30 minutes before the Goods, so I helped my mom finish up the meal while the kids played on GPK's Ipad!

Aunt Cait and Uncle Johnny got there and Laney got started "teaching" Johnny something. Laney can turn any spot into her own makeshift classroom these days. With a craft bag on hand at all times, it makes it easy!

Miles played cars for a bit before he joined Johnny as one of Laney's students!

The Goods arrived!!!!

They are such an adorable family.

We are sans Todd for the beginning of our night every Christmas Eve. He has to stick around for our church's second service.

Cute newlyweds celebrating their first Christmas as "the Beaus!"

Evidently we took a little pause for some reading before dinner!

Bobbis and all the kids right before they opened their first gift!

A recordable story book from Bobbis. Twas the Night Before Christmas, read to them by Bobbis. It was so cute, and they loved it!

The kid table had to shift to the computer room to make room for all the presents in the living area!

Time to open up their jammies!

I made all the kids' jammy pants this year and we go them shirts to coordinate. I ran out of the fabric that I bought last summer in anticipation of making these, and then I couldn't find more anywhere. So, the boys didn't match the girls. Not that I was planning on the boys having those frilly ruffles, but they could have pulled off the green!

My silly mom and sister trying on some of the big girls' jammy accessories!

The kids got to start opening all their gifts! Sam started out with this Cars game for the Wii from the Goods! He totally loves is. He is a major fan of technology and would sit in front of the TV, Itouch, Kindle or Wii all day long if we let him, which we don't! He asks every day for a chance to play "my game!"

Bobbis got the brothers Mater and Lightning McQueen pillow pets!!

Laney asked bunches of times for a princess Barbie. Aunt Jessa was happy to deliver!

Miles has asked for months for a Mother Gothel and Flynn Rider doll from Tangled. Aunt Jessa came through again and Miles had a pretty hard time the rest of the night tearing himself away from his new "action figures" to open the rest of his gifts!!!

Bobbis knows that we can never have enough washable markers at our craftilicious house!

A Cars book with a magnadoodle attachment. Awesome!

A purse ornament from Bobbis for our accessory loving girl!

Cait and Johnny gave the brothers these hilarious screaming monkeys!!!

We took the kids shopping on the day before Christmas Eve for gifts for each other. We used to always do this when we were little. I remember one year, Jessica and I both secretly picked out the same Barbie car for each other. Todd and I split up with the kids and covered our carts with our coats so that they wouldn't see what they were picking out for each other. Laney and Sam were with me first and Laney spent nearly the whole time trying to convince Sam of all the things that she wanted him to get her whenever he switched over to Daddy's cart. She definitely still had fun picking out for her brothers, but she fell in love with this Tangled dress and asked for it over and over agin! The dress was over their limit for each other, but she was so so excited about it, I passed the tip on to Bobbis!! Obviously, she was thrilled!!!

Tessa and Claire got these bunkbeds for their American Girl dolls from Bobbis. Jessica told me about them and suggested that I make mattresses and bedding for them. Here's Tessa's!!

Miles got a Lightning McQueen ornament from Bobbis!

Here's Claire's bedding!!

Bobbis got the kids these cute place settings!!

Cait and Johnny got the brothers two very cute books to go with their screaming monkeys!!

Bobbis got the brothers this cute sign for their big boy cowboy themed room!

Caitlin knit these scarves for Laney and the Good girls. They are so cute and so impressive!

Bobbis got the brothers each these personalized books. The main characters were named Miles and Sam and there were lots of references to Bobbis and GPK. I started reading a bit of one of them and all the kids flocked over to hear it!

Sam is a puzzle maniac these days. He loves these Cars puzzles from Bobbis and GPK.

Laney loves playing school!! She has always played imaginary games that imitate her classes since she stared preschool, but she has taken it up a notch since the beginning of kindergarten. Bobbis gave her a pocket chart and calendar so that she could set up her very own classroom corner in her room!!! So fun!

The kids finished opening their gifts and then went to check the Santa Tracker on GPK's computer!

Jessica got started on her specialty, Cappucinno Punch!

My mom got this little ornament that looks like a disco ball. I am pretty sure that this silly picture is of me saying, "HAAAY!!" in anticipation of all the miniature dance parties that we are sure to have with our mini disco ball.

Todd's custom creation for my mom for their annual ugly ornament exchange!

Luckily, I get cute ornaments like this one from Jessica!

I made my mom a jar of taco seasoning. This is a picture of her making fun of it!!!!!

My mom got Jess and me this fun pancake batter dispenser for making cool shapes and letters. We will definitely put it to good use.

I made my mom this little wood block to go with three apothecary jars full of her favorite candies. She has a drawer full of candy in her closet that she sneaks to our kids every time that they come over!

Finishing touches!

Todd's ornament from my mom was way less offensive than his for her!

A cute pancake pan to go with my new batter dispenser!

No words for this....

My mom and Todd share similar sense of humors and she gifted him with this "honey badger" shirt after he showed her the you tube video.

Johnny entered into the ugly ornament race and had a pretty strong showing with this one! It had a super scary face!

The hunt for the pickle! Won by Jessica!!!

I believe that this was some "elfkie" behavior!

It was such a fun night with my family! I love all of our traditions and laughter!

Reindeer Food!

2012-01-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

Before church on Christmas Eve, Laney raced outside to sprinkle her reindeer food on the lawn. We don't come home again after church. The kids fall asleep at my mom's house and then we bring them home, so we have to put our cookies and carrots out before church and definitely take care of that reindeer food!

Snowman Pancakes!

2012-01-07T21:27:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve, we made snowman pancakes for lunch. This is a tradition, like most cute traditions, swiped straight from my sister. We have made tree pancakes in the past, but I like the inclusion of whipped cream on the snowmen!!! The kids had way more fun decorating and licking the whipped cream than they did eating their actual pancakes!!

Cookie Decorating!!!

2012-01-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the kids decorating cookies with lots and lots of icing and sprinkles!!!

Granny's Christmas!!

2012-01-04T06:15:00.000-08:00

I have the best baking helpers ever! We line the kitchen table with waxed paper, wash hands (repeatedly), and they start rolling out the sugar cookie dough, cutting out our hearts and circles, and rolling the cake balls into cones (Santa hats) and balls! I am so glad that they have fun in the kitchen with me, because it definitely makes the making of all our Christmas treats for neighbors, teachers, and parties lots more fun for me!!

The brothers took a nap while Laney and I decorated these cookies and cake balls. Laney specialized in dipping the Santa hats in red candy melts and then topping them with a white jawbreaker! When the brothers woke up, they all decorated their own sugar cookies, but those pictures are somewhere else, so I will have to do a separate post!

We took this particular tray of treats to Granny's house for our Christmas kick off with Uncle Randy and his branch of the Blissard family tree!
The kids were super excited to sample their beautiful creations!

Laney had lots of fun with her adorable 2nd cousin, Kylie, in town from California!

Getting a little work out in!

Uncle Randy gave each of the kids these little animal toboggans like the ones that the brothers got from Lee Lee for their birthday! They are so stinking cute, and there is plenty of room to grow, so we will be wearing these for years to come! Yay!!!

Arts and crafts supplies which we can never get enough of around here!!! Granny knows us well! (Or at least her personal shopper, the Groms, knows us well!!!!!)

Ali gave Miles Man a cool microphone that plays lots of different songs for him to sing along with. Perfect!

Not a second to lose, Sam busted out those markers from Granny and go to work!

Austin, Todd's cousin, is hilarious! He is really sweet with my kids, which always impresses me!! He is playful and interested in them. Laney, not surprisingly, was eating up all his attention!

Our first Christmas celebration of the season was awesome! It left us in anxious anticipation for our next ones!

Christmas Party!

2012-01-03T05:51:00.000-08:00

Laney's Christmas party was a couple of hours after her sing along. I really like all the moms that I have gotten to spend time with from her class so far this year. I was a little nervous about leading the party with my co-room mom, but it was no big deal at all. We had so much fun and the kids were super sweet! They played a bean bag toss and a pin the carrot on Frosty out in the hallway!

A girlish picture!!

Sing a Long!

2012-01-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

Laney's school had a sing along on the last day of school before Christmas break. I had some major flashbacks to the many sing alongs that I took my students to in my teaching days.

Laney walked in with her cute class and sat down at the front! She never even saw me!

So, I snuck up to the front to snap some pictures of that cute girl!!

Laney did not do a whole lot of singing. The only song that I saw her sing any of was Dreidel Dreidel.....silly girl.

Some teacher gifts!

2012-01-02T13:22:00.000-08:00

Having been a teacher, and having been gifted with some very thoughtful and considerate gifts over the years, I try to give my kids' teachers something that they will appreciate and that communicates how grateful I am for the precious care that they give to my little loves! Every year, this is hard for me. Jessica and I go back and forth about what we should get for teachers, because she is indecisive like me! This year, I gave Laney's teacher and her sweet aide Starbucks tumblers and gift cards, which is pretty generic, so we had to fill those tumblers up with something fun! Santa Hat Party Mix that my mom and I made for hours! We dipped bugles in red/white chocolate melts, topped them with marshmallows and rolled them in white pearls over and over and over! It was a little too labor intensive for me, so we will have to remember that in years to come!

But, I also wanted to do something for all the other teachers that Laney has. Different aides teach her music, art, P.E, and storytime each week. She goes to library for a lesson once a week. And we wanted to give a gift to the office staff too. I saw a tutorial for these reversible fabric coffee sleeves that seemed super simple. I made 10 of them, filled up these cute Christmas-y cardboard cups with some Santa Hat party mix and that was our little gift to all those sweet ladies investing in Laney each week! We brought them for the brothers' P.E. and Music teacher too!

"Santa Beards"

2012-01-02T12:59:00.000-08:00

Todd got a promo in the mail from and ad agency that he has dealt with recently that offered a $100 gift card to the best Santa Beards created with shaving cream. I can't believe that we haven't gotten our gift card yet?!!

Miles was the only one willing, and he was not too thrilled about it once things got underway!

Seriously, there was something ~~less terrifying~~ better than this???

The Grapevine Polar Express!!!

2012-01-01T07:13:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago, we go to go Grapevine to ride the North Pole Express!!! Nae Nae arranged for us to all get to go and we were so excited! I have wanted to do this with the kids for years and I am so grateful that Pops and Nae Nae made it happen!!! We watched the Polar Express two times in preparation for our adventure! The morning that we were supposed to go, Sam woke up feeling very puny. He threw up several times and we knew that we couldn't bring him with us, even though he started feeling much better after his day of sleeping and watching movies in our bedroom!! My sweet mom came over to stay with him. He was already on the mend and super excited about hanging out with Bobbis and watching Tangled. Sam is such a good boy. He was trying hard to feel good all day and had such a sweet spirit about staying home while we got to go on a train ride!

Because Pops and Nae Nae already had a ticket for Sam, we didn't want to waste it. We called Ella to see if she would be available to join us at the last minute! She could!!

Everyone got jammied up and we met up with Janelle, Heath and Ella in the shuttle parking lot! The girls were super excited to see each other!

Shuttle ride!

We made it to our family waiting in line for the big show!

There was a performance by the conductor before the train ride!

The conductor called the children up to the front to sing Jingle Bells. Sam and Laney had no interest at all, but Miles hopped up to sing with the big kids!

Miles and Pops were joining in like crazy in the interactive show!

Time to board the train. We got to walk through the "snow!" \

All Aboard!!!

The conductor came around to punch our tickets just like in the movie!!!

Then we sang Christmas carols with some elves on our train car and SANTA came!!!!!! This is the very first picture EVER of Laney not screaming in terror with Santa. She does have Ella as a buffer between her and Santa, but I am so excited that she is genuinely smiling!

Here is my last picture of the two of them with Santa!!!!

Miles and Daddy with Santa!!

Everyone got jingle bells from Santa just like in the movie!! Laney was checking to see if I could hear the jingle since the parents in the movie couldn't hear it!

Love this!!!

Hot chocolate for all the kids!

What a fun night! Then we got to go have dinner with our family. It was so much fun!!

Shining Star!!!

2011-12-30T13:58:00.000-08:00

Laney was chosen as the December Shining Star in her classroom. Each month, one student from each class at her school is chosen to represent their classroom for citizenship, kindness and respect! Laney got to be Mrs. Thomas's December Star!!!

The Shining Star's photos are posted on a bulletin board in the front of the building for the entire year!! The Shining Stars photos and bulletin board just happen to be my PTA Board Position this year. I take the pictures and display them each month. So, I was pretty thrilled to get the email that Laney was Shining Star and get to take her picture! She was pretty excited about it too!!!

Santa UNDER the Roof!!!!

2011-12-30T13:50:00.000-08:00

Santa on the Roof was a little different this year. It was a gloomy and rainy day, but there is definitely no hope of rescheduling a party for 100+ people in December with any hope of success! Jess and I decided that we would go forward with Santa on Under the Roof this year. We suggested that people "come and go" in the hopes that everyone could fit in Jessica's house. The night was a great success. Almost everyone that RSVP'ed was able to come and see Santa and collect their gift from him. We had a great time and loved getting to see and celebrate with so many of our friends and their littles!

Claire and Laney were ready to greet all the guests as they arrived! I saw some reindeer shirts similar to these on Etsy and decided that I would make them for our girls for SoTR. They were pretty easy and turned out so cute on our cuties!

Mom, Jess and I were in our standard SoTR uniforms!

We were inside for the caroling part of our evening and I am not sure how I became song leader, but it did start off that way. Poor guests. I truly have the worst voice ever. Jack quickly stepped in and began leading songs from the kitchen in an effort to spare our friends.

Look at how wet cute Grant-man is in his reindeer antlers. He was in such an excited mood. I love watching him have such fun with his friends!

Santa heard our singing and came in for a visit!

This cute family are some new friends from Ditto. Dylan (in the front) is in Laney's class. He is so cute and his mom is amazing. Dylan is the oldest of her four!!!

Miles and Sam were such big boys getting their bags from Santa! Sam has talked for months about how he was going to be brave this year and sit with Santa and he was!!!!

Finn is another sweet boy from Laney's class!!!!

Jackson and the Schutte boys are regulars at SoTR. We love getting to see them!

Mr. and Mrs. Claus!!!!

Cute Goods looking good!!

KDub was wearing our uniform with us, so we snagged her for a picture!

Big Boys!!!!!

Miles even traded his hat for one to match Santa for a bit!!

Santa's checking his list twice on these two!!!

Tatum and her big sister Toska!! Tatum and Laney spent three years together in ECC, and now they go to Fielder with us! Yay!

I love this tradition so much!

Light Looking!!!

2011-12-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

We struck up a new tradition this year with my mom and Kev and the Goods. We each usually go Christmas light looking with our families, but this year we decided to join forces for some fun family time and some light looking too! We met at my mom's house for dinner and we all wore last year's Christmas Eve jammies. Mom made taco soup and the kids had lots of fun looking at her beautiful tree with all it's ornaments!

Bobbis, Claire, Tessie and Laney got trapped outside!!!

:( no Caiter this night. It's not as easy for her to join in on a thrown together evening since she does not live within one mile like the rest of us do!

Jess was teaching Claire a hand slap game that we used to play all the time. We were doing a little demo for her. Knowing Claire, she will be able to school us all in it before too long!

The brothers are in love with Kevin's IPad!!!!

Time to hit the streets with our hot chocolate to go and start oohing and ahhing at all the lights. We caravanned to Interlochen with Bobbis squeezed in the front seat of our car with me. We passed out mini marshmallows to the kids everytime we saw a snowman inflatable in someone's yard! They were loving it. We listened to a Hungarian Christmas album that some of our friends from gymanstics made for us. I think that we can all sing one of the songs perfectly because Laney wanted it on "magic" (repeat) the whole night!

Rudolph Pancakes!

2011-12-29T23:41:00.000-08:00

We like to have breakfast for dinner lots around here!! I saw these cuties on pinterest on one of my rare visits this holiday season! ( I had to stop looking, because there were too many ideas and I was already a little overwhelmed!!)

So, we picked up some rasberries to add to our usual pancake and bacon combo! A couple of green m&m's and we had some rudolphs!!!

Yes, Laney is wearing her flower girl dress from Cait's wedding. She loves it's twirl factor and asks to dress up in it all the time!!

Say goodbye to Rudolph's nose!

Lunch with the Brothers!

2011-12-29T23:32:00.000-08:00

Just a few pictures of a lunch with the brothers at home. I love spending my days with these boys and having Laney in kindergarten already is such a daily reminder to me to treasure these moments with Sam and Miles. It won't be long before they are big kids too. I hate even typing those words!!

These two fill my daytimes with so much joy and privilige!

Silly Sammy with his rudolph antlers on. It is just so hard to get this boy to smile!

Snowflake's Antics

2011-12-29T23:19:00.000-08:00

Last year, after Christmas I found this

Elf on the Shelf for 75% off. I hadn't heard much about shelf elves before, but it was a good deal, for which I am always a sucker! I started seeing elf activity all over facebook and I remembered that Santa had sent us our very own last year!!! I told the kids that he was coming to visit and they were so so so excited. We got home from picking Laney up from school one afternoon and our elf was waiting for us with a big pile of snowballs (marshmallows) that he brought with him from the North Pole!!! We read the book and named our elf, Snowflake. The kids were very careful not to touch him so that he wouldn't lose any of his magic. We watched the Elf on the Shelf movie several times this season and had so much fun finding Snowflake every morning. I love a good tradition/memory maker!!!

I took a few pictures of some of Snowflake's activities this Christmas season. He was nowhere near as crazy or creative as some that I saw, but we love him!!!

One morning we woke up and Snowflake had brought us donuts from the North Pole and even some little elf-sized ones. (Miles called the little donuts "elf-nuts" and the regular sized ones, "big-nuts") Oh the mileage Todd is going to get out of that story!

Another morning, we found Snowflake above our chalkboard. He tagged it with his own elf-y grafitti!!!

Another morning, we woke up to smells of a yummy stuffed apple cinnamon braid that Snowflake made for us!!!

Laney took these pictures of Snowflake's perch one morning!

MOLA!

2011-12-29T22:27:00.000-08:00

A couple of pictures of the brothers at the zoo!! We were outside of the MOLA sitting on the Komodo Dragon! I think that these pictures were right after Thanksgiving. Don't be fooled by the short sleeves and shirts. This is Texas! We don't follow the rules!

Dinner with our Friends!

2011-12-29T22:18:00.000-08:00

We drove straight in from Nocona to have dinner with our sweet friends while they were still in town. Lamar and Jill came in for Thanksgiving and we convinced Jared and Jill to come too so that it would be just like old times!!! It was so much fun to hang out with such treasured people that we have loved for so many years!

Jill was as fun as always with our kids. She has a gift!

Tyler and Laney finished their pizza and then couldn't get enough of Jill's leftover salad!!

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! They are so cute that it makes my heart swell!

Thanksgiving in Nocona!

2011-12-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

We went to Nocona to celebrate Thanksgiving on the day after. We were only there for a few moments before we headed out to the farm to check on the cows. That makes for some pretty happy kids!!

Pops and Sam checking in on those moo cows!

Tractor rides with Pops!! Happy boys!!

Laney is pretty much constantly doing cartwheels, and the shop was the perfect spot for her gymnastics!

Uncle Colt with three of his very biggest fans!!!

Pickles and Pies!

2011-12-26T21:15:00.000-08:00

Our final stop of the day on Thanksgiving was my mom and Kev's house for Pickles and Pies. We got there and saw my mom's yummy spread of appetizer-y foods and desserts!! The brothers busted out their cars and the good times began!

Cait and Johnny had Thanskgiving lunch with Johnny's family, so we got them for the evening! And it was Johnny's birthday - even more reason to celebrate!

These girls are silly and very imaginative. Who knows what kinds of crazy games were going on here!

Johnny's birthday cake was cutta-cutta'd into him in traditional fashion!

The kids discovered GPK's IPad had all kids of fun for them!

This is our annual perusal of the Black Friday ads. I get sucked in every single year and think that I should go and get all these great deals. My family is always very quick to discourage such lunacy!

Turkey treats!!!

2011-12-16T15:41:00.000-08:00

After we left Grommy's house, we stopped by our sweet friends, the Paredeses, house to pick up a yummy treat that they made for us! How cute are these adorable little turkeys?! So sweet that they made some of these precious creations for us! We loved them!!!

"CHEEEEEESE!!!!"

Thanksgiving at Grommy's!

2011-12-16T11:21:00.000-08:00

After the Trot, we went to Mission Arlington to pick up some hot meals to deliver to families. The kids were so fun and happy in the car the whole time. They sang a song that the brothers learned at school over and over again. "Thanksgiving Day is a happy day, when we say thank you God!" Todd and I were loving it!
We went to Grommy's right after that for Thanksgiving with her, Granny, Hailey, Uncle Randy, Noel and Austin! It was lots of fun. The kids watched the entire parade that Grommy had tivoed that morning. They loved it and it was so fun to watch with them!

Sam and Noel!

Turkey Trot!!!!

2011-12-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

Our annual trotting tradition was continued this year. We did the Arlington version again this year. It is pretty great to have a little more time to breakast together beforehand and not get up at the crack of dawn to make it to Dallas. Jess made us pumpkin muffins to fuel us in our highly competitive race!

Getting the party started at the start line! Still plenty of people around us. That never lasts for long!!

Santa always heads up the rear of the race. Ho Ho Ho-ing for all of us at the very very back so that we don't lose heart!!!

I love this picture of my extreme baseball loving nephew in front of his Rangers ballpark!

The brothers got to get out of the wagon and sprint to the finish line! Sam is actually a speedy little runner. His brother has a pretty hilarious stride that Aunt Jessa is actually pointing and laughing at in this pic!!! (we all were, don't judge her auntness! She's the best!)

Who knows?! Kev loves to capture me at my very best!

This turkey looked about like I think most turkeys must feel about Thanksgiving!

DBU Homecoming!!

2011-12-11T20:18:00.000-08:00

We went to DBU's Homecoming celebrations a few weeks ago. This is the ten year anniversary for our graduating class!! We went to a tailgating party and had dinner and then we went to the basketball game. We had a great time. The Goods were there! Jack teaches at DBU and Grant never says no to a sporting event!! So we got to eat dinner with them and with the Murrells!!!

Our kids really enjoyed the game even more than I thought they would! We watched the whole thing!!

Those cute boys!!!

Miles and Todd were dancing to some music along with the DBU cheerleaders!

An Afternoon Park Playdate\!

2011-12-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

We met Melissa and her boys at a park afterschool a while back. We used to meet them at this park lots and it was a little crazy to think about how old our kids are getting!!!!

Josh taught Laney and Ella how to slide all by themselves on this very slide lots of years ago!!!

I am glad that I have at least one picture to evidence that we really were there with our friends!!!! Cute Gabesters!

Teepee Cupcakes!!

2011-12-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

I saw these super cute teepee cupcakes on pinterest and thought that we would have lots of fun making them at our house. We got to have Madeline come over and play after school one day and we chose this as our afterschool snack!!!

Laney and Maddy got straight to dressing up so they were nice and fancy for our teepee creating! These pictures are post cupcake baking, which was not the easiest task. We lost a few to the oven, but we still had enough to make it work! The cupcake was baked inside the cones while they were rightside up and then we flipped em over to decorate up just like teepees.

We had to do a quick internet research because none of the kids knew what teepees were!!! We read a little bit about them and looked at some pictures. My homeschooling friends would be so proud of me, I'm sure!

2011-12-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

We had the brothers' long awaited "Tractor Birthday" on the Saturday after their real birthday. We just had family over which is nice and low pressure, but we still had almost 25 people! We are so lucky to be blessed with that much amazing family!!!

The kids were obviously super excited to get to see Uncle Johnny! They tackled him immediately upon arrival!

My sister always looks so amazing! It's a little unbelievable!

Speaking of amazing sisters! Miles was getting some love from my little and equally unbelievable sister!

Bobbis brought the balloons and Kevin got this awesome shot of Miles running up with them!

Let's Get it Started!!!!

A little T-ball outside for the kids! The Goods had just gotten back from Baylor Homecoming! They were so accommodating to come to the party in John Deere colors!

Uncle Jack looks to be channeling his inner David Murphy. They got to stand next to him the whole time at the Baylor parade that morning. G was pretty fired up about it!!!

Sam is so so expressive. He is so fun to watch because he gets so super excited about everything that he does!!!

Our party hat model!

The brothers got to pick out the juice boxes for their party and they were so excited about them. As soon as we woke up on their party day, they thought that they got to drink them. So when the time finally arrived, they were pumped!

We asked Sam who got to open up all those presents??? "I DO!!!!"

Some thank you hugs for Bobbis for all the cool Cars gifts that she gave them!

Like a racetrack that hangs on the wall and takes up no floor space. Cool!!!!

Super cute new matching Vans from the Goods!!

Aunt Hailey got them these animal knit caps. They are so adorable, even on the Bobster!!

You can never really get enough Nae Nae loving!!!

Claire and Laney gave the caps a little test drive! Cute!!

Thanks for the cool kicks!!

Oh my goodness!!!!

A couple of really fun books from Aunt Cait and Uncle Johnny with very very sweet messages inside. We have read these books about a million times already!

Time for some Happy Birthday singing!

Pops and his own littles gathered at the table! They are a pretty great bunch!

The first reading of this silly western book!

Sam's showing us that he is a big 3 years old!!!

Happy Birthday Brothers!!!!

2011-11-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun day with the brothers when they turned three! I literally just typed two instead of three and had to delete it! I can not believe that I have three year old boys. I love them at this age so much. They are so much fun and they take my breath away every single day. It's not that I want them to stop growing up, I just want them to stop growing up so fast! I remember there were days when they were itty bitty, when we put them down in their cribs at night and I breathed a sigh of relief that we made it through the day. Now, I say goodnight to them in their big boy beds and walk out of their room feeling like I can't hold on tight enough to these golden years with my spunky toddler boys!
This was the mornig before the brothers' birthday. They got to bring their treats and tractor napkins to school for a celebration. They wanted to bring donuts to their class just like Laney brought last year. I stopped at the donut shop on my way home from my early class at the Y and picked up chocolate donuts and got the brothers some little Spidey donut hole treats for breakfast. They were pumped! Birthday crowns, donuts and tractor napkins make for a pretty exciting day!!!

Sweetest big sister smiling for the camera!

The next day was their actual birthday, so we woke up to birthday crowns again and #3 pancakes!

Laney gave the brothers a gift before she left for school that morning. She picked a Lightning McQueen book off of her book order from school about a month ago, and she was so excited to give it to them!!

After breakfast, the brothers changed into their tractor birthday shirts. They have been asking for a tractor birthday for about six months now! I love that they cared about a theme and that they were excited about it. Music to this over the top mommy's ears!!! So we made tractor shirts! I cut the three out of the pocket that I seam rippered off of these $2 clearance tees!!! Hooray!

I love these happy boys of ours!

We met Todd at Chick Fil A for a little birthday lunch and playing. They were so excited to get eat with Daddy.

Chocolate milk pretty much equals perfection for Sam, the milk lovingest boy on the face of the earth!

After school, we had a ice cream cone cupcakes, a tradition that we started on their birthdays last year, and the Goods came over with Sonic drinks for all of us! We sang Happy Birthday and they blew out their candles!

Sam gave Miles a little help with his.

Look at this sweet sweet big cousins! How cute are they?!

Bobbis came over and brought presents for the brothers and even a me too present for Laney!! She was a smash hit!

Grant and Claire wrote birthday messages on our chalkboard! So sweet!

Grant had a little toy "wolfie" that Sam was crazy about when we were at the lake this summer, so Grant signed his bday message to Sam from Wolfie!! I love that thoughtfulness!!! Miles's message is from Yoshi, Grant's favorite alter ego!

Claire loves to help Laney register her WebKinz online and play games with them. Everyone was getting involved at this point!

Time to open presents. Todd works late on Wednesdays, so he didn't get to be home at all on their birthday night. It was so great that our family got to come over to make the evening more special and to make the gift opening more exciting!

Both boys, but Miles especially love to play with little figurines. I got them some Tubes, one with pirate figures and one with cowboys and Indians. In typical Miles fashion, he started playing right away and could hardly be persuaded to stop playing to open other gifts.

They pulled themselves away to open the gift that Laney picked out for them months ago. She saw these McQueen slippers at Target and wanted to get them for them so badly. Whenever we were there, she always wanted me to be so careful not to go down that aisle where they might see them. I love her sweet thoughtfulness!

They loved them too!!! She is under that pile of brothers somewhere getting a thank you hug!

They got some John Deere tools that were actually from my mom. We had to bust into Sam's package before his bday to swipe the J.D. hat out for his Halloween costume!!

Sam always loves to hang with Aunt Jessa, his "laughing buddy!"

Oh my gosh! Cuter than cute! I think that Grant Man turned 3 about a minute ago, so I am blown away to see this big nine year old holding Sam Bones!

Even GPK came over for a few Happy Birthday wishes! Sam was showing him some of his new tools!

After everyone left, we jammied up with our new slippers and had a mini movie night with a portion of the brothers' favorite favorite movie, Tangled! Hilarious that their favorite movie is Tangled, but it most definitely is!!!

Halloween!!!

2011-11-26T12:01:00.000-08:00

We had such fun on Halloween! Miles wanted to be a pirate this year, most definitely inspired by his favorite TV show, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. His costume was the easiest of the three to make. Todd drew a pattern for me to make the skull and crossbones applique and then I just had to make a super easy vest and pair of pants, which didn't even need a hem because I cut a jagged pirate-y edge on them!!

He didn't wear his eyepatch and earring much longer after this photo!

We usually go to Grommy's house and Granny's house for a little pre trick or treating festivities!! This year, we were so behind schedule. Todd didn't get home from work until a little later than usual and then he had to put finishing touches on Sam's tractor costume, so we were totally ouf ot time. I called The Groms at the last minute and asked if they could bring the party to us! Of course, she is amazing, so she said yes!!! The kids were so excited to show off their costumes for Granny and Grommy and get their yummy treats. Granny gives them cheetos every year and they love them!

Time to get Sam into his tractor!

Working headlights.....

Real reflectors and a liscence plate.....way to go Daddy!

We went to the Goods for our traditional Chili and cornbread! The kids ran around the yard for a while before dinner. They were so excited and GPK got lots of great pictures!

Sam with his little flashlight from Pops and Nae Nae to help light the way!

All of our costumed family ready to hit the road!

The brothers got a bite or two out of Bobbis's awesome pizza costume!

Todd dressed up as Rob Ryan, the Cowboys' Defensive Coordinator. I would not have known who he was, but most everyone else did!

Our kids can not ever get enough of playing with Uncle Johnny!

Kev got a picture of Sam's custom plates!

Let's Go!!!

Aunt Cait was Laney's buddy all night long.

Sam lasted about 45 minutes with the tractor on. Johnny was Tractor Arm for the much of the remaining night!

Back home checking out the haul!

Seriously tired!

Miles finished the night with his fave activity!

Costume Parade!

2011-11-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

Laney got to dress up for school on Halloween for their costume parade. She was SO excited. She wanted to a Supergirl for Halloween this year. She plays "Supergirls" on the playground all the time, so I was really excited to try and make her something that I really thought she would love! And she did!!! Her sweet friend, Madeline, wanted to be a supergirl too, so I got to work on creating some costumes for them. I made an "L" logo for Laney and an "M" for Maddy. They turned out cute and the girls were adorable!

Here's Laney on the morning of her parade. She was pumped!!!!

Laney's wonderfully awesome kindergarten aide, Mrs. Leslie!!!! She was dressed up as a pumpkin vine to fit in the theme of the K team. The life cycle of a pumpkin!

It is such a blessing that Mrs. Leslie is one of Laney's teachers this year. I got to work with her at Wood and even teach her cutie pie daughter way back when. I distinctly remember her being so supportive and thrilled for us as we prepared to bring Laney home to us. She is such a genuine person, always asking questions that she obviously cares a lot about hearing the answer to. Laney could not love her anymore than she does!! This is her first year at Ditto and I believe 100% that she has been part of the Lord's plan in making this kindergarten experience such a surprisingly easy and fun one for our girl!!

Super Maddy!!!

My very own super girl!!!

Sam loved the whole parade. He got so excited with every new costume that he saw. "LOOK, mommy!!!! A baseball guy. OH, LOOK......a banana, mommy!!!!" He was hilarious!

Look at these little matchy matchies!!!

Jack-O-Lantern Pancakes!

2011-11-20T19:24:00.000-08:00

After all of our pumpkin carving and fun gift opening, we finished off the night with a dinner of pumpkin pancakes with chocolate chip jackolantern faces!

Halloween Care Packages!

2011-11-20T19:16:00.000-08:00

Pops and Nae Nae carried on their sweet tradition of fun Halloween care packages this year. Jenna and Colt delivered them to us on our pumpkin carving night and the kids completely loved them!

Sticker sheets!!

Sugar Sticks!!!

Who doesn't love an eyeball full of hand sanitizer?? Awesome!

Pumpkin Carving!

2011-11-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

We waited until the last minute to carve our pumpkings this year, but we squeezed it in. Laney was Todd's awesome assistant last year for carving and she was all set to fill that role again this year. Todd got called away on important business - costume creating!!! I was working on Sam's John Deere Tractor costume, and Todd graciously offered to help me when he saw my work and was less than impressed with my back tire to front tire size ratio! Todd was opposed to this costume all along because he knew that it was going to be a lot of work and that it was quite possible that the brothers wouldn't even wear it. But, being the sweet husband and dad that he is, he indulged all of us and made the worlds' cutest tractor costume for Sam Bones!!!

Which left the pumpkin carving to me and my girl!!! Good thing she was such a great helper!

I have about zero arrtistic ability, so our pumpkin was very very basic!!! Sam and Miles both helped out with some of the cutting!

Our cute little guy had an L, S and M carved into the other side, which is why his smile looks a little blackened!

Laney at 5 years old!!!

2011-11-13T12:37:00.000-08:00

This is so ridiculous! I am working on writing the brothers' 3 year old letter and I remembered that I never posted Laney's 5 year old letter!!! I wrote in on Todd's computer while we on our ski trip, so I kept forgetting to grab his laptop and post it from there. So, I wrote this way back when Laney turned five...over 6 months ago, but I never posted it. Now, I will just have to remember whenever the time comes to prin this year into a book, to get this post back in April where it belongs!!!

Despite my disbelief that this could possibly be happening already, our little Laney Bug turns five years old today! I can not wrap my mind around the idea that it has been four and a half years since we climbed those steps at Chung Yi Welfare Institute and gathered our precious little round faced beauty into our arms for the very first time. She began amazing and delighting us from that moment and has not stopped since. Years later, I am still regularly caught off guard with a staggering kind of gratitude that the Lord chose this spectacular little girl for us and us for her. Specifically in this past year, I have begun to feel an even greater weight of responsibility when it comes to my sweet adopted daughter. I am not quite sure how to communicate this feeling and most certainly don’t want to slight my feelings of love and responsibility toward the brothers. But I have felt, in this past year specifically, a profound weight of responsibility when it comes to raising our little girl up in the manner that we are called and that she deserves. Obviously I feel this way about the brothers, but I can’t think about Laney without thinking about all of the people that have trusted us with her little life. My mind’s eye pictures her birth mother in Taiwan resting in the assurance that we are giving Laney all that she hoped for and that we are setting her up for success in every way. Or the precious angels at Chung Yi that loved and treasured baby Xiang Ting, crying when they had to say goodbye to the little one that they mothered for her first 9 months. And our little agency in Utah that specifically matched Laney to us with the confidence that we would meet their expectations and be the perfect match for the 11 week old girl that they had the opportunity to refer to one of their families. Above all of these significant people here on earth, our Heavenly Father deemed us worthy of being called Mommy and Daddy by Laney. It is only in my trust that the Lord selected us for Laney that I can bear the weight of responsibility that I have recently become so acutely aware of. In my own weaknesses as a parent and as a human being, the strength of the Lord is made perfect! I believe with my whole heart that the Lord is filling in the gaps for me whenever I fall short of the mark of the kind of mother I want to be to my sweet gift of a daughter. I am so grateful for the four years and three months that we have had together and I am so immeasurably thankful that we have so many more years to treasure together. In the hopes that this specific time in our lives won’t be easily forgotten, I want to document a bit about who Laney is right now!

Laney is so much fun to be around. She loves to play and is happily entertained almost always without requiring lots of bells and whistles. Some of her favorite games involve playing school with me and sometimes with her brothers. She loves to put me into a group (usually the Red Rectangles, which is one of the ways that they are grouped at her school) and then give me all kinds of instructions about what we are doing that day. She loves to give me an imaginary name, our favorite one lately has been Honey Hessum, and give me an assignment or a picture to work on. She likes to line up and go to performances. She would make a great teacher someday. Even though I actually did choose teaching as my profession, I don’t remember ever playing school a day in my life, so maybe playing school doesn’t necessarily denote a future as a teacher. On that note, she does still love to play doctor. She usually plays with Tessa or Madeline and sometimes with her stuffies. They always get lots of shots. She loves her baby dolls, specifically Baby Mama and Soraya, the “twins.” Pushing them around in one of their strollers remains at the top of her list of fun times. Her absolute favorite thing to do right now is definitely crafting. She is always working on projects, coloring pictures, cutting things out and gluing. We usually do that kind of stuff together while the brothers are napping and Laney calls it “girlish time!” When we first hear a brother waking up from nap, she always gets a little frown and says, “We weren’t done with girlish time!” That is not to say that she doesn’t love to play with her brothers because she does. Playing chase with them around the house is probably the thing that makes her laugh more than anything else ever. She is very sweet to them and especially nurturing to them whenever they are sad. She will bring them a favorite stuffie or a book to try and cheer them up. She always wants to help me rock them to sleep at night. I usually sit in the rocking chair with both of them in my lap and sing a few songs. Once in a while, one of them will choose to sit with her in a bean bag chair. Her face lights up and she is in heaven, taking her job very seriously!! Laney is very very thoughtful and considerate. If she sees that someone is upset, she very much wants to help them feel better. If I let her know that she has really disappointed or upset me with her behavior, she gets very wounded and can’t easily recover even if I tell her that it is okay. Playing together is sometimes difficult for the three of them because Laney has specific ways that she wants to play and ways that she wants things done. The brothers aren’t always willing to oblige which causes frustration for everyone! That is something that we are working on with Laney, the friendship skill of compromise. Even though Laney might be described as “shy,” she is not meek. She has strong opinions and doesn’t back down very easily. I am really grateful for this characteristic, because it is so important to me that Laney be self assured, that she knows who she is and doesn’t compromise her character or her beliefs for anyone. However, I do not want her to be careless with other people’s feelings or to be selfish or self absorbed. I absolutely do not think that she is, but it is something that I am trying to remain aware of as we encourage her strengths and work on her weaknesses regarding friendships. Her friendships have really flourished this year. She has become very comfortable at her school and in her Sunday School class. She plays easily with people and has little anxieties even in big groups which is a tremendous answer to prayer. She is kind to her friends and very encouraging. I often hear her talking about and even telling her friends things that she likes about them.

Laney started gymnastics about 3 months ago and she has really grown to love it. She has mimicked Claire in our living room for years now and we knew that it would be something that she really enjoyed, but she had major nervousness when it came to actually going to a class. She flat refused when we tried about a year ago, but this time she was at least willing to go to the class. After a few weeks of clinging to her coach with fingers in her mouth and zero participation, she just walked out one week and wowed us! She did everything asked of her demonstrating some real natural abilities. We go once a week now and it is so much fun!

With kindergarten fast upon us, I have started to work more proactively with Laney on some school stuff at home. She has never really been that interested in academics, even when she was really little. She never wanted to do little ABC’s puzzles or games. She definitely knows all of her letters and sounds and most of the sight words that she has learned in school. There are some that still throw her. Not very regularly we have been doing some lessons out of a learning to read book. We try to do it during our girlish time and make it fun with sharpies and jelly beans. She can sound out words and read sentences in the book, but it is not her favorite thing. I am hoping that she gets more excited about it as she learns more and starts to be able to read fun little books. I really love reading and am so hopeful that she will grow to share that love with me someday. She is very clever and really good at figuring things out. She loves to build and put things together like our train tracks and Lincoln Logs.

Laney does not like to talk seriously with me. I am really emotional and really over the top about things especially when it comes to her. If ever I am trying to communicate to her how precious she is to me or the amazing details of how the Lord led us to her on our adoption journey, she gets uncomfortable. She gets distracted by something random or starts acting really silly and talking like a baby. After reading a few articles and books about this, I am still not really sure what is going on, but I think that it is another example of how I am a little too intense for her at times. Just like she doesn’t want me to go bananas over a Christmas or birthday gift, she wants these kinds of conversations to be simple and to the point also. I am learning to share with her what a treasure she is to me without weirding her out!

All in all, Laney is a pure joy to us. I can’t wait to see what her sixth year of life will bring. With lots of changes on the horizon, it is sure to be an adventure!!!

Baseball Donuts!

2011-11-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

It is kind of sad to post our baseball enthusiasm pictures now, but I am behind on blogging! It was my turn to bring donuts to my Sunday School class several weeks ago, so we left early to have a special treat on our way to church. The cutie pie donut shop by our house had these cute baseball donuts. We were all decked out for Rangers Day at church, so I had to go back out to the car to get my camera to document all the baseball cuteness!!!

Laney shared her sausage roll with Butterscotch!

Picnic!!

2011-11-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

When Laney was chosen as the Student of the Week, she got to bring the class mascot, Butterscotch, home for the weekend. She got a book that each child before her had written in and included photos from their weekend with Butterscotch. We did all kinds of fun things with Butterscotch. Gymnastics in the front yard, Claire's birthday party, the donut shop before church, and a fun picnic in the park!!

After all that fun swinging, Butterscotch and Laney went to feed the ducks!

Pumpkin Patch Round Two!!

2011-11-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

We planned a super fun date with the Paredes family and got an added bonus of hanging out with the Hartsfields at our favorite nearby pumpkin patch! Laney was more than a little excited to see Ella when we got there.

The brothers had fun at this patch last year, but this year they were so in their element. They hit the ground running and had such fun the whole time that we were there.

Our cute friends make a pretty great family pic!

Miles + Tractors = Good Times!!

Not at all creepy, right?!

Such cute girls....

and boys......

The girls were so cutely compliant and posey for us!!!

Sam thought every pumpkin there was the coolest one that he had ever seen. Sam is a real sunny side of life kind of kid!

We went over to check out the animals and the kids were all so interested in each group of pigs, chickens and goats.

Virginia knows the way to my boys' hearts.

A little playing in the hay house before we packed it up, headed back to the house for chili, cookie decorating and the final mood kill of the evening - the Rangers final loss in the World Series. We would like to continue all but that last event in our future traditions!!!

Pumpkin Patch!

2011-11-10T10:43:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Jess called us for an impromptu trip to the pumpkin patch with her and the Tessie Doodle! We were thrilled to get a morning to spend with them. We turned our car around from a trip headed to the zoo and made our way to patch it up with them!

Sam loved picking out all his favorites!

Cutie pie cousins!

I so love this picture. I am not sure why Lovey Puppy made it into all our pictures. Miles doesn't normally have a strong attachment to his stuffies, but this day was an exception!

Grandparent's Day!!!

2011-11-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, it was Grandparent's Day at Laney's school. Grandparents were invited to come have lunch with the kids and then walk through the bookfair with them. Pretty clever, Ditto, walk the unsuspecting Grandparents through the bookfair so that they can be persuaded by their sweet little grandchildren to buy lots of books!!!! It worked for this pair!

Bobbis entertained Laney's whole class with silly stories. Laney was so proud!

Laney picked three books and she was so so excited!

Ghostie Pops!

2011-11-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

We made these little ghostie pops at the beginning of October and hung them over our chalkboard, A few days before Halloween, we went for a walk around the neighborhood and we decided to disrobe our ghosties for a treat while we walked!

These are some more examples of Miles and Sam screaming CHEESE at me so that I will hurry up and stop taking their pictures!!!

Happy Birthday Claire Bear!

2011-11-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

The one and only Claire Bear celebrated her 7th birthday a few weeks ago and we got to have a super fun family party with her. After the Goods quick vacation to Sea World this summer, Claire developed a real love for Shamu. I love Claire's individuality! One of the things that I pray for like crazy for my children is that they will be self assured and not try to just "fit in" with the crowd around them. Claire sets such a great example of that. She is so true to herself and so quirky! We LOVE her!

Kev seems to always get a shot of my mom and Todd. So funny!

Laney got herself all tatted up before the party!

I made Claire this little pouch to hold some new hair accessories. She loves to host her own hair salon every chance she gets, so Laney picked out some new ponytail holders and clips for her to play with.

Claire asked for a Barbie Salon Hair head like the one that Laney has. This is like the most poorly reviewed product that I have ever bought. I couldn't find a single one that had good reviews, but she really really wanted it!!!

Jack found a spot to mount the head!

Happy Birthday to Claire!

The Goods are such a cutie pie family!

I am pretty into this family too!!!!

The kids raced outside once the neighbors started to inflate their big Frankenstein inflatable
1

Claire got a Rip Stick from Bobbis and GPK. Claire is the most determined kid I have ever seen, so it won't be long before she is killing it on that thing!!!

We all had to give it a shot!

The brothers took a time out from riding bikes and trikes all over the Goods cul-de-sac. We had the most fun night ever playing on their street with all their riding toys. It made me want to live nextdoor to them, or at least on a cul-de-sac of our very own, so bad!!!!

Kev's grandson, Will, showed us all the ropes of rip sticking!

Grant made this washtub bass for a project in school. Todd brought all of his years of upright bass playing out to give us a little concert!

Claire changed into a new sporty birthday outfit to be better equipped to practice!!!!

Tractor Loving Boys!

2011-11-05T22:47:00.000-07:00

I wanted to put a picture of the brothers on their evite for their family birthday party, so I set up a little tractor-y photo shoot one afternoon. Tractor shirts from Pops and Nae Nae and all their various tractors along with green and yellow skeleton lollipops made for a pretty cute little set up!

Miles thinks that whoever yells CHEEEEEEESE the loudest gets to be done taking pictures first!

Todd's Birthday at Grommy's House!!!

2011-11-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

Todd's birthday was on a Tuesday which worked out nicely since we always meet for a quick dinner with him on those nights in between work and rehearsal for him! So, Grommy turned a regular "Tuesday night with Grommy" into a birthday celebration!!!

Sam was there to help blow out the candle!

This is the face you get if you add whipped cream to the top of Laney's ~~cheesecake~~ anything!

Laney loves Granny so much. We love getting to see her each week. She is so sweet and so interested in what is going on in the kids' worlds!

Todd got a wallet from his mom and it came pre-filled with dollars!! Awesome!

One of the highlights of Grommy's house is getting to get a piece of candy from the candy dish! The candy changes out regularly and they are always so excited to pick out their tootsie roll, m&m, or in this case, mellowcreme pumpkin!

Always plenty of books to read on Tuesday nights and Grommy is always ready and willing!

Such a beauty, my girl!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

2011-10-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Todd's birthday on Tuesday last week. Luckily, I teach a 5:30 a.m. class on Tuesdays, so I was home with plenty of time to set up our birthday spread! I started cinnamon roll dough before I left, it rose while I was gone, and I rolled it out and up to bake once I got home! Yum!!!

The kids were so excited to sing to him. Sam had to make sure that both of his Lovey Bears (he really has three, but only two were present for the party) had birthday hats!

Blowing out an imaginary candle. I know I had candles, I just could not find them!!!

Off to school for Sister!!

Student of the Week!!!

2011-10-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

Laney was chosen as the Student of the Week in her classroom!!! I have seen these signs around our neighborhood ever since we moved into our house. I still can't believe that I have a kindergartener old enough to bring one home!!! We are so proud of her and she was so so excited!!!

Getting selected as the Student of the Week means getting to bring this box home and fill it up with five things that represent you and the things that interest you!

Laney chose her one of her favorite dolls, Baby Mama, her doctor kit, a pad of paper with a marker, her gymnastics leotard, and a Christmas book about Baby Jesus! Pretty accurate depiction of what makes her heart sing!!!

She also got to bring a poster with pictures of her and her family! We spent forever deciding what pictures to select! She wanted about a million, so we had to work on soem editing. She chose a picture of her with the nannies at Chung Yi and one of us on her Gotcha Day!!! I love that she wants to share her precious heritage with her friends at school!

We planted the sign in the front yard and she has been so proud all week!!!!

After a successful planting of the sign, we had to enjoy the beautiful weather for the rest of the evening in the yard!!

a little baseball....

a little gymnastics....

A lot of fun!!!

We took Laney for ice cream after dinner to celebrate! We convinced her that she really wanted McDonalds ice cream rather than her favorite, Pure Bliss. Buy one get one free...thanks Mickey D's for helping us with the budget!!!

Going Boo-ing!!!

2011-10-20T21:38:00.000-07:00

We got "Boo-ed" two times last year by our sweet friends Megan and Ashley. It was so much fun to get their suprise gifts on our doorsteps. A bag full of fun treats, Bubba teeth, stickers, bracelets.........tons of fun! The kids loved it! After Halloween last year, I picked up lots of things on major clearance and packed it away with our fall decorations. I forgot all about it, and got so excited when I opened up the boxes and realized that we were going to get to go Boo-ing AND still stay in our new budget!!!
Laney had a blast sorting all of our treats into their bags.

We filled these little pumpkins buckets with mellowcreme ones, made some caramel popcorn to fill up our little Halloween cups and I even got out all the old lollipop making stuff and made some orange pumpkins and purple witches at Laney's request!

Sam helped me add a jack-o-lantern face to this bag because we were one short!

Luckily, we just got our kindergarten directory, so we add access to most of the addresses of the girls that live nearby us in Laney's class. We loaded our bags in the back of the car and hit the road! The kids were so excited and they had so so much fun. Laney carried the bags to the door, but she wanted me to knock. By the time I knocked each time, she had already hightailed it back to the car at breakneck speed with a little bit of panic. All three kids have talked about "boo-ing" alot since our adventurous night. They are all ready to do it again!!

More Pumpkin Marshmallows!!!

2011-10-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

I came across these pictures of our pumpkin marshmallows in their finished state, green stems and all!

All of the kids enjoying their cute treats!

The Hills are our Heroes!!!!

2011-10-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

Our good good friends, the Hills, are right in the middle of some incredible times right now! They have been smack dab in the middle of the adoption process for about a year and just this week, they brought home their three year old son! He is adorable. They are amazing. I can't wait to watch their story unfold!!! I am not being dramatic or exaggerating in the least when I say that we really feel honored and super lucky that we get to call them our friends! Shane and Holly are truly an inspiration in way more ways than even just this spectacular demonstration of love and answer to the Lord's call of us to, "be a father to the fatherless." Just this past Sunday, I was moved while we were singing a song about following the Lord in just such a way as the Hills are, and I leaned over to give Holly a quick hug and tell her how amazed and excited I am for them. She responded with a humble shrug and said something about how she was just as excited for me about how Todd and I are trying to tackle some financial/budgeting issues. Right, like that is the same thing!!! That is just just like her and such an example of her sweet sweet selfless spirit! We are so thrilled that Laney gets to watch yet another family that we love and are close to travel this beautiful road of adoption. It is a gift straight from our good God that we, alongside our sweet girl, get to witness these families that we love be made whole through the miracle of adoption!!

Virginia and Amy and I decided that we wanted to host a little party/shower type thing for them to help get them some of the essentials that you might need when bringing a cutie pie three year old home!!! Holly said that she would love it, but she didn't really think that it was necessary to invite a lot of people and expect a lot of gifts........there's that selfless spirit again!!

So we had a little get together with just us! Amy organized it and planned a superhero theme, because "The Hills are our Heroes!" She had build your own hero sandwiches and we made capes and superhero masks for the kids! It was so cute and so fun!

These two could not be cuter!!! They are both going to be SuperGirls for Halloween, so this was a fun preview of how adorable they are going to be come Oct. 31st!!!

Oh my goodness!!!!

He had to go check out how cool he looked in the mirror!

We got the Hills our absolute favorite adoption book, A Mother for Choco! Sam was giving it a little test drive!

Holly giving Big Brother Tyce his Super Hero cape. He is pretty super!!!

Jared and Jill!!!

2011-10-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

We got to have dinner with our great friends Jarend and Jill last weekend. So so so much fun. We miss them so much!

Weekend in Cona!!

2011-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Rick and Renee got us tickets to go to the Dave Ramsey conference with Colt, Jenna and Hailey. It was all day on Saturday, so they furthered their sweet generosity and thoughtfulness by picking our kids up and bringing them to Cona for a weekend of fun with them! While we were walking home from school on Friday, Laney was acting pretty hesitant about going to Nocona without me and Todd, but the second that we turned on out street and she saw Pops in our front yard, she got super excited and lost all of her nervousness!!

From the looks of it, the kids had a great time!!