Last but not least...

Christmas #3!
We were down at Micah's parents house for Christmas day this year. We spent 4 nights down there so that Micah and our brother-in-law could hunt (Micah's new obsession). They didn't kill anything, but they seemed to have fun!


Landry had so much fun spending a few days with her cousins. Here she and Avery are pushing their baby strollers. :) Avery kept saying "let's race!"


This is the only picture I got at Micah's grandmama and granddad's house. These are all of their great grandchildren! Landry, Jackson, Aiden, Avery, and Lucas.

Christmas night we did our small family Christmas at Micah's parents house. Here is Papa-D reading the Christmas story to the kids.

Landry listening to Papa-D read...

And then ripping into gifts!!

Christmas was so much fun this year....busy, but fun! We are looking forward to a great 2011!

Christmas #2

We had our second Christmas with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun even though Landry was feeling yucky with the stomach bug that day. We had brunch at my mom's house, and then we went up to my grandparent's that afternoon to have our big family Christmas there. We are so blessed to have so much family around!


Landry was already tired of pictures at the beginning of the day. :)


Family! :)


One happy girl...

Uncle Drew showing Landry her new toy that Mimi got her.

This dog is at my grandparent's house. Its nose lights up like Rudolph's, and Landry kept biting it. It was the funniest thing!

Our family...Micah, me, Drew, Jamia, Tyler, Mom, Landry, Marc, and Judd

Landry checking out her babydoll from Gigi and Grandpa.

That's it for that day! With Landry not feeling great, we didn't get a whole lot of pictures. But, don't worry...there is one more day of Christmas pictures for you to see. :) Coming soon...

Christmas Numero Uno

On Saturday, we had our first family Christmas with my dad's side of the family. We had so much fun getting together, and it was nice that no one had to rush off since we did it early this year. Landry had a blast, and she loves her cousins so much!


Here is Landry with her cousin Natalie. She is practicing her fake smile regularly now. :)


Natalie feeding Landry her bottle. She is getting so big and is such a good help with the babies!


All the kids; Gage, Ty, Judd, Trey, Natalie, and Landry

Landry opening her new teapot set. She LOVES this.

Is that Judd? :) Can't tell with that mustache!

Landry playing with her new chair from Dado and Nana.

Landry with her new cabbage patch doll and stroller. She loves to push the stroller, but she loves the doll's hair too...what is a little girl to do?! Push the stroller WHILE pulling the doll's hair, of course!

Judd trying out Landry's chair.

Landry trying out Judd's new (almost life size) pony!

Below are a few pictures of Landry playing at home with her new toys...she is one busy girl.

I'm off! Look at that sassy little face. Love it!

Good news and bad news...

I should really say, good news and sad news.
I will start with the sad news. We found out that Valya is not going to be able to come and spend Christmas with our family this year. We found out this past week that they were not able to get the Visas approved for the kids with some crazy stuff that is going on in Ukraine. I was waiting to post until we had more details, but I still don't have those. We know that there will be an opportunity this summer to host a child (which still could be Valya or Ivan) if we choose to do that. We will pray, and we will see.
We know that God always has a plan, and he showed us once again that he knows best. The morning after we found out that Valya was not coming, we found out that (surprise!!) WE ARE PREGNANT with another sweet baby. We think we are due around August 11th, but we should know more as we get further along in the pregnancy. I know that this is an important time to not have too much stress, craziness, etc. going on, and I was definitely stressing a little bit getting everything perfect for Valya's visit.
That is all the news for now...we had our first family Christmas event yesterday, so I will be posting pictures soon!

Branson Trip...

First of all, I will start out by saying our weekend in Branson was RELAXING. As you can probably tell from the picture below.



This is our new favorite picture of our sweet baby girl. She is absolutely hilarious and is getting such a funny personality. Look at her chubby little belly hanging out of those pants. Hehe...too stinkin' cute!


Ok, back to the trip. We purchased a package at a charity auction for a 2 night stay in a log cabin and tickets to Silver Dollar City. We had to use it by the end of the year, so we decided to go this weekend...this COLD weekend!





Here is Landry on Friday night at the Branson Landing. We shopped, ate, and watched the fire and light show.







Landry on the first night at our cabin. She has started doing this fake smile...how funny (and silly) is that?!






Landry napping on Saturday morning before we headed to SDC.




Landry and Daddy waiting to see Santa at SDC.




Still waiting...




She wasn't too sure what to think of him! No smiles...




She did like the gingerbread man though!




By the end of the day, it was COLD! Landry's cheeks started turning blue, so we bundled her up tight and headed home!




Landry loved the fire in our cabin. :)



Since we didn't get a good picture with Santa on Saturday, we tried at Bass Pro Shop on Sunday. She was REALLY excited in line about seeing him, but she was unsure of him again once they finally met.

We had such a fun time relaxing as a family. We were not in a hurry to do anything. We ate doughnuts for dinner one night, slept in, slept with the fire crackling, and just loved spending time together! I love my sweet family...I am blessed beyond measure.

Rich Cowen...

While we were down at Micah's parents a few weekends ago, Gigi gave Landry her daddy's old Cabbage Patch Doll...Rich Cowen. :) Landry loves him! She likes to hug him, give him kisses, and just smiles like crazy when she sees him. I think Rich has been working out a little bit in his workout suit though because his pants keep falling off!


Landry loving on Rich...


Our sweet girl. :) Love!

It's official...

I have lost my mind, and here is a little story to prove it. :)
This morning, I was getting ready to head down to Fort Smith for the RMHC Family Room opening (yea!!). I packed some yummy steamed carrots from dinner last night for Landry to eat for lunch at Gigi's house. I was super hungry when we got home this afternoon, so I got into the refrigerator to look for the steamed veggies to eat as a snack (yes, I sometimes eat vegetables at snacks, lol.). Well, the veggies weren't there. I initially thought that Micah must have come home and eaten them for lunch, but then I wondered why there wasn't a dirty dish in the sink. :)

Sooooo....I opened the cabinet where I got the container for Landry's lunch this morning, and look what I found!

Ha! On top of that, I just realized that they are still in the cabinet because I took a quick picture, shut the cabinet, and got on the computer to post this. My life really needs to slow down!

Our Weekend...

We spent this weekend down with Micah's parents in Lavaca. My SIL, Emily, was out of town for the weekend, so we took Landry's two cousins down with us. Landry had so much fun playing with them...she loves other kids so much, but she especially loves these two. :) Here are several random pictures from the weekend.

Photo shoot before we left our house. This was the best I could get...

Cousin Jackson telling Landry how to sit still.

Sassy little Avery in the car telling me "no pictures!"

We realized pretty quickly why people with 3 kids get minivans...our car was packed, and it was almost impossible to get around the two carseats to get Jackson buckled in the back.

Jackson is going through a major pirate stage...he loves everything pirate, and wants to kill everything with his sword. Papa-D putting on Jackson's new pirate eye patch that Gigi made.

Jackson couldn't figure out how to open his eye while the other one was covered up. He kept having to lift up the eye patch to see. It was too cute!

On Saturday, we were on a float for the Lavaca Christmas parade. Landry really enjoyed waving at all the people, and the kids loved throwing candy to other kids.

Landry getting to see her Great Grandmama and Grandad after the parade.

And the most popular part of the weekend...BATH TIME! Landry had so much fun in the tub with her two wild cousins. Gigi had her hands full trying to get all three clean.

One clean and happy girl. :)

We found a new puppy while we were down there. Her name is Avery, and she really likes milk, cookies, and bossing her owners around. :)

Gigi and Landry after church this morning.

Jackson pretending to be asleep in front of the fire after church. So funny!

As you can see, we had a really fun weekend! Jackson and Avery are getting to be so much fun...we laughed and laughed on the way down on Friday night. Two of my favorite quotes were:

"I like going to WaR-Mart with my mommy because I have sharp teeth." Avery (2 1/2 years)

"Gracie (the cat) doesn't ruff, she mowes." Mowes, not meows. :) Jackson (3 1/2 years)

It is so fun to watch Landry play and love on her cousins because Micah and I got to grow up doing the same thing...it is special having cousins close!