20 months!

Landry is getting so big, and I can't hardly stand it. She is going to be TWO YEARS OLD in April, and I know that that will be here before we know it. She is honestly so much fun right now, and I am having a blast being her mommy and seeing her grow each day.

Here are a few things that are going on right now...

(I have been making a list for the past few weeks, but it is no longer where I left it!)

We took these away a few weeks ago....

Micah and I were so worried about how Landry would handle it, but she did great! She was so attached, and wanted several pacis in bed with her every time she went down. I cut off the end of one at nap time one day, and she threw it out of the crib and still went to sleep. She hasn't asked for it ONCE. Honestly, she is a little bit of a freak-of-nature.

Landry knows her ABC's and how to count to 10 (almost always skipping 4). When she sings the ABC's, she normally mixes the song up with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

She loves animals and calls them by their sound instead of their name. "A meow, A ney, A moo..." Very cute!

She loves to dance any time she hears music...or not. She will gallop around like a horse, turn in circles, belly roll. It is so entertaining!

She screams each time we get in the car to watch a "boooovie!" Before we even get out of the garage, she is crying and yellling for me to start a dvd. Not a phase I am enjoying, and it is even worse now that she doesn't have the paci to calm her down. We are working on being patient! :)

Landry's favorite foods at 20 months are tomatoes and cheese. She also loves "cooookies," which really just means anything sweet. When she doesn't know what things are called, she sometimes will refer to them as a "no cheese" or a "no cookie." Basically trying to tell me..."I want THAT, not the cheese!

She loves to read books, and often whines to take her "Jesus" book into her crib with her. I always say yes to that one, and I think she is figuring that out. :) How can you not let the sweet girl read her Bible? I watch her on her monitor, and she really does read through looking at the pictures and saying, "A moo! A Ney! JESUS!!"

For my Facebook friends, this will be redundant, but I don't want to forget! Lately when Landry has had a dirty diaper, she has been telling me, "Shoo wee Collier!" and trying to blame the dirty diapers on him. It is really funny! We are about to start potty training after all of our Christmas travels. Woo hoo!

She is also in a phase of saying "Sorry" a lot. She is the sweetest thing. The other day I came around the corner and ran right into her...it even knocked her down. She got right up and said "Sorry Mama!" like it was her fault. I felt so bad that she thought she did something wrong, but it made my heart happy that she was being so sweet. :)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we MUST be entering the terrible two's. Landry has her moments (especially in the car) where she gets so angry. She will yell, "No, no, NO!!" and try pulling her arms out of the buckles. When she gets frustrated with something, she has started hitting herself. What the heck? Surely she will figure out that this isn't getting her anywhere quickly. 

Anyway...we think our little Landry is just precious. What an entertaining little bundle we have. I am thankful to call her mine...what a lucky mama I am!!

An Engagement!

Well, exciting news....this little baby is engaged to be married!! :) 

  

He may not look like a baby to you, but he is my BABY brother, and it is hard for me to get it through my head that he is all grown and "put a ring on it" this weekend! 

He is engaged to the sweetest girl, Emily, and we are thrilled that she is going to be part of our family!

So, for the past month, we have been scheming a plan to surprise Emily. Tyler really wanted to propose here in NWA, but he definitely wanted her family (from Eastern Arkansas) to be here to surprise her afterwards. He did such a good job coordinating with her parents and basically lying to Emily to get the job done. :) I am sure she forgives him. My mom and I planned a surprise engagement party at my house for after the proposal, and we had 26 people here waiting on her. She thought she was just coming over to have a boring ole' dinner with me...NOT the case!

Here are several random pictures from the night. I didn't get a good group picture of her with her family, but hopefully someone did!

The beautiful ring! Seriously...gorgeous!

Ms. Sassy-pants and I before the party

Landry made quick friends with Emily's little brothers and sister. So sweet!

Collier and Emily's brother, Kyle. This boy LOVES babies!

Such a sweet picture of Emily seeing her mama!

And her daddy!

Toasting to the sweet couple

Me with my new sister!

Emily with two of her bestest friends that drove over from Tulsa

 We made Landry get in bed at a decent time that night, but she screamed a ton because she heard everyone still downstairs. We ended up letting her get back up, and she and Judd had such a blast! These two crack me up!

They love their Uncle Tyler...and Aunt Emily!!

Congratulations guys! We could not be more excited!

Craziness...

This past week has been a whirlwind, and it is continuing on into this weekend...and then on to Christmas and New Years. Honestly, I think tomorrow is one of the only days on my calendar that is empty. I am looking forward to that!!

Landry is LOVING all the craziness and being busy.

Collier is just along for the ride.

11 days until Christmas! That really means only 4 days until our first-of-many celebrations with family.

Lots of updates to come...in all my spare time. :)

Winter Nights...

Winter nights are quickly becoming one of my favorite things. Freshly bathed babies in coordinating pj's, warm fires in the fireplace, Disney movies playing in the media room, bright lights on the Christmas tree, and a handsome husband to cuddle up with. :)

And...the sweetest gatekeeper that you could ever imagine. :)

My favorite FLAVOR is blue!

Enough said...

Happy Wednesday!

Soaking it up!

Hi guys! I have not been a great blogger this past week. Our computer is having fits again, and I find it hard to sit here and wait (and wait and wait) for pictures to download/upload (whichever it is!). Anyway, it is behaving so far today, so I am going to catch up while I can! :) Instead of doing much on the computer, we have been soaking up all the love from our sweet babies. Let me tell you, I really haven't missed the computer much except for wanting to finish up with some Christmas shopping. These two little rugrats keep us hopping!

Here is a little bit of what is going on with us...

Collier is GROWING! He is a huge hunk of love, and I can't get enough of him. He is night-and-day different from Landry. He hates all the toys Landry loved, and loves all the toys she hated. He is super interested in anything that makes noise and lights up. He is not even 4 months old yet, but has already been loving the walker and bumbo seat. He can even scoot himself backwards in the walker...he is so strong! Collier loves to be talked to, and he will smile so big and coo back at us now. We love having long conversations with him. :)  He basically lives in pajamas because I think they are so darn cute and warm for him. Honestly, who couldn't just eat up a baby in footie pj's??

Landry is still a mess. Such.a.mess! She is so entertaining, and every day it is something new! She loves to dress up in new things, and she thinks everything that could possibly fit on her head is a hat. She is almost 20 months old, and I can't hardly stand that! Time has flown by so quickly. I wouldn't go back for anything because she is at such a FUN stage right now, but it just makes this mama's heart ache a little bit to watch her getting so big! We are going to start potty training after Christmas, and we are working on taking her "sassy" away right now. She actually just went down for her first nap with the tip cut off, and she fell asleep! Hoping this is a good sign of things to come. :) 

I cannot wait to watch her rip into her packages this Christmas. I think she is going to have a blast!  

And, for us....yes, we are still "cleansing" and having no sugar, gluten, etc. It has really been a good week! I feel great, and am so thankful to be off the sugar for a little bit in the midst of all this holiday craziness. I wish I had time to sit down and do a whole post on what we are doing (and I will at some point!), but if you want more info in the meantime, check out the website http://www.eatingwithpurpose.com/. This is Kristin, one of my best friends in the whole world, and I TOTALLY believe in what she promotes. The last time we did this 100%, we ended up staying on it for 4 months pretty strictly before we got pregnant with Landry. This time, we are doing more of a lifestyle change to more "whole" eating instead of the Phase 1 100%.

We are not doing it for weight loss...just to feel better and take better care of our bodies. BUT, Micah lost 30 pounds the last time we did it, and I have already lost 5 pounds in a week! Feeling good and happy to be feeding my family more healthy options!

There are days...

There are days when you have your "big girl boots" on, but you still want to be the baby. Today is one of those days at our house. Man, being a toddler is HARD work. :)

I know I didn't "Meal Plan Monday" this week, and I will do a post later with more details of why I didn't. It isn't because I wasn't planning...that seems like all I have done this week! We started a cleanse that we have done before that is gluten free, corn free, sugar free, yeast free, peanut free, soy free, and more. :) We loved the way we felt last time we did it, and I needed to get off the sugar for a little while...I was gorging myself with sweets every single day, and I felt blah!! Anyway, more details to come. Hope you are having a great week!

Giving Thanks...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We spent the day in Lavaca with the Gibson side of the family. We decided this year that we were not going to try to be everywhere and that we would start switching off Thanksgiving and Christmas day with our families. Since our families only live an hour apart, it IS possible for us to see everyone in one day, but it is never any fun to have to rush from one place to the next. We want Landry and Collier to be able to spend quality time with their cousins wherever we are, and the only way we can do that is to choose to be one place and stay there. So far, our reasoning is proving true because Landry had A BLAST getting to spend time playing with Jackson (4) and Avery (3)! So much fun that we could hardly get her to go to bed Wednesday night or take any naps...she knew there was more fun to be had! :)

I am thankful this year that we have TOO MUCH FAMILY and too many choices to make it everywhere on the holidays. What a blessing that burden really is!

Cowgirl Landry on Wednesday night. Aunt Emily helped her use her tights as a holster for her gun! Ha!!

Jackson and Landry telling secrets. :)

Landry and Avery..."On top of the world!"

Landry swinging at Gigi and Papa-D's barn...

Woo Hoo!!

Sweet Collier at the Thanksgiving meal. He wanted to be right in the middle of it, and did not want to let Mommy sit down! :)

Our family...
Emily, Jackson, Avery, Kyle, Papa-D, Gigi, Landry, Me, Micah, Collier

 Yes, we are rednecks, and my husband and brother-in-law showed up to Thanksgiving dinner in their camo. That wasn't the plan, but Micah shot a deer that morning, and they were running late. I guess just another thing to be thankful for...fresh meat in our freezer! On a side note, I really wasn't thrilled in the beginning thinking about eating deer meat. Then, Micah used his magic to convince me that I spend extra money to buy organic products a lot of the time, and how much more organic does it get than a wild animal? Ha...he is good!

Daddy with his little man...

The kiddos got cookies as a reward after we took pictures...

Landry was is "Cuuuuuukie" heaven. :)

Today, we are relaxing and watching Razorback football! We did get up and do a quick Black Friday trip to our hair salon at 5:30 this morning to buy half price giftcards! :) We have purchased these the last 3 years, and we have it down where we can get our hair done all.year.long for half the price! In the past, we have even had some extra left on the cards to get a few massages, manicures, spray tans, etc. Hoping that we added wrong again this year!

These two little people...

 These two little people light up my life. They are so sweet, cuddly, and love unconditionally. I love watching their relationship grow. Each morning, Landry likes to have cuddle time with her brother. She loves to hug, kiss, and tickle him. It is so sweet, and Collier is such a sport! :)

Honestly, this poor boy has no time to himself unless his sister is locked away in her crib. :)

Landry is a proud big sister, and I hope that never changes. Little brothers are special...I know because I have one. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are excited to head down to my in-laws to spend tomorrow. Thankful that we have family to spend the day with, food to eat, and a warm place to celebrate our many blessings.

Meal Plan Monday and more...

Happy Monday! I hope your week is starting off well! Our's is off to a little bit of a rough start, but more about that later...

A few of you have asked if Landry eats what we have planned to eat on our "menu." Yes, she does. Since she was little, we have tried giving her a wide sampling of different foods. She is not very picky, and will eat just about anything. Here is an example of one of our super simple meals from last week...Spinach Salad and Baked Sweet Potatoes.

My plate...

Landry's Plate {Before}

Landry's Plate {After}

She did a great job eating almost everything! She was not a huge fan of the sweet potatoes because they were hot when she first tried them. She kept blowing on them, but she wasn't able to convince herself that they were okay. :)

This week's meal plan is:

Monday:

Lunch-Black Bean and Feta lettuce wraps {recipe below}

Dinner-Dinner meeting for church

Tuesday:

Lunch-Lettuce wraps (again!)

Dinner- Parmesean Crusted Chicken with steamed veggies

Wednesday:

Lunch-Baked sweet potatoes

Dinner- Pasta Toss with Broccoli

(basically whole wheat pasta boiled with broccoli then tossed with butter, parm, salt and pepper)

Thursday:

THANKSGIVING!

Friday:

Lunch- Leftovers

Dinner- Homemade Pizza

Saturday:

Brunch- Quiche

Dinner- Probably having a bonfire with friends, so hotdogs!

Sunday:

Lunch-Spinach Salads

Dinner- White Chicken Chili

Now...a recipe! 

We eat this a lot. It is a super easy and light lunch or dinner. It is great leftover, cheap, and healthy!

Black Bean and Feta Lettuce Wraps

1/2 cup cooked brown rice

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1 can black beans (rinsed)

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/3 cup italian dressing

6-10 lettuce leaves

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. I like to put mine in the refrigerator and let it cool completely before serving in the lettuce leaves. You could also just cook the rice ahead of time, cool it, and then mix all together right before serving. I just like it cold, you could really do it either way.

 We seriously love this! The pictures might look a little yuck, but I promise, these are great!

Okay, so here is what is going on at our house today that is making things a little rough...

See that rash?! Landry woke up with it this morning, and we have no clue where it came from. She has had a cough and congestion for about 2 weeks now, and we luckily had an appointment with the Naturopath today. She was running fever on Saturday night, and threw up twice through the night. Seriously, it is like she had a little touch of EVERYTHING that was floating around. Anyway, we had a visit today, and got a few answers.

The cough and congestion is probably just from the weather change and nothing serious. 

The throwing up was either a little virus (bc she did have a tiny fever with it) or was possibly due to us receiving the wrong dosage instructions over the phone for some herbs we were giving her. Nothing dangerous, probably just an upset tummy. 

The rash is kind of the mystery at the moment. It could be from everything else she has going on, could be a carry-over reaction to something she ate, or it could be from pulling her sheet off her bed and laying right on the mattress that I used cleaner on when she puked all over it Saturday. 

Poor girl! :( She acts like she feels fine though, just a little extra clingy to daddy.  

Love that sweet little thing, and hope she feels better soon!