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!