Sunday, January 8, 2012

Collier's First, First Christmas!

Well, here we go! I am finally back in action with our computer, and all my pictures are still intact (after a few scares!). The pictures below are from our first Christmas that we celebrated the weekend before Christmas. We always do my Dad's side of the family early, and it just makes it so much easier for us all to hang around and not rush off. We celebrate with my parents, my brothers, step-brother, step-sister and families. My dad and step-mom just celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary, so we have been celebrating as a big family for quite a while now! Collier slept a lot that day, and Landry had a big time...and got her new kitchen!

Micah and sleepy little Collier
Jamia reading to Judd, Gage, and Trey

Little Laurel

Collier in his new chair!

The newly engaged couple!
Nephew, Trey

Nephew, Ty
I still have a picture of him in my wallet from when he was about 6 months old. So hard to believe he is 11!!

Landry wearing her new apron and chef hat from Aunt Jennifer!

 Niece, Natalie
Collier with his Dado
And, Landry with her new kitchen. The first thing she went for was the PHONE. :)

We had a really fun time that day, but the kids were all sad that Nana was sick and stayed in her room the entire time (I know that was HARD for her!). She had a fever and a touch of the stomach bug that weekend, but we had already ordered food and had it all planned, so we didn't reschedule. I told my dad that it was kind of like not having Santa Claus at Christmas because Nana did all the shopping, but didn't get to enjoy the kids opening everything! My dad was just as surprised as the kids were as they opened everything...he has no clue. :)
Anyway, it was a wonderful first Christmas for Collier...and two more to go!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

My new obsession...

I know I have been missing for over a week, and it has been driving me crazy! Our computer really did bite the dust this time, and Micah wasn't able to fix it. It is at "the shop" being fixed as we speak. I am going crazy because it crashed right after (litterally, the SECOND after) I uploaded all of our pictures from Christmas. I have my camera set to delete the pictures off my card after I upload them, and to say that this mama was upset thinking that I lost all of my precious pictures is an understatement. I was in tears thinking that I had lost pictures from all 3 of our family Christmas celebrations. The sweet "shop worker" assured Micah that the pictures were still on the computer and retrievable, so be prepared that when I get the computer back, there WILL be Christmas overload.

To feed your baby fix and my blogging fix in the meantime, here are some pictures from Instagram. I recently entered this century and finally got an iPhone. As you already know, I love taking pictures of my sweet little ones. Now, Instagram makes my precious little babes look even more precious (who knew!?).  For those of you who don't know, (see, I am cool now because I DO!) you can take pictures on your iPhone and then change the "filters" in Instagram to make the coloring and borders look different. It is so fun!
Enjoy!










See, this picture is before, and the one above is after. It just makes it more fun! :)

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years! I will back in full swing soon. :)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

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!!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

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!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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. :)

Thursday, December 8, 2011

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. :)

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

My favorite FLAVOR is blue!



Enough said...
Happy Wednesday!