Thankful

Tradition.

I crave it every time this year. It's ain't Thanksgiving without certain foods or without starting our day snuggled in our jammies watching the Macy's Day parade. Our king sized bed is running out of room. And I love that our family is so big... means big family events when they're older. Don't worry I think their spouses will think it's too weird if we carry on this tradition after they're out of the house.

I don't know what it is about kids in jammies, but seriously, footed jammies??? Forget about it. I just want to snuggle them to pieces and apparently my boys have inherited this trait from me because they were given some serious lovin' to their sister.

And after a bunch of Landry lovin' we hit the kitchen to make some lovin' from the oven with some sweet potato casserole. Nolan loved helping.

Could Campbell's hair be any more ridiculous? Project growing hair out = disaster. Don't worry, a haircut followed a few days later.

Nolan's art projects from school made from some super cute photography props. I love these blue-eyed boys so much I can't stand it. Thankful doesn't even come close.

Nolan is my poser if you can't tell. I take out a camera and he works that thing like he's a runway model. Campbell? No way, he's either pouting (see above), eating a snack (see above), laughing (see below), or if I want a good shot I have to get a candid shot. Never fails.

I'm curious to see if Landry will have a love/hate relationship with the camera. So far, she's working that camera pretty darn well.

One last shot that happens every year....our family pic in front of our sweet gum tree that normally is the perfect shade of red but not so much this year. Actually this week, it's beautiful...maybe we can fake Thanksgiving and do a do-over.

Next up, we headed to my parents. It wasn't hard to find, we just used our noses and followed the scent. This year we were all in the kitchen lending a hand.

I leave the turkey to the professionals but can help with any side dish. Man, you know you're really a grown up when you have to cook the turkey. Until then, I'll enjoy being a kid and mooching some turkey.

Justin was a natural at carving and I, of course, am a natural at devouring it. My boys seemed to take after me...

My parents know how to set a table. I love everything about Thanksgiving. The food, the love, the traditions but most of all I'm thankful for who's sitting around the table.

These two special ladies mean so much to me. My sister, Tonya, who is battling for her life with Stage 4 breast cancer. It's been another rough year finding out that her cancer has spread to her brain. Chemo, radiation, chemo again, triple steriods, ER visit after ER visit...it's been one hell of a year.

We found out that Tonya's cancer spread just a week after Landry was born. Talk about emotional rollercoaster. Extreme joy, extreme sorrow were experienced daily with no warning of when each emotion would be felt.

There's nothing that has taught me more life lessons than my sister's cancer or having children. I'm thankful for the gratitude it's given me to be thankful for each and every day.

So this Thanksgiving, I'm more aware than ever of what and who I'm most grateful for. I still hate cancer and everything it's taken from her and our family, but cancer you can't take away love and you can't take away the lessons I've learned.

Dress Up

It's happening.

Without meaning to, we're creating a diva.

Exhibit A:

We don't even ask him to do that but he does it for her. He can't stand her to be unhappy. Some days while I'm cooking dinner, I catch him doing this for her and it just melts my heart.

And to tell you the truth is SOOOO helpful and relieving to know that I have another set of hands to help with her while I'm frantically trying to jump in the shower, cook dinner, or get things ready to go out the door.

And while we're talking about divas....the clothes situation is beyond dangerous. When you open her closet it pretty much glows of pink and all things girly. It is seriously a good thing that I've only had one girl and not three or we might be homeless.

In my defense, I was very spoiled by friends and family buying Landry adorable outfits. I've discovered that people love to buy for little girls. I've even gotten some outfits from people I hardly knew. I think they just look for any excuse to buy for girls. I can't blame them. I remember my days before her and how excited I became when I was invited to a girl baby shower or birthday party. 

You may be wondering why I included two pictures of this outfit. On the left you will see her adorable outfit full scale and on the right I couldn't help but include this because you get a sneak peek at her first two rolls. The other 8 are hidden by her diaper. Gosh those thunder thighs just make me want to MUSH them!

And I've been the worst lately about getting out the good camera and just taking quick ones with my iphone to capture her outfits. Not the best quality but at least you can see we've been having fun with our doll.

I have so many outfits that have either been given or handed down to us that we really look forward to big days out. Church is pretty much prom for us. Heck, even a doctor visit is! We have to get really good use out of these clothes. She's already outgrowing them so quickly!

Embarrassingly enough, this girl almost has enough Christmas outfits for the 12 days of Christmas! Stay tuned! 

I think I might be more excited about decorating her for Christmas than our tree!

Sunshine

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are grey,

You'll never know dear

 

 how much I love you...

  

 Please don't take my sunshine away...

Freaky Friday

I knew I wasn't crazy and here's the proof. My children are exact clones of one another. It's like my DNA mixed with Justin creates identical twin/triplets but years apart. It's so weird because Nolan and Campbell don't look alike now but all our children look so much alike when they're babies.

People say that they see Nolan or Campbell in Landry but honestly it's all just the same!

 

Can you tell Justin loves having this snuggle time on his chest with each of them? In order, Nolan, Campbell, and Landry.

This next one really blows my mind. Again, Nolan, Campbell and Landry...seriously?!

And I love those moments where I see Campbell slipping into those memories that I had of Nolan doing the exact same thing.


So what do you think? Freak Friday or what?

2 months

As you can see I'm a little late on posting her monthly pictures. I'll blame it on the sleep deprivation. I wonder how long I can use that excuse?!?

Today was Landry's 2 month checkup. At birth, she weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. (soooo close to that 8 lb mark) and was 19.25 in. She dipped down to 7 lbs and developed jaundice a week later...darn milk not coming in for five days.

*Random side note...just two days ago we noticed that all of our children were the exact same length at birth. Guess that my uterus only allows for 19.25" babies.

2 month stats:

Weight: 12 lbs. 4 oz. (90th percentile)
Height: 22.25" (75th percentile)
Head: 40.5 cm (90th percentile)
Cuteness: OFF.THE.CHART

Everyone comments about how petite she is and that their babies were never that small but I beg to differ. I'm the one who sees her rolls unfold with every diaper change and these pictures show just how much she's changed in just two months!

I'm really proud of how much she's grown considering that we've been through jaundice when she was 1 week and that horrible case of mastitis at 5 weeks all of which really made me want to quit breastfeeding because it was so hard.

I go back to work in 3.5 weeks and the punch in the gut gets more noticeable every day that it gets closer. We'll see how long I last nursing. With the boys, once I went to work and started pumping, my supply slowly diminished.

I'm so thankful for everyday that I have home with her and wish that I could spend more with her. I'm thankful that I go back to work for two weeks then get another two weeks off for Christmas break and only another 6 months before I'm off again for 10 weeks.

It's not the same as staying home with her every day but it sure is a lot better than going back with no breaks at all.

I'm cherishing every single second.

Boo

Remember my post just a couple of weeks ago about fitting it all in and keeping my sanity? Yea, well Halloween weekend might have been in the top 5 of craziest weekends ever. It was a very fine line. Insanity was only minutes away.

The morning started bright and early with a cold soccer game. Hard to believe the season started out with 105 degree games. I'll take a 50 degree soccer game any day over that. It was the end of the soccer season and so we squeezed in pizza at 10:30 in the morning before heading to Boo at the Zoo.

And as heartbreaking as it was, we went with store bought costumes this year for a number of reasons.
#1 Newborn baby...enough said.
#2 My appreciation for coordinating costumes is not nearly appreciated by my boys as much as it is by me. Guess I'll just have to reminisce about all the years past.
#3 Trying to convince your kid that a mad scientist is way cooler than ninjas is nearly impossible.

 

Don't you just wonder what those animals are thinking seeing my kid who, now that I'm looking at the photo, might look too much like a member of the Taliban than a ninja. Oops.

Costume and diaper changes in the parking lot are how we roll these days. I swear our swagger wagon is our home...at least on weekends. 

Campbell's costume didn't come with a mask for some reason so I busted out my VERY limited sewing skills and made him a mask. 

 

And you will notice Nolan's super serious ninja face in nearly every photo. Watch out.  

It was perfect weather. Normally it seems like my kids are drenched with sweat on Halloween in Texas with their costumes but this year, we actually sported a layer of clothing underneath!

Boo at the Zoo really was a lot of fun MINUS the part where we lost Campbell for 20 seconds. Seriously, I'm completely reconsidering making jokes about parents who put their kids on leashes now that I have an escape artist....scariest 20 seconds of your life when you're in a huge crowd and can't find your kid.

Immediately after this, we headed straight to my nieces' roller skating party. I don't have any photos of that because I needed every ounce of balance to keep myself up after not skating for over 20 years. 

The next day we headed to our church carnival which was so much fun for the kids. They loved every minute of it and I love hanging out with my Soul Sistas.

Generations of church members were there to support the carnival even the oldest and youngest.

The thing about church that I love it that every kid is your kid. You love them all, look out for them all, and even get onto them all when needed. I love that. It takes a village...

 

Next  up? Pumpkin carving. We could've and probably should've skipped the pumpkin carving but our kids can't ever say "Why didn't we ever do that?" because the Good Lord knows that we push ourselves to the point of exhaustion to make sure we're making memories. 

 

 

 And I'm glad we did because we got some pretty priceless facial expressions from the whole experience.

 

And Landry and I were excellent spectators. In the next few years, Sister is going to be getting her hands on those pumpkin guts and holding her own with her brothers. 

The most exciting news about Halloween this year was we were on TV! Good Morning Texas had a homemade Halloween contest and I sent the boys photos in from last year (remember we went store bought this year) and found out that we were finalists! I thought they were just going to show photos of the boys but we drove to Dallas in costumes and all at the crack of dawn and were interviewed on the show. 

I started scrambling making sure their costumes fit from last year. Nolan's aqua socks for his scuba diver costume were completely a scene out of Cinderella and her stepsister trying on the shoes, but we made it work. 

We didn't win but the boys were so great (WHEW, sweating that one!) and the boys LOVED that they were on TV. In fact, on the way home from church yesterday we heard Campbell talking to himself in the car and when we listened closer realized he was reenacting our GMT interview word for word. Seems like someone likes his celebrity status and 15 seconds of fame.

I can't find a clip of it online to save my life. I didn't wear a costume unless of course you count Spanx as a costume. If that's the case, then I was Super Spanx.

Next up,  Campbell's school costume parade.

Seriously, there is nothing cuter than seeing little kiddos in costumes. It just melts my heart. 

 

Don't you love how Campbell is making Nolan do all the work on the scooter. That is NOT an easy task with that kid, let me tell you. 

 

Our little princess was too little for a costume this year but did we rock out about 2-3 Halloween outfits. I already have costumes planned for this girl until she's 30. Thank you Pinterest. Now if she'll just let me boss her and carry them all out. Fat chance.

 

And FINALLY, trick-or-treat time! Gosh, remember when that's all Halloween really was? Now it's turned into the 12 days of Halloween. At least we get good use out of costumes, right?

So I couldn't talk my boys into being a mad scientist but at least the hubs was a good sport and humored me.

It was another successful Halloween on the Halloween meter.

How do I know?

Because I was exhausted. 

Til next year, folks. Better start soon now that I have three to dress!