Wordless Wednesday

I've been shot by Cupid

I think I live vicariously through my children when it comes to holidays. I'm making up for the days when we just gave Valentines (boring old paper and envelopes) and called it a day. Now there's so many options for Valentines out there that I have enough ideas for when they're freshmen in college. I'm sure they'll looooove that?!

Before you start with thinking I'm some rock star, I can't take credit. I just tweaked an idea I saw online and then put my husband to work on it. I literally bought the suckers and cut three slits for the suckers while watching Biggest Loser (can you say oxymoron?). That's about how much of a contribution I made besides taking the pictures.

Next, I had some fun making up some brownies for their teachers. I figure that I really do need some brownie points because I know these boys can be a handful at times. A little bribery goes a long way.

Easiest gift ever. I got these cute little Chinese take out boxes at Wal-Mart, threw some brownies in the oven and slapped some ribbons on the box. I think this might be my staple gift every year for teachers for Valentines Day. The tag? Another husband contribution. My poor husband....he's always sucked into my craft projects.

And I really needed a creative outlet this weekend to just get my mind off of things. People ask, "Where do you find the time?" But honestly, getting my hands all dirty with glue or doing something creative helps me get my non-stop brain onto thinking about something else. It's the next best thing I can do for an "off" switch.

So I made Nolan's teacher a mailbox. I made a little pedestal stand. But it was terrible. After an attempt to spray paint a ceramic candleholder (doesn't work by the way), and a light dusting of snow coming to town -that pedestal is rolling around somewhere in my backyard and I'm too lazy and it's too cold to go get it outside. Oh well, it turned out cute even without the pedestal.

And a certain someone is really excited to give it to her tomorrow.

 

Sure do love my family and doing these fun crafty things for them. Hope they let me do it again next year! 

A conversation I had with Nolan tonight:

Nolan: Sarah asked me to marry her.

Me: And...

Nolan: I didn't want to tell her that I have five girlfriends. Actually, just four.

Me: So what did you say?

Nolan: I told her yes, but really I'm just going to marry Landry. 

So many things wrong with that conversation...

Four months

Yes, I said four months as in a THIRD of a year. I can't even believe it.

How is it that when I was pregnant time stood completely still and every minute seemed like eternity, but now that she's here with her crystal clear blue eyes and her porcelain skin, that I lose all track of time when I'm with her.

I could kiss that neck all day long...if I can actually find it somewhere in there. I promise she has one. We play hide and seek with it all the time. And don't act like you don't notice those thunder thigh rolls...go ahead, look at them. You know you want to squish her.

So now my newborn is officially NOT a....well, I don't really want to talk about it.

4 month stats:

Weight: 16 lbs. 3 oz (88th percentile)
Height: 26.75" (95th percentile)
Head: 42 cm (50th percentile)
Cuteness: Off.the.charts

And certain Missy just discovered she can roll with the best of them. Her big brothers better watch out....I see steamrollin' coming to our house in the near future.

Landry meets Kentucky

We were brave enough to take our first trip as a family of five and smart enough to know that a car ride was not the way to do it! Landry took her first flight to meet the rest of her family (besides Gram and Pop).

Kentucky (horse capital of the world) + Campbell = Heaven

And that was just minutes off the plane.

 

Landry didn't hold back her cuteness for a second. She was full force meeting her Kentucky family for the first time. 

And I think her cousins might have been the most excited of them all that they FINALLY have a GIRL cousin.

 

I gotta say that Landry was pretty darn excited herself to see that there were other girls in the family than just her mama! 

 

Although her bitter beer face doesn't quite express that...

 

I gotta tell you this little girl was S.P.O.I.L.E.D with lots of holding and loving and she loved every.single.minute of it.

Meeting Uncle Casey for the first time was so heartwarming too. He's got a special knack for little girls and she seemed to really dig the fact that he looks so much like her daddy.

Our niece, Dory, was seriously born to babysit. I gotta fly this girl down for the summers asap. She's more mature than majority of my 5th graders and just completely enamored with Landry.

And this is what Dory will look like exactly in another 30 years or so. Meet Melissa, her mother, my makes-me-feel-like-a-little-person sister-in-law.

The rest of the week was filled with more love and hugs and meeting great Aunt Sug (And yes, it's short for 'Sugar').

I'm so in love with Justin's 91-year-old grandmother, Rosie. She's the real genuine deal that grandmothers are made out of. You can't help but love every bit of her.

 

She was the most gracious hostess letting us crash at her place and waking her up at 4:00 a.m to catch a plane home. It was fun having a slumber party at her house, although next time I could have used more of the "slumber" part. 

 

Seeing these two girls together that are 90 years apart was so special. I think Landry might outweigh Rosie too soon if we're not too careful. We haven't even started this girl on cereal yet. Guess I've got some buttermilk flowing through my body! 

All the time spent playing and lovin' was exactly what we needed to jump start 2012.

The kids were an absolute dream when it came to the airplanes. Thank goodness, we don't exactly have great luck when it comes to traveling so I'll take it without complaint!

Christmas morning

Christmas morning...I can't believe that our kids slept in til 8:30. Actually, I can since they didn't go to bed until 10:30. Sleepy eyes, stuffed animals and goo goo in hand they were ready to see what Santa brought.

Santa didn't disappoint this year. Nolan got a new bike (without training wheels) from Santa. And I'm proud to say that on our last day of Christmas break that Nolan rode his bike for at least 10 seconds!!! WOOHOO! It's a crash landing every time, but we'll get there.

 

My favorite part of Christmas morning was opening our gifts from Nolan. Our school put together a Penguin Patch that allowed kids to shop for family members as a fundraiser for PTA. It was beyond adorable how excited he was that he went shopping by himself and it was a secret that he got to keep from us. 

I'm not joking when I say that he was more excited about giving us our gift than he was about opening his presents. I absolutely love that about him. It was the first glimpse that I saw that maybe all those lessons about "it's better to give than receive" and "think about others" aren't falling on deaf ears. 

 

He picked the most beautiful amethyst ring. Yes, it turned my finger green within an hour, who cares? It was my favorite gift because he was crazy proud of himself for picking it out.

His gift to Justin was a ornament that said "Dad" and we hung it right in front of our tree. I've come so far wanting my tree to coordinate. I can say that without a doubt that our tree might not have a theme or a color but it is full of memories and love.

Campbell got a bracelet and I think Nolan was looking for a better reaction, but as we all know...3 year old reactions are usually never in your favor.

Landry was seriously the best sport ever. She sat in her bouncer and was happy as a clam.

I think the poor thing was finally excited to see some pink toys and dolls. Of course that girl got clothes. I don't need Christmas as an excuse to get her more outfits. 

 

New towels for the boys and seeing them wear these after bath time makes it really hard to resist running after them and kissing them.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand this is the bomb that went off in my living room and that was AFTER picking up some of the wrapping and tissue paper.  Notice how after all the gifts were unwrapped and I needed up cleaning up, everyone got really sleepy suddenly.

 

My grandparents were in town from Amarillo and we spent the entire evening with them and the boys loved showing my grandmother their email from Santa. 

 

My nieces came by the day after for a short visit and Landry was loving all that attention. She's going to love going to see them especially with all these boys in the house. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were so full of non-stop action but that's how you know you've used every single second to squeeze in as much family time as you possibly can. When you're exhausted, it means you've loved hard. 

It was such a great Christmas and believe it or not...there's more! At this rate, I'll finish up my blogging in February but I can't forget about our Christmas in Kentucky.

Fa la la la la la la la

I'm finally catching my breath from the Christmas break. I can definitely say that we used every second for family time. This is the second year in a row that we've gone caroling with our youth group and others from church some of our home-bound members (or just members we can't get enough of) from our church.

It's so easy to get sucked into the insanity of Christmas and forget the true reason and this year was no different than last. It completely put me in the Christmas spirit. As Buddy the Elf says (and he ain't lying) "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."

Preach it, Buddy.

So we got our recorders fine-tuned, our baby snugli on, and our finest Christmas outfits to belt it out.

 

I mean who wouldn't love to see a big group looking this great with cymbals, recorders, and maracas in hand singing "Silent Night?" 

We visited some of our sweet friends that joined the church at the same time that we did and either they're really good actors, or we really did make their day.

The second home is one I just love to visit. It's so beautifully decorated. I think it may be more of a present to us to see their home rather than our gift of singing!

 

Last, but certainly not least, we visited my favorite church couple. You know, those sweet couples that you see that are never without each other and are always holding hands? And the ones that you picture when you're talking to your spouse about how you want to grow up to be? And the ones that when you see them at church walk by, you can't help but say, "Awwwwwww!" 

Yep, that's this couple. I mean, seriously, could they be any stinkin' cuter? 

They are like this ALL the time! See, here they go again...

 

I'd like to say it was all sunshine and lollipops. That we all held hands and skipped as we sang carols but there were also moments that brought up something new our kids were exposed to and a new step to encounter in our parenthood journey. 

We made two visits to nursing homes. One of the homes we went to, the people were clapping, playing piano and just oohing and aahing over Landry (they were wise people, if I do say so myself) but another home we visited was on the sadder side. There were hospital beds, wheelchairs and smiles weren't as abundant.

Nolan asked, "Why did those people look so sad and like they were about to die?" His observation is amazing and keen. 

Wow. Deep stuff. What do you say to that? Probably not the best time to tell your 6 year old that we are all going to die.

The days and nights that followed were plagued with lots of questions about death and growing old. He kept telling us throughout the day that he didn't want us to grow old and die. Bedtime became quite a struggle, to say the least, for two weeks reassuring him that we're healthy and young. My poor Nolan has dealt with anxiety issues over the years. We've dealt with being afraid of the wind, fireworks, putting his head under water and the list goes on and on and on. 

I pray, more than anything, that this experience is one that fills his heart with memories of spreading joy, feeling the spirit and doing for others.

Top 11 in '11

2011 has been such a wonderful year. Finding the photos to best document our year was near impossible but I think I've got my favorites narrowed down but I could slip in another 30 or maybe even 100 easy.

 

I love this photo for so many reasons. I love how it shows what a hands-on dad my husband, Justin, is and how it perfectly captures how energetic and how much of a dare-devil our second son, Campbell, is.  

 

Love this photo of the final months of my pregnancy with my boys. It was such a hard pregnancy during a record-breaking heat wave in Texas and with it being my third, but I'd say it was well worth it. 

This photo was taken the same day and I just love how my oldest son, without us asking, posed like he's a natural model. This is right before he started kindergarten. He's such a sweet boy and says things that will absolutely melt your heart, especially his mama. 

 

And perhaps the biggest news this year was the addition our one and only baby girl, Landry. She is the sweetest and easiest baby. She was our Labor Day baby...how wild is it that I was in labor ON Labor Day? I love this photo so much and it's one that will definitely be in her baby book. What joy and happiness it shows the day that our family was complete. 

 

This was taken when Landry was only 7 days old. I took it while getting some professional shots done by a good friend. Hers were much better but I still love these that I was able to sneak in. Those lips are just amazing.

Landry is only 3 months now but knowing that she's my last just has me holding, snuggling and staring at her perhaps more than I did with any of them. It just makes me want to soak up every single second. 

The only other person who stares at her as much as me - if not more, would be my husband....who is putty in her hands. 

  

Every year we go to the pumpkin patch and every year I always get a favorite from the photos. The colors, the laughter, the feel of fall all make the perfect recipe for a great photo.

This was a photo tip I tried from Pinterest and I was just excited that it worked! I turned off all the lights in the house, maxed out my ISO, opened the aperture and used a slow shutter speed of 1/30.

 

I took this photo on Christmas Eve morning but this is a normal day. At least once a day I see the boys interacting with Landry in this way. I can't believe that they fight as much as they do but when it comes to her, they are unbelievably sweet. They call her "sweet baby girl" and will do anything to get a smile or laugh out of her. 

And here's our Christmas photo this year. The funny part is that we used a tripod and I had wireless remote shutter release in my hand to take this picture. My husband is insanely talented when it comes to Photoshop (he's a graphic artist) but I looked like I had a man hand so we decided to put a big "M" monogram to cover up my hand. Pretty resourceful, I thought.

Thanks for looking at my favorites this year and I can't wait to see what photos and memories our family will make in 2012!