Early Spring 2010

Happy Easter! Abby 6, Lane 6 months, Beau almost 4

I think Lane's legs may be bigger than Beau's :)
They can be so sweet to each other sometimes. I have the pictures to prove it.
Abby is playing machine pitch softball on an all girls team this year. She has played t-ball for the past 2 years. She is the youngest player on the team, but she does pretty good and is learning a lot! It is so fun to watch Toby and her get out in the yard and practice. I just love it!
Lane having some dinner in her bumbo.
Mommy and Abby goofing around.
Really, Lane is totally unimpressed with baby food. She would much rather nurse or have a bottle, and literally dry heaves when you put something green in her mouth. At least she has some poundage to spare!
Bathing beauties
Easter eggs
Dying Easter eggs
Beau is playing soccer this year with some of his buddies from school. He has a good time running around and getting some of that energy out, not to mention their jerseys are red...his favorite color.
I know what you're thinking, but that girl was good!
Seriously? I know he's mine, but too cute...
Lounging around on the couch on a Saturday morning.
Not a very exciting action shot of Abby playing out in the field.
Toby and Abby went to Steamboat on a little ski trip during Spring Break this year, just the two of them. Aren't they cute?
Sportin' lots of pink gear, naturally.
Snazzy in their matching gray pants.




Pretty cool with that snow piled up by the pool...


Don't knock em' til' you've tried em'!



Abby and her buddy CeCe at their last cheerleading game. I'll try and put their dance video they did on here soon if we can figure out how to post videos anymore. It's been a while...
I let Abby have her buddies Avery and CeCe spend the night the night before their last game. They are always quite entertaining and hilarious. A picture's worth a thousand words...
Sweet Lane snoozin' away.
Seriously cute little thing Abby wrote on her board and Toby took a picture of. The bottom has her name spelled out on the left going down, and each word says something to describe herself. She did this all on her own, hence the misspelled words. Their teacher encourages them to try and write words themselves and figure out how they might spell instead of always asking. For a translation: A(wesome), B(eautiful), B(utterflies), Y(ogurt) - as in she likes it, S(mart), M(not sure about this one), I (love school), T(errific), and H(am) - as in she likes it, too.
Lane enjoying the wild looking jumpy thing we got her.
Abby is such a big help with Lane. She will hold her, feed her, run and get diapers, helps give her baths, etc. etc. I really don't know what I would do without her help sometimes! She is an awesome big sister, and will be a great little babysitter someday!

We have had a very busy spring. It seems like this is usually the slowest time of the year, but that hasn't been so this year! Maybe its the whole third kid thing? Abby is still taking dance, just finished up cheerleading, and just started machine pitch softball. Beau is playing soccer this spring, too. Between all of that, we stay pretty busy running from one practice or game venue to another. I have to say that, most of the time, it is lots of fun just watching the kids growing and learning and having fun doing things they love. Speaking of growing, Lane was just a few ounces shy of 21lbs at her 6 month check up - over the 99%ile mark. She just wanted a chart of her own, I guess. We just started baby foods at 6 months, and she is not a huge fan. She does grunt and try to grab anything we are trying to eat, so I have a feeling that we aren't going to last long with Gerber. Just a little more than a week ago we saw her first tooth coming through on the bottom. It is so cute I can hardly stand it. She is pretty go with the flow as long as one of us is near. She does have some major separation anxiety, and I have been getting called out of the gym and church nurseries the past half dozen times we've been. Sigh. She must be taking notes from Abby when she was a baby. She is not the best napper either. Not really her fault, as she lives out her existence in a car seat or stroller, basically. Gotta' love being the 3rd child!

Toby is staying busy with work, but has been working a little less extra, so it has been so, so nice to have him around a little more on the weekends. He is going hunting this weekend on a much needed little get away for him, I'm sure. He works so much and never gets any time to do the things he likes without kids, so I am glad he is getting to go, although I will need lots of extra prayers to make through 4 days straight without him!

Eight more months down here in Louisiana, then we will be headed back to Tennessee. It is hard to believe that it is that close! We are looking forward to the beach in June, and maybe one more trip back to Tennessee in September around Lane's first birthday. The kids will finish the school semester here in December, and the we are off to Disneyworld to celebrate Daddy finishing this fellowship! By Christmas we will be back in Tennessee. Mimi better be ready to drag out the Christmas decorations, cause' I'll be home for Christmas, and we could be homeless and staying with her!

Doing my best to keep the blog updated! So little time and so much to do! Til' next time;-)

Birthdays, Snow and Mardi Gras

Toby and Lane waiting for the Mardi Gras parade to start. This is our 3rd time to go to the Highland Parade (an annual parade they do in our neighborhood) here in Shreveport. It was weird after the fact to realize that this would be the last time we would walk down our street to the parade! It is always really fun and the kids have a great time catching lots of beads, stuffed animals, moon pies and candy. We will miss having it to go to every year after we move.
On February 12th it snowed! This does not happen much in here at all, so I got the kids up bright and early, bundled em' up, and sent them out to play. I knew it would be here for a few hours, and wanted them to enjoy it as much as they could! It was so much fun, and the snow was perfect for making snowmen and snowballs, or "throwballs" as Beau kept calling them. I am so thankful God gave us such a beautiful and fun snow to play in!
Abby posing with our snowman and snowwoman.
Making "throwballs"...


The first thing Beau did when we walked outside was lay down in the snow and make a snow angel. He is full force with everything he does...no easing into it! It reminded me of how he was when when got to the beach last year...
All bundled up and ready to go! (Sorry for the slightly out of order pictures...)

Lane demonstrating her two new tricks at the same time - sticking her tongue out AND holding her toes - now that's talent. Check out those rolls!
Abby's buddies at her friend Grayson's tea party birthday party. It was the cutest thing - all of the girls got to dress up, have a tea party on real china in a beautiful historic mansion, have a scavenger hunt, etc. Abby had the best time, and it was fun to watch all of these sweet little girls have such a good time together.
Abby's dress up outfit she chose. Pretty good taste! I kind of like it!
Avery, Lauren, Reagan, Abby and Sarah

Beau's birthday card to Daddy
Abby's birthday card to Daddy
Happy 35th Birthday to Toby on February 5th! He is such a wonderful father and husband! We love him so much and feel so blessed to have him to share our lives with. We had a fun little celebration at home with the kids the night before his actual birthday. Pictured here with Lane and Toby is the yummiest cupcake on the face of the earth! The next night we got a sitter and went to a wonderful dinner at a place called the Mabry House here. It was maybe the best meal we have ever had, and so much fun to sit at the chef's table (a table in the kitchen in the back).

We are having lots of fun and time is flying by - so strange that February is almost over! Spring Break is next month. Beau, Lane and I will be flying to Nashville to spend a week, and Toby and Abby are going skiing in Steamboat. Abby is still in cheerleading and dance right now, and Beau's first soccer game is Friday. T-ball starts in a few weeks for Abby. There should be some good pictures of all of the fun we have planned for the next few weeks coming up!

2010 So Far...

Lane posing for her "3 month pictures" in a chair in the dining room.
Look at those sweeeeeeeet feet!
There is a story behind the cookie. Let me start by saying that Beau may be the most humorous child on the face of the earth. He is very active and trying a lot of time, but also makes us laugh harder than anyone else I can think of the rest of the time.

We went to a great sub shop right by our church one Wednesday night before class. The kids get kids meals which come with sub, chips, drink and cookie. It is always a battle getting them to eat enough of their food, but usually they will do pretty well when there is a cookie waiting for them at the end of the meal. Needless to say, we are rather busy trying to eat our meals and watch all 3 kids and get them to eat. I looked over about halfway through the meal and this is what was left of Beau's cookie! He had nonchalantly been pinching himself off bites of his cookies when no one was looking while we thought he was eating his meal! It was so funny it was hard to get too mad at him. I guess that's what we get for not paying enough attention to him! Poor middle child.

Last Friday we went to a Valentine's Party at his teacher and my good friend Robin's house. She has 2 little boys of her own, and more toys than I have ever seen in one house in my entire life. Beau is in HEAVEN there. He did not want to leave, and I had a terrible time trying to get him to go when it was time. He even hid in one of their closets. Needless to say, he was quite upset with me on the way home. Before he fell asleep, he informed me that I was going to have to fine another little yellow-haired boy to stay at my house with me. He said he was going to live with Mrs. Quinn! I have no idea where he got the "little yellow-haired boy" thing, but I informed him that I don't want a trade in, that I am going to keep the one that I have! He didn't like that very much, either. He thought he had come up with the perfect solution!

One more funny thing that happened - yesterday at two different time totally independent of each other both of the kids called me by their teachers' names! Are you kidding me??? I gave birth to you crazy kids! Give me a little credit for cryin' out loud!
Helping Daddy take down Christmas lights. That didn't happen til' mid-January...
Abby just started her 2nd year of cheerleading. It is so cute. She is between her good buddies CeCe (on the left) and Avery (on the right). It is fun except being at the gym at 9am on Saturday mornings!
Halftime cheer.
This boy loves being a big brother. Seriously.
He told me to take a picture of their feet. So cute.
Beau picked this flower for me off of this flowering tree in our side yard the other day. So stinkin' sweet! The past few times we have gone to the grocery store and pass the flower section, he runs and gets a big ol' bouquet, tries to put them in our basket, and tells me he is buying flowers for me. I hate having to tell him to put them back, it is so precious. I tell him to tell his daddy that he wants to buy me flowers when he is at the store with him! (I don't dress him to go out like this. He is wearing a tee and pajama pants while we were playing around in the yard the other day. Just wanted to clarify that!)
Playing with his stomp rocket, a Christmas present from Will and Quinn. It is a really fun toy - highly recommended if you don't have one!
Gathering rockets.
Enjoying a bubble bath.
My three precious babies! These two can not get enough of their little sister.
Even Rocky hangs pretty tight with her. Guarding her while she naps...
Mommy is lovin' the bumbo she bought off of Craigslist!

My girls. Aren't they beautiful? (I know, I'm biased, but c'mon...they are pretty sweet!)

Well, we are having a great, busy 2010. Toby is not working extra quite so much, which has been wonderful. We love having him home some of the time. It is really hard when he doesn't get to be home very much. He has even started going back to the gym and getting some exercise, and he is itching to go turkey hunting in April. We'll see how we'll manage that. Feb. 5th brought him the big 3-5. We went and ate at a restaurant that is an a big Victorian style home called the Mabry House. We ate at the chef's table back in the kitchen, and it was honestly probably the best food and the most fun eating experience I have ever had! Who would have thunk it down here in lil' ol' Shreveport?!

Abby is thriving in kindergarten. She has a great group of friends, and is doing great in school. She is in cheerleading and dance, and will start baseball in the spring. She has lost a grand total of 2 teeth, loves to bowl on the Wii, play Sorry (thanks Mimi), is always doing some sort of arts and craft project, adores Taylor Swift and Hannah Montana, and spends a fair amount of time playing on the computer. Some days she seems like a teenager trapped in a 6 year old's body. Just when you think she is getting so big, you get a reminder that she is still 6 - like at her sleepover the other night Mommy forgot to pack her lovee and she called crying at 11:00 b/c she couldn't sleep. Thank goodness she is still just 6! I have enough gray hairs right now making me feel plenty old. I don't need a teenager just yet!

As I said before, Beau is very busy and active, keeping us on our toes every minute of every day. I have never seen a child love his little sister the way he loves Lane. He would do anything for her. He can't leave her alone when they are together, much to my dismay at times! He started wearing jeans again (we were stuck on "soft pants" i.e. sweatpants for a long, long time) which is nice for me. More options...and he looks so darn cute in them. He likes to dabble in this and that - he's not really stuck on any one thing right now - he loves his zhu zhu pet, Cars, his train table, Star Wars, coloring and arts and crafts, and he, too, loves to play Sorry and Chutes and Ladders. His 4th birthday is coming up in April, and he asks almost every day how much longer until his birthday.

Lane is a joy. She is such a blessing to us. She is a great baby. She is all smiles and sweet, slobbery kisses. No teeth yet. She weighed in this week at the dr's office at 8lbs 10oz. I took her in for a sick visit, hoping for an ear infection at most. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with RSV, which has been rough. Poor thing is having the hardest time breathing and I was having to hold her sitting up for a few nights there. She seems to be getting a little bit better now.

We are looking forward to a fun Spring Break in March. Toby and Abby are going to Steamboat to ski, and Beau, Lane and myself are flying to Nashville for a visit. Til' next time~~~!!