Bluebonnets 2011

We were definitely a week or two early this year, but since we are welcoming our little guy in about 2 days, we decided this was the best chance to get our annual bluebonnet pictures with the girls. If you look real carefully, you can see about six bluebonnets in the field behind them.









The girls had a good time walking around in their pretty new dresses and pretending like we were in a field full of bluebonnets. I can't wait until next year's pictures when there's a little boy in the bluebonnet pictures with these three princesses.

We've had to pack a week worth of spring break into about two or three days lately since Brian was swamped with baseball at the beginning of the week. While he's been busy with baseball, the girls and I had a fun day at Copper Lakes feeding the ducks and birds and playing at the park. We also did some shopping for those last few things we need for our baby brother. And we did a lot of playing outside and enjoying the beautiful sunshine. So yesterday since Brian was finally on break, we walked the mall several times and wore the girls out completely. None of them got a nap the whole day, which worked perfectly into our plans... We put them to bed around 7:30 and went out on a date, while a friend of ours sat at our house for us. We saw a movie and ate dinner and it was so much fun. Might be the last date we get to go on for awhile, so we definitely enjoyed every minute of it.

Some fun we had over the past week... Tatum flying her kite while riding her scooter. And below, showing her "back teeth," which for some reason she is very proud of.

Laney's entertainment throughout the Girl Scout ceremony was this little plastic frog. So glad I let her pick it up off the ground and bring it into the ceremony!


Daisy troop 17547 had their official investiture ceremony yesterday and our little Girl Scout did a great job. Her job was to tell about the red petal on their vest, which stands for being strong and courageous. They have been working since September to earn these vests and all the petals on them. I am very happy Avery has had the opportunity to be a Girl Scout this year.


Next time I post, it will have pictures of a cute little baby boy it it, and I am so eager to find out what those pictures will look like! I keep trying to picture him in my head with all the different possible combinations of hair, eyes, skin, nose, mouth, etc. that he could have. It's so neat to know that God already knows every detail of this little boy growing inside me and I will finally get to find out in two days or less! Monday morning we are going in to be induced, and we would greatly appreciate the prayers of all our friends and loved ones!

Cowgirl up!

My poor Laney had a bad fall yesterday morning down the stairs. She hit her upper gum on the wooden part on the side of the stairs and it looks really gross. There is skin flapping around and all mangled in her upper gum and blood was dripping down into her teeth all day. It was gross. I debated whether I should take her to the doctor, I was pretty sure they wouldn't stitch it up in her mouth and we called the dentist, who told us to just keep ice on it all day. Right.

But she has been such a trooper. She really is a tough kid. She played all day like it wasn't a big deal and let us look at it and put medicine in her mouth. It's still pretty yucky today, but at least the bleeding has stopped. It's just a dark purple mangled yucky mess up there. But I am very grateful it none of her teeth seem to have been harmed. I know God protected her because it could've been much worse.

These overalls she wore for western day today have been lovingly worn by all the girls now. I have pictures of both Avery & Tatum wearing these overalls when they were her size. It's fun to see Laney's little body in them and think how big I thought Avery was when she wore them!

Tatum is going through a tough time lately, mostly jealousy and mostly of Laney. She hears all the time how big Laney is getting, and I know she is longing to be told how big she is and what an accomplished 3.5 year old she is. She knows she and Laney share alot of the same clothes, socks & shoes because they really do fit both of them. Tatum is taller, but Laney is built larger. Tatum also sees when Laney falls and gets a cut or an ant bite or her mouth gets mangled, and Tatum immediately makes up some pretend wound she has or reminds us of a wound she got a long time ago so she can get some attention. It's shameless. When Laney wants to be held or sit in my lap, Tatum all the sudden wants to be held or sit in my lap. It's such a struggle for me because I am crazy about all my kids, but for some reason I have a special sympathy for Tatum being the middle girl and I try really hard to give her extra attention and praise. But she still acts so jealous! For example, tonight when I took Laney downstairs to give her some tylenol for her mouth, Tatum immediately said, "mama, I think I have a sore throat." And when I ask Avery how her elbow is feeling (she got a bad strawberry a few days ago), Tatum says, "mama, remember when I fell and skinned my knee and there was blood running down my leg?" (which happened over a year ago). I wish she would just believe me when I tell her how special she is and how much we all adore her, and not try so hard to take recognition away from her sisters.

I am so crazy about my little Tates. She has such a gentle and sensitive nature. I long for her understand and feel secure in how much she is loved. I just can't get enough of this little cowgirl.

So Avery has been wanting a Jessie costume from Toy Story 3 ever since Christmas. We couldn't pull it off at Christmas, but I found this little shirt and hat on Amazon last week, and knowing that this was rodeo week and she had nothing western to wear, I sprung for it. Her reaction when she opened the package was so worth it! She told me thankyou about 20 times and touched it like it was gold. When she put it on, she just stared at herself in the mirror. This morning she asked me to wake her up early and put a braid in her hair, like Jessie, with a yellow ribbon. Here's my little Jessie at the rodeo today at school slinging a snake around.

Avery and her buddies, Chloe & Mia.

They got to see a horse demonstration, and this horse was so beautiful! I loved watching it gallop around the lawn. Here's Jessie and Bullseye.
The other day while we were playing on the driveway, Tatum asked me how to draw an Aggie. She knows how to write her own name really well now, so since aTm has letters from her name in it, I knew she could write it. So as I was helping Tatum write aTm, Avery ran and copied our idea herself, only she got the "a" and the "m" mixed up. I was going to correct her, but I thought this would be such a good "typical Aggie" picture for her if she grows up to be an Aggie one day, that I decided I really like her version better. Gig 'Em little Ags!

My sweet friends, Bethany, Devon & Jeannine, threw me a "boy" shower last weekend and it was so much fun for me! I really didn't think I needed that much because I have been given some wonderful hand-me-downs and I figured alot of the stuff I had for the girls will be fine for a boy... he won't care if he gets bathed with a pink towel or washcloth and he will never know if i use a pink burpcloth to clean up his spit or a pink blanket to cover him up occasionally. But I must admit, I didn't realize how fun it would be to have cute dinosaur, baseball and firetruck blankets, washcloths and clothes for him to wear. I am thrilled to have such adorable boy stuff to use now. When I first met these girls, Jeannine had one baby and the rest of us were pregnant with our first. So one baby between the four of us. Now, there are (almost) 16 kids between the four of us!!! As you can imagine, playdates have become a little crazier, but I feel so blessed to have these friends and for the friendships my kids have with their kids.


I have a little more than two weeks to go until my due date. I have a little over one week to go until spring break, which means I am done working for at least 6 weeks. This is one of those times when I am SOOO looking forward to the future that it is sometimes hard to enjoy the moment and the days we are in right now. But in the back of my mind is the lingering reminder that once our baby boy comes, which we are thrilled about, it will change the times and opportunities I have to do fun things with my girls. So yesterday, even though I am gigantic and every day is an effort to just find a shirt that covers me, I did something I have never done with the girls, but will definitely do again - we went to Jamba Juice after we picked Avery up from school. We ordered our smoothies and a bowl of oatmeal (I know that is weird, but their oatmeal is really good!) and we sat at a little table and we just hung out. We stayed there for so long that the lady at the counter brought us out a cut up orange to eat and offered us more oatmeal. Since there were no other customers at the time, I let Avery & Tatum go to the bathroom all by themselves... I have never done that in a public place, but they did a good job. Avery was very careful to make sure they both did "ducktails" while the other used the potty, then she lifted Tatum up to help her wash her hands when they were done. They make me very proud at how much they can do by themselves. I picture us girls 10 years from now, Avery almost 16, Tatum almost 14, Laney 12 and me about 42 (yikes!) sitting at a Jamba Juice drinking our smoothies and talking all kinds of girl talk (Brian and baby boy will have all kinds of fun boy things to do together I'm sure). I hope and pray we are all still the best of friends with each other. I feel so blessed to be a "girl mom," and while I am so very thankful for our son growing inside of me and I cannot wait to get to know him, I feel a little uneasy and nervous about how I'm going to do as a "boy mom" and how having a boy in the mix is going to change all our girl times. But God is so good to us and I believe He has created this little guy to fit perfectly into our family and He has created me as the right mama for this little man child. I can't wait!

February Fun

Avery celebrated "100 day" last week at school, meaning she has completed 100 days of Kindergarten! She had to do a 100 day project, where she had to come up with a collection of 100 things, count them and group them either by 10's or 20's and take them to school. We decided to do tea party stuff and God is so good to me... when we started counting the different items, I kid you not, we had exactly 20 teacups, 20 utensils, 20 plates/bowls, so then we just decided to add a stack of 20 pink napkins and 20 straws... there's our 100 items! The picture above is of Avery with our 100 day project and below with her 100 crown and 100 cupcake!

Laney loves her pretzels!

Avery and Lucas... she is struggling with the decision of whether or not to marry Lucas. He has already asked her to marry him (notice they are holding hands in this picture), but there is another little boy in her class that she likes too. I told her that most people don't have to decide in Kindergarten who they are going to marry, so she should be able to hold off on that decision for a few more years. This was at Lucas' birthday party. As we were walking out, his mom ran over to me and said "Wait! Lucas really wants to get his picture taken with Avery before you leave!" So, here it is...

I can't believe our baby boy is going to be here in less than a month! We are completely ready for his arrival so he can come anytime he decides to now. My doctor said Tuesday that I am 1 cm dilated and his head has already dropped, so we are making progress. I have been having alot more contractions with him than I had with my girls, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up that he will come early. The girls were all induced, so I'm guessing we might need to force him out too, but I've also heard boys are different from Day 1... so I guess we will see what happens.

Avery took this picture of me at her Mom & Me Valentines Tea last week. I'm wearing the corsage she made for me.

Here's the beautiful delicious dessert she helped prepare for me.

I got to go to Tatum's Valentine party at school too, and here she is dancing with her friend Jade.
This girl loves her cookies with sprinkles! She also likes to remind me daily that she has "back teeth" and she likes to tell me which foods are good for her back teeth and which foods hurt her back teeth. I think she decided the cookies were good for them. Tatum is constant entertainment.
Here's Laney reading with her sweet teacher on Valentines' Day. She didn't really have a party this year, but she did get to bring home a bag full of treats from her friends!
Baseball season is in full swing, and so far the Eagles are doing pretty well. They have tournaments for the next 3 weekends, then they start district games. I can't say my attitude has been drastically better this season, in fact, at times it's definitely been worse, but I do feel encouraged that he is where he should be for now and we are trusting God that He will move him in His time. We are praying for an AP (assistant principal) job next year for Brian and a year off work for me! We are called to a life of faith but how can we practice that if we never step out in acts of faith? So we're praying and seeking God's will for our jobs next year. It will be exciting to see what He does.

Happy 2nd Birthday Laney!

This little girl is so full of personality and spunk. She is learning to talk and tell us what she thinks about things. She calls us "Daddy" "Mama-y" "A-E" and "Tay-tay". We call her our parrot because she will copy anything we say and Avery and Tatum have learned to use that skill to drive each other crazy. She is very independent and a little stubborn (okay, alot stubborn, but this is her birthday so I'm trying to be positive), she is a clown, especially when she looks up at you with her "mean eyes" then you see the little twinkle in her eyes as she breaks into a grin because she's just messing with you. Little mess.

She has the sweetest kisses in the world. She sometimes licks you in all her excitement about giving kisses. She is still in her crib because she screamed for two nights straight when we tried to let her sleep without rails. So she and Tatum share a room now. She sings "Twinkle twinkle little star" at the top of her lungs at night until she falls asleep. Then she wakes up early in the morning and starts waking up the house by singing it again.

She wants nothing to do with the potty... won't even go near it... but does like to watch from a distance when me and her sissies sit on it. Her hair makes me happy on a daily basis. It's not as curly as it used to be, but it's still so pretty. She wears a size 9 shoe now, which is about normal for a 3-4 year old (Tatum wears a 9.5). She wears size 3T clothes. Our pediatrician says she is going to outgrow her sisters and be the biggest of the three girls when they hit their teens.

She is crazy about her sisters. She loves to be near them and watch what they do and try to imitate them. Beans and rice is her favorite food of all time. When we go eat Mexican food, which is pretty much our staple, we get Laney a plate of rice and beans and watch her go. She usually eats about 3 plates of it. She also gets her own bowl of salsa, even if it is hot, she will dip those chips and eat it right up.

She doesn't like to get her picture taken. The smile above is only because she had just eaten her chocolate cookie cake. She loves playing with baby dolls. She always has a baby in each arm. For Christmas, she got a little high chair with bottles, bib, cups, etc. It was precious watching her feed her baby in that high chair and take care of all her little needs. That "mama instinct" God gives little girls is amazing. I hope this means she will like her baby brother.

Laney Hope is her name, but we usually call her "laney-lu", lu-lu", "hope", "lu-lee" or "lane."

I am so thankful for her. She is a blessing to our family and we all adore her. I love you Laney!

Christmas 2010

We had such a fun and busy Christmas break. Here are a few of the highlights. We went to San Antonio two different times, the first time for my families' Christmas, and the second time to welcome Martin & Dominique to Texas! Martin moved last week and Dominique will be moving here permanently when she finishes school this summer. It is going to be so fun to get to see them whenever we go to SA for a visit! The girls love their Uncle Martin & Aunt Nikki! We also had alot of fun hanging out with Brian's family, especially our new nephew, Matthew Ray! We especially enjoyed just being together as a family and spending lots of time just playing and hanging out with each other.

Playing at the park in SA

Milking the cow at the SA Children's Museum

They all loved getting a turn to be the captain of the airplane. Here's Captain Avery.

Captain Laney

Papa & Nana with the girls on the Riverwalk

My school friends had a playdate at my parents house, which was so much fun! These are the girls that I grew up with and went to school with from Kindergarten -12th grade. So they are pretty much like family. Pretty crazy all the kids we had running around, but it was fun to see all my girls and all their sweet kids. Some of the babies I hadn't met at all yet, so it was very special getting to meet all the little ones and catch up with my buddies.

Driving back home from SA, we turned around to find Laney looking like this:

Our first nephew, Matthew Ray, was born on Dec. 18. Here's Brandon (Brian's youngest brother) and his wife Adriana, with their sweet Christmas present from God. Matthew is beautiful and healthy and we are so excited to have him join the family. He and our son will be about 3 months apart, so we're hoping these cousins will be best buddies as the grow up.

Here's Laney pushing cousin Tara in the doll stroller. These two are about 4 months apart and are already forming a sweet friendship.

Uncle Brent & Aunt Jenn gave the girls dress-ups for Christmas, so here is princess Laney, Doctor Avery and ZooKeeper Tatum. They loved themselves in these fun costumes!

Avery got to be a sheep in our Christmas Eve service at church. She did a great job, and so did the rest of the nativity crew. Here's our little sheep practicing before the service started.

We were so proud of this little lamb!

After the service, there was hot chocolate in the lobby, so we all played and talked with friends while we drank (and spilled) hot chocolate.

Here's GiGi and Tatum after the service

Nana & Papa drove to Houston on Christmas Day to spend the day with us. It was so special to have them at our house, and the girls loved showing them all their new presents.

The biggest present this year was a new trampoline! Brian put it up the day before and covered all the backyard windows with blankets so the girls couldn't see outside. They didn't really question why there were blankets on the windows, which we were very suprised about. But the reactions were so cute and funny when they looked behind the blankets and saw the trampoline outside on Christmas morning. Even though it was cold, we got bundled up and tried it out. Even Nana got in on the action. She actually helped Laney learn how to jump on it, which was so cute!

Laney moved out of her room into Tatum's room. Avery decided she wanted to move into the guest room, so for now, she has her own room, and Tatum & Laney are sharing a room. Laney was not crazy about sleeping without rails, so we decided to move the crib with her. She is much happier being caged in. So Brian worked on baby boy's room over the break and here's a glimpse of his work. More pics to come...

This was at Avery's Girl Scouts meeting over the break. She is doing Daisy scouts now, which has been really fun for her the past few months. They rented a snow machine, which they loved! Since we rarely see real snow, they couldn't tell the difference. They loved throwing snow balls at their baby brother, which was not so much fun for me.

So Martin & Dominique have a Great Dane named Tex, which the girls are now in love with. He really is such a good dog. Very well-behaved and sweet.
Tatum and Tex were about the same height, when he has his head up.

Avery loving on Tex and Aunt Nikki

My two sweet big brothers and I outside Mi Tierra at the San Antonio market. Seriously some of the best Mexican food in the world. YUM!

Morgan's Wonderland is an amazing new park in San Antonio, built especially for kids with special needs, but open to the public. My brother, Matthew and his girlfriend, Tracie, helped build the park over the past couple years and it is amazing. For kids in wheelchairs or with other handicaps, who have never gotten to swing or see-saw or feel "normal", this is a place where they can do all that and more! Here's Avery in the sensory village, where she got a butterfly to land on her shoulder.

Aren't these the cutest weather reporters you ever saw?

Here we are aboard the Wonderland Express train. Tatum is sitting with Dominique's parents, who drove down from Michigan to help them move to Texas. Dee & Duane were so sweet to the girls and we really enjoyed getting to know them better. My brother, Matthew and his girlfriend Tracie and Avery, and my mom & I with Laney.

Here's Tatum getting to hold our new little Matthew in her lap!

Tatum needed to try out her new "big girl" fishing pole and they both needed to try out their new bait, so here they are fishing at Copper Lakes. No bites, but Brian said Tatum did a good job casting and they had fun wearing their new fishing shirts and hats he gave them.

We feel so blessed and grateful to have family so close and for our kids to have so many opportunities to be loved on by family and friends!