Big Walker!!

Lydia has REALLY started walking now. She was taking steps, but on Sunday, she started walking all the way across the room and changing directions! Jared and I just sat there and stared at her and then at each other. She really seemed to change overnight. Jared set up Rock Band on Sunday night. It is SOOO much fun!!! I got kicked out of the band when I was on the guitar but held my own as the drummer (my true passion!). It's great because when H and I double up on the drums, we are all able to play. Here are the boys watching the tutorial video. My mom got Lyddie this dress for her birthday. I wanted to get a picture before we left for church to show her. NOT a good idea! This girl was wanting breakfast... not a photo session!! This is the best picture that I got if that tells you anything!

After church (notice we shed the bow, tights, and boots!) Zane would push her toy around the living room and she would chase him. It was pretty sweet.

Harrison loves to dress up. He found the swimming gear in the laundry room.

Tonight I put her yogurt in a bowl, gave her some spoons, and let her go! She actually did much better than I predicted. At first she just tipped the bowl up, but by the end she was really using her spoon. NOT to say it wasn't everywhere! That's how they learn though, right?!

Lydia's FIRST Birthday

Happy Birthday Lydia!! We celebrated her 1st birthday on Tuesday evening. All of our family came over and we had dinner and birthday cake. It was a lot of fun. She went to the doctor on Wednesday. She weighs 18 pounds 14 ounces and is 28 inches tall (25% for both!) She's on the small side put I think she's plumping up a little bit. She's taking a lot of steps (6 or 7 at a time) and last night she walked quite a bit further. She's really turning into a little girl. She loves to wear my bracelets. It's her favorite. Last night, I walked into the kitchen and she was standing there in nothing but her diaper and a plastic bracelet (where was my camera?!).

She was not sure about the cake at first. She's looking at her Daddy in this one.

"Mmm, that's good!"

She didn't like having her hands in it so this was her preferred method of eating at first. She had icing so far up her nose!

She got over it!!!
I forgot to put her birthday hat on for the party so I took a picture last night.

Halloween (FINALLY!)

We had a fun (and CRAZY) Halloween. Zane's party was the night before so we started off tired :). Zane's friend was having a hay ride around his neighborhood to trick-or-treat and a party afterwards. We decided to let him go to that and spend the night with another friend. After we dropped him off and were on our way to make our "rounds" I started crying! It was harder for me than I realized that he wasn't going to be with us. He's just growing up too fast. Anyway, we stopped at Jared's grandma's house, my grandparents house, Jared's parents house, and then finally my parents house. We left the kids there to spend the night and Jared and I headed to Fort Smith for a Halloween party. We didn't get there until 10 and had to drive back that night. It took me a couple of days to catch up on my sleep! My sister has more Halloween pictures (and pictures from some birthday parties that I didn't get put on here). Click here to see her blog.

Lydia was a "beautiful ballerina". Harrison tells her that she's "more beautiful than a ballerina" so I felt like this was a fitting costume! Harrison was Indiana Jones.

Zane was a ref from the Ole Miss game!! She LOVED her plush Halloween basket. She carried it on her arm like that all night!

"Can I really pick anything I want?"H enjoying his sucker on my Granny's front porch.

We were in such a rush to leave the house that I forgot her bow and ballerina slippers (and their overnight bag). Showing off his skills!THIS is my brother. He was dressed as the biker from the Village People (and really shaved his goatee). He works at the court house so I can imagine the looks that he got when he showed up to work. They love it! Each year we can't wait to see what he'll be dressed as. This was taken after Halloween. She has her share of girly toys (she's actually very girly!) but she was loving this gun and spider. You can tell she's in a house of boys.

Zane's Party

I didn't get very many pictures from Zane's party. When there are THAT many kids running around it's hard to remember to get the camera out! We did a haunted trail ride. We weren't able to scare them as much this time but we'll get them next year :). I think that having 28 people on the trailer made it a little less intimidating. This is a picture of them before we left. This kid got some serious cash! I'm going to invite all of them back for my birthday :).At the end of the night Jared took Shelley's stitches out. I'll bet that would've scared the kids!

Happy 11th Birthday Zane!!

Today is Zane's llth birthday. I just can NOT believe that he's that old. Time truly does fly by with these kiddos. I've been a little weepy this week with 2 birthdays at once. Tomorrow is the big Haunted Trail party so stay tuned for some good pics! I took these pictures this morning before he left for school. He looks a little sleepy :).He got his main present from us tonight- Rock Band 2. I can't say that Jared and I weren't a little excited, too!!

My First Easter Dress

This post is for my Mom. When I was pregnant with Lydia she gave me my first Easter dress and a picture of me in it. I was almost a year old in this picture...and here's Lyddie in it at almost a year old. I had a little more hair... I think that you would see more resemblance if you looked at JARED'S baby pictures!! I let her look at the picture of me. She did NOT want to let it go (notice that she's holding it in the pic above). More walking.Unfortunately, I picked a bad time to play dress up. She'd had her bath and was ready for BED!

WALKING...and Other Fun Things!!

We have several birthdays coming up so I NEED to get caught up! Lydia has started walking!! Last week she started taking steps (just a couple for 2 days and then six or seven at a time after that). Today she really turned a corner. She seemed more determined. When she would fall she would stand right back up and walk again. Something just seems different when they walk. I'm excited but I want to drag it out too. I think it's because I know she's my last baby (unless God has other plans!) and I want to hold on to her being little. Here's a picture of her walking last week.She loves to empty bags and drawers. On this day she would get something out...

act really surprised... shake it and then look at me with a big smile. I could've played for hours!! The kids in our neighborhood are so sweet with her. Here are a couple of the girls. There are several boys that are pretty smitten with her, too. I car pool and when they get in the car she gets really excited. Today one of them walked in and said, "Ok, she's really cute. I just have to admit it. She is." He's 8 and there were girls standing there so I found it pretty sweet :).
Harrison ran downstairs like this (him, Jacob, Zane, and some neighborhood kids were playing upstairs). I asked what he was doing with the toilet paper. He told me that they were grenades. Lydia and Courtney playing in the pantry. It's the favorite place to hang out! I wouldn't want to run into this in the woods! If you do, come see us on Thursday night!!
Jared got Harrison's couch out for Lyddie. She LOVED it! She had Harrison's shoe on watching cartoons. I told you she's growing up!! Tonight we made Halloween pretzels with chocolate tops. The boys really enjoyed it.