This is the Day

Daddy Weekend Journal by Cory

2009-07-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, Stephanie is on a vacation with the other women in her family to visit her cousin who lives in San Francisco. Since this is the first time that I have had both of our kids for a full weekend (without any help), I thought it would be a good opportunity to write my first ever blog post....

Here is the journal of events for Daddy Weekend:

Saturday:

7:00-8:00 - Christopher and I cooked crepes (he and I do this every Saturday morning and he normally starts asking me by Tuesday each whether the following day is a day that I don't have to work and that we can cook crepes)

8:30-10:00 - Walk down to the neighborhood park. All went well at the park except for when Lucy and Christopher were riding the bouncing alligator and Christopher got it going back and forth so fast that Lucy slammed her mouth on the handle. It gets too hot and we head home.

10:30 - 1:00 - The Stonebriar Mall. I told Christopher that we were going to the mall to play in the play area and as we were pulling into the Stonebriar Mall, he told me that it was the wrong mall (he wanted to go to Willow Bend). I didn't pay this much attention, but when we got in the mall, I realized why...no real play area! or maybe I just couldn't find it.....Daddy Lesson Learned: Trust your son on anything to do with malls since he spends so much time there with his mommy.....We went to "Build-a-Bear" for Lucy to get a bear since she does not have yet have a favorite stuffed animal. She picked out the Panda Bear. I think she really liked it the best since it was about the only display animal that she would hug and she gave stiff arms to the rest of the animals.....Time for a quick carousel ride. Lucy rode her own horse, not sure if this is a first or not for her, but she had a great time.....next up is lunch. It amazes me how something as simple as getting lunch at Chick-fil-a in the mall becomes so complex logistically when you have two kids and no other adult to help you! Maybe it just takes more practice.

1:30 - 4:00 Good, long naps. Daddy could have used one as well, but watched tv instead.

4:00 - 6:30 Play time and dinner

6:30 - 7:30 Ice cream at Double Dips in downtown Frisco. I almost didn't take them there since it is not air conditioned and was probably still above 100 degrees at this time, but it was shaded and they had misters going so it really wasn't all that bad. Lucy got her own 'baby' ice cream cone....she loved that she had her very own cone just like her big brother. Both kids were covered in ice cream, it was so bad that when I tried to wipe ice cream off of Christopher's hands, pieces of the napkin just stuck to his skin and I had to scrape them off.

8:00-9:00 baths and kids to bed

9:00 Daddy fertilizes the trees. Not an ideal time for yardwork, but when else did I have time to do it?!?!?

10:00-11:00 laundry and a much deserved adult beverage

Sunday:

Morning:

Church and Sunday School. One of my proudest moments from this weekend was fixing Lucy's hair this morning. I paid extra attention to how Stephanie did it earlier in the week, and it really paid off. Still not as good as Mommy does it, but getting better.

Afternoon:

Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie. My dad's brother, John, is a trainer at the track, and they invited us out for the afternoon. We joined my parents, my uncle Marlin, aunt Deb, aunt Marilyn, and uncle John. For those of you that haven't been out to the track, I highly recommend going sometime. We had a table in 'The Silks' area so there is a waiter to get you food/drink and you are in the air conditioning. About 5 minutes after arriving, I sat Lucy down on my chair and I sat beside her. Before I knew it, she fell through the back of the chair and bumped her head on the ground...really sad...also, really bad timing...this happened exactly at the moment that everyone got quiet for the National Anthem. So for the entire song she was screaming at the top of her lungs and I was trying to calm her down, I'm sure that basically the entire grandstand could hear her. As soon as the song completed and everyone applauded, she INSTANTLY stopped crying/screaming and began to clap with them....our drama queen. Christopher's horse won EVERY race. His secret was to select which horse he would cheer for when they were a few yards from the finish line. One time we tried to out smart him and asked him before the race which horse he would be cheering for (expecting him to say #1 or #5, etc.), but he calmly and quickly said that his horse would be the one in first place...can't argue with that logic. Unfortunately Daddy was not as good at picking winners....4 bets, ZERO wins. Both Christopher and Lucy had a great time at the track, they love seeing the horses, and they were so well behaved! It is so much fun to take them out and show them off!

Probably the highlight of the weekend for me: Bed time...after reading Christopher a couple stories and praying, he said unsolicited: "Daddy, I love you.".....is there anything better than that??

What a great, action-packed weekend we had. I am so blessed to have these 2 absolutely amazing children! I am also so blessed to have such an amazing wife that can do what I did this weekend 5 days a week by herself. I knew her job was hard and plenty rewarding, and this weekend reinforced both in my mind.

If I ever blog again, I promise it won't be this long!

15 Months!

2009-07-08T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since I've updated everyone on little Miss Lucy. She recently had her 15 month birthday and we just had her doctor visit today. She received an excellent report at her well visit today, including a nice little growth spurt which upped her percentile a little bit. Always nice to hear that.

It is funny how quickly you forget about the different things these little ones do as they quickly grow and develop. Things Christopher did at this age come flooding back when I see Lucy achieving some of these little milestones. Remembering him toddle around as he was first learning to walk, and then watching her try so desperately to keep up with him is just a reminder at how quickly the time really does go.

She is learning new things and changing almost daily. She is really trying to develop her vocabulary! She says, "more" (along with her own version of sign language for that one), "bye-bye", "no, no" (always like that, not just "NO"), and "bow" (Does that make you proud, Meredith?). We also hear "Ma Ma" and "Da Da" quite frequently. My favorite little thing she started doing a couple of days ago is giving hugs. It is just adorable. If you ask her for a hug, she will reach her arms around your neck and go "Aaaaawwwwwww." As if to say, "Awww, how sweet." (Which of course, is usually what Cory and I would always say to her when we would give her hugs). She will also give kisses and wave hello and good-bye.

I could go on and on about the little things she does that just amaze me. But to be brief, let's just say that she now "helps" me make my bed every morning. It is so cute! As soon as she sees me start to spread up the sheets, she toddles over to the pillows and tries to pick them up and hand them to me. So adorable!!

We feel so blessed to have Lucy. She brightens our days and fills our hearts with pure joy!

Lucy Baylor, 15 months

Kisses from Christopher

Watching fireworks on the 4th!

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

Better late than never!

Sea World!

2009-06-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we decided to plan a last minute family vacation. Since our summer schedule was already so busy, we had to piggy back this little vaca onto one that had already been planned, my annual family reunion. Since we would be driving down 35 anyway to New Braunfels for the reunion, we decided to take a little detour and go to San Antonio first to spend a couple of days at Sea World!

We had SO much fun. While it was really a short trip, just two days, it was jam packed with smiles and making wonderful memories as a family. I can't wait for all the other vacations we will take together as a family in the future. The kids did so well and were very flexible with their schedules. Cory and I were so tickled with them when we first arrived at our hotel around 10:00 Monday night. Just like you would expect a 4 year old to be, Christopher was wide awake and filled with excitement and energy at the thought of being in the hotel. Miss Lucy was right there with him, as they bounced around on the bed and giggled late into the night - so cute!

Our time at Sea World was wonderful. We fed and pet the dolphins, rode the Log Ride (all 4 of us), played in the water, and of course saw Shamu. Christopher loved everything we did. Lucy did too, except for the fake Shamu and fake Dolphin characters that were walking around the front gate, they brought on tears of terror. Unlike the real dolphins, that she actively tried to reach out and pet several times.

Our friends, the Braatens, were down there too staying in our same hotel. We met up with them at Sea World the first day, and enjoyed great pool time, dinner, and s'mores by the fire that night.

It was a wonderful start to our week filled with family fun!

Best Buds

2009-06-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

Christopher and Drew are such good friends. Sometimes Meghan and I even think they act a little more like brothers - wrestling and picking at each other one minute, only to be laughing and having fun the next. It has really been fun to watch them develop this friendship over the past couple of years, and now see that it is truly genuine, not just something we force because we live close by and Meghan and I enjoy the mommy company. These boys truly like each other. We hadn't even been back in Frisco from our little family vacation for 24 hours before Christopher was asking to go to Drew's house. When we arrived there this afternoon, I heard Drew tell Christopher, "I missed you." Seriously, how cute is that?

Anyway, the Dubes are heading up to the East Coast for the rest of the summer and we sure will miss them. We were really bummed when we realized that Drew would not be here for Christopher's birthday party this year. So Meghan and I decided to get the boys together for a little early celebration. We had planned to go to the pool and then for ice cream, but rain was a spoiler. We ended up at the Wiggly Play Center for some playtime, and then hot dogs and ice cream from Double Dips. Meghan and Drew were so sweet and even got Christopher a birthday present - which Meghan told me was entirely Drew's idea, even down to when they went shopping (1:00 in the afternoon, which is usually nap time)!

We are so thankful to have them in our lives and will always think of Drew as Christopher's first "real" friend!

Getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday"

Drew helps blow out the candles!

Christopher's very own lawn mower from Drew.

And just for fun - a couple more pictures of these silly boys!

In January 2008 celebrating Drew's 2nd birthday!

June 2009, celebrating Christopher's 4th birthday

Lucy's First Swim

2009-06-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

We hit the pool on Sunday evening with our good friends the Dubes. This was Lucy's first official time in the pool. (I think I held her in there last summer for a few minutes here and there to cool her off but that doesn't really count.) Cory was golfing so he didn't go with us, and I told him when he got home that we might have a little dare devil on our hands! Of course it is a bit early to tell for sure but our little girl had a BALL in the water. I started her out in her little boat float. She just kicked and splashed with the biggest grin on her face the entire time. Until she caught glimpse of her brother and Drew swimming out into the water to Jeff (Drew's daddy)! I could just see the wheels turning in her little head as she started to maneuver her way out of the float to try and swim herself. She was the same way in the baby pool, wanted nothing to do with me and trying with all her might to keep up with the big boys. It was SO cute and SO different from Christopher's first pool experience. I can't wait to see how the rest of the summer unfolds!

Sittin' by the pool!

The boys!

Let the Fundraising Begin!

2009-05-24T19:09:00.001-07:00

So, I know I briefly posted about The 3 Day a couple of weeks ago but this weekend marks 24 weeks until the event! Time to start training and time to start FUNDRAISING!!

I'm going to insert a copy of the letter I sent out two years ago when I began my fundraising campaign then. Even now, when I go back and read it, I am haunted by what a scary time this was for my family. We had never experienced anything like it. Cancer is a horrible disease and I know and love too many people who are affected by it. The 3 Day is such a powerful way to feel like you are doing something to make a difference. When I walk, I not only walk for the many men and women who are facing this disease at this very moment, and not only for the ones who have faced it and lost their battle, but for the ones who have yet to face it. My own mother. Me. My daughter. With the money that is raised, research will be done, treatments and medications will be discovered, and we will become that much closer to finding a cure. As we like to say at The 3 Day, "because EVERYONE deserves a lifetime."

My original fundraising letter, written in April of 2007:

Dear Friends and Family,

A woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every 3 minutes. Every 13 minutes, the disease claims another life.

This past January, my aunt, Pattie Hubbard went to see her doctor about a lump she had found in her left breast. After having to wait for the biopsy results over the weekend, we learned that the results were what we had feared. She was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer and a lumpectomy was scheduled immediately. Unfortunately, the doctors were not able to remove all the cancer and additional tests showed pre-cancerous cells in her right breast. Three weeks later, we found ourselves back in the hospital waiting room while my aunt had a double mastectomy.

Throughout the course of these events, I watched my cousin Beth, my best friend, face the fears of losing her mother. I would lie awake at night trying to think of things I could say to help, knowing there really were no words. Beth needed to know that her mom would be OK. That Pattie would be there for her wedding, her children, and the everyday comforts that mothers provide.

While I was searching for more knowledge on breast cancer to better help my family, I discovered www.The3Day.org. It occurred to me, this was the way I could help.

The Breast Cancer 3 Day is a 60-mile walk for women and men who want to make a personal difference in the fight against breast cancer. Participants commit to fundraising, training, and dedicating an entire weekend to the cause. The participants will travel an average of 20 miles a day during the event, raising awareness for breast cancer along the way. This year, I am going to be one of those participants.

I have committed to raise a minimum of $2,200 by October 26^th. The proceeds raised from The 3 Day will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. The money raised will fund research, treatment, prevention, and community outreach programs. I hope I can count on you for financial support as I undergo this journey. It is difficult to ask for money, but remember you can help save lives!

Thanks to the thousands of men and women who have donated in the past new tests and treatments have been developed. After her mastectomy, Pattie was able to have a test predicting the probability of reoccurrence of her cancer. Her percentage was so low she will not have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation. My aunt will be one of the lucky ones to beat this disease and become a survivor!

Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Stephanie Locke

How to donate:

· Visit my personal donation page at www.the3day.org/goto/Stephanie.Locke. You will be able to make your donation online. While you are there, be sure to check out our team page for The Pink Princesses. There is a whole group of us walking for Pattie!

· You can also mail me a check. Make all checks payable to: Breast Cancer 3 Day. Please send them directly to me:

Stephanie Locke

1802 Countryside Drive

Frisco, Texas 75034

This year, more than 200,000 women and men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 40,000 will lose their lives to this disease.

If you are one of my faithful readers (or even if you aren't), then I'm asking you to please click on the logo on the top right and donate. I need to raise $2,300 before November 6th and I need your help. I know these are tough times, but every little bit helps. Don't delay, donate today!

Sharing Recipes

2009-05-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

A few of my good mommy friends (Meredith, Jonna, and Aubrey) and I have been e-mailing for a while about good recipe finds, grocery store bargins, and other mealtime related tips and stories. We find that it helps us keep our sanity as we strive to take care of two or three children, husbands, households, and ourselves. We recently decided to put all of our thoughts about these things onto a combined blog. The four of us plan to update it with recipes and ideas to help make mealtime simple. Check it out and comment if you wish! We'd love other thoughts and suggestions!

Realtime Mealtime:
http://4realtimemealtime.blogspot.com/

The 2009 Breast Cancer 3 Day

2009-05-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

That's right peeps, I'm walking again! The experience I had in 2007 was incredible and I'm so excited to participate again - this time, withOUT a baby in my belly! As many of you know, I need to raise $2,300 to walk the 60 miles. Click here to read more about why I walk and to donate if you wish!

New Post, New Pics

2009-05-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

So I know I haven't been posting much lately. I guess ever since Trinkets, I have just enjoyed my evenings away from the computer since so much of my time was spent up here prior to that. At any rate, I'm going to try to be better and give updates more often!

Christopher is about to finish his 3-year old pre-school year. I can't believe my baby will be 4 this summer!! CRAZY! We've had our first experience with soccer, which really deserves a post of its own, but overall it's been good. Christopher has had a great time with it and Cory and I are so proud of his efforts and his competitive nature! He is really turning into quite the intuitive little boy. I can't say anything anymore without him picking up on it. He has the best imagination and we are always engrossed in "pretend play" at this house. The other day I got to be Lois Lane, a Wonder Pet (can't remember which one), a cow, a dinosaur, and a mommy all in the first hour of my day. The kid is so smart and constantly asking me questions about anything and everything. He rattles my nerves every day but melts my heart even more.

My little soccer player

My little kitchen helper, wearing his sister's jacket. This just cracked me up one day!

Miss Lucy is now 13 months and trying to walk, as you saw in my previous post. Not only that but the girl climbs on everything! She keeps me on my toes all the time. She is also exploring her vocal chords. There is no use trying to have a phone conversation, or any other conversation for that matter, while Lucy is in her high chair. She has decided that at that time of day, she will shriek the most attractive high pitched squeal you can imagine. It is so pleasant really. She's not doing it out of anger or sadness, just her form of communication right now. She is also becoming more and more animated. She shows her excitement for things with the cutest little faces and always saying "oooh, oooh." This little one does the same as her brother and makes me both crazy for sanity and silence, and crazy in love.

"Look at me! I'm taking steps!"

Little girl pigtails.

What we've been up to...

2009-04-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

That's right peeps, the little girl is on foot now. All this video was taken over the weekend and by today she is practically trying to walk everywhere! So cute!

Celebrating Easter

2009-04-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

We had a very nice Easter Sunday celebrating with friends and family. It is definitely my favorite holiday, a time that allows us to truly focus on Jesus and the sacrifice that our Father made for each of us.

Christopher really enjoyed hunting the eggs this year too. A big difference from last year. Yesterday morning when we woke up he asked me if I could pretend to be the Easter Bunny and hide some eggs so he could find them again! Too cute!

Happy First Birthday Miss Lucy Baylor!

2009-04-03T14:19:00.000-07:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl! I am so thankful that the Lord chose me to be your mommy!

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love...

2009-03-31T18:29:00.000-07:00

My Husband!

My friend Crystal did this on her blog and I thought it was a good idea. My husband has been amazing over these past couple of months with all of the JLP stuff. I've been trying to think of ways to show him my appreciation and figured this was a good place to start.

10. He makes me laugh. I joke with him now that he has lost some of his humor in his old age, but really it's still there. He is pretty quick witted and usually always finds a way to bring a smile to my face even on my worst of days.

9. He is smart. While this quality can be somewhat frustrating when we are having discussions about our finances, I know that Cory is usually right because he's so smart. His brain works completely different than mine does, which seems to work well for us.

8. He is very handy. By that I mean Cory is really good a fixing things and actually does a very good job. The other day our the leg on our ottoman broke and Cory totally repaired it just like new. It could have cost us a pretty penny at a furniture repair shop but instead just a few minutes of Cory's time on a Friday night.

7. He is very patient with me. In most other aspects of his life he is the complete opposite of patient, but he never seems to mind my making us late someplace because I can't decide what to wear. I know it does eat at him on the inside, but he never shows it to me at the time, which I think is nice.

6. His love of sports. I love all the little known facts Cory can spout off about sports. I love watching anything from football, to basketball, to baseball, to golf with him.

5. His work ethic. Cory takes his job very seriously but also finds ways to leave it behind to spend time with us at the end of the day. I think he has been very successful in his career so far and know that he will continue to do so in the years to come.

4. How helpful he is. I know I mentioned that above but seriously, I don't know what I would have done over these past couple of months without Cory. He has really pitched in around the house and with the kids when I have had all these meetings that have lasted until 9:30 and 10:00 at night sometimes. And he hasn't complained about it once. To make matters worse, all of my meetings have been on Wednesdays which are the same days as his soccer games, which he has had to miss on a couple of occasions.

3. His leadership. Cory is a wonderful spiritual leader of our family. I am so thankful that my children have him as their role model for what a man should do and be. We (myself, Christopher and Lucy) are so blessed by this.

2. He is a wonderful father. I think most women think about what kind of dad their husband will be before they have children, and I did. I have to say that Cory has far exceeded my expectations in this. I knew he would be a good one, but what I don't think I was expecting is that how good he is at showing our kids that he loves them. He genuinely loves spending time with Christopher and Lucy. And believe me, the feeling is very mutual!

1. Because he loves me. Like I mentioned before, I know I have my days, and am sure that I'm not always that likable at times. But at the end of the day, I know Cory loves me. We're working a little bit on speaking each others' love language a little better at times and even at that he's stepping it up right now, which really means alot to me.

Bottom line, I am so blessed to have Cory as my partner in life. He is without a doubt my best friend, and I love him with all of my heart.

Now, if you are reading this, I encourage you to blog about your "10 Reasons Why You Love..." Get creative and fill in the blank!

Brrrrrrrr!

2009-03-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

Not really what you want to be saying while you try to hunt Easter eggs but that's the way it was this morning for us at our annual church Easter Egg Hunt. We still had a good time and Christopher hunted a few eggs before he got too cold. Of course the weather spoiled my adorable coordinating outfits that I had all ready for them to wear. We're heading down to Dallas Blooms on Monday so hopefully it will be warm enough by then and they can wear them there. Stay tuned...

I just wanted to post this picture of my kids with the Easter bunny from today. Please notice that Miss LBL did not shed one tear!

Oh, and I would also like to add that exactly one week from today JLP Trinkets to Treasures will be O-V-E-R and my life will hopefully resume some form of normalcy! The countdown is ON!!

Time For a Post

2009-03-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

So I know it's been a while...

One day last week I had a brief conversation with my mom about breastfeeding. She had seen something on the Today Show (I think) about the benefits of breastfeeding but the excerpt also included some information about bottle feeding and the positive aspects of that. Don't worry, this post is in no way a lecture about breastfeeding. I have two children, one of which was bottle fed and the other breastfed so I can easily speak about both experiences and also firmly believe that a mother has to do what works best for her baby, her, and her family and I know that situations arise where breastfeeding isn't the best thing, like in Christopher's case, but that is another story entirely. The point of my story today is that after that conversation with my mom, I began tooting my horn just a bit because it had dawned on me that Lucy, my little breastfed baby, had just about made it through her entire first year of life with a perfectly clean bill of health. The girl had not run a fever, had an ear infection, or even had to make trips to the doctor other than her well visits. This simply was not the case with Christopher. While he never had any serious illness, he had to be treated for things like croup, ear infections, and sinus infections all before his first birthday.

Well wouldn't you know it, low and behold, Miss Lucy came down with the flu last Friday (positive test results confirmed on Monday). In my almost four years of motherhood, I have not experienced one of my children being this sick. It has been awful. Her fever would spike as high as 103 and she was just completely listless at times, doing nothing but sleeping on my chest. It was heartbreaking, worrisome, and of course, exhausting. I'm happy to say that today, on what I guess would be day six of the virus, I have finally started to see a few shreds of normalcy in my baby girl. She has smiled at me, eaten some solid food, and even clapped for Christopher this morning after he sang me a song. So I can breathe a little easier knowing that she is on the mend and will return to her normal happy self again very soon.

11 Months Old!

2009-03-03T21:29:00.001-08:00

So we are officially one month away from Lucy's first birthday! How crazy is that? I just can't believe that my little girl is almost ONE!!! She continues to bring a smile to my face and melt my heart every day. I hesitate to say this because I don't want to jinks anything but I really think she is turning a corner with her stranger anxiety. Last week we spent some time in Abilene with my parents and she did so well with them. She was so happy showing very little anxiety towards them at all. Today when I took her to the nursery at church for my mom's group; not only did she smile at the sweet lady who works in there, but her lip did not even quiver when I handed her over!! I was elated to get to walk off without hearing my daughter's sad little cry.

She is talking, crawling, cruising, pushing, eating, smiling, waving, clapping, and kissing up a storm. This afternoon I drove in the car to the sounds of her little kisses coming from the back seat. So sweet. It is not something she does necessarily on command, but definitely a new noise she has discovered that she can make and I think it is precious. Cory told me that tonight, she "walked" all over the kitchen with the assistance of one of our little tiny "kid table" chairs, pushing it from one corner of the room to the other. The baby gates are back up and it is a good thing too because today I watched her make it all the way to the top of our stairs. She was so proud of herself and would stop periodically to smile and wave at me as I followed along beside her.

We are so blessed with this beautiful baby girl. I am hoping that this month will go by so slow so that I can soak up every last bit of this first year with her that I can.

Lucy at 11 months:
Waves all the time
Claps (will usually start clapping whenever she hears the song "When Your Happy and You Know It")
Makes adorable kissing sounds
Eats like a champ
Pulls up on all furniture
Cruises around all furniture
Will move from one piece of furniture to the next
Will walk behind toys/chairs etc.
Drinks very well from a sippy cup
Takes two naps a day (when her brother's schedule allows her to be at home)
Sleeps from about 7:00 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. (at least this week!)

Who Knew?

2009-02-24T14:36:00.000-08:00

The Sonic in the food court at Stonebriar Mall is more expensive than the one on Lebanon (and also the one on Main) by my house. Wonder why this is?

The BIG Backyard Build!

2009-02-15T20:37:00.000-08:00

We decided to take the plunge and get a swingset for the kids. Cory and his dad have spent the last two weekends putting it together. It was quite the job!! They worked so hard. All day yesterday Christopher would periodically open the back door and ask how many more minutes until it would be finished! He has been beside himself with excitement over it. I know we will be spending endless hours of fun out there in the days to come!

This is what our backyard looked like last Sunday (and all week long). They only had Sunday of last weekend to build it because most of Saturday was spent purchasing and unloading all the boxes.

The finished product!

A happy boy climbs!

A happy girl swings!

Thanks again Neal, for all of your help! Cory would not have been able to do it without you!!

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T12:51:00.000-08:00

First Haircut!

2009-02-13T12:02:00.001-08:00

Lucy had her first "official" haircut today. I have snipped the ends here and there just to try and help smooth it out a bit but today we just took the plunge and let someone else do it.

Before I had kids, I thought it was like an unwritten rule that you could not get their hair cut until after their first birthday. My brother and I were both pretty bald babies so I never knew that this "rule" would be a problem. Well, Cory has given both of our children LOTS of hair as babies (hopefully, my genes will allow them to keep it in their old age! LOL). So, both of them received haircuts before their first birthday. With Christopher, it took several people calling him a "she" before I broke down and did it around 11 months. Now, when I look back at pictures, I realize that the haircut really did wonders for helping his hair to seem so much thicker and really just looked so much better. So with Lucy, there wasn't as much agonizing (I know that's hard to believe, King family). I figure, the more help this poor girl can get with all this fly-away hair the better, and she'll thank me when she is a teenager looking back at her baby pictures.

I am happy with the results and I think the lady did a nice job. She predicted that Miss Lucy will most likely have some curls, or at least a bit of a wave when all of her hair grows in. Cory and I have suspected the same thing because we usually see some curls when her hair is wet or in very humid weather!! Only time will tell...

Here are a few pictures of the event.

The "before" picture

Distracted by Cheerios

This was really the only time she cried, but this is the end result!

10 Months Old!

2009-02-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

Lucy Baylor is 10 months old today! I can't believe that in just two short months, we'll be celebrating her first birthday! We are still crazy as can be about our little girl. She loves all the attention she gets from her brother. Now that she is mobile she tries to follow him everywhere. They love to play "chase" on all fours and it is so cute. Yesterday I had them outside and Christopher was riding his big wheel, Lucy practically leapt out of my arms to crawl around on the ground to chase after him. Miss Lucy is also doing a great job on eating table foods. It is actually a struggle to try and feed her baby food now, she just wants the real thing. We are always laughing because our little girl can really eat, (she eats more than her brother does on a regular basis) but she remains in only like the 10th percentile for her weight. She is such a little peanut, tiny and petite.

We feel so blessed with our beautiful, healthy baby girl!

Lucy at 10 months:
Is crawling all over the place and pulling up to a stand.
Loves a variety of table foods
Has two bottom teeth and almost four top teeth!
Drinks from a sippy cup
Smiles and laughs at her brother daily
Babbles and talks all the time
Waves
Claps her hands
Stands up in her crib
Sleeps 10-11 hours at night (not always uninterrupted)
Still prefers Mommy or Daddy over just about anyone else!

Happy Birthday Cory!

2009-01-19T14:17:00.001-08:00

Yesterday we celebrated Cory's birthday. We had a nice low-key day starting with church, an afternoon of football, dinner at Babes, presents, and homemade birthday cake for dessert. Yes, you read that right, I decided to make Cory's birthday cake this year. Christopher helped me pick out the decorations and got to choose the icing colors that we used, and of course he helped me decorate it too! I should have looked a little closer when were at the store getting the goods because the sprinkles he picked out were flavored...green apple and blue raspberry!!! Nice. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to top your cake with but we went with it and Christopher said they were very good. I attempted to make the cake into the shape of a golf flag on a green. My sweet husband kindly pointed out to me that most golf flags are square, but I thought the cake would be cuter with a triangular flag. I'm certainly no pro but I don't think it turned out too bad for my first try at a "shaped" cake.

See where Christopher wrote "Daddy" with the icing pen? Not too bad for a three year old, huh?

Happy Birthday to the best husband and father anyone could ask for! We love you!!

Too Busy to Blog

2009-01-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

Sad but true. I haven't bothered to bore the blogging world with my volunteer work nightmare but I think that it is time.

Many of you know that I am a member of the Junior League of Plano. I completed my Provisional year in the Dallas League back in 2003 right before we left for St. Louis. I spent our time in St. Louis as a transfer into the JLSTL and earned three active years with very little work. That League is run very differently than either of the other two I've been in. After a year of being "lost among other paperwork" the Plano League finally had all my info and I officially transfered in there last year. I really like the Plano League the best of the three I have served in. I have lots of friends that are members and have met some cool people too. I like the projects that they offer and basically find it as a nice adult outlet for me.

That being said, the JLP may become my breaking point over these next three months. I'll try to make this story as short as possible but I believe background info is always key so I'll do my best here.

About a week before Christmas the Chair for my committee (Trinkets to Treasures or T2T) called me in desperation. She was relocating to Indiana and had to find a new Chair for this project. This was her second time to ask me this after I had already told her no once. I could hear the desperation in her voice and I felt sorry her with all that she had going on in her life. So I reluctantly told her that I could step in and take over for her. There was a small period of grace over the holidays while I occasionally reminded myself that I had agreed to this. I casually looked over her things and notes for this project and thought, well this will fun and a good way for me to increase my involvement in the JLP. The holidays ended and so did my little community service fantasy. Basically since January 5th, my e-mail inbox has been flooded with e-mails from all over the JLP asking me questions that I don't know the answer to, asking me for numbers and budgets that I have no idea where to find, complaining to me about poor communication, asking me for keys to storage facilities, warehouses, and to get U-haul rentals. E-mails telling me that rooms have been wrongly booked and meetings have been double scheduled.

It hasn't taken me very long to realize that I. did. NOT. sign. up. for. this. Maybe at some point in my life when my children are in school five days a week but right now my life consists of caring for my little ones and that is exactly how I want it. I am happy to commit some of my time to the community and want to do so but this I fear is going to require far too much of my time.

Alas this brings me to the title of this post. For the past two weeks, every time I have sat down at the computer I have found myself up to my ears in Junior League. By the time I finish with that, someone is awake from their nap, or it is way past my bedtime. I will try to get back on the blogging bandwagon once I get a handle on this but in the meantime, please be patient with my lack of posting.

9 Months Old!

2009-01-04T18:01:00.000-08:00

Our little Lucy turned 9 months old yesterday! She continues to be such a blessing to our family. She has her daddy wrapped completely around her little finger, especially after these last two weeks where he has been home with us! I know she is really going to miss him tomorrow! Lucy loves to smile and she just melts our hearts. She's accomplished several milestones this month, and I have a feeling their going to just keep on coming as this little girl continues to grow way too fast!

At 9 months Lucy...

Crawls all over the place! She definitely prefers to be on the ground rather than anyplace else (except Mommy or Daddy's arms)!
Pulls up on some furniture. Most of the time she just pulls up to her knees but yesterday she made it all the way to a standing position and she was so proud!
Eats a little bit of table food. She's been introduced to the Gerber Puffs, Cheerios, and yogurt. All of which she thoroughly enjoyed!
Mimics certain sounds.
Waves hello and goodbye.
Has two teeth and no sign of any others on the way.
Loves her toys that make noise and play music.

I take her to the doctor this week so I'll post with her weight after that. She's still just a little peanut, staying pretty true to size and age in clothes.

I will also try and post some pics from Christmas and other holiday adventures soon! In the meantime, Happy New Year to all!

Pretty in Pigtails

2008-12-21T20:35:00.000-08:00

People are always commenting on my daughter's hair. Sometimes not in a good way, but still always commenting. Lots of times I get suggestions on what I should be doing with it. A couple of weeks ago, some girls from my MTM group suggested pigtails. It never occurred to me that she really had enough hair for them but turns out she does!! It is a little hard to see them in the picture because they are small, and I think they will look better once I invest in some of those tiny ponytail holders, but for tonight, these clips did the trick. Pretty cute huh?

2008-12-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a little Christmas party for the kids complete with a visit from Santa! My mom used to do the same thing for my brother and me when we were little so I have been so excited for my kids to be old enough to enjoy it and begin the little tradition myself. Christopher is at the perfect age right now and I know Lucy will grow into it in a couple of years. He had an absolute ball and I loved every minute of it. We had a few crafts for the kids, lunch, and of course the chance to sit on Santa's lap and get a picture. There were just enough kids here to effectively call it "organized chaos" but I think everyone had a good time.

Merry Christmas to Us!

2008-12-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

This year Cory and I decided to give each other a new camera for Christmas. We went on and ordered it around Thanksgiving so that we could use it for Christmas pictures this year and not feel completely clueless as to how to operate it. So we've had it for about a week now and we love it!! Of course, we are still learning how to use it but so far we think it takes great pics! Please notice the "blurred background" in these pictures. I've been trying to achieve that look with my point and shoot for over a year!

Accentuate the Positive

2008-12-13T21:45:00.000-08:00

Many of you know that my sweet little "Granny" passed away on Wednesday. Shortly after she celebrated her 90th birthday in October of 2007, a large tumor was discovered in her stomach. Last Thanksgiving, my dad cancelled his trip to come see us in London, because no one thought she was going to make it much longer. The Lord blessed her with another full year of life and she died peacefully in her home surrounded by all of her children. I can't think of a better way to go Home, myself.

She was a remarkable lady who could always "accentuate the positive." When I spoke with her on the phone last Sunday, you would have never even known she was sick. She answered the phone singing and sounded as strong as ever. She never met a stranger, loved and welcomed people from all walks of life into her family, stayed busy and active in her community, and relied on the Lord above all things.

These past few days were very special to me not only because I was able to celebrate the life of Granny, but also because I was able to see my dad with all of his siblings in a way I just haven't ever really seen. The reasons for that are far too complex to even begin to blog about but that is just the way it is. However, I'm so thankful for what I witnessed these past few days and I really hope that maybe it won't have to be the last time I see it for the next 10 years. That we'll be able to gather again, under different circumstances. I know that Granny would love that.

Her funeral was so different from any other I have ever been too. All of her children spoke about her with a great sense of pride and gratitude for her. My grandfather, who passed away in 1984, had an incredible singing voice. Thanks to some modern technology one of his records was recorded onto a CD that was played at the service. Who could ask for anything more complete than that at their funeral. I know Granny was smiling alot today.

While these last few days were such a celebration of her life, I know that hard and sad times will follow in the days to come as Granny will be missed by so many. Please keep my dad, his siblings, and the rest of the family in your prayers. My cousin uploaded this video of Granny singing, one of her favorite things to do. Isn't she precious?

One of a Kind

2008-12-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

My aunt knitted Lucy this hat to have this winter and I'm pretty sure it is the cutest item of clothing that she owns!! For you knitters out there, each red stripe is a different type of stitch. She wore it today for the first time and I was stopped everywhere I went by people commenting on the hat. Pretty cute huh? Thanks again Pattie!! I LOVE it!!

8 Months and MOBILE!

2008-12-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

Baby Lucy is 8 months old today! To say time is going by fast would be an understatement! Her personality is shining through more and more everyday. I have discovered over the last couple of weeks that Miss Lucy LOVES a schedule. The days that I have been able to give her a good morning and afternoon nap, she is such a delight. Unfortunately for her (and me), providing that schedule in the day to day routine with all of Christopher's activities can be difficult. Poor second baby! I'm doing my best and so is she, yesterday she took about an hour nap in the car while I killed some time before picking Christopher up and then got another hour of sleep in the Ergo carrier while Christopher played at the park. Not as good as the crib, but it worked.

Lucy at 8 months:

Is mobile! She makes her way all over the place by army crawling. Cory and I give the little girl a huge E for effort. There is not one part of her tiny body that is not making the attempt to move.
Has 2 teeth!! Yep, those bottom two teeth finally popped through! This could also be a part of her change in spirit. Her sweet little smile is so adorable with those tiny teeth.
Eats three meals of baby food each day, and usually nurses three or four times a day.
Goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up at 6am.
Still absolutely adores her brother. Her eyes follow him all over the place, and no one can get her to laugh like he can!
Loves playing with her toys.
Babbles "ma, ma, ma", "da, da, da", and "ba, ba, ba."
Doesn't care to be read to because all she wants is to chew the book.
Occasionally drinks water from a sippy cup.
Is beginning to warm up to people other than Mommy and Daddy (it has been a few weeks since I have been paged by the nursery at church)!

Just for fun here is a picture of Christopher around 8 months followed by another one of Lucy.

Cookie Exchange

2008-12-02T20:34:00.000-08:00

My mom's group had a cookie exchange today. This was my first time to actually participate in one of these because quite frankly, they have never really interested me. Too much baking involved and then you never really know what you are going to come home with. To my surprise I really enjoyed it! Not to mention that all my mommy friends are fabulous in the kitchen, so far I haven't tasted anything that I didn't like!!

I decided to take Thumbprint cookies, mostly because I knew the recipe made lots of cookies (I was required to take 6 dozen to the exchange) and my aunt makes these every year at Christmas so they really bring the season for me. We were supposed to be creative with the"presentation" of our cookie so I packaged mine in little bags that were decorated with the thumbprints of my sweet children. Christopher had fun one afternoon stamping his thumb all over bags for me in the shape of Christmas trees, wreaths, and some holly berries. They did turn out pretty cute and I actually won a prize for "Neatest Presentation"!

The other winners were Penny's Buttercream Cookies made by Kori Ledbetter, for Best Lookin' Cookie...

and Snowballs (so yummy), made by Jessica Starr for Most Unique Cookie.

Making My List

2008-11-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

The Christmas season is officially here now and it is past time to start on the shopping!! The grandparents have been asking for ideas for the kids and then my friend Meredith suggested we post our good finds on our blogs to share with one another, so I am attempting to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Ideas for Christopher:

Shop at Learning Express. They have a great selection of good educational toys and very few electrical things so that is always a plus (I'm not a huge fan of electronic toys). A few specific suggestions from here are: I Spy Preschool Game, Dinosaur Stamp Set by Melissa and Doug, and See and Spell Game.

Other great places to shop for him are Back to Basics Toys and Land of Nod. Also, check Meredith's blog and read about the Black and Decker tool toys for kids. I think those are super cute too! Christopher has really enjoyed the music class we have taken this fall so any type of music related item you find would be a hit also (Except please no drum set! I can promise you that it would be returned! LOL!). There are some cute music toys in the above mentioned Back to Basics as well as Pottery Barn Kids.

For Lucy:

This one is tough. Poor second baby, doesn't get anything new for herself because we already have every toy known to man! I know it won't always be this way because by next year we will be able to get her girlie things like dolls and kitchens and stuff but this year, honestly the girl should get clothes. Let's face it, I have already mentioned to Cory several times that I am going to have to get a second job in order to outfit this little girl. Let's face it, the girl clothes are WAY cute and a little on the pricey side at times. I know that is boring but seriously it is what she needs. Unlike the toy closet, I can't exactly go pull out Christopher's adorable dump truck sweater from '05 for her this winter. Here are some suggested shopping places:

Best Dressed Child (internet only)

So there you go. Since we have three sets of grandparents buying for these kiddos, if you (the grandparent) would like to "claim" one of these suggestions, just post a comment. I think everyone has learned how to do that by now! Happy shopping!

Oh no, here we go...!

2008-11-26T14:15:00.001-08:00

Lucy is crawling. Well it is a combination of army crawling, inch-worming, and rolling but the bottom line is she gets where she wants to go.

Time to baby proof again. Are Hot Wheels considered a choking hazard because we seem to have collected quite a few of those over the last 3.5 years....Seriously, it is going to be so much harder to keep things out of her reach with all of Christopher's toys around here!

(Wow, three posts in one day! Can you tell Cory took the day off today and I've had a little more time to myself?)

Precious Pictures

2008-11-26T09:15:00.000-08:00

My SIL, Jennifer took some pictures of the kids the other day and I think they turned out SO cute!! She is really creative and always has good ideas. The best part was that my kids really cooperated and she was able to snap some sweet moments. Here are a few of my favs...

Moving on and Giving Thanks

2008-11-26T07:13:00.000-08:00

I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit how much I have still thought about that stupid football game, I mean I really can't figure out why I care so much. Have you ever seen the movie Fever Pitch? Well there is a scene from that movie where Jimmy Fallon and some of his friends are out mourning the loss of their Red Socks and they see a few members from the team at the restaurant, enjoying their meal, laughing and having a good time. Suddenly Fallon and his friends are like, "What is wrong with this picture?' "Why are we still hung up on that game and clearly they aren't?" So do you think if I was still in school at Tech, and ran into Graham Harrell, would he be as depressed as I've been these last few days? Maybe, maybe not.

The point is, I'm thankful for the season Tech has had this year. It has been more fun than any in decades. We are currently tied for first place in the Big 12 South and that is a great accomplishment. My guns are back up and ready to take on the Bears this weekend. Of course, we'll be watching a certain game taking place in Stillwater. You never know what might happen. I'm convinced after Saturday night, that home field advantage can be as HUGE as your team wants it to be...

And really, why must my thoughts be so consumed with sports when what I am most thankful for is a wonderful family, a loving husband, and this...

Sick

2008-11-23T18:32:00.001-08:00

We are all sick.

Christopher has bronchitis.

Lucy has croup.

Cory and I are sick that Tech didn't bother to show up in Norman last night.

The Locke household has not been a fun place today.

Walk it Out!

2008-11-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

Many of you know that last year, several of my family members and I walked in the Breast Cancer 3-Day. I can honestly say that next to giving birth to my two precious children, walking in that event was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I would have done it again this year, had I not been nursing Lucy. I just could never figure out a way to do both.

Well this weekend instead of walking, I spent my time cheering on the 4,800 walkers that devoted their time to the cause. We appreciated the cheering so much last year we wanted to help out others this year. Our whole team, minus one cousin who lives in California, came in town for the event and we all went out to cheer. Even as a cheerleader, one can become so inspired by the thousands of people out there walking because in one way or another, their lives have been impacted by breast cancer. I had Lucy out there with me on Friday and Saturday the entire time. I can't tell you how many people stopped to smile and coo at her and when they did, they would say, "We're walking for you sweetheart." Every time, it brought tears to my eyes.

Thousands of women are diagnosed with this awful disease every day. Last year my aunt, and today, Cory's aunt became one of those women at the young age of 43. The battle is far from over and yet we have to continue to fight it. If you are reading this and are a female, I would like to encourage you to join the Army of Women. Visit the site, and check out the video from ABC. You will be inspired.

My team, Pattie's Pink Princesses, will be walking in the Dallas/Fort Worth 2009 3-Day. We would love for our team to grow beyond family and if you are interested in joining us, the more the merrier! Click here, choose a video to watch, and you'll want to register today, because "what kind of world do you want?"

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

2008-11-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

Better late than never...

Yes, I actually made the costumes this year. Nothing fancy really, mostly just adding some finishing touches to regular clothing. Christopher LOVED wearing his costume and had an absolute ball on Halloween this year. He really got into the whole trick-or-treat thing practically sprinting to every door. He even had his first television debut and made the Abilene news on Halloween night. It was pretty cute.

7 Months Old!

2008-11-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

Where is this time going? I can't believe my little Lucy is already 7 months old. She continues to be such a bright spot in our lives. She already has both of the boys in the house wrapped around her little finger and her personality is coming out more and more each day, proving to be a genuine little girl, full of drama!

Lucy at 7 months:

LOVES her momma and her big brother. Daddy is OK too, he just isn't always here.
Enjoys sitting up all by herself and sometimes tries to get into a sitting position all on her own.
Loves all kinds of yummy foods, banana and avocado are her favorite!
Says "ma ma ma" and "da da da" accompanied with lots of smiles and babbles loaded with drool.
Would rather play on the floor with her toys than be in anything that keeps her restrained. No swings or bouncy seats for this little girl!
Is working on pushing up into a crawling position but has no trouble rolling from point A to B to get what she needs.
LOVES being sung to.
Gives the biggest smiles to Christopher and laughs at almost anything he does. I now have the pleasure of listening to my children laugh together almost anytime we are in the car, such a sweet sound, I hope it only continues this way, rather than turning to screams and arguments. A mom can dream right?

Fight Raiders Fight!

2008-11-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

So I know I still need to post Halloween pictures of my kids, but this had to come first.

Cory and I were there. Greatest sports moment in our lives. Hands down.

From a Tired Momma...

2008-10-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Lucy,

Mommy's boobies are just that, Mommy's boobies. I am more than happy to share them with you for the purpose of your nourishment. However, they are not here to be your pacifier and your method of falling asleep at 1 a.m. Please feel free to use your thumb for this purpose. It is always right there and you can have unlimited access to it, especially at night. Night time is when we like to sleep, especially Mommy and her boobies. You seemed to grasp this concept at nine weeks of age, not sure why it is so difficult for you to understand now.

Night, night my precious baby girl.

Love,

Mommy

Male Bonding at its BEST!

2008-10-26T14:20:00.001-07:00

The men in my life headed out for their first overnight camping trip on Friday! Three dads and three sons; Cory and Christopher, Jeff and Drew, and Derek and Veto. Christopher is the only one of the kiddos who is already three so it was a young bunch. Either we have some really brave dads or just some really anxious guys ready for some good guy bonding with their kids! I had my doubts as to wether or not they would last the whole night, but they did and I think everyone involved had a ball.

ROAR!

2008-10-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

This was the word that was heard repeatedly around my house this afternoon. After spending the morning at the Dallas Arboretum and ending the outing with getting his face painted like a tiger, Christopher was in full tiger mode "ROOOAAARRRRing" every chance he could get.

We met my brother and Jennifer there and all of us really had a great time. If you are looking for a fun outing for a fall day, this one is perfect. They have all sorts of pumpkins combined with beautiful flowers making great scenery and backgrounds for photo ops, plus a pumpkin house, hay maze, petting zoo, kiddie crafts, and of course the above mentioned face painting. A good time was had by all!

My little pumpkins

Uncle Jer and Aunt Jenn ROAR with the tiger!

Welcome to the World Kenslea Caroline

2008-10-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

Our good friends the Braatens welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world this morning at 10:55 a.m.! Kenslea weighed a healthy nine pounds, eight and a half ounces and was brought into the world completely naturally just as her parents had planned.

Big brother Cade spent the day with us today while his mommy and daddy were having their little girl and he was an absolute sweetheart. He got lots of practice for his new role as big brother by helping me out with Lucy all day. He could not have been any sweeter.

I got to sneak a peek at precious baby Kenslea this evening when I took Cade home, she is just gorgeous and her momma says she looks like her big brother! What a wonderful blessing for this neat family. We are so thrilled for you guys and can't wait to get spend more time with little Kenslea!

P.S. Wish I had a picture to post, but I don't. Hopefully there will be one up soon!

Confessions of a Blogaholic

2008-10-07T21:50:00.001-07:00

So I'm sure most of you have noticed by now that I can't seem to make up my mind about my blog background. Those websites with the free backgrounds are going to drive me crazy. Here I sit in the wee hours of the night looking at all these choices and never making a decision that I remain happy with.

Part of my problem is that I seem to have similar taste as some of my blogging friends. I will finally find a background that I like but then realize that someone else is already using it. What makes this process even longer for me is that when I read my blogs (or your blogs, however you want to look at it) I read them through Google Reader. My friend Deb introduced me to this concept a couple of months ago and it has made my blog-stalking so much easier!! The down side of GR is that I don't see everyone's cute backgrounds when I read. I just read your posts through Google so they simply look like an e-mail or something to that effect.

So in this process of selecting a background, GR has me at a disadvantage because I have to click through everyone's blog and wait for them to load, to see if someone else is already using the one that I have found to certainly be the "perfect" choice for my blog. In most cases, I have duplicated one of my friends' choices and therefore must return to the searching process through above mentioned website. Thus creating a terribly long process that just keeps me from going to bed like I should be.

But here I sit, at midnight, somewhat satisfied with my current choice. I'd like to tell you that I won't change it but if you've been following me for any length of time we all know that just simply isn't the case. When I was younger (like in high school), I was always making my mother late for work due to my wardrobe indecision. It has really taken me until my thirties (or two kids and just being too tired) to finally get to a point where I really don't care all that much about my choice of clothing for the day anymore. Maybe at some point, I'll reach that same place for my blog's attire. Here's hopin'!

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, the kids and I joined my moms group at the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Celina. We had a great time! We've taken Christopher to the pumpkin patch every year of his life but this was the first time that he really seemed to enjoy himself. He was talking about it all day on Friday and is still bringing it to me randomly throughout the day.

I tried to get some cute pictures of the kids but Christopher's excitement really limited that experience. After sitting with Lucy for a few seconds and filling her hair with dirt, he announced to me that he was "done" (with the pictures). So, most of my pictures are just of my precious baby girl, but I'm OK with that. :)

If you are looking for a great family outing, I highly recommend this place. For seven dollars you get one pumpkin, food to feed the animals, and unlimited hayrides. There are picnic tables and open grassy areas to enjoy a nice picnic. A perfect outing for a fall day!

6 Months Old!

2008-10-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

Tiny toes

Ribbon and bows

Bright sparkling eyes

And satin sash ties

Frills and finery fitted with finesse

Perfectly suited for our precious princess

-Connie Berry

Lucy Loves her Cereal...(sort of)

2008-09-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been giving Lucy cereal and applesauce for about a week now. Tonight, she LOVED it, finally. It has been pretty hit and miss with her on the food front, where sometimes she seems to like it and other times she has acted like we are torturing her by giving her something to eat (other than momma's milk). Here are a couple of pictures that we took the other day after one of her first meals.

Brother and sister after breakfast.

Happy baby girl and her lurker friend!

Grocery Shopping Glory

2008-09-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Many of you may know that one of my biggest hurdles has a parent has been grocery shopping. By this I mean that I am extremely overwhelmed by trying to do my grocery shopping with my kids. These feelings of grocery anxiety have come at different times in my parenting adventure. After Christopher was born I think I only look him with me to the grocery store once in the first six months of his life. The same has pretty much repeated itself with the arrival of Lucy. Not to mention, with two kids it is that much more overwhelming to think about trying to handle both of them and concentrate on getting all of my groceries. My friend Jonna has three kids and seems to have this task down, but for me it is one of those things that I just haven't gotten a handle on.

Until now.

Thanks to our new grocery store, Market Street, I successfully went to the grocery store today and managed to shop for my week's worth of groceries with both of my kids. I give Market street the credit because they have these adorable little shopping carts for the kids to push (I'm sure other stores have them too, I just haven't used them anywhere else). Christopher was the best Little helper today, pushing his cart right alongside mine and putting his own groceries in it. He was perfectly sweet then entire time and all three of us had the best time. I wore Lucy in my Ergo pack and she did just great too.

Here is a picture of my little man with his groceries. He is blurry because we were dancing in the aisles to the fun music they had playing in Market Street, funny how your kids can get you to feel like you are the only people in the room.

Balloon Festival

2008-09-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

We ventured out to the Plano Balloon Fest this past weekend. We had a good time despite the traffic, crowds, and long lines. A potty trained child sheds new light on these situations, ie. sitting in traffic having him kicking the back of my seat as he is trying to hold it with no where for us to go, was just an added thrill to our night! We ran into our friends the Newmans while we were there and had a good time battling the long food lines with them and baby Nora, who is such a cutie pie!

Here are some pictures:

I love the look of pure wonder on my little boy's face in this next one.

Occupational Hazzard

2008-09-22T13:02:00.001-07:00

Followers

2008-09-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

So I have added a new gadget on the sidebar of my blog. If you scroll down below "My Friends Who Blog" you will see it. I'm looking for my "followers"! I know you are out there so please humor me here and click on the link that says "follow this blog".

Follow me people, follow me...

Lucy's Baptism

2008-09-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

We had Lucy baptized on Sunday at our church, St. Andrew United Methodist. The service was lovely and we were blessed to be surrounded by lots of family on this special day.

For me, the sacrament of infant baptism is such a reminder that Lucy is a child of God. He has entrusted me to be her mother during her time here on earth and I am so very thankful and blessed to have that responsibility. It is my hope and prayer that Lucy will be able to feel the love God has for her, through Cory and me. That she will one day come to know Jesus on her own and allow her relationship with Him to flourish.

As a mother, baptism also reminds me that Cory and I are not here raising these children on our own. The Lord is with us every step of the way, guiding us through the good times and carrying us through the bad ones.

"I have called you by your name; You are Mine" - Isaiah 43:1

Just for Fun

2008-09-14T17:04:00.001-07:00

Doesn't this picture look like I took my 5 month old daughter on a roller coaster ride?

And the Winner Is...

2008-09-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

US!

Yesterday Cory was walking around the house with Lucy, (something we frequently do with her) and he noticed there was a sign in our yard.

We have found this to be hysterical because Cory has been complaining about our yard for a while now. He thinks we have way too many weeds and he has major grass envy of the guy next door. At any rate we have been awarded this nice little title for the next 30 days or so. I was hoping we would get some sort of prize and then we could give it to Fernando, the guy who does everything for our yard, but I guess that isn't part of the deal.

The Many Faces of Lucy...

2008-09-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

So smiley!

Please check out the hair!

Little bunny rabbit nose.

Precious.

The deer in headlights look.

Our little girl is already 5 months old! I can't believe how time has flown by. She is so much fun and all three of us are just crazy about her.

She is becoming more and more active every day. She constantly rolls over. Every time I put her on her back it only takes a second or two before she turns over to her belly. She can sit up now for a couple of minutes at a time and really enjoys seeing the world that way. Lucy is all smiles. Almost every time I look at her, she is just beaming, like she's waiting just to make eye contact with me to show off her pretty smile. But no one can make her face light up like her brother can, she absolutely adores him. Even when he does things that I think would be totally annoying, she just grins at him from ear to ear. Many times, Cory and I both will try and try to get her to laugh. Usually we get a slight little chuckle. Christopher can get her to squeal and giggle in complete delight. Their interaction with each other is so precious during these times, it just melts my heart.

My Baby Boy is Getting So BIG!

2008-09-02T13:37:00.000-07:00

Christopher started back to Mother's Day Out today. This year he will go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 - 2. There are 9 kids in his class with only three of them being girls, so I'm sure he is going to have a great time. His teacher seems pretty nice and he came home today with a smile on his face! What more could a mommy want?

Let the Games Begin

2008-08-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

A little known fact about me that some of you may not know is that I LOVE football season!! I come from a family of football lovers so I guess it is just sort of in my blood. Cory tells me this time every year that he feels pretty lucky to be married to someone that can't wait to wake up on Saturday mornings and watch College Game Day on ESPN. Where as many spouses see this time of year as a hinderance to their marriage, we find it an asset to ours. Until now...

Cory and I are both in a Fantasy Football League organized by my brother. Tonight was our draft. Earlier this afternoon I asked Cory what his strategy was going to be. He simply refused to tell me. Guess I'm on my own in the fantasy football department these days. I will be the first to admit that I wasn't as prepared for the draft as I would have liked to have been. Since we now have two small children my days are filled with trying to care for them and see that their every need is met. I do not have time to research players and teams. Ever since becoming a mother of two, my brain functions much differently than it used to and I had a much harder time keeping up with the auction during our draft. So needless to say, when Cory ended up with the QB I had originally wanted, I wasn't too thrilled.

My team is basically mediocre and I'm really OK with that. It is all just for fun anyway. But there is something to be said for the competitive edge one might feel with their spouse. So during this football season, both fantasy and real, every time my sweet husband comes up with some glib comment and wants to "trash talk" to me about my team, I hope he thinks about what I do each and every day for our kids. That my mind is no longer a place for scores, yards, and numbers; but for feeding schedules, playtimes, disciplines, and bedtimes. Perhaps the next time Lucy is crying and he looks at me for a suggestion about what he should do, I'll just simply refuse to tell him.

Celebrating Mom

2008-08-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

This past Friday the kids and I made a quick trip to Abilene to celebrate my mom's retirement. She has worked in the world of education for 25 years and has always been very dedicated to her students and her job. She set such a good example for my brother and me with a very strong work ethic. I'm so proud of her for all of her hard work, but am SO excited for her to begin this next chapter in her life. I can't think of anyone more deserving of living a life of leisure, so to speak, and getting to focus on doing things for herself for a change. Not to mention, how excited I am about the time she will be able to have to be a grandmother now!!

Thanks again mom, for all of your hard work over the years! I love you!

Welcome to the world Ty Jeffery

2008-08-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

Our good friends, Meghan, Jeff, and big brother Drew welcomed a new baby boy to their family on Thursday, August 21st! We are so excited for them and Ty is absolutely precious, almost a spitting image of his big brother!! Meghan is already up and about and was baking cupcakes when we went over to see them tonight, did someone say "Super Mom"?

Congratulations Dube family!

"Blessed be Your Name"

2008-08-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

And blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering.

Though there's pain in the offering, blessed be Your name.

These are some of the words we sang to Jesus yesterday at Noah's funeral. I can't even describe the sadness I have felt over the past week. Situations like these are so extremely difficult to understand. While I do not think I will ever have a true understanding of "why" these things happen, I have been able to look at Noah's story a little bit differently after getting to visit with his parents and attend his services.

In Noah's 364 days here on earth, he touched more people's hearts than most people who get to live to be old and grey. That tiny little baby had more people spending time with God and crying out to Him in prayer than what I'm sure even some ministers are able to do. Blessed be Your name.

While it is heartbreaking not to have Noah here with us, we know now that he is completely healed. Blessed be Your name.

I continue to stand in awe of Deb and Josh and their faith that has gotten them through this journey so far. They are such amazing people. I went to Alabama with the hope of being able to provide them with even some shred of support and comfort and it was only after hearing them talk of Noah and their journey with him that I felt some comfort and peace.

Here is a poem that I read while I was in Alabama. Like so many other things in this story, it spoke to me so I thought I would share it.

A Place Where Children Are

What kind of place would heaven be

with all its streets of gold,

If all the souls that dwell up there

like yours and mine, were old?

How strange would heaven's music sound

when harps begin to ring

If children were not gathered 'round

to help the angels sing.

The children that God sends to us

are only just a loan,

He knows we need their sunshine

to make a house a home.

We need the inspiration

of a baby's blessed smile.

He doesn't say they've come to stay,

just lends them for a while.

Sometimes it takes them years to do

the work for which they come.

Sometimes in just a month or two

Our Father calls them home.

I like to think some souls up there

bear not one sinful scar.

I love to think of heaven as

a place where children are.

Thank you Lord, for Noah Jackson Lauer. Bless him, and keep him, he is one special little boy.

Heartbroken

2008-08-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Sweet little Noah joined our God in heaven yesterday afternoon.

Today would have been his first birthday.

There are no words.

Please continue to pray for Josh and Deb Lauer as they try to build a life without Noah.

"Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure."

-Psalm 16:5

Please Pray

2008-08-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Many of you know of our friends the Lauers and the story of their son Noah (his picture is over on the right hand side of this blog). Please join me in lifting them up in prayer. Noah has spent the last three weeks in the hospital and Josh and Deb covet prayers for strength, wisdom, and peace as they are continually having to make decisions about Noah's care.

Their journey has given me feelings of sadness like I have never known. Due to recent developments in little Noah's condition, I have not been able to stop thinking about them and praying for them. My heart breaks over and over again.

Cory and I met Deb and Josh our first year in St. Louis and developed our friendship through a small group Bible study over the entire time we lived there. That group was our "family" during a time when we lived far away from ours. They walked with us through our first pregnancy and Deb was one of the first to come visit Christopher in the hospital after he was born. I don't know if they ever had a clue how important their friendship was to us during that time and how I know God had his hand in leading us to them.

I just keep wishing there was something I could do to help them. All the while I know that there are no words, no gestures, no nothing that can provide them with any solace during this time. It is a situation where you find yourself questioning God, continually asking "why?" and never being provided with an answer. All I know to do is pray, pray, and pray some more. I serve a God who does not always promise healing and happiness but He does promise strength through Him, and at times like these, it is the best place to turn.

Again, please join me in lifting Josh, Deb, and Noah in prayer...

Our Little Fish

2008-08-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

All last week Christopher took his first set of swimming lessons. He did GREAT! His teacher was recommended to us by several people in our neighborhood and I was so pleased with her. She was so positive and encouraging to the kids. There was one other three year old boy in his class so I felt like he had lots of her attention and was also able to learn a little bit from Jason. Most of the week he had a little bit of trouble kicking when his head was under water, thus causing him to basically sink lots of the time. However, the light bulb seemed to turn on on Friday and we have had great results ever since. Here is a video clip from the last day!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Brace Yourselves...

2008-08-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Today I did something crafty!!! My friend Crystal is so talented. She is one of those people that when ever she sees something cute in a store, she says, "I can make that" and she actually can!! Her kids' rooms are out of this world adorable and her playroom looks like something out of a magazine. I digress. Anyway, her recent endeavor is tie-dying and today she was so sweet to show me how. We tie-dyes onesies and they turned out pretty cute. Hers are much cuter than mine of course, but I'm posting pictures of them anyway. Needless to say the one with the heart is my favorite!!

Lucy Baylor

2008-08-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

Happy 4 month birthday baby girl!

Some of the things we love about you...

Your beautiful smile! You brighten my day with this every single morning. Your daddy even commented today about what a morning person you are, always so happy.
Your coos and squeals of delight. You love to play on your activity mat and squeal and grin at the animals on there.
You always have something to say! We think you are going to be quite the chatterbox when you get older. You love to babble and coo at just about anything and anyone.
Your hair. I know that may seem silly but your hair makes me laugh all the time. I just can't control it, but I love it all the same.
Your little feet. Sometime your daddy and I wonder if you will be able to stand up on those feet someday. They are so narrow and dainty. Just precious.
Your patience. You got to enter this world with a very proud older brother just waiting to love on you and he hasn't stopped a day since then. Thank you for letting him smother you with his hugs and kisses. I promise when he is 12 or 13 and wants to sleep in, I'll let you go into his room and poke on his face so that he wakes up!

I could go on and on. I feel so blessed to get to be your mommy and I'm loving every minute of it.

Christopher and Beth Go to the Circus!

2008-08-01T16:07:00.001-07:00

My cousin Beth adores Christopher. I'm sure I have mentioned before how sweet she is to him and I LOVE the relationship that they are building. He has told me on more than one occasion that Beth is his best friend. It makes me so happy! This year for his birthday, she wanted to take him to the circus. Check her blog to read about their adventure...so cute!!

Operation Clean Out!

2008-07-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

So I have decided that my life is in major need of a clean-out. I'm a little late for "spring cleaning" but I was otherwise engaged this past spring so summer will have to do. Besides, we can't go outside in this heat so what else is there to do?

My cousin Beth is a fabulous organizer. She is so sweet to help me organize my closet and get rid of some of my clothes. I tend to hang on to things unless someone is there to tell me that I won't be wearing that anymore so her assistance is much appreciated. We made lots of headway today while Christopher was napping. Here are some pics. Keep in mind, these first pictures were taken halfway into the process. I don't live with my closet like this!!

What a mess!!

This is the GIANT pile of clothes that I am getting rid of. I can't wait to go shopping to replace them all!!!! LOL!

This is just a small sampling of the hangers that I collected throughout this process.

Here are all my clothes (and a few of Cory's) that are going away. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but there are 15 shopping bags of clothing there!

Here is how Christopher kept himself entertained while we worked. That is the top of one of my big tubs that usually stores some sweaters. I may ask him to do the same thing to all of my others...I love how colorful it is!!

Stay tuned to see the finished project. Next in the list is the playroom. I'm tired just thinking about that job!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Christopher!

2008-07-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I have been a mother for three whole years. Today my baby boy turned three!! He has been excited about his birthday for some time now and I think today lived up to all of his expectations. We celebrated with family and a few friends and Christopher had a ball.

Cory and I are both absolutely crazy about our little boy. He fills our lives with happiness and our hearts with joy each and every day. This past year, we have watched him "grow up" in so many ways...

We took him to school for the first time
We moved him from his crib to his "Big Boy Bed"
He gets his own seat on airplane trips (and behaved beautifully for 10 hours over seas)
He wears big boy underwear and tells us when he needs to go potty

But my favorites have been...

Watching him meet his baby sister for the first time
Watching him be a big brother and see the genuine love he has for his sister
Hearing him say "Love you Mommy" before bed each night

Christopher Allen Locke

July 27, 2005

Christopher Allen Locke

July 27, 2008

Happy Birthday Christopher! I love you more than words can express and am so thankful God chose me to be your mommy!

My Precious Babies

2008-07-19T22:39:00.001-07:00

I took the kids to have their picture taken at The Picture People. This is one of my favorites.

Tribute to Abilene

2008-07-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

Today we hung out with some of my very dear friends from high school, Tiffany, Misty, and Sherry, as well as their significant others and husbands. We all live here and try to get together every now and then to catch up and talk about old times. It's always so fun to see them. We spent the afternoon at Misty's enjoying some yummy food and pool time.

It is hard to believe that I met these girls when I was just about Christopher's age! I think it is so neat that we have been able to maintain our friendships over the years. I could write the longest post telling of many of our fun times together but instead I came across these pictures...

Tiffany and Misty are second from the right with Tiff standing and Misty on the couch. I'll let you all figure out which one is me! Sherry is not in this picture because I actually didn't meet her until 6th grade (see pic below).

Sherry and Steph before some type of junior high dance (I think). Wow, I can't believe I am posting that picture!!

And here they are today, some of my oldest and dearest friends.

From left: Tiffany, Sherry, and Misty.

No Pictures

2008-07-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

So, some of you (Meredith) may be wondering why I did not post any pictures of the family Reunion. The truth is, I don't have any. My mom is the "official" Reunion photographer so I just never have had to take them myself. However, this year Cory took lots of video. So here are a couple of video clips from the 29th Annual King Family Reunion. If you are not part of the fam, you might find these videos boring and completely random but I have never posted video before and I wanted to try it out...

The first clip is one of Christopher trying out his new golf club, we think he might be the next Tiger Woods! The second is the winning couple of the dance contest we had this year. Many of you know that my family always comes up with a silly game or contest to do every year. This year, dancing was the method to our madness...

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

"A good time was had by all!"

2008-07-13T20:32:00.003-07:00

My mom's side of the family has been gathering down in New Braunfels for the past 29 years and it truly is one of my favorite things about summer. We spend our days at the pool, going to Schlitterbahn, and toobing down the river. There is lots of eating, hanging out together, great conversations, playing games, and more eating. I love it!

Christopher made his first trip to Schlitterbahn this year and he seemed to have a great time. We opted not to let him go toobing this year since he still hasn't had any swimming lessons, but maybe next year...

I am so thankful to be a part of such a wonderful family. We all get along so well and have a great time together. Some of my most favorite and treasured memories come from Reunion and this year was no exception. As we like to say in the King family, "A good time was had by all."

My Bags Are Packed!

2008-07-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, we are leaving tomorrow for my family reunion. I've been spending most of my day running around trying to get things done and get myself and two children packed...not a small task. This afternoon, I was working on getting all of my things into my bag. I had sorted out all of my clothes into piles and had them on the floor next to my bag. I walked back into my closet to gather a few more items and I heard Christopher say something about helping Mommy (he had been watching a movie on my bed while I was trying to get organized). I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. He proceeds to pile all of my neatly folded clothes into my bag. After each trip to go get another pile, he crunches down what he had already put in there. Half of me is cringing with the thought of all my clothes getting so wrinkled and the other half is just filled with joy over how sweet my little boy is to try and help! I'll have to wait until tonight when he goes to bed to re-pack as I don't have the heart to do that in front of him. Fortunately, things are very casual at the King family reunion and I don't really care if my clothes are wrinkled!

I don't think these pictures do the bag justice of how messy my clothes are in there...

In other news, I have been trapped upstairs, along with the kids of course, to escape a wasp that somehow managed to get inside my house. For those of you who know me well, or if you read this blog on a regular basis, you know of my extreme fear of wasps and bees. This does not bode well for my "to-do" list of things that need to be done before we leave town tomorrow morning, hence why I seem to be finding the time to blog right now...

Well, since it will be a few days before I will post again, I'll leave you with a new picture of Lucy I took this morning. I LOVE this little outfit on her! It is from my cousin, Julie. Thanks Julie!

3 Months Old!

2008-07-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

Miss Lucy is 3 months old! She is such a sweet little baby and is really developing her little personality! She is already proving to be such a girl with real emotional mood swings! When she is happy, she is all smiles and loud squeals and when she is upset about something she is quick to let you know with her cry. The really funny part is that these moods will sometimes fluctuate by the second! She is eating and sleeping great. She tends to eat 4 or 5 times a day and is sleeping for about 10 or 11 hours at night!

I hope to add another album to the Shutterfly collection of some more of Lucy's 3 month pics but it is really hot up here and I am about to melt! See previous post...

HOT!

2008-07-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

UGH! Our air conditioner broke today. In 100 degree July weather, nice.

Welcome Home Hardin Family!

2008-07-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

One of my best friends and former college roommate, Noelle, has recently relocated to Dallas with her husband Stephen and baby boy Anderson!!! I am so excited to have them here. Granted, they are truly living in Dallas, not the burbs like us, but still it is better than being several states away! Welcome back to Texas Hardin Family!

Noelle and Anderson

(not pictured: Stephen and Marlie Mae, the dog)

Just Plain Cute

2008-06-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

I really can't believe that Lucy is almost three months old and this is the first time I have done this but today, I "twinned" my children. Obviously since they are not of the same gender, "twinning" is really more like coordinating, but you get the point. I found these adorable outfits at Jaine and Jack, one of may favorite places to shop for the kids, and even better they were on sale! Cory's mom had a little Sip and See today for our kids. It was the first time most of her friends have had the chance to meet, not just Lucy, but Christopher too. So it was a great excuse to dress them in their new clothes! Pretty cute don't you think?

In case you can't tell from the picture, the plaid patches in Lucy's dress match the plaid in Christopher's shorts, and her bloomers under the dress are just like his shorts. The excitement was almost too much for me to handle.

Also, all of you moms of girls out there...help! My daughter's hair is out of control!! What can I do? I know I need to be so thankful that she has hair at all but the longer it gets the more it just sticks out everywhere!! Is there some kind of magic shampoo or something that I can use to help it calm down? Seriously, any advice is welcome!! I'm afraid I may have a long road ahead of me here...

Disney Photos

2008-06-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let the grandparents know I have added all our Disney pictures to the Shutterfly collection. They are there for you to view and order if you wish!

Getting Easier

2008-06-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

I am almost three months into motherhood of two and am happy to report that things are starting to get easier. I'm getting better at getting us all out the door and taking them places is seeming less overwhelming. Today we met some friends at Willow Bend to play and I didn't bother with my monster double stroller. Instead, I just had Christopher walk with me and it wasn't so bad. We even snuck into a couple of stores while we were there and he cooperated nicely.

The flip side to this coin is that my brain doesn't seem to be functioning in the same way it used to. Some people refer to this as "pregnancy brain" but for me it seems to be more of a "mommy brain" syndrome. As I mentioned above we met some friends to play today. I was so proud of myself because we were actually going to be early to meet them. Right before I loaded the kids in the car, I ran up to double check my e-mail that today was the day we had planned to meet (I've been mixed up on my days ever since returning from CA). I was right about the day but wrong on the time. We were supposed to meet at 10 and I was planning on meeting at 10:30!! Since it was literally like 2 minutes before 10 when I checked the e-mail, clearly we were going to be late.

So is life really getting easier? Maybe not...

Indecision Leads to Disaster!

2008-06-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

For quite some time, I have spent many a night searching on Pyzam for a new cute background for my blog. I finally decided on one but once I got it uploaded, I did not like it. Unfortunately everything that usually resides on the right hand side of my blog got deleted...nice. So, I've just spent the last hour getting it all back up there (if any of you know of a quick easy way to fix these situations I'd love to know for the future)! I'm still missing a few things but hopefully I can find them again eventually. At any rate, I am DONE trying to be crafty with my background. Basic colors will do just fine.

My Collection

2008-06-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

I have set up a photo album "collection" on Shutterfly. I have included albums all the way back to when Christopher was born. So far, I haven't put other albums from vacations or anything on there but I will, it is a work in progress. At any rate, you can check out the collection by clicking on the link over on the right under "Little Snapshots." I decided to do this mostly for the benefit of the grandparents (you guys should be able to order any of those pictures that you want) and now, I don't have to try and remember to send them out anymore. I can just update here on my blog! Greatness, one less thing for me to try and remember to do these days! Enjoy!

Disneyland!

2008-06-19T20:03:00.001-07:00

Many of you have asked me how Christopher liked Disneyland. The truth is, I think he was pretty overwhelmed with it all. He was always, VERY serious on the rides but every time we finished one he would say, "That was a good one!" or "That was fun!" He loved seeing the characters around the park. He was not too shy to give them big hugs and take a picture with them.

I definitely think the two highlights of our time there were Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage and the Pixar Play Parade...

Much to my dismay, ever since I got pregnant with Lucy and was sick in my first trimester, Christopher spends alot of time with his favorite babysitter, known as our television. This hasn't changed much since Lucy's arrival, but I will get back on my good Mom game eventually. He mostly watches Playhouse Disney in the mornings and then in the afternoons we might watch a movie. He loves all the Disney Pixar films like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., It's a Bug's Life, Cars, the list goes on. And for those of you who don't know Playhouse Disney, it consists of several different cartoons and shows that air every morning such as, Little Einstiens, Handy Manny, and Tigger and Pooh. So as you might imagine, when the characters from all these televisions greats were brought to life in front of my little boy's eyes, the excitement was just too much to handle!

I wish I could have captured the expression on his face when he saw Remi, the rat from Ratatouille, dancing on a huge float driving down the street at California Adventure during the parade. And when he peered around a lady in front of us to see all the bugs from It's a Bug's Life waddling towards him, he shouted, "Look! It's Bug's Wife! It's Bug's Wife!", each word increasing in volume. The reactions were very much the same when the Little Einsteins and Handy Manny appeared just a few feet in front of us on a stage where we were made to feel very much like we were in the cartoon itself. I don't think Cory or I either one could really tell you much about the parade or the stage performance. Our eyes were fixed on our boy having the time of his life, better than any parade or costume could offer.

So I guess Christopher had a good time at Disneyland but his parents had a great time.

We're Back!

2008-06-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since I've had time to post. We just returned tonight from spending the last five days out in California. My brother graduated and then we extended our stay to make a trip to Disneyland. I'm going to try and put a slide show together of our pictures and hopefully will get that posted soon. I made a few other posts of what's been going on with us in addition to our big vacay! A good time was had by all!

Daddy's Day

2008-06-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

"Dad, a son's first hero, a daughter's first love."

Thank you Daddy for everything you do for us! You always make us smile, always make us laugh, always find time to play, always help us out. You give the best hugs, play the best game of chase, cook the best crepes, read the best stories, give the best baths. We love you and you will always be the best dad in the world to us!

A Preacher in the Family

2008-06-18T23:20:00.000-07:00

My sweet 87 year old grandmother once said that she always wanted to have a preacher in the family. Well, this past Saturday, her little wish came true when my brother graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary.

We all traveled out to California this past weekend for the big event and had a wonderful time. The ceremony was very special and quite moving at times. Jerimiah has worked so hard, is so dedicated to what he feels called to do, and his love for the Lord. He has a strong heart for missions and plans to do mission work overseas at some point in his life. I'm so proud of you Jer, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for you! Love you little brother!

Sweet Baby Lucy

2008-06-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of cute pictures of our sweet baby. She is quite the little grinner!! She is 11 weeks now and has survived her first family vacation (another post on that to follow). She was a real trooper and even continued to sleep through the night despite the 2 hour time change in California!

Fun on the Farm

2008-06-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

We recently spent some time out at Cory's parents with his family. Christopher has an absolute ball out there. This time was especially fun because we had some baby kittens to play with (or should I say, torture?). He also loves to feed the horses, ride on Grandad's tractor, and swim while we are there. Here are a few pics...

2 Months!

2008-06-04T22:24:00.000-07:00

Miss Lucy Baylor is 2 months old! I can't believe it, time has really flown by! I took her to the doctor today for her two month check up and our baby girl is doing just great. She now weighs 10 pounds 13 ounces and is a little over 22 inches long! She is smiling at us all the time now which is such a delight. She is still nursing well and has recently been giving me a seven hour stretch at night! We are overjoyed with her and Christopher still warms our heart daily with how sweet he is to her. Cory and I feel so blessed to have such an amazing little family!

Fun Times With Friends!

2008-06-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

Some very dear friends of ours, the Leuchters, came to visit us last week. They brought their baby girl Adelyn, who happens to be our goddaughter, with them and we were able to meet her for the first time. What an absolute angel she is. I really think I only heard her cry once the entire time they were here! Christopher didn't know what to do with himself with two baby girls in the house! He was his sweet self, always wanting to hug on them and saying "I love both babies."

Lucy and Adelyn ready to go to the Aquarium

The wonderful men in my life

Our family

The Leuchter Family

It was so great to get to spend that time with Scott and Dena. Now that we are all parents, things have really changes since we first met them. But it is so much fun to be parents together and I look forward to watching our children grow together! Thanks, Leuchters for making the trip to Texas! We love you guys!

Christopher and Lucy

2008-05-27T13:57:00.001-07:00

So, it has been a while since I have posted! We've been busy playing in the sprinkler, traveling to Austin for a family wedding, and spending time on Memere' and Grandad's farm. Miss Lucy B continues to be such a sweet joy in our lives. She is proving to be a little more high maintenance than Christopher was but, she is a girl after all. We still feel very blessed to have another very good baby. She is eating well and has begun to give me about six hours of sleep at night. Christopher is still in love with his baby sister and he keeps me very busy when I'm not tending to the baby. At any rate, here are some recent pictures of our precious children. Enjoy!

New Sonic Discovery

2008-05-27T13:38:00.001-07:00

Blackberry Sprite. It ROCKS my world!!

What do I have in store for me?

2008-05-15T21:24:00.000-07:00

I have discovered that many moms of girls get really excited over bows. I think bows are great and all, but for me right now while Lucy is so little I am totally crazy for bonnets. I think she looks so cute in them! Today I dressed her in one of my favorite outfits that happens to have a matching bonnet...

Before putting on the bonnet...doesn't she look cute? And happy!

With the matching bonnet. I know this looks like she is smiling but...

...it is really just the beginning stages of this!!

Do you think this means that my daughter is going to be opinionated about what she wears?

You know you are a mother of two when...

2008-05-09T18:52:00.000-07:00

You go shopping with your one month old baby (sans other child) and it is so easy it almost feels like a vacation!

You look down at your deflated belly and think back to when you were a little girl staring at your mother's stretched out tummy, and she tells you yours will look that way someday too. You thought then that wasn't possible, but now you have discovered that she was right...again.

While shopping for something to wear to a dinner you have a fleeting thought to actually look in Talbots. And to my cousins that read this, it was only a thought and it was very fleeting.

But you also know...

To cherish and enjoy every tiny "coo" and movement they make, even at 3 a.m., because you know it really does go by so fast.
That no matter the age of your older child, all of a sudden they seem so grown up to you. You remind yourself over and over that they are still young, only to lie awake at night and tearfully think about all the times during the day you expected too much out of them.
That there really is room in your heart to love another one just the same.

I love being a mom. I truly believe it was what I was put on this Earth to do. It is not always easy and there are many times I think I don't do a good job (but that is normal right?), but still, I love it.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms that read this!

The End of an Era

2008-05-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight, my fabulous cousin Beth passed on her title as PISD Elementary Teacher of the Year to someone new. Plano ISD hosts a Gala each year in honor of the Teacher of the Year. This time last year, several members of my family attended the Gala and were there when they announced Beth as Elementary Teacher of the Year for 2007. What an amazing accomplishment that was for her in her short, but very well established, career as an educator. It was such an exciting night! We attended the Gala again this year to watch Beth give a speech and be there to congratulate the new TOTY. Obviously, the night wasn't the same as last year but it just reminded me how very proud I am of Beth and all of her success as a teacher. I can only hope that Christopher and Lucy will get at least one teacher who is half as good as she is.

Congratulations Beth, on completing a year with such an amazing honor. I can't wait to see where you go from here. Your students are so lucky to have you in their lives and so am I!! I love you and am so proud of you!

(This was taken last year after she won).

One Month, Sleep Deprivation, and a Few Smiles...

2008-05-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

Miss Lucy B officially turned one month old this past Saturday! Where did April go? I can't believe our little peanut is already in her second month of life. We are really getting along just fine with the exception of my lack of sleep. I typically don't require that much sleep but this is starting take its toll on me. When Christopher came along and I was up with him at night I could nap during the day while he was sleeping. Not so much the case this time around! But I am managing and really enjoying our baby girl who has given me a couple of genuine grins the last couple of days!! I will be taking her to the pediatrician on Wednesday for a one month check-up. I'll post her new stats then...

If you would like to see a few more pictures of Lucy's first month click here!

Accomplishments

2008-04-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today was the first time I left the house with both kids by myself! I felt so accomplished when I was finished with my two very quick errands. Never mind the fact that I made up my mind to actually run these errands at 8:00 this morning and it was after 11:00 by the time we were all three dressed, fed, and in the car...I managed to get it done all the same.

I can remember so well the early days of my motherhood after Christopher was born. I felt like it took me forever to get out of the house, and he was just one child. Eventually it became easier and easier and before too long we were out and about all the time. I guess maybe it will be that way with two kids. I'm sure I will adjust and before I realize it I won't even remember life before Lucy. I mean there are thousands and thousands of mothers who have more than one child so how hard can it be??

I would also like to add how incredible my little boy really is. He has so far surpassed any expectation I had of him being a big brother. He continues to simply adore and love on his baby sister. He is so eager to help and he just melts my heart all the time. Today I had Lucy sitting in her bouncy seat while I was in the shower. After only a couple of minutes she grew tired of that and started to cry. Christopher immediately came in from my bedroom, where he had been watching TV and playing with his trucks, and began to sing the ABC song to Lucy (he had helped me sing to her a couple of days ago and since then it is the first thing he does when she cries now). She only stopped momentarily and then the wails came again. Christopher disappeared into my bedroom but returned shortly, this time with her pacifier. He gently gave it to her and then asked "All better?" When that didn't work he left again but then came back with a different binky (we're trying a few different kinds to try and get her to take one of them). This time, she took it and stopped crying long enough for me to finish my shower. I couldn't believe he did all of that on his own without my even asking him to help. I can already tell Lucy is going to be a very lucky little girl. In about 15 years when some boy breaks her heart, he is going to have to answer to her big brother.

Tagged

2008-04-24T17:57:00.000-07:00

My friends Dena and Gina tagged me on their blogs. I guess this is some sort of game in blog-land. I am supposed to list seven things about myself that most people don't know...

1. I played the flute for a couple of years in middle school, why, I will never be sure.

2. I had the BEST job in high school as a yogurt maid at the local A-town TCBY. It seriously was the best job and I loved working there. Sometimes I still get a craving for my special strawberry-banana milkshake that I always made when I was closing. Mmmmmmm...

3. I made it through almost my entire Freshman year of college without ever doing laundry. By this I mean I think I only actually did one load in the dorms. All the rest of the time I sent it home via my roommate, other Abilene friends, and myself. They would drop it off at my parent's house on Friday and my mom would have it ready for them to pick up on Sunday all folded and ready to return to me. Can you say spoiled??

4. On the spoiled note, my mother also made my lunch for me all the way through high school. She also wrote notes to me on my napkins!! I wonder if I will do this for my kids??

5. Up until I decided that I wanted to marry Cory, I was going to move to New York after college to pursue a career as a broadcast journalist.

6. On our honeymoon, we were asked to participate in a kissing contest and we won. Granted our only competition was two other couples, but still.

7. I have an EXTREME fear of wasps and bees.

OK, now I'm supposed to keep the game going so I'll tag... Meredith B. and Emily R. You guys are it!!

Lucy's First Week

2008-04-12T08:41:00.001-07:00

Miss Lucy is officially 9 days old and we have almost been home for one whole week! Things are going just great. She sleeps alot, which I'm sure will end soon, and she is eating quite well. My mom is still here playing the role of nurse to me, and entertainer to Christopher. In other words, I've yet to be alone with the two if them by myself. However, my little boy is so sweet and is already proving to be a great big brother and helper. He will bring me a diaper and throw the dirty ones away. The other day, he went all the way upstairs for me to get my Boppy pillow and brought it back down for me to nurse.

Like I said, Lucy sleeps, alot! You forget how much they sleep during these early days. She is staying awake a little more each day which is fun and allowing for me to get some pictures of her awake!! We've had some visitors and this weekend, my brother and his wife flew in from California to meet Miss Lucy.

I'm still getting used to being surrounded by all this pink. We've gotten packages in the mail with adorable little girl outfits for her and I still can't believe I get to dress her in them! For those of you that know me well, I was sure I was going to be the mother of all boys. Don't get me wrong, I am beside myself with happiness over having a daughter, I guess it is one of those things where I feel like I should pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming!! I just feel so blessed to be able to experience the joys of both a little boy and a girl.

Enjoy the slide show of just a few pictures of our first week at home. We're having a ball with our bundle of joy!!