Congratulations Kari & Del!

Kari, Del, & Kyle C. welcomed Kolby Glen into the world on Jan 22 at 6:34PM. He was 9 lbs 1.3 ozs and 22.5 inches.

Another week has passed...

...and I don't know where the days have gone. Jacob had a good time this week teaching Trace & Trevin how to read. Every time I put the boys up on the couch he made a b-line for them with a book in his hand. He really thinks he's something else. Trace & Trevin eat it up...they just laugh and coo at him like they really know what's going on. These are a few pictures I took as T&T were in "class".

They're baaaaack

"My" babies are back. It was great to have 2 weeks of sleeping in late, but I'm happy to have Trace & Trevin again during the week days. Jacob wakes up in the mornings now saying "bebes bebes". Then off he runs down the hallway so he can go give them their kisses.

Nothing exciting to "report" on as my days are filled with feeding, burping, and changing babies. Not much time for anything else. Jacob and I take our walks when T&T leave in the afternoons and I can hardly get my shoes on fast enough for him. "Walk walk" he says very adamantly as he makes laps between the door and me until I'm ready to go.

The three boys I spend my days loving on...

"Mom...these bebes are so sweet."



Jacob & Trevin in deep conversation as Trace contemplates the cosmos.



Trace



Trevin



Trace & Trevin

2007 Year In Review

While thinking about all the changes that occured last year, I decided to do a "2007 Year In Review". While working on this project and looking through the thousands of pictures from last year, many emotions have surfaced. I've laughed, cried, felt hurt, felt joy, and have generally been overwhelmed reminising about the events of the year. It's been good for me to reflect on the last year.


January
This was taken last New Years at the Deans. We had great times with them and do miss being close to them.


January
It's a rite of passage I think for babies to realize that it feels cool to run your mouth and nose down a glass door. And makes Mom have to clean the door!


January
Celebrating Grandpa S. birthday.


February
Happy birthday to Great Grandpa T.


February
A warm winter day taking a wagon ride. Jacob loves for someone to pull him around in his wagon.


February
Being cool on a trip to Tampa.


February
Great Uncle Derald and Aunt Nita made a trip to FL from MN to see us. It was wonderful to see them.


March
Family picture in front of blooming azalias.


April
Trip to the beach with Mimi.


April
We went for many Sunday afternoon walks on the beach.


April
Jacob's first birthday.
(photo credit to Firefly Photography)


April
First birthday party. Where has the year gone since he was born? We can hardly remember life without him.


April
A visit from Uncle Daniel, Aunt Cindy, Noah, and Addison.


May
The Byrd family had a surprise farewell party for us. We appreciated so much the kindness of our friends in FL.



May
This was the day David left FL. There are smiles on these faces, but broken hearts. This was just a few minutes before I took David to the airport for him to fly to TX. Four generations.


May
Jacob has started running to the door when he knows someone has driven up.


May
Celebrating my Mom's ?? birthday.


June
Watching a space shuttle launch. This was the first launch after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.


June
A day at a petting zoo with Uncle Daniel, Aunt Cindy, Noah, Addison, G'pa, and Mimi.


July 1
Crossing the TX border. My boy becomes a Texan!


July
First swim of the season - with cousin Allie.


July
Just starting to walk finally.


August
A visit back to FL. Noah and Addison came to see us.


August
Jacob gets his first haircut. He looked like a little boy afterwards, and not so much a baby.


August
Telling G'pa and Mimi bye at the airport. He assured them he'd be back as often as he can be.


August
First boat ride. Papa C. took us all out one afternoon.


September
An attempt at more family pictures. Jacob really had no interest in this though! He wanted to get down and run!


September
Getting to know and playing with cousins Caroline, Kayleen, and Allie.


September
Cousins Trace and Trevin are born. Jacob fell in love with them immediately.


October
Picking pecans with Papa.


October
Convention with Great Nanny H. and Trace & Trevin.


November
A trip back to FL to pack up our house. Jacob helped by packing his toys. Actually, he unpacked as fast as I could pack! This was another bitter sweet time. It felt great to finally sell our house, but made me very sad because this is OUR home and many memories are there.


November
Being silly with Nana at Thanksgiving.


December
Uncle Brad turned the Big 30 so we had a surprise party for him.


December
I started keeping Trace & Trevin. Jacob loves them and "helps" me so much.


December
Christmas morning he was so excited to see "horse horse" and his tricycle. He also loved all the "gucks" (trucks) he got.


December
Annual Holiday Picture

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy 2008!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we were at our house and Jacob got to open up his presents. We didn't put any of them out until after he went to bed the night before so he was really surprised when he came into the living room. The first thing he did was go grab the "horse horse". Then he noticed the tricycle and that was all he was interested in for a long time. It took quite a bit of prompting to get him to open the rest of his gifts. Finally he did (but he did not get off his trike for a loooong time) then all he wanted to do was play with his "gucks". Everything that is not a car is a "guck" now. Doesn't matter if it's a helicopter or a John Deere, to him it's a "guck". Around noon'ish we went over to Brad and Lesha's for lunch - and David went to work. Had some wonderful turkey and all the fixins'. Got way to stuffed then played some serious dominoes. Of course my 86 year old grandmother won the game...not all the hands, but the overall game. She's just had more experience than the rest of us. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Was a great day.

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve was spent at our home with my parents and Grandma C. Mom, Grandma, and I pretty much stayed in the kitchen making goodies. Dad, David, and Jacob made us a nice toasty fire in the fireplace. It's the first time we used it - was nice!! Jacob of course was right in there with Dad and David helping fan the fire and blowing on it to get it started. A lack of enough kindling was a bit of an issue, but thanks to our "large lunged" men, we had a roaring fire in no time. After Jacob went to bed we brought out all the presents. Of course everything but the stockings were for him. Funny how that happens.

Best Ever Banana Muffins

Folks, I just got through making the "Best Ever Banana Muffins", and boy are they REALLY the best ever! Head on over to Ciao Down and check out "Best Ever Banana Muffins". Your taste buds (but not your scale) will thank you! A huge thank-you (maybe?) to my cousin Shelley for posting this recipe.

New Poll

Note the new poll I've got up.
There's a "discussion" in our house and I'm wondering about the rest of you....what do you do?

My Best Buddies

"Aren't we too cool!"


"Look babies, when you get older you can have some super cool boots like these!"

Are you tired?

You think Jacob may have been just a wee bit tired? He still has his hand wrapped around his spoon.
His cousins are wearing him out! It's hard work for a 19 mo. old to take care of 2 3 mo. olds. ;)

Day 1 with Trace & Trevin

Today was my first day to keep Trace and Trevin. What a good time we had! Jacob LOVED having the "bebes" here. He was so excited when he got up this morning and walked into the living room and saw them. He was quite the "helper" too. Several times he tried giving them their pacifiers (weather they wanted them or not) and wanted to help feed them too. He was also great at bringing me diapers (his, which needless to say are way to big for them) at random times. Trace and Trevin were also intrigued with him already which surprised me. I didn't think they would recognize another "little person" so young, but they sure seemed to. They would watch him and smile and coo at him. He was definitely more interesting to them than I was. Really cool to watch the three of them "interact" with each other. Jacob was sleeping when Lesha picked them up and when he got up from his nap he went all over the house looking for "bebe bebe" and got quite upset when he couldn't find them! So amazing to watch these 3 little boys starting to develop a relationship with each other. Looking forward to another day tomorrow.

Brad's Party

ok, ok, ok, so I'm a little slow at getting these up, but I'm doing the best I can. It's not like we JUST moved into a new house and we have anything else to do besides sit at the computer right?? ;)

So...we had about 45 people over a couple of weeks ago to celebrate Brad's b-day. The house was pretty much busting at the seams, but everyone had a great time (they didn't tell me otherwise anyway!). Good thing it was about 70 degrees that night. All the kids could run around in the back yard while the men picked up some of the 50 million pecans we have and grunted to each other. Us ladies stayed in the cool house and yapped as usual. Standard affair. ;) Enjoy some of the snapshots I took.

House update

One smart mouth member of our family wanted to know "When the Hollywood writers went on strike did you go with them and decide not to write on your blog? Just wondering.". Well, as you can see from the pictures below I have been just a bit busy on the house. Of course I'm not in any of the pics as I'm the one taking them. You can rest assured I've worked my fingers to the bone... and what do I have to show for it - bony fingers. (Or at least red, dry knuckles.)

If any of you ever get the bright idea of putting cork on a wall...DO. NOT. DO. IT. It's terrible to have to take down and makes a horrendous mess. We had 6 inches of cork "sand" and "rocks" on the floor by the time we got it all down. Which took several hours to do by the way. Also, that stuff absorbs all the smells in the house so we were still smelling the smoke (from the fireplace, not cigarettes) from last year. I've also come to the conclusion wall paper needs to be illegal. That's why we had to have Brad spray texture on the hall wall. Talk about an enormous job. THANKS Brad for doing that!! All this rambling that I must say that I do love our new home, it's just a lot of work to update. We haven't even started tackling the bathrooms, kitchen, entry, or dining room yet. That's not coming until next summer at the earliest. After this weekend (when we hope to actually move in) we're just going to enjoy being in a "real house" and be very thankful to be there. It's a wonderful place and we look forward to having lots of company! hint hint

Happy 30th Brad!

Today is my brother's 30th birthday...in honor of such an occasion I'm posting a few of his better pictures. Enjoy!