Leaving on a jet plane...

Leaving on a jet plane (actually a commercial airline)...don't know when I'll be back again (actually Sunday)...

Landree is such a sweet helper! This afternoon when I was packing our bags for Texas Landree wanted to help me. Here she is making sure we have plenty of room for everything I buy at Canton...

We'll be at home from Wednesday-Sunday (we fly in Tuesday evening). We are going home because my friend Shauna (who now lives in Alaska) is at home. Her brother Tommy is getting married this weekend. We are so excited about getting a chance to spend time with family and friends! We have our days packed! My mom will be going out of town this weekend so we'll be spending lots of time with her and Popee on Wednesday and Thursday. Grandma will be spending time with Landree on Friday while Shauna, Megan and I go to CANTON!!! Saturday Aunt Gigi, Uncle B, H, and J will be keeping Landree while I go to a scrapbooking class. Sunday Uncle B and the kids will be taking us to the airport. We are so excited about our trip!

Momma, I think you can get a lot of new clothes and cute hairbows in this spot!

A cute cross or new sign might fit right here. You'd be surprised how good of a packer I am!

WRC Children and Youth Building

Our new children and youth building offically opened on Feb. 3rd. It is amazing! There were so many volunteers that did such and amazing job to make this building the perfect place where our children and youth can come to learn about Jesus. The pictures below are from my favorite rooms. The 2 and 3 year old room has a lifesize safari bus! The kids actually get inside the bus for story time. There is even a rear view mirror inside. My all time favorite room is the 'tree house room'. It's for the 1-3rd grade students. I love the monkey's on the wall. And check out that slide! The pictures don't serve these rooms justice. 'The Fun Dog Sun Dog' room is for our crawlers, and the cherry blossom tree and animals looking into the sunset are in the baby room.

The under water room is for the 4's and 5's they have their story time in the boat under the waves. All the classrooms have a one way glass window so parents can check in on their kids. The marketplace bamboo room is for the 4-5th graders. The flower room is Landree's room (walkers). It's so cute! They have turtles and bugs that pop off the wall so that the kids can touch them.

The blue room with the cool couch and messy bookselves is Jeff's new office! Check out that silver stripe around the room. There is tons of storage. Several ladies have been working hard on getting everything labeled and organized. The girls restroom is pink. It's so fun to potty in a pink bathroom. The lobby is amazing with a tiki check in desk and fountain with the kids handprints on tiles. We are so blessed to have this new building! I'll post pictures of the youth room later. They had 100 students in their service last Sunday.

(Another) Sunglasses Scrapbook Page

Here's my new page for today! While we were watching The Backyardingans Landree wanted to wear her sunglasses. She knows she's silly; she just laughed when she was putting them on. I asked her if I could take her picture-she was a very good model!

New Sunglasses!

Aunt Gi Gi, Uncle B, H and J sent Landree the cutest sunglasses for Valentine's Day. We just got them today. Landree wouldn't wear them at first, but tonight when we were talking to Mia and Popee on the webcam she was such a good model!

Cooper liked wearing them too. So cute!

Here's the scrapbook page for this post!

New Patio Furniture

We got new patio furniture yesterday and I love it! It was so nice last week so we wanted to go ahead and get it so we can enjoy it as the weather begins to warm up. A special thanks to my furniture models!

Jeff has a little nerf basketball goal that attaches to the door-we had it in the garage and he moved it onto the patio for Cooper. We 'shot' baskets for about an hour today.

Bath time fun! Scrapbook Page

My goal is to get one or two pages done each night so I can catch up and stay current on a scrapbook for Landree. I'm really picky so it can take me an hour or more to do one page, but I really enjoy it! This page is of her in the bath. She loves to take a bath and she loves her ducks! I've been saving my pages for the web wrong. Now you should be able to click on the page and a larger image will come up (I think).

She insisted...Scrapbook pages

I've told you how persistent Landree is when she makes her mind up to do something...here are a few of the pictures to prove it and the pages I made to show it. Enjoy!

I used the Shabby Princess Carousel Kit to make this page. There is a site I've been following called The Pixel Fairy Princess. I love the way she lays out her pages. I made these pages similar to one she has on her site.

Valentine and Potty Pages

Here are a few new scrapbook pages I did tonight. I love the potty page! Cooper has started potty training (he's doing such a great job!) so I bought a potty seat for our house. We've 'practiced' sitting on the potty the last few nights after our bath. I don't expect that Landree will be potty trained any time soon, but I do think she'll be interested when she sees the praise that Cooper will be getting.

I love i-tunes!

Let me just preface this by saying I'm not really up on all the newest and latest things...I got Jeff an I-tunes card for Valentine's Day and this morning when he was searching for a few songs he told me that you could download tv shows and movies to an I-pod. I asked if they had the Backyardigans (A few years ago I would have wanted to download Desperate Housewives...now Backyardigans!) I can't tell you how excited I am about this. Landree and I are going to Texas in a few weeks and I am definitely going to be downloading a few episodes to have handy on the laptop! Landree always does such a great job on the plane, but it never hurts to have something extra in your pocket when you have a 16 month old. When Jeff hit the preview button Landree came peaking around the corner of the computer. She loves her 'bye bye' The Backyardigans.

A valentine treat for Landree...

Don't worry we didn't forget Landree! She got a special treat for Valentine's day too. Our little valentine got a new Baby Einstein video and a V-tech book. It's really cool. There are 4 books that teach numbers, shapes, colors, animals, and the alphabet. There is a magic bee that talks and tells you what to point to and asks questions. It's really neat.

Landree also made her first Valentine craft at the library all the kids colored a picture and then the parents helped them cut them out and glue them on the red paper card. We have it hanging on our refrigerator.

Landree got a Valentine card from Michelle the librarian and her friend Jack. She loves to look at his card and kiss it!

Valentine Outfit

Mia and Popee sent Landree this outift for Valentine's Day. She wore it today with a red turtle neck underneath it. These pictures are from last Saturday at My Gym and before Logan's birthday party (pictures to come). The count down is on-My Gym will be closing on Saturday. We've been trying to get in as many classes as we can and learn all the practice skills (gymnastics with parent help) before Saturday. Hopefully they will reopen around the beginning of April.

A valentine treat for mom...

We actually decided that we wouldn't make a big deal about Valentine's Day this year. We went to dinner on Tuesday evening while Jennifer Howard kept Landree. But, Jeff sent me 2 dozen roses yesterday. We actually started dating 7 year ago on the 13th. He always does something special for me on that day. It was a great surprise yesterday when I went out to check the mail and these were sitting on the doorstep. Jeff always orders flowers from this place online called ProFlowers. They are so fresh-they come directly from the growers instead of going to flower shops or stores first. These will really open up over the next few days.

A valentine treat from Grandma...

We had such a nice surprise on Monday. When I got home from work there was a big box from The Popcorn Factory on our door step (yum!) When I opened it up here's what we found:

The cutest monkey tin filled to the top with carmel, cheese and butter popcorn! Today is Valentine's day and we still have a little bit left. This stuff is so good! The popcorn factory is where Angie ordered the popcorn balls that we used to make our Christmas snowmen. What a great treat. Grandma also bought Landree a cupcake shaped cup and matching plate last time we were home. She loves them, and we loved the popcorn. Thanks Grandma and Papa! I can't wait to store some of Landree's things in the cute monkey tin too.

A valentine treat for Daddy...

Landree and I made a special gift for Jeff (Daddy) last night while he was at youth praise team practice. Landree had a great time painting this special portrait for her Daddy. After she had finished with her part of the project I 'stamped' her feet in the middle of it. I have an obsession with hand and foot prints. I always want to be able to look back and see how big she was. I decided later I wish I had put them on the back, but we'll know for next time. Here are a few other things I learned in the process.

1. Don't trust a 16 month old with a paint brush even if you're standing right there.
2. Buy non toxic paint (I did)
3. Don't say that looks good Landree while painting. It was immediately followed by a lick of her finger and yum!
4. Have fun and plan to be messy! I had planned on both.

I loved doing this with Landree and can't wait to do these types of things with her more as she grows.

New Scrapbook Page

Here's a new page I did tonight for Landree's scrapbook.

It's offical! DFW 3 Day here we come!

Ok, it's offical. I signed up tonight for the 2008 DFW 3 Day. This year Maggie (my sister in law), one of her friends, and my best (breast) friends Shauna and Megan will be walking with me! I am so excited! This event changes so many peoples lives (including the walkers). You can't be involved in something this big and leave the same. Last year the DFW area raised over 6.5 million dollars! I am so excited to do it this year with friends. It will definitely be a challange, but it's one I'm ready for! I will be walking in memory of my grandmother, Fran Roberts. She beat breast cancer once and lost her 10 year battle in Jan. 2003. I am walking so Landree can grow up in a world were little girls don't lose their moms, grandmothers, or sisters to this awful disease.

This is a picture of me and my Memom at Christmas 2002.

This hairbow matches my pajamas...

I love to see Landree's little personality developing. She really knows what she wants and insists on doing it, but the things that she insists on doing so often are so funny! Like the other day she wanted to put this hairbow on when she ate breakfast and this morning she wanted to wear her coat (that's all she wore-the coat and a diaper), and at Christmas my mom made spagetti for dinner one night and I told her just let take Landree's clothes off to eat. She would have no part of dinner until momma put her black dress shoes on. Once Mia complied she was ready to eat.

Header for Searching for Balance

I designed this header for my sister-in-law's blogspot. I am dying to put it on there for her! Here's a sneak peak. The picture of H and J is from this Jan. when they went skiing in CO.

It's finished check it out here.

Swinging Page

Here is the scrapbook page I made from the post about Landree swinging at the Park.

Just call me Tom...

...Boy that is. I've said it before, but Landree can hang with the best of the boys. Cooper got this battery powered 4 wheeler for Christmas. You'd think it's right up his alley, no, he's not one bit interested in it. Landree on the other hand loves it. One day when it was nice and they were playing outside Jennifer sat Landree on it just to see what she would do (not really thinking she would actually 'ride' it). We'll the red button was calling her name! She pushed it and off she went. She rode that thing around that yard all morning.

I actually picked this up for Santa at Target the day after Thanksgiving. They had Dora ones too. Of course I didn't expect that Landree would love it and I can't find one now. They must be seasonal at certain stores. Oh well, at least we get to have fun on Cooper's and his is getting a little use. Here are a few other pictures from that day:

New background and other fun stuff...

First of all, don't you love my new background and header? Thank you so much to Kim for helping me get it on here. I love her blog and asked her for some help! She is so sweet. Check out her site here. I've loved following the story of their adoption and her family. She is was so nice to help me! I'm no pro, but I will be happy to answer any questions I can. Just let me know :)

So it was fun while it lasted...My Gym is closing down. I can't begin to describe the disappointment I feel. Landree loves it there. They say they hope it will reopen later, but no promises. Considering it was 80 degrees here yesterday (IN FEBRUARY) I was so excited to go there this summer when it's too hot to play outside. And it's been great when it's too cold to play out also. Oh well...this picture was from class this morning. She loves the trampoline. She just walks around and around on it.


We went to the park last night and played after Jeff got off work. It was such a nice day here. Landree and Cooper played outside most of the morning too. Here are a few action shots discovering the windchimes and of course any type of ball...

There is a ball in this flower. See it?

I can't wait for spring. I know it's a long way off. It is susposed to be in the 50's here on Friday, but the last few days have been a nice preview of what's to come!

Fun at My Gym

We joined My Gym a few weeks ago. It's a kids gym. Denise invited Landree and I to try a free class with she and Jack. I really didn't think we'd be interested in joining, but after one class I was hooked. Landree loves it! It's like being in a kids video every class. They stretch at the beginning of every class and sing a welcome song. They have a big adventure every week like going through a maze or climbing on a tower of blocks. They have skills they practice like front head rolls and flipping. And there are always different gymnastics things they do like hanging from rings or turning on the high bar or jumping off this thing like a fat balance beam, or walking on a balance beam. Plus they play in between. They have slides and mats and a ball pit and things to climb on and they rearrange all the time so that it's never the same. They always have a time to swing during class. After that first class Traci and Jennifer came and visited too. We all ended up joining. It's really fun and they teach the kids thing through songs like their body parts, etc. It's so worth it and a really fun way for Landree to get her energy out since we never know what the weather will be like here. It's usually either too hot or cold to play outside. Here are a few pictures from class on Friday:

Landree and Jackson having fun in the ball pit.

Climbing up to jump off the highbar onto the big fat mat. Ms. Jean asked if she knew how to jump off of something. I told her we don't encourage that at home. She doesn't really get jumping yet (thank goodness). She loves to be on the trampoline too-she jumps, but her feet never leave the ground.

Hanging from the trapize swing...Landree really loved this even though you can't tell in this picture. She wanted to keep spinning around. Logan spinning around...

Cooper's turn...