Christmas 2008

Levi and I kicked off the holiday season with a trip to Dallas with some of the girls from church. We did a lot of shopping, even more eating and had a GREAT time!! I really enjoyed getting to spend some one on one time with Levi. He did great the whole time and had a lot of fun hanging out with Aunt Susan and Mrs. Jani.

We had lots of wonderful holiday parties to attend. I only wound up with pictures from two of them. The first is the party at Jeff and Kerry's with all of us girls from nursing school. Four of us had babies within 2 1/2 months of eachother, and this is the first time we had all of the babies together.

Rebecca and Cameron Belle, Me with Lydia and Levi,

Kerry with Annslee Grace, and Valerie with Averi Claire

Val and Averi

Leah and Dustin visiting with Cameron

Kerry and Lydia

Necon and Annslee

Rebecca, Eric and their sweet Cameron

The babies really had fun!!

So did the mommies...

We also had a great time at our class Christmas party as always. The gag gifts were outrageous this year...maybe we can come up with something super creative for next year. But probably not since we have the annually recycled Jessica Simpson DVD music video!!

Sweet Sadie Girl

We got a Nikon D60 fancy pants camera for Christmas this year. We figured it would be good since we want good pictures of our kids, and to capture the amazement of our Holy Lands trip this summer. By the way...there are still plenty of spots if anyone is interested in coming!! We have taken billions of pictures with our new toy...here are just a few!!

These obviously happened when Necon was home with the kids by himself!! Lydia was all the way behind the television and entertainment stand...she is such a climber!!

Levi is already 3 months old. He is the happiest, most smiley baby in the world. I still have to set my alarm so I can wake him up to eat in the middle of the night, but it is worth it because breastfeeding is still going GREAT!! He is now rolling over, but can't quite sit in the exersaucer yet. He does love the bumbo however. He is starting to enjoy watching Lydia play and talk to him. We just can't get enough of our little boy...

Does this one remind anyone else of Fivel the Mouse??

Ever since I can remember, we have baked for Christmas: cookies, divinity, fudge, rocky road and peanut brittle. Our divinity rarely turns out right, and this year was no exception. We messed up so bad the divinity broke the motor in the mixer!! Awful huh?? The cookies were delicious though...

We woke up Christmas morning and opened presents and stockings at our house. Since our kids didn't need anything (espeically not more toys) and since we knew they would be getting PLENTY from everyone else, we kept it very minimal and basic. It turned out to be a horrible idea because Christmas morning was over in like half a second. So much for being sensible...we are buying a ridiculous amount of junk next year!! Since our morning turned out so silly, we bundled up and headed to Grandpa and Annies...

So gross, but Lydia lets Indyana lick her mouth. This led to a discussion of how dogs mouths are "cleaner" than human mouths. They can say that all they want but I have seen where that dog puts his tongue...

Tia and Brotherman

Annie and Grandpa gave Lydia her first jewelry set. Now she won't cry for my wedding rings!!

There is nothing like a truly surprised face on Christmas morning!!

After watching everyone react over their new gifts, Lydia started walking around and picking up everyones presents and acting really excited about all of them...too cute!!

Lydia loves to play the piano...we hope she sticks with it!

Mom got Lydia the greatest gift ever!! Lydia absolutely LOVES music and she has had such a great time going around mom's house and listening to all of the christmas music boxes. So mom got her her very own music "box." It is completely wooden, and the most beautiful I have ever seen. Lydia absolutely loved it!!

When we were done at my parents, we headed to Pa Chief and Grandma's.

We made a quick stop at Pop and OG's (I am sure you could check out their blog for the photos) then on to Nana's...

Levi and Mamaw Bass

Josiah and Uncle Tony

I put this one in not just to show off her super cute Christmas bow, but to remind us how she ALWAYS clips together the chest clip on Levi's carseat. Anytime I go to put him in, I have to undo the clip first...makes me laugh!!

Kyndle and Austin

Nana and Papaw Ray

Beth and Aunt Debbie

Patrick's girlfriend, Jamie

Lydia was really interested in Rebecca's video game...she kept trying to shove her face right down to the screen to see what was going on.

I am sure you are thinking, how many places can they go on Christmas?!? Just one more...all the way to Oklahoma City, to Grandma and Grandad's (my dad's parents).

Levi and Baby Kate

(for those Zoolander fans...this is Levi's "Blue Steel" face)

Lydia and Grandad

Lydia and Micah

This is the kids' Great Great Grandmother, Ma

Baby Kate

Friday morning we all headed into Edmond to Mama Jo and Papa's. Here Lydia got her very first BIKE!! She liked it at first, then got a little scared for some reason. Now that we are home she really really really loves it...

Show Annie your silly face!

Saturday morning we got up and drove to Kellyville (just outside of Tulsa) to see Necon's family. At first she was hesitant to open anything because she had gotten in trouble for opening presents under the tree before Christmas. When we finally gave her ones to open, she kept looking at us like "Is this a test?" Here are my favorite pictures of Lydia opening a present.

Lydia always loves playing with Brennan and Jacob...she started saying their names on this trip and they thought that was SUPER cool!!

Josiah and Uncle Necon

Just incase you haven't noticed...LYDIA IS GETTING HAIR!! It is not much, but compared to absolutely nothing it is a lot!!

You can even see it in the front..

Some things never change...

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!! Good luck on your resolutions...ours is to make it an entire year with out adding a baby to the family!! Love you all...

Quick Update

Thanks to everyone who gave us leads and possible help with our kids! One of my good friends from work has agreed to come to our house and love on Lydia and Levi every Monday! Pray that they are GREAT today and don't scare her off!! To all of you who keep other people's kids...THANK YOU! It means more to us than you could possibly know! It is hard to leave them with anyone who is not you, but it is soooo much easier to know they are being loved and well cared for!

2 Months

I know it is cliche, but I really can't believe Levi has been here for 2 months already!! It was definitely a difficult adjustment, but now we can't imagine not having him here! He is Lydia's pride and joy. When I first get her up in the morning she MUST have her breakfast immediately (hey...she is my child ya know!) then she stands at our bedroom door and cries "Brother, Brother" over and over until I go get him. Today she wanted to hold him...which she indicated by almost pulling him off the ottoman. I put them both up on the couch and she just sat there holding him in her lap, patting his legs and looking at his face. She even tickled his neck, while saying "tikatikatika" to get him to smile. Since smiling is his favorite thing to do, he politely obiliged. She looked up at me so proud and happy, I wish I had a camera in my lap to catch her face! Priceless!! We haven't made it to our 2 month appointment yet, but Levi is somewhere in the realm of 13 pounds and 23 inches long. He sleeps all night, and I have to wake him up to eat. He loves to play on his back, but is such the tummy sleeper. He will cry when he is ready for us to roll him over!! So funny! He is always flailing his arms around like he has no idea what he should do with them. We still have NO idea who he looks like, but I think he is going to have brown hair and big brown eyes!

Lydia really wanted me to put these pictures on here because she thought she was funny!!

This is Lydia's newest favorite face...her "sad face"

I am going to pretend for a second that people not only look at our blog for our kids but for us also, and tell you about our wonderful 4th Anniversary date. One of our most favorite artists (music not paint) came in town Sunday night: AMOS LEE!! We went to see him at the Village and it was AWESOME! We also got to hear Priscilla Ahn open for him who was absolutely incredible. We bought her CD ahead of time so we would be a little familiar and she was even better live. It was really nice to have a night out without the kiddos! Can't believe we are already to this point in our life, but we wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING!!

Help Wanted!!

We are looking for someone to keep our kids on Mondays (preferrably at our house) from 7am to 4:15pm starting asap. If anyone knows of someone looking for a little extra cash, we would appreciate recommendations!! I am not even sure where to start looking...