Laney's 2nd Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! We enjoyed spending time with family and friends and celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.. Christ! All of our family is in Midland so we had one Christmas on Christmas Eve, Three Christmases on Christmas Day, Two on the day after Christmas and one the day after that. Needless to say we were busy busy and tired.



Laney had such a wonderful time opening gifts and spending time with all the family. She loved opening the presents. She even tried helping others open up their presents. It was such a joy to watch Laney open up gifts and see the happiness in her eyes. What a wonderful Holiday we had :) We are so blessed to have Christ in our lives and so blessed that he gave us our precious Lil Laney bug and our awesome family and friends!


Loving on her Nanny.


Riding her Dora bike!! Her feet don't quite touch yet :)


Loving opening presents. That box is almost as big as she is!


Papa helping Laney with her Tickle me Elmo.


Laney with her very own chair.


Spending time with Cousin Parker.


Aunt CheChe and Aunt Ahhh!! On Christmas Eve.

Wonderful Time of Year

We baked some yummy oatmeal cookies this afternoon and we had fun making a mess in the kitchen and eating hot cookies right out of the oven. We put on Laney's snowman apron and she was such a big helper :) (She thought anyways).



And of course we had to eat a few cookies too... well maybe more like 4 or 5 :)




We cannot believe that Christmas is already a few days away. Though we love spending time with family and friends, and we love the yummy food, the hustle and bustle, seeing the excitement on faces when opening gifts... we should not forget the real importance of this season... Christ! As we run around and enjoy every minute of this season we will remember what Christ means to us in our lives and how he has blessed us with so much that we don't even deserve! We hope that everyone has a wonderful and meaningful Christmas!!

SANTA LAND

Laney made a visit to Santa tonight and surprisingly had a great time. We went to Santa Land in Lubbock and looked at all the pretty lights and saw Santa from a distance but the line was insanely long and it was freezing so we hurried along and decided to visit Santa at the mall. Laney seemed very excited to him. She was waving and saying Ho Ho Ho. (Super cute by the way). When Santa got closer she was a little unsure but he sat her on his lap and read a book to her. She cried for about 30 seconds and then decided he was an alright guy.


In the car headed to see Santa!



In front of the fire and pretty lights at Santa's land!


And she actually sat on his lap and we got a decent picture.



Laney....Mommy and Daddy are so very proud of you! We love you!

Oh Christmas Tree

We put our Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving this year. We put Laney to bed one night and got the urge to go ahead and take advantage of our time and get it done. Maybe next year Laney can help us put the ornaments on the tree. Laney has been very good with the tree for the most part and has left the ornaments alone and not touched the presents (we were a little worried about that since she is in to everything at this age) :) She woke up the next morning and was surprised to see the pretty tree.


Laney posing in her snowman shirt.. saying "cheese"


This was Laney last year in front of her very own tree... This tree wasn't put up this year. We were afraid of her trying to eat the small ornaments. So crazy how much she has grown!!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

With all the snow and freezing weather lately our little Laney Bug has been making sure that she is all bundled up and warm!


She is putting on her gloves and hat (all by herself)



Walking around Allredge Gardens in Midland.. all bundled up!



Putting on Mommy's boots to keep her feet warm!


They are almost as big as she is :)

Elmo Live

It is so amazing to see your child enjoy something so much! Something as small as seeing Elmo Live made Laney so happy! She danced, sang and clapped the whole entire hour and a half. I think she yelled "Elmo" at least twenty times. It was too cute!!! She didn't even get restless a bit. Landon had to work so Nanny and Papa offered to go with us. It was such a fun experience so we will definitely plan to go again.

* So Thankful *

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are so thankful for the many blessings we have. We left for Midland last Tuesday to visit with our family and have our 5 Thanksgiving dinners. We were busy, busy, busy. We ran around all week but enjoyed every moment of it with our family and friends. We are very thankful for no more turkey though :)




Now that we are home it is time to go again. Laney and I will be going to Elmo Live in Odessa tomorrow night with Nanny and Papa. Landon will be driving down Wednesday night for his upper GI and sonogram on his esophagus Thursday morning. Please keep him in your prayers.

Busy, Busy, Busy.... that is part of the fun in this Holiday season!

Laney's First time Eating Chicken and Dumplings

My absolute favorite meal is my Memaw and Papaw's Chicken and Dumplings. I made some for Laney lastnight and she loved them too. She kept saying more, more, more.

*Precious Moments Caught on Tape*

Here are a few videos we thought we would share!


Laney getting ready for bed! (Almost 18 months)




Feeding Elmo!




Flash Back!!! Laney's first time walking! (10 months old)





Laney LOVES when her daddy gets out the video camera. He faces the screen so she can see herself and she runs up to the camera and just looks at herself. This makes it hard to get good videos of her :)

Thirsty ?!?

Laney is sharing her juice with Elmo and her baby doll! She likes to feed them goldfish too. Notice in the bottom picture that her tongue is out... she likes to make a slurping sound while they are drinking :) 

Too cute!!

17 months and 2 weeks old!

Just thought we would share Laney's favorite words and favorite things to do:


Words she can say:


*Momo (for Elmo)
*Nana (for Banana)
*Family members names
*Bubble
*Bow
*Hi
*Bye
*Makes all kinds of animal noises (dog, bird, lion, cat, fish face, cow, monkey, etc)
*Dodo (for Dora the Explorer)
*Shoe
*Sock
*More (Her favorite while standing in front on the fridge)
*Thank you
*Neeee (for please) 
*Balloon


(She also babbles tons of words and sentences but we can't understand any of it. She will just tell you all about it though).


Her favorite things to do:


*Watch Elmo every morning at 9:00 while eating her breakfast
*Read books.. she could do this all day long it seems
*Ride her little horse
*Dance
*Pull the dogs tails
*Hold the dogs
*Take baths
*Eat, Eat and Eat
*Sit at the computer desk until Mommy makes her get down
*Play in her room with her toys and play outside
*And last but no least... she loves to play in the dog's water bowls :)


She definitely keeps me busy but I wouldn't change it for the world!

Potty Training Here we Come!!!

So.. we are about to try to take a huge step in our lives and in Laney's... potty training! I really think that Laney is ready or at least getting there. Every time we are in the bathroom Laney gets so excited and yells "Tee Tee".  She will also hold her diaper and say "Tee Tee".  I was told to go ahead and buy her a little potty so that she can sit there when we go and that will get her used to the potty. I found an Elmo potty (since she is obsessed with Elmo lately) and she has not had a single problem with sitting on her big girl potty!! She runs in the bathroom and says "Momo". She is so smart so I am hoping that she picks this up with no problem.. we shall see! She hasn't actually tee-teed in the potty yet but she has done sooooo well with sitting on it. Actually tonight when we were giving her a bath we sat her on the potty for a few minutes then she got up and stood beside the bath tub and peed there. She is our little stinker :) But I know with time she will catch right on!

It is so crazy how things change when you become a parent. I would have never thought I would be buying my daughter Elmo and Dora things. The things that annoyed me now I find myself getting excited over because they are so cool to Laney. I was actually looking for Laney some Elmo pajamas for Christmas since she is so in love :) SO funny how things change!! I actually really like the change. I am hoping to buy tickets for Laney to see Elmo Live.

This makes me laugh!!

This was Halloween Day!! She was not happy about this costume!! I was not laughing then but I can't help but laugh now looking back at these pics!

She was saying Nanny please help me!! Take this off me!!

So Thankful!!

We had our first out of town trip with our youth group in First Baptist Tahoka and we had a blast!! We left early Saturday morning and headed to Floydada for a Disciple Now. We took 29 students and 5 leaders. I am so grateful for our awesome students and the great time that we had getting to know each other. It is so awesome to see our students get closer to God and to see him move in their lives. We have a GREAT group of kids and we are so excited to grow so close to them :) We headed home from our fast and tiring weekend Sunday and on the way home the church van overheated but that didn't ruin our awesome weekend!! We arrived a little later than expected but we made it home safely.


Our little Laney Bug stayed with my mom Friday through Sunday and had a blast. Of course she is spoiled rotten now but as Landon says it's okay for that to happen every now and then from her grandparents :) I am so thankful that my mom and step dad help us out so much and take such good care of our little one. We didn't have to worry a single moment because we knew she was in great hands. Nanny and Papa bought Laney her first ring and she LOVES it! It is so precious. You can ask laney where her ring is and she holds out her arm and points to her beautiful ring! Too cute!! 


Landon and I were very happy to see Laney yesterday. We missed her very much!!

Laney is sitting at her Nanny's desk at work and thought she was pretty big :)

Aunt Camri holding Laney at her last Lee Pep Rally on Friday! Laney loves watching her cheer!

She is showing me her beautiful ring from Nanny and Papa!

Mallory Buck Photos!!

Laney and her cousin Parker!! Sweet kisses!

My Precious Laney. She means the world to us!!

Big Hugs!! She is so Loving :)

Laney's 2nd Halloween

Who would of thought putting on a Halloween costume would be so dramatic for a 17 month old?!? Laney's first Halloween at five months old was a breeze. We dressed her up as a big plump skunk and it didn't even phase her. Things went a little differently this year. I bought Laney's Halloween costume three months ago and was so excited about her wearing it. I had the cutest costume and knew that she would just love it.. but boy was I wrong! Halloween day we go to put her outfit on and she hates the thing. She cried and cried and tugged at the furry Lamb costume. She cried Mama, Dada for a whole hour begging us to take it off of her. We were giving her cookies and juice to take her mind off of it. Finally I put on cartoons and that took her mind off of the furry costume for a bit. Once we were out and about and she saw that everyone else was dressed up and that she was getting lots of candy she was fine :) So after three chocolate bars and junior mints I finally got a picture of her in her costume that was at least decent. Hopefully next year her mom will pick a costume that won't bother her as much and she will remember the fun time she had and all the attention she got!! 


Laney looking at all the costumes.. there was some scary ones and some interesting ones also!

Saying "cheese" after her handful of chocolate!

Our wonderful youth group that helped with the games at Trunk or Treat!!

Our little Lamb!!

Mommy and her little angel!

What a scare!

We have been going crazy here lately. Running all over the place it seems. On Monday Landon went to the doctor in Lubbock because his throat had been hurting for almost a week. I received a text from him saying get ready we have to head to Midland. So Laney and I got ready as fast as we could and on to Midland we went. All I could think of was the worst thing.. something is really wrong. Well come to find out he needed to be checked by Dr. Best in Midland since he had been going to him for a long time. On the ride to Midland all Landon and I could think was that his esophagus was closing or he had really bad erosion in his esophagus. At his appointment with Dr. Best he thought that it is just heart burn causing his sore throat. (Thank goodness). So Landon has been taking very strong heart burn medicine and his throat is almost cleared up. But Landon does have to get a GI done to check his esophagus to see what is causing the heart burn to be so bad. We are praying that it isn't anything to bad and it can be taken care of with medicine. I am thankful that the news was great and that he is feeling so much better and is able to eat, finally!

Chubbs!!

Laney LOVES to eat!! This was her eating a whole banana right before her lunch yesterday!! She cannot get enough food for her chubby little self!

~ME~

I saw this on a friend's blog and decided to fill one out myself!

I AM... a mommy to a precious busy busy 17 month old and a wife to a wonderful husband who I would do anything for!

I WANT... to have my house completely unpacked and things hung up on the wall. It is driving me crazy having things laying around. You would think that being here for a month already things would be done but it seems that there is not enough time in the day.

I HAVE... a blessed and wonderful life. Sometimes we take for granted what we have until it's gone. I thank God every day that I have with my precious family.

I KEEP... too much!!! But this move I have let go of alot of things. I have 5 boxes and 2 huge plastic trash sacks full of things we are giving to goodwill. WooHoo- we have more space now.

I WISH I COULD... heal Landon's throat right now so that he is not in any pain. We are hoping that the heart burn medicine will clear it up and that nothing else is wrong medically.

I FEAR... losing my loved ones.

I HEAR... music that Laney is dancing too. (A Kid CD)

I DON'T THINK... I like the cold weather. I'm ready for it to hot again so that Laney and I can go swimming during the day.

I REGRET...NOTHING!! The things I have gone through is what has made me who I am today and helps with talking to teens about it.

I LOVE... the place that God has put us in for this time in our life. Our youth group is amazing and the people in Tahoka are wonderful! We fit right in :)

I AM NOT... good at hiding my emotions. If I am sad, mad, or want to cry you will probably know.

I DANCE... only when nobody is watching. I don't want to be laughed at :)

I SING... to Laney all the time.. and to Landon :)

I NEVER... want to be alone.

I CRY WHEN I WATCH... Laney do the sweetest things like give kisses and long hugs, when she said momma and dada the first time, the first time she blew a kiss..... all her firsts it seems.

I AM NOT ALWAYS... on time. One of Landon's pet peeves. I try hard to get ready in time but it doesn't always happen!

I NEED... groceries.

I SHOULD... be switching over the laundry.

Squeakers!!

Laney now owns a pair of squeaker shoes and she thinks they are so cool! It was hilarious when she first tried them on and took her first step in them. She stepped and they squeaked, she then looked back thinking that she stepped on something. But as soon as she took the second step she realized that she was making the noise with her shoes. Now she likes to run in them and dance because she loves the noise she makes. They are adorable pink ones with light pink polka dots. Thank goodness the squeaker comes out easily though because Landon and I would go crazy if we heard that squeak all the time.

Laney's FIRST Haircut

We never thought this day was going to come. But finally after 16 months and 3 weeks our sweet little Laney Bug got her first hair cut! Her hair is so baby fine and was not growing fast at all on the top but was only growing in the back. So instead of having a mullet we decided it was finally time. She did so good sitting in that big chair by herself. She was not to sure about the cape that was on her and was fine after we took it off. Her great grandmother had the honors of cutting her hair for the first time. Now hopefully this will help her hair to grow faster!! I am so ready for pig tails :)

Little Laney Bug

I am just sitting here posting pictures of Laney when she was a day old and I can't not believe that she is almost 17 months old. Where has the time gone? It feels like just months ago we were sitting in her nursery rocking her for the first time and now she won't even let you rock her at all. She would rather climb in the rocking chair and sit by herself. She has grown so much not only physically but mentally. She is now trying to repeat words that we say.. for instance.. banana, Laney, Elmo, Blue, Yellow (those are just a few of her favorites). She is counting to 3. She just carries on long conversations with us and of course we have no idea what she is saying. She just babbles and babbles. It cracks Landon and I up. She is our Love bug!! She loves giving kisses and hugs (this better not get her in trouble when she is older). She is such a joy in our lives and I am so blessed to get to spend days with her and watch her grow into a young girl (even though she will also be a baby to me).