Visit from the Lowry's!

Our sweet friends Travis & Amanda drove from Norman to Dallas and back all in one day (with 3 year old Carter and a 4 month old Greyson)...just to hang out with us for a few hours! So nice! We had fun watching the kids play together and catching up. Amanda and I even got to sneak out for a quick trip to the mall. Thanks guys!!!

Greyson is so cute and happy!

23 Months!

Well, this will be my last post in months. Bryce and Laney's 2nd birthday will be here in 3 weeks! I haven't done a Mr. Bear post since 17 months so it was time. It was a little more challenging since they think it's fun to stand on the couch these days...

Laney at 23 Months:

Verbal- She has long conversations on her play phone! Sometimes for 15 minutes or more...
Eats- She eats almost anything that we eat...but doesn't like any other vegetables except green beans and carrots.
Sleeps- From 7:30pm to 7:30am, takes one nap for 1 -1 1/2 hours around 1pm
Diaper Size- 4
Wears Size- 9-12 months or 12-18 months
Shoe Size - 3
Favorite Toy- her phone
Favorite Book- ABC book
Favorite Song- Ring Around the Rosie
*She's quickly become a pretty steady walker. She is very funny and loves to do things to make us laugh! She enjoys getting out and is really social!

Bryce at 23 Months:

Verbal- He knows lots of words and especially likes the animal noises.
Eats- He is getting better but is still a little picky. Green beans are the only vegetable he will eat! Sleeps- From 7:30pm to 7:30am, takes one nap for at least 2 hours around 1pm
Diaper Size- 4
Wears Size- 12-18 months or 18-24 months
Shoe Size - 5 or 6
Favorite Toy- Elmo, Abby and Cookie Monster figures- Books
Favorite Book- Curious George and Elmo
Favorite Song- If you're happy and you know it!
*He is running and climbing on everything. He loves music, dancing and being chased! He's also very affectionate right now...especially with Laney. So sweet!

Bryce climbing his first tree!

I guess little boys (and I'm sure some little girls) just have an instinct about climbing trees! Today we were playing outside for the first time in a while and Bryce walked right over to a small tree in our back yard and was trying to climb it. :) I didn't get the best pictures by the time I ran in for the camera but you can kind of see what he was doing!

Laney was hanging out playing with the leaves!

Cute Laney!

Laney's new jacket...she insisted on wearing it all night after I had her try it on...even though she was burning up! She was also much more interested in putting her fingers in the blocks than building anything. :) Laney LOVES to clean everything these days.

Such a fun Christmas!

This Christmas was so fun! Last year we couldn't do Christmas with the cousins since Laney couldn't be around other kids. This year we had no restrictions!!! It was great!

Grandma and Grandpa with all 3 grandkids! Little Hunter's 1st Christmas!

There's just no way to get everyone looking!

Christmas Eve after church...
Jace & Laney...such sweet cousins hugging!

Aunt Renee with Jace!

Thanks to Granddad coming out in the ice we have pictures from Christmas morning! So nice of him! Here's the new kitchen!

Laney washing her hands in the sink...

Grandmom with the kids!

And Granddad too!

The best one of the 4 cousins we could get!

Cousin Cade sitting so nicely...

Not so lucky with the other boys!

This is my favorite one though!

Laney's Walking!

We're so excited that Laney started walking today!!!! For the past few days she'd been walking holding just one of our hands. This morning she figured out that she could stand up from sitting by herself and stay up for about 15-20 seconds. Then tonight right before bed she got brave and took 4 steps without us prompting her. We convinced her to do it about 5 more times! I think we have another walker... :) Watch out!

Happy 3rd Birthday Ava!

My friend Shaina's little girl Ava turned 3 last week! She's the one in the back in the red long sleeve shirt...so cute! Her party was at Pump It Up and Bryce & Laney loved it. Here's the group picture that Bryce was too busy for. :)This picture is so funny to me! Bryce was having a blast and smiling bigger than I've seen him before!

Laney also loved to bounce!

Thanks for a great party Ava!!!! Happy Birthday!

LifeGroup Christmas Party!

We had another fun party this year! Thanks Toby & Melanie for planning and hosting!

We love the xylophone!

This is my first attempt at posting a video! Bryce and Laney both love playing the xylophone!

Merry Christmas to you!

Our good friend Steve braved another photo shoot with us a few weeks ago. He did such a great job...thanks Steve! It's not easy to convince Bryce and Laney to stay still for long these days. We were grateful for help from Grandmom too! Here's the link for Steve...he's such a good photographer and reasonable too: http://www.stevenhodgsonphotography.com. I also added it to the sidebar for future reference. We hope that everyone has a great Christmas!

Bracelets!

Aren't these meant to be bracelets?

The Allen Playhouses

This was a few weeks ago but after Kevin's birthday lunch we took Bryce and Laney to the Allen playhouses! They're perfect for the stage that they're at. Here they are in the bank!

They also have a maze...Bryce had a blast pushing Laney through it in the stroller! He's so helpful...

Our first Thanksgiving with Hunter!

We had a great first Thanksgiving with Hunter! He looked adorable and was so good the whole time. Even with 3 kids under 2 years old we all managed to sit down and eat together! Hunter took a little nap and Bryce & Laney ate with us this year. They loved Thanksgiving food!!!

Laney waving bye to Hunter!

Playgroup at our house!

We hosted our first playgroup recently and it went great! Sadly I didn't get any pictures with Laney but she was there and had fun!

The little table in the kitchen was perfect for eating lunch. Shane and Cambry hanging out while the older kids were eating!Carson and Bryce playing with blocks and puzzles.Bryce watching his friends leaving! He stands in the window every time someone leaves until they drive away. It's so cute!

A Year Ago...

I have a really pretty engraved frame that Kevin gave me for my first Mother's Day. For the past year it's had Bryce and Laney's Halloween picture in it. Today I replaced it with this year's. Of course that made me think about all of the events since last Halloween. Whew! We're very thankful to be where we are now and hoping for a much less eventful 2010!

Look how much they've changed!

I can't imagine what they'll look like next year!!

Trick or Treat!

First stop- Grandmom and Granddad's house!

Bryce is clapping for Granddad...clapping is his favorite thing to do these days!

Playing with Grandmom! She's so fun!Laney kept crawling in Aunt Renee's lap...so cute!

Now that's a cool costume, Granddad!

On to Grandma and Grandpa's! Bryce had this down!

Aww...Laney and Grandma!Trick or Treating in our neighborhood! We were only going to go to a house or two but ended up going to probably 10 after we got started. It's a good way to meet your neighbors...plus, they were having fun!

Look at all of our candy!!! The good news is that they're just fine playing with it and not eating it!

LifeGroup Halloween!

After LOTS of pictures this was the best one believe it or not! At least it shows all of the kids together.

Halloween at Southwest!

This year Kevin took off to take Bryce and Laney up to work with me for the Halloween events! They had fun seeing everyone and playing some of the kid games. It was a great day!

The Arboretum!

Our playgroup decided to check out the Arboretum and we had a great day! Here's our attempt at a group picture.

Cambry with her cute bow!
Parker...

Carson and Shane...

Our next group shot was a little harder with no strollers!

The girls! Laney was much more interested in playing than taking pictures!

The Pumpkin Patch!

Bryce had so much fun running around...he's very independent these days!

Hunter in his pack and play!

Isn't he cute! Hunter is doing great and almost back up to his birth weight. Amy is an amazing mom already!

Welcome Hunter Luke Jackson!

Yesterday was such a fun day for our family! Amy had a very smooth delivery and Hunter was born a healthy little boy yesterday afternoon. He weighed 8 pounds and was 19 inches long. He's so cute!! Amy did an amazing job...she was so calm throughout the whole day. Congratulations Amy & Jeff!

Bryce and Laney were funny! They just sat so quietly in their stroller while we all talked and held Hunter. I couldn't believe how long they sat there without making a peep!

Laney's surgery...

While surgery isn't really a fun topic for a post I wanted to include it anyway. One day Bryce and Laney can look back through the blog and see everything that went on while they were kids. Surgery was part of it for Laney! Here we are bright and early that Monday morning! She was so happy even though we woke her up well before she's typically up. :)

She's such a Daddy's girl!

Laney really handled everything at the hospital well. She's always been such a trooper! She's clearly not at her happiest here but we thought it was so cute that she loved that stethoscope so much. She kept holding it like this even when she was sleeping. :) Overall the surgery was successful and we're getting through all of the after surgery "stuff".

Naptime!

Although Bryce and Laney have the same nap schedule they don't sleep the same amount. So, we put one in their crib and one in the pack and play in the guest bedroom. This is usually how we find Laney at the end of her nap.
Bryce is our sleeper and needs at least 3 hours a day for naps. Laney just doesn't need much sleep and typically only sleeps around 1 1/2 - 2 hours. She spends the rest of the time taking her socks off and stretching them or playing with toys! The good news is that she's happy to stay in her crib until naptime is over. Here is how we usually find Bryce when it's time to get up:

Begging for food!

So, after we finished feeding Bryce and Laney lunch I grabbed my plate of a few (cold) eggs to eat really quickly before someone expected my full attention. This is what I ended up with...Bryce, Laney and my parent's dog all begging for my food. :) It was so cute!

Play date with Ava!

I didn't manage to get a very good picture but we had such a fun time with Shaina and Ava the week before last. Shaina is one of my high school drill team friends! We really enjoyed hanging out with her cute little 3 year old, Ava. Bryce was there too...he was just too busy for a picture!

Bryce is climbing!

We're in trouble! For the past couple weeks Bryce has started trying to climb on everything! The bench of this toy was one of the first things he tried. :) The fireplace was next.

Meet Greyson Bennett!

Greyson is Travis and Amanda's sweet little boy! He is almost a month old now but I got to visit him when he was 6 days old! He's so cute and I loved getting to spend the day in Norman with the Lowry's.

Our first playgroup!

I'm so excited because we've started going to our first playgroup! They're all kids from our small group at church. Our first time went great and was really fun!

Laney kept her new bow on the whole time! Yea! There was so much going on she forgot all about it. She finally has enough hair for it! Their cute friend Parker!

Silly Laney!

I'm not sure why but Laney thinks it's so funny to eat her food leaning over like this sometimes! Kids are so messy!