Happy Halloween!

We had lots of fun this Halloween. We were really hoping to bring her to Rock Ranch, a very cool place about an hour from here, but the weather would not allow it. Instead we took her to Barnes and Noble and Toys R Us early in the day. And then I took her to the Fall Festival at the Church Cory worked at this summer. Sadly, Cory was not able to go with us this evening because he had another engagement at the BCM, but Landry surely had a blast. Her favorite thing was the jump house. It was small and designed for toddlers, so I didn't have to worry about any big kids pummeling her. However, since we took our last trip home, Landry has been screaming at people randomly when she doesn't want them to come near her. So anytime a new kid would come in, she would scream and I would have to pull her out for a time-out. As you can imagine, this got VERY tiring for me. But consistency pays off, right? Oh please say it pays off!! When we got home, Landry was so wired. She wanted to show off all her candy to Daddy, and she was talking up a storm. I'm crossing my fingers that the later bedtime will insure a longer sleep time, since we are supposed to gain an hour tonight. Here are pictures from our day.

Hamming it up on the kids' stage at Barnes and Noble. Her favorite thing to do there.

Our little Rocker! Check out the shoes!

Sing it girl!

Here is Landry in the bounce house

Eating Cotton Candy

Bean Bag Toss

Hope everyone else had a great day as well! Can't wait to see pics of everyone dressed in costume!

Baby Babble - Week 20

So here are the belly pics from this week.

When I lifted my shirt for a picture, Landry came running and wanted to insert her finger into my belly button of course. It made for a cute picture.

Then she decided to give the belly a kiss. Sweet girl!

I forgot to mention yesterday about our little boy's performance on camera. He waved at us, sucked his thumb, and gave us the peace sign. We never saw any of that from Landry so it was pretty cool. Everything checked out fine with him, but I will have to get another ultrasound next month so they can get a better picture of the spine. He wasn't laying the right way for them to get a good look at it.

Also, he is about 10 inches long right now and weighs about 3/4 of a pound. He's been very active in the mornings and at night. Every once in a while he gives me a nice strong kick that really surprises me. I Love It!

It's a.....

BOY!!

I've actually called this baby "little buddy" and "little guy" all along. But everyone else seemed to think it was a girl. I started believing this myself because my pregnancy has been pretty much identical to my pregnancy with Landry. So when the ultrasound tech showed us that we were definitely having a little boy, I was a little stunned. Maybe I should trust my first instinct.

We are so excited, however we would have been just as excited for another little girl. This will just be a new and exciting adventure for us. We are so blessed!!!

I will try to post another belly pic this evening. I think you'll definitely be able to tell a difference!

Happy Birthday Poppy!

Today we would like to send Poppy (or as Landry has been calling him "P.P.") special birthday wishes! We wish that we could spend all of our birthdays together, but that just not possible.

This is Landry and Poppy back in May. Isn't this the sweetest picture?

Here is Landry last year wishing Poppy a Happy Birthday

Here they are at the Park.

Here, Landry is making a card for Poppy. You can tell she had a good time!

We love you Poppy and hope you have had a wonderful birthday!

Did someone say pumpkins?

It is that time of year. The time I most love above all other seasons.....fall. I love the feeling I get when I feel that first cool breeze indicating fall is just around the corner. I love fall scents, fall colors, bonfires (to roast marshmallows of course), hot chocolate, sweaters, colorful trees, mums, and even football season. And who could forget..... PUMPKINS? Fall would not be complete without pumpkins.

Landry and I went with our M.O.P.S. group on Monday to the local pumpkin patch. We got to ride a hayride and each child picked out his or her own mini-pumpkin. Landry thought the hayride was a train and she kept saying "choo choo".

This is us on the hayride, my camera had the big zoom on it so the pic is tight.

This is Landry, Reece and Daniel getting ready to pick out their pumpkins

She enjoyed looking at all the pumpkins, but wanted to put them all back. I ended up picking out a cute little pumpkin for her.

When it came to picking out a pumpkin for our family to carve, I cheated and went to wal-mart. They were much cheaper and just as pretty.

We let Landry dig in the pumpkin.

But she was not too sure about the squishy pumpkin "guts".

We put Cory in charge of carving the pumpkin and he did a great job. He is proud of his masterpiece.

Landry's favorite part was picking up the pumpkin lid to see the lights inside

Oh Louisiana! (Part 1)

That is the title to a song by the great Wayne Toupes. It is a song that talks about the wonderfulness of Louisiana. Now some people might think that Louisiana and wonderful do not go together, but I assure you it does. This was not so clear to me until I moved away from my home state. Sure other states are nice, but no place is as unique as Louisiana and I miss it dearly!

On that note, we were so thankful that we were able to take an extra trip home this year. We normally only get to go home twice a year, once in the summer and once at Christmas. But since I am not working, and Cory had fall break at both schools, we were able to take a surprise trip. In this blog, I will post pictures from our Natchitoches leg of the trip. Once I get pics from my mom, I'll post the Lake Charles/Singer leg.

I took some super cute pictures of Landry at a Fall Scene in downtown Natchitoches.

Nana and Aunt Lindsay made Landry a butterfly cake. As you can tell, she thoroughly enjoyed it.

We also took Landry to the Alexandria Zoo. It was the perfect size for her to run around and have a good time. She was pretty independent the whole time we were there, but Cory and I managed to get a few pictures of her sharing moments with everyone.

Landry also enjoyed lots of playtime at Nana and Poppy's house.

Halloween Costume gone bad?

I'm pretty sure that's not the way the toy was meant to be played with

Daddy's already coaching her up in PoolWe had a great time! Check back in a couple of days to see the rest of our trip.

Baby Babble - Week 17

So last week I said that I didn't have a doctor's appointment till October 15, but we have decided to go out of town next week. So I rescheduled my appointment for today. It was short and sweet.....got my weight and blood pressure, then listened to the baby's heartbeat. Of course that is always the best part. Today it was about 140 beats per minute. I have felt wonderful and have had no problems at all. It's been a blessing! Also, I have felt subtle movements for a few weeks now, but this week was the first time I felt really strong kicks from the baby. I am anxious for them to get stronger! Here is a picture of what the baby is looking like at about 17 weeks.
He or she is about 5 oz. right now and 5 inches long. In the next month, the baby will double in size. Crazy right!?!

In other news, I am switching doctors. I have not been real pleased with my doctor throughout this pregnancy, mainly because I haven't even met her. When I asked the office when I would finally get to meet her, they told me November 30 I have an appointment with her. That was a problem for me. I would really like to have some sort of relationship with my doctor and meeting her when I am over halfway through my pregnancy is not exactly how that happens. Some friends of mine have ranted and raved about their OB doctor so I decided to give his office a call and see if he would accept me. At first they told me he was not accepting new OB patients. But once they talked to him about my situation, he changed his mind. I am so happy. This doctor is a Christian who is known for praying with his patients and listening to every little concern his patients may have. This sounds more like the kind of doctor I want during my pregnancy. I will see him October 21 and may even have an ultrasound then to determine the gender. I won't know until I get there, but I am very excited!

A Night at the Fair

The fair is going on right now in our city and we thought Landry might be at a good age to enjoy it. We headed downtown to partake in all the excitement. We were looking forward to letting Landry ride some of the kiddie rides. However, they were all super fast or the height limit did not allow adults to accompany their kids. The only thing that we were able to ride was the carousel. Of course Landry had just experienced the carousel a couple of weeks back, but she didn't care. When I asked her if she wanted to ride the horse, she jumped out of her seat.

And this carousel was different then the last one because it was about twice as fast as the last one. She loved it.
Also, while we were there, daddy took a chance at a game. He had 100 rounds to shoot all of the red star out of a card. He came really close.

We also shared a giant bag of cotton candy. As you can tell, Landry really enjoyed it.

Some of our college students were there. They won a cute little stuffed dog and gave it to Landry. She held on tight to it the rest of the night.

Most of the night, Landry sat quietly in her stroller just looking around at everything. I think she was mezmorized at all the interesting people, the sounds, and the lights. Overall, I think she had a great time.

Rodeo Clown

Landry dug in her drawers today and pulled out her LSU hat. She stuck it on her head backwards. Then she went into the bathroom, dug in my makeup bag and proceeded to open my blush compact and rub it on her cheek. This was what we saw when she came out....

All I could think was that she looked like the toddler version of a rodeo clown.

I had to bribe her with cookie to get her to look at me in the first picture. Here is a picture of her with her cookie.

Baby Babble - Week 16

Well. you asked for it and you got it..... another belly pic. Kate, I am still waiting on yours.

I am officially 16 weeks pregnant today. To be honest, not too much has changed from the last time I posted. I have felt movement here and there for a little while, but am looking forward to the next month when the movement will be really picking up. If we wanted to pay an extra $100 we could find out the gender of the baby now, but Cory and I opted to wait until the 20 week ultrasound. November 2 is the big day. Don't worry, we will keep everyone posted!

My next doctor's appointment is October 15. I'll give a short update then after I hear from the doctor.

In other news, Cory and I got a stomach bug yesterday which was miserable. We have never been sick at the same time before, and it made for a very interesting day with Landry. We think she may have had a touch of it the day before, because she ran a fever and had couple of yucky diapers. But we have been praying that she will not get the bug like we did. We have washed and disinfected the whole house!