Pre-halloween and Pre-birthday happenings

I guess it's obvious from this picture that Landry is trying like crazy to crawl.  So far she can't figure out the forward movement, but scoots backward and can hold the plank/push-up position for a lot longer than I can!

One of Avery's favorite things to do is go and get her baby sister out of bed.

Kanyon came over to play for his big last hoorah before going under house arrest for the winter.  He and Avery went on a wagon ride around the backyard and Avery showed him how she could throw rocks in the pond.  

Carving pumpkins with Daddy.

Paris has a Pumpkin Festival every October and we had another good time this year.  We got almost no good pictures because Avery has decided to only like the camera some of the time and that day was not a camera-friendly day.  Here's Landry though.

Avery did get a spin in the petting zoo which she of course loved.  She thinks all animals are the greatest things ever right now.

Which made the pony ride a hit too!

Unfortunately this is the only decent picture I got of Rosie and Avery together... still cute though.

Look at my little girls playing in the sandbox together.  Do you think they'll always play this nice?

Concentrating on her pumpkin painting...

Ta-Da!

Old pictures, but too fun to pass up

My parents came into town this weekend (the subject of a later post) and brought their camera.  There were some pictures on it that I had forgotten about from a mini-vacation me and the girls took to their house.  So these are outdated, but who cares, right?

This one is of Landry the very first time she sat up by herself.  She was just over 5 months old.

We went to feed the ducks at the neighborhood pond.

Me and Avery are big fans of the playground.

I thought this one was too sweet with her little legs crossed.

Avery also learned that she LOVES the trampoline at my mom and dad's.  I get a good workout now when we go.  It also happens to do wonderful things to her hair!

I LOVE this picture.  It's a framer for sure.  I was running around the neighborhood one morning and just happened by a garage sale with kids' clothes.  I took a look and found this cute little pinstripe baseball dress with my dad's old number on it in the Atlanta Braves colors.  It was perfect!  So we obviously had to have a photoshoot with Landry dressed in her tribute to her Pop.  That's his old helmet she has on and he is in his old cap.  I think this is one she will cherish (I know I do).

I'll leave you with this and go work on my next post.  I'm going to try multiple short ones instead of my typical ridiculously long ones.

The Yamboree and other assorted fun

Well this last weekend was Yamboree weekend, the weekend where much of East Texas comes together in the town of Gilmer to celebrate sweet potatoes... or something like that.  Our family are big fans of this annual event.

Avery was a huge fan of the livestock this year.  She has reminded several times of the animals she saw.  Her favorite were the cows I think.

Cruisin' the livestock auction

Avery was elated to find out there were more cows when we got to Nanny Lou's house.  She likes to talk to them, in their native tongue of course.

Enjoying the parade

Avery informed me her favorite parts of the parade were the princesses, music and cows (there weren't any cows in the parade, but she likes them nonetheless).

Somewhere in all our fun, Landry turned 6 months!  What happened to our time?!?!  She's sitting up and trying really hard to crawl.  She can only get into the plank position now though.

We took the girls to the Farmers' Market to pick out pumpkins.  Avery had a hard time decided which ones she wanted.  First she filled her stroller with the "baby punkins".

Then she reassessed her choices when she saw the giant pumpkins.

We finally decided on one "baby punkin" and one "big girl punkin".

Good choice!

Another highlight of this fall has been Avery's early birthday present.  Clay built her a sandbox in the backyard.  She and Landry have loved it!  We wanted it to be a birthday surprise, but were a little perplexed as to how to hide an 8x8 sandbox.  Avery doesn't get dates anyways.  Happy birthday early!

Landry is starting to realize there's more to food than mushed up fruits and veggies.  I'm not sure I'll be able to hold her off much longer.

Tara, this picture is for you.  Great birthday gift idea!  The stroller goes with us everywhere (as you can see from the pumpkin picking).  It is not unusual for the stroller to sleep with Avery either.  Thanks for the great gift!

My mom has also donated our old Halloween ghost from when I was a kid to our family.  Avery loves it and likes to go outside to ask him how he's doing a lot.

And I'll leave you with some random fall fun shots.

Bye!

Avery singing

No picture, just sound.  Enjoy!

For Julie

Well I finally did it.

I have had a couple of things I wanted to do for years now and I've finally done them, both of them to honor of my wonderful friend, Julie Phillips.  I am confident that God blessed me with her because He knew I needed someone like her in my life.  I was not and am not the quickest to make close friends, but we became sidekicks right away.  There was nothing not to like about her.  She was funny, carefree, imaginative, and knew how to have fun.  At the age of only 14, she went to be with our Maker after a hard fight with leukemia.  I still miss her friendship.  I think about her a lot.  God taught me a lot about life through her and I am grateful for the time He blessed me with.  

Watching her fight with leukemia, I remember always feeling helpless.  Two times in particular I remember being mad that I couldn't do something to help.  One was when she lost all her hair from her chemo treatments.  It made me so mad that I had just cut off lots of my hair and if I hadn't done that she could have used it (which she couldn't have, but in my 11-12 year old mind it would have been simple).  The other was when they were looking for a bone marrow donor.  A big donor search was done and I was too young to be tested.  I remember thinking that I was plenty old enough to decide if I wanted to give her my bone marrow (again, at that age I didn't even know what that meant, but it didn't matter).  

So, back to my original statement... I finally did it.  I'm on the National Marrow Donor List and I've finally donated my hair to Locks of Love.  I wanted to post about it because I wanted to encourage some of you to do the same.  I realize the Locks of Love is not for everyone... it took me over 2 years to finish that goal.  BUT, registering with the Donor List IS for almost everyone.  It is SO easy and every person counts when it is someone you love in need of a donor.  So take a few minutes and visit www.marrow.org.  You don't even have to go to a blood center, everything is done online and through the mail.  They send you a packet and all you have to do is swab the inside of your cheek a few times and mail it back.  It seems like very little effort for something that could potentially save a life.  Please comment and let me know if you decide to register.  I would love to know!

Me with my Locks of Love ponytail.

My last picture with all my hair... a tribute to Cousin It!  :)

I'm going to declare this a picture post.  I don't really want to write a lot otherwise I'll never post this thing.  The kids are doing great and we are keeping busy (as evidenced by my lack of posting).  This is absolutely not in any kind of order... and it spans sort of a long period of time, so if Landry looks older in the first ones, it's because I'm not even going to try to put these in sequential order.  Enjoy the new pics of the girls!

She looks way too grown up here

My Papaw and a tired Avery on his 75th birthday

5 month old picture

zoning out to the Jungle Book in her special box recliner

Landry's 4 month picture... I told you they weren't in any order

Come see us again Evie!!!!!

and Lola!

One of Avery's favorite seats in the house, much to her mother's chagrin

Thanks Brian!  Avery keeps asking about the boat and swimmie, swimmie when this picture comes up on our screen saver

Our first time as a flower girl in cousin Julie's wedding

Avery found some of Clay's underwear in a pile of folded laundry, looks like she gets the idea

We had a great time at the Woodall's riding horses before Tara and JM left for Costa Rica.  Avery asks about Sunny (the horse) almost everyday and calls every horse she sees Sunny.  I think we need to go back soon.

We miss y'all!!!!!

My last picture of Kellan before they left... appropriately in Avery's shoes :)

This is about how I feel today so I'm gonna wrap this up and rest... HA!  I guess I should really wrap this up and go cook supper.  Rest will come soon enough. :)