Balloon Festival

Lainey's dance team performed at the Plano Balloon Festival on Saturday morning! So fun - the girls were hilarious. Please excuse the major picture overload. :) I was having a hard time deciding which ones were my favorites!!

Lainey and Allison

attempting to get a group picture (failed)

flexible, bendy girl :)

the girls' teacher, Ms. Tammy

dancing to Katy Perry's song "Firework"

 blowing a kiss to the crowd

Freestyle dance time! Audience members welcome! (Yes, that is Lainey's cousin Ella up there next to her!)

 Kate, Brooke, and Cally - they did great! And they were so brave to get up there and dance!

 I love this look of total confusion on Lainey's face. This was in the middle of the dance. Not sure she really had time to be confused!! :)

Lainey and her friend Kelsey. So cute. I quickly realized on Saturday that Lainey is not the only one who poses for pictures these days!!

Lainey's New Trick

I am not sure when/where she learned how to do this! Crazy girl knows how to do a one-handed cartwheel. She says that she "just thought about it in her head" and then tried it. Well, okay. She's certainly more coordinated than I ever was!

And this is a picture Lainey made for me yesterday. She got mad at me for something I had said to her  (I was trying to keep her from playing in the ants that had gotten into our sandbox...but that's another story...) so she ran inside, drew this picture as an "invitation" for me, and ran outside to give it to me. It's a mad face. And this was her way of showing how mad she was at me. Thanks, kiddo...this will be going into your baby book. It made me laugh so hard!

And, for my third random part of this post, Lainey has gotten quite good at putting a rubber band into her hair! It's not perfect (by any stretch of the imagination) but it does the job...it holds her hair in place and I am grateful for this small act of independence on her part!

Walker's Funny Quirks

A few funny quirks about Walker:

1. He is obsessed with seeing "wheels" on the cars we park next to. He likes to be able to see them from his window, before he gets out of his car seat. But that doesn't happen very often. So as soon as he's out of his car seat, he checks out the "wheels." He likes finding wheels on airplanes, helicopters, anything. "I see wheels!"

2. He also likes having his plate completely filled. I have a lot of those little compartmentalized plates...with sections...and if I don't put food in one or two of them he immediately requests that I do so.  "Food here! Food here!" That's what he tells me. Okaaaayyyyy.... Now whether he eats it or not is a different story! :)

3. He loves singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and man, this boy can be set to "repeat." He will sing it with such enthusiasm (well, as much enthusiasm as a 2-year-old boy can muster) and he just likes it. His music teacher at school says he likes to participate in class. :) Cute Buddy.

4. When he plays with his trains, they have started greeting each other with, "How you doin'?" I can't help but think of Joey from the TV show Friends.

5. He likes to put his blankie over his head and pretend he's a "ghost."

6. He calls a "caboose" a "caloose." :) (Love that one.) He calls a "fire truck" a "sigh tuck."

7. Whenever he sees a baby, specifically his friend Brayden's baby sister named Camryn (whom he calls "Pamyn"), he says, "Doosey doosey doo!" and pretends to tickle their head. I think he means "gitchi gitchi goo" but I'm not even sure where he would have picked that one up...?

8. He loves birthday parties and is pretty good at singing "Happy Birthday." Cuteness.
9. Whenever he gets a treat - like a sucker or a peppermint - he ALWAYS gets one for Sissy first. Always. Then he chooses the one that he wants. :)
10. He loves, loves, loves quesadillas. He would like to have them for every single meal. And interestingly enough, "quesadilla" is a word he can say quite clearly!
11. He does not like tags. On jammies or shirts. I think this is a boy thing...I know quite a few boys like this.
12. He likes to "match" things - and point out things that "match." :)
13. He randomly says "I love you, Daddy" and "I love you, Mommy." I think he says this more often to Ben, but I'm happy to take what I can get. :) It's so sweet.
14. "Who dat?" is a very popular question of his. Whenever he hears a loud sound or an unfamiliar voice, he asks, "Who dat?"
15. Walker does NOT like to be referred to as a "baby." He is very motivated by the "big boy" status. He will always say, "I NOT a baby. I dig boy!" (He has trouble with the "b" in "big.")

This is a sweet picture of Audrey and Walker taken yesterday at school. They are lucky enough to be in class together on Fridays, and on this particular Friday, they held hands and walked into the classroom together. So, so cute. Lainey also loves little Audrey. And Audrey loves her right on back! They are a cute pair and Lainey is awfully sweet to her...much sweeter than she is to her little brother!

The Bean

This is Lainey in full form. Always posing in some random "dance move" and this day, she was wearing her sassy new shorts and loving them. They are pretty cute. :) I titled this post "The Bean" because that is what I've come to call Lainey's little belly. As you can see, her little tank top rides on up and her shorts ride on down...as her dance teacher Miss Annie said, "It's like trying to put shorts on a bean!" And I think that's the best description of Lainey's sweet little belly that I've ever heard! Anyway, here are a few funny pictures of our little extrovert. :)

Please excuse my crazy photos. My flash was off, the lighting was bad, and I played around in Photoshop a little too much and then got tired of playing around too much so I kept the photos "as is."

A Few iPhone Memories

August 26th, 2012: heading to church

September 6, 2012: visiting Grandmother in Fort Worth

Lainey and her second cousin, Lucie (who did not want to be pinned down)

Happy Lucie!

September 11, 2012: a little shaving cream paint

 And then this is what happened after shaving cream paint. He was SO tired. Our kids never do this stuff...they were never ones to fall asleep at the table, at the pool, in an Exersaucer, etc... Lainey has fallen asleep on the couch (while watching TV) just one time, and this was the first time Walker had ever fallen asleep on the couch (also while watching TV). By 7:45 p.m., this little one was OUT. So sweet. So up to bed he went!! 

September 13, 2012: driving home from Lainey's dance class

 Such a stud. :)