Catching Up (Always!)

Cute Walker. He never just has "one" sucker. He always has two. And he does this with both of them. :) I think he looks like a walrus.

This is a picture of Tuck next to the Vietnam Veterans Monument. Lainey's school celebrated Veterans Day last Friday with a few songs (sung by the first grade) and a wonderful slideshow. It got me a little choked up. Especially because there are two brothers at Lainey's school whose parents (both Mom and Dad) are serving overseas right now. Anyway, it was a memorable experience and we're going to make sure that Tuck attends in person next year. :) 

Lainey, proudly supporting her dad's hospital's play area at Willow Bend Mall. :) 

Halloween WEEK!

Such a fun week at our house!

Morgan and Lainey, before their Halloween party at dance on Tuesday

Walker at his Halloween party on Wednesday

another picture from that day (Wednesday)

Lainey, sorting her coins before Halloween...her school is collecting coins this week as part of a fundraiser! However, she had a mini meltdown when her "brown, moldy pennies" got mixed up with her "shiny, clean pennies." :) That's a Friday afternoon for ya!

We attended our old neighborhood's annual Halloween party. We loved it. I wish we could have stayed longer!

Lainey dressed up as Jessie from the movie Toy Story and Walker was a skeleton for the third year in a row. He just has no desire to wear a costume! Maybe next year... 

one of my favorite pictures from the night

my little skeleton

Morgan joined us! She dressed up as a movie star! She even had an Oscar and two security guards. Lucky girl!

And this picture cracks me up because it looks as if Morgan is pregnant and Lainey is holding her belly. :) Thankfully, that's not the case!

My favorite costume was this Lego guy. I loved it! Hilarious!

Walker and Mama

Walker loves drawing hearts and writing his name and my name. I now present to you a series of very similar, very sweet pictures. :) 

"Mom plus Walker equals Love" - Walker, age 4.5yrs.

"Mom" - Walker, age 4.5yrs. (In this picture, I'm a big green pumpkin.)

"Walker Loves Mom"  - Walker, age 4.5yrs. (There are also a few spiders in this picture.)

"Walker plus Mom equals Love" - Walker, age 4.5yrs. (And we drew a picture of his favorite car, Zoomie. I think Lainey helped Walker write his name, and I think she attempted to spell "Zoomie.")

(This is a picture of him inside his house. Those are two trees next to the house.)

This one is confusing. But it's a picture of "Mama and Walker walking."  - Walker, age 4.5yrs.

"Mom Heart (H-R-T) Walker."  - Walker, age 4.5yrs. Again, I think we're walking somewhere.

Silly String and Other Stuff

Lainey had a terrible stomach bug this week. She only missed two days of school...it was fast and furious! :( Yiyia delivered some silly string to cheer her up...and thankfully, she felt well enough (at this point) to play with it! 

And we had a lot of fun playing with the slo-mo feature on my new phone. These are "still" shots of the kids - hilarious. We just kept laughing and laughing. 

Lainey won the POW award at her school and Daddy was there to celebrate with her! (The POW award is like a citizenship award.) 

Sweet and Funny Moments

So sweet. Lainey has become quite a T-Ball fan. She loves cheering for Walker. She sits in the dugout with him and I've seen her do this (put her arm around him) a time or two. 

She also likes to cheer for him on the sidelines. And maybe not at the most appropriate times. :) I took this picture of the girls a couple of weeks ago when Morgan joined us for one of Walker's games.

Lainey and her friend Jacob...at the Fall Festival at their elementary school. Isn't he so stinking cute? He is her Kindergarten teacher's son. They are cute friends.

And my friend Christine and I decided to dress up in old/unclaimed costumes at the dance studio. I'm not totally sure why we did this. But it was fun, and it seemed appropriate at the time! :) I'm sure our kids were just a little embarrassed. :)

Playing "YouTube"

A mom knows she should be concerned when...her children are playing "YouTube." The quote I got from Walker was, "Mom. We're pretending we're on YouTube. We're showing how the {Hot Wheels} Color Changers work." I wasn't sure if I should be proud of them for properly demonstrating a "how-to" or concerned that they were pretending to be on YouTube. :) 

Our Mornings

Ok, yes. This is what I look like in the mornings! :) Every day, I walk Lainey to school. Sometimes Walker comes with us; it depends on whether Ben is home or not that particular morning. Whenever Walker goes with us, I let him just walk over in his jammies...mostly because I'm only slightly removed from mine. :) Sometimes, he brings his ducky blankies (as he did today) and most of the time, he's barefoot. A friend of mine snapped this picture of us so that I could remember this moment in time. I'm so glad she did. I know he won't be carrying his blankies to Kindergarten next year (well, at least, I hope not) and I'm pretty confident he won't be wearing jammies. :) Anyway...this is just a small glimpse into our mornings. Good thing Kim captured the picture this morning as opposed to Monday morning...walking to school in a monsoon was not all that fun. Walker cried and clung to me like a monkey and Lainey just wanted to walk through the muddy puddles. :) 

Happy Wednesday!

Walker's Picture for Mommy

Translated: "Walker + Mom = LOVE." (The red/yellow heart means "love.") He's the sweetest. Ben told me he was drawing this message in the dirt at T-Ball practice, too. With the end of his bat. :) Ha! After Walker wrote this cute message for me, he drew a picture of a "bottom." That's a boy for you. Sweet words one minute, potty-talk the next!

Here and There

To post a few random, not-very-significant events....

Lainey and four other kids from church did a video about stewardship for our church; they sat at a table with Don, our pastor, while he asked them questions about what they thought "stewardship" meant. Hilarious. The little girl to the left of Lainey (her friend, Ava) answered the questions pretty well. Lainey did a lot of smiling and coloring! Ha! 

(a still shot)

Ladies' Night at Bonnie Ruth's in Allen with my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. Love them!

And Lainey...one morning before school. :) 

A Flash Mob and a Big Sis

Every year, at Lainey's dance studio, they pair up Big Sisters with Little Sisters. It's a great program; the "Bigs" serve as role models/mentors for the "Littles." The week leading up to the "Big Reveal" (where the Littles find out who their Bigs are) clues are provided to the Littles (by the Bigs) so that they can guess who their Big will be. :) Even with clues, Lainey had no idea who her Big was. It was so fun for her!

The Bigs (pictured here) surprised the Littles (and all of their parents) with a Flash Mob at the Shops at Legacy in Plano. It was awesome - it gave me goosebumps! It was SO cool and such a memorable event!

some Bigs in the middle of the street :)

The Littles and their parents. Kind of awe-struck.

Smiles from Lainey. :)

AND, it was revealed that her Big was Ilana! SHE LOVES ILANA. And Morgan got Ilana's sister, Devyn! I've actually known Devyn and Ilana (through their mom) since they were very young; it's kinda neat how small our world really is. 

I have a lot of love and respect for Ilana. She's going to be an amazing role model for Lainey this year! 

This is the group. About 66 girls...minus one or two. :) I'm looking forward to this year of dance; we will be busy, for sure, but it'll be exciting and fun-filled. :)