Spaghetti, Hawgs & Sewing

Well, we've finally gotten back into our regular routine after such a hectic holiday season. Blake is still growing like a weed and surprises us daily with her vocabulary. Now is definitely the time Mom & Dad need to be careful about what they say around her. Yesterday, Lauren got to visit with one of her good friends from college, so that was a nice break to our typical boring routine. Blake had her first solo run with spaghetti. Here's a pic of our spaghetti stained kiddo.Heather & Pete bought Blake an Arkansas wind suit and beanie for Christmas. We're not exactly big HAWG fans, but we can't really think of any other team in the SEC that we would actually cheer for...so she got all dressed up for their bowl game. It's likely she was their good luck charm ;)
Lauren has recently started to utilize those sewing skills her Grandma Brune taught her. Hence, the stockings that you already saw and now this...
...baby wipes holder, a travel changing pad and stylish burp rags.
The travel changing pad has two compartments. One for the baby wipes holder and the other for diapers...or whatever anyone would like to use them for. It has a quilted top for comfort and a vinyl bottom for the easy baby wipe clean-up that Mom desires if necessary. It folds up nicely into a little bundle AND, Lauren can make them in whatever color schemes she chooses...pretty fancy-schmancy huh?! She's not really sure yet, but Lauren may try to sell some of these for extra cash. They are pretty functional and would make great baby gifts. You can never have enough burp rags. Well, that's it for now. Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and with less snow and cold weather than we have!

Adios, December!

We are happy to start a new year. This past December has been one crazy month for us. First off, Lauren had a miscarriage and had a D&C preformed on the 17th. We did know that she was pregnant but didn't find out that it wasn't a viable pregnancy until she was a little over 9 weeks along. The pregnancy hadn't developed past the 6th week, though. This isn't exactly the typical tell-the-whole-world type of news, but Lauren wanted to let everyone know because as she began asking questions about what was happening to her, she found support in those who were willing to share their stories. We'll avoid going into details but just know that you are more than welcome to reference Lauren if you know of anyone who has to go through something similar. There was comfort for Lauren in knowing that it really does happen to people that you know...not just people that someone else knows. Moving on, our December still had a few more bumps in store for us. On the 19th as we were driving from the airport in Wichita to Ponca to visit Lauren's family, we got the call that Lauren's grandfather (Ray Kramer - Deb's dad) had passed away. It was very unexpected. Lauren's parents caught a flight out to Indiana to attend the funeral while we stayed behind and looked after things in Ponca. Meanwhile, Oklahoma and much of the midwest got hammered with snow storms and Deb & JR didn't make it back to Ponca until late Christmas morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave on the 26th. We sat at the airport for over 3 hours on the 26th just to find out that our flight was cancelled and there were no open seats until the 29th. That actually wasn't too bad a set of news since it meant that we would be able to spend a few days with Lauren's parents. There wasn't much that we could do and Bob's work was ok with the change in plans.

Now on to the good stuff, we did get to have an early Christmas with Grandma, Grandpa, Chris, Katie & Collier. The cousins got to spend some quality time together and even shared a bath or two. Here's the little cuties after bath time.Uncle Chris posing with the girlsGrandma, Blake, Collier and Grandpa in front of the Christmas treeBlake's stash from Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa'sBlake & Daddy opening gifts...Blake had to make sure every piece of wrapping paper was off of the packages. It was pretty entertaining.The girls playing togetherCollier is so tiny that she was able to fit in the toy shopping carts that they got for Christmas!Not only do we have a beautiful little girl, we have the cutest little niece ever.
Collier and her daddyWe did Christmas at Grandma & Grandpa's on the 21st, so we didn't get a chance to visit Santa until after we had opened some gifts...O WELL. Here's Blake & the big guy.Blake had Christmas in Laurel on New Year's Eve due to our itinerary change. She got quite the loot.And, she had fun making a big mess with all her toys :o)Blake picked up some new words while in Oklahoma: snow (who saw that coming?!), cookie, quack (what the duck says), a grunt that is supposed to be oink (what the pig says) and she even squeaked out a few Grandma & Grandpa's to please the hosts. Well before signing off of this super long post, we have Lauren's favorite Blake story of the week:

Tudy Lockwood had brought over some of her AWESOME chocolate chip cookies. Blake figured out pretty quickly which tin the cookies were in and would point and say, "cookie" when she wanted one. One morning Lauren got up with Blake and went into the kitchen to get her breakfast. Here's their conversation:
Lauren - what do you want for breakfast? (yes, I now realize this is a stupid question)
Blake (pointing to tin) - Cookie
Lauren - Let's eat something else and then maybe you can have a cookie
Blake (on the verge of a major fit, moaning and then coming to a sudden realization) - Papa
Blake then ran out of the kitchen & started heading to Grandma & Grandpa's bedroom. It's amazing how quickly they learn how to get what they want!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year to all!!!

Go Elf Yourself

It's been a crazy December...details to follow in later posts...SO we've decided to post a little holiday fun. We've seen a few people who have done this and thought it was pretty funny. Deachi, your little Max was probably one of the cutest elves I've seen yet! Here are a few Christmas family performances :o) Here we are singing...

...and the classic version...

...a little hip hop...

...and FINALLY, our personal favorite - DISCO!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!

New Talents & New Words

Blake is a very busy little girl. A few of her new favorites are climbing all over the couches...and the dogs...and plastic bins...and cases of pop...and just about anything else, chasing the dogs around the house, playing ball with Copa, leaning up against Maddie & reading her books, sharing her snacks with the dogs, moving plastic bins to use as step stools to get to things she's not supposed to have, dancing to anything that resembles music, taking everything out of the lazy-susan and putting it back neatly...yeah right, AND who needs just one sippy cup (see pictures below).Only the cool kids carry around two sippy cups for maximum refreshment. Speaking of, she stills says, "ahhhh" after taking drinks like it was just so satisfying. Grandma & Grandpa taught her that one.
Show off...not only can she drink out of the pink sippy cup, she can drink out of the purple one too!

Oh, and THANKS Rene for the clothes! As you can see, we put them to use almost immediately :o)

Otherwise, Blake is still a constant chatter box. She walks around the house all day just talking and singing...who knows what she's saying half the time. Here are some of her new words: fish, balloon, brrrr (it's been cold out), hot, hippo (a toy), teddy, dolly, nose, eye, teeth, o geez (an expression Mom didn't realize she had picked up...oops), juice and shoes. Blake has done really well with her understanding of words, too. She will point to her ear, eye, nose, teeth, belly, hand, fingers and shoes when you ask her where they are. She also recognizes certain toys and actions by name but hasn't attempted to say them yet...like her elephant and clapping. Thankfully, she seems to be fairly cautious and has learned to stand back when we're getting things in and out of the oven (which she figured out how to open and close). She stands there and says, "hot".

Well, the weather has been below zero for the past three days, but it looks like it is supposed to warm up later today and into the weekend...not above 30 though. Hopefully, everyone is staying warm and getting geared up for the holiday season. Much love and happiness to you and your families!!!

Thanksgiving Pics

Blake has recently discovered that she can climb. Here is a pic of her climbing on her little couch.And, here she is on her sweet ride :)We went to Grandpa DeCoteau's for Thanksgiving. Lauren got sick, so we didn't really get too many pictures of family. Bob got Blake a little pink camo hat that says so aDOEable and has a little deer on it. Here's Blake sporting her new hat gangsta style.Blake's Thanksgiving Day outfitBlake pulling the bow outThe Thanksgiving Day outfit complete with little sweater...awwwBlake figured out pretty quickly where the cookie jar was at Grandpa's.Well, sorry for such a short post...Lauren is still a little sick from last week; Blake has had a runny nose for about five days; and Bob just recently caught the crud and has been home from work. Hope everyone else is much healthier than us!

Stockings

Lauren decided to make family stockings instead of purchasing them. We sort of cheated last year with Blake since Grandma & Grandpa provided her stocking when we were in Colorado. Anyway, with a little childhood experience and some creativity, Lauren finished her project this morning. So, here they are:

Bob's fishing SantaLauren's polar bearsBlake's snowmanCopa's mooseMaddie's bearAnd, here they are on display.Hope all is well for everyone!!!

Photo Shoot, No & 15 Month Stats

We had family photos taken a couple of weeks ago. A friend of a friend is a photographer and has very affordable pricing. She's actually sending us the full disc with all the pictures soon. Here's a little taste of what she was able to send me on Facebook until I get the disc. Here's a pretty good shot of the lovely couple :)All of our girls hanging out together
And the cutie pie herself


Blake just keeps increasing her vocabulary and her knowledge of what you are telling/asking her. Some of her new words are cracker, nose, britches (with an 'r' sound), door and please. She's pretty used to our bath, brush teeth, read book and go to bed routing. After we brush our teeth, Lauren asks Blake to get a book to read, and Blake will pick one out and hand it to one of us to read. Well, the other night Lauren asked Blake to get a book (Blake was playing in the kitchen with the dogs), and Blake very nonchalantly said, "no". We couldn't help it, we both started laughing and then of course Blake joined in...oh the joys! We also had Blake's 15 month doctor's appointment yesterday. We were able to get her both the regular flu shot and the H1N1 shot. Which was VERY surprising. Lauren has been calling the doctor's office for weeks on end with no luck. It was as if they were out as soon as they got a batch. Anyway, it seems to be such a topic of controversey amongst all the mom's we know, but we decided to go ahead with both since she's never had reactions to her past vaccinations...and they were actually available - didn't want to pass that up. Blake is now 30 3/8" long and weighs 22 pounds 8 ounces. The doctor said that her height and weight is EXACTLY what it should be for her age. She's right on the 50th percentile in both categories...too funny. Well, that's about it for us. Hopefully, everyone is staying happy and healthy and getting geared up for the holiday season!