Laney is 11 months

Laney Grace hit the 11 month mark on Monday. She's crawling everywhere and getting into everything. Then whatever she gets into goes right in her mouth. Sam and Luke weren't as fascinated with putting things in their mouths. She tasted sand and grass for the first time this past month. But paper is still her all-time favorite.

She is spending a lot more time standing up. I lifted the window to get a whiff of the new ligustrum I had planted. She crawled over and pulled herself up. Her brothers joined her and they stood there together looking outside.

Once she's gotten tired of standing, she does this funny squat thing. She'll go up and down 4 or 5 times and then slowly sit. It's pretty funny...

Happy 11 months Laney. We love you!

sweet siblings

Sam's teacher Audrey took a few pictures of the kids last week. She has two websites if you want to check her out. One has some contact information while the other has more personal stuff. She did a great job of capturing the kids in their truest forms. There weren't too many fake smiles, just kids being kids. I love that... The rest of the pictures from the shoot are on my Picasa Album if you want to see them.

Luke's bath

It was just me and Luke at bath time last night. Laney went to bed and Ron and Sam were across the street at the neighbor's house. So I enjoyed some time alone with my sweet boy, the middle child who has captured my heart and constantly makes me laugh.

He was looking away from me for a while; I jokingly told him not to smile. If you look close you can see he's smiling from the dimple in his cheek.

And then he turned towards me and showed me his big 'ole grin.

He loves putting his feet on top of the tub and doing a handstand.

And when I tell him it's time to get out, he tries to hide from me. The farthest he can get is to crawl up on the little ledge in the far corner of the tub.

Laney's new way to ride

i made the switch to a forward-facing car seat for laney this week. i took the first picture right before we left the neighborhood. she was looking around just smiling from ear to ear. and yes, i know luke is in a pink car seat. long story...

Laney's eye roll and more...

Laney has started rolling her eyes just like Sam did when he was a baby. Oddly, Luke never took part in any of this. So it was fun to see that Laney had picked up the habit somehow. She does it for just a second, so my first attempt at getting a picture of it wasn't successful. Instead I got her smiling.

Sam wanted y'all to see how it's really done.

And now Laney shows off.

She also loves spitting.

Luke was feeling left out, so here's a silly face for the camera.

Baby Pictures

Whitesburg MDO is great for many reasons. One thing I have enjoyed are all the pictures they take of the kids throughout the year. In the spring they take black and white casual photos. I finally have all three of my kids' pictures on the wall from their first few months enrolled at Whitesburg. Sam is pictured at 6 months while Luke and Laney are pictured around 11 months.

a recap...

i have been quite absent from the blog lately. for the grandparents who are having withdrawals from seeing cute pictures of the kids i promise i'll start doing better. all 5 of us have been sick, so there haven't been many photo opportunities. here's a recap of our week...

mother's day was good. one thing i was looking forward to yesterday was getting to do whatever i wanted. i wanted to close myself off in my bedroom and sew the afternoon away. i love my kids dearly, but it's ironic that the day i'm being thanked for being a good mom is the day that i want a little less to do with them. wow. that sounded harsh... but seriously, you all know what i mean, right? surely i'm not alone on this one.

i still had a great mom's day even though i didn't get to sew all afternoon. ron got up and took care of the kids while i leisurely sipped my coffee. he also fixed dinner for us, entirely on the egg. we had bar-b-cue drumsticks, baked potatoes, and fresh bell pepper and asparagus. it was yummy! we enjoyed eating it on the back porch on our makeshift patio furniture. (we've got to get some patio furniture.)

luke found a comfortable place to nap last week... in the toy box full of stuffed animals.

laney decided she still loves pizza.

hopefully this week will be full of fun and less full of runny noses. ☺

While Ron was out BBQing, Grandee and Baba Dee were here getting some sweet time with the kids.

Grandee read a story to Sam's preschool class. They were so attentive and polite.

This is Sam and his friend Emma.

Grandee made Laney this dress and purchased these shirts for the boys. I happen to think they look adorable.

Luke's making such a funny face in this picture.

Whistlestop BBQ Competition

This past weekend Ron participated in a BBQ comp with a few guys from church. I was able to spend a little time there, like Thursday night when we camped out to guard the stuff. Yes, I crawled in a sleeping bag and prepared to sleep through the night. Somehow I didn't get the memo ahead of time that a train came by about every hour and 20 minutes. The site was held at the train depot, so we were literally right next to the trains as they came by. It was a long night.

Ron's mother and grandmother came to help watch the kiddos. Thanks to them, Ron and I had a fun weekend! Here is a group shot of the 4 guys: Ron, Jack, Doug, and Graham. They were in the middle of turning in their meet, so they had their game faces on.

Graham made some awesome blueberry ribs. Yes, blueberry. They were different, but still delicious.

Doug did the butt...

Jack did the brisket...

I didn't get a picture of Ron's chicken. He had just come back from turning it in when I showed up. But I did get a picture of our dessert. We made peach cobbler on the green egg. It's awetastic!

Their next door neighbors during the weekend were the 3 amigos.

Clayton had a BLAST playing in the dirt. I think this kept him busy for a couple of hours.

It was a fun weekend. Overall, their results weren't exactly what they wanted. But everyone had fun just the same...

My little explorer

my little one has become quite the explorer lately. my mother in law caught her pulling tags off the bottom of the ottoman and eating them. you know, the tags that say "do not remove". so she isn't just exploring, but breaking the law and ingesting harmful materials while doing so. but seriously...

she enjoys crawling under her baby bed. and she even takes time to read a book while she's down there.