Some pictures from Christmas morning... Santa brought Laedyn a Lamaze flower garden. When she pushes on a blossom it plays music & lights up. She's been having lots of fun with it.
Brandon LOVED opening gifts. In fact, he wanted to do ALL the opening. The first package he found that was for someone else made him rather grouchy. He came around eventually though & got into the spirit of watching others open their gifts too.

Here's a cool puzzle Nick's Mom sent for Brandon. It was one of Nick's when he was a kid. She sent a bunch of Nick's old things for Brandon. He liked them all & it was fun for Nick to revisit his childhood favorites too.
Brandon's all about Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars these days, so he was happy to get some story books about them too.

Laedyn liked the ribbons and paper as much as what was in them. As you can see, she's doing pretty well with the sitting now. We put her in the middle of the Boppy pillow & she's fine for a long time. Without the pillow, though, she topples over within seconds...
She REALLY wanted to help Nick rip the paper off one of his packages.
Aren't these neat? It's a set of 3 and they connect together magnetically at the hands and feet. They also have different sounds (squeeks, rattles and crinkles). Of course, Laedyn had to taste them. She put EVERYTHING in her mouth - very different from Brandon as a baby.
Mamo (Val's Mom) got Brandon the shirt he's wearing in this picture. It's a kids running shirt. He was SO excited when he opened it, he stripped out of his PJs instantly and put the shirt on. He really loves to run with Nick, so now he can dress like his Daddy too. The backpack he's wearing is full of toy food & kitchen stuff. He loves to pretend to cook for everyone.

Custom Books featuring your Kid's Name.

Check out this cool website - I want to get on for each of the kids!

http://www.frecklebox.com/

My brother Mark has moved to Little Rock. The day he moved in was drizzly and warm - near 70. Everyone pitched in and the truck was emptied pretty quickly. Mom directed us where to put boxes while she kept an eye on Laedyn. Dad oversaw the other end of the unloading, passing boxes and pieces of furniture out of the truck. He kept two piles ready for pick-up - a girl pile & a boy pile... hmmm
Brandon had a great time helping too. He carried in all kinds of lightweight stuff and refused all assistance. He thinks Mark's house is his to with as he pleases now (ie opening cupboards, closets and drawers...and playing with anything that catches his attention). Hopefully he won't bother Mark too much when he visits...
Mark & Nick teamed up to carry in the bigger/heavier stuff that Dad designated as the "boy pile."
Taking a breather while things were being more suitably arranged in the house to make way for the mattress & box spring.

Laedyn was doted on while Mom & Dad were here.
Brandon was too.
There were no complaints to be heard, since Laedyn got picked up at the slightest whimper. Not that she whimpers much in the first place. Look how happy she was to be right in the middle of all the action. She's happiest when she can see everything that everyone is doing. At a minimum, she requires that Brandon be in sight. She just LOVES watching him.
Even Jennifer came over to help out.

Laedyn's new hat - Brandon has a similar one that's red & navy blue.

Some pictures from our trip to the Memphis zoo a couple weeks ago...
Brandon wasn't too sure he like this dragon. He thought it was a little scary!
I think this might have been Brandon's favorite part of going to the zoo...a big hill to run up & down. Of course he had tons of energy to do that, but it was too tiring to walk around the zoo. He rides on the front footrest of the stroller when he isn't making Nick carry him.

They had all these cool stone animals with festive Christmas lighting. Brandon wanted to have his picture taken at ALL of them.

Such a ham...

We drove to Memphis on Saturday to see some of Nick's friends who ran in the marathon. Unfortunately we didn't get moving early enough & missed seeing them cross the finish line. Part of the problem was we had to stop to feed Laedyn along the way. While we took turns doing that, Brandon ran around the grassy area of the rest stop. He also showed us how to drive a car...

I always like the view coming across the river from Arkansas into Tennessee, but with the sun shining so brightly all I got was alot of glare & reflection from the car windows. So here's the sign welcoming us to Tennessee instead...
After the runners were rested enough to leave the finish line festiviteis, we met them at Westies - a restaurant with a HUGE menu, and a ton of wild rice dishes. It took a REALLY long time. In fact, Jackson (who is 4) fell asleep while waiting for the food & didn't wake up the rest of the time we were there - even when his Daddy carried him out the door to go back to their hotel. Jackson ran/walked the 5K with his Mommy. I guess it really tired him out! It was a beautiful day. It was also my first time walking along Beale Street. I thought this facade was interesting. I like the way they kept it intact. The patio setup inside reminded me of the bar in New Orleans that's famous for those urrican drinks - Patty O'Briens (SP???)...

Check out the Alley Cats on the garbage can... Some very interesting signs along the way.

We went to the Memphis zoo in the late afternoon. I'll post pictues of that next.

A recent evening at home. I got out Laedyn's quilt (made by Lori Maxwell) so she could do some tummy time. It's not really her favorite thing to do.

Laedyn thought I was a crazy lady laying on the floor trying to get her to look at me.

Brandon saw Laedyn on the quilt and was SURE it was HIS quilt! We had to go in his room to make sure it wasn't. Then he wanted to have his out in the living room to lay on too. And since Laedyn had a pillow, Brandon thought he needed one too. He was happy that his quilt was slightly larger than hers. Aren't they beautiful??? I mean the quilts, but the kids are too...hahahaha

Here's a link to a funny video my cousin sent me in an e-mail.

glumbert - Best wedding first dance ever

Happy Thanksgiving

It was alot of work, but delicious. I guess I was too busy in the kitchen to take a ton of photos, but I did get a couple. Mom bought a 13 pound turkey & Nick did the initial prep work -defrosting it & pulling out all the yucky parts. Then he carefully peeled the skin away from the meat & stuffed pats of butter between them. This was the suggestion in America's Test Kitchen Cookbook. Anyone who hasn't checked out his book would be well advised to do so - it has ALWAYS been right! This time was no different. (Kudos to Mike & Lori Maxwell for giving the book to us several years ago. We love it!) Needless to say, the turkey was FABULOUS!!!!

After Nick had the bird settled into the roasting pan (on top of a couple metal cooling racks), I poured melted butter over top and sprinkled it with season salt. Then I poured a can of chicken broth into the roaster with some diced carrots, onions and celery. Once the turkey came out of the oven it was falling off the bones - literally. We all thought the bits of carrots were really yummy too!
The night before, I made mini corn muffins and a pumpkin pie. We used Marie Callendar's frozen pie crust & it was really good. Better than those Pillsbury roll out ones. Mom also made a pecan pie. I found a recipe that called for Maple Syrup on top of what's normally in a pecan pie. How could you go wrong with Maple Syrup??? (we're talking the real stuff that originates in a tree here) Well - this was DEFINATELY the WRONG way to go. I compared it to a toxic dirty diaper. It had this HORRIBLE aftertaste. I shudder to think of it even now as I am writing about it. We had to throw the whole pie away. SO the moral of the story is - DO NOT add maple syrup to a perfectly good pecan pie - no matter how reasonable the recipe makes it sound... You'll be sorely diappointed. I might have to make a decent pecan pie this weekend, just to make up for the fiasco!
Here's the complete spread (well the pies are in the kitchen & the toxicity of the pecan pie is as yet undiscovered). I made sour cream mashed potatoes - just because there was a partial container of sour cream in the fridge that needed a purpose. Mom made a Waldorf Salad and steamed some freh green beans. I think the Waldorf Salad was Brandon's favorite part of dinner. I also made fresh cranberries (with Splenda), gravy, and sweet potato casserole covered in marshmallows. Brandon was getting really excited about eating & banged his head. You can see he's holding a kids cold pack on it. He cried a bit, but once food was on his plate, his injury was forgotten.
After dinner we had chocolate martinis. The first batch I mixed 2 shots of vanilla vodka + 1 shot Godiva white chocolate liquor + 1 shot kaluah. Then a poured chocolate syrup on the inside of the class in an artistic design. They were pretty strong. The second batch I changed to 1 shot of vodka and 2 shots of Godiva plus the 1 shot of kahlua instead. That was a much better combination - if I remember correctly. (hahahaha. Yes that's the correct recipe.) Try it - you'll like it! Although I didn't take any pictures of it, we played some Mexican Train too. That was fun for a change. Nick doesn't like to play games, so it's nice to have someone to play with for a change.

Time to vote for the Heisman winner - go to the link below & vote for Arkansas Razorback, Darren McFadden

https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/thanks

Nick raked (or braked as Brandon calls it) the front & back yards yesterday. Brandon & Mark helped out a bit. I took a bunch of pictures of Brandon jumping in the leaf pile, but video just captures it better (see that at the end of the post...). Brandon was having so much fun, Nick couldn't help but join in the fun - he was a leaf pile virgin until yesterday! He went all out & even let Brandon bury him completely. We brought Leadyn's exersaucer outside so she could watch AND have some activity. I think she's frustrated sometimes when Brandon's running around having so much fun & she can't join in. At least she can watch!

OK - so I'm doing another link that Amy has done. Don't they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery??? What can I say - Amy finds cool links. So, here's the newest link - the result is no big surprise. Check it out & see where you stand...

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
"What American accent do you have? http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Quiz Created on GoToQuiz