Looking Back

One year ago....

Now

Precious.

She is still the best Christmas gift ever!

Here is Lena Kate riding Charles' rollercoaster. She LOVES it and it was funny to watch her run into the plant. She would get her hands all ready everytime it was coming up.

Merry CHRISTmas !

My Baby is 1!

Dearest Lena Kate,

I write this the day after your fabulous birthday and party. You were surrounded by 30 of the most loving friends and family. My, you are so very special to everyone, but none more so than to me. I can't remember what life was like up to a year ago..all I know is that it was not complete. You are so very precious and have such a fun personality.

A few of your favorite one year old things are your noise making toys..all of them, especially the Funky Town car from Mimi and Papa. You are starting to really like books too..but we have to stick to the very short ones before you decide to move on to something else.

You are practically running these days and can get anywhere very quickly. Your favorite thing to do is climb up on the fireplace hearth and perform all the while we are telling you to get down. The other day Daddy and I and to hide our faces we were laughing so hard knowing we shouldn't be. You are just such a little ham smiling so big we can see those top two big teeth making an appearance in your smile. You will bring something to us when we ask which is so sweet, except sometimes you are just pretending and don't really want to give it to us...silly girl. Then sometimes you just crack yourself up. Dancing is also a talent of yours:)

You love ALL things DOGGIE. Of course, this is one our few words. You also love to say Dada. You and Daddy play this fun game where you say each other's name time and time again. You go to the windows looking for Daddy and calling for him. You are so smart you know when he is not home he always comes in from the outside. You also wave night night to Daddy each night and point at each other.

Your appetite has gotten bigger now that Mommy is not nursing you anymore. You like milk ok when you are really thirsty, but much prefer water. Your meals usually consist of several of the following: green beans, all kinds of berries, peaches or pears, turkey, spaghetti o's, mac and cheese, bread, chicken and sometimes french fries if we are out. The other day we went to Chik-fil-a and shared a nugget meal while our house was being shown. You were a perfect angel, as you usually are. It was such a fun Mommy daugter time.

Bath time is so fun for you. You splash and "swim" in the tub and cry when I have to let the water out :( Then we get you in your jammies and I especially enjoy your sleepy moments when you rest your head on my shoulder and pat my arm. If I could bottle up those moments and open them up any time I'm sad, I'd always be cheered up in those moments.

Lena Kate, we've had the best year with you and can't imagine how much fun is to come. You've stolen our hearts and we don't want it back. God has blessed us to the moon and back with a healthy, happy, sweet,
+ and beautiful child. I hope and pray that you always know the love we have for you. Your Daddy and I, as well as the rest of the family are so very very proud of our precious girl. We look forward to your move to the country in a week and watching you run and play all over the countryside.

Love you with all my heart,
Mama

Busy, busy, busy

We've been so busy around here getting ready for the holidays, a 1st birthday party and moving..whew...I'm tired just thinking about it. Here are a few snapshots of what we've been up to. I know you've been missing my sweet angel!


Finally has clothes on for the day.

Still in jammies since Mama was busy making goodies

The fruits of my labor, aren't they cute?

Lena Kate is having a snowman party!

Snowball favors...aka homemade marshmallows

Rolo turtles...nothing to do with snow, but they sure taste good!

We were so lucky to be invited to my old companies Christmas lunch. Here is Lena Kate with Papaw John. He is a sucker for little ones...big softie!

Playing at the park for David's playdate birthday get-together

Excuse the not s lady-like pose and pay attention to those top teeth in that big laughing grin!

See ya later!

Have a great Wednesday. I probably won't be back until after the birthday party for my Lena Kate turns 1 post!...ah, I am not going to cry, I promise...ok, maybe I shouldn't promise. I'll blame it on the hormones since she is now down to 1 nursing a day soon to be none. My baby is growing up!

I'm gonna miss this!

Today the best sister (in-law) in the world had the girls over for some Christmas goodie basket making. Everybody brought some homemade goodies and we made a few there too. We had too many goodies to list! I contributed homemade marshmallows and coconut macaroons. I'll post the marshmallow recipe over at my recipe blog. I'm going to miss these girls and their babies sooooo much. It makes me sad to think about it but I know I'll see them again and get to keep up with them on their blogs and Facebook....thank goodness technology has made it to the country!

Our fabulous host Amy!

A sampling of some of the goodies

Nice sweet spread

David and Lena Kate

All the kiddos in one frame

Me, Lena Kate, and sweet Mariella

Heidi and Mariella

LK loves the rollercoaster ride


Hope you are all staying warm and enjoying the blessed holiday season.

Virtual Christmas Card

I'm going to send out new year pictures rather than Christmas pictures so that everyone can have our new address on file, so I decided to post a virtual Christmas card. These are a few of my favorites that I would've put on a card. This way all my bloggy friends can enjoy it too.

Lena Kate is such a joy and I can't believe that she will be 1 year old in 2 short weeks. It is going to be fun to celebrate her birthday, the birth of our Savior as well as a big move all in a week's time.

I hope the holidays are treating your well and you are reminded often of the true meaning of Christmas. Blessings to yall!

A few pics for you

We had a BIG crowd for Thanksgiving! This is one of the largest circles we've had for the blessing.


Traditional family pic on the big oak.

Playing with Missy and cousin Charles

Look Mama, I found a leaf!

Sporting her Christmas coveralls..gotta love Osh Kosh for the country girl!

And now, our future home :)

Hope everybody is staying warm!

We are still here...but busy!

I have a few pics from Thanksgiving, but my camera is not in my reach and I'm too tired from all the cleaning that is going on around here to get it. I promise to get you some new pics of sweet Lena Kate tomorrow. I just wanted to let you all know that we had a great Thanksgiving week and finished it with by spending 2 FULL days cleaning and scrubbing our "new" old house we are renting near my parents. It has been in my family for 5 generations. My great Aunt Lena and Uncle CM lived there more recently. I think it will be need for all the Lena's to have lived there...for those of you who don't know, I'm Lena Elaine. We were so busy cleaning I only took one picture of the house..I'll post it tomorrow to. My excuse is that I wanted to keep you interested and coming back for more! The inside has such character. The woodwork is beautiful. It is much smaller than our home now and I'm actually looking forward to it:) Only one bathroom to clean sounds pretty good...right now anyway. It has some interesting tile, I'll just leave it at that. I hope my ideas will tone it down...or play it up however you want to look at it. The view is fabulous. It is on top of a hill and you can see all of the countryside from the front porch swing. What more could you want?! Since it is much smaller, I'm trying to get creative on kitchen storage and where I'm going to put all my clothes. I'll make it work, I'm sure.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for in our family. I'm excited about the upcoming holidays. I love Christmas hymns...they always remind me of the reason for the season :) God bless you all.

Exciting News

Guess what...ok, I'll tell you. First off, no I'm not pregnant. Ok, now for the news. We are heading south folks...for good!...soon. Lane has accepted a job in Alice as with a CPA firm there. They are doing great and have made him a great off that has wonderful long term potential. We are so very excited, nervous, scared...etc. We know God has us in his grip and really felt that this was the direction he intended for us. We will be closer to the ranch and able to help my parents and hopefully live in the country somewhere. We don't have living arrangements lined up yet, but we are taking it one step at a time. First things first is to get this house SOLD! We are working at a mad pace to get it ready to list ASAP. With prayers from you and a little luck it will sell soon.

Of course, Lena Kate is oblivious to the impending change. As long as you feed the girl some berries, she's happy as a lark. Now Missy...she's clueless too. Lane and I have some bittersweet feelings over it all. We are very happy to be out of the big city and closer to our dream of country living, but we will really, really, really miss our family and friends in San Antonio. Hopefully we'll have a fun place for everyone to come visit!

We wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and many blessing to you. If you don't mind keeping us in your prayers during this transition we would appreciate it greatly.

Better Late Than Never

Amy and I took Lena Kate and Charles to have their Halloween pictures made by her photographer. Jenn Brookover does a great job! Check out her work at http://www.jennbrookover.com/. If you live in San Antonio, she's wonderful and she does fun photo shoots at Chic Mama Maternity. That is where these were taken, and she gets great picutres FAST. A big thanks to Amy for including me on her sitting fee :)

Without further ado, I introduce you to Casper the Friendly Ghost and Handy Manny.

Aren't they just the cutest! We are blessed :)

Legwarmers never looked so good!

My baby girl is so stinkin cute...even when she's crying.

That's better :)

See yall later!

I'm so blessed and thankful to have a sweet, precious, healthy, happy, brilliant :) little girl to call my own. Um, no, I'm not the least bit biased or proud...but thanks for asking. I'm also so blessed and thankful to have a wonderful husband who works hard everyday so that I can stay home and raise my little protige as he calls her. Finally, I'm so blessed and thankful to be surrounded by loving family! God is good.

Is it Easter?.....oh well, I can't wait to share this!

It's not Easter, you say? Oh well, I think this is appropriate any time of year and thought I'd share for those of you that don't follow the Rigg's family blog (Brent posted this a few days ago).

These two little guys are sooooo precious-check out God's creations at their best! I can't wait for Lena Kate to do something like this...of course if she got her parent's lack of singing ability she might not be as good as these two...but I'll LOVE to listen anyway.

Berry Sweet!

Lena Kate LOVES berries....strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. She is not picky...now those peas and carrots...she does NOT love them. As a matter of fact, she very much dislikes them. Daddy says let her eat what she likes...so berries, mac and cheese, and turkey is OFTEN on the menu at our house.

Love the doggie

Love the baby

Love Pooh

Lena Kate is berry sweet and loves on command. She also likes to love Missy dog.

Have a blessed week yall!

Mama's Little Helper

Lena Kate enjoys laundry more than I do...she loves to climb in and out, in and out, in and out!

Dancie Dancie!

This weekend we make a very quick trip to Houston for one of my good friends wedding. The Laechelin family is from Mathis where I grew up and we've known them forever. BJ Laechelin got married this weekend. He was my age and went to A&M too. Lena Kate was a good traveler and had a blast at the wedding. She was a big hit and danced all night. She loved the band and hanging out right by their speakers...her poor ears! She was up well past her bedtime but was a real trooper.

Here are a few highlights.
The lovely couple sharing their first dance

More cake Mama

Daddy about to dance with Lena Kate. The cute blond patting Lena Kate is Chris and Sterling Havelka's cute little Nixon. She was so cute and has a darling personality. She was helping me keep Lena Kate off the speakers. She has a little sister a little older than Lena Kate and likes to help with her from what I hear:)

Mama and her gal!

Dancie, dancie!

She started out with a bow :)

Too much fun!

Here is a short clip of Lena Kate's dance moves