And we are off....

Last night Marissa began taking up to 10 steps, walking between Daddy and myself.  She is quite pleased with this new found freedom (although in the video she is upset that Mommy had the nerve to put her down and walk away)!  Although we are very excited for her, I know this is her first move toward independence.  Stepping in the safety zone between mom and dad today, leaving babyhood behind tomorrow, and then she will be venturing out on her own before we know it.  Yikes!  Congratulations, baby girl!

Tomorrow she will be 11 months old.  This little 6 toothed-sucessive stepper-speedy crawler-eater of anything she can put in her mouth still thinks her brother is the funniest person in the world.  She is usually smiling and laughing and is our little delight.    She is currently working on mastering walking and the sippy cup.  She is super fun - even if she still does not sleep through the night! 

Give me a push....

Today was a Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Toddler Style, kind of day for us.  After watching Cars 2, we had lunch followed by a quick nap, then off to a birthday party (including a bounce house, pull apart pinata, and lots of sugar), then we ended the day with a trip to the park. 

While the kids played with each other, I played a little with my new camera (I have a LOT to learn about DSLRs).  So here are a few pics of the swings. 

What I also failed to mention is that we hosted a party at our house last night with a bunch of my coworkers. I am beat!  And instead of sleeping, I am blogging.  Oh well...'Rissa will be up in a few hours anyway....good thing she is so cute! 



Nate's 1st Movie

So we finally embarked on the cinema scene with our son.  I am not sure who was more excited about this; OK let's be honest here, we (the parents) were.  Nate LOVES the movie Cars  so we thought Cars 2 would be a perfect introductory movie for Nathaniel.  We rounded up some friends and hit up the big screen.  After all, movies are so much more enjoyable with company....and now Nate can proudly boast that he took not one, but two, beautiful girls with him to his first movie! 

Payton, Nate and Julianne at Cars 2

He did pretty well.  He stood up and rested his chin on the chair in front of him and had a bit of an outburst when I made him sit back down in his chair - but other than that, it was drama free!  Now my review of the movie is this:  It is a cute movie, some real LOL parts, but it is geared for older kids. Spoiler alert warning:  It is more of a spy movie, drama-ish, and blowing things up.  While I did like it, I do not think it competes with the message that the first Cars movie put out.  So there you have it.  Our child was culturally indoctrinated to the movie scene and he enjoyed it.  We will see if this becomes something we do more frequently!



Roo's Do

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful"

Tumble Team

I snuck away from work to watch Nate do his Tumble Team activities last week.  However I picked the worst possible day.  First of all it was raining for the first time in...well, forever, so the kids were wild.  Then it was VBS week so the normal routine was a bit, out of wack, but it was fun to watch the kids with Coach Chester and see Nate in action.  Here are a few shots:

One funny kid

I may be biased, but I think Nathaniel is a riot!

Our typical Saturday mornings start out with being lazy.  You know lounging around in our jammies, playing cars or blocks...until...what may be considered the climax of the day....the trash truck comes by the house.  Usually around 9:00 am we hear a loud truck and some beeping and we run to the door.  It does not matter what state we are in - dressed, half dressed, in jammies or just in undies, we must (and I mean MUST) wave to the trash truck and the guys on it.  We watch them come down the road, make the turn in the cul-de-sac and rumble off into the distance cleaning up the world around us.  Nate adores them.  He is estatic when they see him and wave back (and lucky for him, they usually do)!  This, my friends, is Heaven for a 3 year old.  So much in fact, that last week he told me that the trash guys "must make Jesus happy".  So, we salute you trash guys (I am sure that is not the politically correct term), you make this little boy and Jesus very happy!

Last weekend as I was working on the blog, I turn around to see Nathaniel cramming himself into his sister's pants.  Should I be worried????  Naaah, I just laugh and grab my camera. 

He is a hoot!  Last night we grilled hamburgers out on our patio and of course, had a picnic....Nathaniel proclaimed it to be the "best picnic ever".  Then he grabbed his burger and said "Hold on to your meatballs, this is gonna be good."

I don't know where he comes up with this stuff, I am just thankful that I get to be around to laugh with him!

Father's Day 2011

This Father's Day we went with a SuperDad theme for our gift.  We had a blast making it and Daddy loved it!

First Mommy made up a poem about how Daddy is our Superhero everyday and included pictures of Daddy and the kids from the past 3 years.  Then we added Nate's hand prints, 'Rissa footprint, and Nate colored his page.

Next we decorated a bowl with stickers saying "Love you SuperDad" and Nate added "a LOT of stars".

Then we filled it full of POWER goodies - like Powerade, Power Bars, React Gum, Energy Blasts, and the Superman Movies.

 To top it off we added a mask that Nate made and of course, a cape!

 Daddy loved it all....(Nate especially loves the picture of Daddy covered in Nate's poop the first time Daddy fed him!)

 And can anyone deny, that this man truly is SuperDad????

After the SuperDad moment this morning, we got dressed, went to church and then had lunch with Grandpa (and Grandma) Yancy.  It was a great day for all of us!

(And yes, Nate made the crown at church and wore it all day.  Apparently he thinks Father's Day is for him, not because of him!)

Last weekend we made a cake for Daddy since we knew we would be busy this weekend.  This was also a lot of fun: 

Frosting was everywhere....and it was delicious.

Oh wait, one cute story....after the cake night, as I was turned out the lights to put Nate down to sleep for the evening, I hear his cute little voice say "Well, I guess the party is over now".

Nothing beats raising these kids with the best Daddy ever by my side.  Ted is honestly one of the most caring, patient, fun-loving Daddies I know.  We are so blessed by him day after day!  So Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there, and especially to our SuperDad!

THE END

Payton is 3

Our friend, Payton turned 3 this week.  She had a fantastic water/ice cream picnic party. It was oh so fun. 

 

Do-It-Yourself Ice Cream Bar = Genius!

Kids had a blast at their "Ice Cream Picnic"

Not sure who had more fun on the slip and slide, the dads or the kids!

Happy Birthday Sweet P!!!

Latest Roo-Roo Moves...

Our little angel is into EVERYTHING these days.  She sees the world as her own personal jungle gym and has very little fear at this point.  She is climbing constantly.

 Her new favorite part of the house is the stairs, if we leave the gate down for one second, she is up there....and she's quick.  When we go to get her, she just moves faster.

She is standing on her own for short periods of time and will take one or two steps/forward lunges before falling.

She is fascinated with moving furniture.  If I happen to get up to grab something, my chair is pushed half way across the kitchen before I return!

The one that scares me the most is her attempt to get out of the bathtub by herself!

She certainly keeps us busy.  It won't be long now before she's walking (although I have tried to postpone it as much as I could!).

Blanca

We've added a new member to our family. 

 I think it may be the ugliest member of the family, but Nate would disagree.

A coworker gave us an albino frog to add to one of our tanks.

It kinda creeps me out, I think it looks dead, but the boys love it.

The night we got it I had to take Nathaniel to the doctor (stupid virus) and asked him to get a few toys to take with him.  He said "Can I take my pwetty frog?".  I laughed and said, "First of all, it is not pretty and second of all, you cannot take an animal into the doctors office.".  He crossed his arms, frowned and said "but Mommy, she is too pwetty".

Also that night, he decided to name the frog Blanca.  I did not even know he was bilingual (for my non-Spanish speaking friends, Blanca is white in Spanish)!  And he decided it was a girl frog. 

I am now convinced he is the smartest kid in the world! 

Later this week another coworker made a special coloring page for Nate:

When he decided to color it he grabbed the white crayon (because our frog is white) and began coloring.  Now, remember he is sick at this time, so everything tends to be a bit more dramatic that it needs to be.  So there's Nate coloring away and he suddenly bursts out crying.  Not little whimpering cry, but full blown, can't-catch-my-breath wailing.  When he finally calms down enough to tell me what is wrong all he says is, "it's broked, it's broked".  He was more than upset that his white crayon was not working on his white coloring page!  (There goes my theory that he is the smartest kid in the world).

......And this is our beginning of the Adventures with Blanca! 

First Harvest

The Yancy family garden has been a big success.  Daddy and Nate enjoy watering it, the dogs have stayed out of it and we finally were able to harvest some tomatoes!

A few pics



Butterflies, up close and personal!

Ok, ok.....I have not been keeping up with the blog like I should so here's an abbreviated version of our last few weekends.
 

Kid friendly bowling at our friend Ava's birthday party



Such a big boy!

Last weekend a local Chick-fil-a had 50s night.  There was an antique car show in the parking lot, which was pretty incredible.  Inside the store they had a clown who made some pretty impressive balloon animals and they served 50 cent milkshakes  (and in my humble opinion, Chick-fil-a has the best milkshakes, so you can imagine our delight with the 50 cent price tag!).

One little monkey jumping on the bed!

Baby Alex and the Magic Carpet

Tonight I want to share a Happily-Ever-After Story with you about 2 dear friends of mine and the journey they have been on for the past 9 (yes, count them) years....

They married and dreamed of their future and the wee ones that would fill their home with laughter and love.  And oh through the years they indeed had many kids fill their home, and quite often their pool, with laughter and love (amongst many other things!!!).  Even as a recent college graduate they adopted me into their lives, they taught me about friendship, playing guitar, leading worship, working with youth at our church, and they were my fall back couple when I had no plans on Friday night or got home from another horrible blind date. I even moved in with them for a short stint right before I got married. 

But they were unable to have children of their own. 

So after much prayer they decided to adopt.  Shortly after the time Nathaniel was born they got a call that they were chosen as the adoptive family for a little boy.  And we all rejoiced, knowing they would be amazing parents.  They rushed to Arkansas to pick up the baby but after a couple days, the birthmother changed her mind and they returned home empty handed....and heartbroken. 

And they waited.

Earlier this year they received a phone call that they were once again chosen to be adoptive parents.  With careful optimism...they waited. 

They are doing a semi-open adoption so they were able to talk with the birth mother with her case manager present via phone.  One particular phone call, the birth mom asked if they would consider keeping the name that she wanted.  Tony and Linda were praying between 2 names, one of which was Daniel Alexander so they were a bit hesitant to agree to entertain the idea of the 15 year old birth mother.  But being the kindhearted folks that they are, they politely asked what name the birth mom was hoping for and her reply was Alexander Daniel!  (Isn't God good???)

On May 26th baby Alex entered the world to a precious 15 year old girl who has made the sacrifice of giving up her son so that he can be raised in a home with parents who will love and care for him in ways that she cannot.

On June 7th my friends signed papers in a court room in Arkansas making this adoption official. And tonight We got to meet this little answer to prayers!  I could not possibly be more excited for this new family! 

Meet this handsome little man!

The new mom glow- I love it!



He is so tiny compared to my gigantic kids!



Was she ever really this small?

 Ok and another thing...this carpet-o-fur is magic.  It was like there was an invisible fence around it.  Both my kids LOVED it, laid on it, rolled on it and would not leave it.  Marissa began flipping upside down - it was hilarious. I think she was also over-joyed with meeting baby Alex and knowing what an answer to prayer he is!

What a journey it has been.  Not always fun.  Not exactly our plan...but His... and His ways are higher than ours.  Baby Alex is living proof of that.

Please keep his precious birth mom in your prayers. I cannot imagine the range of emotions she must be feeling right now.  She is a pretty amazing girl and has blessed this family and all of their friends tremendously! 

And keep Tony and Linda in your prayers as they embark on this amazing, exhausting, exciting, confusing journey of parenting!

....And they all lived happily-ever-after.....