Welcome little Carsten Patrick Spies!

Wendy and Terence welcomed their second little guy into the world on Saturday, December 27th. He weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and he and Wendy are reported to be doing great. Welcome little guy!

Smooth talker

I was getting onto Camden yesterday morning in the truck because he kept yelling "Mama!" over and over. I told him that I was going to ignore him until he could use his inside voice. The next words out of his mouth, in a much lower tone, were "Hey Mama. Hi seet-heart. You're coot." He's buttering me up already!

Will he be embarrassed by this one day?

Camden is enjoying picking things up and labeling them either "Mommy's" or "Daddy's". Luckily he hasn't decided everything is "mine" just yet. Today he found one of my bras and correctly identified it as "Mommy's". I helped him get it on correctly, but he decided the strap needed to go over his head. This probably qualifies as some weird kind of child abuse, doesn't it?

Hey Mikey, she likes it!

I swear this kid will eat anything (as long as it isn't fruit). We ordered pizza for lunch because the grocery situation in this house is extremely sad. Landry's had a few bites of pizza before, but this was the first time I'd turned her loose with a tray full. She made a total mess, but seemed to enjoy every little morsel.

And yes, she is eating lunch in her PJs. What can I say? We're pretty stinking lazy around these parts.

Christmas 2008 - Round 5 (the final round)

We had our fifth and final Christmas celebration with Blake's family at Aunt Beth and Uncle Bill's house last night. More good food and great times!

We have lots of great Christmas memories from our 5 Christmases of 2008!

Christmas 2008 - Round 4

I have a ton more pictures, but unfortunately my camera settings were screwed up and they're all blurry! This was after we had breakfast at our house with my family. I'll see if I can salvage any of the other photos.

Christmas 2008 - Round 3

Happy 11 months, Landry Lou!

Landry turned 11 months old today. She is such a sweetie pie. Blake's calling her "Punkin" now, so Camden chooses between Punkin, Seester or Dandon (or something similar) when he talks to her. She has really enjoyed pulling the ornaments off the bottom of the tree and stealing ribbons off of gifts. I was smart enough (or lazy enough) not to wrap presents until Tuesday night so we didn't have to fight that fight longer than two days. She loves Pat-a-cake and will clap her hands if you ask her to. She waves like a lunatic when she thinks she's coming or going, and likes to repeat Camden when he says bye-bye, mama or daddy, and tries to imitate other words/sounds he makes. She's FINALLY holding her own bottle, which has been nice. Hopefully we'll be able to train her on a sippy cup soon so we can toss the bottles (or store them for No. 3) in another month. So far she's only interested in chewing on them and throwing them. She is cruising around like crazy, but only occasionally will let go of things and only stays upright a few seconds. She and Camden are starting Mother's Day Out at Airline Baptist Church in January. I'm a little nervous and a lot excited to be able to drop them off and get back to the house to be lazy BY MYSELF, and maybe occasionally productive.

Happy 11 month day Sweet Girl. We love you!

Christmas 2008 - Round 2

We Christmased at Granny and Papa's tonight. Uncle Bruce made yummy gumbo, and we had the usual Christmas Eve finger foods. The kids were nuts, meddling in everything they could get their hands on (which as most of you know is A LOT). Landry was diggin' her some Uncle Ernie, and Camden was pretty much diggin' anyone who would watch him act silly.

Now get to bed so Santa can come visit you all! Merry Christmas!!!

Pretend you got these in the mail

I really did order Christmas cards, but there was a problem while they were being processed, and by the time they notified me it was too late to reorder. So anyway, here's wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

Christmas 2008 - Round 1

I think this is about as good as it gets for our family pictures anymore.

Landry enjoyed Nana's red velvet cake!

Camden got a cool driving toy that makes about 1,000 different VERY loud noises.



Camden and "Ta Ta".

Landry wanted her turn, too.

Landry loved her first real baby doll.

We had our Christmas with Blake's immediate family yesterday. We had a great time visiting, eating and opening Christmas presents. Landry really enjoyed climbing on unopened gifts and eating tissue paper. Camden disappointed me, yet again, with his disinterest in opening gifts, but he had a great time playing after things were opened for him. Maybe he'll be interested by his birthday?

He's already corrupting his little sister

Camden has a nasty habit of letting himself into the shower in the mornings after Blake gets out. This morning I told him to get out, and to my astonishment he did. It was a few seconds later that I realized he had let Landry in while I wasn't looking. They had a good time playing while I took pictures, then they got the boot.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Aidan!

Aidan turned 3 on the 9th and had his birthday party on Saturday. Happy birthday, A! The Raineys love you!!

Just some pictures

Camden was a bit bewildered by the tree.

"I'm winning, Mama!"

Baby wrestling.

Landry is ready for the cold weather.

Camden can't do math in his head just yet.

His first Slinky

I bought Camden his first Slinky today. Of course it didn't stay in it's original condition long, but he's having fun playing with it. Landry's is waiting for her when she finishes her nap. I'm sure it will quickly be stolen and tangled to bits.

Happy 21 months, Camden!

Camden turned 21 months old yesterday! (I swear I'm going to stop this monthly crap when they turn 2.) While he impresses us daily with his ever-expanding vocabulary and his ability to be unbelievably cute, I'm pretty sure the terrible twos have begun. His new way of expressing dissatisfaction is letting out a long and loud squeal/scream or two. His hitting has picked back up also, but fortunately for now he only hits us, himself or the furniture. Landry has been spared this go 'round. We're at a loss when it comes to dealing with the hitting. We try to remove him from the situation and hold his hands down by his side and tell him we don't hit, but sometimes the first response is to smack his hands or butt and hypocritically announce that we don't hit. We'll see how that works out for us and hopefully know better with Landry and No. 3. Oh the joys!!!