Happy 4th Birthday Layne!!

Layne is 4 today. His birth story is pretty boring (compared to Anna's). I went in for a scheduled c-section on Tuesday, Dec. 30 and had him around 8:30 that morning. He was 8 pounds, 8 ounces. We came home on Thursday, New Years Day. He is such a sweet, tender-hearted little boy. He loves playing with his sister, anything from CARS movie, and playing football in the living room. His favorite food is cheese dip and chips. He would survive off of just that if we let him!! We love you Layne and are very blessed to have you as a son and brother!!

Layne at 1 week

Layne at one
Layne at 2
Layne at his 3rd b-day party (Thomas the Train party)
Layne at 4

Christmas 2007

We are back from our trip to Arkansas. Our trip started on Friday. We went to my mom and dads in Rison, Arkansas. On Saturday, my sister, brother, and their families all came into town. There were a total of 15 of us there. 8 adults and 7 kids. It is getting scary b/c the kids are about to outnumber the adults!! Everyone stayed until Monday morning and then it was just our family with mom and dad Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. They enjoyed helping us play "Santa". On Christmas day we traveled to Little Rock to my brother's home (Russ & Tenille). They were so sweet to invite all of us b/c she has a 2 week old baby (who is just precious!!). They had a feast! We came back to Texas on Wednesday. We will have Christmas with Ken's mom this weekend. We had an awesome time and thanks to everyone for all of the thoughtful gifts. We are so blessed.

Collums Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Pedigree chart

Collums Look-alike Meter

I thought this was interesting. I know that Anna looks alot like me (just look at pics of me when I was her age), but I don't normally gets comments about Layne. Ken is demanding DNA tests!! This is the kind of stuff I do when I get overwhelmed with lots of things to do around the house. We are leaving tomorrow for Arkansas and I have a million things to do, but look at me. I am messing with a "look-a-like meter"!!
MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph

Christmas program & basketball

Anna had her kindergarten music program on Friday. She was very excited about it because she loves to sing. I think they have been working on it since the first day of school because we have been singing the songs around the house for a very long time. The theme was "Christmas Around the World". They sung traditional Christian songs as well as songs about Hanukkah and Kwanza. Anna wanted to know why we were not celebrating Hanukkah. I had to explain to her that we were not Jewish.

She had her last YMCA basketball game on Saturday. Poor thing...a little boy tried to pass the ball to her and do you know what she did? She ducked her head and put her hands over her eyes. She acted as if he was throwing a snowball at her. She really had no clue during the entire basketball run, but SHE HAD FUN and that's all that matters!!! It was very entertaining to say the least. I have a feeling that one of these days she is going to look back on the videos of her early basketball days and get a real kick out of it. The last picture is of the kids after church on Sunday. I always have to get a shot in front of the tree.

Corn dip recipe

I took this to a Christmas party the other night and several wanted the recipe. Thought I would share with the blog world.

2 cans shoepeg corn, drained
1 can rotel, drained
8 oz cream cheese
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. garlic salt

Place corn, rotel, and cream cheese in microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 3 minutes or until cheese is melted. Stir in spices. Serve warm or room temperature. I like it with Fritos.

Christmas Lists

Here's the kids Christmas lists:

Anna:
Baby Born doll
Musical Keyboard
Island Princess Barbie doll
Art stuff

Layne:
CARS Mack Trailer Play Set
Football
Cranky the Crane (Thomas the Train)
Remote Controlled Lightning McQueen

Tonight we are going as a family to Dollar Tree. The kids are going to pick out a gift for each other and me and Ken. They are so excited about it. Anna is really looking forward to wrapping her gifts. Here's a couple of recent photos.

Lauren Evon Rauls

My brother and his wife (Russ & Tenille) just had their second baby on Friday. Her middle name is after my sweet grandmother. She weighed 5'3". They just came home today and updated their blog with pictures. You can check them out here. That makes 7 grandkids for my mom and dad (Anna who is 6, is the oldest...lots of little ones!). Congrats Russ, Tenille, & Lexi!!

Anna lost a tooth!

Anna's tooth was very loose before we left on our trip to Nebraska. Wouldn't you know that she lost her first tooth while we were away! She was so excited because lots of her friends are beginning to lose their teeth. The tooth fairy was very generous to her (she was at grandma's house) and left her $10. Of course I told her that the tooth fairy always leaves more money for the first tooth than any of the others. :) Now, another one of her bottom teeth is loose. I am surprised it has not popped out as much as she messes with it!!

Great article

I love how God sends you messages just when you need them. Yesterday I was kindof pouting around because Ken had recruits in town and I really needed his help with the kids. I started to get frustrated when I realized he has not had one day off since Aug. 7. Yes, that's correct. NOT ONE DAY OFF IN 117 DAYS.

Well, today this article was in the Dallas Morning News. It is about Ken's quarterback and his story. When I read it I knew God was telling me that this is what it is all about. We are in football to change mens lives...and winning is good too. :) So as I write this, Ken is with his recruits, but I know he is making an impact on their lives in so many ways. Here's the article:

Billy Don Malone doesn't introduce himself with the three-pronged version of his name anymore, so when he hears it, he can tell how long you've known him. If you'd seen him playing football in Paris, under the lip of Oklahoma, you'd have sworn Billy Don was headed for the big time. Everybody wanted him coming out of high school, and why not? He passed for 3,500 yards and 33 touchdowns his last two seasons. A big,strong country kid, the next Billy Joe Tolliver, he committed to Texas in the fall of 2001. But so did a quarterback named Vince Young. Malone suddenly developed second thoughts.

He considered several options before settling on Tulane, where his brother, Gary, a wide receiver, would accompany him. But Malone never played a down for the Green Wave. After a redshirt season behind J.P. Losman, Malone, thinking he had acid reflux, underwent a stress test that turned up a kink in an artery. Doctors told him he not only couldn't play anymore, he shouldn't even jog.

Devastated, Malone left New Orleans and went back home to Paris. Hung out on a dairy farm. Cut hay and fixed fences and de-horned cows. And he figured he'd never play football again. "If I saw anybody playing, I'd say, 'Look at a bunch of kids playing with a ball,' " he said. "I was just trying to make fun of it, because I thought I couldn't do it anymore."

He got married and had a kid. Enrolled at Texas A&M-Commerce. Just getting on with his life when a former coach called from West Texas. Told him to get his tail out to Abilene Christian, an NCAA Division II school. "All right," Malone said.

He looked a little rusty his first season, which can happen after laying out of football for four years. But he sure warmed up. Last year, he passed for more yards than any ACU quarterback since Clint Longley and led the Wildcats to their first postseason appearance in 30 years. This season -- which just ended in the second round with an improbable 76-73 triple-overtime loss to Chadron State in Nebraska -- he trashed the record books.

Under third-year coach Chris Thomsen and offensive coordinator Ken Collums, the Wildcats set or tied 82 NCAA, Lone Star Conference and ACU records, including the score of their last game. ACU also became the first school in NCAA history to field a 3,500-yard passer, 2,000-yard rusher and a pair of 1,000-yard receivers, all in one season. Get this: All four will be back next season, including Malone, who, at 6-3, 235 pounds, turns 25 in April.

The blip on his stress test at Tulane? He's had two more tests since, and neither revealed any problems. But he's not bitter about what happened. Had he stayed at Tulane, he figures he wouldn't be who he is now.

"When Coach Collums called me about playing here, I was talking about going to the NFL," Malone said, "and he told me the most important thing was relationships." He had no idea what his new coach was talking about. But he found out it wasn't just football. "These guys changed me," he said. "They're the best guys I've ever been around in my life."

Billy Malone, as they know him in Abilene, might be different from what the locals remember back in Paris. He may or may not be headed for the big time anymore. Either way, nothing matters to him as much as how he'll get there. In his case, it was the long road. "This," he said, "is way better."