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!!