Longing for one (or two, or three...)

It's a GOOD thing my baby has a helmet, really it is!

2012-01-23T17:06:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been almost a week since Tatem got her cranial remolding helmet. I have to admit, it was quite an adjustment for me! On one hand I know she needs it medically, but on the other, I want to see and touch my baby unhelmet-ed! When we were at our (2 HOUR LONG) appointment to get the helmet, the lady put it on Tatem and left us alone for a bit to see if it was putting too much pressure on spots. Tatem was tired and crying, so I faced her towards me and tried to snuggle with her little head under my chin. Instead of sweet, warm, soft baby skin I was met with cold, hard plastic. I started bawling. She wears it 23 hours a day, and she's wearing it for 2-5 months, so I've just decided that I need to embrace it and make the best of it. I can choose joy or choose to cry everyday because this was not what I had envisioned for my baby girl. I chose JOY!

SO, here it is. The

"Top 10 Reasons why Tatem's Helmet is a GOOD Thing!"

10.

When Tatem's doing her tummy time and Landrie is dancing around the room, I don't worry nearly as much about Tatem's head getting stepped on!

I remember from Landrie that Tatem's about to enter the phase of pulling her bows/headbands off. I'm attaching bows to her helmet now, so they are nearly impossible to pull off!

The stink that comes from her plastic-covered head is sure to keep the boys at bay a little while longer. She's awfully cute, so Mark won't have to get the shotgun out quite as early. :)

We met our out of pocket maximum for Tatem this year during the 2nd week of January. A year of free medical treatment will be great!! (Especially for all those expensive physical therapy sessions!)

When we are out an about, I'm pretty confident that the pink helmet will prevent any strangers from accidentally calling Tatem a boy!

Tatem will learn how to sit up while she's wearing the helmet. I'll still rush across the room when I see that slow-mo classic baby fall start, but I'm glad she'll have extra protection for her noggin!

It tastes great!

Even if her name tag falls off in the church nursery, they won't have any trouble remembering her name!

As my friend said, "After this, she'll have a ponytail-perfect head!" That will be one less thing for us to worry about one day when I've got 2 teenage girls getting ready each morning!

Her brain can grow correctly, her jaws won't be misaligned, her ear canals will be in the correct position, her eyes will be able to work together and a long list of things like these!!

Often I'm reminded of how to act by kids. When Landrie saw Tatem in the helmet, it went something like this:
"TayTay helmet?"
"TayTay helmet PINK!!"
(lots of touching of the new helmet)
"TayTay CUTE!"
Then she promptly leaned over and kissed the open spot on the top of Tatem's head, as if wearing a helmet was the most natural thing in the world! Well, then later that day she did lick it. So maybe I should say I'm reminded of how to act by SOME of the things kids do! haha!

Is there something in your life you've learned to embrace? I don't know about you, but when things don't go according to MY plans, it really can throw me for a loop. I'm constantly learning to trust God and rely on the fact that His plan for our lives is perfect!

2012-01-19T21:49:00.000-06:00

Before Landrie's birth mom Brianna started back to school (she's got less than a year left before she's an RN!), we got to spend the day together! We usually meet at one of our homes and go out to eat. Last time was a BIT crazy so we decided to just hang out at our house for the day. We had 3 very happy little girls! It was much better than trying to go to a restaurant with a 4 year-old, 2-year-old and a 4 month old. Whew. That makes me tired just typing it!

I borrowed this one from Brianna's facebook page because mine, well... I got the girls all set up making their cupcakes. They were sharing a chair so they were tall enough. Landrie stands in that chair all the time to help me. I'm sure you've already guessed the end to the story. Brianna took this picture, and I came around the counter to take one too. Who wouldn't want that adorable shot?? I asked for a hug, and in total slow motion they started to lean and scream. It was awful! I tried to reach across and catch them and couldn't! I've never seen Landrie cry so much. Both girls got bumped and bruised. :(

All that trauma made the after-lunch cupcake decorating that much sweeter!! Landrie scooped the frosting off her plate and into her mouth as fast as I could put it on the plate. I think Brynn ended up with more sprinkles than frosting!

The girls love to play together and had a ball in the backyard!

They blew tons of bubbles...

...shared a ride on a purple unicorn...

...and even watched a little Diego while Mark watched some football. :)

Wow! Look at those three beautiful girls! As always, we love our visits with Brianna and Brynn! We will never have to have "The Talk" and reveal the secret of her adoption. We have talked with her about it since she was a baby, and as she grows and understands more, we'll be able to talk about any questions she may have. For now, Landrie's just happy to have more people who love her!!

Fixin' my Melon!

2012-01-12T21:48:00.000-06:00

Well, from the time Tatem was a few hours old, the on call pediatrician told us her head was not symmetrical and she might need a helmet. We assumed the doctor was referring to the same asymmetry that most newborns have, and that it would even out on its own. 4 months later, it looks like he was right! We've been to three different appointments at two different places, and all confirmed that Tatem needs a helmet to reshape her sweet little head!

Tatem has two factors making her head uneven.

#1 My uterus was always about 5 weeks behind in size, and Tatem's head was waaay down very early. Both of these caused her to be more squished than an average baby.

#2 Her torticollis (neck tightness on one side) means that it's much more comfortable to turn her head in one direction all the time. As her brain grows so quickly, it grows in the direction of least resistance. She's sleeping with her head on one side, so as her brain grows, it pushes her skull out in the other direction!

Here are some pictures that Cranial Tech took that really show it.

The left one was when she was 3 months, and the right one was at 4 months. You can see it getting worse as she grows! See how the right side of each picture bulges out more and the left side is flatter?

Again, the first column was at 3 months and the 2nd one is at 4 months. Look how much better her torticollis is! The bottom picture shows how her head is flatter on one side and much "curvier" on the other.

This shifting of her skull can cause many different problems for her, so we are thankful to get it taken care of at this young age.

The good news is that we live in a big city and we were able to find a company that takes our insurance who makes these! Each case has to be sent in for approval, so please pray that we have favor with our insurance! They said that ours is usually a good one. :)

By the end of next week, Tatem should be decked out in her her helmet (of course I ordered a pink one!) and I'll post pictures. They said she'll wear it for 23 hours a day for anywhere from 2-5 months. Hopefully she'll be done before we hit our usual 100+ degree days!

In case you happened to land on our blog looking for info on this, or in case you're just curious, check out this website a lot of families use to "Bling their band!" They have some pretty funny phrases you can put on yours!

4 months old!!

2012-01-09T14:49:00.000-06:00

Well, time sure has flown by! Our precious little Tatem turned 4 months old on New Year's Eve! Let's see what she's up to these days. :)

Well, Tatem, most of your day is occupied with looking adorable. :)

Here's a rare shot of you on your back! Per your doctor and physical therapist's orders you spend as much time as humanly possible on your tummy! That means no swings, bouncy seats or sleeping on your back. We've got to strengthen your muscles to help with your torticollis and work on rounding out your head. :)

You are SUCH a joy and delight, and you give out your smiles to everyone! You especially light up at your sweet big sister, who LOVES to give you hugs and kisses and gives me constant reports on you all day long. "TayTay filing!!" (smiling) "Her burped!" "TayTay covers." "Her AWAKE!!"

Oh, you are in love with those fingers and your thumb! You don't came which one ends up in your mouth, but they are almost constantly in there. Once you figured that out, you were so much happier!

I am so thankful that we hardly ever see this face anymore! You really only cry when you need something. Your colic miraculously started getting better around 3 months! Although I don't see it much during the day, I still hear your cries at night! You're eating every 3 hours during the day and every 3-5 hours during the night. Whew! I'm not quite ready for sleep training though. I'm savoring that sweet time with you, although I do get pretty sleepy some days!

You may like to eat around the clock, but you are a great sleeper! You wake up, then eat, exercise and play. Like clockwork, after about an hour you rub your eyes and fuss a bit. We swaddle you up and you go right to sleep for about 2 hours. Then we start it all over again!

Want to know a few stats?

-You've flown through the diaper sizes and already wear a 3!

-You wear 3-6 month clothes.

-I weighed you at 3 months, and you were 14.5 or 15 pounds every time over a 2 day period. I had to weigh you a lot because I didn't believe it! That put you almost in the 90th %! That's quite a jump from being in the 10th at birth! The huge growth spurt explains why you only wore size 2 diapers for about a week!

-At your 4 month checkup, you were almost 15 pounds (57th%) and 24.5 in. (58th%). You are healthy and perfect in every way!

-We went downtown for physical therapy for your torticollis every week from the time you were 2 months to 4 months. You're doing great and now go just every other week!

-We've been to several appointments about the shape of your head, and the good news is that by the time you're old enough to read this, your head will look so fabulous you could get a haircut like your daddy's if you wanted. :) (This topic will get a whole separate post soon!)

Tatem Rose, you are such a precious, beautiful baby girl! We absolutely adore everything about you!

NEW Years with a NEW born...

2012-01-05T21:00:00.001-06:00

This New Year's festivities were the classic "We're getting older and have 2 kids" variety. No sparkly eye makeup, no new outfit, just comfy time with the ones I love. It was perfect! Tatem's still a bit unreliable in the evenings, so we knew we couldn't leave her with a sitter that long! I didn't want it to be just another night though, so I did some serious idea stealing. :)

The first one I stole from my friend Bethany. She, Dave and their little guy, Isaac, stopped by on their way home from this activity to rescue me from a broken water main in our front yard while Mark was on the men's retreat. They were just glowing from their fun family day, and I tucked it away as an idea to do later. If you live near Fort Worth, I bet you will too!

We took a 45 minute train ride through Trinity Park in downtown Fort Worth!

Our cute little train reminds me of the kind they usually have at the zoo.

Landrie and her daddy:)

Precious Tatem went right to sleep in my arms. This is such a dreamy stage of babyhood!

Halfway through the ride we stopped for 10-15 minutes, and Landrie and I went and ran in the leaves!

There were a ton of leaves!

She had a BALL!

Want to go too? Check them out here. Everyone loves a train ride!

The second one I stole from my other friend, Pinterest. Perhaps you've met her? If you have, you love her too. :) She's the kind of friend that after I've spent time with her, I look up and can't believe how much time has flown by. If you haven't, allow me to introduce you to her. Click here. :)

My intention was to make bags of activities for every hour 5pm -midnight. That didn't actually happen. I was not to sure how my non-cheesy husband would like this, so I didn't plan a huge thing because I was worried it would flop. He LOVED it! We only ended up doing 3-4 bags, but they were fun. :)

Here is one example of the Countdown Bags that I did. Only mine were a bit more last minute and I just used a lunch sack. I did write little poems for each hour though! If you want cute ones, click here for her free printables. This mom had cute ideas for her kids too.

I just thought of easy things that would be specific to us.

Most of the ideas were fun stuff to do together, but one hour I changed it up. Mark had been off a lot and had mentioned how he couldn't watch all his recorded shows! He likes this DEA show and some crime shows that are too much for the girls and me. :) One hour went something like this:

This one's not his and hers towels,

But his and hers HOURS!

I know you'd like to watch your shows

And I need to give attention to my toes!

For the next 60 minutes, you will complete separate activities.

HIS

-Watch any show you want!

-Eat a sweet snack (I had a bag of gummy bears in there with sappy things written on it like "You are BEARy cute!" "Life would be unBEARable without you!" etc.)

-Munch on some popcorn (Yup, microwave popcorn that he loves was in there too. No notes, but that would be easy too. "There's no one BUTTER than you!")

HERS

-bubble bath

-pedicure!

I also wanted to interview Landrie with something like this:

I thought we could keep them in with the Christmas decorations and do it each year! Maybe I'll still do it. :)

Ice Painting would have been a big hit too. Good thing Landrie can't read the blog yet! She'll love it when we do it! :)

On weekends we like to cook a big family breakfast. New Year's Day was no exception! Well, there was just one little twist!

How cute is she?? Lately she's been insisting on sitting in this big girl booster seat, and she always wants a plate or bowl and a fork or spoon. She's getting so big!

I hope y'all are having a very Happy New Year!

Christmas Whirlwind!

2012-01-01T21:43:00.000-06:00

After a great celebration with Mark's family, we headed to Houston to my parents' to celebrate with my brothers and their families. I'm so thankful that this year we were able to celebrate with our parents, all of our siblings and all 12 nieces and nephews!

I know you've all been worried about if Santa remembered her Dora bike. :) We doubled checked with Santa many times to make sure, since every time she saw a Santa, she said, "DORA BIKE!!" It was a big hit. Notice the Dora doll Aunt Megan gave her the day before (she slept with it and carried it down to do presents) and the Dora band aid on her leg (she was thrilled to finally have a microscopic scratch!). She's in love!

Tatem was just happy chewing on her little fingers and hanging out with her P-Pa. :)

Then she saw that this BIG gift was hers!

GranJan and Tatem (looking oh-so-thrilled) with her new swing! I know the girls will get hours of fun out of this gift!

Everyone got fun gifts...like Christy's new dishes!

And my dad's new grippy things! clamp set? braces?

Adelynn is our shy niece...haha! I think I have 20 pictures of her modeling outfits. She is WAY excited about anything from Justice!

My parents did a recordable book for Landrie. They found a Dora one! Landrie just squeals every time she reads it! If you are a grandparent, or aunt or uncle, go buy one now! I looked here, and they have lots of sweet books, plus Elmo, Cars and Thomas the Train. :)

Tatem got to meet and snuggle with her Aunt Melissa!

Oh my goodness! Braiden Beam! How is it that you are already 13!!?

Kevin and Christy

My parents

Making dressing is a family tradition! Everyone cuts and mixes it all together. You never know how it's going to turn out...but this year was a good year. :)

Landrie was right in the middle of it with her pal, Abbie!

The kids all went down to the woods/pond at the end of my parents' street. It was misting and cold!

YUMMY Christmas dinner!

the wild and crazy kids' table!

Both Christmases were a bit cold and rainy, so Eric, Landrie and Bennett found a way to burn off some energy inside. :)

Oh, how cute is she?! Her hood has tiny ears. :)

Okay, I don't have Photoshop so I had to just do some creative editing to get a good one of all 8 grand kids! Anna, Brooke, Braiden, Abbie, Tatem

Adelynn, Landrie and Bennett

(all the "A" names are Kevin's and all the "B" names are Eric's)

The original 5 Beams:)

Eric, me, my mom and dad, Kevin

And just because this one makes me laugh...:)

My parents have been doing family pictures with their Christmas card since 1967, when they got married! Kevin was showing the kids why we took a picture of the 5 of us and what we looked like at their ages. If you've known my parents a long time, you might recognize some of those shots! :)

Bennett is 5, and he was reading numbers this long. Ummm....I'm not kidding! He kept asking, "What comes next?" I stopped at "quadrillion!!" He's such a cute little smartie. :) Tatem was obviously in awe too. :)

We are realizing that you never quit being a parent. Right now, Mark and I are in the middle of diapers, teething and being up all night. Our brothers and sisters have older kids, and are dealing with totally different issues, like homework, GIRLFRIENDS?!?!, and sports. Our parents may technically have empty nests, but we keep them hopping with lots of visits and they do such a great job taking care of us. :) My mom added a few rows onto Tatem's hat because she already outgrew it. :) Our families are growing and changing so quickly. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with these amazing families!!

2011-12-30T21:44:00.000-06:00

Tatem was right at home when we celebrated Christmas with Mark's family. Everyone looks like her!! haha! Mark's parents made the LONG drive to Texas and spent a week and a half bouncing between Mark's sisters' and grandmas' homes. Including hotels, they spent the night in 7 different places!

Look at this Christmas cutie! Mark's mom and I tried to get the girls together, but after about 100 pictures, we gave up! Mark's mom is holding her outfit to help her sit up. :)

Mark's parents with their tiniest grandbabies!

Christmas cuties eating breakfast at the little kids' table. This was BEFORE presents. I can't believe they waited!

Landrie, McKinnnan, Gramm and Tucker

Landrie in front of all the loot!

Cade, Colson and Jaxon were ready to open!

THANK YOU!!!

Mark's parents got the little ones these head lamps. They were such a huge hit! Landrie's still walking around the house wearing hers. :)

Tucker

It wouldn't be Christmas without posing with a present!

Grandma and Cade

McKinnan was excited when we adopted Landrie and when Tatem was born. Our girls are her only girl cousins!! Landrie loves to play with her. :)

Do you see her lips saying, "DORA?" It was a Dora Christmas for sure, and Landrie was a happy girl!!

Colson tearing into a gift! It took about 30 seconds for Megan and Greg's living room to be covered in wrapping paper!

Gramm loved this one!

Rusty and Jaxon checking out a rocket launcher. It didn't take the boys long to realize one cousin could launch it from the first floor, and another cousin could lean over the railing and catch it upstairs!

Thanks for letting us take over your house, Megan and Greg...and Dora. :)

Beth talked all about being a red head with Tatem. :)

My love:)

My two favorite little girls!!

During some downtime, I resurrected one of my favorite Christmas activities from my teaching days- gingerbread houses! I use this method to make them and hot glue instead of icing. It's much easier!

All kids like candy, right? Well, Landrie and her cousin Colson seem to have an extra dose of candy-loving. It didn't take long for Colson to dig right in!!

Of course, Landrie had to try it too! (Notice that all her candy was licked before she put it on her house. No one was stealing her candy!)

Mark's mom and sisters! I love these girls!

The original five Longs! Beth, Mark's mom and dad, Megan and Mark

I promise Mark's not standing on a stool! :)

By the end of the day, we were all winding down. Our crew loaded up the car again and headed off for more Christmas celebrations!

We squeezed every minute of Christmas out of the week that we could. We even ~~slept over~~ spent the night (Sweet Tatem was so excited that she was up ALL NIGHT) at Megan and Greg's to get the full effect. :) We met back up in Houston with Mark's parents at his grandma's house.

Tatem loved seeing Grandma Todd!

Three generations of Long girls! Is it possible? Everyone is smiling, even Tatem!

One last group picture!

We hope y'all had a very Merry Christmas too!

Santa!!

2011-12-22T10:29:00.000-06:00

Landrie was so excited to see Santa this year! When she's excited, she gets a very dramatic voice. We'd ask,"Who are we going to see??!" and she'd get right in our face, with her eyes so big and say, "Hanta!!" It was so much fun that we took the girls to two times to a Breakfast with Santa two weeks in a row. The third Saturday she was going to a birthday party, but when we asked who she was going to see, you guessed it..."HANTA!!!" haha!

Breakfast with Santa #1

Landrie was thrilled to have a chocolate cookie with her pancakes!!

We practiced talking with Santa all morning, but when we got there, she was a bit apprehensive. Once we put TayTay in his lap, she realized he must not be so bad. :) She told Santa that she wants a Dora bike. It sounds a whole lot like "dirt bike" when she says it, so we had to clarify. :)

Pleeeeeese?

The next weekend we headed out to a local high school. Their drill team does a Breakfast with Santa as a fundraiser. The students run the whole thing and they have lots of carnival-style games too.

SO cute!!

Is that a smile or a growl?? :)

Just as our parents were SO EXCITED to give us that special Christmas gift that we'd been begging for, God LOVES to give his children good gifts. I imagine him grinning from ear to ear with anticipation over your reaction when you find out the good news. I cannot WAIT for one day when when several of our sweet friends have their long-awaited "Christmas morning" and get their gifts from God!!

2010

Last year we got to ride on the Santa float in a parade!

2009

Landrie was so tiny! This was at Mark's Christmas party for work. The mayor thought Landrie was so cute when she saw her that she carried her over and got another shot with her!

We are already having a great time celebrating Christmas with our family! I hope you have an amazing Christmas weekend, celebrating the best gift of all, Jesus!!

12 Days of Christmas gifts for teachers!

2011-12-11T01:00:00.002-06:00

Last year I did a post with TONS of ideas for Christmas gifts for your kids' teachers. I pulled on all my former teacher knowledge and put together a long list! As I was driving home from Tatem's physical therapy last week, I realized I want to get Tatem's "teacher" a little something for Christmas! She's just so, so sweet with Tatem. Hmmmm... I wanted something little but sweet... I thought of the old post! So, here it is in case you need some ideas, whether they are for your child's teacher, a work gift exchange or your baby's physical therapist!!

Just click here :)

Pumpkin Recipes!

2011-12-09T12:52:00.000-06:00

I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today! She's doing favorite holiday recipes, so you know it'll be a good one! We've all got our favorites, but this year I discovered two new ones that were a big hit at our house and with friends. :) They both involve pumpkin and cream cheese, so how can you go wrong??

Pumpkin cookies with maple cream cheese frosting!
I'm hungry just writing the name of them! These are a yummy, bite-size cake like cookie that remind me of those soft frosted cookies you can get in the grocery store bakery. The cookie is very soft and not too sweet, and the frosting is HEAVENLY!

Picture from here

COOKIES (I just changed up the spices from this recipe.)

1 cup sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 tablespoons Maple syrup
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground all spice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt

I was debating between two recipes and accidentally started with the one I didn't want to use, but they turned out great! I decided to go with the frosting recipe from Annie's Eats Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. She's right, only do 1/2 or 3/4 and you'll have plenty! I did 3/4 and had enough left over to frost some pumpkin bread. Landrie wouldn't call it it bread. She insisted it was cake. haha!

My little helper!

FROSTING (cut it in 1/2 or double your batch of cookies!)

3 cups powdered sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

3 tbsp. maple syrup

1 tsp. vanilla extract

The other recipe is from my friend Bethany. She made this ridiculous pumpkin dip one night and I fell in love. :) It's perfect with apple slices or would be great with those little graham cracker sticks too. I haven't been able to find them though. Does anyone know if they still make them? This is nice and light to go with all the rich Christmas goodies that we'll be eating! Oh, and it makes a ton. I froze 1/2 for later, so it would be a great one to make ahead. :)

Picture from here

Pumpkin Pie Dip

1-8 oz package cream cheese, softened

2 c. powdered sugar

1 c. canned pumpkin

1/2 c. sour cream (or substitute plain Greek yogurt) - I used plain yogurt because that's what I had.

1 t cinnamon

2 t pumpkin pie spice

1/2 t ground ginger

1 c Cool Whip, thawed

In large bowl, beat cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth.

Add in pumpkin, sour cream, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and ginger. Mix well.

Fold in Cool Whip.

Store in refrigerator.

Serve with Granny Smith apples, graham cracker sticks, or gingersnaps.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas! I'll be posting pictures from our family session soon, but Jenny already posted a sneak peek here. (Just look for the family in pink!!)

Does it get any cuter??

2011-12-08T16:35:00.000-06:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

A Beachy Thanksgiving

2011-12-02T22:35:00.000-06:00

This Thanksgiving we celebrated Thanksgiving and Nonny's 91st birthday! This picture of Tatem staring adoringly at her great grandma is SO precious. She just laid there and cooed at Nonny.

My mom cooked a heavenly turkey dinner for all of us!

Halfway through dinner, Tatem woke up to join us. :)

My mom and I took Nonny back to her new apartment and when we came back, this was the adorable little one I saw. Do you want to know something funny? That was the Aggie outfit that I packed for Tatem! It's a 3-6 month one. When I told Mark, he said that explained why it was skin tight and so hard to get on!

Mark got us 2011 Maroon Out shirts, and I had an extra outfit packed for Tatem, so of course we had to get a family picture of our matching A&M attire. I love it!! (But I didn't love the last 3 seconds of the game. :( )

Nonny's place is on the water, so P-Pa took Landrie out to feed the sea gulls one morning. If you've ever done this yourself, you know why I only have this one picture. As always, you can't find a single sea gull, then in seconds they swarm and you have to run inside! Landrie was not too excited about it!

Landrie soaked up a ridiculous amount of love and attention from everyone around. She enjoyed being the only toddler for most of the week! How cute is she watching football with her daddy?

She and my mom made this sweet necklace out of colored noodles. Landrie was SO proud of herself, and she's still wearing the necklace this week. Today I caught her crunching away on one of the noodles! Eww!

She helped my mom make her famous potato salad. Landrie loves to help with anything, but especially loves to cook. If I'm in the kitchen, she drags in a kitchen chair and says, "Mama, makin'?" and wants to help with whatever I'm making. :)

One little happy Tatem loved some cuddle time with my dad!

Saturday lots of family came in town to celebrate Nonny's 91st birthday! Thank you all so much for praying for Nonny in August. She's moved from the hospital, to a rehab center and is now in an apartment in a retirement community. We have so much to be thankful for!! She's got her computer all set up and is back to checking email and even reading the blog. Nonny, I hope you enjoy these pictures!!

Ali and Jonathan made the long drive in. When I saw her at Kelly's wedding I was pregnant and she had some baby fever. :) This weekend we got to celebrate that she is pregnant!!

My two precious baby girls...I still feel like I need to pinch myself. I can't believe that God has overwhelmed me with an amazing husband and two daughters. It's just a dream come true!

This one of Nonny with her three kids is so sweet!

Mark, Craig, Jan and Nonny

Look! It's Mark and our blog's #1 fan, right Donnie? haha!

It was so great to stay up late and catch up with my aunts, uncles and cousins!

Bernadette, Kim, Kamlyn,

Liesl and Kyla

My cousin's daughter Dreya pushed Landrie through the house on this train for ages! I think Landrie's face says it all! They both slept great that night. :)

I was behind the camera most of the time, but I did get one picture with my dad!

Whew! We had quite a family-filled fun Thanksgiving this year! I am beyond thankful for all of my sweet family!

For those of you who are on facebook with me and saw all my Sunday posts, yup, even with that crazy trip home it was all worth it! A trip that can be 6.5 hours without kids took us 11.5 hours, and we barely hit any traffic! Our DVD player broke about 5 minutes into the trip, Landrie puked everywhere and Tatem screamed a lot. We stopped 3 places in the tiny town of Edna, Texas alone! I'd do it all again...but not this weekend please!!! :)

Granny the Great!

2011-11-29T21:13:00.001-06:00

We spent a few days of Thanksgiving week with Mark's Granny. We had a great time!

We tried to get a good picture of all 3!

Tatem got lots of snuggles from her Great Granny and loved every minute!

I love visits with the girls' grandparents, because they get loved on and spoiled like crazy! Landrie's using her Pon Pon's baby spoon that Granny has saved for all these years. So sweet!

Landrie couldn't get enough of all Granny's Christmas trees around the house. She remembered this musical one from last year, and was so gentle with it.

Tatem turned 12 weeks old the day before Thanksgiving. So many of you encouraged me with the idea that colic ends around 3 months. It did! She's been crying less and less and starting about a week ago, she started grinning like crazy a lot more. It's so precious! I love her easy smile:)

Granny got Landrie a Dora toy. She was SO EXCITED!! When she saw this picture, she screamed, "DORA!" again and made the same face. I love that expressive girl!

Landrie loves to do "cheers" with others' drinks. Milk and wine...what a combo!

We are SO THANKFUL that we have such sweet family close by to love on our sweet girls. Granny, we had a fantastic time with you and love you so much!!

Pre-Thanksgiving Feast!

2011-11-28T22:27:00.000-06:00

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we celebrated with Mark's sister and her family! His other sister and parents were out of state, so it was a small but fun gathering. :)

Tatem was in LOVE with her Aunt Beth!! When people see Tatem in person, they are amazed at how red her hair is getting. Of course, the inevitable question is, "Where did that red hair come from?!" Look no further than Mark's sister, mom and aunts to find a bunch of beautiful red heads!

She wouldn't stop grinning for Beth! SO sweet!

We noticed Tatem wasn't blinking much. Jaxon is a professional at staring contests, so they had a little challenge. Tatem thought it was hilarious, and she won! Check out Jaxon's determined face. :)

Uncle Rusty's pretty funny too!!

Meanwhile, Gramm and Landrie were cooking up a storm!

Gramm and Landrie served Uncle Rusty lots of tasty treats. :)

I love this sweet picture of Jaxon! It seems like just yesterday when Beth and Rusty brought him home from the hospital. Mark and I were just dating at that point, and it was our first up close experience with adoption! We had no idea what God was preparing for our lives. How precious for Landrie and Jaxon to each have a cousin who joined our family through adoption! God just thinks of everything. :)

Adoption Party!

2011-11-18T22:35:00.000-06:00

November is National Adoption Month, and our adoption agency had their annual party last weekend! We took over a gymnastics place and had a great time visiting with lots of families who've adopted through Inheritance Adoptions!

Here's a picture of the whole crew (borrowed from Inheritance's fb page!). Click on it to make it larger and check out all the beautiful families created through adoption! (Tatem's in my other arm, hidden!)

You can see tons more pictures of the other families at the party by clicking here.

Landrie got a big kick out of the trampoline!

This really cracked me up. How did she know what to do with a hula hoop? It's not like we walk around the house hula hooping?!

She was so brave on the rope swing...until they told her to let go and drop into the pit! Look how proud she is of herself!

So big!

Oh, how I love my Landrie Grace!

This about sums it up.

Adoption has completely turned our life upside down, and we are having a blast with every minute of it!!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-16T22:24:00.000-06:00

Physical therapy for our baby girl!

2011-11-10T17:31:00.000-06:00

When I went to our first physical therapy appointment last week, I had no idea what to expect! Are you curious too? What exactly are "baby exercises," right??

Hi, I'm Tatem, and I'm perfectly happy to lay on my back and look cute. :)

My physical therapist said I'm supposed to do a total of 2 HOURS of tummy time a day since I'm 2 months old. That's a LOT, but I've been working hard to get it all in!

Sometimes I get a bit frazzled, so my big sister Landrie jumps in with me.

She's so crazy! :)

Whew! Y'all have no idea how hard this is! This head is so heavy!

My physical therapist said that I can lay on my mommy or daddy's chest to do tummy time too. Landrie thought it would be fun to lay on her! She loved it, but I was not a fan. She just wiggles too much!

My favorite place to be is in my mommy or daddy's arms, on my back!

I go to PT each week. Miss Morgan pulls my head to the side and presses my shoulder down. Mommy does it 6-8 times a day too. That's one exercise I have to do to lengthen my neck muscles. I'm so good at it now I don't even cry or break a sweat!

Miss Morgan also wants me to turn my head side to side. She put this tiny mirror up in front of me to try to trick me into turning to the side I don't like. I fooled them all and found the enormous wall mirror so I could look at Mommy and Daddy's reflection instead! Didn't have to turn my head the other way one bit! haha!

I'm absolutely amazed at the progress Tatem has made in just one week! It was time to quit treating her like a snuggly little newborn and start putting that sweet baby to work!

Squished little head!

2011-11-07T15:12:00.000-06:00

While we think Miss Tatem Rose is absolutely perfect, her doctor says otherwise! When she was first born, the on-call pediatrician at the hospital examined her. Do you know the first thing he said? "Well, her head, nose and ears are pretty asymmetrical, but they might even out over time. If not, you can always get her a helmet." What?! We just laughed about his obvious lack of tact and went on with things. Yes, her head was squished, but aren't most newborn's?

Fast forward to Monday's 2 month appointment. Tatem's head is still "squished," and it's causing our sweet baby some problems! Remember how my uterus always measured small? When I delivered at 40 weeks, it measured at 35 weeks. Tatem didn't have the room she needed, so her little head grew while it was tilted over to the side. There's a dent where her shoulder was in her ear. She's not the only baby who experienced this, and it actually causes a unique set of problems. We were on info overload this week as we got diagnosis 1,2 and 3!

1. Tortocollis- Because her head was tilted while she grew in the womb, her muscles are short and tight on one side of her neck and weak on the other. Her head tilts to one side. We started physical therapy this week and have a few little exercises that we need to do 6-8 times each day. She also needs a total of 2 HOURS of tummy time a day! The good news is that this is correctable, and with the therapy, she should be fine by the time she's walking.

This picture shows what she must have looked like before she was born! See her little shoulder pushed up there?

It's hard to see the dent now with her pudgy cheeks, but you can see it when she was still skinny!

Of course she can hold her head up now, but when she's relaxed it's always tilted to her right. It doesn't go to her left side.

2. Plagiocephaly- It simply means an asymmetrical skull. Her whole skull (including her face) is shifted. There are 2 treatments. Since babies' skulls are not yet hardened, they can still change shape. We are going to be very careful about not letting her lay one way too much. Hopefully as her brain grows, it will press on her skull, and it will fix itself. Our therapist said we are going to try that first, but she will most likely need a helmet to reshape her head. If she does, you can put all your money on the fact that I'll be decorating it like these DocBand Calendar babies! :)


Normal Head Shape	Mild Plagiocephaly	Moderate Plagiocephaly	Severe Plagiocephaly

images from here

3. Eyes that don't work together- Part of the plagiocephaly that she has means one side of her forehead sticks out more than the other. So one eye is further forward, and they are actually looking at two different things! We go to a pediatric ophthalmologist next week to see what treatment for that might be. UPDATE: I am finally posting this today, and we just got back from the opthamologist. THe good news is that it's a simple muscle problem that makes her eyelid droop, and it should correct itself! Babies' eyes often don't work together, but the opthamologist said our doctor referred her because of the combination of things that were going on. We are so thankful for this answer to prayers!!

While no parents want to hear that anything is wrong with their baby, I am thankful that everything is correctable since we caught it so early.

In other news...

Remember how we all prayed for Tatem to GROW before she was born? At one point she was in the 7th% for weight. After she was born, she was still in the 10th%. Not anymore! At her 2 month check up she weighed 10 lbs, 10oz and was in the 47th% for height and weight! She's growing like a weed! Other than the things above, Tatem is a picture of health! Here are some things I want to remember about my precious 2 month old:
-You are finally wearing 0-3 month clothes!
-You grin and coo all the time. Every time you coo, Landrie gasps and says, "Oh!!! Her talked!!" You love talking to your sister. :)
-You are a great eater and eat 20 min. every 3 hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night. Since you've turned two months, you've started stretching your night time feeds a few extra hours. I am excited! :)
-You still LOVE to be held and snuggled. You sleep on your tummy with an Angelcare Monitor (it sounds an alarm if you stop breathing) so Mommy and Daddy can get some sleep. Some nights you sleep in a moving swing all night long!
-We have lots of fun things to put you in, but you really protest if you're in anything other than our arms or the swing. :)
-Your smiles and dimples light up the room and melt our hearts!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-03T23:14:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness. This Halloween was SO fun! Last year we felt a bit ridiculous taking Landrie around, when it was pretty obvious that we were going to eat all of our non-walking baby's candy ourselves! haha! The girls looked TOO CUTE in their matching costumes. Both were fairies, but Landrie called herself a butterfly because of her wings. :)

Yup. This is the best picture that I could get of both girls before we headed out! Maybe when they are 4 and 6 they'll be easier to bribe into taking pictures together. :)

Tatem was NOT thrilled with my timing of the pictures. She was ready to eat!

(Happy 2 months, Tatem!)

Landrie, on the other hand, was happy to prance around the yard and let me snap away! She was so excited to get all dressed up and to have a star wand!

Daddy with his tiniest love!

I love this. The girls look beautiful and Mark looks cute as usual, but I look like I just rolled out of bed! I remember Halloween pictures from Landrie's first Halloween, and I look exhausted there too!

See, Mom, I'm much happier after I eat!

(See that adorable little head tilt? More on that later this week!)

We went trick or treating with some of Landrie's little friends. She was so adorable! She kind of just followed what the other kids were doing at the first house and was at the back of the group. When it was her turn and the lady gave her candy, Landrie squealed with delight at the top of her lungs!! She couldn't believe that people would just hand her candy for no reason. She kept giggling and squealing as she got more. She was so cute with her little "tank-oo!"

We brought the stroller, but Tatem wanted to be in on all the excitement. Between a two-year-old and a two-month-old we were always at the back of the group! Mark had to hang Landrie's bag around her neck because it was slowing her down!

Landrie was all smiles the whole night! I was never a huge Halloween person until this year. Seeing how much fun Landrie had makes me ready to do it all again next year. Christmas is going to be outrageous!

I hope you had a great time and are enjoying lots of candy!

Where's Waldo?

2011-10-28T20:43:00.000-05:00

Oh the captions I could write for this one... haha!

What about you? What would you write? Leave a comment with your favorite. :)

Happy Birthday, Brianna!

2011-10-28T00:29:00.000-05:00

I can't believe this is the 3rd birthday we are celebrating with Landrie's birth mom, Brianna! Our first visit with her was for her birthday, when Landrie was just 5 weeks old. :) Writing about that visit was my very first post about Brianna. It was back in the days of blocking out Landrie's face because our adoption wasn't final yet!

Just like our first visit, we headed out to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate!

Brianna, Landrie and Brynn

How cute are the girls with their sweet hands? :)

YUM! Landrie and Brynn shared some mac 'n cheese. They have so much fun when they see each other!

I let Landrie decorate Brianna's birthday cake all by herself. She was REALLY proud of all those orange sprinkles! Landrie had been practicing her very best "Happy to you!" version of the birthday song all week.

We spent some time playing at our house too. Landrie brought Brianna books to read and settled in. So sweet!

We couldn't help but reminisce about how our relationship has developed. So many people ask about our relationship with Brianna. I'm with you! Before we met Brianna, we certainly never envisioned the amazing, open relationship that we have. Ever since we met at our match meeting, we slowly got to know each other better and let the relationship develop, just as any friendship would. Neither one of us made specific promises about visits or phone calls. (Our agency requires pictures and letters each month for the first year, then every year after that.) We got to know each other better in the hospital and decided on our first visit. Things have just blossomed from there! We are friends on facebook and she gets to see all of Landrie's cute pictures on this blog too. We are so thankful for Brianna, and so thankful that Landrie is growing up with Brianna as a part of her life. It's not confusing for Landrie. Are you kidding? She's just happy to have one more person who adores her! :)

Happy birthday, Brianna! We love you!

We are a MESS!

2011-10-24T22:00:00.000-05:00

Whew! We've officially survived the first 7 weeks of sweet Tatem's life. I would love to tell you that after 7 weeks I have it all together, but that would be a big lie! The truth is that we are a MESS! Usually I post the good pictures, or the ones I pose of the girls. Up until Tatem was born, I don't think I had any of Landrie bow-less on here...and that's because she never was!

Kick, kick, kick! This is one of the many crazy shots I got trying to get their pictures in the shirts that I spent hours making. Can you find Tatem??

I was trying to take a cute picture of Tatem. With Landrie, I used to do all kinds of cute set ups, and I took her picture ALL the time. I was feeling guilty for not doing it as much with Tatem!

I got about 5 seconds to shoot, then Landrie hopped in, with a big "CHEESE!" My niece Abbie was over, so Abbie, Landrie and PUNKIN got together and sat on the fireplace so I could appease Landrie and take her picture. Of course, in all the excitement, the pumpkin got knocked over, rolled off the fireplace and several feet over to where Tatem was still posed. It knocked that sweet baby in the head! What a mess!

Showers and baths are not easy to come by when life is this upside down. We all know you can't leave a baby or toddler alone in the bath, so I've tried several things. I think this one is the winner! Landrie had a blast, and Tatem seemed to enjoy it too. :)

Life may be upside down right now, but I love it! I waited many, many years to have my hands and heart overflowing. I am so thankful for this crazy, not-always-easy stage of life we are in right now. :)

Disneyworld!!!

2011-10-23T16:59:00.000-05:00

Mark's parents live right outside of Orlando, so we keep wondering when the girls will be a good age to go to Disneyworld. I know the girls would love it, but I'm not sure they'd love it anymore than driving by a cow in a field or blowing some bubbles. Both of these events cause squeals of excitement! Maybe we don't need to go to Disney quite yet! :)

This week we got the play gym out for Tatem. Check out her face!

Yup, it looks like Dinsey can wait. :)

Punkin, I wub ooo!

2011-10-17T14:19:00.000-05:00

Last week, Landrie had an attack in the grocery store when she saw the bin of pumpkins. Of course, we had to get her one! I put it next to her in the shopping cart seat, and Landrie proceeded to melt my heart and all the other shoppers' too! The whole time we shopped, she just hugged, kissed and petted her precious pumpkin!

That night for dinner, she insisted that we pull a chair up next to her high chair for pumpkin. You know, so he could eat dinner with the fam. :)

The next morning, she wanted "punkin" to watch cartoons with her.

Seriously, she's in love!

So sweet!

She even used it for a chair! I told Mark that we may have to paint a pumpkin this year. I think carving him may scar Landrie!

And just because her sweet smiles are too cute...

...here are some of Tatem too!

Let's go to WACO!

2011-10-15T21:41:00.002-05:00

We were SO excited to go to Waco last Saturday! If you're not from Texas, Waco is not the kind of town you usually get excited about visiting. :) We had a great reason though. Mark's dad was in town from Florida and staying with his Granny. They drove north and we all drove south to meet up in Waco!

Landrie, PonPon (Mark's dad) and Tatem

PonPon was THRILLED to meet sweet Tatem!

And Tatem was thrilled to meet him too! Look at the sweet smiles she gave him. :)

Tatem got to meet Granny too! Granny is recovering from knee replacement surgery and doing amazingly well! We are so glad she made the trip up to be with all of us too. :)

We ate at the big Ninfa's and we had the whole back room to ourselves. The kids loved it because they got to run around and play together. :)

Tatem got lots of snuggling from Aunt Beth. Do you know what else she got? Her beautiful red hair!

Of course Aunt Megan had to give Tatem love too! I got to eat a meal with both hands. :)

All the cousins had a great time together!

Cade, Colson, Jaxon, McKinnan, Tatem, Landrie, Gramm and Tucker

Tatem is grand baby #8 on both sides:)

Mark, Granny, Megan, Beth, Mark's dad and Tatem

Our family!