Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Dane and Sydni! We just got back from trick-or-treating in downtown Kilgore, and now we're headed to Trunk or Treat at our church building. To add to an already exciting night, we'll then head to Granna and Pa's house for the 2nd Annual Cousin Campout tonight and J.J.'s 3rd birthday party tomorrow afternoon! Can we have any more fun?

By the way, are these two kids cute or what?!

Dane's a Big Three Year Old

Dane turned 3 years old Saturday, and we had the best time! To everyone's surprise (not really), Dane decided to have a Transformers birthday party. It was lots of fun, I think. He was so cute, and I'm so proud to be his mom. He let me take some pictures of him before his friends arrived for the party, so I thought that I'd share them with you.

Jed & Sydni Pictures AND Sydni Rolls Over!

We have had so much fun this weekend - Cousin Jed and Aunt Stefany flew in and are staying in East Texas for the week. They flew into the Gregg Co. Airport in Longview Friday morning, so Dane, Sydni and I picked them up. Dane enjoyed seeing their plane land, and when they came in the terminal waiting area, he told Stefany, "Surprise, we're here!" So, miraculously, we packed ourselves into my Camry with three carseats across the backseat. That afternoon, we went to Kohl's and Target, two mandatory stops on any fun day out on the town.

Saturday, of course, was Dane's birthday party, so it was a big whirlwind of a day. We stayed at the house and enjoyed getting to see just about all of the family and lots of good friends.

Stefany and Jed will head to Daingerfield to Mama and Daddy's house either Monday or Tuesday, and Joe David will drive up Friday to spend the weekend and pick them up. It will be so good to get to see him, too.

Tonight, after church, Dane was zonked (he's had a big weekend) and I put him straight to bed. Lane was at a devo at church, so it was just me and Stefany and the babies. We decided we needed to have a diapers-only photo shoot, but of course, Sydni had to wear her hairbow, too. They were so cute with each other. Jed is a little spazz, so occasionally, one of his wild hands would punch Sydni, but she took it well.

As a bonus, Sydni decided it was time to officially roll over from her tummy to her back. She has done it before while lying beside me in bed, but I don't count that because gravity helped her out a bit. Not only did she roll over once, but three times! I was so excited. We had our cameras out, but I missed the first roll, but caught the second roll on video, and I snapped the third as a picture mid-roll. Way to go, Sydni!

The next trick she's been working on, too! Dane never, ever did this!

Dallas Mavericks & The State Fair

We had a great time this past weekend visiting Shayne and Billie. We're really getting sad, since they will be moving to Hawaii for three years in just a week or so. It's been nice this month to get to see them the last two weekends, though, and we'll also get to see them this weekend at Dane's birthday party. We're going to miss them so much, but we plan on eating meals together via the web camera, which will be fun. We also plan to make a trip out to visit them, hopefully next year. So, that will be super fun!


We got to all go to a Dallas Mavericks preseason game Saturday night, and we got to ride the DART train down to the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. It was neat to get to show Dane the building downtown where we used to work. He really enjoyed the train ride. This was the first game for Sydni to attend, and it was the first one for Dane to attend that he remembers. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Sydni seems to really share her dad's love of sports. She always watches Sportscenter on ESPN with Lane when he gets up to feed her in the mornings. She just lays there and is glued to the TV. She usually doesn't pay much attention to the TV unless it's sports. Well, the same thing happened at the Mavs game. I was a little worried because I just wasn't sure how she would do at the game. I figured she would either sleep or scream, I just wasn't sure which. Well, turned out, she did neither. That little girl watched the entire game, and it was a late game that started at 8:00! It was so funny - you have to watch her on the video posted below. Dane, of course, had so much fun, and as you'll see, he enjoyed playing with his Mavs foam finger. Even though it was just a preseason game, we were glad that the Mavs blew away the Kings.

On the train ride to the game

The view from our season tickets this year

It was great to get to go to church with Shayne and Billie at North Pointe Sunday morning. We worshipped there before we moved to Kilgore, and it was so wonderful to get to see everybody and to see how all of the kids are growing up, and of course, to get to show off Dane and Sydni to everybody. It was such an uplifting and encouraging service, and it started off our Sunday great!

Right after church, we rushed to get changed, and we all headed back down to Dallas to go to the great State Fair of Texas! Lane and I always used to go with our work when we worked in Dallas, so it had been several years since we had gotten to go and partake in the wonderfulness of a Fletcher's corny dog! Oh, it was so wonderful! Dane loved Big Tex, of course, but he chickened out of riding the huge Texas Star ferris wheel. I thought he was going to do it, but right before we got to it, he just turned around and started going the other way, saying, "I'm scared!" I was going to try to talk him into it, but when we got there, the line was SO long, and I figured that it'd just be best to try again another year. The big highlight of the fair was the auto show. Dane loved getting to sit in the cars, and he had a Transformers name for most of them. I have picked out my next car, which of course, I can't get until I go back to work in 2014! It's the SAAB 97X, the SAAB SUV, and it is so beautiful! Maybe by then, the 2009 model will be in my price range! The biggest let down of the fair was the "Dancing with the Dogs" show. It was so stupid! The dog handlers just danced around, while their dogs walked and periodically turned in a circle. We left after about five minutes, and on our way out the door, we heard the funniest thing we have heard in a while. As we, and many others, passed the security guard at the door, we heard him say to himself, "They should've made them old dogs dance last!" in a really disgusted voice, like he wished they had put him in charge of the dog dancing lineup. We were so tired at that point, so Lane and I just couldn't stop laughing about it!

Gotta love Big Tex! Dane said that Big Tex is his favorite cowboy!

Right before he chickened out of riding the ferris wheel (you can see it faintly in the background)

Dane in a really beautiful black Mustang

Dane in a BEAUTIFUL Corvette convertible

Dane in front of Bumblebee (the new Camaro that looks like a Transformer)

Dane and Caleb together

Dane and Caleb in the SAAB 93 convertible

We survived our first trip to the fair with two kids under 3 years old all in one piece, but we were both so exhausted by the time we got back to Kilgore Sunday night. Fun times!

Winding down after a great day at the fair!

Sydni's Three Months Old

It's that time again! Another month has passed, and it has been such a great month. Sydni continues to grow and develop, and we are so very thankful how God is taking care of us. At the beginning of October, I started back working two mornings a week in the church office, and that is going well so far. Our gameplan on those days has been for me to take Sydni with me to the office when I go in at 8:00, and Lane brings Dane in with him when he comes in a little later. Sydni has really caught on quickly to all of the office work. Since I work on Thursdays and Fridays, we get to finalize and print out the weekly church bulletin, which keeps us really busy. So, she has now mastered the following office equipment and skills: computer, email, Power Point, church webpage posting, printer, copier, fax machine, Risograph duplicator machine, folding machine, and basic business telephone etiquette. I don't know what I would do without her help! No, she mainly just relaxes and watches me, eats her bottle or sleeps in her carseat, but she does that great, too!

At two months

And at one month

This month, one of the GREATEST firsts has happened for Sydni (and us) - she has been sleeping completely through the night for the last three weeks or so. After 7:00 each night, we try to feed her as often and as much as she will eat, and then she's ready to go down for the night about 10:00, and she typically sleeps until about 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning. And, on top of that, Dane has finally started sleeping in his own bed all night long this month! He used to do fine, but he had been sleeping part or all night with Lane and me for the last year. That is a big deal for him, and he's doing great, and we're in a good routine right now, I think. So, evenings are actually fairly orderly and back to normal for our family now (cross our fingers!)

Sydni is also doing very well with her tummy time. She is very close to rolling over from tummy to back, so hopefully I can report that accomplishment next month.

This month, she also started sitting very well in her Bumbo seat. This past Sunday morning, when I dropped her off at her class, I told her teachers that she might be ready to sit in a Bumbo during class, instead of the bouncy seat. So, I put her in one and left for my class, fully expecting that she would be in the bouncy seat or being held when I returned to pick her up. It immediately cracked me up when I returned to see her exactly where I left her! She's so little in that seat, and she has no neck, so she kinda looked like Yoda sitting in it (in a dress and with a hairbow, of course). So cute!

Her language skills continue to develop, and she can say all of her vowel sounds, as well as the "g" consonant sound. So, we have lots of sweet conversations. She's not laughing just yet, but hopefully soon. I can't wait to hear the laugh that goes with that sweet smile!

She's still steadily losing her hair, but it is looking like it just might be red. We'll just have to wait and see, though. Who knows!

We had a great day today with the Fincher cousins, Mary Nan, Laura and J.J. They had spent the night with Granna and Pa last night, so they headed our way this morning, and once I got home from work, we ate lunch and headed to Tyler to the Caldwell Zoo, which is always fun! I took tons of pictures, but I just picked a couple of the kids to post on the blog. Have a great weekend, and enjoy the wonderful Fall weather. I know we will... we're headed to Dallas to spend the weekend with Shayne, Billie, Tyler and Caleb, and we're going to a Mavs preseason game and the Great State Fair of Texas with them.

GO MAVS!

Our Week So Far

We've had a pretty busy week so far.

To start with, as some of you know, last Friday night we gave our dog, Spanky Windell Brown, to Lane's sister and her husband, Torri and Roger. It's not that we don't love her, but we finally realized that we are just not dog people. We like dogs, but we don't love dogs, and you really need to love dogs to have a dog. Torri lost her boxer, Sadie, this summer, and it just worked out that she was looking for a brindle boxer, and we just happened to have one. So, we are excited about Spanky's (now named Winn Dixie) new home and life with a die-hard dog lover.

One of the negative effects that we experienced with Winn Dixie was that she really just destroyed our backyard. Our first year here in Kilgore, we really loved spending time in the backyard with Lane's koi fish pond, and I loved working in the flowerbeds. Well, needless to say, we haven't done much of that this past year, and in fact, all of the nice, full St. Augustine grass that we had last year is now just dirt. That's what makes me the saddest. So, we have been working everyday this week to start to put it all back together. We are praying that the grass will come back on its own, but we'll just have to wait and see. If not, we'll either sod or reseed in the spring. So, that's been lots of fun this week, since the weather is so nice right now.

Saturday night, the kids and I went to Mama and Daddy's house to see Robyn, Shad and their kids, and then we spent the night and went to church with Mama Sunday morning since Daddy had to work. As usual, we had wild times watching Dane, Mary Nan, Laura and J.J. play together. They have all developed a love for the game Twister. Mary Nan and Laura really got the jist of the game, but the boys didn't quite get it. Dane's big hang-up was the fact that he hasn't mastered the concept of left/right just yet. So, we spent a lot of time correcting him. J.J. just refused to accept any instruction to touch any color other than blue, so that made the game even more interesting. He also wanted Mama to incorporate the Mother May I game during his turn. And, as you will notice in the picture, he had to have his milk cup with him the whole time, too. So funny!

That night, after the Finchers went home and Dane was ready for bed, he dragged the game out again and enjoyed another game by himself. I was extremely impressed by his flexibility, as you will see in these pictures.

Here's Sydni napping Monday, while wearing the tu-tu outfit that her fairy godparents, Brent and Jill, got for her. Total girl!

Then, earlier today, I just had to get some pictures of my sweet Sydni girl. She just smiles so much! I asked Dane to kiss her so that I could take a picture, and then he requested that I take a picture of his bottom. Weird request, but I obliged. He thought it was funny! Weird boy!

Daneisms!

There are very few moments in our day that we have a chance to wonder about what Dane might be thinking. We don't have to wonder...because he speaks all of his thoughts! Just kidding, kinda. He's quite the talker, and I just thought that I would share some of the conversations and phrases we have heard from him lately.

• The other day, a commercial came on for Re-Bath, one of those converted bathtubs with a door on the side. Dane asked me what it was for, and I explained that they were for old people, since they fall down a lot in regular bathtubs. He then asked me if I was old, and I told him, "No way, I'm very young. Old people have white hair, and mine's still red." Then, he said, "The President has white hair." I was confused at first, since I really don't consider George Bush's hair white, more gray. Then, I realized who he was talking about, so I asked him what the President's name is, and he replied, "John McCain." I had to explain who the President really is, and that John McCain just wants to be President. I guess that's proof as to how much more attention is paid to the Presidential candidates compared to the actual President.
• I guess Lane and I watch a lot of CNN because I think that Dane has a pretty good knowledge of political figures, parties and commentators. He knows who Anderson Cooper, Barack Obama and John McCain all are. One morning, he woke up and said, still half asleep, "I want to watch Anderson Cooper!" Weird! He also has asked me several times if we are Democrats or Republicans. Not to get too political, but I told him, "Hopefully, neither!"
• When we ask him who he would pick to be President, John McCain or Barack Obama, he always says, "Barack Obama". So, last night, I asked him why, and he said that Barack Obama talks more." I guess that's true, not that I'd use that fact as a criterium for my vote, but I guess since Dane's a big talker, too, he finds that important in his candidate. And, let's not forget, Dane thinks John McCain is old.
• Here's some of my favorite Dane phrases:
• "Chill out!"
• "Please, just for one little bitty minute, one at a time?!"
• "That's a pretty sweet ride, right Dad?"
• "That's pretty cool!"
• "That's weird!"
• "Hey, guys! Check out that..fill in the blank (today, he wanted my mom and I to check out a gas station, but it could be anything)

Now, as for his accent, I'm afraid he has one of the thickest East Texas accents I've ever heard around any of our family. He's got some really weird pronunciations for a few words that never fail to crack us up. Here's a couple of our favorites:

Wal-Mart is pronounced "War-Mart" (that one's my favorite, I think)

Motorcycle is pronounced "Murtercycle", which I hear very frequently in the phrase, "Hey, Starscream (me), check out that murtercycle!"

Oh, I love him! He's so great!