New Pictures & Update

This is definitely her mad face!

After her outburst!

Dane wanted to snuggle with Sydni - I just love the sweet look on his face.

This little rascal works and works to get turned over on her tummy to sleep. I lay her on her back most of the time, and this is how I find her every time!

We've had a good last couple of weeks, and Sydni continues to grow bigger and get sweeter. Our sweet girl did have a very rough weekend, though, and she really gave us a scare. Early Sunday morning, she starting having blood in her diapers, and we spent most of the day on Sunday going to the ER and Pediatrician to find out what was wrong and how to make it better. She is doing better now - the poor thing had a little tear in her bottom, and it is cleared up now, for the most part. We are still waiting on test results to make sure there is no infection. It was so hard seeing her in so much pain, though. She just cried and cried most of the day Saturday and Sunday. I felt so badly for her.While we were at the Dr.'s office Sunday afternoon, we did find out how much she weighed, though. At 5 weeks and 3 days old, she weighed 9 lbs. 13 oz., so she had gained over 2 lbs. since her 2 week appointment.

Yesterday, Dane and I decided to make some homemade peanut butter cookies, my favorite! I wasn't quite sure how we were going to manage it, though, since Sydni decided she wanted to be awake and held most of yesterday. I remembered my Snugli pouch thing that I had with Dane, and I thought that I would give it a try to see if she would tolerate it for any length of time. She fussed for just a few minutes, but once she got used to the feel of it, she leaned back and fell right to sleep. So, it was nice to be able to hold her and use both of my hands to make cookies, too!





Then, last night, we met some of our friends and their kids over at the Splash Park in White Oak to eat supper and let the kids play. I thought it was the opportune time to let Sydni wear her tankini for the first time. I forgot to take her picture while we were there, but I did remember right before I changed her out of it. I think that she is super-cute in it!

Our bathing beauty!

Lately, I have seen several blogs that show how much kids favor their parents, so I thought that it would be fun to do that, too. I think that it is very apparent that Dane looks so much like his Daddy as a little boy, so it will be neat to see if he continues to favor Lane as he gets older.

Lane

Lane and Dane last Christmas

Lane at 5 years old

Lane

Dane

I also thought it would be fun to compare how much Sydni looks like Dane as a baby. When Sydni was born, I didn't think they looked that much alike. Actually, though, if it weren't for the bow on Sydni's head and the girly clothes, it would be pretty hard to tell them apart in pictures, I think. Anyway, I just thought this would be fun to see on the blog. I added one of me around 2 or 3 years old, too, just for fun. I'm clearly the odd man out in our family!

Look! I'm 1 Month Old! / 2nd Annual Biscuinut Showdown!

And, what a month it's been! Our girl Sydni turned one month old today. We had a great Sunday, and we were able to share it with Lane's parents, as well as his brother and nephews, which was nice. Sydni's doing so well. She's growing so much, she's eating well, and she's starting to focus her eyes more and more on specific objects. We've gotten little glimpses of her sweet smile, but we're still looking closely for her first "official" smile, where she is smiling in response to something. I can't wait! I put her down to bed a little while ago, and I just realized that I hadn't weighed her today, so I can't give an update on her growth stats. I'll try to get that all done tomorrow and document it then. So far, we're thrilled with her and are so glad that she's such a special part of our family!






Since the NFL season is fast approaching, Lane's Fantasy Football league held its draft tonight to officially kickoff the upcoming season. If you will recall from my post last August, I do not particularly care for this event, as it completely consumes Lane's time. So, Caleb, our nephew, and I decided last year to create a tradition of our own, when we prepared, named and ate our culinary specialty, Biscuinuts! Most of you will know them to be those wonderful homemade donuts made from the cheapest canned biscuits. Well, periodically, throughout the year, we have made them together, and we really do enjoy our time together, and we take great pride in our effort and the finished product. This year, we continued our tradition and broadened our biscuinut line. All year, we have toyed with the idea of filled biscuinuts, which posed to be a great challenge. We had our plan in place, and we were ready for the challenge and anxious to see the results of our ingeniuity. After Small Groups tonight, we quickly headed to Wal*Mart to purchase the necessary items, one of which was a food injector. Well, our endeavor was a grand success, we are happy to report. We made one batch of regular biscuinuts with holes in them, followed by a batch of blueberry, cherry, and vanilla pudding (our favorite, by far) filled biscuinuts! Our injector took some practice getting used to, but it ended up working fantastically, once we got the hang of it. Tyler, our other nephew, joined in the fun this year, too, so we think that the biscuinut craze we have started is definitely catching on like wildfire!

Sneaky Sydni!

Here's some pictures of my two favorite kids from earlier today...Dane was so sweet as he laid down beside his sweet little sister.





"I may look sweet, but I've got some tricks up my sleeve. Watch me pull my brother's yellow hair (as he calls it)! He has no idea what's coming!"

Caught red handed!

!

Spiderman!/A Summer Rainstorm/Sleeping Beauty(ies)

Life with two kids is becoming more and more normal to us now. Sydni will be 3 weeks old on Thursday, and she's doing really well. She's only waking up once during the night, and she goes back to sleep fairly quickly, so she's being very nice to her parents so far! At her 2 week checkup last Thursday, she weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 oz., which is a 1 lb. 2 oz increase over her birth weight. She measured 20 1/4 inches, which is a 1 1/4 inch increase since birth. Her Dr. told me that she looks perfect, and I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, so I believe him!






Over this last week, we've spent a lot of time playing around the house. Dane and I made superhero masks one day, and that was lots of fun. Then, Wednesday night, we had a quick, hard thunderstorm, so Dane decided to cool off outside in the rain with his rain slicker and boots.









Over the weekend, we headed up to Paris, TX, to attend the wedding of our good friend, Julie Shelton (now Hays). It was good to see and catch up with some of our great friends from Deer Run, too. Rachel made Sydni the cutest onesie and matching receiving blanket, so I had to get a picture of them together. Thanks, Rachel!





We spent Friday night at the Holiday Inn in Paris, much to Dane's delight. After his trip to Harding with Lane this summer, Dane absolutely loves hotel rooms! Sometimes, he even refers to his bedroom as his hotel room. So, of course, he was thrilled with our accommodations. Saturday morning, Dane and I went to Denny's to eat breakfast, and we came back to find Lane and Sydni sleeping in until 10:00! Good girl, Sydni!



We're very glad to be back home, though. I think I'm more tired than I thought I would be.

Long Lost Cousins/New Friends/First Trip to Church

We have had a pretty busy weekend, filled with lots of firsts for our family.

Friday afternoon, Joe David, Stefany and Jed arrived in East Texas, on Jed's first roadtrip. Joe David had his 10 year class reunion this weekend, too, so it was a good time for them to come up for a visit. We fixed fajitas and enjoyed visiting and playing with Jed and Sydni. We had a cousin photoshoot. Unfortunately, Dane missed the photo opportunity. He and Granna were galavanting around Longview before they made it back to the house. I think that Jed was very impressed with his cousins, though. We like to joke that Jed is a very serious and judgmental little boy, and I think that Dane and Sydni passed his High Quality Cousin test with flying colors. I just hope that Mary Nan, Laura and J.J. were as lucky on their first visit with him on Saturday! I guess we'll have to check Robyn's blog for an update on their first visit with Jed. We had a great visit, though, and we hated that it had to end so soon.

Sydni & Jed

Saturday, Uncle Shayne, Aunt Billie, Aunt Kathy, and cousins Tyler and Caleb came to meet Sydni for the first time. One of my best friends, Joanna, along with her two boys, Nathan and Daniel, and her mom, Donna, came by for a visit, too. We all had a good hamburger lunch and enjoyed catching up and visiting.

Sydni & Uncle Shayne

Sydni & Aunt Kathy

Sydni & Joanna

Sydni & Donna

Dane & his new friends, Daniel & Nathan

Then, this morning, since Sydni and I have both been feeling well, we decided to go ahead and make today her first trip to church. I had bought a special dress just for today, but unfortunately, she is not as big as I had anticipated, so that dress will have to wait a while longer before she gets to wear it. Thankfully, Robyn had let me borrow a few special dresses that were her girls', and one of them is so pretty and is just Sydni's size right now. She and Dane were both so good in church today. Sydni paid attention and stayed wide awake and ate all through Bible class. She learned about the twelve apostles, and I'm sure she remembers everything she learned today. Then, she slept all through the worship service. Dane was so good in church. I am so proud of how he is doing. I was looking down at Sydni during church, and I remembered how I was brought to tears two Sundays ago, when I realized that it was the last time that it would be just Lane, Dane and me as our little 3-person family in church. Well, this morning, once again, I was brought to tears, as I realized how wonderful it felt to have my entire little 4-person family together in worship. I was holding Sydni with my left arm, as she slept, Dane was snuggled up on my right side, and my husband was sitting on my left side. This side of Heaven, I think those moments are some of the best one can experience here on Earth.

Our attempt at a family picture after church

On the flip side, as I close out this post, Lane and I just heard a breaking sound coming from Dane's room. Unfortunately, Dane threw a baseball at his window blinds, and yep, you guessed it, the window is broken! It's just a little portion of the bottom pane, so I think that Lane can tape it (yuck!) until we can replace it. On that note, I think I'll end this post!

Relaxin' with Pa/Baking with Granna/First Bath at Home/Just a Swingin'

We're staying really busy around here and having a whole lot of fun! My mom went home tonight after supper, but before she left, she and Dane were so kind and made us some banana nut bread. We found out this week that Dane absolutely loves banana nut bread, and if left alone with it, could probably finish off an entire loaf on his own. So, this was really fun for him to get to learn how to make one of his favorite foods with his Granna.

Measuring and Mixing

Napping with Pa on the couch

Tonight, we decided we would give Sydni her first bath at home. Of course, until her umbilical cord falls off, it's just a sponge bath, but we still decided to make it a grand event. Dane was extremely helpful, and loved getting to be involved. As soon as we started, Sydni started sucking her thumb. It was so cute.

All weekend, we had been really disappointed because we didn't think that Sydni was quite ready for her swing yet. Then, I remembered tonight that there is a reclining setting on the seat, so that her little head won't fall forward. So, as we speak, she is resting peacefully in her swing. Over the past month since we got the swing, Dane has become very familiar with it and all of its settings, so we got him to pose behind the swing. Every so often, he goes up to the swing and shows Sydni some of its great features.





I think that we're all going to try to get in bed early tonight, since this is our first night alone. We've got doctor appointments Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, so I know that we will stay pretty busy. Hope you are all well.