16 months

My beautiful Matney,

It is so hard to believe you are already 16 months old (actually tomorrow but Momma has a crazy schedule tomorrow). You are changing so much each day that Momma and Daddy almost can't keep up! Since this mom of many hats often forgets things, I wanted to be able to look back and know what you were up to at this time in your life.

• In the past month you have become much more vocal and have many new words to share with everyone. You are like a parrot when it comes to repeating something that we say, but when we ask you to say "I love you" you just look at us with a very ornery look on your face.


• You are getting good at putting more than one word together and your best phrase by far every day is "bye bye Daddy" as we leave each morning with a cute little wave thrown in. You are also very good at saying "all gone" and "no more" in the right context.


• Your most recent trick in the last month was grabbing a diaper, opening it up and then laying down in the floor with you legs in the air; just waiting to be changed.


• You love your baby doll, Molly. Most every night you lug her around and want to wrap her up in her beebe (blankie) all night long.


• You do not let your beebe get too far out of sight and Momma will never make the mistake of forgetting it at school again on a Friday afternoon--that was a long weekend.


• You love to help me close the dishwasher and dryer when I am doing house work and if you don't get to help you sometimes get a temper.


• One of your new found loves is to reach up as far as you can in to Momma's makeup drawer and start dragging things out. (I am just waiting for the day there is lipstick all over my house)


• You have become quite the dare devil in the swimming pool often racing to the slide or attempting to jump in all by yourself. The first time you did this, I am pretty sure you took a few years off Daddy's life and mine but now we know to stay close to the edge and help you.


• You love your cousins and can say each of their names. And they love you! You are their sister cousin according to Grayson.


• At your 15th month appointment you were still in the 25th percentile for weight and height and your head was in the 75th percentile.

You have so many more qualities and things that we love about you but I cannot put all of them in to words or we would be here forever. You are the most precious gift I have ever been given and love each moment with you more and more.

All my love angel baby,

Momma

Happy Birthday, Grayson

It is hard to believe that little Grayson is 3 years old! As is becoming a typical birthday tradition in our family, Grayson celebrated for several days. His first party was at the Zoo with several of his friends and of course his brothers and Matney. Though it was a nice hot Missouri day, we still had a great time checking out all the neat animals and petting the animals. By the time we left we were all very thankful to have airconditioned cars and homes, but the day was great and it was wonderful to see how much fun Grayson had.

Grayson's second party was on his actual birthday, July 13th and we continued the celebration with an orange theme (his favorite color) and yummy food. He had a great time opening presents and got a very neat barn and a jeep and trailer to haul his animals around in.




Happy Birthday to such a cute and sweet little guy. We love you!

Happy 4th of July

It is hard to believe another 4th of July has come and gone. We celebrated the holiday at the lake this weekend and enjoyed the refreshing water due to the very high temperatures outside. The weekend was filled with good food, friends, family and the celebration of our Independence. We live in a wonderful country and thank all those who have served in one way or another to protect our freedom.

Our little firecracker, Miss M, loved putting on a show for everyone and showing off her pretty dress. She even won "cutest baby" at the Sportsman Club Annual Parade! Matney has changed so much in the last year and we can only imagine what all the future 4th of July's hold.

(Independence Day 2010)

Busy Busy Busy

The last few weeks we have been hanging around home, enjoying our time together as a family and enjoying the summer. We spend our days working and at night we spend a lot of time outside, or "sigh, sigh" as Matney would say.
(First popsicle-June 6, 2011)

Matney has had several firsts in the last few weeks. She loves to eat and have "naks" so we introduced her to her first popsicle. She didn't like it has much as I was expecting because she couldn't figure out how to hold it and she had a meltdown, no pun intended, because she couldn't eat it faster than it was melting.
(First ponytail - June 13, 2011)

Matney's hair has finally gotten long enough to sport a minipony every once in a while. If you don't make a big deal about it, she will actually leave it in. If you point out that it is there, she rips it out in no time; thus, the reason why she never has bows in her hair. However, her Auntie Ab is pretty happy she is started to rock the pony (and so is her Momma)!

(First time in lifejacket - June 19, 2011)

Before heading to the lake for the 4th of July, we decided we better let M try out her life jacket. She rolled around like a beached whale for a while and then found her sea legs and ran all over the place in her jacket. She liked it while she was in the water as well, so hopefully she won't mind it while on the boat.

Hanging out on the table isn't a first in this picture - only just about the 100th time that I have had to get her out of the chair and off the table because she thinks it is so fun to crawl up there and just hang out. This however is the first time I was able to catch her in the act.

She has also learned how to get out of the bathtub this week and come down the hall. I left her for maybe 5 seconds to get something out of another room and the next thing I knew, she was toddling down the hall just laughing and was ohhh so proud of herself!

Summertime is final here...

Summer has begun at the Crawford household. The pool is officially opened and new safety measures have been installed due to all the little people running around. We had a great time on June 4th when we all came together for the first pool party of the summer, a wonderful dinner (Nannie B wasn't there as she was sick) and a great time. We have found the perfect way to wear all the littles out and get a good nights sleep!

Happy 1st Birthday Kennon

Our youngest nephew, Kennon Curtis Biggers, turned 1 on May 4th and celebrated his birthday the following Saturday with a wagon theme and a jumpy house to boot (which had a funny smell due to someone's run in with the cat!). It is hard to believe it has been a year since the little man entered our lives after a lot of pushing on his Momma's part (I think he just wanted to stay where it was warm and cozy). He has been layed back and a Momma's boy every since the beginning. He gets cuter every day and grows a few more curls every night, I think. I know he and Matney are going to be great friends and we are lucky to have him in all of our lives.

Happy Birthday Little K Cup!

Easter Sunshine

We celebrated our second Easter with our beautiful little girl on April 24th. The day was rainy and dreary, but that didn't matter as we were celebrated the resurrection of our Savior. I told Matney many times that day how important the day was and though I know it didn't mean a lot to her this year, I know in the years to come it will mean something to her as she grows in her Christian faith.

We enjoyed a beautiful church service and lunch at Brandon's grandparents. The kids played in an egg pile and collected their eggs. They received several gold dollars and way too much candy!

We hunted eggs in the house at Nannie and Papa G's while celebrating in shifts and continously picking at the ham as Nannie and Papa were watching over Grandma Leota who was not doing well and would soon go to heaven. Grandma Leota was with us for one last Easter and then went to heaven shortly after to live her eternal life. What a celebration of the life that God has given us, to know that our grandmother lived through 87 celebrations of His life and knew where she would go because of his sacrifice and where we all would go to live forever.