VIsit from the Audrey and Matthew-part 1

Matthew, Audrey, and Aunt Ashley came for a visit and boy did Miri have fun! We went to the beach, the gardens, the park, the aquarium, and gator hunting (twice). Reagan even joined us for a couple of days- talk about crazy fun.


Miri walking in the gardens- it was a really steep bridge, but Miri wanted to walk down herself.



We took baths together almost every night. I don't think we can fit anymore kids in there!


We went gator hunting and had a picnic one evening. We saw several gators and lots of softshell turtles- aren't they cute?

Audrey and Matthew found one!

Miri was being a bit ornery through dinner, then cousin Matthew turned on the charm and out came Miri's smiles.



Thanks to Ashley for taking so many great pictures. I can't believe little Luke will be here in just under 10 weeks!

Walking and talking

Miri's on the move! Over the last several weeks she has decided that she would like to walk, though she is still very cautious and prefers to hold hands. She's also up to about 15 words. She loves to talk, especially to Reagan. She keeps my very busy and I can't imagine what it's going to be like once there are two of them. Miri's a very happy girl though; pictures to come later.

Christmas 2010 on the road-Houston

We had some family over while we were in Houston. It was great to get a picture with the whole crew! From top to bottom, left to right: Nana, Great Aunt Robin, Uncle Joel, Aunt Ashley, Cousin Audrey, Mommy's cousin Kyle with his daughter Skyler, Cousin Matthew, Blake and Lori (Kyle's son and wife), Daddy, Papa, Mommy, and Miri.

My Dad is a bit of a shutterbug, so you know there will always be lots of pictures when we go to visit him and my Mom. He got a lighting system for photography for his birthday back in October and he couldn't wait to try it out on the whole family. Here are some of our best shots.

Papa with Miri, and her two cousins on Mama's side, Matthew and Audrey.

Can we say love at first sight!


"Hi Papa, I really like your glasses."
"How much trouble am I going to get in for this?"
"Who cares, they are awesome glasses!"



The rules were a little beyond them, but they had fun filling up the board.

Goodbye Ike!

Well, Issac (Ike), one of the kids I watched for almost all of the last year is moving away. One day I managed to have Ike and Reagan (and of course Miri) and I couldn't resist taking a picture. Poor Miri has inherited my inability to have her eyes open in pictures.

Christmas 2010 on the road-Amarillo

Unfortunately, Miri caught RSV and pneumonia while we were in Amarillo, so we had kind of a rough visit. We had to visit the urgent care clinic three times (the second two were followups) and the poor baby had to take lots of medicine. Despite this, we still had a good time. Miri loved playing with her cousins, especially cousin Drake. She also thought that the ride on fire truck at her Grumps' house was the most awesome thing. Somehow I missed getting pictures of her riding that, but I think other people did, hopefully I can track one down because her smile was always huge and awfully cute.


We tried to take a family picture, but unfortunately Miri was really feeling bad that day and was not very cooperative.

Miri really loved hanging out with Yaya, but was less than thrilled about having to share her lap.

Playing with cousin Drake. He was being so patient with Miri and he was sharing very well.
On our last day in Amarillo, we went to the Discovery center, which is a science museum for kids. There was an awesome area for toddlers with costumes, facepaint, and lots of other cool things. She carried these ears around for 10 minutes so I decided to try them on her, pretty cute! I also painted her face to look like a butterfly, but somehow missed a picture of that too. I was not having a good day for pictures apparently.

Christmas 2010 at home

We had a quiet Christmas at home this year and we kept it pretty small. Miri enjoyed opening her present on Christmas morning and had a great time chasing around the toddlers at church on Christmas eve.


She couldn't figure out how to get in the bag so we had to tip it over for her.
Miri loves her megablocks and had already learned how to put them together to make towers (mostly so that she can then knock the towers down). Just a clarification, the Wii remote was not a present, she just likes to carry it around sometimes and wouldn't let go of it for the pictures.


Our family picture at church on Christmas Eve.