There's A First Time For Everything!

This weekend, Lynleigh got her first experience with roller skating! We were invited to my cousin's son's birthday party so I thought this would be a great time to introduce Lyn to something the boys love to do!



We borrowed some little skates from a friend and I just thought for sure she would freak out! But as you can see...she loved it!


The boys of course love skating so Brady had to take some time out to help his little sister!

Kaden was determined to be a big boy and not use the skate helper! He only had a few crashes and shared Lynleigh's but for the most part, he skated all by him self!

And speaking of being big...Miss Thang thought she was big enough to skate on the rink with all the big kids!

I took a million pictures...well maybe not that many but she's such a ham now! This is her "cheese" face she is now making when I tell her to say "cheese!"

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the Toms with the skates on them! Because Toms are awesome and she's so cute in them!


And as our day was coming to a close, Lynleigh decided to just sit on the side line and watch her big brothers show her how it was done!

After a fun time skating we all came home to veg out! Sunday morning, I decided to let Lynleigh wear her silk dress for Chinese New Year. We are a week behind but she's two so she didn't know! She wasn't too thrilled about wearing the dress, but once the boys and I told her how pretty she was she was all about it!

What A Difference Time Makes!

Wow! Four months ago we got the most precious gift and boy will our lives never be the same! I seriously can't believe that Lynleigh has only been with us for four months! How can that be possible? It seems like she's been here forever!

Tonight, I was looking through pictures because I'm actually scrapbooking tomorrow and I was just stunned at how much Lynleigh has changed in just four short months! Have I said that enough yet?


Look at how thin she is! I can't believe she seemed so big while we were in China! Next to most of the other kids she was a giant!

Now I look at this skinny face and think about how little she looks!

Showing Tony this picture, he said, "That skinny kid doesn't live here anymore!" And not just her size...that little girl who wanted to be held like a baby and drink from a bottle doesn't live here either! To think of it...there are so many things that have changed during the past few months! Let's see...she is sleeping most of the night and will put herself back to sleep without help. She doesn't think she needs to be eating ALL the time now...just most of the time! She's braver than she's ever been with us and will walk into church or the grocery store without crying! she hugs everyone and pats your back when he hugs you!
She's starting to try to talk and loves bossing the boys around! She's a tattle tale (but what little girl isn't) and she's all about being pretty!

She loves...I mean LOVES playing outside with her brothers and is serious about riding her trike!

She's super sweet and in a breath very vindictive! She's all girl and full of drama! She's got all of the men in the house wrapped around her little finger while I see right through her routine! She loves to take a bath and will hit anyone that makes her mad! She's bossy and prissy and sometimes stinky!
We couldn't have ask for a more precious little girl to bless our lives and rock our world!


I could kiss those cheeks a million times and never get tired of that sweet face! Happy 4 months home Lynleigh Ren, we love you more that you'll ever know!!!!

Hello 2012!

To say our Christmas break was eventful is a huge understatement! So much has happened and I was just way too busy or tired to blog about it. Here goes a summary!

The first weekend of break, Tony's mom, sister, her husband, and kids came to meet Lynleigh for the first time! I love getting the kids together! Brady an Josh act as if they have never spent any time a part. Jordan was just happy to have another girl in the family...well...until she realized that Lynleigh isn't fond of playing with others! So, she (Jordan) and Kaden hung out and played like they always do!


We decided to try and get the kids to all pose for a picture. I can't believe we actually got one where they all looked decent!

And of course they had to have one with silly faces! Look at Lyneigh! She's even sticking her tongue out!

Grandma likes to get a picture with the kids every once in a while! This was another large feat to get them all looking the same way and no crying (from you know who)!

The Wednesday after they left, Brady started having ear pain. So we went to the doctor and since we were there I decided to get Lyn's second flu shot. Well, the shot wasn't the only thing she got that day at the doctor's office! By Friday, she was running a fever and super sick. So, back to the doctor we went. This time at the doctor's office, they decided to give her a flu test and it came back positive. While we were waiting for the results, her fever dropped really fast causing her to have a febrile seizure. I am so grateful we were sitting in the exam room and the doctor was in his office across the hall. I am happy to report that she is doing just fine and there seems to be no damage from the seizure. I'm not going to lie though, I haven't slept well since and was completely freaked out!

That was Friday, Saturday, we went back to the doctor because Kaden wasn't feeling well and the doctor wanted to see Lyn again. Are you counting? That's 3 times! By Saturday evening, both Kaden and Lyn had rashes all over their bodies! So, I called the call back nurse. Sunday morning was Christmas and I was determined not to go back to the doctor. Well, I ended up talking to the call back nurse again about Kaden.

So, here we are to Christmas day! Oh, sometime Saturday, Brady found all of the Santa presents that were in my closet (thanks Tony for leaving the door open)! So, on top of all of the sickness, now we have to deal with telling him the truth about Santa! I was so heart broken! He did cry but then asked if he could help put out Kaden's toys.

Each year, Santa leaves three gifts. They also get things from my mom and dad and we let them exchange gifts. I would say they were pretty happy with how the day turned out!



Lynleigh didn't really understand what was going on but she likes tearing the paper off of the presents. She didn't feel good and you can tell by the look on her face!

We always go to my aunt's house for Christmas day dinner and I tried really hard to get a good picture of Lynleigh for her first Christmas. You can see her cheeks are red because she still had a fever Christmas day!

My dad gave her a gift card to Build A Bear since she loves stuffed animals. I think she would have had a good time had she felt better!

Now on to New Year's Eve. Finally, everyone is feeling better! We invited some friends over. Since we are in love with Just Dance 3 on the Kinect, we thought that would make for some good times!

Lynleigh gets out there and dances and it's so cute!

We live in the city limits so one friend brought sparklers. I had seen some really cool pics on Pinterest so we had to try!

Holly made a heart...

"B" is for Brady. We made more attempts at things like 2012 and more shapes and letters but these two were the best!

Our friends started leaving around 8 (cause we all have small kids) but I managed to get a picture of Lynleigh and her sweet friend Sophie. Sophie is a month younger but has been home with her family a year next week! They are so cute together! I love that they are so close in age and hopefully it will help Lynleigh when she is older and feels like she's the only one in our world that looks like she does!

So, despite the sickness, the seizure, and the many trips to the doctor...I vowed to make sure we enjoyed our break and I will say that we did just that! I will be glad to get back into a rountine later this week!

I hope you have a wonderful new year and I can't imagine ours being better than adding our sweet, spoiled, and stubborn Lynleigh Ren to our family! But I know that God has great plans for us and I can't wait to see what that means for this year!