Picture of Love

If I could think of one word to be remembered by, it would be LOVE.

There is a woman I know who will be remembered by this simple, beautiful word -

Grandma Roberts (Beverly Ann)

April 21, 1936-October 2, 2010

She was the most forgiving, loving, fun, beautiful, friendly, amazing spirit of a person. I am so thankful to have had her in my life for the last 4 years. She took me in as her own grandchild and was totally in love with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And along with her biological family, all of our friends she considered her family too. No matter how we felt about each person in our lives, she loved them because she could. She never let life get in the way of how she loved.

She overly decorated for the holidays and over-did every get together we had. She always made way too much food, but thank God because it was tasty! She never let us help her with dishes (she said then she wouldn't have anything to do when we left). She was talented - she made us all scarves last Christmas. She was honest and open. She was bold and said what was on her mind. Even if it was offensive. As she would say "She had balls!" She took us to Texan games and she absolutely LOVED the Houston Astros. She was devastated when Baggy and Biggio left.

Grandma always wanted to live in the city and she did for the last year of her life. Aunt Laura and Grandma moved from their BIG house in Spring to a small apartment in downtown. When they first moved in she would go on and on about how much she loved that tiny space! As the year went on she started to grow tired and weak so walking the dogs became a big chore. She wanted to be closer to family. Also and so very coincidentally, she found out she had cancer (stage 4) the day her son, Doug, passed away. The past 5 months were hard for her emotionally and physically with the pain of losing her baby on top of the deterioration of her energy.
She finally moved to her house in Houston where she slowly and peacefully left this world.

When I hear the word LOVE I think of Grandma. Although she was a human form of so many wonderful characteristics, I think the one that describes her the best is just short, simple, yet oh so BIG: L-O-V-E, LOVE.

11 Months

This post is waaaaay overdue, but I'm going to make it so we have it on record :)

Landyn has really bloomed this month and has now become our little "parrot". She tries to repeat everything we say and really understands so much already. It's such an amazing feeling to see her get a book when she wants me to read to her, say "Up" when she wants me to hold her and say, "Awwwww" when we hug or kiss (and when she does that to her babies and animals).

One dangerous trick she has learned is to climb into her toy drawer. We thought it was cute the first couple of times, but now she is starting to realize it's doesn't make us too happy - especially if she were to fall through!!

Landyn, we love you and cannot believe you are already about to be O-N-E!!! The past year has been rough for some reasons, but absolutely amazing because of you!

Rub a Dub Dub...

Baby in the Tub!!

She loves her bath time! And her Daddy loves to do silly things like stick letters on her head...

Our Little Froggy :)
Obviously she's seen some sun this summer. And she still love that duck!!

10 Months

Height: 28.5 inches

Weight: 21 lbs

Landyn has made it ten short months in this world with only 1 ear infection and only a week of fever (which I believe had something to do with 6 teeth making an appearance at the same time)! We are blessed with a healthy, happy baby!

She now has 8 teeth that are visible almost all hours of the day as she is a very happy little girl. She is really starting to crack up at things which just brings so much joy! She is now eating mostly table food, but will let us feed her yogurt and ice cream (on special occasions). She is also starting to drink whole milk with lunch and dinner. With her love of food, we are slowly using the up the rest of the formula - down to a bottle in the morning and a bottle at night. She is starting to taste everything before she puts it in her mouth and has learned to spit it out - greeeaaaaat! Her favorite food would have to be blueberries, which she will never refuse!

Her little personality is continuing to blossom as she has begun "pitching fits" by plopping on the floor and shaking her hands. She sure does know how to manipulate! We have 2 big rules in the house that she is quickly learning: 1. she cannot touch cords 2. She is not allowed to throw food or drink on the floor from her high chair (which she finds hysterical). We try to be consistent and make sure that she always knows that we love her no matter what! She really does seem to know when she accidentally drops something to the floor - she says "Uh Oh!" She also can wave and say "Hi" and "Bye". She puts objects to her ear and says "Hello". It's fun to hear her try to mimic everything you say. She is standing on her own and taking a few steps, but seems to realize that crawling gets her there much faster! Her most recent, new found motion is pointing. She holds her hand out and grunts "uh, uh" until we walk her around and let her touch everything. Of course, being a teacher, we name each object she touches. She loves pointing to her bows and so does her Daddy!!!

She absolutely loves to swim (I think she may have been a fish once...) She can hold her breath and sometimes blow under water and kick, kick, kick. She loves it so much that it's hard to keep her head above water!!!

We've had such a great summer, getting a chance to visit several friends and go to many, many birthday parties :) Speaking of birthdays, we are planning Landyn's first! It's insane how fast time flies!

Thanks for always thinking about us enough to visit Landyn's blog. We appreciate all of our friends and family who have helped show Landyn the importance of love and relationships :)

Roadtrip Trooper

Road Trip to Colorado: July 24 - August 1, 2010

The Roberts family and Meredith decided to go on a road trip to Colorado. Meredith was a blessing on the trip as she helped keep Landyn occupied AND drove a lot of the time. We are so blessed to have such great friends!!!

**We drove through the first night and made it to Colorado Springs on Sunday morning to stay with our friends, Mike and Margaret Clifton and their boys. They were so "hospitalitacious" (as Kris would say) And let us take naps to regain some energy right when we arrived. They cooked the most amazing food and we had a great time catching up. PICTURES NOT AVAILABLE :(***

We left Monday morning and made a detour through Boulder. Before we did anything we just had to stop by Adam's Polishes warehouse to check out Kris's obsession and meet the owner, Adam! Adam took us on a tour of the warehouse and was the friendliest person! He took us through downtown Boulder to Pearl Street. We had lunch and walked the streets to take in the BEAUTIFUL, Colorado weather! Then we were really on our way to Grand junction to visit Ongba (Grandparents)! On the way we stopped at a really great rest stop called Grizzly Bear Creek on the way to Grand Junction.

Dysfunctional??? *LOL*

Meredith was a blessing on the trip - she helped to keep Landyn occupied!

Toes in the sand for the first time (and in Colorado!)

She was such a trooper on such a long drive!!!

***We stayed with Shelly and Robin in Grand Junction where we climbed Liberty Cap, went to the Brewery and made lots of memories! Unfortunately we left the camera in the car and are awaiting pictures from our stay there.***

While staying with the Trans, we drove an hour to visit the Auto Museum in Gateway, Co. It was so fascinating with all these old timer cars (which were not supposed to be touched - we have a rebel with us as you can see)!

Mohawk Rock - Gateway, CO

We took a trip to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado for Meredith. This hotel was the inspiration for the movie, The Shining written by Stephen King. We were ghost hunting since it;s a proven "Haunted Hotel".

Landyn and Daddy waited while Meredith and Mommy went ghost hunting through the hotel :)

We stopped in Denver to stay with the Remleys (Cassidy, Brad, Koen and Knox). While we were there we took a trip to a Wildlife rescue habitat. This place rescues animals like tigers, bears, wolves and lions from captivity in homes, garages, sheds, trailers. We learned that Texas has more captive wildlife (carnivores) than all the other 49 states combined!!! The rehabilitate these animals and then put them in a large habitat where they can live.Landyn with Knox We had a great trip visiting with family and friends. Landyn was the perfect Road trip baby! We can't wait to go on many more family vacations :)

Brody

Baby Brody James was born July 27, 2010 weight 7.9 lbs. We are so happy for him to come into our lives and we just love the Underwoods :) Congrats!!!

The Bug

Landyn caught it - and it was not a nice bug...

But it turned her into a Cuddle Bug...