Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

We are Thankful

Landyn spent her second Thanksgiving with all of our family, but it wasn't the same without Grandpa Roberts and GG. This is the start to our first Holiday season without them. We are blessed to have so many family members to surround ourselves with during a bittersweet time. Both sides of our families came over for a pot luck lunch. We provided the yummy turkey!

We are thankful for the gift we are given each day to wake up and touch the lives of others. We are thankful for the blessings were have been given to meet our needs through the knowledge, gifts and talents God has given us. There are so many things to be thankful for, but one of the things we are most recently thankful for, is the opportunity to have been able to know Grandma Roberts and Doug. They were people who made differences in the lives of all around them. We learned great lessons from each of them and they will be truly missed!

We love you Grandma Roberts/GG and Doug/Dad/Grandpa

O-N-E

Landyn's first birthday was a success! We celebrated on her actual birthday, October 9th. Since we have access to our neighborhood park and splash pad, we put it to good use! Family and friends came to celebrate! Landyn LOVED playing, splashing, eating cake (with her little friends' help) and opening all of her lovely presents, which included a hand-made, toybox from her Daddy and Uncle Randy!

The past year has flown by, but we are so blessed with a happy, healthy baby girl who is now considered a "toddler" We are excited to see what's in store for Landyn's future.

Pumpkin Babies

October 2010
Ongba came in town with baby Elli for Grandma Roberts funeral and Landyn's birthday weekend. During the visit we made a family trip to the Pumpkin Patch in Friendswood. It was so much fun watching Jake and Landyn pick out a pumpkin.

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!!