Tarah's Daze

Maliyah is 3 months old!

2011-09-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

So we've already reached the 3 month mark and it has sure flown by fast! Little Maliyah is so sweet and so laid back. She has started smiling and she loves anyone to talk to her. She is such a joy!

Savannah is turning 5!

2011-08-10T05:26:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe my sweet Savannah is 5 years old! These past 5 years seem to have flown by and she is growing up so fast. Savannah is such a sweet little girl. I love her personality of loving girl things like wearing pretty dresses and the color pink, but she's outside in an instant catching bugs and playing in the dirt. She is always asking me, "What can I do to help you , mama?" She loves to read books and tell stories and sing songs that she has made up. She loves to play with Gavin and now her new baby sister. She is a wonderful big sis! She LOVES to have a one on one "date" with daddy or mama or nana or just about anyone! I am really enjoying this age where she has moved into being able to have some good talks and discussions and is becoming such a big girl! I treasure my time with her! Happy 5th birthday Savannah Mary! This year she wanted to have a Kitty party for her birthday. She helped paint kitty faces and we make cat ears for everyone. They had lots of fun. After she opened all her presents, we surprised her with kitten of her own, which she has been wanting for over a year! So, this little kitty will be and outdoor cat. She was thrilled and loves her new kitten. Ma came down for her birthday too, which was the icing on the cake!

Maliyah's photo shoot!

2011-07-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

So my mom and I played photo shoot with Maliyah and had such a great time posing her and trying on all these cute little hats. She slept through the whole thing and never seemed to care how we positioned her! We loved how they turned out! Here are a few of my favorites....

Fourth of July

2011-07-04T06:54:00.000-07:00

Here is Savannah and Gavin in their 4th of July attire. They were so excited this year to go to the fire works tent to get fireworks. We had a great time watching a few different local firework shows and then setting off all the basics of our own. Maliyah slept right through it all! Today was her actual due date, but she is now 11 days old!

Maliyah's first bath

2011-07-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well, Maliyah seemed to really enjoy her first bath. She did not cry at all! As you can see, we had a lot of help!

One week old!

2011-06-30T02:03:00.000-07:00

Sweet little Maliyah is one week old already! I am so thankful for all the help. My wonderful mom is here with me and I am so enjoying her being here. I am so very blessed to have to have such an incredible mom! Savannah is also a great helper. She adores her little sis and loves to hold her. She actually is really asleep next to her on the couch while holding her in this picture. So sweet. Maliyah looks bigger than she really is in all of the pictures we have taken. She is actually a teeny little thing!

2011-06-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a bit biased, but what a cutie Maliyah is in her polka dots! She is such a sweet baby...so layed back and easy going with this cute little face and wrinkly forehead. She seems to only cry to tell us she is hungry and that she does not like cold wipies. If she does cry, she instantly stops when when someone picks her up. Oh, how I pray she continues to be this easy!

Daddy date!

2011-06-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

Jake took Savannah on an all day Daddy date after we came home with Maliyah. She loves her dates with her Daddy. She also loves Mommy dates too. I think her love language is definately quality time. She loves that focused attention and one on one time. I love how she gets so excited and all dressed up for her dates!

1st day at home!

2011-06-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of Maliyah's first day at home. Gavin and Savannah adore their little sister! Savannah wants to hold her all the time! I love the picture at the bottom of her reading that little book to Maliyah and Gavin. So sweet! And Gavin trying on Maliyah's little hat was so funny! The cradle has been passed down in Jake's family for many many years. All of our children have slept in it, all of Jake's brother's children, and his dad and aunt. It is so neat to have that cradle to pass down!

Leaving the hospital

2011-06-25T03:18:00.000-07:00

We got to leave the hospital the next day because all was going so well. They usually keep mom and baby 48hrs, but we talked them into letting us leave early. It's a good thing. As you can see, Jake was getting a bit bored!

Savannah & Gavin Meet Maliyah

2011-06-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Savannah and Gavin were so excited to meet their new baby sister. Johna had come over to our house in the middle of the night to stay with them while they were asleep and we went to the hospital. She had them all of the next day and she brought them to the hospital that evening. They love their little sis and are so sweet with her!

Happy Anniversary!

2011-06-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

June 22! Jake and I celebrated our 8th anniversary! What an amazing 8 years it has been living life with my best friend. I married the most wonderful man who I am so in love with!

I am so very blessed! Well this year our anniversary fell on a wednesday. We got a babysitter and headed out to dinner. Jake surprised me and took me to Stoney River steakhouse. It was delicious! During dinner I began to notice I was having some regular contractions and by the time we finished Jake decided we should start timing them. We then went to Starbucks for a while and to make a long story short, we ended up going to the hospital at about 3am in labor! So, our baby girl decided to come 11 days early on June 23rd-the day after our anniversary! Not the day I would have chosen, but thats ok. Here we are right before we left on our date and the picture below it is me when we came home from our date, in labor, about 12 hours before she was born!

Maliyah Emily is here!

2011-06-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

11 days early! Our sweet little girl has arrived! She was 6 pounds and 14 ounces and 19 inches long. She has a full head of dark hair too. What a sweet baby she is! We are so glad she is here!

2011-06-19T16:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband! We had such a fun day celebrating Daddy Day with Jake. We all love the days we get to spend with him and look forward to everyday he has off. We just feel like its never enough. Jake is the best dad. The kids adore him and he adores them. He plays with them all the time. Savannah absolutely loves her dates with daddy. For Father's Day she made him a giant paper tie at church. Jake blew up the pool and here they are playing with the blower! Jake also decided ut was time to introduce them to Superman, which they both are now crazy about. The bottom pics are of them dressing up like like Superman and flying. Savannah is some sort of super-bunny! What fun!

Gavin is turning 3!

2011-06-06T17:18:00.000-07:00

Where has the last year gone?! I feel like we just celebrated Gavin's 2nd birthday and here he is turning 3! As much as he has changed in the past year, one thing that is always consistent with Gavin is his sweet personality. Even when he was just an infant, I always thought he had such a sweetness about him and he has never lost that. He loves to give hugs and kisses (or pisses as he might say!) He'll say, "Mama, i need a piss!" We are working on correcting that one! He loves to taste everyones drinks and always says, "May I have a bink of your bink please?" He is such a good little boy and so much fun to be around. He has such a fun sense of humor and loves to make people laugh. What a joy our little Gavin is! He still loves his trains and when I asked him what kind of party he wanted to have, he said trains......and cars and planes and boats and trucks and tractors. He is such a boy! So thats what we did. We had a great time with all our friends celebrating his birthday at our house. I asked him later how he liked his party and he said, "I just loved it!" His sweet smile melts my heart. I love you Gavin James! Happy 3rd birthday!

Findings in our yard

2011-05-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

There is rarely a time around our house when we don't have a critter or bug of some sort! Savannah is always trying to catch something. Here are some pics of her latest catch. We had the 11 year outbreak of cicadas which Savannah really loved. I wasn't to keen on the big red eyed bugs, but Savannah would catch them and play with them like a pet. She caught a lizard which we kept for about 3 days and fed him tiny crickets. I think his core temperature began dropping and we almost lost him. I managed to talk her into letting him go right before he croaked and I think he might have miraculously survived the whole ordeal! There is a frog on our back door nearly every night, that she always tries to catch among all the

other lightning bugs, beetles, worms, moths, and everything that moves! I love that about her though. And we always have a mini science lesson about each things she catches! The coolest thing so far was the baby turtle our neighbor Francine found. It was the tiniest turtle I have ever seen! We were intrigued by it! He was sooo cute!

Strawberry picking!

2011-05-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the strawberry patch picking strawberries. We had such a great time. We went with some friends and spent a good part of the day here picking berries, eating them off the plant, having a picnic, and eating fresh homemade strawberry ice cream. What a fun day! We had so many strawberries! They were delicious. I froze some and we ate the rest throughout the week. The other day, our freezer went out and all of berries were thawed and mushy.

However, Jake made 2 strawberry pies out of the thawed berries so none went to waste. Mmmm......they were soooo good!

A trip to the beach!

2011-05-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful vacation! Jake took a new job at Vanderbilt and between finishing his last week at STAR and starting his first day at Vandy, he had a whole week off! We were so excited! I love my time with my him and wish he had every day to spend with us! So....we decided to go to the beach since the kids had never been. We packed up and headed for Destin, FL. The kids loved the beach and the weather was beautiful! Gavin spent most of his time zooming his new toy boat through the sand. We spent a day at the marina walking around and watching the boats come in, we went to the aquarium and saw a dolphin and sea lion show, we played and swam at the beach and went to a fun place to ride rides. We had talked up the bumper boats so much and were so excited to all ride them, but when we got there, we found out Gavin was to little to ride even with and adult. Oh so disappointing! They got to ride a train and a plane though. We ended up staying 2 extra days because we were having so much fun! What a great time! Probably our last vacation with only Gavin and Savannah. Next time we will have another little girl with us....only 2 more months or less left!

Like Father Like Son...and daughter!

2011-05-08T02:50:00.000-07:00

These great hats were in a store in Destin. We all tried on so many of them and laughed so hard. They were hilarious. I tried to talk Jake inoto getting one so he could wear hair some days. He said no. We had a great time!

7 months along

2011-04-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

Wow! I have not even entered a blog post about us being pregnant with our 3rd baby! Here I am 7 months pregnant. The time has flown by so fast. We found out we are having another little girl! Savannah is so very excited!

2011-04-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

What a great Easter Sunday we had celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior! We have been reading the Easter Story all week and talking about what Easter Sunday is all about. We also celebrated with a little fun in our back yard with Easter baskets, an egg hunt and a picnic. Savannah was all about collecting as many eggs as possible and Gavin just wanted to take his time and open each egg as soon as he found it. Then he found a grabber and collected the rest of the eggs with that. So funny! What a beautiful day!

2011-04-11T09:40:00.000-07:00

Gavin and Savannah are getting so big so fast! Here is my sweet little man wearing his cowboy boots that he likes to put on everyday, and Savannah with her long pony tails. What sweet kiddos. I so enjoy spending my days with them watching them grow!

2010-11-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving in Arkansas! I absolutely love my family! We always have a great time and don't want to leave. It was really hard this year though not having my father in law there with us. I know we all really miss him. It has only been 3 months since he has gone to be with the Lord. All of our hearts are heavy missing him. The Landes crew is rapidly growing bigger and bigger each year. Here is a family pic and then all the boys with the aunts. The other is Gavin and Savannah with their favorite cat Shammy.

2010-11-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

And along with all of our great trees comes a whole lot of leaves to rake! But as big as a job as it is....it sure brings a whole lot of fun and great pics!

Fall in our backyard!

2010-11-14T07:26:00.000-08:00

Glimpses of August

2010-08-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hotwheel launcher

2010-08-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Daddy's can think of the coolest things to do! Jake set up Gavin's hotwheel launcher to shoot the car out over the books an knock down all the people from the train table. Gavin (and Savannah too) thought this was a blast! I love the high five pic!

A night to remember!

2010-08-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

I think that Savannah will always remember this night! She still talks about it all the time. So Chick-fil-a had princess night and all the girls came dressed up in their best princess attire. They even had a horse drawn carriage for all of the little princess' to ride in. Then they got to meet Miss TN. We all had a really fun time. I think it will be a a night to remember!

Savannah's turns 4!

2010-08-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

My sweet little girl has turned 4! I cannot believe how fast the years have flown by. She is such joy to be around. She has said for the longest time that she wanted to have a fire truck party for her birthday. We had a great time going to the fire station and getting a tour of the truck and the station! Then we went home for some fun and games and of course some firetruck cake!

Our 7th anniversary

2010-06-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

Jake and I just celebrated our 7th anniversary! It has been the most wonderful 7 years of my life! I married my best friend and the most wonderful man in the world! I am so very blessed! We went to the Union station hotel in downtown Nashville and had a great evening! It is a really beautiful place! Happy Anniversary babe! I love you!

2010-06-06T20:51:00.000-07:00

Gavin has turned 2! OK so that was three months ago....I'm a little behind on the blogging. We just cannot believe that our little man is getting so big so fast! Gavin is such a joy! He is so very sweet all the time and so loving. He is very busy and constantly trying to keep up with his big sister, copying nearly everything she does. He loves trains and cars and anything with wheels. He loves to try to figure out how things work. Even though he is always busy and on the go, he always makes time to stop and a good hug from mama. He givens this full teeth grin all the time that just tickles me every time he does it. He is always giggling and laughing and always so polite for such a little guy saying please and thank you. So sweet is this little guy. So here are a few clips from his train birthday party we had for him. He loved it!

2010-04-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

Savannah Mary

2010-02-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

Ican't believe my little Savannah is now 3 1/2. She is growing up so fast and talks so grown up sometimes. She loves to color and create. Loves stickers and puppies, dancing in the living room and exploring outside. She loves to help momma in the kitchen and loves her dates with daddy.She adores her little brother and loves to play with him all day long. She says the funniest things! I am going to try to write them all down so I won't forget! I am treasuring everyday with her. She is such a joy to my heart!Here is some more recent pictures of her!

Highlights from Oct. to Dec. 2009

2010-02-16T21:10:00.000-08:00

Catching up nov-dec 2009

2010-02-16T13:53:00.000-08:00

Wow! How the time sure does fly by so fast! I got on here and could not believe my last post was from August! Where did all that time go? So much has happened since then that it would be impossible to blog about it all, but I will try to hit the highlights and then begin to catch up from there. I am so enjoying watching my two sweet kiddos growing up, but it happens so very fast. I am loving every minute though. Well almost! Savannah is 31/2 and Gavin is 20 months. Savannah says the funniest things nearly everyday that has us just cracking up! Gavin is running all over the place and loves his cars and tools! Here are some clips of the fun things we have been doing!

Updates from the FALL! Oh so far behind!

2010-02-16T13:51:00.000-08:00

Savannah and Gavin

2009-08-28T22:22:00.000-07:00

Our new laptop!

2009-08-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Wow! After about 6 1/2 years of having a DELL (my very first and only computer), we decided to save up and get a new laptop! Our old computer was becoming very limiting with no working CD drive, USB port trouble, unable to connect the printer, ect., ect. So...on tax free weekend, with a vanderbilt discount, we got it! An Apple Macbook pro! It is so COOL! It is a whole new computer experience. I shouldn't have to much of a learning curve though, because I never really knew what I was doing on my PC anyway. So here we are opening our computer when we first brought it home. They also gave us an iPod touch and a printer for free with the purchase. So neat!

Savannah's 3rd Birthday!

2009-08-28T22:08:00.001-07:00

2009-08-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

Savannah turned 3 on August 6th!!! I cannot believe that my little girl is now 3! She is growing up so fast. I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday party and for the past few months she had been telling me she wants to have another puppy party. (That was the theme for last year's party too!) So, we did exactly that! It was a blast! My wonderful parents came out to celebrate too. I decided I was going to make "pup-cakes" , but as we sat down at 10:00 the night before to get STARTED....that seemed a little overwhelming. My mom and I put together a puppy cake and then went to bed. In the morning, determined to make the "pup-cakes", I created my own version of the ones I had seen on- line minus about 45 steps! They ended being so easy and fun to make. I have no idea if kids ever know how much work a mom puts in for a silly party. I hope she remembers those pup-cakes for years to come. Well, at least she'll have the pictures!

Gavin is walking!

2009-08-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

And......on July 15th at 13 months old, Gavin James took his first steps on his own! Yes, he is walking! It did not take long before he got really good at it and started walking all over the place. He is getting so big so fast. So cute to watch him! He holds his hands out in front of him to help keep his balance and smiles so big! This is such a fun a age!

Our 6th Anniversary!!

2009-08-28T21:01:00.000-07:00

Jake and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on June 22nd! I am so incredibly blessed to be married to such a wonderful man who is my very best friend and the love of my life! I could write pages and pages of all the things I love about him and I love him more with each passing year as we live life and share so many adventures together. We have so much together and I absolutely love spending time with him. It has been a wonderful 6 years that have flown by and I look forward to all the years ahead. I so love loving him! I am so honored and so blessed to be his wife! I love you Jake! We got to spend a couple days in Hot Springs, AR celebrating our anniversary while the kiddos stayed with Ma and Pa. We had such a great time!

Time to catch up!

2009-08-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hello? Do I have any blog readers left at all? I have not posted anything in months! So much catching up to do. I don't want to miss anything so let me hit the highlights! After Gavin's birthday, we took a week to go down to arkansas and spend some time with the Landes crew. Everyone was there and we all had a great time. I wish we could see them all more often. I am so blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. I love my mother and father in law dearly and I like them a whole lot too! We got to spend father's day there and really had a great time.

June 6th-Gavin turned one year old!

2009-07-12T23:51:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe my baby boy is now one year old. This year truly has flown by so fast. We celebrated Gavin's 1st birthday with all of our dear friends here in Nashville and it really was one of the most fun parties! We started the with Jake giving Gavin his first haircut, which turned out quite nice. I decided to try making a homemade cake, which was really fun and turned out pretty good! We had a dump truck party and I made the cake with chocolate icing and crumbled oreos for the dirt. We had a cookout on our back deck and then played all evening outside in the ball pit balls, on the hammock, out by the fire, and just hanging out on the deck. We had so much fun! We have been so blessed with such good friends here in Nashville and loved celebrating Gavin's birthday with all of them. Gavin had lots of fun too. I think his favorite part was the balloons. He could not get enough of bouncing on them with his whole body and hugging them. I was so afraid they would pop right in his face as ruff as he was with them, but they never did! He was so cute. Happy 1st birthday Gavin!

Gavin's 1st birthday

2009-07-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

Spring sprung

2009-06-08T18:46:00.002-07:00

OK, so spring came and went, but here are the pictures to catch up! I cannot believe it is already June! I am trying to get all these pictures in before I post Gavin's 1st birthday! Yep he just turned 1. Time just flys by. So here are some fun pictures from the past couple months!

Spring is here!

2009-06-08T18:46:00.001-07:00

Resurection Sunday

2009-06-08T13:50:00.002-07:00

Well, I wanted to get my easter pictures on here even though they are a little late. I have had some trouble with our computer and have gotten backed up with the blogging. I am going to try to catch up! We had a wonderful Easter celebration. Our friend Larissa was baptized and those pictures are some of the girls in our house church group. We had a great time watching Savannah and Gavin check out their easter baskets and watching Savannah hunt for easter eggs. She was so excited to find stickers and candy in the eggs and she had to stick every sticker on the front of her dress before she would look for the next egg. I had found that cute dress at a yard sale like a year ago and it fit perfect. I bought the shoes at Target to go with the dress and she has liked them so much that she wants to wear them everyday with EVERYTHING regardless of whether they match or not. I kept telling her that those are her nice shoes and she can't wear them out to play. A few days ago, she brought them out on the deck to put them on and Jake said- "Mama said those are your nice shoes." She very matter of factly stated, "I know, and it is really nice out today." She is so funny! So, I just let her wear them. At church, a couple had brought a baby lamb for the kids to pet and Savannah loved that! It was a really fun day!

Easter Celebration!

2009-06-08T13:50:00.001-07:00

Happy (very late) St. Patrick's Day!

2009-04-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

I seem to always be running behind when it comes to keeping my blog updated. Here is a picture of us on St. Patrick's Day at the park behind Jake's clinic. Savannah acutally has her hair in 2 side pony tails for the first time! That was a fun day!

My Lord my God

2009-04-19T22:14:00.001-07:00

God is so good. He never ceases to amaze me! He constantly reminds me that He really does care about the little things that are going on and not just the big things. I have always prayed over my children about every little thing, starting with when we first found out we were pregnant with Savannah. I prayed that she would be healthy of course, but we prayed even down to the minute details like how much she would weigh (I was worried I would have a like a 10 pounder and have trouble having her). He answered all our prayers and I am so greatful. As I prayed, I knew that the Lord did not have to answer all of my requests because He might have had a different plan, but I asked anyways because He tells us to. In Philippians 4:6 it says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." So I have done exactly that. Anytime I begin to worry about my children for any reason, I give it over to the Lord and have asked God specifically to tend to that need. In so many instances God has answered my prayers so specifically. In one instancewhen Savannah was a little over one year, she seemed to have difficulty giving and receiving love for some reason. It really bothered me and I could not figure out why she did not seem to like hugs or affection and she did not give it either. I began to pray about it and within several days I began to notice a drastic change. She became so much more affectionate and began to love affection and to this day she is so sweet and affectionate and gives and receives it just as I had prayed for! I have always prayed that she would love other people and she always has. She remembers everyones name and talks about peopole we have met or friends and family all the time. Over the past few months I have noticed that Gavin seems to be very easily frustrated and often has fits of frustration. I bagan to pray that God would take away any tendancies toward anger and frustration and bad temper and that he would be content and peaceful and not easily frustrated. Even in the past week, I have already noticed a big difference in his attitude and temperament. God is so good and so faithful. Daily I have been praying over my children, covering them in prayers that are specific. Often times I have found myself getting very frustrated at my children for whatever reason. As I continually prayer for peace, God always steps in and lifts the frustration and reminds me of His love and grace and they are just learning and that this to shall pass. Every day I rely on God to guide me moment by moment in the daily training and guiding and raising my children. I am so thankful because my heart's greatest desire is that my children will walk in the ways of the Lord and love Him with all of their hearts! He truly does dive peace that passes all understanding. Oh how I love having a blog where I can just ramble on and on and share a bit of my heart to whomever might read it!!

Highlights on Gavin

2009-03-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

Gavin is getting bigger everyday! I think his 8th month bought on the most changes the fastest. He is very inquisitive. He will study and examine every toy. He plays with EVERYTHING and gives it a thourough investigation. He is always smiling showing his only two bottom front teeth! Eating has not been difficult at all. He has never once turned away from any food that I have given him and he has had all kinds. He just gobbles it down and reaches for more! He is absolutely so sweet and almost has an unusual sweetness about him that I pray will stay with him always! He has gone from crawling around to now sitting all the time to pulling to stand up on everything. He looks right at me all the time and says, "Mamamamamama", and thinks it is so fun to make these kissing sounds with his mouth! He is so much fun! Just had to write a little about him because pictures just don't catch it all. I haven't
figured out how to upload our videos either! So all this to say, I am trying to cherish every little moment because I know he won't be a little baby much longer!

Fun in February

2009-03-19T12:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Jake!

2009-03-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

Jake turned 30 this Feruary 6th! We had a great party for him and thank you to everyone who participated in the "Why I like Jake" letters! The book turned out great. Everyone sent in letters telling why they like Jake and I made a book out of it. He seemed to really like it! The cake was really fun! He had a campfire cake that I made out of stickers-turned out pretty good! So here are a few clips of Jake's birthday party. I will try to figure out how to post my why I lke Jake letter on here. Happy birthday to the most wonderful husband ever! I love this guy! More than I could ever write in words! I love you Jake!

No longer my tatty....

2009-03-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

Savannah has always called her blanket my "tatty". She actually started calling all blankets "tatty". Now at 2 1/2 years old, at random one day, I said, "Grab your tatty and let's go." She quickly responded back with, "Momma, it is not a tatty, it is a blanket." SO funny! I love this picture of her!

Trying to catch up..... Picutres from January

2009-03-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

I am so far behind in my blogging! I have so many new things to post, but I want to be caught up first. These pictures are from January and the beginning of february. Gavin is 7 months old in these pictures and crawling everywhere! At 8 months he started pushing himself but in these pictures he is just barely sitting-not for very long. Savannah and Gavin play so well together. They are always rolling around on the floor together and here you can see then playing in Savannah's tent. Savannah wanted to take Gavin for a ride in her doll stroller-it was hilarious. They both loved it! No more bouncer! Way to big and active for that thing. He has more fun underneath it. We are now putting all the little baby stuff away. You can also see in these pictures that we got Savannah's hair up in her first ponytail. For the longest time her hair was to short to put it up at all, but not we can put in all sorts of cute pigtails! So fun! So that is a little update for January. Keep checking back-more updates to come!

2009-02-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't been very quick with my camera lately to catch the cutest moments. As soon as I get the camera, the moment has past and gone forever no matter how hard I try to get the kiddos to "do it again"! I am trying to write down the funny things that Savannah says so I do not forget them. This morning she had wrapped her "tatty" around Gavin as he was crawling around on the floor. We sat down to eat breakfast and she said, "Oh no mommy look! I wrapped Gavin in a taco and told him to stay and now he getting out!" I am not sure where she got that from other than the fact that we have had tacos a couple times over the past week! Yesterday, I was telling her that in a couple weeks she would get to go stay with Ma and Pa in arkansas. She immediately said, "oh too fun mama! I LOVE cows!" Now she keeps asking when we are going to see Ma and Pa and Biyee and Peyye and at. phyl. and the cows. She is so funny! TOO FUN!

2009-02-03T19:51:00.000-08:00

I have so many stories to tell and funny things that Savannah says that I need to be writing down so that I don't forget them! I have been staying at home lots lately and just spending my days playing with my two sweet kids! They really are so much fun. I have a couple pictures here to share that are just so cute. Gavin is getting bigger each day and he is crawling everywhere and getting into EVERYTHING! Savannah is having lots of fun playing with her baby brother. Here she is rolling him around in the laundry hamper and he is loving it! The other is them both flying airplane with daddy. That is now one of the first things she wants to do when he gets home. "Let's do airplane daddy!"

Potty Time

2009-01-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

Oh the joys of potty training! I started potty training last week and so far we are doing pretty good. We have had lots of accidents and I have had to do lots of laundry. We are not doing pull-ups or diapers at all, even at night so that has lead to a few interesting moments. We went to the store last night just for a few minutes and I kept reminding her to tell me if she had to go. Well, she kept saying no and then all of a sudden I hear her yelling, "I'm peeing momma, I'm peeing!" I looked down to find a puddle on the floor and she was soaked. As she waddled to the front, she kept screaming, "I peed momma, I all wet!" I was tempted to leave the puddle a make a b-line for the door, but I decided that I better not and asked for some paper towels. Nice. So funny. I thought maybe the people around me would think it was funny or understand, but they all kind of stood there looking at me like I was crazy. Then we went for a hike and she got her first lesson in peeing the woods. She took to that pretty well! That's my girl! She is doing really good for the most part. The best is when I said, "Savannah, I am so proud of you" when she went in the potty and she says..."I'm proud of you too, momma!"

Crawling!

2009-01-16T12:39:00.000-08:00

On December 27th, late at night, at 6 1/2 months old, Gavin officially started crawling! The pixi in the picture was his incentive and he crawled all the way accross the room the get it! Now he had been getting around the room for a couple months before this, but it was either rolling or inch worming using his head. So now he has this low crawl thing going on, mostly using his arms, but he is quite fast. He can get accross the room super fast now, especially if he sees something interesting. He is so busy and into everything right now!

2009-01-16T12:37:00.000-08:00

2009-01-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

This year we got to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home in Nashville for the first time. It was really a fun time. Savannah had lots of fun opening presents and we just took our time and had a really relaxing morning. Then we packed up the car and headed for Ohio. We made record time getting there because Savannah and Gavin were exhausted and slept almost the whole way. Our time in Ohio with my mom and dad, Todd, and Granny was really nice, but went by way to fast. Savannah loves her Uncle Todd and they had lots of fun playing. There were some other fun moments and memories, but I think I will post them separately. I tried so hard to get some cute pictures of Gavin and Savannah together, but I think it is nearly impossible at this age! And Gavin is really not that big, but in some pictures he looks like he has a HUGE head! I guess I will just have to keep practicing my photography techniques on these two!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-16T12:26:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving in Arkansas

2009-01-12T15:24:00.001-08:00

Arkansas 2008

2009-01-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

We always have so much in Arkansas on the farm. Everyone was all together for Thanksgiving this year and we all celebrated Christmas together. Betty even put up a Thanksgiving tree which was fun. Check out her blog to see it. It is fun to watch all the cousins play together. I am so very blessed to have such wonderful in-laws. I always love our time with everyone and so sad to leave. I wish we all lived closer. Our time together goes by way to fast. Here are some clips of our time there...

2009-01-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

These are some of the pictures we took in our back yard in the fall. We have lots of trees and the colors of the leaves are gorgeuos! However, taking pitures of the kids together or with all of us together is quite a challenge. I might have taken 50 pictures and gotten one good one! Gavin and Savannah are very easily distracted. The one where Savannah and Gavin are sitting together on the ground was really funny. They kept looking at the ground. I kept telling Savannah to look up and she kept saying, "Gavin's feet mama." After her repeating this several times, I took my eye from the camera and looked at Gavin's feet only to find him digging his white socks in the mud. So much for sitting on the dry leaves! He was a mess! But we did get a few good ones and we all sure had fun playing in the leaves.

Fall 2008

2009-01-12T12:39:00.001-08:00

Catching Up!

2009-01-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

WOW! How the past 2 months have flown by! Christmas came and went in a flash and here we are in 2009 halfway through january already. Blogging and newly discovered facebook have definately gone by the wayside! I am going to attempt to to catch up on the photos we have taken from the fall and from christmas. Lots has happened in the past few months...Gavin started crawling right after christmas and is now into everything! He is so busy and always on the go. Savannah is potty training now and so far she is doing really well. We got to spend christmas day at home and then we left for ohio where we had christmas with my parents, granny, and Todd. We had a really nice time, but again, it went by way to fast. So here are a few slide shows to help catch up on the time past.

Here are some new ones!

2008-11-08T15:42:00.000-08:00

So cute in their costumes!

2008-11-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

2008-11-07T16:12:00.000-08:00

Well fall is here and we are really enjoying our backyard. The leaves seem to be turning slow this year and the trees in the back have not turned yet, but the ones on the side are brilliant colors of yellow, orange and red! The barn is almost finished! It has been almost 1 year since starting the project and Jake has done an awesome job of building it. As you can see, we have painted it we only have the trim along the top left to paint and then putting on a back door. Yeah! We had started the trim by painting it grey to match the shutters on the house. Well, that ended up looking really bad for some reason, so we changed the color to brown instead. It is coming right along, finally!! We have lots of deer and turkeys that visit our yard everyday-no turkey pictures in this bunch, but there are a few deer.

Fall is here and the barn is almost done!

2008-11-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

Here we are in Park City, Utah

2008-10-20T20:47:00.001-07:00

So here we are in Park City, Utah on vacation! We are having a lot fun here with Gabe and Cheryl. Only sad part though is that I broke my foot just a few days before we left. So sad! All of our plans to do some awesome hiking have been cancelled, but we are still having lots of fun. I wish I had some great story to tell about how the injury occurred, but it is all attributed to one single pine cone. Yep, I have never before broken a bone until now and I stepped on a pine cone! So anyways, here are a few clips from our trip. If you'd like to see more, check out Jake's blog! He made a slide show of some of the things we have done so far.

Our day at Walden Farms

2008-10-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

2008-10-13T08:50:00.002-07:00

So here it is...the barn. Well, it is actually a shed that Jake started building a year ago. He has built is from scratch. Jake got a great deal on this poplar wood from a patient of his and so he decided to make it a 12X12 shed. There was suppose to be building plans with the wood, but ended up not being any plans at all. So Jake has pretty much done the entire barn by himself making it up as he has gone along. He is so handy! He can pretty much build or make anything you ask him too, even if he has never done it before! My dad helped lay the foundation and Ben Cordray helped with the roof a few days, Jason Crossman helped build as well as redistribute mold around the yard...., and our friends Katie, Art, Erin, and Ben came over yesterday to help us paint! It is making progress. A huge undertaking that might be near completion! We have decided to no longer use it as a shed-we might actually rent it out for someone to live in! I will post more pictures as we finish it! Oh, does anyone have any suggestions for the color of the trim?

Painting of the barn begins!

2008-10-13T08:50:00.001-07:00

2008-10-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Here are a few new ones!

2008-10-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Eww yuck!

2008-10-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

I thought this was so funny...I turned around and Gavin had squirmed his way down out of the seat like this and then I realized he had a dirty diaper. So funny! He was just trying to get away from it!

To cute not to tell!

2008-09-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

Savannah just loves her Ma. She got to spend a whole week with her back in June. Ma is known for her slinky back visors and I think that Savannah now associates the visor with Ma. We were in Chattanoogo for the weekend a while back and there was a lady walking down the street that had on a visor just like Ma's. Savannah saw her and began yelling, "Ma, ma, hey mama there's ma, there's ma!!!" Too cute!

It's your thing!

2008-09-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

It has been fun to see what our kids do for "security". Gavin just recently found his two fingers on his left hand! He had never wanted to take a pacifier, but he has found these two fingers to be quite nice! Sometimes he sucks so hard that I think they might come off. Savannah found her thumb on her right hand at about 3 months too. She started taking the fringes on the blanket that my friend Kris made for her and she would rub them on her lips and suck her thumb. Then she gradually moved the fringe up to her nose and then into her nose! She finds this quite soothing and even tries to share it by saying, "Here, you try!", as she tries to put it up your nose! She is very selective on which fringe she picks and then holds it up her nose and sucks her thumb! So funny! Those fringes are getting longer and more stringy every day. She takes "tatty" almost everywhere. Here are some pictures of them!

My kiddos and me!

2008-09-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

I am so loving my new job of being a mom of two! These two kids are absolutely so sweet!

25 cents well spent!

2008-09-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

These pictures tell a cute little story about a bear. I wish I had taken a video of this! My mom and I found this bear at a yard sale for only 25 cents. When you push on his back, he moves his arms and nose and makes little noises. He is really cute. Savannah had never really been interested in teddy bears, so I had actually gotten him for Gavin's room. Gavin warmed up to the bear right away and watched him intently for quite awhile. He even held his paw for a long time too. Savannah gave us one of her infamous faces of surprise when whe saw him move and make noise. She grabbed her favorite baby doll saying, "Look baby, see, see it, look!", as she held the baby out to see the bear moving. It took her almost 45 minutes to actually go over and touch him though! She kept watching from a safe distance with wide eyes and her funny surprised faces. Eventually we talked her into touching his back. When you touch his back he gets started again. If he is not touched for a while, he goes to sleep and starts snoring! After she touched his back (quickly as if it was hot), she slowy began to warm up to him and then they became great friends! As you can see from the pictures, she packed him all around the house hugging him, rocking him, reading to him, sitting him at the table, and of course talking to him. She even tried to give him a lick which resulted in fuzz in the mouth! Yuck! Needless to say, this was 25 cents well spent!

2008-09-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

A week with Nana and Pawpaw!

2008-09-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

In August we went to Ohio for 9 days to spend some time with Nana and Pawpaw. We had a great time! Here are a few clips of some of the things we did when we were there.

2008-09-11T16:10:00.001-07:00

The Dress

2008-08-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

I got this cute dress at a baby shower before Savannah was born and it is a size 12 months. Well, it has always been way to big for her since she is so small. I found it the other day and thought it would be perfect for her to wear to church on sunday. Well it fit great and I thought she looked so cute in her polka dot puffy dress that I had to take a bunch of cute pictures of her. However, she did not acutally make it to church in the dress. About 30 seconds before pulling into the church parking lot, she began to throw up all over her pretty dress in the car seat! YUCK! I did not see that coming at all. So we spent the next 15 minutes cleaning it all up. What fun! Fortunately, we had a spare shirt and shorts for her to change into. So much for dressing up! And she seemed to be just fine. No illness, maybe it was the chocolate milk mixed with the bananas and peaches that Jake gave her for breakfast that just didn't settle right.

2008-08-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Savannah's 2nd Birthday!

2008-08-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

What a great time! I cannot believe my little girl has turned 2 already! We decided to have a "Puppy Party" since Savannah loves dogs. We had a scavenger hunt where the kids had to find the bones with the clues. There were clues hidden in lots of different places around the house and the back yard. At the end was the big surprise of all the dogs who came to join the party too! We had Drexy, a great dane that is the size of a horse, Jack, the poodle, Manney, the puppy, and of course Abby. They got to feed all the dogs the bones that were collected on the scavenger hunt. We all had a great time! I think the kids enjoyed the pool full of balls more than anything. Savannah played in them for hours and they are still on our deck and scattered all over the yard. She has been playing in them everyday since!

2008-08-13T13:10:00.001-07:00

New pics of my little ones!

2008-08-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Savannah mowing the lawn

2008-07-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Savannah is growing up so fast! Can you believe she is already mowing the lawn?!

2008-07-23T13:58:00.000-07:00

This was a couple weeks after Gavin was born when our mama's were here! It was so much fun to have both of them here at the same time and their help was such a blessing! We went to Centenial Park one day in downtown Nashville and had a picnic and fed the ducks. It was such a beautiful day! We all really had a great time!

A day at Centenial Park

2008-07-23T13:53:00.001-07:00

Savannah's First Sprinkler Fun!

2008-07-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Gavin's first few weeks up to July 19th

2008-07-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Gavin & Savannah

2008-07-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

Here is a couple of the most recent pictures of Savannah and Gavin. Savannah is such a good big sister and so sweet with Gavin. She is a little unknowingly rough at times, but overall she has been great! And Gavin is such a good baby!

Jake & Tarah

2008-07-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

Well, so far, I am a little slow at this, but here is my first picture. This is Jake and I in our back yard a few days after we brought Gavin home. There will be more pictures to come as soon as I can figure out out how to do this! The posting is easy, but I cannot figure out how to change the format of my 1 million pictures so that I can view them easily! I know how to do a slide show, but with the format they are in, it would take me forever. So I guess I will have to use a lifeline. First I will poll the audience, then if I don't get any feedback, I guess I will have to phone a friend!

My first BLOG!

2008-07-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to start my very own blog! Following in the footsteps of the ever creative Landes family where everyone has a blog. I was beginning to feel like less of a Landes, so I thought I would give it a try and see how I like it. I thought this would be a good way to keep everyone updated on the kiddos and what we are doing each day. So here I go....hope you enjoy!