Happy 30th!!!

I just wanted to wish Dan a Happy 30th Birthday!

Here are a few pictures I dug out.

This first one is of Dan when he was a kid- I think he was 5ish (I don't have any baby pics of him, I really need to get some from his Mom). His siblings tell me he always sported the "just leave it" do, but it looks like mommy must have combed his hair in this one.

Dan's childhood nickname was Tender because he was such a softy. He still is! Even though he looks like a big tough guy he really is a big teddy bear!

These 2 are him in the MTC... this is what they spend their time doing. (he's gonna kill me for posting these)!

This last one is of Dan doing one of his most favorite things... PLAYING BASKETBALL!! He says he really wishes he could play as well "as he used to" but I and many others think he is still pretty dang good (especially for a 30 year old!)

I love you Dan and hope you have a great 30th birthday and many many many more to come (more for my sake than yours because I really can't live without you).

Links...

Hey all, as you can see I have a new blog background and header- thanks to my awesome friend Tiffani! Isn't it so cute?!?!?
The only thing is... during the process of figuring it all out my blog links were all lost :(. So, I was wondering if you all wouldn't mind posting a comment to this blog post so I will have your link and can add it to my cute new blog, and visit when you update.
Thanks so much!
And thanks Tiffani, you're the best!

Easter Fun...

THIS POST HAS LOTS OF PICTURES...

We had a great time this Easter, beside the fact that Dan sprained his ankle at his basketball game on Friday! His sprained ankle made it so he wasn't able to go up to Baby Animal Day on Saturday with me and the kids. Luckily Stacey and her kids were excited to go and we all had a great time, as usual! Peyton loved the animals, he really enjoyed holding them and petting the cute little goats and sheep. Bailey was a little spooked but still pet and held some of the animals, she really liked the bunnies, she kept calling the animals dinosaurs.

Peyton loved the pony ride. At first Bailey pet the pony but when I tried to put her on the saddle she FREAKED OUT!

Peyton Riding his pony

Bailey's empty pony

The kids thought this bike was cool, the cowboy rode it for us and even let them sit on it!

Easter morning was fun, Peyton was so excited to see what the Easter Bunny brought that he tried to sneak downstairs. Luckily we caught him and made him wait until Bailey woke up to go down. Bailey was so funny, she ran to her car yelling "caaarrrr" then looked at it for a second and saw that her basket was full of candy and immediately bent down and started ripping her candy open and eating it. She protested when we told her we had to eat breakfast, she would have been fine just eating candy. Man that girl's got a sweet tooth! Peyton was really excited about his Legos, he has been asking for Lego's for a year, they were definitely a good gift, he hasn't put them down since!

Later in the day we headed over to Dan's Mom's for an egg hunt and dinner with the family. Dan's Mom and sister Jenny had hid all the eggs (over 100!) and really made it fun for the kids. The child who found the most eggs was to win the golden egg. Peyton is so competitive and wanted to win so badly, only he didn't quite understand that you have to look for eggs to win, he would just kinda mosey around and if he saw an egg then he would pick it up but he wasn't REALLY looking, but then he would get all mopey when the other kids were so excited about having a lot of eggs. So...I helped him a little, pointing him in the right direction to find eggs and...he WON the golden egg! I'm not sure if he had the most eggs, I really think his Meemaw (Dan's Mom) just didn't want him to be sad that he lost and she knew the other kids would get over it much quicker if they didn't win. Thanks Meemaw for babying my baby! The golden egg had a box of nerds in it but Peyton would have been just as excited if it had been empty, it's all about winning!

New video...

Here's a better video of Bailey reading The Going To Bed Book. Notice her shirt, Peyton gave it to her for Christmas, I think it was a selfish gift but what do you expect from a 4 year old.

Bailey Can Read!!

Okay, not really but she sure can memorize. Dan puts Bailey to bed every night and they read books (lately they sing them) but she loves reading and singing so I think it's the highlight of her day. One book they read every night is The Going To Bed Book. We have been reading this book to Bailey since she was a baby, so of course she has it memorized. Here are a few video's... one of Dan and Bailey singing the book (It's not that great of a video, but I had to be sneaky when I was getting it so she wouldn't stop singing along) and the other is of her reading the book (she cuts it a little short).

Hooded Towel...

Dan's sister-in-law Michelle is having a baby in a few weeks so I decided that over Spring Break I would make her one of my most favorite baby/toddler things ever, a hooded towel. I didn't want to make to too small or too big so I went for a mid size. It will be a little big for a newborn but it was perfect for Bailey, and snug on Peyton so she should be able to use it at least till he is 4 or 5 years old. I got a new sewing machine for Christmas so I was really excited to use it since I haven't had time yet. I called Dan's sister Cindy to help me out since she is a master seamstress and I am pretty much a novice. I told her what I had in mind and together (mostly her though) we whipped it up. Here it is on our most perfect model...

Dan picked out the cute towels, don't you just love them! They are decoration towels from Target, we didn't embroider or sew on the penguins (although Cindy could have).

Tour de Cure 2009!

As many of you may know, Dan's family is greatly affected by Diabetes. 5 out of 9 of his siblings have type one diabetes. We see what a struggle it is for them to live with this disease and admire their perseverance, and strength. We know that Dan and our children are at a high risk of also being affected by Diabetes during their life. For these reasons we recently accepted the challenge of cycling in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure fund-raising event.

The Tour de Cure is a series of cycling events held in over 80 cities nationwide. The Tour is a ride, not a race; it features different route lengths from a family-friendly 10-mile course to a challenging 100-mile journey. We have joined thousands of others to pedal in support of the Association's mission: to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.

We are asking you to help by supporting our fund-raising efforts with a donation. Your tax-deductible gift will make a difference in the lives of more than 23 million Americans who suffer from diabetes and over 57 million people in the United States with pre-diabetes.

It's fast and easy to support this great cause - you can make your donation online by selecting the Support link below. Any amount, great or small, helps in the fight against this deadly disease. We greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on our progress. If you want to do even more to help, please consider joining us in this great event. Our efforts will help set the pace in the fight against diabetes.

Support Laura

Support Dan

We don't care who you donate for, it's not a competition, we just want to raise as much money as we can to help support the fight against Diabetes!

Click here to view our team page- Team BLOOD SUGAR DADDIES

More information on the American Diabetes Association, its programs and diabetes in general can be found at the Association's Web site: http://www.diabetes.org/

For more information on Tour de Cure, please visit www.diabetes.org/tour.

7 More Weeks...

Spring Break has come to an end. Thankfully, Bailey is feeling better after her week long bout of sickness which along with Adenovirus also ended up including Strep (again) and ear infections (again). I'm headed back to school tomorrow to finish out the semester, and the kids are headed back to daycare (probably only to get sick again). I feel a little bit re-energized and I'm excited to be starting my OB clinical rotation on the 24th of March. It will be an interesting addition to my regular school regimen to say the least. A lot will happen in the next 7 weeks, including my final practicum, the ATI exam (the thought of this is a bit stressful), and finals. The end is in sight (not the permanent end, just the temporary one) which includes Summer!