Time to Play

After over a week of traveling, Lauren took some time to enjoy her Christmas gifts. Mimi and Papa bought Lauren an outside teeter-totter. She loves it, and so do her friends. She also got a small four wheeler from Mommy and Daddy. She is still trying to figure it out, but she looks super cute on it.

Lauren and Will Christmas

Will and Lauren met up at Poppy's house on Christmas eve to sprinkle magical Reindeer food in the front yard for Santa's Reindeer. They were so excited to be together and loved tossing the food in the air. I am including a picture of these two cuties from last year so you can see how much they have grown.

2007

2008

Presents at Poppy and Mer Mer's

Lauren opened gifts on Christmas morning at Poppy and Mer Mer's house. Santa Claus left Lauren and Will scooters under the tree, which they were both crazy about.

Reed Christmas

Here are some pictures of our sweet Reed girls at Christmas. We had a new Reed girl to celebrate Christmas with this year. Happy 1st Christmas Josie. Just for fun, I included a picture of Maia and Lauren from last year so you can enjoy how much our girls have changed.

2007

2008

Aunt Heather enjoying some Josie snuggles


Aunt Mar enjoying some Lauren and Maia snuggles


Daddy and Lauren opening gifts

Sweet Family

This Christmas was made even sweeter because we got to spend some time with Uncle Gene, Aunt Sandy, Amy and Kevan. It was Lauren's first time to see Gene, Amy and Kevan and she absolutely loved them! She still talks about them, so hopefully we can get together again soon.

Lauren also met Papa and Pat Craddock this Christmas. We had a fun night of opening gifts, eating yummy food and chasing Lauren around. Thank goodness Landon and Ashton were around to help entertain Lauren. By the end of the night she was getting into everything, but we still think they loved getting to meet our bundle of energy.

Christmas Cookies

Lauren had several opportunites to make Christmas cookies this year. She was a little young to enjoy the process of making cookies, but she was an excellent taste tester. Mom was a little worried that she would get sick from eating raw cookie dough and spoon fulls of icing, but no harm done.

Christmas 2008

The Reed family had a wonderful and blessed Christmas, and we hope you did too. Lauren has changed so much since last Christmas, and it was so special for us to begin teaching her about the true meaning of Christmas. Of course she was showered with gifts, which she is an expert at unwrapping, but she also loved singing Christmas carols, playing with her nativity set, and singing happy birthday to Jesus. She definitely made the connection between Jesus and Christmas. It is an incredible thing as a parent to experience your child beginning to love Christ.
The week of Christmas seemed like a whirlwind. We travel from Houston to Whitney to see Mimi and Papa. From Whitney we headed to Midland, and stayed there from the Saturday before Christmas until the Friday after Christmas. We had an amazing time with all of our family. We returned home feeling very loved and very tired. There are many more Lauren Christmas stories and pictures to share, so I will be adding more to this post soon. I had to include a picture of Lauren from last Christmas so everyone could see how much she has changed.

Christmas 2008



Christmas 2007

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

After living in Houston for the past 5 years, we have gotten use to the reality that it just doesn't get very cold here. So we do all the traditional Christmas things, but sometimes it doesn't feel all that Christmassy when you're wearing shorts and it's 70 degrees. Well, on Wednesday we got a little sprinkle of winter to help get us in the holiday spirit. It worked out perfectly because our sweet friends down the street had agreed to watch Lauren for us so that we could go Christmas shopping that night. So after a quick family photo, we dropped Lauren off and went Christmas shopping in the snow. Isn't that awesome?!

This is in front of our friends house down the street.
After this picture Scott went home and got a bigger coat!

It was about 7:00 at night, so all the pictures are in the dark.
The snow was gone by the morning.

Happy Halloween from Our Little Lady Bug

Lauren had been talking about trick or treating for several days leading up to the big night, so her expectations for this Halloween were pretty high. I must say, I don't think she was disappointed. She absolutely loved her costume and she kept calling her wings "umbrellas". I painted little black freckles on her cheeks, but we didn't make it out of the house before she smeared them and we had to wash them off. Oh well, maybe we'll try the face paint again next year. She trick or treated up and down the neighborhood, and by the end of the night her bag was so heavy that it literally dragged the ground. Lauren would not let Scott or I carry the bag for her and she would yell, "Let go", if we tried to help. She did get a little scared at a few of the houses that were decorated with scary things, which surprised me a little, but for the most part she thought the whole night was magical. I know I said this last year, but we really do have the best neighborhood in the world for trick or treating. Well, I pretty much think we have the best neighborhood in the world all the time, but during Halloween especially. There is no traffic, and the street is full of kids and families trick or treating, eating pizza, and showing off their costumes. I really do feel blessed to live in this neighborhood if you can't tell. And last but certainly not least, Lauren went trick or treating in big girl panties! She went the whole night with no accidents. We made a potty stop at the half way point and she was good to go! Scott and I were so proud.

Lauren had a sucker in her mouth the entire night.
I was surprised that I got any pictures of her without one.

It's the Great Pumpkin Lauren Grace

Lauren did not spend Halloween night in the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin, but we did make a trip to the pumpkin patch in hopes of getting a few good pictures and to pick out our own great pumpkin. I had an easier time taking pictures of Lauren sitting the pumpkins last year because she would actually sit still for more then half a second. This year I think we chased her more then anything, but I did manage to get a few good pictures. Bonus: Dad came with us to the pumpkin patch this year so he joined in on a few silly shots. Oh, and you can bet that we will be watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown next week, it's one of my favorites!

Lauren called this scarecrow her baby. She's such a good little mommy!

This pumpkin looked like it needed a kiss

sitting still, but not for long!

Lauren put a lot of thought in to picking the perfect pumpkin

She gave this pumpkin a test run, but it didn't make the cut

Finally the perfect pumpkin! And Daddy agrees!

Backyard Party

We had a backyard birthday party to celebrate Lauren's 2nd birthday. Scott said that after all the time he spent working on the swingset, we had to have at least one birthday party in the backyard. Well, all the planning turned out to be worth it because Lauren had a twinkle in her eye the entire time. If you have ever wondered if a 2 year old really knows it's their birthday, I have the pictures to prove that they really do. Lauren put her hand in the cake and pulled the pizzas down on top of herself, to help provide us with a few hilarious toddler moments.

An Abby Cadabby party would not be complete without an Abby tattoo

Aunt Holly brought a jumper from Austin, and the kids went crazy over it