One Landes Place

I should have posted this a while back but getting a picture of Sarabeth's tooth was like trying to get a picture of Michael Jackson's kids. She cut her first one around 7 months and the 2nd one is coming in now. Oh the joy of cutting teeth. Sarabeth is so mobile, it is quite exhausting. She is EVERYWHERE and into everything. She gets stuck in the funniest places. Yesterday she got caught under the kitchen table. Everytime she tried to stand up, she hit her head on the bottom side of the table. It was funny, but only for a minute, then she realized she couldn't get out alone. She is very independent and doesn't like for you to help her out of situations. I have been letting her work her way out of all the places she gets wedged into. She is entertaining for sure. Last week I took her to JW Tumbles in the Woodlands and let her play. She was super tired so all she did was try to kiss the blue dog 100 times! Here are some random pics from this month:

Sarabeth and I have been spending the week with Aunt Lingi . My sister Lindsay came to Houston on Sunday for a mini summer vacation with us, and we have a had a great time! We've been scrap booking , swimming, lots of shopping and even a picnic. She is great with Sarabeth , this week has been like having a 2 nd mommy around to help! Here are some pictures from our week so far. We took a trip to the galleria area on Wednesday and had a picnic out by the Williams Tower where the wall of water is. The water was not running so we had a great view of the wall of concrete instead. It was still a nice picnic and with the breeze it wasn't too hot. Lindsay made straight A's all year so dad gave her money to shop with while she is here. Our first stop: If you have never been to this place , it's the coolest, even if you aren't a kid! This weekend we are going to the Space Center and Kemah . Lindsay hasn't been to the beach before so I thought it would be fun to see o...

Ok , so I'm behind on blogging but only because my little sister is here this week and I've been rather busy entertaining a 12 year old. SO this blog entry is for Jackie who is apparently bored at work and needs something to read. Yesterday I took my sister to Splashtown with one of my friends and her son. All I have to say is... Lipo . Seriously. I'm so thankful I didn't see anyone I knew until we were leaving. I don't think she recognized me. Either that or she was too afraid to approach. Thank goodness. There were moments when I would see people that looked so much worse in a swimsuit than me...and I have to admit that made me feel better, only for a moment until some skinny girl walks by and deflates my balloon. I'm just glad I got my 1 Splashtown visit for the summer over with. Or maybe not. Matt just emailed me and we are so graciously invited to his company's summer picnic at no other place but... SPLASHTOWN . yippe .

This is super long! Sorry babe, enjoy! Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ok, I have talk about Oprah. Please don't get me wrong, Oprah does lots of good things for people. I just don't believe that GOOD necessarily makes you RIGHT. Oprah Winfrey is like the new EF Hutton. Everything on her show becomes a household name. Bottom line, she has followers...a lot of them. It makes me so sad and angry to watch her take the power she has to lead people into lies. Today she had these women on who were discussing the "Law of Attraction" . This is just one more item on the list of lies in New Age. Basically it states you can think whatever you want into existence. She has the people talk about how they were drug addicts and wanted to quit so they just thought about it everyday and spoke the words out loud and then *presto* one day they quit. There was even a woman on there who said she lived in the snow and she really wanted to live where it was warm and then all of the sudden one day she moved to LA and it was all because she put a pic...

Dear Sarabeth, Last week you turned 7 months old. This has to be one of the most fun stages with you. You are getting so big and climbing on everything. You love to pull yourself up on anything. You are a crawling monster and you're into everything. I frequently find you on top of something or stuck underneath it. I have to keep a close eye on your every move. You cut your first tooth a few weeks ago. It's still coming in, but its just one more sign that you are growing up. It makes me so sad. You eat so well. You like everything! I haven't seen you spit anything out that I've fed you. You sleep and nap well and hardly ever fuss. I enjoy every minute with you. Daddy can make you giggle like no one else! Your eyes light up when he comes in the room, you melt his heart. Just yesterday you started giving kisses. I'm not sure if you know what you are doing or not but daddy and I think it's the most precious thing. You are making new friends at church and Mothers Day...

Today I found myself thinking about my sister Alayna. It's not unusual for me to think about her, I do it everyday. However, for some reason I was not really sad about her. My family thinks I never took time to grieve when my sister passed away. I was too busy being "Martha" and didn't take the time to think about it. Not true. I've thought about her and her death for over 2 years now. I wonder why God wanted her back so quickly. I wonder why HER. I want to ask God why he didn't heal her while we prayed on our knees by her hospital bed. Why would my God take away this child from my parents and leave them with a huge hole in their life? Lately I've read and heard about so much sadness in people's lives, losing children...a mother's worse fear. It hurts my heart and makes me think about Sarabeth and what I would do if God chose to take her. The thought sends me into near cardiac arrest. It makes me overwhelmed with all of the things I shoul...

We don't get to spend a lot of time with my family since they are so spread out so it was nice to be able to let Sarabeth spend some time with her paw paw while we were in town to see my sister. I have such a mixed family, it's hard to explain. This is Sarabeth with my step-dad. Except for he's not really my step dad anymore. He and my mom were married for over 20 years and have since divorced. I grew up with him being my "dad" and I couldn't imagine him being anything less. He raised 5 kids and is still raising on at home. He is an amazing man and he loves and adores Sarabeth.

I'm so proud of my sister Lindsay. I took a day last week and made a quick trip to Longview to see her play in her very first of many band concerts. She is in the 6th grad and plays the clarinet. She's following in the footsteps of our mom and older sis Alayna who also played the clarinet. It was amazing to watch this group of kids go from not even knowing what an instrument was to playing as a group in one school year. I thought the band was great. It was their first time to ever play together as a group. Cheese! Silly girl! Waiting patiently Practicing My sis Haley, me, Lindsay and my niece Rian. Aunt Haley, Sarabeth, Rian Lindsay just finished taking the state TAKS test where she scored 98 in reading and 96 in math. She also received 2 nominations from 2 of her teachers for the best student award. She is very smart and I'm so very proud of her.

Sarabeth had her first zoo trip a few weeks ago. One of her friend's had his birthday party there and purchased tickets for the whole party to enjoy the zoo all day! This was the 2nd day of the stomach bug, before we knew what she had. She was not too happy so we didn't stay long. She wasn't really interested anyway...it was more for me! Looking at the fishy Daddy trying to show her the big lion! The petting zoo, she didn't want to pet anything Awww...mommy and baby Eww...so scary! Matt took some awesome pictures of the animals. I've always loved the zoo and Matt never wanted to take me. I'm so glad I have an excuse for him to take us now...anything for the kids!

Things around here have been crazy lately. Sarabeth just finished her antibiotics. Turns out she had a UTI after all. She also had E.coli which was caused by the stomach bug, poor baby. She's better now, back to her normal busy self. We spent Memorial weekend in Junction with Matt's family. Here are some pictures: Sitting with Aunt Ladonna Having lunch with her 2nd cousins Kenzie and Kyleigh In the river with daddy Time for nap... Chillin' in the sun with Kenzie Sitting in the rocker all by herself..kind of Despite the sickness, she did well on the ride down and only got sick once on the way back. Sorry about that Aunt Phyl!