Merry Christmas!!

Happy birthday Jesus! We have been enjoying our trip home for Christmas. We stayed the first week with The Bauslaugh's and now we are staying with the Skogman's. We recieved a digital camera for Christmas so we can keep up on the pictures better. Lindsay and Leslie have been such a joy. One quick story was from the plane ride. Lance was showing Lindsay the stars in the sky and she was not very impressed. She said, "Those are baby stars daddy, I want to see Jesus' big star!"

Here are some pictures from the last couple of days:

Relay for Life

Most of you probably got this email from me yesterday. In some cases, however, I do not have your email address or the one I have is no good. The event is in April so there is plenty of time to contribute, but I thought some people might be looking for a tax-deduction before the year ends. :-)

Friends and Family,

I am raising money for the American Cancer Society through Relay for Life. I am participating in memory of my Grammie and my Auntie Sharon who each succumbed to Cancer in the last couple of years, and in celebration of my Mom (a 25+ year survivor). There are several other friends and friends of friends who I have prayed for at different times of my life who have had to fight and sometimes lose to Cancer. My life has been touched by cancer and I hope to be a part of the cure, making Cancer a thing of the past for my girls.

Can you believe that more than 1.3 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year? Those are staggering statistics, but there is hope. Each of us can do something to save lives and help those already fighting this disease. That's why I've decided to take action against cancer by supporting the American Cancer Society Relay For Life®.

Relay For Life is an overnight event that brings our community together to help support the American Cancer Society and its lifesaving mission to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. The Society works hard every day to prevent cancer and save lives by supporting groundbreaking research, affecting public policies that protect us from cancer, and educating people on how to prevent or detect cancer early. The Society helps people with cancer right here in our own community. And our efforts at Relay For Life can help the American Cancer Society to keep working toward a cancer-free future.

I want to invite you to show your support in the ongoing fight against cancer by joining us for this year's event. Please click on the link below for more information, including details on the inspirational Survivors' Lap and the moving Luminaria Ceremony. We hope to see you there! If you can't join us, will you please visit the site and make a donation to support our efforts? Either way, you will make a real difference in the lives of people facing cancer – and in the lives of the people who love them. Thank you!

For state fundraising notices and the American Cancer Society's Privacy Policy, please paste this link into your browser: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SU/su_0.asp

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support RFL of Collin / McKinney

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Katie Bauslaugh

16 months

OK, so Leslie is about 16 1/2 months now, I am a little behind. I feel like Leslie has grown so much in the last month that I need to post about it even if it is a little late.
Leslie's vocabulary has grown a bit. In addition to her previous words she now says Mommy, she (shoe), ow (out), mo (milk), and mo (more). She is really good at communicating with head nods and hand gestures or signing when she doesn't have a word for something. For example; patting furiously to get you to pull her into your lap or onto the couch and holding her hands out to the side when you ask " where is ....." She also continues to use sign to communicate please, thank you, drink, eat, help and more. Her favorite word, however remains to be "no!" We joke that she says it with a southern twang.
Leslie is a climber. Oh my, does she climb. Early on she would stand up in her highchair with no fear, this was only a precurser for what was to come. She learned how to stand on her sister's stepstool, she pulled herself up on the coffee table, she got herself into the rocking chair by pulling it down to where she could get in, she started climbing into dinning room chairs a couple of weeks ago, and then a couple of days ago she got herself on a very unsteady, empty cardboard box that I had to get rid of because everytime my back was turned she was on it! The girl will climb on anything that isn't moving.
She is quickly moving from being a baby to being a little girl. A transition that Lance and I would like to slow down. When we see everyone in Washington over Christmas, I think everyone is going to be surprised at how much she's grown since the last time they saw her. Even if that was only a few weeks ago.
Lindsay is learning about Christmas as we get closer to our trip. It has been fun to have conversations with her about Santa, Jesus and what they mean. Last week I took the girls through our Church's Christmas Journey. It was a drive through depiction of Jesus' life. WOW! It was really cool. Lindsay got to sit in the front passenger seat while we listened to a cd that described each scene. She was so excited and asking lots of questions. Some serious, some quite funny. An example is that I had told her that her friend Reese's dad was in the Last Supper scene. When we got there, she said "Is that where Reese's daddy works? Is he at a meeting? The night was very fun and since then Lindsay and I have had some interesting conversations. It is so fun to have an inquisitive little girl around to keep me on my toes.
Lindsay is counting the sleeps until we go to Washington. Today she woke up and asked me if that was the last sleep, I had to remind her that there are still 5 to go. So close but so far away!

See y'all soon!

My Tummy Tells Me I Need to Eat Some More

Tonight we had cookies. We told Lindsay that she could eat just one and then go to bed.

After Lindsay was done with her cookie, Katie got one for herself. Lindsay then told Katie, "MOMMY, my tummy tells me I need to eat some more!"

Family and Snow

I wanted to post some more pictures. Some I snagged from Debra, so I should give her credit for the family pics. The first one is of the family Sunday before church and the second one is from our visit with Lance's cousins Sarah and Tyson Guthrie. And the others were taken when it was snowing the other night, but you can't tell. There was actually a very slight accumulation. The day before it was in the mid 70's. Lindsay was so excited, and as you can see, so was Leslie. I know it doesn't compare to what Washington got this week, but we will take what we can get! If we look cold, the wind chill was in the single digits. Brrrrr.

Giving Thanks

We have had a great Thanksgiving week. Gordie and Sandy came in on Monday and Debra on Wednesday. Monday night we traveled out to Paradise, TX to visit some friends of the Bauslaugh's, the Normans and their daughter Chanda's family (who also recently moved to TX). It was a great visit with some really great chili and pumpkin dessert. And I think they have the only view in Texas.
After picking Debra up, we all went to Dallas to see the sights. After having an early lunch at a good ol' Texas BBQ joint we decided to go to the Sixth Floor Museum in the Book Depository building at Dealy Plaza. It seemed unusually busy which we chalked up to the Thanksgiving week, but soon realized that it was the 22nd, duh! It was the 43rd anniversary of the assasination of JFK. We didn't even realize that until we were about to go on the tour of the floor. Then, we happened to be at the exact place that Lee Harvey Oswald was at the exact time on the exact day, 43 years later. If we had tried to plan it, we wouldn't have made it.
Thursday, the boys watched Detroit lose and Sandy and I worked on Thanksgiving dinner. It was my first real Thanksgiving dinner. I made most of the dishes from scratch. I was a little nervous, but I was real pleased with how it turned out.
Friday we went to Mckinney's A Dickens of a Christmas. Which was fun with all of the neat downtown stores and booths. And, to prove Kimberly Gibson wrong, it snowed in Texas!! They had snow machines running on the hour and the girls loved it, Leslie especially.
Today it was more football for the guys while the girls went shopping. Then tonight we went for a short visit to the Guthries.
Tomorrow is Church and then Gordie heads back followed by Sandy and Debra (to Chicago) on Monday. What a crazy week it has been, but lots of fun to have visitors.
YUM!!













Gordie was winning until he ended a game with all of these tiles!! He doubled his score!

Our Stage

Y'All

OKAY! OKAY! I am giving in!

I have told many people I would not use the word Y'ALL (I guess it is a word). I have even told some new friends here in Texas how silly it sounds and how I feel kind of weird using it. I think wired is nice word to use, however I could have inserted other words to describe how I feel.

Anyway, I will now be using the word Y'all as I have accidently used it a couple of times and now will not be trying to refrain.

PEACE...Y'ALL

Lance

The Pin Bodies

Today Katie is sewing some pillow cases, and Lindsay is helping her. They are in the guest bedroom and Lindsay is sitting on the bed playing with some pins. They are a little longer than an inch. At first she was just sticking them into the bed and saying, "Mommy, these are pretend dancers."

She decided to poke them through all the way down so just the heads of the pins would be showing. She then got down off the bed on all fours and looked under the bed. She exlcaimed, "I am looking for the Pin Bodies."

Cute!

Pictures in the Park

We finally have some new pictures for everyone. Katie's roomate from College took these for us while we were back in Washington for Heidi's wedding. Enjoy!

Why?

OK so like every three year old that ever lived, Lindsay askes why about 45 million times a day. Today while I was cleaning a major blowout of Leslie's diaper Lindsay asked about 5 million of her 45 million including "why leslie have a dirty diaper?" and "why is that a bad diaper?" all of her questions, she could have answered herself. Then after I had placed the offensive diaper next to me on the floor, I told Lindsay not to walk on it, she asked why, and I just looked at her. She smiled and said, "why I always ask why mommy?" I told her I thought that was a very good question.

15 months

So leslie is 15 months old now. She is so much fun!! At the wedding Leslie proved to be a party girl, I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. It was fun, nontheless, to see her dancing as if nobody else was on the floor. She even had some adults trying to copy her moves. Now, whenever she hears music she wiggles around and gets a big smile on her face. Leslie's favorite game to play is hide-n-seek. She and Lindsay will run around the house while Lindsay is counting and then jump out and giggle when Lindsay stops. In the last couple of days Leslie has added the word "no" to her vocabulary. It usually comes with a shake of the head and a slap of the hand, in case you don't understand what she is trying to communicate. Lindsay has found out the consequences of ignoring Leslie's no, she has the bite mark on her arm to prove it. When Leslie is being disciplined or talked to about something that she doesn't like, she does everything that she can to avoid eye contact. It is extremely frustrating in the moment, and something that we will have to overcome but it's kinda funny too.
Lindsay, almost 3 and 3 months, has quite an imagination. Recently daddy built her a stage (yes, I am talking about Lance :-0). We thought she would only use it to dance and sing, she does those things, but her favorite thing is to tell stories. She plays storytime with some of her toys as the audiance. Last night, daddy acted out David and Goliath and this morning she was telling her toys another story of David, without the scary Goliath, but with much feeling and drama. When she isn't acting out stories, she is reading her books. Some books she has memorized nearly word for word and is now reciting them on stage or to her sister. It seems like Lindsay always has some sort of storyline going on in her head. That girl will talk and talk and talk. Sometimes making sense, sometimes not. The other day Lindsay woke up early and was done with her morning routine before Leslie had even woke up. She asked me "why is Leslie sleeping?" My answer did not satisfy her, she said "I need Leslie to play with me cause she is my friend." My heart melted. If only she would remember that when they are teenagers!

Back

We are back in Texas. The wedding was fun and seeing everyone was great, but we are happy to be back in our own house again. Lindsay started saying she wanted to come back the day before we left. I don't know if I can say I looked forward to coming back to Texas yet, but I was looking forward to coming home. Here is a cute picture from before the wedding.

Playgroup

These are pictures from last week's playgroup in Texas, the day before we left for Washington.

Preparations

We are in Washington preparing for Heidi's wedding. What a crazy time. The girls are getting to spend quality time with both sets of grandparents and we are busy with something every day from now until we leave on the 16th. This trip has become an experience of extreme emotions. From the sadness of Susanne's passing to the blessing of a new life in my cousin Shannon's baby girl Riley. The coming days include a memorial, a wedding shower, a bachelorette party, a rehearsal dinner and finally a wedding. I am really looking forward to it all (other than the memorial), but I think I am beginning to really look forward to Sunday, the day after the wedding when we can enjoy one of our favorite places on earth, Lake Chelan. In the meantime, the girls and I miss Lance, and can't wait to see him in a few days!

I wrote this the day Susanne died, but didn't post it, I guess I was a little chicken, so I am posting it now.

I just wanted to take a minute to reflect on my sister's friend's tragic death today. It is just a reminder of how none of us have any guarantees for tomorrow. We could have days left, we could have years left. The question is, do you know what is beyond death?? I know where I will go if I should die tonight. I hope that you do too. If not, find out and do something about it. There is no time for excuses. Susanne knew too, and that is how we can find peace with her death.

Obit; http://www.legacy.com/tribnet/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=19413152

Prayer requests

Well, we leave in about 48 hours and both girls are not feeling 100%. Lindsay especially. Please pray for her that she will feel better soon. She woke up several times last night with a tummy ache. She is asleep on the couch right now with a bowl because she said she wants to throw up. She hasn't yet but I am really concerned. I don't know what we can do if she is still feeling sick when we have to leave early Friday.
That is the next prayer request, that we are all healthy for leaving on Friday and that I can handle traveling across the country with two little ones.

If you think of us, pray for us! Thanks!

14 months

Leslie is 14 months today! In the last month she has added a few things to her list of firsts. She has well established uh-oh as her first word and will mimick the sounds in words that we try to get her to say like please. Last week, leslie gave her first blow-kiss to her daddy and she loves to give real kisses too. She also has begun going down the stairs by herself. She amazes us by going down forward one step at a time. sit-scoot-stand, sit-scoot-stand. I don't know if that can help you visualize what she is doing, but it is pretty cute!
Both girls are sick a lot here. I sometimes feel like we are never 100%. Please keep the girls in your prayers.

Sorry I can't write more, I find I have less time these days. Hopefully I will get to add to this later tonight.

Katie

The Pink Lady

I have already posted a picture of Lindsay's room but I thought I would post some more. When Lindsay's room was almost finished she walked into her room in the cinderella dress she had been wearing all day and exclaimed, "Cinerelna likes her room!" So I guess we have an A+ from Cinderella. To give you an idea of how pink this room is, Lindsay asked me if I had painted her white dresser pink too. Nope, it's just reflecting the color of the walls.

Here comes trouble!

Leslie has a habit of getting herself into precarious positions. Here are some pictures to show you what I mean.