Like Mother, Like Daughter

Earlier this week the girls and I took a trip up to Dallas to visit my grandpa in the hospital. He is 87 years old and had to have unexpected surgery, so we thought we'd go see him. He did really well and is now at home recovering. The hospital where he had his surgery just happened to be the same hospital where my sister, Sara, and I were born. There is a fun little play area for kids in the lobby, so of course, Bethany had to spend a little time there and I shot some pictures of her playing on all the animals. My dad said that when my sister was born (I was 2 years, 4 months old) I played on those VERY same animals! He said he thought they had some pictures of it, too. So when we got back to my parents' house that night I dug out the old photo albums and scanned some pics. Here's what we got:

Me in 1980



Bethany this week - 28 years later



Me



Bethany





Me



Bethany



Crazy, huh?

Well, onto the other child. It's been a big week for Baby Landry! On Wednesday she cut her first tooth - her bottom right incisor (I think that's what it's called!). I really think she's working on the one next to it, too. She gnaws on anything, including her own hands, all day long. Yesterday at a baby shower she was gnawing on my friend's wooden chair. Probably not too safe. Her favorite thing of all to chew on, though, is my keys. Really not safe. I'm going to look for those fake keys that look real at Target tomorrow!

And tonight she "officially" started crawling. My life is about to change drastically. We went to a neighborhood pool with some friends this evening and had a great time. I wore Landry in my new Porpoise Pouch for the first time and she LOVED it! So I got her out, dried her off, put her in some dry clothes and laid her on a beach towel on the concrete while I got ready to leave. I went to throw some trash away and as I was walking back I saw her off of the towel crawling on the concrete over to the grass. When she reached the grass she took a big handful, pulled it out and put it up to her mouth. Luckily one of our friends was right there and rescued her from eating grass! Of course I was having a cow because she was crawling and he said, "You've never seen her do that before?" Nope. She's never done it before! So for the next 15 minutes we were there she was crawling all over the concrete getting into everyone's bags. Great. Just what I need. A 2 year old AND a 5 month old to chase around! Really, I'm proud of the little girl, but I'm just not ready for this!!! I had my camera out in the car, but forgot until later or I would have taken pics of the first crawl. When I remembered that I had it, I did pull it out to take some shots of Landry and Kelsey - her buddy who is one month younger than her. Of course, my memory card was full when they were both smiling and they both got unhappy while I was deleting photos, so here's what we got.









Unfortunately, I guess I moved when I took these because the sun is behind Landry's head and made the pics really dark. Oh well, I'm still learning!

Family Reunion

Warning: This post is going to be very photo heavy! Since I got my new camera I've gone a little overboard with the picture taking. Believe it or not, I cut out LOTS of pictures, but still had a hard time narrowing them down. So look if you wish - really, this is for me to have a "scrapbook" of sorts.

Last weekend we headed out to Glenrose for the annual Duggan Family Reunion. Actually, Raymond went on Friday night and I went Saturday morning with the girls. It's just so much easier to sleep at home with a 2 year old and a 5 month old! We got there in the morning and lots of family was already there to greet us. Our niece, Lexi, was waiting for Bethany to play with her! She's 6 months older than Bethany, so she's 3 now. Every time they spend time together they seem to enjoy each other more. I guess that comes with age. Whatever the reason, it was so great to see them really playing and listen to their very interesting conversations! Here are just a few pics of the girls that we took as soon as we got there. They sure didn't waste any time, did they?

The shadow of this tree made for some poor photos. Guess I'll have to actually learn how to adjust settings on my camera and stuff. Sara??? Melissa???





Here are a couple attempts at a pic of both girls. Didn't really succeed. I'm reminded of my friend Debbie, who has girls similar ages as mine. She said she's looking forward to her girls being 2 and 4 just so she can get a decent picture of them together!!! I completely agree!



Oops - Landry looks a little scared! Don't worry, she didn't fall - there were people ready to catch a falling baby on either side of the chair!



Our beautiful baby girl! Too bad it was so dark in the shade - she was making a really sweet face.



Our beautiful big girl!



Our beautiful niece, Lexi.



Our handsome nephew, Chase (Lexi's older brother).



The three girls together.



Daddy and Bethany having loads of fun!






Gram was so good and brought lots of fun things for the kiddos to do. I think the favorite, though, was the bubbles! Here are Bethany, Lexi and their 2nd or 3rd or twice removed cousin (not really sure what she is - she's Raymond's cousin's granddaughter) Payton blowing bubbles.











After LOTS of playing in the hot sun and the dirt (which, by the way, was Bethany's favorite thing to do the whole time we were there), we took the kids to the pool to cool off a little. I have pics from the pool, but haven't uploaded them yet, so you are spared!

After swimming Landry was wiped out. Poor thing!



She woke up happy, though, and was happy to see her Gram!



Drooly Droolerson





Before dinner the kids were entertained by one of Bethany's puzzles. Chase was a good sport to play with the girls.



I guess Bethany thought the puzzle was getting a little too far away from her!





I realized I hadn't been in any pictures, so I asked Chase to take a pic of Bethany and me. It says a lot about Chase that I let him use my brand new camera!!!! Anyway, here we are - do you think we look alike???



Gram and Bethany enjoying a moment together.



These are my favorite pictures I took at the reunion. I was sitting relatively far away from the girls and just zoomed in on them. They were doing everything they did on their own, without prodding from me! I just thought they were being so sweet and wanted to capture it on camera. At one point Bethany said, "We're sitting in the same chair because we're best friends!" Makes my heart melt a little.













Thanks for looking if you made it this far!!!

And the Answer is...

A!!! You guys were all right! I can definitely tell them apart, but wondered if everyone else could, too. They definitely look related, though, don't you think?

And in other news, I got my new camera. Woohoo!!!!!!! I'm so excited. I love it!!!!!!!! I got a Canon Rebel XT and it has been so great even though I've only been using the automatic settings. All I know how use so far is the "point and click" feature. With time I'll figure out all the cool things about it. For now, I'm just enjoying a camera that a) turns on all the time, and b) takes a picture IMMEDIATELY - not 10 seconds after the moment I was trying to capture! Here are some of my first shots with the new camera!

Landry waking up Aunt Sara on her 28th birthday! (Yes, the birthday girl slept on the couch. It was her choice - it was far away from the baby's room. Ha ha!)





Landry sitting in Mommy's lap while Bethany and Pappy swim. I was taking these pics one-handed since I had to hold the baby, too!







The girls playing with each other. So sweet!






Bethany and I went with Pappy to Dairy Queen for an ice cream cone. Well, initially we went to get a sno-cone, but the sno-cone stand didn't open until much later. Some MAJOR tears later, we ended up at Dairy Queen for ice cream instead. Here they are patiently waiting and contemplating the meaning of life.



Bethany giving Pappy a little hug.



And the much anticipated ice cream cone. She looks like she's really concentrating!



And here's Landry's latest feat! By the way, baby girl turned 5 months old on Wednesday. Sniff, sniff.