lana's pictures updated!

i updated the link for lana's pictures if you want to see what she's been up to lately!

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a new adventure

well, the libbys had a BUSY weekend! we started friday night off by christmas tree shopping....at lowe's. we do actually have christmas tree farms around here, but unfortunately, i'm not in the market for a $300 tree....so maybe we'll just go out to the farm, take some pictures, and pretend like we got ours there. haha

saturday morning we got up and took the DART (dallas area rapid transit) downtown to pick up my race packet. this weekend i ran the white rock half marathon benefiting the scottish rite hospital. so we went down to the health expo and picked up my packet, got my free tshirt, and lost lana's shoe. yes, you read that right. we lost just ONE shoe. can i just tell you that drew and i were SO sick to our stomach's because of this. these shoes are lana's FAVORITE. they light up, and she just loves running in place with them on. so sad. but, luckily, i work for jcp...and get a discount...on top of my coupons...so her replacement pair is in the mail! tell me these aren't adorable! :)

about a week ago the weather looked just perfect for the race. lows in the upper 40s, highs in the mid 60s. but as race day approached, the meteorologists changed the forecast...cold front. blew through on saturday. race day morning lows in the low 30s. WHAT! you've got to be kidding me! so needless to say, there was NO way lana and drew were going to stand out the cold for 2 hours (or 3 or 4 depending on how long it took me) to wait for my grand finish. we got smart...hey! let's rent a hotel in downtown dallas near the DART rail, and i can just take the train race morning, drew and lana can play around the hotel, and come later to the finish! genius! so we booked a room at the magnolia. we had an acu carb loading dinner to go to saturday night, so we checked in our hotel around 8pm. we had to circle the hotel a few times to figure out how to get in line to park, but it was so worth it. we discovered that the neiman marcus was two blocks down. we got to see their spectacular christmas window displays! they were SO cool! (i wish we'd taken pictures, but we didn't. boo)

so we got all checked in, watched the rest of the OU/Huskers game on tv, and fell asleep. i had to be up early to get to the race around 645, and drew had to be up early because, well, lana gets up early. so there you go.

it was a long day. the race was a lot of fun. miles 1-10 were actually really easy for me. and i hadn't run in almost 4 weeks due to a back issue i've been having. but race day it was no issue. we got to run through really pretty parts of dallas...highland park, the m streets, uptown...it was so much fun sight seeing! and then came the grand finale...i was able to spot lana and drew fairly easily as we were coming in for our big finish (i ran it with a friend of mine from work, jessica).

the weekend was very eventful...very exciting...and full of adventure. we had a good time.

and the icing on the cake...was oregon defeating the beavers!!! WOOHOO! i think after that win, drew was willing to help me with ANYTHING i asked. he was in such a great mood! :) haha, he always is, actually. but we had fun. something i'm not sure i'll ever do again (of course i'm saying this the day after when my joints ache) but we'll see! there's another one coming up at the end of march...maybe. just maybe....

here are a few pictures from the race...

lana waiting patiently...well, as patiently as an almost 2 year old can wait...

lana all bundled up in the cold...i think it was in the mid 40s (but sunny!) when i finished around 12pm

the finish!

waving hello!

hope you all had a great weekend! GO DUCKS!

halloween/pumpkin patch

forget words....here are pictures!

last weekend we went to the flower mound pumpkin patch. i love the fact that it might be 2 miles away....nice for a little one who doesnt like car rides...

you can see some of the entertainment behind us...

lana learned about pumpkins all week in daycare...loves to say "puh kin"

watching the train in the background go by....

they had little radio flyer wagons to ride in...it was a hit. maybe a christmas present?


daddy and lana

pumpkin house

hangin with snoopy and the gang

riding thru the pumpkins...we had no intention of buying any. it was the day before halloween and i'm not really the pumpkin carving type. that might have to change as she gets older....

finding pumpkins

playing in the toddler area

driving the tractor

excited to see mickey and minnie!

daddy, what's in here?

miserable hat pose

peekaboo!

sliding down the slide

over and over and over and over....

hay maze

finding her way thru

a cool tree we saw...

she's getting so big!

walking the streets on halloween--although we didn't go trick-or-treating

her official costume...an oregon duck

halloween was pretty quiet...i think our doorbell rang 4 times and that's it. but that gave us more time for the ranger game :)

lana loved her costume because she REALLY loves ducks...is oregon in her future????

on a side note, lana is growing and talking like crazy. she can repeat just about anything you ask her to. she's learning her shapes, colors, can say her animals and the sounds they make. we're VERY happy with the daycare she's at because she's learning so much. and the projects she comes home with are awesome! my fridge is overrun with her artwork...so we had to buy a tub to start storing her things. it's a fun stage...she thoroughly enjoys life and has fun with anything--except diaper changes and car rides! ha! but we're having so much fun with her!

hope you all have a great weekend!!

picture post!

guess i'll just make this a misc post of mainly pictures....

here's lana friday morning before going to daycare...of course supporting her rangers

here's me and lana watching the ranger game that sent them to the world series! drew was scouting...which is why i look so funny in the picture. self taken... :)

lana thursday morning before daycare. sporting her new oregon shirt and ready for the game that night. they whopped up on ucla. go ducks!!! (yes, lana yells "go ducks" and "touchdown"....drew's got her trained)

at dicks sporting goods...i think she might be getting golf clubs for christmas. hey, tiger woods had them in his hands at 2 years! we're close, people!

drew teaching lana how to putt. i have to say, she's actually pretty good at making contact. i think she's got drew's athleticism.

yesterday we participated in the neighborhood garage sale. i would say we got rid of a LOT of stuff--but probably didn't make as much money as we could've. i think drew and i were both to the point of just wanting to be rid of the stuff. after cleaning out the attic a few weeks before (i have battle wounds from falling down the ladder! it was interesting) and wondering the whole time if it was about to start pouring, we practically gave stuff away. the CCA is coming to pick up the everything we didn't sell later today.

ok! that's it for now. i've got a little girl that can't stand keeping her hands off the computer, so i gotta close up shop! hope you all have a fabulous weekend. we were planning on going to the pumpkin patch by our house today, but the torrential rain from yesterday (tornado sirens, 60mph hour winds, etc) might have put a kink in our plan...we'll see.

OH! klahoma!

just a side note...oklahoma is my absolute FAVORITE musical of all times. i don't think i can even count how many times i've seen it--it might compete with kim & white christmas if that tells you anything (if you're not in drew's family, you don't know how many copies of white christmas kim has gone through....)

so, about two weeks ago, drew had to scout and break down film. so lana and i packed up around lunch time on friday, and headed out to oklahoma to visit my grandparents. they live in a small town about 15 minutes north of the red river. its about a 3 hour drive from my house, and lana did incredible. luckily we were traveling during her nap.

we got there around 4 on friday and really had a good time just hanging out with my grandparents on a quiet friday night. they live out on some land with a cotton field in front of their house, and behind them is another field that's usually wheat. this year it was nothing. but oh my! the cotton crop was beyond amazing this year. it literally looked like snow! i haven't seen cotton that large in ages! it was neat. good year for the farmers.

my mom drove up saturday morning to spend some time with us all. drew stayed in fm and got caught up on some much needed rest. i think he said he didn't get up until noon saturday! i'm so glad he could sleep in without feeling like he needed to get up and participate in family stuff. :)

here are some pictures of our trip. it was VERY relaxing, lots of time outside, and a good time visiting my grandparents! i think lana was a hit :)

here's the barn and part of the 'wheat' field behind their house

this is my mom about to take lana on a tractor ride...she's supporting her oregon ducks!

lana and grandma on the tractor riding around

behind the house near the wheat field

my mom, lana, and grandpa looking at stuff on the tractor--this thing was from the early 1950s, still runs, and is still used! obviously my grandpa doesn't farm anymore--its used for little projects around the land.

here's lana just playing on the couch.

i have never been so grateful that she can play quietly and by herself

here's lana standing in front of bella's crate--bella is a 6 month old black poodle with SO much energy. lana had a ball with her. lana also found some beads from MY great grandmother's collection. she wore them all weekend. it was so cute.

here's lana with my grandpa and bella after church sunday

my grandparents, my mom, and lana right before we left to come home

and i had to include this video. its just a snippet of the fun lana had with bella while she was visiting :)

more posts to come since i'm up so early on a sunday morning!

fall fever

i'm sitting at work listening to john mayer on my ipod. it's one of the bonuses of having my job. i get to listen to music all day (when i'm not in meetings). if you know me, you know how much i love music. so this just works out great....if i have to work :)

i've got john mayer on shuffle--all his albums. yes, ALL of his albums. i own them. it makes me think about my very first john mayer album that i bought in college at acu. i'm the type that buys an album, listens to it over and over and over and over (you get the picture) until i know the words to the ENTIRE thing...and i love to sing along. about a week ago i went with a good friend, jess, to the john mayer concert here in dallas. i warned her that i like to sing along and that i really did know all the words...not sure she realized the extent of it until we were at the concert and i really did sing the entire concert. it was awesome. we're a great duo. i think i should go on tour with him :) anyway, back to my point. and no, it's not that i think john mayer could possibly be the greatest musician of our time (i really do think this could be true, though), but rather nostalgia. every couple of songs they play one from the very first album--and i listened to that sucker almost an entire semester at school neglecting all other music. it just happened to be the end of fall/beginning of winter. so when i hear these songs it makes me long for autumn.

also....

i remember the first full fall drew and i spent in our house. we'd get up every saturday morning (that he wasn't working) and college game day was the first thing to come on the tv. he took the love seat...i took the sofa. we laid there and watched the entire thing just waiting to see who lee corso would pick to win the premiere game. i remember every once in a while i'd glance out the windows that look out to the backyard and watch the leaves fall from our neighbors pear trees. i'd think about how pretty the leaves were...how nice it was to be out of the heat of the summer...and how much i loved football season--except for drew working all of the time. it was just such a peaceful time in the week and very relaxing. i remember burning pumpkin/spice candles to give it the full effect. oh i LOVE when my house smells of pumpkin spice in the fall and cinnamon in the winter. i don't care how much it costs to make my house smell of these things, its worth the sacrifice. well, i say that now. maybe after 3 weeks straight of peanut butter and jelly i might change my mind. MIGHT. but probably not. :)

also...

i remember when friends first started having kids. they'd always send these really cute pictures of them at the pumpkin patch (which we happen to have TWO down the road! i LOVE living in the country...HAHAHAHA), their little girls wearing cutsie pumpkin onesies with ornate orange tutus and matching bows. i remember pictures of their costumes for halloween--no, they weren't going trick-or-treating at only a year old, but they still had costumes!

all this to say, i love this time of year--or maybe what this time of year represents. currently, it's still hot and surprisingly humid for mid september. but i have something to look forward to. fall starts officially a week from today (my sister-in-law's birthday!) and i'm just DYING to really wake up, watch college game day, and see the leaves changing colors and falling. and for the temperatures to REALLY be falling--not for it to just look cooler outside through my windows. i REALLY want to get lana all dressed up this year and take her to a pumpkin patch. but why? just for pictures sake? because the pumpkin patches around here are ridiculously expensive. and let's face it...even if i broke down and bought one, am i really going to take the time to carve it out? yah, probably not. but i want the pictures! and i want lana to have a halloween costume. why? its not like 18month old kids should be eating that candy...heck, they can't even say 'trick-or-treat' to ask for candy! so why? i dunno. just because its fun and cute! and because i just want to embrace everything "fall" to not miss this special season.

but i just love the changing of seasons. i'm ready to leave summer behind and start fresh with fall. i'm ready for more football, cooler temperatures, and some really fun experiences as a family creating memories for a lifetime. hopefully, i'll be a better blogger this fall and actually document the things we do! that's my goal.

ok, sorry. no pictures. just me rambling. thanks for reading! :)

raw raw ra-ah-aaaw

someone PLEASE tell me this is NOT real....every interview i've read she insists it is...and it looks real. please, Lord, no. this world is nuts! if you don't know what this is, it's Lady GaGa at the VMA's sunday night wearing a dress made of raw meat. yes, you read that right. raw meat. and i've read numerous articles praying that its just fabric washed and treated to resemble meat, but seen interveiws where she insists its real. can it really be? how much would she wreak wearing this? wouldn't it have attracted flies/bugs? wouldn't it be dripping of fluids? (sorry to get graphic on you) i'm trying to convince myself this can NOT be the world we live in today.

some people call this artistic...i call it crazy. check this girl into the looney bin. and her designer/stylist too.

prayer request

***Update***

well, surgery was very successful. they removed all of the endometriosis--it was really bad. but there was some super fantastic news--she did NOT have fallopian tube disease like they had thought. they were able to clean out the cysts, and leave her tubes! praise God! she is resting at home now with 2-6 weeks worth of recovery. thank you for the prayers. our God is so GOOD! (PS...even if this hadn't turned out the way i had prayed for, God would STILL be GOOD!)

hey friends/family in the blog world.

i'm coming to you coveting your prayers for a dear friend.

she's my very best friend from high school and still my favorite friend in the world! tomorrow she's having surgery to remove her fallopian tubes...she has fallopian tube disease and stage 4 endometriosis. this has made it impossible for her to conceive and with the removal of her fallopian tubes, she'll only be able to get pregnant with IVF. i praise GOD for opening the eyes of doctors/researchers in the medical field--that she still has a great shot at getting pregnant and having children through this process. but more than that, i beseech God for a miracle! i would love for the doctors to do one last sonogram on her only to find that she's 100% completely healed. even if this isn't the case, i trust in God's plan.

my heart breaks for her, because i know her desire for children. please pray for jo and her hubby, seth. these past several months (maybe even years) have been so trying. pray that they continue to press into God during this season of their lives and that they find peace amidst this storm they're enduring. pray for an even stronger marriage to emerge from this. pray for the doctors during the procedure--that everything goes as planned with no complications. pray for a quick healing process and as little physical pain as possible.

thank you, friends! i know she'll feel your prayers tomorrow afternoon!!!

happenings

well, you'd think that the reason i haven't blogged in a while is because we've just been so busy! but that's a lie. i'm just lazy :) so let me update you on life.

drew's parents came in town to spend some time with us for a few weeks in august. we had such a great time. we took them to the rangers/red sox game for john's birthday. then for a belated father's day gift, we took them to tour cowboys stadium. it was a lot of fun. i think lana even had a good time running on the field!

we really enjoyed their time with us. we got a lot of home-cooked meals, many repairs done on the house, and what great timing--lana got hand/foot/mouth while they were here. i was so grateful to drew's mom for getting up in the night with her while she was sick and allowing drew and me to rest for work. it was such a blessing to have them here. and we always have a good time with them.

drew has started back to school. well, he started back to school before they went back to school. i think at the beginning of august/end of july he was already doing meetings and football camps or practices or something. i've given up on trying to keep it all straight. all i know is when he's going to be home late. and we've pretty much hit the time where that's every night. tonight he's breaking down film up at marcus. tomorrow night he scouts and breaks down more film. so, hopefully, i'll get to see him sometime saturday...hahaha no really. keep him/us in your prayers during this extremely busy time of year. i think it's going to be harder on lana than last year because she actually knows he's gone. and he just gets so wiped out. i feel bad for him. but i know he really enjoys what he does--the majority of the time, anyway. :)

i'm still enjoying my new position as a store planner at jcpenney. i won't bore you with the details of my job. i'm a numbers/financial nerd. enough said.

lana is still at the in-home daycare by our house. sharon has been such a blessing to us. we've really enjoyed getting to know her and were thrilled to run into her at our church a few weeks ago. it's nice to know you're on the same page spiritually with the person caring for your child...

yesterday lana turned 18 months old. i took her in for her check up and everything is going just super. she's 31" tall (31st %) and 21 lbs 6 oz (8th %). yep, still small. but that's ok! the doc isn't worried one bit. she's growing and developing just perfectly.

well, i'll quit boring you with words...here are some pictures. i know that's the only reason you come to our blog :)

drew has popcorn nearly every night before bed. lana has recently started to want to be a part of the popcorn eating...and she really likes to feed us now. weird.

here's lana looking at a toy my dad gave her for christmas last year. it turns over and laughs. sometimes she giggles. other times she just stares at it wondering what's going on....this is one of the times she's just not sure what to think of it.

we recently started dropping the morning nap. here's one of the first days without her morning nap. she passed out around noon while eating...poor girl. she's adjusting much better now.

here's lana sitting in the seats at cowboy stadium

us on the field...

our little lana

with nana & grandpa near the star in the center of the field

the four of us at the end of the red sox game...yes, we look whipped. this was toward the end of the game--that went into extra innings. i'm sure it was close to a 4 hour game. oh, and it was 100+ degrees when it started. luckily, we took a cooler of water in as well as battery operated hand held misting fans. genius. oh, and the rangers won with a walk off homer by nelly! great game which was concluded by friday night fireworks at the ballpark.

well, one last thing before i go. i'm running a half marathon on december 5th, so training is in full swing! i'm running the white rock here in dallas and i'm completely terrified. but it was something i want to do before i turn 30, so i'm going to do it! wish me luck!

have a super labor day weekend. i'm off tomorrow to have some 'jamie-time'. i'm definitely planning a nap somewhere in there...and possibly a drive to dallas for sprinkles cupcakes. :)