Both Lanaea and Kelsey are my fearless children. Lanaea has not concept of fear or her limitations. She’s constantly climbing on everything, chairs being her latest favorite. It scares me to death, but this seems to egg her on even more. As I come running her way she’ll stand up on her little chair and let go of her hands an clap as though she saying, “Ha, ha, look at me Mom!!”.
Lanaea with a purse, a hand mirror, and work goggles around her neck--it's a typical day. 
For those of you that know Blake, you know that he doesn’t like a lot of attention (can you tell, I can't even get him to look at the camera) and is perfectly content when others don’t it’s his birthday. He does, however, enjoy getting presents from those that love him. He always has a running wish list of very specific and particular things so money is usually the best gift for him, even from me. I’ve given up on trying to figure out what he wants. Trevor his brother though has him down to a “T” and comes up with the best gifts for him and they are always what he wants. So Trevor, next birthday or special occasion, I’m coming your way to get ideas. Me and the girls baked him a cheesecake—my first attempt!! It actually turned out to be delicious!! Phew!!
This winter we signed Mylee up for a ballet, jazz, and tap dance class. It’s been a sweet experience to see my sweet Mylee grow up and get involved in activities like this. This was the first class we signed her up for. She’s been doing really well and really enjoys it. Her teacher is really sweet and has some really fun ways of helping her students remember dance steps. For instance, for first position they have to let their heels kiss each other. For the hand positions in ballet they pretend they are putting scoops of ice cream on a cone. These and others have really helped Mylee remember her dance steps. It’s been sweet to see Mylee try to teach Kelsey some moves. Mylee’s signature moves are the penguin walk (a tap step) and a somersault. Whenever Kelsey does a cool trick she usually fires back with a somersault. 
Today my sweet little girl turned 6. It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed by. I could not have asked for a more sweet, loving, and precious little girl. She is so beautiful on the outside and on the inside. Inherently she knows what is right and tries her best to always choose the right. As I mother I could not be more proud of my daughter. At school she gets along with all of her class mates and tries to make friends with everyone. She’s excelling in school and is so far ahead of where she supposed to be as a kindergartener. One day while her kindergarten teacher was testing her for reading she finally had to stop at a level “i” because she was getting bored from reading so much. They start their reading level at “a” and then go up the alphabet from there. She loves to learn and is like a human sponge absorbing all the information that comes her way. She asks me all sorts of questions and a lot of the time I don’t know the answer so I tell her that we will have to look it up online. Now when I tell her I don’t know when she asks a question she responds, “Oh, we’ll have to look it up online.”
With Kelsey at school all day, these little girls have become close little friends. I should say though that Mylee hasn’t quite mastered the art of playing with a baby yet and because of that Lanaea often squeals and screams when Mylee tries to touch or do something to her. All and all though, as long as Mylee is not touching her or trying to lift her up, they have fun with one another. In this picture Lanaea is admiring Mylee in her beautiful dance clothes. It warms my heart to see my girls play with one another.
On February 19th, we went to the circus as a family. It was just a small circus, but the girls didn’t know any difference. We had a wonderful time. They had girls doing acrobatics on sheets of ribbon hanging from the ceiling. The girls were fascinated. Well, except for Lanaea. Blake and I mostly kept busy chasing her around and rescuing her from falling down the concrete stairs. They had an act with dogs doing all sorts of tricks and an act with lots of ponies and an act with motorcycles in a metal ball. After 2 hours, we eventually left because our girls were losing their attention. It was actually a good time to leave because they were just bringing out the elephants and Mylee was terrified of them. She saw them and cried and cried. It was good times.
Mylee thinks she should be losing her teeth too! 
I was in charge of Kelsey's class valentine party this year. It turned out great! The kids had fun and we had lots of good food to eat. Because of the obesity crisis among children in the US, it's Texas law that they can't eat sweet at school--only a couple times during school year--so made it heart-healthy and served heart-shaped sandwiches, fruit on kabobs, chicken nuggets, and caprisuns! Technically it was only supposed to be a snack--but it turned more into a meal, it was great though and the kids ate it up. Being that we couldn't serve sweets I had asked if a parent wanted to put together some kind of sweet treat the kiddos could take home with them as a party favor. Two mothers contacted me to volunteer for that. But to my surprise, at the party we ended up with those two mothers' sweet treats along with 4 other treat bags to take home!! The kids were mighty spoiled!
When Blake finished his presentation, he asked the kids if they had any questions. Most were not questions--more like stories of when they or someone else got hurt. Some had legitimate questions though. One boy asked why Dr.'s call their tools instruments--Blake said it sounded better, more professional I guess. They also asked what kinds of things he fixes. One of the teachers asked how long Blake had been in school to get where he was. We had figured out that when he is all done with his training he will have been in schooling with some training for 26 years! When Blake asked how long they had been in school one boy yelled out, "FOREVER!" 
Has it really been a year!! Sweet Lanaea you have been the MOST wonderful thing that has happened to us in 2010. In a year of many trials, you have brought us hope, joy, peace, and comfort. You're a sweet mell0w-tempered child with an excitement for life. Your sisters love you!! To your dismay, Mylee can't get enough of you at times. Thank you for making our lives that much brighter and wonderful. Dad and I LOVE you! May you always remember how special you are and that you are a Daughter of a loving Heavenly Father.
At one year old you can say "Mamma", "Dadda", "Uh-o", "Hi" and you point to everything and say, "huh?" When you point or wave hi you fully extend your arm and stick out your pointer finger and your thumb. You are a GREAT eater!! You'll try anything I present to you. When you don't like something you'll just spit it out. You've been sleeping through the night since you were 4 months old and you still comfort yourself in your bed by sucking your thumb. You're close to walking by you aren't quite there yet. You can stand alone on your two feet though and get to that position by yourself. You love to go through all my tubberware lids and throw them all over my kitchen floor. You love to play peek-a-boo and will often start the game yourself with a blanket. You also do a really cool trick by standing on your head and pointing your bottom up into the air. You're a healthy and beautiful baby!
