Duke is Funny!

We got some video of Lauralyn laughing at the dogs (mostly Duke). It was SO cute. She laughs at them a lot now and loves to pet them (or just grab their hair...lol). It is so fun to see how much she interacts now and notices things. I love being her mom!

Christmas 2008 Part 1

Our first Christmas with Lauralyn was great! We had so much fun telling her all about the reason for the season and why we celebrate Christmas. Here are some pictures of what all we did and some explanation for the pics.

Lauralyn and I drove down on Thursday, December 18. We went straight to Trail Dust for a birthday dinner for my Grandma (Lauralyn's GG-Mom). On Friday, I went to spend some time with my very good friend Melissa and her son Tucker (Lauralyn's future hubby...lol). We have been best buds for a while and have always planned start having kids around the same time, and God totally made that happen. So here are some pics of the kids "playing"...let's just say Tucker already LOVES her to death...and she loves him too!

L: "What is going on?"

T: "C'mere Lauralyn and give me a kiss!"
T: "You're not getting away that easy. L: "Mommy!"

Pals forever!

T: "Here, hold these for me, would ya?" L: "Sure thing!"

Friday night, we spent some time with Lala and Lolo (short for Abuelo and Abuela - Adrian's parents).

Sunday, December 21, was the Living Nativity at my dad's church (Northview Baptist), and my sister, Bethany, played Mary. She had been telling my dad all year she wanted to be Mary since she has never done it...lol. Anyway, even though Lauralyn wasn't baby Jesus, we still had Beth take a couple pics with her to pretend.

This is Emily, the pastor's daughter, and she was an angel in the nativity. She is best friends with Beth and is part of the family it seems. We call her Auntie Em to Lauralyn. She was showing Lauralyn how to "break it down" in the next pic and it was cracking Lauralyn up.

My sister, Bethany, as Mary, and Tucker as baby Jesus.

Then at the end of the service, Tom, my bro-in-law (Tiff's hubby) said "I need the baby...it's a surprise." So he took L and then after the prayer, I see him on stage with her and he sings the song called "Joseph's Lullaby" and had L wrapped up like she was Jesus. I just started crying and took lots of pics.

One verse from the song (my favorite) goes like this (it's by MercyMe if you have heard it):

Go to sleep my Son

Baby, close Your eyes

Soon enough You'll save the day

But for now, dear Child of mine

Oh my Jesus, Sleep tight

This song just really got to me. Joseph is holding precious baby Jesus and just wants Him to sleep tight and not to worry about the dreary road ahead. Joseph wants to do all he can to protect him for as long as he can. I get chills just thinking about it. Ok...gotta move on.

On Monday, Melissa, Tucker, Lauralyn, and I went to spend time with one of my best friends (since 8th grade) and her two kiddos (Jackson and Evie). It was fun catching up. Love you Amanda!

My sister, Bethany, and I went shopping (last min. Christmas shopping) on Tuesday and we waited in the very short line to snag a picture with Lauralyn and Santa. They actually allowed me to use my own camera.

Another Christmas post to come (Christmas Eve and Christmas Day pics). Hopefully will post it tomorrow.

Christmas Post to come...

I know that I need to post pics from Christmas, so I will get to it soon. My camera died (I know...I'm so smart), so I have to get pics from my parents. Look for a Christmas post to come soon.

Our little football fan...

So a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, Adrian and I were watching a football game as we were cleaning around the house. I had Lauralyn laying on the boppy, underneath her baby gym facing AWAY from the TV. So I was doing laundry or something and Adrian was in the kitchen and calls me to come over to where he is and look at the baby. I come in to see that she has arched her back over the boppy, and is just laying there with her hands behind her head and paci in the mouth watching the football game upside down. We start cracking up. Daddy was so proud that she was so interested in watching a football game. Here are the two pics we got once we stopped laughing.

Here is the closeup of just her (the TV is to the right in the pic)
Adrian took this pic so you could see the TV with the refs on the screen...lol.

Her Aunt Bethany was also very proud to see this...she is a big football fan also. Good times. I love this kid!!

I caught her laughing!

Lauralyn just started laughing (really laughing) this week. It is the cutest thing ever. I have so much fun trying to make her laugh all day. It seems like she is always in such a good mood...I just love it. One of her favorite things to laugh at is the dogs. Anyway, enjoy the video. Hopefully it makes you laugh along with her..lol.

Mommy Lessons

Ok, so on Thursday, December 4, my daughter turned 3 months old! I know everyone always says this, but they really do grow up so fast! Well, let's just say I learned a VERY important lesson on that day...always make sure that you have your keys in your hand before you proceed to exit your car with the doors locked. Ok, I know it sounds bad, and I felt SO horrible...like the worst mom ever. Here's what happened:

Everyday when I pick up Lauralyn from daycare and head home, I stop by the mailbox which is by the entrance to the complex. Since it has been cool out, I just lock Lauralyn in the car and jump out to get the mail, that way I don't have to take her out. I am out of the car no more than a min...usually. So anyway, as I was walking back to my car, after grabbing the mail, I went to push the button on my key chain and unlock the car and realized that I didn't have my keys. I quickly ran to the window to see my keys lying on the passenger side seat. I FREAK out and run into the leasing office and shout out "I locked my keys in my car and my baby is inside!" The guy in there said that the maint. guy might have something to unlock the car. I almost grabbed the walkie talkie to call the guy myself, because he just was not doing it fast enough. So I went back out to stand by the car and wait for the guy. He gets there and tells me that the equipment he has won't work on my car...grrr!!

Ok, so then the maint. guy tells me he is going to go and get the yellow pages. WHAT?! I don't have time for the yellow pages...my baby is inside! So after he called some locksmith, I told him never mind and that I was calling 9-1-1. I did my internship in college at a fire station, so I knew that they will respond to these things if a child or animal is inside the car. So I called and answered all their questions (where do you live? How long has it been? How old is the baby? Car running?) and within a minuet, 2 police cars drove up. Then they called a locksmith (I guess they have one that works with them), and he was there a couple min. later. So at this point, we have 2 cop cars, the locksmith, and lots of other people who have gathered around that work there in the office and just want to try and help. Oh, and the whole time this is going on, I am knocking on the window to make sure the baby sees me and that she is doing ok. I wasn't too worried because it was cool out, and plus, the cops said that if the temp. was not as nice as it was, they would break my window to get the baby out instantly.

Ok, so the locksmith managed to get the door open....just as the firetruck drove up....lovely. Anyway, so I opened the back door and kissed all over the baby. She had fallen asleep (which was nice), but I made her wake up before the paramedics left so I could make sure she was ok. Plus, the cops and paramedics had to check her before they could let me go. She woke up and was just fine. She didn't even realize what had happened. I told everyone "thank you" a million times...and I apologized as well. The fireman just said "it's ok, happens all the time!" Then I was thinking, "but it's not supposed to happen to me....I am a good, caring mom! This is not the type of thing that I do!" I was so embarrassed and upset.

All in all, I am just glad that the baby is ok and that she won't remember it. I ended up holding her the rest of the afternoon and kissing her like crazy. So I learned two lessons: Always make sure you have your keys in hand before closing the door AND keep a spare key at your house or even your office. Adrian keeps my spare on his key chain, and he was downtown. If I had it in the apartment, they could have just let me in the apt. to get it.

Lauralyn, I am sure this will be a funny story to tell you someday about how your mommy locked you in the car the day you turned 3 months. You did so good and mommy was so proud of you. Love you baby girl and happy 3 months!

YAY! I love Christmas!

Ok, so it is December, which means it is Christmas time...yay! This year will be our first year with Lauralyn, and even though she will be too young to realize what it is, we are SO excited about starting our own family traditions with her. Last weekend, we went to the Gaylord Texan, in Grapevine, to take some Christmas pictures. I uploaded all of them on our web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/StephanieLCortez, in the "Lauralyn's First Christmas" folder. It was fun, but I am sure that we will take many more pictures this Christmas.

Ok, I have lots to blog about, but I will have to get to it later. Merry Christmas everyone!