Papa's visit!

Papa (my dad) came to visit us for a week from California! Here are a few pics from the visit :).

Holding and meeting baby Josie for the first time!

Laynie is "making" ice cream scoops for Papa at the park...one of her specialties ;).

Papa discovered that Tyler is quite the Lego enthusiast! He is constantly building, taking apart and rebuilding his projects. Papa got him a new airplane creator set and two brick separators. Tyler was so excited!

Papa, Tyler and Laynie posing in the wind in front of the U.S.S. Texas.

Papa reading bedtime stories.

Papa and his Norcross grandkids!

The latest family of 5 pic! Tyler loves to hold Josie, he's so sweet with her.

What's for dinner?

Seriously?! Finny has officially become a counter surfer. Over the weekend he consumed two muffins and almost an entire loaf of banana nut bread (thankfully the recipe made two loaves!) Usually I don't encourage his behavior by stopping to take a picture, but had to capture the moment. Two of his favorite things (besides going on walks) include sneaking food off the counter and chasing the cats. As if I'm not busy enough with two preschoolers and a newborn! Oh well, we love our pets and enjoy the silliness and especially the cuddles that they bring to our lives :).

California visitors

My sister (Aunt Carmen) and her son Hayden came to visit Josie and the rest of us! Hayden is one year older than Tyler and they have a blast together. It was fabulous having them here, help with mornings (so Jason could go to work and I could sleep in), playtime and adventures in the day, and wonderful help with dinner and bedtime! We had a great visit!

This lego helicopter was a gift from Aunt Carm...Tyler and Hayden built it the night they arrived! And they worked like champs together!

Tyler and Hayden in Laynie's big bed. The cousins got to have a sleepover everynight! And Hayden often read the bedtime stories, amazing!

Josie loves her Auntie Carm and cousin Hayden!

The boys had a blast playing drums upstairs, they had several drum "performances"!

The gang :)

Aunt Carm helping Princess Laynie get ready for bed :).

Jocelyn Eloise

Jocelyn (Josie) Eloise Norcross was born on March 12, 2009! Delivery went very smoothly, was induced around 10:30am and she arrived at 4:26pm. The epidural was fabulous, as usual! She was 7lbs. 10oz. and 19in. long at birth. She is a beautiful baby girl, with a full head of hair :). What a blessing!

Cuddling with mommy

Family of 5!

Swaddled up with daddy

Laynie and Tyler are so excited!

Josie holding Ty's finger, precious!

Sweet Laynie sneaking in cuddles with mommy :)

Getting ready to go home!

Proud daddy enjoying his new bundle!

What sweet kiddos we have!

Rodeo Day

Tyler and Laynie celebrated Rodeo Day at their preschool.

All dressed up for the rodeo! If you look closely, Tyler was Sheriff Tyler. And I bought Laynie's cute pillowcase dress at Belle's and Beau's resale and boutique shop in League City. It sure makes me wish I could sew!

Laynie is showing her jalapeno tattoo and rodeo handkerchief.

Tyler is milking a cow!

Laynie was posing for her cowgirl pic.

Tyler is barrel racing with his horsey!

Edible landscape...

Well, we're not quite there yet, but Jason has a vision of creating an edible landscape in our backyard, and slowly but surely, it is coming to fruition! We (okay Jason and the kids) just planted our spring/summer crop. We already have bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, and chives growing. Corn has sprouted, and some other things have sprouted too (I'll have to check with J to find out what they are!) Thankfully our citrus trees didn't die in the snowfall, so we have a meyer lemon, and two orange varieties blooming, along with an avocado and fig tree. We hope to plant blueberry vines in the backyard eventually. My favorite crop is our winter sugar snap pea vines because our kids will eat them right off the vine and they are delicious! It's all been kind of a trial and error process, we have not had success with broccoli and cauliflower. But we've had great success with lettuce varieties and the sugar snap peas. Our tomatoes like to grow, but we're still trying to figure out how to keep the tomato horn worms away. It is a lot of fun for the kids and a pretty cost-effective way to have fresh, organic veggies!

This pic is hilarious, because that's classic Finny. About to chomp the carrot that Laynie is holding. I'm attributing that to him still being a puppy (17 months old.) And I'm hopeful that he won't always try to eat every little thing that isn't tied down. Good thing he's cute!

This one is so sweet. Laynie was so proud of this gigantic carrot! Unfortunately it had grown so big, it didn't taste very good. But it sure looked good!

Uncle Ryan's wedding!

Introducing Ryan and Heather Norcross (or Uncle Ryan and Aunt Heather in our household!) They had a beautiful, intimate ceremony at Heather's Granny's house in Richmond, TX. Tyler and Laynie had the honor of being ring bearer and flower girl, respectively!

We are so happy for Ryan and Heather and blessed to have a new member of the family!

Laynie's 3rd Birthday!

We celebrated Laynie's 3rd birthday Dora style!

Laynie is such a joy! She is beautiful, silly and sweet! She has contagious giggles and fills our hearts with joy! She loves her family, loves to play with her brother, loves her pets (Finny, Wiley, Peaches and Cloudy), her silky, and her soft baby :). Happy Birthday Laynie!!!