some action

just a few little snippets...

"thank you B!"

a little overwhelmed maybe?



"thank you, uncle!"



"hey max, how you doodin?"
and
"happy doodoo daddy!"



"praise ye da looord"



"no mo monkey jumpin on da bed"

pikes peak

i hope i never take our view for granted. isn't it gorgeous?

sunrise

snowing on the mountain

sunset

snow bunny

in the backyard

apache is adjusting well

pockets! we love pockets!

thank goodness for webcam - if you don't have one, get one. please?

sweet girl always wants to read a book. i love it.

professor rayner

pat started teaching world history at his alma mater, the US air force academy, last week. he is doing a great job and i am extremely proud of him!

is he cute or what??

bad photo of a good lookin dude

USAFA

Colorado Christmas

what a special Christmas we had this year! both sets of our parents came to visit and help us settle in to our new house. we will never forget Christmas of 2009. i wish it could've lasted a little longer...

freddy, making things right. it's not home without our American flag flying


woke up one morning to a winter wonderland. even apache loves it!



i had decided we would probably go without a tree this year. too much trouble... thankfully, our amazing new (retired air force) neighbors brought us an extra tree they weren't using. you've gotta love the air force family!

what was i thinking? i'm SO glad we had a tree for this little girl.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! or as laurel says "mini crispin!" here you see her
a) prancing around with her new purse that the bham johnstons sent her (thank you, we love it!),
b) unwrapping a new (to her) baby doll - i love pat and freddy's facial expressions,
c) helping pops unwrap his new elephant, and
d) "helping" daddy unwrap more presents

concentrating, posing, and being very silly


laurel was thrilled with all of her presents. she is pretty much obsessed with the play kitchen our parents gave her, she loves her new table, and she throws a fabulous tea party, thanks to B...

our new house started to feel like home. the kitchen got quite a workout.
we FEASTED...

we PLAYED a little...

we even went for a (freezing but beautiful) walk outside

we CELEBRATED by having an amazing dinner at the broadmoor. thanks, pops!

cheers to you, daddy

our garage. WOW! all of these would still be in the house if not for our incredible parents.
THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH. i hope y'all know how much we love and appreciate you!

en route

we got to spend a few nights in texas with kissy and buddy.

we always love being in colleyville!

our ugandan friend frank is touring the U.S. with the watoto children's choir. we didn't think we were going to get to see him, but miraculously, they happened to be at a church just minutes from pat's parents' house that week! if you hear that they are anywhere near you, GO see them. you will not be disappointed. it was SO GOOD to see this dear brother. we love you, frank!

a new chapter begins...

turning a page...

how weird is it that laurel experienced her first snow in MISSISSIPPI, just a couple of days before we moved to colorado?

she didn't quite know what to think of it. get used to it, sweetheart!

saying goodbye to some special friends. here is uncle wes, burn, baby harris, laurel, and hayes riley

a couple of shots from life during a move.
bye bye hattiesburg! we miss you!

shin-dig

the atkinsons hosted a Christmas/rayner-going-away party on dec 5th. it was so much fun. the food was delicious, as usual, and my cheeks hurt from laughing after we played dirty santa.

jared, the stayers, and the youngs

some of the incredible friends i have in hattiesburg. chami, marion, LP, sarah, and blair. we realized we were posed like a sorority party pic...

so we acted like adults and stood up straight.

boys, making fun of their wives. cool.

pretty cute group!

thank you for the party, mike and sarah. we miss you all so much - come visit!!!

meanwhile...

back in hattiesburg, extreme (ha) things were happening in our neighborhood. the 3 of us took a walk one morning...


(yes, this is one of my favorite pictures of all time)

and when we came back around the block, ty pennington's bus was parked in front of our house!

that's our neighbor's house, which was selected for an extreme home makeover. and that's OUR house behind the bus and the police escort.

what an amazing thing to watch! our neighborhood was a ZOO that week. and yes, this was the same week we were moving to colorado. i had to slip away frequently and document what was happening just 3 doors down.

the crew and the local volunteers worked all day and all night to get the house finished on time. it's incredible how quickly it all happened. it was a nasty week for south mississippi. it rained almost constantly - and even SNOWED!

adam and lp and payne brought over VIP passes one night (adam's ashley home furniture store furnished the house), so we got to visit the VIP tent. saw ty and christian slater and the crew from a distance, but didn't meet any celebs... except for my friend nick mcclendon. we actually caught him working! :)


this is what the house looked like when we left town. it was SO muddy and gross. i wish we could've been there for the "move that bus" reveal.

here's a picture i found online of the new house. isn't that amazing??? supposedly it's the "greenest" house in mississippi. i'm so happy for the family. be sure to watch the show and to hear their story sometime in february or march...

celia byars johnston

we were excited that we got to meet our new niece, celia, while we were still in mississippi. she's my brother richard's 4th girl! i don't know how he and carley do it, but they do it very well!

richard holding rebecca, lucy standing, biggest sis maury on the bed with carley and celia

isn't she precious?

welcome to the world, little one. we love you!

tupelo thanksgiving weekend

we had a blast with the johnston family in tupelo. it's always so much fun with all these cousins. thanks pops and abbi!

two peas in a pod, caroline and lucy. i love the photo on the bottom right. do you think they were worn out? ha!

this makes me happy. uncle and laurel working a puzzle. i LOVE watching my big brothers love on my baby girl!

tough to get a good group shot...

i like this one. laurel knows there's something different about that oldest cousin... the ONLY boy! (by the way - i fixed all the red eyes in this photo, but i guess it didn't transfer onto blogspot. grrrrr)

thanks to barbara, we got a Christmas card shot while we were there. if you didn't get one, forgive me! i didn't send out many, and life's been a little crazy lately, to say the least...