Our week in San Angelo

Since Dru comes home every weekend and Mina and I were already down there for the baptism, we decided to stay the entire week and then come back home with Dru the upcoming weekend. While Dru was in class all day each day, Mina and I still had fun AND we got to see Dru EVERYDAY that week. We miss him so much while he is gone during the weeks.

We found a park to play at and Mina sure did enjoy that. We put her in a swing for the first time and she loved it. She loved exploring the park, playing with the rocks, watching the other kids and even writing with sidewalk chalk. We spent hours at the park.

When Dru would come home each day Mina would wait at the windows and watch for him. The windows went down to the floor and Mina loved that. Then we'd go out shopping or out to eat or just play in the hotel. We ate at some tasty restaurants, too. If you're ever in San Angelo, Joe's is an amazing Italian restaurant. Lucky for me it was in the parking lot of the hotel we stayed in so I was able to order it for lunch and walk right over to pick it up. I ate there several times during my stay.

All in all, it was a wonderful week with just our little family. We can't wait until Dru is done with training and we can be together all the time.

Her first time in a swing waiting to get pushed.

First push!!!

She loved watching Dru.

He's pretty goofy and the chains on the swings were so long so you could go really high!

Silly Daddy!

Dru had her giggling like no other.

"Way too much fun, Dad! I don't know if I can take it much more!"

"Whasthat?" (That's what Mina says every time she points at something.)

Look at her hair just flying.

I don't think she quite knows what to think about the slides yet.

Static.

She loved the swing more each day.

I could watch her all day. She's so entertaining.

What a cutie pie.

She got more comfortable and relaxed the more she was in the swing.

She spent a lot of time playing in the rocks. She would throw the rocks behind her back and several fell into her shirt. When I went to change her diaper later, no less than 10 rocks fell out of her onesie.

She did try to eat them occasionally, but for the most part she just looked.

She just ran her hands back and forth in the rocks.

What fun.

Check out those chompers!

Devin's baptism

A friend of Dru's got baptized a couple of weekends ago. Devin was in Dru's Chinese class while we were in Monterey. They became pretty good friends and when class ended and it was time to take a break for the Christmas holiday, Devin decided to spend it with us in Texas. So, he was surrounded by Mormons and after attending a few church meetings and playing some volleyball with the singles AND meeting a cute girl, Devin started showing some true interest. After the holiday, Dru and Devin had to go to San Angelo to finish up training. Devin attended the ward down there to find out if it was a fluke that the church was so wonderful up here in the Fort Worth area. He decided that the church was the same, only lacking as many cute girls down there. Haha. It's a smaller ward. He began taking the discussions and decided to be baptized. How wonderful! My mom, dad, Mina and I decided to go down to San Angelo to attend the baptism. It was wonderful. Devin is an amazing person and I'm so glad he has made this decision. Dru performed the baptism as well as the confirmation the next day. We're so grateful to have the church in our lives and to be a part of such amazing experiences as this.

Dru was playing some prelude music and Mina decided she wanted to help.

She absolutely loves playing with pianos any chance she gets.

Dru, Devin and the Elders who taught Devin.

My dad, mom and cute little Mina waiting for it to start.

Dru, Devin and our friend Jesse.

Showing off their stunning white jumpsuits.

Mina and her toys

While Mina generally prefers books to toys, she does have a lot of fun with her toys. A couple of weeks ago, a bunch of us were in the living room playing. Someone happened to look at Mina and asked who put these connecting toys on her thumbs. Nobody would admit to putting them on her thumbs. I pulled them off of her and they were kind of hard to get off. Not two minutes later, we looked back at her and they were back on her thumbs. She was putting them on herself. It was so funny. She would put them on, show them off and then crawl around with them stuck to her thumbs!

Mina has also really discovered her tongue. She is constantly sticking it out or playing with it. When she's really concentrating on something she will stick it out to the side of her mouth. What a cute girl.

Ten months old

Mina will be 10 months on Friday. I can't believe it. She has grown so much and is growing way to fast. She's started taking her first steps all by herself. She understands what some words mean. She say's dad and mom and I know she knows what dad means, but I'm still unsure as to whether or not she really knows what mom means. If I ask her where dad is she'll sit up and look around for him while saying, "dat." (That's how she says it.) Most of the time he isn't there, which is a little sad, but I show her pictures all the time and she always points at him. She loves her daddy.

She loves to climb up the stairs and get into things she shouldn't. She loves to eat. She loves to sleep at night. She loves to play fetch. Lol. She loves licorice, ice and eating real food. She loves going outside and to go for walks. She loves the dogs. She loves to make people laugh. She loves when people chase her and growl while they do it. She loves to give kisses!

She has 6 teeth now. She's probably close to 25 pounds now. Her hair is getting fuller and fuller by the day. It finally lays flat on her head. No more spiky hair! Haha. Other than me and Dru, I think she likes her aunt Whitlee best. She HATES being confined. She's a pretty free spirit and likes to explore on her own.

And, probably her favorite thing to do is to read her books. She's always going after her books and will sit down and "read" them by herself. It's one thing that she'll let you hold her for-- read her a book. I'm glad my baby is learning to like books early on. It will be good for her.

Well, we love our baby. She is wonderful. She amazes us everyday. She makes us laugh everyday. We love her more and more everyday.

Just getting home from a walk. Guess it wore her out.

Reading to herself.

Sucking on ice.

She stuck a teething biscuit in her hair. We took it out, but she put it right back!

Sleepover at the Budge's

While I absolutely hate packing up to go spend the night anywhere, I do make exceptions occasionally. One particular night, a few weeks ago, we went over to eat dinner with the Budge's and ended up spending the night. Luckily they've got all the baby stuff we need to get through a night. So, I didn't have to pack. It worked. Meagan made some cheesy chicken casserole that was pretty darn tasty. I let Mina have a little bite and she LOVED it. Needless to say, she ate a lot and made a huge mess. When she was done, Meagan so kindly bathed her for me while I went to the grocery store to get my shopping done. So, I didn't pack, we got dinner, someone else bathed Mina and then babysat her and we slept. It was a fun night.

I think she likes it. Lol.

Yup.

Hosing down after dinner.

The next morning we put the babies in William's crib. William loves his stuffed seahorse toy and, well, Mina loves anything that William is playing with. Lol. They eventually started playing tug-of-war with it. It was pretty funny. And, they're pretty darn cute.

William and Mina with the seahorse.

William sat in his little bouncer while Mina ate cheerios off of it.

Mina also loves to go to the back door and watch the dogs. She'll stand up and pound on the glass and point and laugh. It's so fun to watch her race over to the door. She also likes to play in their blinds. She'll take two of them in her hands and cover her face and play peekaboo with them.

Mina, Wrangler and Levi.

She's so cute!

Mina's sick and Whitlee's gettin' hitched

On February 13th, my sister, Whitlee, got married. She's the last of the Duncan kids to seal the deal and we're all kind of glad there are no more weddings to help plan. Lol. It turned out to be a beautiful day and we're happy that Josh is officially part of the family now. Whitlee looked beautiful, but what else could you expect from her?

My mom, Josh, Whitlee and my dad.

The beautiful bride!

Whitlee!

My cute family.

The only stinky part about the wedding and the week prior and the week following was that Mina was sick. Aside from the constant running nose, cough and on and off fever, she just wanted to sleep. Which would have been fine if we didn't have so much stuff do. But, she slept every chance she could get. Poor girl. She's all better now, though. Thank goodness. I hate seeing her so sick.

Sleeping in the car.

At the store.

Right before we had to leave for the wedding.

At the wedding.

Dinner at Chili's right after the wedding before the reception.

The day after in the car.