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.

Stockyards

With my cousin's family in town, we've tried to explore a little bit and give them a taste of what Texas has to offer. We took them to the stockyards a few weeks ago, and while we only caught the tail end of the cattle drive, we did enjoy watching a few of us try out the mechanical bull, run through the human maze and eat some good food. A balloon clown made his way over to our table and made some cute balloon hats for the younger kids, but we all had fun trying them on. Mina didn't particularly like to wear hers, but she sure did look cute when she had it on.

The whole gang.

My birthday

So it was the big 2-5 for me a few weeks ago. January 19th to be exact. My birthday was on Tuesday, but Dru happened to have the Monday off so we celebrated before he went home AND on the actual day. My mom had made me a birthday cake while Dru was here. Dru took a piece right out the middle before he left and then on my actual birthday we munched on it all day long. So, by that night when people came over to celebrate with me, there wasn't much of a cake left, but we still put candles in it so that I could blow candles out after being sung to. It was pretty funny. Also, since Meagan swears that she didn't get a cake on her birthday in November, we lit the candles again so that she could blow them out. That was pretty funny, too. She's a nerd.

My lovely birthday cake before lighting the candles.

Meagan waiting for her turn. Haha.