December...

Langley's six months old.

Payton loved decorating her gingerbread house and getting to sample the icing, gumdrops, m&m's.... "sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of."

Langley loves her baths.

Our Christmas blessings.  Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks!!!!

November...

"Happy Birthday Steve"

Yes, it is November and I am not sure what the weather is but when you're a 3 year old girl any day is the perfect day to wear a sundress!!!

October..

Back in Texas to go trick or treating!!!

Payton, the purple princess, is waiting to get a purple butterfly painted on her face at a "trunk or treat" party.

October flew by. The girls and I were in Branson for a total of 2 weeks visiting Grandma and PawPa while Steve traveled and was busy working.  This was taken at Silver Dollar City.

Langley is 4 months old...time really is flying by,

September....

Langley's first time at the park!  

Payton is taking ballet this year.  So graceful....

Payton loves having the college students back...this was taken a tailgating party.  

August...

Matching dresses---one of my favorite things about having two sweet girls.

August brought more vistors with gifts and fun distractions and extra attention for Payton.  Payton, at this time, had a love hate relationship with Langley.  She loved the little baby but not sharing the attention from Mom and Dad! 

Catching up....

The month of July was spent getting to know and adjusting to our sweet little Langley.

What a weekend it has been for us!!!  Saturday night Kara and I spent revisiting our list of names for our daughter which was due July 13th...  Little did we know that the next morning we would be welcoming Langley Kate Shank into the world!!!  

before you read the below post, I must mention that I am so frustrated with blogging and putting pictures in...  How do you get them where you want them???

Summer time

The summer is off and running, hopefully I will be back to running by November.  Kara is hoping to be back to running before then...  Our next little girl is due July 13th, as for me I'm not running these day due to a torn achilles tendon...

Payton is loving the swimming pool these days & for the first time Kara may have more of a tan then I do...

Payton is way into fishing these days, most often it is in our backyard and the fish are always biting, big ones two.  Usually we just eat the big ones right off the line, sort of like they do on her favorite TV show "Man vs Wild".

This spring Payton got to meet her cousin Hanna, which was a big deal since Hannah lives in India!!!  I personally think Hanna is beautiful, inspite of looking a lot like her favorite uncle (me)!!!

Ministry with college students continues to be a blessing that Kara and I don't take for granted.  We are now seeing students graduate and move on to a life of faithfulness and labor where God plants them, laborers next door to everywhere!  

I was thinking about posting the picture of my leg after surgery but thought I would spare you...  Have an unbelievable day!!!

New year... New blogspot...

We figured it was about time we caught up with our generation and began keeping you updated on what has been happening in our home life...

Christmas was such a blast, especially seeing Payton embrace the expectation of Santa.  Our new home even has a fire place, on many nights she still opens the screen before bedtime so that he can come on in.  We are doing our best to explain that Santa is off, resting up from all the work he did delivering presents but that he will be back next year!

We are also continuing to work on projects around the house...  It is getting better every day!  We should be finished with the bathrooms (minus the countertops) within a week.  Payton is enjoying her room and you are welcome for a tea party anytime.

Probably the best news of all is that we are going to have a baby this summer!  July 13th is our due date...  We can't wait for you to meet another little Shank...