Adah getting into the spirit of Christmas!

So this won't be a super long post, it's just a funny story accompanied by a cute picture!  This is what happened.

On the evening of December 16th, as I was putting our daughter to bed, she became VERY distressed, and started hysterically crying and yelling, "Mary! Mary! Please! Waaaaaa!!!! Mary!... etc... etc..." Now, there are a few possible Mary's she could have been crying for, so I will begin with narrowing down the list of who she may have been crying for.

1) Grandma Ackerman, who is named Mary

2) Her Cousin Mary, aged 5 (a good choice due to the close proximity of age)

3) Great Grandma Langston, also a Mary

4) Herself, who's middle name is Mary

5) And finally, The Virgin Mary

Any guesses?  If you guessed The Virgin Mary, you are CORRECT!  Here is why:  this week we had a ward Christmas party with white elephant gifts.  The gift our family received is about a 12" tall candle shaped like the Virgin Mary.  Adah has really taken to carrying this around with her and playing with it as well as her Little Mermaid Barbie, who knew that The Little Mermaid and The Virgin Mary could be Bff's? Obviously Adah did! :)  Anyway, as I was putting her down

 for the night, I put The Virgin Mary candle on her shelf, and she wanted to have nothing to do with it, and so cried her way into allowing me to let her snuggle it tonight.  So, as you will see in the picture below, she is sleeping with both the Virgin Mary and Ariel.  Pretty sweet. Gotta love the chilluns!

And on an unintentionally sacrilegious side note, as I was helping Adah pray tonight, I said "Thanks for letting me (speaking for Adah here) sleep with The Virgin Mary".  Sometimes I'm an unintentionally funny Dad, even if my real life Dad thinks I'm intentionally unfunny :)  

And on a happy note, we get to see lots of you in just a week or so! YAYAYAY!!

"Rabbit Hole", starring myself!

Last Thursday I opened "Rabbit Hole" at the University of Idaho.  It is my first semester up here and also my first show, and has been a really great experience!  I feel really blessed that I have such a good role my first semester here, as everywhere else I've been it seems like you have to "pay dues" before you get cast in stuff :)  

The cast I'm working with is really great.  The gal who is playing my wife, Crystal Munoz-Tesch is a lot of fun, and is about the only other Mormon in the department in general, so it was funny we got cast as the married couple.  We're both married in real life though, so I guess they figured we knew how to be married!  And just as a funny side-story/coincidence, we share the same anniversary (August 11th), although in different years. 

Anyway, I included a few of the pictures from the show for your viewing pleasure.  We close the show this Saturday, and I'll be sad to see it go (although my wife and daughter will be happy to have their husband and dad back I think!).  I haven't enjoyed working on a show this much in a long time, or working with a group of people this much either I have to admit!  I really enjoy it here, and I'm learning a ton and have grown a LOT as an actor, and although I'm not supposed to say this because it sounds cocky, I do a really good job in this play. :)  

Me and Crystal (or Howie and Becca)

Howie and Becca

In the background is Lauren Fins, a professor (although not in the theatre dept) at the U of I who plays Nat.  GREAT actress! Also, if I look skinnier, its cause I am ;)

The entire cast, including understudies.  On the back row (left to right) Daniel Gerber as Jason, Lauren Fins as Nat, Jessie Taylor as Izzy, Rose Fredson as Izzy's understudy, Jordan (don't know his last name!) as Jason's understudy, and on the front Crystal Munoz-Tesch as Becca, and I, Lanny Langston as Howie.

Thanksgiving away from home!

So, Katie and I had our first Thanksgiving away from either of our homes yesterday, and it was a LOT of fun! We had 12 people over, people from our ward as well as from the theatre department. There was much delicious food and lots of fun :) Me and Katie made the Turkey, and it actually turned out really good (thanks Dad!). Other yummy things we had were stuffing, freshly made rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, corn casserole, ham, yams, apple pie, banana cream pie, coconut cream pie, pumpkin pie.... and maybe some other stuff too! It was all SO good! Adah had a lot of fun too. We let her drink soda, and she drank about 3 or 4 cups worth of cream soda and got pretty wired up on all the sugar. The picture below is her dipping her barbie into her soda, I think she was surprised I busted her :)


A sample of what we had to eat. These were actually the leftovers, yay for Thanksgiving!

One of our friends had a fancy whipping cream dispenser that used Co2 gas for the pressure. Our friend April squeezed the trigger a little too hard and there was an explosion :)

Adah with our friend Matt, who kind of looks a tiny bit like my brother Todd.

Me carving the Turkey! It's a lot harder than it looks.

The BIGGEST post ever!

So, we've got a TON to catch up on since we've been so bad about posting. I've got quite a few pictures of Adah to put on here from various occasions, mostly notably her 2ND birthday! Which happened yesterday, crazy!  Anyway, I'll put up all of the highlights from the last few weeks up here. We wanted to take some video, but have no clue what we did with our video camera :(  

And just kind of a funny birthday story.  Adah was absolutely terrified of her presents for her birthday.  We put them down by her and she started screaming "No! Don't! Stop!" So we tried to help her but she still didn't want anything to do with them, and tried throwing them and kicking them away.  Anyway, we finally just opened them ourselves while Adah hid behind Katie's back, unwilling to come out.  After they were opened she liked them a lot though, especially all of "The Little Mermaid" stuff.

Also, in some fun news, we're having our very first Thanksgiving away from either of our homes, so that will be fun! We're having like 15 people over: some couples from our ward, and also some of my friends from the theatre department at the University of Idaho that were still in town with nowhere to go.

So, without further ado, picture #1: Adah at her miniature sized birthday party with her friend Jessica

Picture #2: Adah sleeping with her sweet new Ariel blanket which she LOVES, and her new Ariel Barbie which she basically carries around nonstop.

Picture #3: Adah in her new Ariel towel.  She also has a black eye that you can see in this picture. I think she kind of looks like a boxer in this one.

Picture #4: Adah at the duck pond by our house a few weeks ago.

Picture #5: Adah with a deer on a walk near our house. She thought it was a "Cow Rabbit", and no matter how much I told her "deer", she'd keep calling it a cow rabbit. Pretty cute.

Picture #6: On a walk a few weeks ago as the leaves were falling. Pretty leaves and an even prettier baby!

Picture #7: Adah's first tattoo.  Which, although you can't tell in this picture, she was REALLY scared of. She was sobbing and trying to rub it off her arm.

Picture #8: Adah's first haircut. This took place in October actually, just prior to taking a family picture with Katie and her siblings.  Katie's brother Neal said that Adah looked like she had a mullet, so that was that :)

Only one week late, the HALLOWEEN post!

Well, first of all, sorry we're so bad at posting on this site (this is Lanny btw). I've been in rehearsals a whole bunch, especially at nights, and then at school most of the day, and Katie has been busy being a mommy and working on her at home business--which is coming along very well, she's a smart girl, my wife.

Anyway, Adah was Tinker Bell for Halloween. We bought the new "Tinker Bell" movie that just came out for her so she could pick up some of Tink's qualities for her big night.  Her research was pretty good, she especially got the mischievous aspect of Tinker Bell's personality down really good :) So, anyway, here's some pictures!!

Adah Trick or Treating. She got the hang of it really quick. We went at our church, and they just had parents behind the doors in all of the classroom, and she learned real fast that she could go to a door and say treat and get candy. She didn't get the "Trick" part though, she'd just walk up and say "Treat! Treat!" And sometimes take more than the one candy she was supposed to :)

Adah with Peter Pan (also known as Soren who's in the Nursery too). She was really scared of him though and didn't want to take her picture with him. 

Adah and Mommy. Katie went as the ideal wife (barefoot, pregnant, and without shoes :)

Just another cute picture of the little girl!

More Is on the Way...

Just a quick post to let you know we'll be posting again soon--including some STUNNINGLY gorgeous photos of Adah as Tinker Bell.

Quintessential Childhood Moments

The last week or so, Adah has done some pretty darn cute things that it just seems like every kid does at some point or the other, so we thought we'd show you some pictures :)

Specimen 1:  Pants on the head

Specimen two: Partially naked princess towel picture

Specimen 3: Curled up watching "The Little Mermaid" with 'horsey' and 'turtle'

Specimen 4:  Splashing in puddles out in the rain!

Anyway, that's about it for now!  Moscow is a lot of fun, although their football team is even worse than Utah State, which is sad, but we still cheer for them.  In some ways it is even a little less stressful to cheer for a team that never wins because when they lose you aren't disappointed but when they win you are on Cloud 9!  Love ya'll, ciao!

P.S.  IMPORTANT!! We made it so anyone can comment on our blog now!  You don't even have to sign in or anything to do it, so its simple!  So leave us lots of cute messages :)

Adah's 22 months old!

Hey ya'll. Not much to report, but I thought I'd just post a few more pictures of little Adah. She gets cuter and cuter every day. She is starting to like watching TV a little bit now that we have TV for the first time since we've been married. First time in like 8 years for me personally (this is lanny btw). She really likes to watch The Backyardigans, but more than anything she loves The Little Mermaid and tries to watch it multiple times per day, but we usually only allow one time per day, for our own sanity as well as to not feel like bad parents :)

She just recently found out that she's the baby in the mirror as well, so she's been spending a lot of time in front of the mirror dancing and smiling and talking to herself, it's pretty funny! She also likes to dress herself by pointing at certain clothes and saying "pretty". Sometimes she has silly outfits, but she's just a kid so whatever!

Anyway, here are a few cute pictures in some cute outfits as well as outside our house, and out on the track at the local High School football field which is just a block away or so.

Saturday in Moscow

Hey everyone! It's Saturday morning, and we've just returned from the local Farmer's Market with some delicious fruits and vegetables. We're going to have a BBQ later while we watch the BYU game :) Anyway, below are a few cute little tidbits of Adah and also us. The video is of our living room and kitchen area of our apartment, as well as some cute Adah stuff. And then there are also a few pictures of Adah on my scooter, as well as us at the Farmer's market today. Things are going really well for us here. I said this in my last post, but I'll say it again cause it is cool, but I was cast as the lead in our production of "Rabbit Hole" which is way radical. It goes up the first week in December.

As far as family stuff, we're starting to make friends in our ward which is a lot of fun. We had dinner with a couple last week, and we have dates to hang out with some other people as well. We're going to have people over next week for "Bad Mormon Movie Sunday". Where we watch a bad Mormon movie (heaven knows there are plenty!!). We'll probably watch "Passage to Zarahemla" because it is supposed to be awful!

If you need any tips on bad movies to watch, just ask us and we'll point you in the right direction. We also sometimes have "Bad Evangelical Movie Sunday", so you can also get pointers on some of those.

But, things are really good. Adah is just the sweetest little girl there ever was, although she is definitely getting to be a little mischevious. My Dad (Grandpa Langston) said he could tell she had that streak when she was like 12 months old, and its starting to be pretty apparent he was right. I've got a pretty wise Dad! Adah is also getting pretty old. She turns two in November, so that is CRAZY!!! Anyhow, enjoy the pictures below. We love you all and make sure and stay in touch and make lots of nice comments on our blog cause we love to hear from everybody!



P.S. You may notice Adah has slightly short bangs in some of these pictures. I tried to cut her bangs cause they were always in her eyes, but I did a bad job. I thought maybe I'd inherited Grandma Patti's DNA for cutting hair, but I was wrong :)

We're in Moscow!/ Our first post in MONTHS!

Sorry it's taken so long to make a post since we've been here in Moscow, and in a super duper long time in general! BUT, better late then never, so enjoy.

As far and Katie and Lanny news, we're both settling in nicely. Katie's business is going really well, and it is nice that she is able to be at home with Adah. I started school this week, and am teaching two sections of Public Speaking which is cool, AND it is paying for my school. But, best of all, I found out this week that I have already been cast as the lead in a show up here!!! Woot! I'll be playing Howie in the play "Rabbit Hole", which some of you may remember cause my wife was in it earlier this year.

Anyway, here is some pictures so you can kind of see where we are. First and foremost, this is our house. We live in the bottom of it, but it is a LOT bigger than our last apartment which is really nice! Our old apartment was 2 bed 1 bath and had about 800 sq. ft. of space. This one is 3 bd. 1 1/2 bath and about 1400 sq. ft with a really really big living room and kitchen area. We were even able to have just a workout room which is cool.



This is Adah out back of our house. Our backyard connects directly to this enormous field that is pretty fun for Adah to go run around in and get some exercise and stuff like that.



Adah has really started to enjoy flowers. This is her trying to pick some. When we were out in the yard today she was walking around and really excitedly yelling "flar, flar, flar, flar, flar....!!!" (that's how she says it). Besides that, she's talking a lot now in general. She is getting really good at identifying things by pictures and what not. Some of our favorites are "salami", "pickle", "caterpillar", "sooo pretty" (which she says if she wants to wear a certain outfit), "brush teeth", "yogurt" (she eats 2 or 3 a day right now and would eat more if we didn't curb it a little) and many other fun things. She probably says 100 to 150 or so words maybe.



Just another really cute little picture of Adah in a fall outfit. It's been raining and cold about 50% of the time since we've been here so we're not wearing many summer clothes for now.


Anyway, that's about all for now. We'll try and do a lot better about posting things since we're far away from everyone now. Love you all!

Langston Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free pedigree charts

A Daddy and Daughter Hike!

Howdy ya'll. Today, me and Adah went on a hike (probably around 4 miles round trip) from our house up to a place called "First Dam" in Logan. We have a cool backpack that makes it so I can just strap Adah to my back and we're on our way!



There is a cool trail by our house that walks along a canal. It is nice and shady! This is the trail we took to get up to First Dam. It goes most of the way there.




This is a picture of Adah at First Dam. We had a nice little lunch of dried cranberries, granola bars, and water (from a Nalgene bottle of course). She is looking at a bunch of ducks that are out in this reservoir.





The ducks that I was telling you about. There was a TON. We tried feeding them a little bit. But there were seagulls flying around too, and they would always swoop in and steal it from the ducks before they could get it, so we stopped feeding them because seagulls are gross birds :)




Just a cute picture of Adah playing at First Dam after we ate. She had a lot of fun playing and didn't want to go home. Probably because it was a 2 mile walk (I didn't really want to either!).




Adah didn't quite make it home without falling to sleep. She slept like that for about the last 20 minutes of our hike, it was pretty cute :)

Anyway, that is all about our fun adventure! Hope you all enjoy the pictures. Now that it is warm enough to go outside, hopefully we can start posting a little more often about the life and adventures of our family!