The Most Amazing Year

On Thanksgiving Day, our little turkey turned one. It was so nice to have the entire family there to celebrate with us as he went head-first in to his cake. We spent the day showering Andrew with gifts so that he would not lose interest in gift-opening. We figured we could give him a gift every few hours and by the end of the day, he would have opened everything and been temporarily excited about each thing. It worked like a charm.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the traditional goodies - Turkey, stuffing, rolls, etc... and then we finished it off with a bit of singing, candle lighting and yummy cake time.

As Thanksgivings go - it was pretty darn good. We had "mommy, daddy, mamaw, granny, pappy, uncle Mike and uncle Matt" all here to celebrate with Andrew on his big day. He was relatively oblivious to the whole thing, but still really enjoyed having everyone showering him with attention.

The last year has been so amazing for our little family. Jeff and I have been blessed with the most energetic, sweet and loving kiddo. He is so independent and curious and wants to soak up what life has to offer. I think, if given the chance, he would be a world explorer at this point - but he would insist upon pushing each thing he explored across a room.

It's funny how you can look back on life and think about how things are now and how they used to be. I think about the lack of my ability to sleep in, the lack of freedom to do what I want when I want to do it and the fact that most of my evenings out now end by 7pm. I also think about how each morning I get to greet a child who is so excited to be alive that he laughs as soon as you walk in the room. I think about how having a child makes you really embrace the importance of family, how exciting it is to get to re-invent Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and much more all over again. This is the reason for life - this is exactly what makes life fun and exciting. It's not as much experiencing life but watching your baby experience life. The things we take for granted today are the most intriguing, exciting and amazing things to them.

So, Happy Birthday to my sweet turkey. Life with you has been amazing, challenging, rewarding and tons of fun. I look forward to so much more and cherish the time we have had together thus far.

I could not imagine a better life.

Much love to my Andrew and his awesome Daddy.

So much to post...

It's hard to believe I have not posted about everything that has been going on around here, but it's because there has been so much going on around here that I'm finding it hard to create the extra time to blog. Many posts are to come, but here is a sneak peak...

• My baby boy turned 1!! 
• The beginning of full time daycare
• Transitions - one nap a day, no more bottle, "paci" only when sleeping, big boy car seat...
• Cruise Preparations
• Thanksgiving with the family and Christmas excitement
• Final month of Canton for a while. 
• Christmas Pictures

More to come! 

"Steak Night"

Back in the day, when we were a two-income family of 2 and not saving and preparing for Jeff's nursing school or bathing and preparing a kiddo for bed, we were quite the entertaining couple. We hosted "parties" at least once a week, having people come over for any reason we could come up with. Sometimes it was to follow our favorite sport of football, followed two nights later by our favorite sport of baseball and then ending the week with our favorite sport of basketball and a little Poker thrown in for good measure. You get the point... a day ending in "y" was a good day to have friends over.

From that experience, I learned two things...
1. Entertaining is expensive.
2. Entertaining is much easier when you don't HAVE to be up with a baby in the morning.

So, our entertaining budget was cut which actually brought to a screeching halt our nights outside grilling and chatting for hours with anyone who would listen to us pontificate about anything half a bottle of wine could come up with... who am I kidding, a whole bottle of wine...each. 

Well tonight we decided that we were "bringin grillin back"...so we hit the butcher shop today and got the most beautiful cuts of Filet, a discounted bottle of wine (now we actually split one bottle - look how grown up we are...) some mushrooms and a potato for baking.

We fed the kiddo a much nicer meal of cheese, chicken nuggets and sweet peas - don't judge - and then we quickly gave him a bath and put him down for the night. We sat outside, turned on the patio heater, drank wine, chatted about how excited we were to eat the steaks we bought and then patiently waited to devour them.

I must say - the long wait for a fantastic steak was worth it. Dinner was amazing. From the slightly crisp mushrooms to the perfectly cooked steaks - we dined until we were licking our plates. It was so nice and we both commented on the fact that we need to do this more often. Even if it is just grilling hot dogs - the experience itself is nice and gives us some time to spend with each other and, of course, plan our next party!

Happy 60th Dad!

Today is my dad's 60th birthday. 60 years of fun, laid back, outgoing and loving Ray. Although I don't think he is excited about turning a year older and entering in to a new decade, I personally think it's great. Looking back over his life, I see such amazing things that life has brought to him. First and foremost would be his rock-star daughter, but it does not stop there. A marriage to my awesome mom that's lasted over 35 years, 2 successful children, a great son-in-law, the best grandson anyone could ever imagine (yes, I'm biased) and a wonderful circle of friends and family.

 My dad was an amazing football and basketball player in his younger years and pretty much managed to excel at any sport he tried throughout life. I remember as I was growing up that my dad played on multiple teams and was always one of the best players on the team. Just a few of the things I remember he was involved with were: softball, soccer, he ran Triathlons, canoe-enthusiast, kayaking, tennis, etc... As he has gotten older, he has switched his focus to some lower impact hobbies such as Golf, Washers, Ping-Pong, Darts, etc... It's a direct result of my dad that my interests in life are so diversified and I'm willing to try any sport, any activity, anything. Not to mention, because of my dad I'll sleep outside, avoid "yellow water", paddle towards the "V" and cook some awesome ribs. 

When my friends think about my dad, the first thing they say is "Man your dad can cook!" And, that is so true. Part of my excitement when my parents come to see us is knowing that my dad will be either grilling steaks or making some yummy cajun dish. We expect a full-blown breakfast and some delicious dinner each and every day that he is here and we get it. French toast, omelets, steaks, gumbo....and the list goes on and on.

 These days, my Dad is now known as Pappy and Andrew knows that "Pappy Makes You Happy!" I've always known my dad would be an awesome grandfather because he has always been good with kids. He has a playful, yet relaxed attitude that kids seem to gravitate towards. He has been perfect with Andrew and I love watching them together. They share many of the same facial expressions and I often see glimpses of my dad when I look at Andrew. 

So, happy 60th birthday Dad - We love the heck out of you and can't wait to celebrate your birthday when you come to Dallas for Thanksgiving. But, don't let all the celebration get in the way of making Gumbo. ;-)

Andrew's First Haircut

The time had finally come. Andrew's hair was tickling his ears and going in to his eyes almost all of the time and there are only so many ways to comb all of that over. So, we scheduled a hair cut. The original goal was to wait until he was turning one and considering his birthday is in just a few weeks, I would say that we made it.

Here he is before the hair cut - hair in his eyes and his ears.

Andrew's First Haircut was today at Cool Cuts 4 Kids in Plano. I packed snacks, bottles, water, toys, video camera, digital camera, tissue for tears and a ziploc bag for a few of his locks. I was prepared for a disaster. I was not sure how he was going to react to the entire process but I know he is not a huge fan of sitting still or loud noises like hair dryers. Not to mention the many stories I've heard from others about their child's first haircut.

Jeff and I both went - one holding a video camera, one holding a digital camera and both ready to help if needed to console our sweet kiddo. With the first picture - you can tell, we were still a little nervous about how this was going to go...

This picture cracks me up - He looks like Popeye to me.

 As usual, our child seemed to make a party out of it. They put him in a race car seat with a steering wheel and he was completely satisfied pretend-driving for almost the entire time.  The "entire time" is about 8 minutes - any longer and I may have been blogging an entirely different story - who knows.

Andrew Pretend-Driving The Race Car

 Now, he was not his normal laughing self, but he was absolutely fine. He seemed more intrigued by the process than upset or annoyed. The wetting of the hair part and the scissors starting to come at him actually made him quiet and relatively still. Smart kid.

Another milestone with our sweet boy has been achieved. Now he is ready to celebrate his birthday in style with his new "do".

Jeff wanted to take the picture with us looking in the mirror... cuz he is creative and stuff.

Good job Andrew! Now he has a certificate and a ziploc bag with some of his hair in it as a keepsake.

Happy 14th and 6th

My precious pups just had birthdays. Oscar just turned 14 years old on October 23rd. He has been such a joy and a blessing to me for so many years and it's only been in the last year that age is beginning to show on my sweet pup. He can no longer hear or see very well but still knows exactly when it is time to eat. After years of sleeping in the bed with me, Oscar and I 'mutually' decided a few months ago that it was time for him to move to a bed on the floor. He is getting the best sleep he's had in 14 years and I can't complain much either. Super glad he came up with that idea.

Cooper was born on November 5, 2004. He was a "gift" to Jeff that year for Christmas. Jeff wanted a dog and I wanted another weenie dog in the family so "Coopy" is what we ended up with. Jeff initially wanted to name him TANK because he was not afraid of anything. That fearless attitude did not last and he has since earned his Wiener Dog status. Cooper became paralyzed almost 2 years ago and we had emergency back surgery done. We were not sure if he would ever walk again and now he runs around the back yard chasing rabbits.

Since Andrew joined our little family, life has been more difficult for these guys but they are adjusting well and we love them for not biting him...yet.

So, Happy Birthday to my sweet Oscar and Cooper! Thanks for all the great years and the many more to come.

Andrew's First Halloween

Here is the bottom line from Halloween - Andrew was a fierce Tiger. We left at 6:30 and made it to 6 houses. Andrew was given the chance to grab a piece of candy.  He grabbed chocolate at 4 of the 6 places (Snickers, Nestle Crunch, Heath Bar, KitKat - all good choices in my book). He held on to each piece of chocolate so tightly that they were melting through the wrapper. At 2 places he "accidentally" grabbed candy that was not chocolate - a Sucker at the first and some Skittles at the second. He promptly threw those pieces of candy to the ground. I picked them up and gave them back to him and he promptly threw them on the ground again. So, what I've learned from this is that my sweet baby truly understands that if it's not chocolate - what's the point. I agree kiddo...I agree.