"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.

The fever has started...

I am starting to get very excited about the holidays! I know - it's waaaayyyy early, but if you know me, you know that usually by this time I'm searching around for some Christmas music to feed my addiction to holiday time.

So we are already in the process of scheduling lots of good stuff for the holiday season.

Halloween - Andrew will be going as a Tiger - No, not Tigger, but an LSU Tiger. Yes, I know it looks like a Tigger costume - but trust me, it's Mike The Tiger in this house...I was not sure what costume to go with, but considering my kiddo can growl so well, I figure a Tiger is extremely appropriate and fits well with my Alma Mater.

Thanksgiving - Andrew's 1st Birthday is on Thanksgiving Day. We are very excited and will have a very small gathering at the house with our family to celebrate (My parents will be here along with my brother and of course, Sybil and Mike). Plus, the Saints are playing the Cowboys that day so this house will be ALIVE with tons of sugar from the cake and a healthy in-home rivalry between the Walker's and Meredith's.

November 28th is the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We are planning to have Andrew "Dedicated" at our church. It's like a Christening but our church does not really do that. So, he will be brought to the front of the congregation and surrounded by all of our family and friends. Everyone will pray for him and the long life ahead of him, so I'm very excited about this. After church, everyone will come back to the house and we will celebrate Andrew's birthday again. In our home, we believe in the Birthday Week so he gets to celebrate all week.

Christmas - My parents and brother are planning to come to Dallas this year for Christmas. My brother does not have many days off of work and getting from Oklahoma to Dallas is much easier for him than going all the way to Baton Rouge. So, pretty much out of necessity, we will be hosting our first Christmas. I will miss our normal Christmas events, but I understand and am looking forward to having Andrew enjoy Christmas at home.

New Year's Eve - CRUISE!! We are going on a cruise this year to celebrate the new year. We are thrilled! At this point, we have 6 people going on this cruise and could not be more excited. It should be wonderful and I really could use a vacation. The only scary thing is that it will be the first time I am spending the night away from Andrew. My parents will be keeping Andrew for the 4 nights that we will be gone.

Lots to look forward to over the next few months!

I love the holidays!!

Andrew's Cabinet

When we were home visiting my parents, my mom let Andrew play in one of her kitchen cabinets. It was a Tupperware cabinet and it was perfect for him, meaning there was nothing he could break or throw and cause any significant damage.

When we got home, he was expecting a similar offering in our kitchen. So, I started looking around in our cabinets and found one that I figured would work great for him. I moved out one or two things that could hurt if they were accidentally hurled through the air in my direction - not like that would ever happen. 

Now the sad thing is that once he got everything cleared out of his special new cabinet, I started to notice what he was actually sitting in the middle of - beer koozies for cans, beer koozies for bottles, shot glasses, shot glasses shaped as Santa Clause and a few Tupperware pieces that I threw in the cabinet to keep him interested.

So, now when I say to people that having a baby REALLY changed our lives - this is proof. I actually had a cabinet dedicated to keeping beer cold.

His favorite item from the cabinet was a shot glass from my bachelorette party.