happy halloween

brendan's first halloween was a multi-day event.  we kicked it off with our ss class party at our friends' house saturday night.  the flame, as our class is called, is a really awesome group of people that have become some of our really good friends and always love on brendan.  they were the first to witness his awesome costume specially made by grandma and mailed just in time.

i also want to include a couple of shots of the adults who dressed up for the party...some of the costumes were really impressive!  check out the shrek family and our friends who are expecting (and incorporated that into their costumes).

i decided the best time to buy a holiday-themed shirt is about a week or two before the actual holiday because babies r us will have it marked way down.  brendan sported his first halloween shirt today at his sitter's house, and his costume made an encore appearance this evening as we greeted trick-or-treaters at the door.

touchdown!

louisiana road trip

last weekend, we made our first out-of-town road trip with brendan to visit GJ, the allens, and the morrows in louisiana.  we made great time and brendan was just about perfect on the drive there except for when we encountered standstill traffic in shreveport and he thought we had arrived.  brendan and GJ got in some quality hangout time before bedtime, but saturday was full of hanging out with family.

we started the day with joe's soccer game and followed that up with lunch and trampoline time at the morrow home.  we tasted some of emily's wonderful goodies at a local coffee shop that afternoon.  seriously, if you are reading this you should be said that you do not live in ruston, la and cannot enjoy emily's amazing cookies and muffins (not to mention everything else she bakes or cooks).  saturday night, emily cooked dinner and nutella pie for erin's birthday.  we topped off the night with a visit from fred and allison at GJ's house.  i know lee loved to introduce his son to one of his oldest and closest friends.  fred and allison also loaded brendan up with some very cute outfits that we cannot wait for him to wear. sunday, we said our goodbyes and completed every louisiana trip the way they all should be capped off:  with a little johnny's pizza!  (thanks to emily for sharing some of her great pictures since i forgot my camera!)

 

friends, pumpkins, and cousins

october is full of fun-filled weekends for us, and this past weekend was entertaining, low-key, and full of babies.

saturday, we spent the day with the ottingers.  first, we watched the aggie/baylor football game together and played with all the kids (in between nap times).  kason and emily loved on the little babies and kyle, jamie, lee and i got in some good time to catch up and hang out.

 

later in the afternoon, we had to great idea to take all 4 kids to the pumpkin patch at their church.  did i mention this would be 4 kids, 3 and under?  yep, it is.  of course, the babies slept through the group picture time until we were done.  luckily, i still got a picture of brendan by a pumpkin that is pretty cute if i do say so myself.  kason and emily enjoyed walking through the rows and rows of pumpkins, picking their favorite mini pumpkins as they went.  not sure if jamie ever got a picture of them together with their pumpkins, but they seemed to have a good time in the process.  great idea, jamie!

 sunday evening, zach and will came over to hang out while they were in town.  the first time brendan and will met, brendan slept pretty much the whole time so it was nice to get them better acquainted this time.  most of you already saw these pictures, but these little guys were too funny when we tried to take their pictures together.

 

celebrating twenty-six

with age twenty-five, God blessed me with another year of marriage with lee, the pregnancy and birth of our sweet son, my second year of teaching & my first year of cheerleading sponsoring, and our first house.

only time will tell what twenty-six will bring.  i am looking forward to every minute of it.

last weekend, my parents came to visit.  their visit was huge on two levels:  the first being that my dad had only seen brendan for about 30 minutes of his life the day he was born, and the second being the fact that this birthday would be the first in quite a few years that i would actually spend with my parents.  they flew in friday night and we drove down to hobby to pick them up, sign and all (made courtesy of the 5-year-old daughter of one of lee's co-workers).  our plan was to eat at pappasito's afterward but since they had an hour-long wait when we arrived, we decided to take them to zachary's, a local cajun restaurant.

saturday was spent watch lots of football while my parents took turns holding brendan.  brendan is so smiley now.  in fact, he smiles so much that i am usually bound to catch at least one when i pull out the camera.

whether my parents realize it or not, they gave me one of the sweetest gifts they could by letting lee and i go to dinner just the two of us.  it was nice to get a little dressed up and enjoy some time together that was not as we were falling asleep at night.  we went to cafe express (one of my faves) and house of pies for dessert.

sunday, my parents wanted the breakfast buffet at humble city cafe that they remembered being so tasty, but apparently they quit the buffet several months ago.  oh well, we all still found tasty menu items instead.  we enjoyed a much-needed rainy day until dinner time when we succeeded in finally having our pappasito's dinner.

sadly, lee had to work on monday.  while he was at work, my mom, dad, brendan, and i went to chick fil a and IKEA.  this was my parents' first trip to IKEA and my mom fell in love.  they also bought me these little beauties for my birthday:

i have wanted them for a really long time but always talked myself out of buying them whenever we would go.  thanks, mama & daddy!

also, a big thanks to all of my wonderful family and friends for the kind texts, calls, and facebook posts.  my birthday was definitely enhanced because of all of you.

for birthday dinner, i chose j christopher's.  this is a long-standing local italian restaurant here in kingwood that has the best pizza, and i found out, the best pumpkin cheesecake (my birthday dessert).

i could not have asked for a better birthday weekend.  i am so thankful my parents were able to come visit.  i am very grateful to have celebrated my birthday with them and my amazing husband and son.