a sunday stroll

i am not sure about the weather where you live, but the weather here today was pretty much perfect.  we loaded brendan up in the stroller and set out on a walk through the neighborhood.  we tried out our mini playground area with him, but there is only so much a 5.5 month old can do and only so long his attention span will last before he just wants to eat every last little piece of padding on the ground.

after the playground, we walked around the rest of the neighborhood...taking in the gorgeous day and perfect temps.  i think everything is better on a beautiful day...even

on the way back, i noticed that brendan was quite relaxed...laid back, with his foot propped up on the stroller.  i think he enjoyed the walk too.

five (and a half) months

each month, my goal is to take a picture of brendan at each monthly stage...preferably on the 14th of each month.  i have not done a sign or patch on his outfit like some trendy gals do (although, i think those are super cute), but i take his picture with a baseball blanket behind him each time.  the past couple of months i have been slightly "late" in taking the monthly pictures.  i.e. the four month picture was taken at about four months, three weeks.

today, i took his five month pictures at about five and a half months.  what can i say?!  life has gotten busier...but, better late than never, right?

 enjoy!

"mom, i'm not so sure about this photo shoot thing..."

thunder thighs :)

 

getting bored on his stomach...

...getting there...

...almost..

...done.  and so proud!

that smile melts my heart

talking quite intently to his fingers

bye mommy.  bye now.  no more pictures! :)

surprise houston trip

 over MLK weekend, emily surprised jonah and emma with a trip to houston.  emily had some shopping to do and planned to bring their oldest two kids along, unbeknownst to them.

jonah and lee filled the weekend with xbox playing, emma filled her time helping with brendan, and (i think) emily enjoyed a relaxing weekend :).  we cooked some meals here at home, including a yummy dinner from emily, and of course hit up some favorite places as well.  crave cupcakes is just a given at this point, but we decided to introduce them to a favorite local kingwood restaurant...sharky's.  the seafood restaurant right on the lake was a big hit.

our last full day together, we had lunch at pappa's burgers, shopped at the container store, and then headed to the paddle boats between the zoo and japanese gardens (i am sure there is a name for this area, but sadly i do not know it).  lee and the kids had a great time on the water while brendan, emily, and i looked on from shore.  crave was the perfect post-park pick-me-up, but our day was not over just yet.  we headed back to kingwood and introduced the allens to the wonderful toy store we finally discovered at Christmastime (this is where we saw santa).  seriously, this place is amazing...practically every toy you can think of and many more.  plus, it has a sweet candy section (pun intended).  you would think that would be enough for one day, but we had one more thing to show them.  this time, we headed to the morrow's house...more specifically, their backyard.  they have built an unbelievably awesome castle in their backyard.  after completing their new deck and backyard landscape they added this major kid-friendly element.  the castle has a slide, swings, and huge playspace inside.  emma had a ball!

 

emily may have gone back to louisiana empty-handed from her shopping endeavors, but we all walked away from the weekend with many laughs and full bellies.

ringing in the new year

 (and the blog is now making its way into 2012...please pardon our delay...)
 
our Christmas celebrations rolled right into our new year's festivities...literally.  there was only about an 8 hour break in between :)

a welcomed addition to the new year's weekend was a visit from my sweet college friend, caitlin.  we missed her hubby, rob, but enjoyed a couple of days with a first-time visitor.  we realized during her visit that she is actually the first of my college friends to visit us in texas, at least for an overnight stay.  since most of lee's friends still live within a short driving distance, we see them often, but my friends have been kept away due to time and distance (caitlin and rob now live in fort worth).  we hit the most important stops in houston during our one full day with her:  le peep for breakfast, rice village, the japanese garden, crave cupcakes, the galleria, the waterwall, and pappa's burgers.  thanks again for a fun visit, caitlin!

 during catilin's visit, katy and emily garrett stopped in for a place to stay before going on to the a&m bowl game with the rest of the garrett family.  emily was so great with brendan that she even chose to sleep in the twin bed in his room and never even heard him wake up during the night!

oh, i can't forget that as caitlin was leaving for fort worth, and we were leaving for the ottinger house, caitlin's car would not start so she had to buy a new one.  thankfully, lee got it installed and we were all on our merry way after an unfortunate delay.

at the ottinger house, we watched the kids play together, ate yummy food, and watched football until it was time to welcome in the new year.  sadly, we had to put away the Christmas decorations when we got home and get ready for work to start back after a long, lovely break.

we did not really set resolutions but do hope this year can be a year that we be more proactive in seeking God's will and digging into His word regularly and better well-managed in our time at home in the evenings.  plus, we love being brendan's parents and cannot wait to see how he grows and learns in 2012.

we are family

the day after Christmas we had began our Christmas celebration with my side of the family as they made the trip in from alabama.

with an assortment of finger foods too tasty for pictures ready for their arrival, we welcomed them in after the long ten-hour drive.  brendan was happy and a little overwhelmed at first over all the excitement, but he quickly remembered how wonderful it is to have everyone around.

we decided to open presents after we ate...ok, i decided we should go ahead and open presents.  we opened brendan's presents first.  wow.  the kid was loaded with new clothes, books, light-up toys, and more!  we are so grateful to everyone who came (and had to stay back in alabama) for thinking of him in such a sweet way.  afterward, lee and i opened our gifts...which we were very much appreciated as well...and the rest of the family opened their gifts from us, which i was really pumped about.  i think everyone was very pleased.

after a good night's rest, we shared a Christmas meal of ham and some of my mom's casseroles that she made extra of in alabama just for our meal.  i must say that my first time to bake a ham was successful, but that was largely due to the help of my mom. 

after our yummy lunch, we all loaded up in my mom's suburban and took off for college station.  tyler was the only one of my family to have ever been to college station so we drove to campus and walked around for a while.  katy met up with us, and lee pointed out some of his favorite places on campus and we ate dinner at wings-n-more (a typical college station pit-stop for us).  the main reason for the drive was to visit santa's wonderland, an awesome drive-thru Christmas light display.  seriously, if you live in texas, you need to experience this.  santa's wonderland is, by far, the coolest light display i have ever driven through.  the great part is that they also have santa town that you can enjoy if you have more time and the weather is nice.  we opted for the drive-thru version in the car so brendan would not get too cold.

during our last full day, we made an IKEA shopping trip for my mom to use her Christmas gift card and capped that off with freebirds and crave cupcakes.  a big thanks goes to grandma and papa for hanging out with brendan that night so the rest of us could go hang out with erin and zach for a little while.

we had a wonderful visit!  it was such a treat for me to host Christmas for the first time and show off our decorations here to my family for the first time.  thanks for making brendan's first Christmas so special!

brendan's 1st Christmas

we had an even more special time this year celebrating Christmas as everything we did was brendan's first time.

we decorated the tree as usual and then added a couple of new ornaments as he received them.

we made a visit to see Santa at a local toy store.

we bought new stockings to hang on the mantel.

we enjoyed the very nice Christmas eve candlelight service at our church and sent Christmas wishes to family afterward.

santa came for the first time and worked hard on Christmas eve building brendan's new jumperoo.

brendan also received the Jesus storybook bible so we enjoyed reading that version of the Christmas story to him for the first time.

we really had a wonderful Christmas, especially sharing it with our little guy this year.  can't wait to see what next year's will hold!