1 Year!

** A little late on posting this obviously. I started it on Bryson's birthday, but just put the finishing touches on it.

Dear Bryson,

You are now a 1 year old. A toddler. A big boy. I guess I am going to have to come to grips with the fact that babies don't come with a "slow down" button. But as much as a part of me wants to keep you little forever, there is an equal part of me that is truly enjoying watching you grow and develop. The past year has been filled with some amazing discoveries and achievements, and I know you will continue to fascinate me every day.


Here are some of the things that have happened since your 6 month letter:

• Your beautiful smile now holds 6 pearly whites (2 top, 4 bottom) and teething has seemed like a piece of cake for you.
  

• You have started to sleep much, much better than you were. You are now sleeping all night on a regular basis and usually taking two great naps each day. Sleep does not always come without protest, but you quickly realize it is a good idea. I think you are a lot like me in this regard.
  

• You learned how to crawl right at 8 months.

• You started walking unassisted just a few days after 11 months.

• You know how to clap your hands, dance, "jump" (your feet don't actually leave the ground, but it is cute watching you bounce up and down). And you know what we are saying when we ask you to do these things :)
  

• You understand a ton of words now. Every day you amaze us when we ask you where is xyz and you are able to find it. You do this with words we didn't realize you knew.
  

• Some of the words you have said include: dog, blue, ball, balloon, Dada, round-and-round (referring to ceiling fans). You try to say Mama, but it doesn't come out quite right ;) But, by far, I think your favorite word is door.

• You wave and say bye-bye when it is time to go. You have even been known to beat us to the punch and figure out on your own that someone is about to leave (i.e. when Daddy is getting ready to go to work and you say bye-bye before he does).
  

• You went swimming for the first time, saw your first 4th of July fireworks, and dressed up as a monkey for your first Halloween.
  

• You had your first birthday and your first birthday party. And you devoured your cake!
  

• You still love to swing and go for walks.
  

• You still like to go to story time at the library and we've also started going to Gymboree.

I'm sure I have missed a few things that should be on this list. Every day I thank God for giving me such a sweet little boy. You bring so much joy to our home and to our hearts. I am so excited to watch you grow in the coming year!

Happy birthday, Boogie! We love you so much!!

Air Conditioning

It's Thankful Thursday, right? It's been so long since I've kept up with my blog, I've forgotten what the plan was.

Anyway, today I am thankful for our new air conditioner. Woohoo!!

And, more importantly, I am thankful for my parents welcoming our six member family into their home for two nights while we were without a/c. They are awesome like that :)

The dogs love going to Grams & Gramps because they get to play with Sadie and they get extra treats and belly rubs. Bryson loves playing with Grams and Gramps. And Mommy sometimes gets to take a nap :)

Having such a generous family turns otherwise unpleasant situations into enjoyable moments!

6 Months Old

**I started this post on Bryson's 6 month day and just wrapped it up today. Nothing slow about me.

Dear Bryson,

Today you are six months old. It is hard to believe you are halfway to a year. It really does seem like just yesterday you, me and Daddy were still camped out in the hospital waiting to come home.

These past six months have been absolutely wonderful, even though they've gone by too quickly!! You are an amazing little guy and you truly are a blessing in our lives.

Here are just a few of the milestones and things you have learned in the past 6 months:

• You started smiling a smile that melts my heart every time I see it. Hardly a day goes by that you don't have your smile on first thing in the morning when you wake up :)

• You moved from the Pack n' Play in our room, to your crib in your own room.

• You learned how to roll both ways, although you very rarely roll from your tummy to your back.

• You can now sit up all by yourself for long periods of time without falling over.

• You had your first Christmas, New Year's and Easter.

• You went to your first Longhorn football game (the spring scrimmage).

• You have found your laugh - oh what a sweet laugh it is! It's very contagious too!!

• You started eating solid foods. So far you have had rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, apples, avocados, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas and carrots. You like just about everything other than the rice cereal (can't blame you on that one).

• You love to swing and go for walks.

• You like to go to story time at the library.

Other than being quite the spitter and not a big fan of nap time, you are a very easy going baby and you are happy 99.9% of the time! Daddy and I are so proud of you and so grateful for the joy you bring to our lives!

I can't believe in just 6 more months we will be celebrating your 1st birthday! I love you, Boogie!!

Say What?

There's a new blog in town. Take a looksie.

The Boogs

Today, I am thankful for Bryson. For some reason, his nickname has become "Boogie" - sometimes shortened to "Boogs" or even "The Boogs" if referring to him in the third person. We might need to start making a concerted effort to calling him by his actual name more frequently, so he will know what it is :)

I feel so blessed to have a happy, healthy child. I love watching the little wheels in his head turn as he explores the world around him and learns what his little hands are capable of doing. I love how he rubs his little eyes when he's sleepy, and how he'll stare at someone, give a little grin, then shyly bury his head in the shoulder of whoever is holding him.

He's sweet, inquisitive and a little on the quiet side. And I'd be remiss to leave out the fact that he's the cutest baby in the world (I'm allowed to say that, I'm his Mom... and he is pretty darn cute).

I could go on and on, but I'll just say that I am so grateful for this little guy and his smiles make every day brighter!

I love you kiddo!!

Catching Up

The beef enchiladas I made last week (from leftover pot roast) were Y-U-M-M-Y :) I didn't really follow a specific recipe. I had looked at a few but, in the end, just kind of ended up doing my own thing. It worked out well and we'll probably add that to our "things we eat" list.

We made an attempt to go to the Kite Festival this weekend. When we got to the parking garage, the line for the shuttle looked incredibly long, so we decided it wouldn't be worth the wait. We did end up stopping by a local park to enjoy the weather for a little while.

As you can see, by the time we got to the park, Bryson was not the happiest of campers (he's still pretty darn cute though):

My Sweets

Thankful Thursday is back! And today I am thankful for my husband.

Isn't he handsome?

He's also sweet, intelligent and funny. He's patient with me, when I'm being difficult (which isn't very often, right sweets? ;) He's helpful, dependable and considerate. He's also turning out to be a pretty amazing dad.

We are alike in many ways, but we also have areas in which our differences nicely balance each other out. I am very fortunate to have him in my life, and I love the life and the family we are creating.

Love you, Sweets! Thank you for loving me :)

Dear Amazon.com,

Though they are great books, I am pretty sure that "Treasure Island", "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", and "Dracula" are not really books that are appropriate for children ages "Baby-3". Not sure why these are the first three books I see when browsing for this age group, but you might want to have someone look into that.

kthxbai.

Menu Monday

Not a very detailed, nor fancy, nor particularly healthy menu this week... but at least I did kind of plan out some meals and actually made it to the grocery store on Sunday. I went to a different store location because our store is being remodeled and it is incredibly hard to find things right now. I am never again going to the other location on a Sunday afternoon... it was insanely busy. And every day is "oblivious day" at the grocery store. I think I'm going to start going to the store on Saturday morning or some other non-busy time. I will not go into my grocery store etiquette rant, and will instead post my menu:

Monday - Eat Out

Tuesday - Pizza

Wednesday - Pot Roast

Thursday - Beef Enchiladas

Friday - Maybe Breakfast or another pizza

Saturday - Who knows

Sunday - We'll See

Yeah, I'll have to revisit the plan for the latter part of the week :) And I think I need to start thinking about my menus much earlier than Sunday. Last minute menus are not my forte (obviously). We'll see if next week is any improvement.

Trying Something New

Here is my first attempt at video on the blog. This is from the latter part of January, when Bryson was just beginning to really enjoy his time with Ollie the Octopus...

Posting this makes me realize I need to take more videos and also learn a little more about the video editing software on the computer.

3 Month Pictures

I missed a few posts last week. I also did not follow the menu I made for menu Monday (I did finally make pot roast last night for some dinner guests). But there's nothing like Sunday Son-day to get back on track ;) Here are some 3 month photos of the little guy... hard to believe it's almost time to take the 4 month pictures...

Not So "Thought-Provoking" Snow Day

I had a few ideas this week for "Thought-Provoking Tuesday". I can't remember most of them and the one I can remember, I don't really want to write about. There is only so much you can say about some jerk that decided to fly his plane into a building because he didn't want to pay his taxes and, quite frankly, I'd much rather post snow pictures :)

Menu Monday

We stuck to the plan last week! We found a keeper recipe for pork chops. The salmon was pretty good as well. If we try the meatloaf again, we are going to try to find a way to make it less mushy.

So here is the plan for this week:

Monday - Crockpot Pot Roast, Salad, Biscuits

Tuesday - Beef Enchiladas, Salad

Wednesday - Eggs and Biscuits or Eat Out

Thursday - Pizza (frozen this time, haven't figured out what recipe I want to try for the homemade pizza yet)

Friday - Baked Tilapia

Saturday - Burgers

Sunday - Eggs and Biscuits or Eat Out (whatever we don't do Wednesday)

I think I'm going to have to brainstorm a little earlier next time. I'm finding it hard to decide what to do when I know I have to go shopping in the morning. I need to make a list!

2 Month Pictures

Catching up on the month pictures. Here are some 2 month pictures:

Meatloaf and Patriotism

Well, we switched up the menu a little bit. We had the meatloaf today because I didn't get the pork chops marinating this morning.

I thought the meatloaf tasted pretty good, but it was a little mushy. We might give the recipe one more shot and try to figure out how to make it less mushy. Maybe a better texture will make it a keeper.

On another note, we were watching the Olympics last night and ice dancing was on. It was ice dancing, so I wasn't paying that close attention, but I did hear the commentator mention that one of the Georgian competitors was from the United States and that her citizenship had been expedited for the games.

Now, I realize that athletes do this often. However, I find it ridiculous that this skater had never even been to Georgia. Isn't competing for your country kind of the whole point of the Olympic games? I think one should have at least set foot in the country they are competing for. Learn a few words in the native tongue, meet some fellow countrymen, buy something with the local currency. Just my opinion. At least they said she "would like to visit" Georgia after the games. Woohoo... what a patriot.

Late Post

Couldn't think of much to write today, so here are a couple of pictures of Bryson from earlier this week.

Grabbing "Ollie the Octopus" with two hands:

First time riding in the stroller like a big boy:

My Parents

Welcome to my first Thankful Thursday post! I had a hard time deciding who to be thankful for first because I have a lot of people for whom to be thankful. In the end, I decided to start with my parents because, without them, I would not be around to be thankful for anyone else.


My parents are awesome. I know I'm biased, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find better parents anywhere. I've pretty much always felt this way, but now, being a parent myself (even for only 3.5 months), I have an even greater appreciation for all that they have done for me.

I could probably write for days about all the reasons I'm thankful for my parents, but in an attempt to organize my thoughts, I decided to list 10. Please know that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the gratitude I feel for them. In fact, look forward to future Thankful Thursday posts about each of them individually. But for now:

Ten Reasons I am Thankful for My Parents:

1) They taught me about faith and introduced me to Jesus Christ.

2) They always provided us with everything we needed and then some (and still do).

3) They demonstrated how to be a good person... selfless, considerate, thoughtful, responsible... the list is endless.

4) They always supported our endeavors and attended our events. I think I can count on one hand the times that they weren't both at a game or a concert, and all of these times involved doctor appointments or surgery or something of the like.

5) They provided a lifetime of fun times and fond memories... holidays, vacations, games, laughter...

6) They are both cancer survivors. For their survival, I am grateful to God, but to them I am grateful for their faith, courage and strength during their battles.

7) They provided a loving, nurturing environment with appropriate boundaries, expectations and consequences. We knew what was expected and what to expect.

8) They demonstrated what a loving marriage should look like.

9) They instilled in me an appreciation for the important "things" in life. While we were fortunate to have many material "luxuries", I learned that the most important "things" in life aren't things.

10) They love me unconditionally and I know, without a doubt, that I can count on them for anything.

I really could go on, but I said "10 reasons" so there you have it.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for everything! I am truly blessed to have y'all in my life! I love y'all!!!

What to read?

Yikes! I almost missed posting today.

I have decided that in March I will read 1 chapter of Proverbs each day. I have heard that some people do this every month (I believe there are 31 chapters). I don't know if I will do it every month, but I would like to do it once at least.

That leaves me with a week and a half to read something else. And I'm not sure what I want to read.

::: google break :::

Okay, if I include today, there are 12 days left in February. It appears as though there are 12 chapters in Ecclesiastes, so I think I'll read one a day, starting today.

Well, no reflections or insights today... just a plan :)

Olympic Observations

I love the Olympics. I can't imagine how anyone could not love the Olympics, but I suppose some people might not.

For weeks, I will walk around humming the NBC Olympic theme in my head. You know, the one by John Williams with the timpani and the brass.

I love how for two weeks every two years the world seems a little smaller, a little more unified. Like for once our similarities are bigger than our differences. I love to hear the stories of the athletes. The struggles, the obstacles they have overcome to get there. They are all winners already, yet they have such a strong desire to win just one more time. For themselves, for their team, for their country.

I had never really given it much thought, but this year has brought to light just how dangerous the winter games are compared to the summer games. The ice, the blades, the speed, the gravity. Tragedy befell this year's games before they even began. The Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, was killed in an accident during practice. Such an incredibly sad beginning to the Olympics.

Of course, then organizers went about attempting to make the event safer for the competitors. And, of course, it is so easy to think "why didn't they have the steel beams covered in the first place?". But no one could have foreseen this tragedy.

In addition to the modifications to the track, they also moved the starting line for the men down to where the women were set to start. The idea being that this would give them less momentum, less of a chance to get up to speeds of 95 mph, less of a chance to have a horrendous crash.

Then (and this is what I'm trying to understand), they moved the women's starting line down even further. If the women had already practiced at the newly designated "Men's Starting Line", why the need to move them down? Why is there a need to have some distinction between the two? Is it that important for men to reach faster speeds, to take more risks, to be more impressive?

I don't know if this really bothers me. I'm not sure what I think. What do you think?

Menu Monday

Well, it's "Menu Monday", so it's time to plan out the meals for the week. As I have done with the blog, I am going to attempt to use "themes" to organize our meals for the week. Hopefully, doing this will help me decide what to plan for dinner. I find it is much easier to make a decision when you have choices that have already been narrowed down.

First things first. Here are the proposed "themes" for the days of the weeks. I'm going to be flexible here. Most days will have a couple of things to choose from and if we decide to eat something completely different one day, that's fine too. I am going to also try to maybe make a "recipe box" or something to keep track of the recipes we like (maybe a recipe blog? haha), so I will have a place to go for ideas.

Monday - Crockpot/Casserole

The idea here is to have leftovers for lunch for the week. And I will be home most of the day on Monday to make sure the Crockpot doesn't explode or anything like that ;)

Tuesday - Italian/Mexican

Wednesday - Breakfast/Chicken

Thursday - Burgers/Pizza

Eventually, I would like to try homemade pizza...

Friday - "Meatless"

This is in quotation marks because it will probably very rarely be meatless. This could be fish, a vegetarian dish or a salad (even if the salad has meat in it).

Saturday - Steak/Pork Chops/Grill

Sunday - Make up/New Recipe/Free day

If we go out to eat one day, I can simply move that day's menu here or move everything back one day. Or we can go out to eat on Sunday, or I can try a new recipe... whatever.

Okay, so this week's menu...

Monday - We have family portraits in the evening, so we will probably pick up something quick afterwards. No cooking.

Tuesday - Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread

Wednesday - Eggs and biscuits

Thursday - We already have buns, so we will do burgers this week.

Friday - Maple Salmon, green beans, apples

Saturday - Maple-Garlic Marinated Pork Tenderloin, broccoli, oranges

Sunday - Easy Salsa Meatloaf, corn, black-eyed peas

Alrighty, that's the plan. We'll see if we stick to it or not.

Spit Happens.

Dear Bryson,

Spit happens. A lot. See:

And, if I'm being completely honest son, it is my least favorite thing about you. Well, maybe leaky, poopy diapers are my least favorite thing, but the spit happens more frequently (read: all.the.time.).

But there are important lessons to be learned from spit. In fact, there are important lessons to be learned from just about anything.

Everyone spits. What I mean is that everyone has their faults, something about them that is not great. Because of this, we should try to look past people's faults and see the good in them. If all I saw when I looked at you was a spit machine, I would be missing out on all the wonderful qualities you have, like your beautiful blue eyes and that smile of yours that melts my heart.

There is a thing called "unconditional love". This means loving someone in spite of their spit. This is the kind of love I have for you. And at some point in your life, you will realize that Mommy has spit too. And I hope you can love me in spite of it.

There will come a day when you stop literally spitting up. While I look forward to a spit free day, I do not wish it to come too soon. I do not want to rush these precious days with my cuddly baby boy. So, for now, I will simply stock up on the burp cloths and cherish every spit filled moment.

Love,

Mommy

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day, Boogie!

Themes

Well, here they are, the much anticipated (you couldn't wait to see them, could you?) "themes" for my blog. I reserve the right to totally ignore the theme for the day, if I so choose, but I hope this will help me post more regularly to this blog o' mine.

Sunday Son-day

This day will be dedicated to Bryson. Maybe pictures, maybe an update on his latest accomplishments or challenges, and also a series of letters to my son. (I got the letter idea from another blog in which a mom was writing a letter to her son every month about his growth and development and adventures for that month. I might not do an "every month" detailed update, but something similar, I guess.)

Menu Monday

Even though I will probably be making my menus and shopping on the weekend, this is the day I will post them. Why? Because it starts with an M and I couldn't figure out where else I wanted to put it :) Once we get our dinner situation figured out, I might repurpose Monday for another topic. We'll see.

Thought-provoking Tuesday

Okay, what I say might not be thought-provoking, but this will the day I discuss current events or societal trends or something like that. Hopefully, the thought of posting on Tuesday will give me motivation to keep up with what's going on in our world. Sometimes staying home with a kiddo for most of the day, it's easy to not pay attention to the world outside.

Wednesday in the Word

Because I want to spend more time reading the Bible, this will be the day I use to discuss that journey. Maybe a verse that has stuck out to me, maybe a reading plan for the week, maybe a deep thought or prayer, or maybe also discussion about another book I'm reading for fun.

Thankful Thursday

Pretty simple. I will write about something or someone I am thankful for. I already have a few ideas for this, I will probably start with all the wonderful people in my life. That should give me plenty to write about for many Thursdays to come :)

Family/Fun Friday

Maybe a family update, maybe thoughts on being a family, maybe just something funny (family or not) I thought of, or something fun we've done or are planning to do.

Smorgasbord Saturday

Because I couldn't think of another theme, and because you always need a "catch-all" for things that might not fit... this is the day for that :)

Revamping the blog.

From and including: Saturday, October 18, 2008
To, but not including : Friday, February 12, 2010

It is 482 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date

Or 1 year, 3 months, 25 days excluding the end date

Alternative time units

482 days can be converted to one of these units:

• 41,644,800 seconds
• 694,080 minutes
• 11,568 hours
• 68 weeks (rounded down)

As you can see, I used this website to calculate how many days it has been since I first posted to this blog. In these last 482 days, I've published 42 posts. That's not even 1 post a week!!

So at this point I ask myself, "What do I want to get out of this blog? What do I want it to be?" And, because I talk back to myself, I say "I have no idea."

But, I have been having ideas lately. Ideas about organizing. Organizing the house, our meals, this blog. These ideas are not new really. I've had them before. So, before anyone gets too excited (I'm mostly talking to myself here again), know that these ideas may not pan out. But here is the big idea... Themes.

I am going to use what I call "Themes" to revamp certain areas of my life. It seems kind of corny, but I think it will help me make decisions. For instance, if Tuesday is Italian day, that gives me a more narrow list of options for dinner ideas. And if it's "Thankful Thursday" on the blog, that will give me more ideas of what I can write about. I'm going to make a concerted effort to publish a post everyday, but if I miss a day here or there, I will simply try to pick it back up when I can.

Now, I'm pretty sure not many people read this very often (of course there is often not anything to read, haha). I only have three "followers". And that's okay. I don't know if I will "blogcast" to facebook (I'm not even sure if that's what you call it) or try to get more people to read. I think for now, I will just use this more as a tool for myself and treat any readers as a bonus. Consider yourself a bonus :)

There are also people who have blogs where they create a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days, or take a picture each day for 365 days. I kind of have an ambition to do these things too and I'm trying to decide whether or not to create one or two more blogs (which is kind of silly, I can't keep up with one, how do I expect to keep up with three?). I will give that a little more thought...

Okay, so you are probably dying to know what my themes are now, right? Well, me too. haha. Okay, I have to admit, I have a few ideas, but I have not hashed it all out completely. So, you will have to come back tomorrow to find out what my themes will be :)

Oops, I was doing so good...

Then I forgot about my blog.

But I'm back again and still catching up on some past events. Below are a few pictures from our Christmases :) We had a wonderful time visiting with family! Bryson slept through most of the present openings... so of course we took the opportunity to decorate him with bows!!

Top Secret Visit

Every year just before the Christmas break, Jason's work has "open house". This is pretty much the only time any one can go visit because of the tight security. So, Bryson and I went up to visit Daddy at work. Santa Claus was there and Bryson got to sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas. He actually slept through the visit and still managed to almost pull off Santa's beard.

Walk of Lights

Just a few weeks before Christmas, we drove out to Marble Falls to see the Walk of Lights. It was pretty cold, but we all bundled up and enjoyed the display. Bryson was awake most of the time and really seemed to enjoy the lights!

1 Month Pictures

Santa's little helper:

With a Teddy bear for size, in his Christmas outfit:
He slept through this photo shoot:
He must have known this was a silly picture, so he put on his silly face:

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving at Grams and Gramps' house. Here are a few pictures of our little Turkey's first Thanksgiving. He was really bummed he couldn't eat any of Grams' great cooking, but he was happy that the Longhorns beat the Aggies!

November 11th, 2009

I'm pretty sure anyone reading this probably already knows, but this was the day Bryson was born (almost 2 months ago). Here's the story...

On Monday (the 9th) at our 38 week appointment, the ultrasound was showing a pretty big baby. The doctor said that he was about 9 lbs., give or take a pound. She suggested we go ahead and induce, and said she had set it up for us to check into the hospital on Tuesday. We thought she meant Tuesday of the next week, but she meant "tomorrow"... That was exciting and unexpected news!

We checked in a little after 6:00pm on Tuesday night (the 10th) after a trip to Subway for my last meal pre-starvation. Looking back, I probably should have had something more yummy and filling, but at the time I thought Subway was about all I could stomach (I was a little nervous).

That night was pretty uneventful. I was administered a drug called Cervadil and hooked up to monitors. The rest of the night was spent sleeping, getting up to use the restroom a lot and being monitored by the nurses who had to keep coming in to adjust the sensors.

The next morning at about 8:00am they started the Pitocin and the contractions became more regular, but not regular or strong enough. So eventually they broke my water and that really got things going. Around this time, I decided I would like the epidural. Once I had the epidural, I pretty much slept on and off until the nurse decided it was about time to push. We started a little before 4:00pm and Bryson was born at 4:29pm. He was 10 lbs. 4 oz. and 21 inches long. And he's been bringing us lots of smiles and melting our hearts ever since...

Definition of a blog...

...a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Hmmm... gonna have to work on that "regular" part.