Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the Nicholas Fans!
This year we went several places. Started out in Bedford with my family for Christmas Eve since both Keith and I had to work. Plus we thought it would be best to drive to Austin at night when Nicholas was more prone to sleep so we left about 7:30 PM on Christmas eve. We spent the night at Keith's moms before heading to Bandera where his grandma's house is for Christmas day. We didn't want to drive another 3 hours to get there Christmas eve so we spent the night at his moms in Austin even though no one way there. We spent 2 nights in Bandera and then came back to Keith's moms house for another 2 night and then headed home Monday morning. We are both off all this week so we are staying home any trying to get the house in order. We received our new dishwasher and cooktop today! WOO!!! I painted the living room yesterday! And Keith got in the safety fence to install around to pool double woo!!!! so we are on our way to hopefully stop spending money soon. Anyway here are pictures from our last week of festivities.


My pictures are backwards in order so this is at Keith's moms house. My little bucket head. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.











Nicholas is driver boy. On our way back to Austin from Bandera we stopped to have some lunch and let Nick out of his seat. He does not do well with road trips. I really need to find something to keep him occupied on the road. I have yet to find anything.











Nicholas with his cousin Oryin sharing a seat together













This was Nick's latest thing, rocking chairs. He was actually pretty good at making it "go"








My little giggle boy. He loves his soft blankets and teddy's











In Bandera we were lucky that is was warm weather because that allowed us to go out an play instead of stay inside. A little boring out in the sticks if you can't go outside. There were many things to do outside....Riding bikes....











Raking leaves off the chairs. And collecting acorn caps


















Including but not limited to riding the "trolly". And yes daddy held on tight, but he totally loved this thing. Something his grandpa made with some contraption that is actually really cool. There were some girls there in heels who rode it even. That was a little odd but i guess thats what happens when city people come out.






Awwww....Rowdy. Keith's grandma's dog was so sweet with Nicholas. I love this picture of Nicholas loving on the puppy. He is just the right size. Nick is so fond of puppies right now. He watches them with such intent and wants to pet everyone. He even says "puppy" it actually comes out "pupu" but he knows what he is talking about.....and so do we.








Here we are opening presents at my parents house on Christmas eve. He didn't really take to the present opening experience. But I didn't really expect him to. After you started it for him he would rip, but I think he did it only b/c he likes ripping papers.










oooo an airplane. Anything with buttons is a sure winner.













Oooo I wonder what that ROUND one is. It was his first soccer ball from his uncle bob.











Warming up by the fire with Pop and Uncle bob. Pure Christmas Bliss.










And a close up. Such a handsome boy. We had a good time over Christmas. Come and gone. Nicholas is getting so big. Its hard to think of this time last year when he was just a little guy. I found the pictures I sent out from last year and I really don't even recognize him. Now, he is saying puppy, ball, momma, dadda, and he does sign language for milk, eat, drink and we are working on more, all done, mommy, daddy and ball. And I know its cheesy to say but he really is the light of my day. He is so entertaining, and I wonder how we got along without him.







He mimics everything we do these days. Can you tell who he is copying here? Hahahaha. Daddy wasn't too pleased but I think its cute.







Happy Holidays!!!

I was tagged

Alright, I was tagged by Beth and since she NEVER posted to her blog I thought I would go ahead and go for it:
8 TV shows I watch:
1) Ugly Betty
2) Psych
3) Dirty Jobs
4) Scrubs
5) Battlestar
6) What Not to Wear
7) Americas funniest animals
8) Whose Line is it anyway

8 Favorite Restaurants
1) Posados
2) Starbucks
3) Salt Grass Steakhouse
4) Hula Hut!
5) EZ's
6) Rudy's
7) PF Changs
8) TGI Fridays

8 Things that happened Today
1) Didn't sleep last night
2) Went grocery shopping
3) uploaded pictures
4) Cleaned pool of leaves
5) Did Laundry
6) Spray painted some nasty brass fixtures from our master bath - made them silver
7) made puppy chow
8) read blogs

8 Things I look forward to
1) Learning Quickbooks
2) Getting our house in good condition to stop spending money
3) Summer
4) Nicholas
5) Being able to save money again
6) any trip to the beach or lake
7) shopping
8) taking a few trips this year

8 Things I wish for
1) Less turmoil at work
2) more money in, less money out
3) world peace
4) people to not live on credit
5) to play volleyball again
6) dinner at night to cook itself
7) more family time
8) my kitchen to be remodeled

8 People I tag!
1) Jillian
2) Whitney
3) Joni
4) Sheri
Yep, I don't have any friends......So Beth, don't feel too bad.

Cheese!

It has been cold here lately. I felt bad for Nick b/c I didn't have a hat that fit on his head anymore and the hood to his jackets just wouldn't stay on so I finally got a hat w/ ear flaps to keep those precious ears warm. And this little boy is such a ham, always cheesing for the camera..I naturally had to share it with all his fans out there. He never ceases to make me laugh, and with things as simple as wearing a hat.


Now I keep coming back to this picture because it literally makes me laugh out loud. And I wish you could have seen the image that lead to this but alas I did not have my camera at the right time. So I walk in to my moms house and she is baking cookies. She has this step ladder that has a bar that Nick uses to help her cook at and do dishes. He loves the thing. So I walk in the door and he is mixing stuff up in his empty bowl and turns around with the BIGGEST Kool-aid smile I think I have ever seen with his face covered in chocolate (grandmother was making chocolate cookies and he was tasting the batter apparently and MAN was he excited). So here is his face covered in chocolate. I love this picture. It captures all the personality that he has oozing out of him right now. A classic little clown, and the cutest one I ever did see if I don't say so myself.

That silly boy!

So we are finally getting settled into our new house in Grapevine and so now I actually have a computer space set up to start updating the blog again. I will sure tell you this little boy has blossomed in personality in the last few months. We are laughing at all the silly things he does literally everyday. We are constantly asking each other where he is getting ideas of doing things from, but a lot of the time we just have no clue. And others we are pretty sure he is just trying to be like mom and dad. Like putting on everyones shoes.
And insisting on walking around in them no matter how difficult it might be.

He also likes to put on socks, no matter how big they are. It always amazes me how observant he seems to be. He watches his grandmother cooking and then he wants to have his own bowl and spoon to stir with. And wash the dishes and clean. Apparently he has a complete curiosity of the vacuum.

Here are some times that we just don't know where he learned to do things. But really doesn't everyone have a pictures like these from their childhood???




Needless to say he is into EVERYTHING. I was going to leave the pots and pans and tupperware cabinets open to him to play in while I cook dinner at night, but he has gotten to the point where he actually prefers the pots and pans to his actual toys so we decided to put locks on all the cabinets. I was tired of cleaning up the pots and pans every 10 min and then when I needed on, there were none to be found.

Here he is practicing his fishing from the birthday present that Aunt Cheri and Uncle Mark got him. It has a matching back pack and sun glasses so he can be styling on the lake.

And finally I leave you with a dance video. Its not his best dancing. And we do know where he learned to do this stuff. Well we assume its because we would always bebop whenever tunes are around. There isn't a whole lot of dancing going on here. Nick was more interested in the camera. Oooo Shiney. But we bebop a bit to Willy Wonka on TV.

Never Again...

Please note that this picture was taken while I was NOT around. But daddy is so proud.

Happy Halloween

Nicholas was a little giraffe for Halloween this year. Have you ever seen a cuter giraffe? I know I haven't. Anyway we put on his costume just for a little while and let him parade around the front yard while kids came around trick or treating.





Can you SPOT the giraffe?

What an innocent look....

Instead of watching the other kids in costumes he was really more interested in collecting acorns.

Its the Great Pumpkin Nicholas

We went to find ourselves a pumpkin a the pumpkin patch last weekend. It wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. But that mainly had to do with the fact that Nicholas was so tired. He didn't really get his morning nap in so by the time we got there he was totally exhausted. He loved all the pumpkins. He especially loved throwing the ones he could pick up because I think he liked the "thumping" sound they made.


He tried to pick up so many pumpkins, but they were just too big.



oh yea and they had a few donkey's. Nicholas wasn't sure what to think about these things. Daddy tried to get him to pet the donkey, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it. Probably again because he was so tired.
This is my favorite picture. I need to try and figure out how to work photoshop and get it to be in black and white and make the pumpkins color. Still haven't figured it out yet.

Nick's First Birthday!

Ok I know it has been like 3 weeks since I have posted any pictures. But things have been really crazy. Moving out of our house, my birthday, Nick's birthday, all three of us being sick for like a whole month (including 2 ear infections, pneumonia, 2 sinus infections and some other ailments) and a visit to Austin , and not having our computer hooked up until last week...well all of a sudden its like 3 weeks later. But for all your patience I come back with a ton of picture for you. Keith got me a really awesome new lens for my camera so instead of taking Nick to a studio for photos we decided to take him to the Ft. Worth Botanical gardens. Let me start by telling you how much this boy LOVES to be outside. He actually gets mad when we bring him back inside. So needless to say he had SO much fun at the gardens.

Here he was checking out the fountain. He is also a big fan of any water. He especially likes the dog bowl and just rinsing his hands in it. Its really funny to watch. Then he starts swishing it around. Lots of fun to play in.

Yep, here is more water. This was a little more smuckier. Needed to wipe his hands off after this dunk


Next best thing to water is collecting pecans. He had quite a collection he was storing in his stroller. Pick one up and put it in the stroller.


He likes to touch everything.

This was his serious walk. Hands behind his back..."I'm serious"

Haha, this is his big mouth look. He just sits there with his mouth open and then starts to yell low then gets really loud. He has a huge mouth. Megaphone like.

Looking for more pecans.

Strolling with mommy.

Great smile.

Posing. This is one of my favorite pictures.


Now its birthday present time. He didn't really get the idea of opening presents. But I guess after all we get on to him about not ripping stuff I guess it was a little counter productive. Plus he was more interested in the boxes.
Here we are playing with a new toy. Big hit with all the buttons. He LOVES pushing buttons. Any buttons, on the TV washing machine, anywhere there are buttons, they are getting pushed.


Ah and at last the birthday cake. He didn't care for the yellow cake and chocholate icing. But he may not have been hungry. He really had more fun playing with it.


When he was done with it, we played squeeze it through your fingers and then fling.
Notice the glazed look. This is the onset of sugar coma. Ha!

Happy 1st Birthday Nicholas.