Thanksgiving 2009 - Colorado

Thanksgiving we went to my parents new condo they bought this year in Golden. Elevation 7000 ft. It was a 12 hour drive that Nicholas and I made with my parents the weekend before. Keith didn't have any vacation left so he flew up Wednesday before Thanksgiving. All my brothers were there too it was a great week.


View from their balcony:


It was a bit warm on a couple of days, but the snow stayed on the ground. It was really dry. Note to self, do not go to high elevations when you are pregnant if you aren't use to it. I spent most of the whole time we were there trying to catch my breath.


So ofcourse no mountain experience is not complete without a snow sled involved, all the boys went out to take Nicholas for some fun. And ofcourse being the little daredevil that he is, he loved it.

He stayed on, this hill was small. Perfect for little guys. Nice and slow, except for the yellow snow at the bottom.

The big hill for the big boys. Here is Keith and Robert. Boys.....I shake my head.



This snow was in the shade and was a bit icy. Poor baby fell over face first into the snow. He was not happy.
And something to the tune of making sure Nicholas is not a pansy boy and making sure he is a man is still ringing in my head as they all decided it was very important that Nicholas go down the big boy hill. Here is his daddy taking him down, Save the baby! I just sit there and hope for the best. Heave forbid he be a LITTLE cautious. So for that, I have the following photo for you.



Thats right, hes wearing an apron making cookies. He will be well rounded. LOVE this smile.

Yep, so everyone had to take a turn taking my boy down the big hill. Didn't help that he kept saying "Go Again!?!?!?!?"


With Uncle D



Now Uncle Mikey


One last time down..

Ah, now its time to chill and hang out and watch some football.



Friday after Thanksgiving all the boys and Mikey's fiance Melina went skiing. I had to stay home for obvious reasons. :( huge bummer. But since they own this place now, I guess I will have every year to go now. So I sulked for a bit but got over it. Nicholas was pretty bummed when they all left though. I could have enrolled him in some ski class, but I think we will wait until next year maybe. I know he would be good at it. Crazy little athlete. He can already stand on one foot and hold his balance...at 2. Blows my mind.
Daddy told him he doesn't get to go. Not happy.

Halloween 2009

We decided to go visit the pumpkin farm to pick out our pumpkin. They had a free hay ride around and a bunch of other fun activities. It was actually pretty chilly this day so no one was out.


Hummm......which one do I pick?!?!?


I can do it, I can do it, I'll push......


Nevermind.....I'll ride.

Carving pumpkins. And apparently it slipped my mind to take pictures of the pumpkins AFTER being carved. Eh, oh well. Blame it on preggo brain.


Is he not the CUTEST little pumpkin ever?
His grandmother aka "fuffin" made this costume. He didn't care for the hat much, but I got a few good pics in before it was off.


We did actually take him around to 3 houses by my parents house and he was so excited about getting candies in his bucket. He really got the concept of saying trick or treat. It was so cute. He was most interested in all the other kids though. The most fun was running to the door to hand out candies.

Happy 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Nicholas. I cannot believe he is 2 already. Its like time keeps going fast and faster. I'm not a fan of this speed time. I remember many moons ago where it would be December and Christmas would take forever to get here. Now, "what? you say its Christmas already? AGAIN?" Oh well. Fun times for all. So we had a great birthday celebration. Started out that my dad had an extra ticket to the Stars opening night game at the AA center. So me and Nick went and let daddy have a night to himself to watch all those scary movies I refuse to watch with him. It was a late night but he really had a great time watching all the activities and yelling "GO STARS" and doing the whole dance when they scored. Unfortunately though they lost in overtime, and a shootout. But maybe if they would have started playing in the first period like they did in the 3rd it never would have been tie. Anyway I digress. Stars game = awesome. I love them. And I love sharing them with my little boy.
The next day we went to the Botanical gardens in Ft. Worth. I think this will be a tradition each year. I really love going there and taking pictures. It was a beautiful day and he really enjoyed feeding the fish and running around like crazy boy. And not to mention I was excited b/c the professional photo people doing bridal shots were making suggestions to me on how to get great shots, I almost felt like maybe I look like what I'm doing. HAHAHAHA!

Watching the big coy fish



Shot that a real photographer suggested



Daddy did good on this one. Me and Nick are watching the rather large turtles come to the surface to get some bread the kids were throwing into the water.


Birthday celebration was small and intimate. Just my parents and 2 brothers. It was perfect. Here is Nick with uncle D in his party attire and blower. He sure loved the blowers. Except he would bite them instead of blowing on them to make the paper roll out.


He got all kinds of good presents from everyone. He is such a lucky boy to be so loved.

This is what mom and dad got him. "My bike" he says. This boy LOVES riding bikes. Even if he can't pedal, he just wants to sit on it. I can't wait until we can start taking him out on family bike rides on his own bike. Will be a while though b/c we'll have to wait until baby #2 is a year old. So for now it will just be mom or dad.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Like the cake? I made it myself. Not proud of it by any means, but considering that I've never made a 3D cake before, I think its not too bad. You can at least tell what it is. Nicholas is way into trains right now, and he geeked out when he saw this cake. It was worth all the work for sure. Didn't turn out quite like I had imagined, piping was my main problem. I think if I had a steady hand it would have looked better.

And his 2 year stats bean pole:

26.5 lbs - Dr wouldn't give us a % just said it was finally in the normal range (sad) I swear we feed him
36 inches - 95%
19 in head - probably in low % too, both mom and dad have small heads too. Don't be fooled though, big brains reside w/in.

My ham bone

I just LOVE that smile. I don't think you can tell well in the picture, but he is wearing his sunglasses pushed up on his head like his mommy does it. Cutie!

Next

Due date March 18th.



I find myself just as amazed as the first time at how 2 cells can become something so awesome. We have so much to be thankful for.

A Momentous Day!

What might you ask would be so momentous of this sweet little face that just makes you want to kiss him all over? Why his first poo in the potty!!!!

These are just a couple of the pictures we just had taken. He is just so adorable I can hardly stand it.

So there we were, he was taking his diaper off, asking for the potty so we go, we sit....and sit...and sit and nothing. "Mommy" he asks, gets up, drags his potty chair into the living room, sits it down right by me, and after a couple of grunts and a "kerplunk" there was the best prize ever. Sure, sure I know you are all thinking I am crazy, but never in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought that a poo in the potty would have been so exciting! So we all gasped and did the potty dance, had great fun, and got a coveted sticker for his board.

St. Louis 2009

So last weekend Nicholas and I went to St. Louis for a visit. I piggy backed on a work trip so we went up Wednesday night w/out daddy. I was a bit nervous about going on a plane alone with a toddler. I think I started sweating probably 6 hours before our plane took off. But it really wasn't too bad on the way up there. We had out first McDonald's experience. He ofcourse loved the fries and the Orange Hi-C, but not so much of the hamburger. We shared a happy meal. Then we had some TCBY Frozen yogurt. That was extra yum. He didn't cry at all on the way to. We actually had a the whole row to ourselves so we could spread out. And I tried to have him sit in the seat next to me, but he didn't want it. He wanted to snuggle right on my lap and I will not complain about that.


Thursday I worked at our branch in Chesterfield. Its only 6 miles from my grandparents house, how nice is that?? I don't think I can even get a hotel that close. So my grandparents and 2 cousins Nick and Sam watched him. He had so much fun with them apparently. He is such a friendly kid, takes to anyone. Except people w/ glasses we found out this trip. We didn't realize it until after he wouldn't go to my cousin Sam and Grandma Geil. Once they were off, he was fine with them. He wouldn't cry at them or fuss, he just refused to be near.

Friday we went over to Grandma Geil's house to visit with her and Aunt Cheri. First we had to walk to doggies and then we picked up acorns. That was big fun.



Then we got to sit in the highchair that was his Pop's when he was little. A special little moment in a really old chair.



Having lunch with Grandma Geil and Aunt Cheri. Thanks for lunch it was yum. FRUIT galore


We also went to the St. Louis zoo. If you have never been, you should go. Its the only zoo that is still free to enter, and is the best zoo I've ever been to. I hear it is 2nd next to San Diego. I love it. And so did Nick. We went into the children's zoo where you are allowed to go in and pet the animals. At first Nicholas was intersted and pet one of the goats, but after that, he was more interested in picking up the rocks and throwing them (w/ goat poo)




I need hand sanitizer and lots of wipes please.


Then after that we went on the train. Nick was getting so upset when the train would pass by and leave. He wanted on so bad. here we are waiting in line for the train. That was painful b/c we had to watch 3 or 4 trains go by before it was our turn. With Grandpa...


Riding on the train w/ mommy

We also went to a baseball game of one of my youngest cousins. Nicholas and his 2nd cousins decided to play frisbee. Nicholas didn't get the concept though.


Pick it up and carry it over. Here he is handing it to Zach. Aunt Nancy's kids were SO good with Nicholas. If you can hear me Aunt Nancy, your kids are so awesome. I hope one day Nicholas will be half as great as yours!

Playing with Nick, Nick and Sam. They were best buds before the end of our trip. It was so cute.

BBQ on Saturday at Grandma Barry's
Ok so I feel bad. Nicholas took off and I guess i didn't realize there is a busy street right at the top of the hill and my grandma took off after him to catch. Shame on me just watching. Well I did get up, but not after grandma had climbed the hill. I'm sorry grandma. :( Grandpa I'll show you.....His latest thing is that he will grab your hand and pull you so he can go show you what he wants. we try to work on tell me first, but its slow coming.

He is really having a vocab explosion here in the last couple of weeks. He is already stringing 4 words together. The biggest thing he will say is "I see you mommy or daddy or who ever" Its so much fun listening to him repeat everything he can. you can just see the wheels turning.

Happy 4th of July

It was a busy weekend, but we had alot of fun. This was actually July 3rd and we went to our friends house for the fireworks show by their house that we could see from their front patio.

Here we are on the way over in the car seat. Cranky pants.



There was a little festival before they did fireworks and they had a live band so we went over and tried to do some dancing. But I think it was too loud so I just danced.




Snow Cone heaven!



Trying to stay cool. Man was it HOT.




Nicholas and his buddy Ryan trying to figure out how the fan works.


Nicholas didn't like the sound of the fireworks so much. But that didn't surprise me considering that just a couple of weekends ago he did not like the sound of the loud planes. We started out like this....

we ended the night like this..... he liked watching them, but clung to with a death grip. It probably didn't help that it was 2 hours past his bed time, but he was a trooper.