Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we drove to Waco to spend the day at Dana and Greg's house. In typical Dana style, her home was beautifully decorated and she prepared delicious appetizers and we had soup and sandwiches for dinner. The weather was pretty warm which is crazy considering it snowed in Dallas the next day, so we took full advantage and spent the afternoon outside.

Before we headed to Waco, we took a couple of pictures in front of Granny's Christmas tree. She had her house decked out in all things Christmas...it looked so pretty!
 When we got to Waco, Granny had one more Christmas present for Payton- a princess scooter! She was so excited!

Checking out her new ride!
William and Finley "sharing." These two are a HOOT together.
They had a little trouble sharing so Dana and I intervened to divide up the toys :)

Sweet Payton trying out her princess scooter (I spy Finley!). 
William had so much fun playing on Payton and Finley's swing set! Maybe that'll give Grant some motivation to put William's new swing set together that Granny gave him for Christmas ;)

 Always a little timid when he first starts swinging. 
 "This is fun!" 


 Mommy wanted to sit down so I asked big cousin Payton to push him. 



 He also took Finley's cozy coup on a spin around the yard. I think he enjoyed it :)

This is a bad picture of me but William's face is too funny. He was a little scared on the big boy swing. 
 But then he realized Mommy had him!!  -the look on Finley's face is priceless!
 Greg tried to get in a little Christmas Eve siesta, but his girls had other plans. 


What a FUN day spent with family just enjoying being with each other! Can't wait until we get these cousins together again...next time we see them, there will be another baby boy in the mix :)

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Polar Express

Sunday night, we headed east to Palestine, TX for the Polar Express Train Ride. It was one of the most fun Christmas activities I've ever done, and I'm 28 years old :) I remember reading the Polar Express book as a child and they did an incredible job bringing the book and movie to life on this magical ride. A conductor walked up and down the train cars and stamped the children's tickets, there were butlers that served chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate, and they danced up and down the aisles while singing Christmas songs. They also read the Polar Express book. The train was decorated with Christmas lights, and Santa and Mrs. Claus even visited the train when we arrived at the North Pole. All of the children wear their PJ's on the train ride, so Dana bought matching PJ's for these sweet cousins to wear. 

 Payton reverted back to a baby with ALL of the talk about babies with the upcoming arrival of her baby brother. 
This is my view 90% of time these days :)
 Payton and Greg in the parking lot :)

 Me and the babes
Silly sisters

 Out little family
 Taking a picture of 3 children under the age of 3 is impossible. 
 William was really into the leaves and wouldn't look up....
Until Payton put him in a choke hold and distracted Finley :)

 Excited about the choo choo train!!
 At one point, all of the children started clapping and saying "Santa, Santa, Santa" and William chimed right in and started clapping for the first time. I could've melted right there in my seat. 
 Grant and baby Grant
 Dana and her girls. 
 Still clapping :)

 Soaking it all in...
 I love these two pictures. You can see the happiness in their eyes. 

 Santa is coming!!
 Santa!
 Me and my baby boy
 I could EAT THIS FACE UP!
 William loved all the action! He is ALL BOY!
 Having SO much fun! 
 Starting to get sleepy...
 Payton didn't want to get too close to Santa so she stayed in her Daddy's lap. 

It was such a magical night and I look forward to going back when William is a little older! Thanks Granny for a wonderful, memorable night!!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Christmas 2012 Part I

Because we made so many wonderful memories from William's 1st Christmas, I'm going to document our trip to Texas in a couple of posts. The night before we left for TX William had a 101.6 fever so we made a trip to the Children's Hospital after hours clinic that evening, but it turned out his fever was due to teething or maybe even the tail end of a cold. Thankfully, he didn't run a fever after that night. I mainly just wanted to make sure he didn't have an ear infection before we got on a plane, and his ears looked great!

Moving on...William had many firsts starting with his first plane ride. He did so well! Grant and I were overly prepared for anything and everything that could've gone wrong. Our goal was to give him a bottle on the way up and on the way down just in case the pressure got to his ears but it didn't seem to bother him. He ripped Sky Mall magazine for the first 30 minutes or so and then fell asleep in Grant's lap. We didn't take any pictures on the plane but here we are in the airport waiting to board. We also got lucky on both flights because we sat next to younger girls who didn't mind William constantly moving around.

We arrived in Texas on Saturday around 2pm and Greg picked us up from the airport. We headed straight to Granny's house from the airport. It was a lot of fun for me and Grant to see William interacting with his cousins, Payton and Finley, because he's not around too many children in Birmingham other than his days at school. Payton doted on him the entire trip but Finley wasn't too sure of William. When we opened gifts, William had just woken up from a nap so he was still a little groggy.

 Payton patiently waiting to get the go ahead to start opening. 
 Sweet Finley
 Payton pretty much opened everyone's gifts...such a good helper!

 Granny bought Payton a special big girl necklace from her trip to Alaska.

 William just soaking in all the chaos.

 Getting a little help opening his gifts from his cousin.

 Sweet boy!!!

 Sweet cousins. Ever since the first time I met my beautiful niece Payton I've been dreaming of the day I'd have my own child. 

 Just chilling after opening all of his gifts. Santa and Granny spoiled this baby ROTTEN!

 Dana, Greg, Payton and Finley gave William this toy that will help him learn to walk! He's obsessed!
 It won't be long before he'll be scooting around the house.

 Opening gifts is exhausting. 

 I was hesitant to post this picture but it was just too cute not to! Finley is 7 months older than William but they weigh the same and are almost the same height! These two are pretty funny together. It'll be fun to watch their relationship develop over the years since they are so close in age. 

Thursday, December 27, 2012

8 Months Old

Before I dive into our Christmas pictures from our fabulous trip to Texas, my OCD self needs to post about William at 8 months! We took these pictures on Wednesday at the lake house (1 day after his 8 month "birthday"). As you will see, he will NEVER look at the camera, so these pictures were the best we could do! He is officially on the move and crawling everywhere! However, he's much more interested in pulling up on everything (i.e., my legs, the walls, toilets, trash cans, his crib, chairs, tables, etc...) He will find a way to get into the standing position on anything! Over the past months we've gotten at least 3 phone calls from William's school about little "accidents" that occur from him trying to stand (i.e., fell and bonked his head on crib, hit his cheek on piano while standing, etc...). His teachers say it's very common for parents to get phone calls on a regular basis at this age. It's always minor reasons they call and just part of their safety protocol that they notify parents, but I do cringe every time I see that number on my caller ID!


He's drinking four 7 oz. bottles a day usually around 7, 11, 2, and 5. We usually "night cap him" with a couple of more ounces before bed, which is usually between 7 - 8pm. I'm a huge planner/scheduler but life with a baby doesn't always follow a tidy little schedule. We roll with the punches ;) Speaking of schedules, he is now eating 3 "meals" a day. He usually has bananas/apples for breakfast, banana oatmeal (his favorite) for lunch, and a vegetable (sweet potatoes) for dinner. I'm really trying to introduce more fruits and vegetables but he's very picky! We've tried carrots, squash, green beans, peas,  pears, peaches, apple/strawberry mix, and sweet potato/corn mix with little success. I'm trying to be persistent but it's frustrating when he spits everything out!


My favorite milestone this month is that he CLAPS and WAVES. It may be the cutest things he's done to date! The clapping started when we were on the Polar Express Train Ride in Texas over Christmas. I'll explain more when I post about that.

(a little blurry, but he's waving :)

He's also been a little more clingy to me and Grant lately, which I realize is common at this age. He still hasn't ever cried when I drop him off at school, but when he gets overwhelmed around a lot of people, the clinginess ensues. A couple of weeks ago, we got paged out of church because William was going ballistic in the church nursery and they couldn't calm him down. I think that situation was more teething than separation anxiety, but who knows...


Speaking of those little teeth, William's top 2 teeth are breaking through at the moment. He hasn't been overly fussy but I can tell they are bothering him. We've kept the Tylenol flowing over the past week. I try not to give him too much medicine but it sure does help!


He's doing a lot of giggling these days, but hasn't done too much in the vocal department. He still does a lot of humming ("hmmmm, hmmmm, hmmmm") but not too many other sounds. I'm anxiously awaiting for a "mama" or a "dada." I hear Grant repeating "mama" over and over to him because he knows how much I want him to say it!



William still wears mostly 18 month clothes, size 4 diapers, and he weighs around 22 lbs. He is looking much taller these days and not so chunky anymore but that's probably because he's always on the move! 



He's obsessed with boxes, electrical outlets, and cords. Therefore, we've started baby proofing the house. I really don't want to be one of those people that has their entire house baby proofed but we may just be THOSE people because he is one curious little fellow. Happy 8 months to our baby boy!