New Year's Eve

We decided to host our second annual New Year's Eve party. I made braised pulled pork Tacos and black bean soup, it was all really yummy. We all just hung out and played games. Brody had lots of fun, he was such a ham. He loves being the center of attention. We all stayed up way too late, but it was a really fun night. I love getting to just relax and hang out with good friends. Happy New Year everyone, can't wait to see what 2010 brings!

Brody and Kinsey watching a movie.

Brody force feeding Shara's sister chips.

Abbey, Christa, me and Shara.

Me and Ashley.

Matt and Abbey.

Ashley, Abbey, Christa, me and Shara.

Harvey, Matt, Dusty, Mark, Tim and Justin.

Christmas in Texas

So we technically had two Christmases this year. We celebrated with my family in New Mexico and then Mark's family came to Texas. Mark's parents and older brother Ryan all flew in on Christmas eve. I made braised short ribs, creamed pearl onions, wasabi mashed potatoes and butt bread. We ate around 7 and then opened presents. Our tradition is to open all of the presents under the tree on Christmas eve and then Santa brings big gifts and stuffs the stockings for Christmas morning. This was the first Christmas Brody really got into. He was opening presents and playing with stuff all night. He was so cute. Then we tucked him in and got to work on the Santa stuff. Grandma and Grandpa got him this really cool train table. It took Mark and Ryan over an hour to put it all together. Then we started on the bed. Brody got a big boy race car bed. It's so cute. The next morning Brody got up around 9 we brought him downstairs and his face lit up. He went straight for the train set first. Then he headed over to inspect the bed. He really liked both and went back and forth playing with them all morning. That night Judy made her famous crab recipe. We were hoping to have leftovers for crap sandwiches but it was too good and we ate all of it!! Overall it was a nice, relaxing Christmas; we watched movies and ate yummy food. The highlight was definitely watching Brody enjoy everything.

Christmas dinner, I still can't believe we ate all that crab.

Brody opening his first gift, he really liked the snowmen on the wrapping paper.

Judy opening the jewelery Joel didn't know he got her :)

We got Brody a great big monster truck that he loves.

Brody had his eye on the big present from Tia and Shane.

Helping daddy.

Brody was so excited about the chair he started sitting in it while I was still putting it together.

Thanks Tia and Shane!

Stretching out and making himself comfortable.

The big boy bed!

The train set.

Coming down the stairs on Christmas morning with daddy.

He had the biggest smile on his face.

Pointing out Mater and Lightning McQueen.

Laying down and making sure it's comfy.

And breaking in the bed with a little jumping.

Christmas in New Mexico

So a couple of weeks ago we went to Taos to spend Christmas with my family. Being almost 7 months pregnant I was not looking forward to the eleven and a half hour car trip. But we changed things up a little this time and on the way to Taos stopped in Clovis and stayed the night with my aunt Gayle. We were so grateful to her for opening up her house to us, it really made the trip much easier. We left Friday afternoon around 5, Tim and Shara came with us so we actually had two pregnant women in the car. We were really excited for them to come with us and get to experience Taos in the winter and Christmas with the Marianis. We got to Clovis around 11:30pm New Mexico time. We met up with my little sister Kelley and her boyfriend Eric who were driving to Taos from Massachusetts. The next day we got up and left Clovis around 9 and made it to Taos around 1. It was a great trip. We really didn't do much but spend time with family and eat yummy food. We had leg of lamb for Christmas dinner and it was amazing. Brody got to experience the snow which he loved. We opened more presents then I think we ever have. It was fun to watch Brody with the whole experience. He really liked to help pass out the presents and was really good at pulling off the bows but he wasn't very into opening them. He loved all his presents from Gramma, Papa, his aunties and uncle Shane. There was so much stuff it almost didn't fit in the car on the way home. Thank goodness one of our presents was a really cool storage container that fit on the back of our car. It felt like way to short of a trip, I think I could have stayed another week. We had such a great time, I love seeing my family and spending time with them. I'm already looking forward to next year :)

Brody playing in the rocks.

Not sure what this face is but he was loving the snow.

The giant Christmas tree.

Soooo many presents!

All of the stockings, my mom was so cute, she made sure everyone had one.

My beautiful sisters!

Brody in his Christmas sweater.

Playing with Daddy and Tim.

Mr. Attitude.

Family pic, but we were missing uncle Shane and Eric.

The whole family. Merry Christmas!!!

Brody's Surgery

So Brody had his surgery the day before Thanksgiving. We had to be at the hospital by 8am. We arrived and everything happened very quickly. They took us back to the prep area. We changed him into a hospital gown. They gave him some medicine through his nose to calm him down a little and then they took him. We weren't allowed into the surgery area. The hardest part for me was watching them take him away and him being scared and crying. The surgery took less then an hour. The surgeon came in and said everything went great. He explained everything he did. He said he thinks there is only about a 5% chance of this reoccurring. About 10 minutes later they brought Brody to us. He still looked scared and was very out of it. I was able to sit in the chair and just hold him. He drank a cup of juice and they offered him a popsicle which he wasn't very interested in. About 15 minutes later we were in the car and headed home. He was a little groggy the rest of the day but was back to his old self for Thanksgiving. He was running around and playing like normal. The hard part was trying to get him to take it easy. We had our follow up appointment a week later. The doctor said everything looks really good. We just need to watch that it doesn't get infected. I'm so glad this is over. It was a very emotional experience for us. I'm sure Brody won't remember any of it but I definitely will. We have to go back for one more follow up visit in a couple of months and then hopefully we can put this whole thing behind us. Thanks to all of our wonderful family and amazing friends. We really appreciated all the love and support during this entire ordeal.

Here is the lump the night before surgery.

Right after surgery, I was so happy to have my baby back in my arms!

His little foot.

His IV.

His bandage.

This was about 5 days after surgery.

This was taken the same day as the pic above. It just looks worse close up.

It's a bigger scar then I expected but I'm just glad he is ok!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So this year we had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at home. It worked out ok considering Brody had surgery the day before. We woke up and had a pretty lazy morning. Our friend Matt Chin from college was in town so he came by that afternoon. We just watched football and hung out. I put the turkey in the oven around 3. We made green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, yams, butt bread, gravy, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Everything but the butt bread came out really good. Brody sat at the table the entire time and was really good. I was so proud of him. His favorite was the mashed potatoes. He is definitely his mother's son :) After dinner we cleaned up and watched a movie. I was so full I didn't even get to the pumpkin pie until almost eleven. We definitely missed having family around but it was really nice to spend time with just the three of us. On Friday we got up and did a little shopping and then came home and started with the Christmas decorations. We got the outside lights up on Friday and then did the tree and inside decorations on Saturday. We are officially in full holiday spirit. I love this time of year!

Our table all set for Thanksgiving dinner.

The turkey, it was the smallest one I could find.

Brody and daddy ready to dig in.

Brody was pretending to season all the food.

Mark carving the turkey while Brody supervised.

Brody helping me decorate the tree.

Brody sitting by the tree pointing to his favorite ornaments.

Our tree all finished.

And the stockings hung by the fire.