And the gifts keep coming

So Brody got his present from his aunt Kelley in the mail. She sent him a Shwin tricycle. It is so freaking cute I just about died. Mark put it together when Brody was napping. As soon as he woke up it was the first thing he spotted. He ran over to it and climbed up in the seat. It is definitely to big for him but don't tell him that. He figured out how to ring the bell in about two seconds. I was really impressed, he is so smart. I took about a hundred pictures of him playing with it but here are a few of the best ones.

Look at that face!

Figuring out the bell.

So many smiles.

He loves his bike!

Birthday Weekend

So for Brody's birthday we had lots of family in town. Mark's brother Alan and his girlfriend Haleigh got here on Thursday afternoon. Mark had to go into work for a couple of hours so he dropped them off at the Oasis so they could have lunch and some yummy margaritas. Thursday night we met up with Tim and Shara and went to Rudy's for some BBQ. Then we just came home and hung out. On Friday I fished working on the cake for Mark's mom and then Shara came over and baby sat Brody and we took Alan and Haleigh to downtown Austin. It was a lot of fun and we got home pretty late. On Saturday the rest of the family go here. Mark's parents got in around 12:30 and my parents got in around 4:00. We went to the Melting Pot for dinner which is always really yummy but I forgot how long it takes to eat there. Not the greatest place to take a baby. After dinner Judy and Joel headed to the airport to pick up Mark's older brother Ryan and his girlfriend Erin. The rest of us went back to the house and started prepping for the party on Sunday. The boys got up on Saturday and played golf. The rest of us got up and just started getting ready for the party. Matt and Abbey had offered to take some family photos of everyone and were originally going to come before the party started but things didn't quite work out that way. It actually worked out better. Everyone got her around 5. We had some margaritas and hung out for a little bit. Then we headed over to the knew elementary school to take some pictures. Then we came back and let Brody open presents and have cake. After all the excitement he was wiped out so we put him to bed and then we started our dinner. We had really yummy beef tenderloin and my parents made homemade french fries. Everything turned out really good and I think it was a great birthday party. On Monday Alan and Haleigh had to leave really early. We tried to go to Oasis for dinner but had the worst experience there. We got seated right away but it took and hour and a half to get one round of drinks and some chips and queso. We ended up walking out and when we stopped at the desk on the way out to let them know how bad the service was the manager got really defense and said "we have excellent service". It was such a bad experience I don't think we will ever go back. Tuesday was pretty mellow, Mark's dad and older brother and his girlfriend all left on Tuesday. Wednesday was Brody's actual birthday we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and then came home and let him open the rest of his presents. Mark's mom left that night and my parents had a flight really early Thursday morning. Overall it was a great weekend. It always gets a little hectic and stressful when you have that many people in town but I think it turned out to be a great visit. Here are some more pictures from Brody's Birthday weekend.

Brody is obsessed with shoes, he found uncle Alan's and thought he would try them on.

This is his new favorite thing, he found his vibrating chair from when he was a baby and now he likes to use it as a Lazy Boy.

He was helping my mom sweep for the party.

Having a bottle with grandma Judy.

This is the only picture we got of the three of us.

Me and my mom and dad, something sure was funny.

Brody and uncle Ryan

Joel and Tim trying to figure out Brody's car.

It only took one trip to Home Depot to get it put together but Brody loves it!

Here is everyone trying to "help" Matt get Brody to smile.

Well that pretty much sums up the weekend. This weekend Robin and I are having a baby shower for Abbey and Mark is going to Oregon for a bachelor party. I still need to post some video and I have some more pictures of Brody to download from the camera. I'll try to get to it as soon as I can.

Brody is One

So Brody's birthday was on Wednesday. We had a birthday party for him on Sunday. It went really well. He opened lots of fun presents and got to have his very own cake. He didn't eat much of it but he definitely made a HUGE mess with it. He was a little hesitant at first but once he got going he didn't stop until it was all on the floor. Then on Thursday he had to go to the doctors for his 12 month check up. He had to get 4 shots :o( It is so hard for me to watch, I hate seeing him in pain. It breaks my heart. But other then the shots the appointment went really well. Here is where he is at.

His weight was 21.6 lbs which was in the 25th percentile.
His length was 29.5" long which was in the 50th percentile.
His head was 47.8 cm which was in the 80th percentile.

He is walking all over the place. He says momma, dad and kitty. He can sign hat, duck, all done, eat and he claps whenever we say "Lets Go A's". He has 7 teeth. He takes one nap in the afternoon for about 2 hours and then usually sleeps from 8pm until 8 or 9 in the morning. He is such a good sleeper I'm so lucky. Lets see what else, oh we have stopped breast feeding and he is drinking whole milk with no problems. We are in the process of trying to go from the bottle to a cup. He just started feeding himself with a fork. If we put a little piece of meet on the fork and set it on his tray he can pick up the fork and feed himself. Oh and he loves to dance. Every time music comes on he starts rocking out. My parents gave him this really funny birthday card that when you open it, it sings Celebrate Good Times. He loves it he starts dancing and clapping. I have a video but the camera is dead right now so I need to charge it and then download it to the computer and I will post it. In the mean time here are a bunch of pictures from his birthday.

The birthday boy and his balloon.

Daddy and Brody.

Uncle Alan and Brody playing with the balloons.

Time for presents!

He was really good at unwrapping. I think he liked the paper and bags as much as he liked the presents.

Brody and his new lawnmower.

Opening his baseball and his vacuum.

Riding his new choo choo train.

He got so many fun toys!

Mommy and daddy helping to blow out the candle.

He was a little hesitant at first.

He wanted mommy to try it first and make sure it was ok.

He made such a mess, it was all over the floor. Shasta couldn't figure out what the heck was going on.

How did he make such a mess and stay so clean?

I can't believe my little boy is ONE!

So this is all from his birthday party. But we had a great weekend with all of our family here and I have lots more pictures and more to post about so I will start working on my next post. Thank you to everyone who made Brody's first birthday so special. We love you all!

Preparing for the BIG weekend

This weekend is Brody's first birthday party. He doesn't actually turn 1 until next Wednesday but we are having the party on Sunday. We have tons of family coming into town. We are so excited to see everyone. Also Brody's party just happens to fall on Mark's mom's actual birthday so we will be having a double celebration. I decided to make a half of a baseball cake for Brody and then something special for Judy that everyone else can enjoy. I'm going to start the cakes on Thursday or Friday and hope to be finished by Saturday so that I don't have to stress about them. Our first visitors get here Thursday afternoon, so I will be cleaning and doing laundry tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Oh and do you like the new blog design? Jamie (Abbey's sister) did her site and I just followed the link and changed mine too. I think it's very pretty :o)

Cakes and Critters

So it's only Saturday and we have already had a busy weekend. I got hired to make a cake for Wells Fargo for their customer appreciation day. It was kind of last minute so I spent all day yesterday working on it. It came out pretty good but I'm such a perfections all the little stuff bothers me so much. Here is a picture of the cake. Four Points is the name of the branch the cake was for.

Also we had a little visitor the other night. I went out to the garage to get something from the frig and realized the garage door was still open. I closed it and saw something scamper by Marks car. I thought it was Shasta because the garage door scares him to death. But then it ran back the other way and I realized it was way to small and gray to be Shasta. At first I freaked out and thought it was a rat or a possem or something. It ran behind the water softner so I had to go peak around the back to see what it was. Well it was the tinyest, cutest little baby kitten I had ever seen. He/She was so cute and scared. I managed to get it out from behind the water softner and was going to try to give it some food but she/he was way to scared. It scratched the heck out of my hands and then ran for the door. I put the food out and it came back and ate so I know he/she is still around here somewhere but I haven't seen it since. I did hear a comotion in the garage last night so he/she might have come back for a visit. We'll see I might just start putting a little food out for it and it can be our little stray kitty. Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

4th of July

So the deer were just the beginning to our weekend. We had such a good time. Our original plans were to just stay Friday night and then come home late Saturday afternoon but we were having so much fun we decided to stay another night. Tim's parents, Vicky and Chip, live in Seguin. It's a small town about an hour and a half south of us. They live right on the lake. It's a lake because it is a dammed body of water but it kind of looks more like a river. It was so nice to be able to walk out the back door and have the lake just right there. They also had a great deck with a hot tub that Brody was able to go in. So we got there around 12 on Saturday. We decided to go into the lake and just kind of float around. We tried to get Brody in but the water was too choppy because of all the boats so I took him up to the hot tub and he liked that much better. He went down for his nap around 2 and Tim's mom stayed at the house with him while we all went out on the boat. We didn't do any water skiing or wake boarding because there were too many people out so we just floated around and drank beer. It was fabulous. We headed back to the house for an early dinner. We grilled some burgers and then loaded up on the boat again to go watch the fireworks. Brody fell asleep almost as soon as he got on the boat and slept through all of the fireworks. We got back to the house and put Brody to bed and then settled in for a game of Apples to Apples, one of our favorites. The next day the boys got up early and went to play golf. We just hung around the house, they had a fun splash table for Brody to play with. He loved it and played with it for several hours! Tim got back around 10, he had hurt his back and didn't get to play golf :o( We waited for Mark and Chip to get back and then had hot dogs for lunch. They were so yummy I had two. Then Brody went down for his nap again and we all got in the lake. Then the weather started to turn a little so we headed up to the deck just in time for it to start pouring. We all sat in the hot tub and watched the rain, it was great. Then we got ready and headed into town for dinner. Tim's parents took us to a really yummy Mexican food place. We got home and Brody went to bed and then we were all up for another game of Apples to Apples, actually I think we played 5 or 6 games. Tim's parents called it a night and we went to the back room to play pool and hang out until what turned into 5am. I was so tired on Sunday. We got up and headed back. It was one of the best 4th of July's we have ever had. Thank you Tim and Shara for showing us such a good time, we love you guys!

This was the back of the house, I was standing on the dock.

Mark took Brody down to the water to see how he would like the lake, he did ok, but the water was just too choppy for him to stay in.

Tim and Mark doing what boys do best.

Shara and I our first day there.

Mark and I on the dock after we had jumped in the lake.

Brody just loved this little wagon, he was holding a ball and a shovel.

Since the lake was too rough, Brody and I played in the hot tub.

Shara and I floating on our noodles.

Tim and Shara on the boat for the fireworks.

Mark, Brody and I on the boat for the fireworks.

All four of us floating off the dock Saturday afternoon.

Deer Like Crunchies Too

We had a fabulous long weekend. Mark and Tim got up early on Friday morning and headed to Lakeway to participate in the 4th of July parade for Wells Fargo. I met up with everyone after the parade so Brody could sleep in. We went over to Marks bosses house for a quick lunch before we headed to Tim's parents house. When we were leaving there were 4 deer standing by our car. I thought they would see us and run away but instead they got closer. I was able to unlock the car and get the camera out. Tim thought the deer might like some crunchies so Shara started giving them a few and they got even closer. Brody was fascinated. They were so cute. After we got a few pictures we said goodbye to our forest friends and got on the road.

Wonderful Wednesday

So yesterday was Wonderful Wednesday again. We went down to Kyle to have some yummy Mexican food and margaritas. It was a really big WW I think there were almost 25 people there. Tim and Shara carpooled with us and then came back to the house to watch So You Think You Can Dance. We are spending the weekend with them at Tim's parents lake house. We are very excited. I hope to get lots of good pics. Here are a few pictures from last night.

Me and Brody, he was very distracted and didn't want to look at the camera.

Tim, Shara and Christa

Mark, Brody, Shara, Tim and Dusty. Brody decided to cop a feel in the middle of the photo.

Mark, Brody and Dusty. Brody couldn't wait to play with the rocks.

Who needs toys when you have rocks.

Mommy wanted to take a picture, Brody wanted to play with rocks.

Here are some pictures that Shara took at the last Wonderful Wednesday. It was Tim and Shara's first WW, we went to dinner at Rio in downtown Austin and then went to the Cedar Street Courtyard to here the Spazmatics, a great 80's cover band. It was a really good time, one of my favorite Wonderful Wednesdays.

Mark, Abbey, Matt and Me

Me, Abbey, Shara and Christa

Dusty, Tim, Mark and Matt (I think Tim and Mark look like they could be brothers)

Mark, Abbey, Matt and Me