Jon & Shannon's Blog

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-28T09:44:00.002-06:00

Santa win. Times three.

2011-12-09T18:21:00.002-06:00

Well I thought we had an awesome Santa picture this year with this one from Minnesota:

Then his school had to go and take these, which are pretty much perfect and awesome, and even the Santa is fatter and jolly-er:

And now I must pay seventy bazillion dollars to have them.

Over the river and through the woods

2011-11-17T10:49:00.007-06:00

Y'all, we're about to take a road trip. A very long road trip. One thousand, one hundred, seventy-nine and two-tenths of a mile miles to be exact. The cost of three airline tickets ($1000+ for the three of us) was just too expensive for our journey to the Land of 10,000 Lakes this year for Thanksgiving. So we're driving...with a three-year-old. Are we insane? Possibly. On drugs? We may wish we were by the time we get there.

I'm going to try and be a good blogger on this trip since I've been a bad one this year. Perhaps entering the age of the iPhone will take away any excuses I have for not updating the blog on the road. Perhaps I shouldn't make promises. For now, bags are (almost) packed, lists have been made, pet care has been established (the pets are staying - we're not that nuts, people), and snacks/drinks/movies/toys have been purchased.

By the time we get back, we'll be drinking pop instead of soda, eating hot dish instead of casserole, and substituting words like "spendy" for expensive.

See? Long.

Halloween Flashbacks

2011-11-01T08:57:00.009-05:00

All right then, see ya Halloween 2011. It was nice knowing ya. How about a look at Halloweens past since our little man first made his appearance:

If we both look a little tired, it probably had something to do with never sleeping ever.

Giraffe and Giraffe Wrangler.

Amery had a little obsession with checking the mailbox this year. I was a love letter from Miss Avah B. in Colorado.

You already know the story of the Different Kind of Robot. I was a nerdy science fair winner.

I took a couple of little videos last night too, but no time to mess with them at the moment. Check back in a couple of days.

Not What I Expected

2011-10-31T08:57:00.008-05:00

That is, our first pumpkin-carving experience. I thought this was the first year he would truly appreciate this tradition. For weeks I've been oohing and aahing over my friends' adorable photos taken on family trips to the pumpkin patch.

The actual pumpking-picking-out event looked a little something like this in my head:

Unfortunately, life is busy. There are birthday parties and swimming lessons to attend, houses to clean, errands to run. So instead the pumpkin patch looked a little more like this:

Whatever, in the end, it's the gourd that counts.

He started off pretty excited about the idea of carving the pumpkin:

Then he got a look and a smell of what was inside the pumpkin:

Then guess who finished carving the pumpkin:

If no hookie-playing teenagers smash it today, I'll snap a picture of my creation this evening. Of course Amery takes credit for "his" jack-o-lantern.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-10-26T15:59:00.003-05:00

Superman vs Spiderman vs A Different Kind of Robot

2011-10-24T08:38:00.014-05:00

We've been asking Amery what he wanted to be for Halloween since about mid-September. He's in a superhero (he calls them "superzeros") phase right now, so naturally his internal debate has been between Superman and Spiderman. I was secretly hoping he'd choose the former, because then I could order this to match him. Superman was clearly the favorite, so I had high hopes. Finally, about two weeks ago, I asked him when he woke up if he wanted to be Superman or Spiderman. His answer was, "I want to be a robot." This was followed by his declaration to be a certain complicated Transformers-like robot he'd been carrying around for a few days. I told him I didn't think I could make that costume, so he would have to be a different kind of robot. Now if you ask him what he is for Halloween he will clearly tell you, "I'm a different kind of robot."

Armed with about 10 different homemade robot tutorials found on Pinterest, I settled on this version that uses a couple of aluminum roasting pans vs the traditional "cut a few holes in a cardboard box and hope your kid never needs to sit down or pee" version. I also knew he would never keep a helmet on his head for any length of time, so I cut apart a double-disco-ball headband from the costume store and made it into a single antenna headband using a regular old kid's headband from Target and some aluminum tape.

The small designs along the sides were some pre-colored printables from this site, but they have versions you can color yourself as well. I forgot to take a picture of the back side, but it's lined with reflectors I bought for about a dollar at Harbor Freight Tools. They function both as decorations for the costume and as safety items for trick-or-treating in the dark. I also plan to tape some glow sticks to the costume that night, but obviously they would lose their glow after a few hours, so I skipped that step thus far.

The final result, as recorded by my talented friend with her kick-butt camera skillz:

...an adorably sweet...

...different kind of robot.

He's Three!

2011-09-26T13:34:00.003-05:00

We can't believe it either, buddy.

Family Photos!

2011-09-21T15:52:00.004-05:00

We did a mini session with Jennifer of Luxe Photography a few weeks ago. Look at my gorgeous boys!

Three Little Birds

2011-09-21T08:13:00.002-05:00

They tell me it's fall

2011-09-15T15:19:00.003-05:00

But in Texas, there's really just nine months of summer and three months of cold* with no snow. I made a new header...see it up there? That means I need to start blogging again on a regular basis. No more of this every two months stuff. You might get a lot of Wordless [Insert Day] posts, but at least it'll be new.

*And by "cold" I mean it gets to, like, 30 once in a while.

2011-08-09T09:06:00.003-05:00

We went to a birthday party at the Austin Zoo last weekend, and our friend Nina took some great pictures while we were there.

Me and little man hanging out on the zoo train.

Cupcakes!

The birthday boys' mama took a quick shot of the whole family.

We're doin' stuff.

2011-07-26T11:01:00.009-05:00

I promise we are. We're just not writing about it. This summer has been crazy busy and even crazier hot. The high temperature for today, tomorrow, and the foreseeable decade is 105. Since I know at least Gretchen is paying attention to the blog, I better get a few pictures up here to prove we don't hole up in our A/C all day.

We made our first visit to Deep Eddy Pool.

We checked out some live music with some margaritas and milk.

We went to the bouncy place.

We hung out with friends.

We saw Dwight. See that floor right there? That's the stage. We could touch it.

We made s'mores around the pool after a long day and night of swimming with friends.

Did I mention it's summertime?

2011-05-25T17:47:00.003-05:00

And did I mention we have a big boy who eats his own corn on the cob? We do.

Summer Stuff

2011-05-17T09:15:00.007-05:00

Amery got a water table from Grandma and Grandpa for Easter (yeah, I'm a little behind), and so far it's the hit of the summer. Here's a quick video of him seeing it and playing with it for the first time. It's a little dark at first becaust I put it together in the house while he was asleep and then hid it in the garage until we got home from school/work the next day:

And a few more pics for Grandma:

The 30+ toys that came with it weren't enough. He had to add some rocks from the yard.

Of course

2011-04-23T11:14:00.007-05:00

I have this collection of panoramic sugar eggs from when I was a kid. Here is half the collection...

This year, I allowed Amery to carefully handle each egg and look inside. We talked about what he saw. One had a duck inside, another had a bunny, and so on. When we got to this one, which is probably about 20 years old...

I asked him what was inside. He answered very matter-of-factly...

"That's Batman."

Rocky Mountain Hiiiiiiigh, Colorado

2011-04-21T09:26:00.013-05:00

Warning: This is going to be the laziest post ever. Seriously. I really wanted to write this awesome play-by-play post about all the fun stuff we did in Colorado since it's the first vacation we've taken in forever, but time has gotten away from me. We saw some beautiful snow, we swam in an outdoor heated pool in the snow, we ate some great food with some great friends, checked out the Denver Zoo, hosted a baby shower for Amery's godparents, and had some eventful flights around the country in the mean time.

Here's a link to all of our trip photos (Walgreens, you might need to log in)

And just in case you are as lazy as me, here are a few faves:

Amery and his godparents.

Hanging at Wash Park.

The crew at Valdoro (minus the children who were finally in bed).

Baby shower decor.

Party favors.

Trip to "the jumpy place"

2011-03-14T20:45:00.009-05:00

Amery and I had some fun at a local indoor inflatable playground yesterday. I would post the name, but no doubt they would then find my blog and post an annoying ad in the comments. Here's a link if you wanna check it out. We really don't make the rounds at the bouncy places around town unless we're attending a birthday party, but I happened to get a pass for 3 visits for free. This place is nice, really nice, and it's great for the toddler crowd. Lots of times these places have tweens mixed with 3-year-olds and it's just a recipe for disaster of the concussion variety. A few cell phone quality pics for you:

Jumpy area just for kids 3 and under...

...with a ball pit.

Bliss. {let's all pretend there are not germs from seventy bazillion other kids on those balls, mkay?}

Climbing up the "big lide" by himself.

Piece of cake.

In addition to the bouncy areas, they have 5 or 6 different play rooms/houses filled with toys, costumes, props, etc.

A service station/garage.

A grocery store.

A dress-up room with a stage.

A diner.

An animal hospital.

That little band around his ankle matched one I had around my wrist. No one is allowed to leave until the adult's band is matched up to the child's band. Smart. If you go, bring some healthy snacks. All they had available was ice cream treats, chips/Goldfish, and sodas/juice.

2011-03-03T20:25:00.003-06:00

We've been working on being polite the past few months. Amery now says please and thank you without prompting, and he's starting to get you're welcome as well. We also get a lot of spontaneous I Love Yous and we always get I Love You Toos in return if we say it first...all of which is awesome of course. Tonight at bedtime:

Me: Night night, baby.
Amery: Big hugs, mama?
Me: (gives big hug)
Amery: You're welcome, mama.

Limes

2011-02-18T09:41:00.003-06:00

A whole lotta nothin' goin' on right now. I did make some beer margaritas the other night which was pretty exciting for me, not so much for Amery. He begged me to give him one of the limes and I obliged.

He loves sour stuff, spicy stuff, sweet stuff, pretty much all stuff.

Snakes and Snow!

2011-02-07T10:38:00.007-06:00

A few fun happenings from this past weekend. Austin got snow last Friday! It was probably about an inch, but combined with the underlying ice it was enough to shut the city down for a day.

Notice the massive amount of snow in the grass.

We were able to scrape up enough to build a snowman using parts from Mr. Potato Head and Amery's play kitchen.

The snow was short-lived as it got up to 70ish degrees over the weekend. On Sunday we took a trip to the Snake Farm in New Braunfels, TX. It was cool. A little old and smelly, but Amery was in heaven. It was tough to take a lot of photos with the animals since they're all, well, deadly.

Ready to see some snakes!

Huge pythons.

Mean little goats at the petting zoo who stole the food bag right out of our hands.

Friendly llama.

Busy

2011-01-31T12:56:00.003-06:00

That's a lie. I don't even know what we've been doing lately, so I have no excuse for not blogging other than we haven't been doing anything exciting to blog about. Let's see...Amery is in a Superman phase right now. Jon puts the movie on, and when the song starts he runs around the house with two outstretched fists. We really need a video. He's becoming a little smarty pants more and more each day. He knows (from daycare I assume) how to count to six in Spanish. Oh, and when I pointed out the other day that his wooden train tracks were in a circle he corrected me, "No mama, oval." Geez.

I'll try to keep better mental notes of when something cool actually happens. Until then, stay cool.

Playdate

2011-01-14T21:02:00.006-06:00

Amery had a fabulous playdate with the even more fabulous Ruby today. Since sharing toys isn't a two-year-old's forte, I started talking with him the day before about how Ruby was coming over to play.

Me: Amery, are you going to share your trains with Ruby tomorrow?
A: Share trains, mama.
Me: Are you going to share your cars?
A: Share cars, mama.
Me: Are you going to share your books?
A: No share books, mama.
Me: Why aren't you going to share your books?
A: No share books, MAMA!
Me: Are you going to share your puzzles?
A: Share puzzles, mama.
Me: Are you going to share your books?
A: NO, MAMA!
Me: Jeez, ok dude.

In the end he shared the books, but I have no idea what spawned the initial freakout over the damn books. Weirdo. He shared his Learning Tower for a Cheerios break too:

Merry Christmas (late) and Happy New Year!

2010-12-27T18:01:00.006-06:00

Hey Cupcake

2010-12-09T13:37:00.003-06:00

I'm pretty sure everyone, including me, was sick to death of the haircut picture, so here's a chocolate cupcake instead:

First ya poke at it.

Then ya try it.

Then ya ask for more.

Haircut

2010-11-16T14:59:00.003-06:00

What a difference a little old haircut makes. He looks so old compared to the Halloween photos.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T08:29:00.005-05:00

Ever since he was introduced to Blues Clues, Amery has been obsessed with checking the mail. Anytime we drive by a mailbox he waves and cheerfully calls, "Hi mailblox!" When we pull into the neighborhood and he catches site of our cluster mailboxes, he starts asking over and over again, "Check a mail, mama? Check a mail?" It was only fitting to dress him as a mailman this year.

Mailmen wear Converse, right?

We tried to get a quick shot with the hat. FAIL.

Without giving too much away

2010-10-18T15:43:00.005-05:00

I think we're going to have some really awesome photos for our Christmas cards this year.

Yep, he's a Texan.

2010-10-13T10:17:00.006-05:00

Photographic evidence from Monday's impromtu dinner at one of our favorite local Tex-Mex restaurants:

Going in for the dip.

Careful to get a nice big scoop of the jalapeno seeds.

Down the hatch.

And if you haven't been to La Morada, you're missing out.

Amery's Airplane Themed 2nd Birthday Party

2010-10-05T11:28:00.040-05:00

We had a great time putting together Amery's 2nd birthday party this year! We had an even better time throwing the party for Amery and all of our family and friends. I thought I'd put together a post of pictures from the big day, as well as some info about the theme, invitations, food, and favors. I found a lot of inspiration on various blogs and websites, so hopefully this will inspire others.

That's our little (big!) man on his big day.

The Theme
He's really into planes, trains, and automobiles of every size, shape, and color right now, so I knew I wanted a theme along those lines. I was lucky enough to win a contest for some gorgeous birthday invitations from Spearmint Baby that definitely would have been outside our budget otherwise. The train theme seemed much more common, so I settled on airplanes.

This image really doesn't do them justice. They are printed on really nice, heavy paper with rounded corners (optional at no extra charge). I highly recommend Papeterie Baby if you've got a healthy invitation budget.

The Food
We kept it simple this time around. The menu included: pesto pasta salad, fruit salad, hummus with pitas and veggies, crackers and cheese, lemonade, sodas, and cake.

The cake was from HEB and was delicious. It was vanilla cake with fresh strawberry filling and covered in their elite icing (think whipped cream goodness). The candle holders were a great little purchase - only $3.50 for four of them at All in One Bakeshop in Austin. I have seen them in many places online for a similar price if you don't live in Austin. I love how the writing on the cake ended up looking like cloud writing.

The Decor

This fabulous banner was made by my sweet friend, Kimberly, of 3 Monkeys Designs. Not only is she super talented, she does all of this while taking care of a 2-year-old and twin 1-year-olds. You can check out her Etsy store here.

I love extending the theme into unexpected places. These DIY napkin rings were so simple and cheap! A color printer, an inexpensive pack of plain cardstock, and this template pasted into Word and you've got yourself some cute napkin rings with whatever theme you've chosen.

I chose to focus more of the budget on favors rather than go overboard with decor around the house. We had some leftover gliders from the favor bags that we put together and hung above the dining room table with fishing line so they would look like they were flying.

We hung these DIY clouds made from quilting batting along side the planes. I can't take credit for this idea. I was inspired by a post on Ohdeeoh, which is a ridiculously awesome site for creative and inexpensive ideas for kids if you haven't been there already.

The Favors
I love giving out party favors. If I could , I would have favors sitting around just for when people come to visit my house. Even if there's no party happening. It's so fun to hand someone a little thank-you gift on the way out the door that makes them feel, well, thanked.

Each had a DIY reusable luggage tag on the outside that also served as the name tag for each child. The tags are very easy. I picked up some inexpensive badge holders from an office supply store. The back side of each tag is a rectangle cut from some airplane-themed scrapbook paper I purchased at Tuesday Morning for $1.00. I printed the front side on cardstock at home with lines for name, address, and phone. I decided not to carry the name logo through to the luggage tag since the kids would likely use them for years to come as they travel.

I wasn't exactly sure what kind of bag I wanted for the favors other than I wanted it to be cheap. Enter Dollar Tree. I think I got a package of 50 pages for a buck. Bonus points that they were made out of mostly recycled paper. I finished them off with a DIY bag topper that matched the theme of the favors inside. Bag toppers are my new favorite craft. Seriously, you can make ANY packaging look good with a rectangle a smidge wider than the bag itself, and double the size you want it to end up in the folded direction. I drew a rectangle in Word, figured out the middle point where it would be folded, made sure the design fit below that line, and then you just print, cut, fold, and staple.

I would like to point out that the bags unintentionally came out looking like airsick bags from a plane seatback by the time I was done with them. That's either witty or gross depending on your sense of humor.

Each bag contained a balsa wood glider, a snack-sized Ziploc bag filled with Honey Nut Cheerios snack mix, a pair of children's aviator sunglasses, and a few coloring pages with outlines of different airplanes I printed myself. If you click on the photo you can see the bag toppers a bit closer up.

When I started thinking about favors, I was focused on one particular item - balsa wood gliders. There's something nostalgic and simple about them. I searched high and low for inexpensive gliders online. I found plastic versions, foam versions, and wood versions that were well over $2.50 each. I really wanted to stick to less than a dollar per glider in order to stretch the budget. Thank goodness for a great group of ladies I know from a local mom's board. The fabulous Gloria found me some plain wood gliders for a great price here.

I was originally trying to find plastic pilot wings to give to each child, but it turns out these things are nearly impossible to find since 9/11. I get that. In the process I came across the sunglasses. A million Google searches for "kids pilot sunglasses" later, I found the cheapest price here after comparing the cost of the item plus shipping at a dozen other sites.

The snack mix is my new addiction, and since it is relatively healthy I figured it would make a good little snack to send home with the kids. I printed the "Keep Busy Book" coloring pages from this website.

We set the favors up on our fold-out buffet with a sign that read "Amery Airlines Baggage Claim." The little red and white airplanes were part of another Dollar Tree find. You can get lots of cute little decorations like this in the teacher/classroom area of the store. I think there were about 5 each of the red planes, white planes, and some boat shapes in the package.

Here are a bunch more great pictures taken that day by a dear friend whom we can't thank enough. She knows who she is.

Picture collage on the food table.

Blowing out the candles.

He's either: a) freaked out that a bunch of people just sang to him at the top of their lungs, b) concerned that the cake is so far away, or c) a little of both.

Ah-ma and Ah-pa (Grandma and Grandpa) visited from Minnesota!

Cousin cuteness.

And just like that

2010-09-27T18:51:00.001-05:00

He's two.

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-07T09:51:00.006-05:00

We spent Labor Day Weekend housesitting for Grammy and Grampy. It was a lot of fun. We did pretty much whatever we wanted, when we wanted. We had our own schedule and it went a little like this:

We picked up rocks...

...and threw them into Lake Travis.

We played at the playground...

...for a long, long time.

Amery took his first boat ride on Lake Travis. He wasn't crazy about all the bumps, but he did love swimming in the lake and playing in the mud at the "beach."

When we weren't playing outside in the beautiful (non-100-degree) weather, we watched way too much TV and ate Lucky Charms.

Mustache Party

2010-08-30T08:41:00.004-05:00

On Saturday we attended our friend Danny's 35th birthday party. Everyone had to wear a mustache, either real or fake. Fun times.

Mario and Luigi.

Groucho Marx (with nacho cheese face thrown in).

10 on Tuesday

2010-08-24T07:30:00.003-05:00

I still can't find the camera battery charger. I either left it in Colorado or lost it around the house somewhere. I hate leaving the blog bare for so long, so I put together my first ever "10 on Tuesday." This was hard. I can't believe some of my blogging friends do this every week.

1. On Saturday morning, we participated in what may have been the Guinness record for the most people frosting a cupcake at once at Cupcake Smackdown 2.0. We needed 1,000 and it didn't seem like that many were there, but the line was pretty long so maybe we made it.

2. While attempting to pay for groceries this past weekend, I discovered my debit card was cutoff due to suspicious activity on the card. It turns out my card number was stolen and some people charged about $400 in Georgia. With the help of Jon's detective work and salesman's persistence, he was finally able to convince the local law enforcement agencies to go to the stores and get the surveillance tapes of the criminals. Hopefully they will be caught, since it sounds like they had other people's numbers as well.

3. Amery's 2nd birthday is coming up, and I decided to go with an airplane theme (see two posts ago). Whenever we talk to him about his birthday party (or anyone's birthday party, or Tommy whose birthday party we went to a month ago) he says "mmmmm, cake, mmmm" over and over.

4. I finished making these DIY napkin rings and wrapping the plasticware for the party:

Here's the template for the napkin rings. I pasted it into Word and added the clip art and text myself.

5. My next DIY project is to make bag toppers, like these, but airplane themed of course.

6. It's really hard not to keep talking about airplanes and birthdays in this list, but I shall refrain.

7. Two new phrases that we hear a lot from the baby boy lately: "Go Dude!" learned from mama yelling at stupid drivers in the car, and "Aw man!" said when he accidentally or un-accidentally knocks over a stack of toys.

8. I lied, there is a third phrase we hear a lot. He loves to sing, "We will, we will rock you!" As loud as possible with an overhead fist pump. He gets annoyed if you sing along without the fist pump. I really really need to get this on video.

9. Jon, Amery, and I are all invited to a birthday party for our friend Danny on Saturday. We are all supposed to have a mustache, either real or fake, to attend. Should be interesting getting an almost 2-year-old to keep a fake mustache on for longer than 10 seconds.

10. Here are some silly pictures (from my cellphone camera) of how we entertain ourselves.

We sit in boxes meant for books (don't freak, Jon was ducking down behind him).

We like to be carried around in the boxes too.

We cool off in the yard.

Let's hear it for the clearance rack at Walgreens. Who knew $4.99 could buy so much fun.

I have an excuse

2010-08-19T10:40:00.002-05:00

For the lack of blogging. I can't find the charger for our camera battery. It's my mission to find it this weekend, so hopefully there will be new pictures of the man up soon.

I'm a Winner!

2010-08-09T08:19:00.011-05:00

Sweeeet! I just won 30 custom birthday invitations from Papeterie Baby. I entered a contest on Spearmintbaby.com and was the randomly-chosen winner. Papeterie Baby has a ton of other cute designs - you should check em out.

Now for the tough decision: airplanes...

...or trains?

One quick pic from this morning. Amery's new thing is he wants to sit at the dining room table without his booster chair:

New Slide

2010-07-21T10:24:00.004-05:00

My co-worker, Laura, gave us this great Little Tikes slide for free! I have a feeling this item will give us hours of toddler entertainment. Thanks Laura!

This is before he figured out how to walk down the slide. Now that's all he wants to do, even if it results in a faceplant to the grass.

Bliss.

What does bath time bliss cost?

2010-07-09T18:47:00.014-05:00

Approximately $33.46 at Babies R Us. Bath time lately has been an absolute nightmare. It used to be that we had to pry him from the tub and make a ritual of happily chanting, "Bye-bye water!" over and over until he would get out. Apparently this technique backfired on us as soon as he decided he hated bath time. As soon as we would get him into the bathroom with the tub filled up, bubbles bubbling, favorite toys floating, he would start screaming, "Bye-bye water! Bye-bye water!" while he tried to escape between the removal of each item of clothing.

I figured I would go out this weekend and pick up a few new bath toys to entice him. Then I arrived at daycare after work. Whatever they had for lunch today was plastered into his hair and crusted behind his ear. The daycare ladies apologized, saying they cleaned him up as best they could but he threw a fit. Yep, been there ladies. So we took an immediate detour to BRU on our way home.

About 15 minutes and $33.46 later we walked out with the following recipe for success:

Sassy Count 'n Spell Bath Appliques (good call, Nina!) - $5.99

Sassy Catch 'n Release Net - $2.49 (reg $4.99 but the Sassy bath stuff was BOGO 50% off)

He loves to scoop up the floating toys. Every time it floated away from him he yelled "coop! coop!" until he got it back.

Elmo Tub Mat - $13.99

This was mom's idea. She thought maybe he felt unstable or like he was slipping around too much in the tub. It doesn't stick that great to our cheap 1980's plastic tub, but after he sat on it for a while it stayed in place. He loves to find Elmo under the water.

Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Corner Cubby -$10.99

Ok, I admit, this is for me. I'm an organizational freak, and I hate when the bath toys don't dry all the way. We have the Boon Frog Pod already and it's filled with toys that I'm not ready to part with yet, so I picked up this handy thing to hold the new letters and numbers. I love that the bottom is mesh and hangs over the corner of the tub so everything dries.

Oh, I guess I should elaborate on the outcome. He hopped right in as soon as he saw Elmo and the new letters and numbers waiting for him in the tub. Minimal complaints were heard during hair washing, and he happily got into his PJs post-bath. Right now he's watching Toy Story...hence the reason I have time to blog. :)

Flashback Friday

2010-07-09T08:23:00.001-05:00

July 4, 2009 (9 months old)

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T17:18:00.004-05:00

Father's Day 2010

2010-06-24T09:23:00.006-05:00

I'll try to catch up on blogging about our trip to Colorado when I have some time this coming weekend. Until then, here's some pics I took of Amery for Jon's Father's Day gift (his are framed):

Sorry they're so small. If I try to make them bigger Amery ends up looking like the Elephant Boy.

Flashback Friday

2010-06-11T10:04:00.001-05:00

Amery in June 2009.

New Favorite Meal

2010-06-06T12:56:00.006-05:00

We had a very exciting dinner the other night - Amery learned how to dip. Ok, so maybe not so exciting for the rest of the world, but I think it's cool. His new favorite meal is organic strawberries (why they're organic), Earth's Best French Toast Sticks with a drizzle of syrup (also known as "Elmo Sticks"), and YoBaby 3-in-1 Meals yogurt with apple and sweet potato (for dipping of course).

Cause food pictures are artsy.

Going in for the dip (notice the different plate since we had this two days in a row).

Toddler success!

Grandma and Grandpa's Visit!

2010-06-06T12:42:00.003-05:00

We had a nice long visit with Grandma and Grandpa. Here are some pics of what we did:

Checked out the Austin duck tour.

Got Amery his first pair of boots.

Found a hat he can't take off.

Bought a new lightweight umbrella stroller with a few accessories. So much lighter and easier to tote around than the old travel system stroller. Oh, grandma got him some new kicks, too.

Went to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco. Two thumbs way up for this zoo. Some of the enclosures are on the small side, but the animals look well taken care of and there were only a couple per area. Lots of indoor air conditioned spots along the trail too. We got through the whole park without feeling rushed in about two hours.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-02T13:51:00.003-05:00

Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend

2010-05-17T13:57:00.021-05:00

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging as much is we've just been too darn busy on the weekends. But it's good busy. I need to get caught up so I can start new with all the fun we'll have when Grandma and Grandpa get to town on Wednesday, so here's a cheater post with a bunch of pictures of all the fun we've had so far this spring (almost summer).

Easter morning at home and at Grammy & Grampy's house.

The new bubble mower is serious business.

It's already in the 90s almost daily here in Austin, so pool playdates with buddies are a must.

Amery-to-English Dictionary

2010-05-12T12:31:00.020-05:00

Sorry everyone! I've been promising more pictures from Laura's trip to Austin and I just plain haven't had time to upload them to the blog. So, since I still have no photos to share, we're going to have a little lesson on Amery Speak. This blog entry will serve as a translator to anyone conversing with our one-and-a-half year old.

Ameryspeak: mikka
Translation: milk

(Image copyright of Disney, i.e., don't sue me)
Ameryspeak: Mucka Moo
Translation: Mickey Mouse

Ameryspeak: daddy
Translation: vacuum (Jon is "Papa" so luckily this isn't all that confusing)

Ameryspeak: Mama Me or Meemaw (over and over and over)
Translation: I want to watch Mommy & Me or any other annoying DVD you'll let me watch

Ameryspeak: Neena
Translation: Kona

We've been busy

2010-04-26T09:18:00.002-05:00

But I promise to update soon with all the fun stuff we did when Auntie Laura was in town!

Hint - It was at LEAST this much fun:

Children's Museum

2010-04-12T10:23:00.007-05:00

Amery made his first trip to the Austin Children's Museum on Sunday. We took advantage of the free hour offered by the museum from 4 to 5 pm every Sunday. That hour exceeds his toddler attention span by a good 45 minutes so that was plenty of time. Turns out everyone else in Austin takes advantage of the free hour, but we still had fun:

Checking out the wind tunnel.

Taking after mama.

Hanging out with papa.

Building stuff.

Eighteen Month Check Up

2010-04-09T15:43:00.011-05:00

This is going to be a pretty boring post because there's not much to say - he's completely healthy! Considering he had one continuous ear infection from November through February this is the best check-up we've had in a long time. His height is 32.5 inches (51st percentile) and his weight is 23 lbs 14.5 oz (21st percentile). He's tall and skinny and perfect.

Amery's favorite words right now are: Neena (Kona), mama, papa (usually said in a whisper, your guess is as good as ours), Dukel (for both cats, not just Feral Dukel), hi, bye, eat (using the sign for 'eat' and said more like eeeeeeeeeeeat), and of course, mine. He says other words, but these are his faves.

We hung out at the park with some friends today:

And that's all we got.

Bluebonnets!

2010-04-04T09:27:00.005-05:00

One thing you learn pretty quickly after moving to Texas is that it is tradition to take your kids, plop them down in a field of bluebonnets, and snap as many pictures as possible before they start eating them or throwing a major temper tantrum, whichever happens first. We were lucky to catch Amery on a good day and he seemed to rather enjoy the experience.

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-02T21:17:00.007-05:00

We met up with a whole bunch of mamas and babies at the park today for an Easter egg hunt. It was Amery's first and I wasn't sure if he'd be into it. He was into it.

Hey, what's this thing?

Whoa, here's another one.

You mean I get to keep 'em? Sweet!

I think I can fit a few more in here.

Don't worry, I gave a few of these to the littler kids. They pretty much crawled around and drooled the whole time. Not like I ever did that.

He was pleasantly surprised to discover that there was stuff to eat inside the eggs.

Your Basic Awesome Weekend

2010-03-29T08:22:00.018-05:00

We had a great weekend! Lunch and shopping with Grammy on Friday, the Mamacents sale with my friend Lynda and Luke's first birthday party on Saturday, and a canoe race, family festival, and crafting get-together with some girlfriends on Sunday! Whew, we're tired. This is the BEST time of year to live in Texas. The weather is perfect, the bluebonnets and wildflowers are out, and there are so many free events in Austin right now. Free is good.

Well, the Mamacents sale wasn't so "free" by the time I was done. I justify my spending by stating that I walked away with half a summer wardrobe, an awesome Playskool bus toy, a poseable Spongebob (aka "Bob-Bob"), and this little gem:

We had to pry it out of his little toddler hands to get him in the car, in the high chair, in bed.

On Sunday morning, Jon participated in the First Annual Colorado River Ramble 10-Mile Race at Lady Bird Lake in Austin. Jon and Stacie are used to the 250-mile Texas Water Safari, so this race was walk in the park for these guys. They won first place for their boat class. So what if there was only one boat in their class. Now they have bragging rights for next year.

Jon, Stacy, and Warren before the race.

Hanging out on the shore and cheering for papa.

Jon (front) and Stacy (back) on the lake.

Way to go, papa!

To top off the festival, our friend Collin won a brand spankin new kayak!

**JUST ADDED** There was a professional photographer (Billy Moore) at the Family Clean Water Festival after the canoe race who took this nice photo of the three of us.

I finished off the weekend at a crafting get-together with the ladies, and made these for all the kids at Easter. I figure they'll get enough candy from the Easter bunny. Don't worry, I won't start giving out raisins on Halloween.

Flaskback Friday

2010-03-19T12:32:00.003-05:00

I was inspired by Ruby.

St. Patrick's Day 2009

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2010-03-17T08:07:00.003-05:00

We tried to get a picture of him in his green shirt this morning, but The Fonz here refuses to take his jacket off. At daycare, he wears it all morning. They can usually coax it off him around lunch time, but if he sees it in his cubby later in the afternoon he will insist on wearing it again.

Go Fly a Kite

2010-03-16T08:35:00.008-05:00

This past Saturday we made the trek to the annual Zilker Park Kite Festival. We met Grammy and some other family members there for lunch. The weather was gorgeous and there had to be a thousand different kites there.

A nice couple handed us their bumblebee kite on our way in and we graciously accepted as we showed up to the Kite Festival with no kite. We named the kite FreeBee.

Amery was very into everyone else's kite. It turns out free bumblebee kites don't fly very well.

Here, lemme help you with that.

Amery, Mama, and FreeBee.

Not a single person we know in this picture, but it gives you an idea of how many people were there.

See, lots of people and lots of kites.

Happy Birthday Uncle Derek!

2010-03-07T16:38:00.015-06:00

We had a fun surprise party for Jon's brother, Derek, last night.

He was pretty surpised when he walked in the door expecting the annual family lobster dinner only to be adorned with a sombrero, a homemade Bacardi lei, and a cane.

We had a grim reaper pinata filled with mini (plastic) liquor bottles, Bengay, Preparation H Wipes, denture cleaning tablets, and candies.

The streamers were decorated with all sorts of helpful coupons for old people like Uncle Derek: Depends, Metamucil, Colon Health, and Geritol.

Jon had the awesome idea to blow up a photo of Derek with their dad at his 40th birthday party. Grammy made it happen.

There was a ton of food. I mean it, like, a ton.

We managed to float a pony keg of Zeigenbock and plow through one and a half containers of frozen margaritas. Grammy rented the machine from Margarita Mania. She's so smart.

Aunt Jen got an awesomely morbid cake from HEB. The frosting turned everyone's lips and teeth blue.

Here's a rundown of the party menu:

Appetizers:

cream cheese tortilla rolls

southwest egg rolls

cheesy-meaty things (Grammy knows the real name)

Texas Trash

drunken weiners

Dinner:

crockpot chicken tacos (Katie's recipe)

beef enchilada casserole (Paula Dean's recipe)

homemade salsa

taco fixins

charro beans

flour tortillas and crunchy taco shells

Dessert:

cake

fruit salad

Amery helped clean up the streamers this morning.

In case you were wondering what toddler help looks like.

After a while he decided it was just more fun to climb on papa.

First Hockey Game

2010-03-01T08:28:00.003-06:00

We took Amery to his first Texas Stars hockey game last night and he loved it:

He started off a little freaked out by the noise but he got into it pretty quickly. He also sat pretty still throughout most of the game. French fries helped. Lots of french fries.

Jon bought him a little Texas Stars hockey stick at the game, and he insisted on taking it along in the car on the way to daycare this morning. We had to trick him to let go of it last night or I think he would have slept with it.

Three Generations

2010-02-21T19:34:00.001-06:00

Amery's First Haircut

2010-02-20T19:39:00.005-06:00

This afternoon we made a trip to Pigtails & Crewcuts for Amery's first cut. It was a lot of fun. I definitely recommend this place for kids' haircuts. They have locations all over the country - even Honolulu. At the Austin location they have chairs shaped like a firetruck, a plane, and a police car. There's a train table to play with while you're waiting your turn, Disney movies playing on big flat screen TVs at each chair, a place for birthday parties in the back room, all the animal crackers you want, and you get to choose a prize (or three) from the treasure chest on your way out.

Here's a "before" picture on the way there. He constantly had to push his hair out of his eyes, and mama got a "she's cute" comment the other day. Yeah, time for a little boy cut.

We think he questioned our judgment a bit when his stylist showed up with pink and blue hair. She was very nice and clearly very talented when it came to cutting the hair of a wiggly toddler. I forgot her name so we need to call back and get her every time. We loved her!

He actually sat pretty still. Most of the time.

Full view of the cool police car chair.

And after. He looks like a big [little] boy! Mama misses the curls in back, but they'll grow back soon enough.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T16:39:00.002-06:00

Quick Update

2010-02-09T09:40:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging. We've been all kinds of busy and we're still dealing with the never-ending ear infection. Throw in a couple of lower molars and you have one grumpy kid and two tired parents. Speaking of ears, Amery's pediatrician referred us to a pediatric ear, nose, and throat specialist whom we will meet on Friday afternoon. I suspect ear tubes are in his future. I found a pretty good article on the ear tube surgery procedure if you'd like to see what our little man is in for.

He's not without a few smiles here and there:

How to use a spoon

2010-02-01T13:34:00.002-06:00

Amery style.

Ear Infection #3

2010-01-24T07:15:00.003-06:00

Poor little man. Three hours at urgent care, a yucky flu swab (which was negative), and a fever that topped out at 105.5 yesterday. I don't blame him for feeling like this:

We'll report back when he's all fixed up and back to trouble making.

Fashionable Friday

2010-01-15T06:46:00.000-06:00

How do you make a mommy happy? You find a 6-12 month sized denim jacket stashed in the back of the coat closet that you completely forgot about. Then you find out it still fits him!

Rockin' the denim, khaki style.

I had to bribe him with Cheerios to sit for the picture.

Major Catching Up To Do.

2010-01-07T19:48:00.011-06:00

Holy moly it's been a looong time since I updated the blog. Sorry. We've all been sick on and off since Thanksgiving. Amery has been the most sick, poor little guy. Let's get that out of the way and then we can move on to the cute pictures.

I can't remember who got sick first. It may have been me. Shortly thereafter, Amery got a cold...that turned into a sinus infection...that turned into an ear infection...that turned into a bad cough and wheezing. Christmas morning we finally called our pediatrician from Jon's parents' house in Lago Vista (about 45 minutes from our house in Austin). She told us to go home immediately and get the nebulizer we had from when he got RSV sometime around 5 months old. So, without opening a single present, and with Amery still in his jammies, we went home, got the breathing machine and medicines, and drove BACK to Lago to have Christmas with the family. A follow-up appointment on Monday showed he now had a DOUBLE ear infection, still had the cough, and still had the sinus infection. He also couldn't go to daycare for the week. I had no paid time off, so we called in the cavalry! My mom was able to fly down and help us out for a whole week. That was HUGE and such a relief. Amery and Grandma had a great time hanging out while he recovered.

Another follow-up appointment this past Monday showed he has an antibiotic-resistant bacterial sinus infection. The bacterium is called Streptococcus pneumoniae in case you feel like a bit of Googling. He is now on a very strong antibiotic nose spray that hopefully will knock the crap out of the evil bacteria in his cute little nose.

On to the good stuff. Amery got a lot of toys for Christmas. Like A LOT of toys. So pretty much all the pictures I have are of Amery and the toys. With him being sick and our stress over that, we didn't think about the usual family pic in front of the tree, or any photos of us for that matter. So here you go. Amery and Toys - Christmas 2009.

Little Tikes Inside/Outside Kitchen and Grill from Santa.

PBK Anywhere Chair. He loves this thing. If I sit in it and say "Mommy's chair" he tries to nudge me out.

I really doubted whether or not he would actually sit in it, but we couldn't get him out of the thing.

Sometimes the packaging is more fun than the toy.

Mickey Mouse Ride-on Plane from Auntie Laura.

I've got some more pictures to add of his wagon from Grammy and Grampy, but they're on a different computer so I'll update later.

Furry Christmas

2009-12-22T09:05:00.004-06:00

I figure Amery is going to get most of the blog spotlight over the next few days - better give our big bear some face time.

Kona's first Christmas in Colorado.

Two years ago in Austin. Don't be fooled by his well-behaved appearance. That hat became a chew toy shortly after this was taken.

He's Cool

2009-12-20T09:31:00.002-06:00

2009-12-17T14:28:00.002-06:00

I forgot about this video and just found it on my computer. Amery got a little wooden puppy pull toy for his birthday from The Urbans. Once he got the hang of how to pull him around it's become one of his favorite toys. Don't really have much to update, but I was sick of the snowstorm post. So here's a dark but cute video.

Austin Snow 2009

2009-12-07T14:05:00.005-06:00

As promised, video and pictures from the "snowstorm" last Friday. It lasted about 15 minutes, and the only reason we were all home to see it was because we were all sick, so we couldn't be outside for that long anyway. It was still fun to finally see snow again.

Worst.cold.ever.

2009-12-05T20:01:00.001-06:00

I'm back in the land of the living...almost. Promise and update and some pictures of The Great Austin Snowstorm of '09.

We're Ahead of the Game

2009-11-24T14:43:00.003-06:00

Amery wanted to get his requests in early.

Como Park Zoo

2009-11-24T10:39:00.003-06:00

We've been in Minnesota for a few days and it's been pretty busy around here. Today we are heading downtown to see the Macy's 8th Floor Christmas display. Yesterday we visited the Como Park Zoo in St. Paul and Amery loved it! Here are some pics.

He never did go through the tunnel.

Touching tropical leaves with papa.

More tropics. It felt like Texas in there.

This is what Amery thinks of the smell in the giraffe's indoor winter area.

The famous Sparky the Sea Lion! We used to go see the Sparky show when I was little.

We're back.

2009-11-13T09:21:00.003-06:00

We've been MIA for a bit, but I think we're back in the game! Amery's been trying to kick a stubborn sinus infection, some fluid in one ear, and a throat virus to boot. Poor little man. A lot of our time at home has been spent on the couch and looking a lot like this:

Thankfully he is starting to look a lot more like this:

Which makes us all happy:

The Park

2009-11-03T06:55:00.000-06:00

Amery and I stopped at the neighborhood park on our way home from work yesterday to enjoy the sunshine and 70-degree temperature. Too bad the sun starts to go down at 5:30 now or we probably would have stayed longer. The most challenging part of the park is teaching him not to eat the pea gravel.

Mmmm, this looks tasty.

You want some?

Papa joined us too!

Not so sure about this weirdo swing.

Ok, it's cool.

Halloween Fever

2009-11-01T08:19:00.002-06:00

No, not in the sense of being crazy about Halloween. I mean a fever, on Halloween. Sigh...no trick-or-treating for us this year. When I took his temp around 6:00, an hour before we were supposed to join our friends for trick-or-treating and fun, my heart sank as the thermometer read 101.2. With all the talk of flu combined with a whiney kid and a runny nose, I didn't want to us to be those parents who bring their sick kid to the gathering with all the other kids. That's just not cool.

As Jon headed out the door for a Walgreen run (we had no candy cause we didn't think we'd be home) I burst into tears and lamented about how I will never get to wear a mommy and baby matchy-matchy Halloween costume again. Next year he'll probably want a say in what he wears. Jon told me to get my costume on and he would snap a few pictures in the driveway when he got back. So here you go. Evidence of our matching costumes.

Giraffe and Zookeeper.

My badge said "Giraffe Wrangler."

And he is one too.

2009-10-30T09:58:00.002-05:00

Keepsake

2009-10-26T09:27:00.003-05:00

Our fun, busy weekend kept going all the way until Sunday night! After some breakfast, playtime, and a loooong nap, we spent the rest of the day with friends and family.

Sunday afternoon we visited our good friend Carol who painted this amazing portrait of Amery. We can't wait to find the perfect spot for it in our home. Carol and her husband Jim own Idyll Glen RV Park just outside of Lago Vista, Texas. We caught up with her over some sodas and snacks while Amery rolled limes from a big basket all over her house. She showed us all around the park on a golf cart and we can't wait to see them again - next time over a campfire when we stay with them at the park this winter.

We had dinner at Grammy and Grampy's house. Amery is crazy about Rollo the dog.

On the way out the door we found the one pile of fallen leaves in Texas. Ok, maybe not, but it's the first one we've seen. When he wasn't eating them he enjoyed smashing them in his hands.

He's fast.

Pumpkin Patch and Hanging with Jax

2009-10-25T13:05:00.005-05:00

We didn't make it out to the "big" patch in Marble Falls thanks to no sleep on Friday night, but we did manage to get to a small patch at Tarrytown United Methodist with Cousin Jax.

Hanging out, with the pumpkins.

Look over there!

Handsome boys.

What's with this dinky one?

My Halloween costume - Giraffe Wrangler (it will hopefully make a little more sense when I have my giraffe with me at our costume events next week).

Jon's costume - Beaker from the Muppets. Created in about an hour (not counting two craft store runs).

Fashionable Friday

2009-10-23T08:37:00.004-05:00

Who doesn't love a new pair of jeans?

Red River Rivalry Weekend

2009-10-19T08:39:00.005-05:00

This weekend was the big UT-OU game, formerly known as the Red River Shootout, revised to the less violent and current name of the Red River Rivalry. For the non-locals, the name comes from the fact that the Red River forms the border between Texas and Oklahoma. We watched game at Ruby's house, then we spent the afternoon at Laura and Joe's Engagement party. Papa found a wagon and Amery had a great time getting wheeled around the yard,

Why are you stopping?

Can a brother get a beer, or what?

He also discovered the wonder that is the kitchen cabinets:

This one is from this morning. It was finally cool enough to wear his new little jacket on the way to daycare:

Of course it's supposed to be 80 by this afternoon, so when I pick him up he will be in short sleeves and barefoot. Gotta love Texas.

Our Little Giraffe!

2009-10-16T09:14:00.010-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we participated in a fundraiser put on by our friends MC and Lyndsay. Lyndsay is a wonderful friend and a talented photographer. The fundraiser was a huge success and $1700 was raised for M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Please consider donating to the cause. Our friend Jon is undergoing treatment at M.D. Anderson, and so far he is making phenomenal progress in his fight against colon cancer. Bonus for our Austin friends ~ for every $10 you donate by October 20th you get an entry into a drawing to win a mini session with Lyndsay of Life in Motion Photography.

Click here to see all the pics: 2nd Annual Life in Motion Little Monsters Bash

Amery has a crush on the butterfly because she's so adorably sweet and Supergirl because she dumped a cup of sand on his head at the party.

Happy Walker

2009-10-14T14:51:00.001-05:00

12-month Stats

2009-10-03T08:52:00.006-05:00

I've never actually done a post with his height, weight, head circumference and all that, but lots of my friends do them so I'm guessing this info must be of some interest. Amery had the unfortunate pleasure of getting four shots in a row last Thursday. Poor guy. Clearly he was not thrilled about it:

He took 'em like a champ and is no worse for the wear. He is, however, protected against all kinds of nasty diseases you never hear about anymore. Bring on the mumps - he can take it.

Amery's 12-month stats:

Height = 29 inches = 23rd percentile
Weight = 20.3 lbs = 12th percentile
Head circumference = 46 (not sure about the units) = 37th percentile

If you're interested in what the percentiles mean, this site seems to have a handle on it.

More Party Pictures

2009-10-02T09:51:00.013-05:00

Check 'em out:

Not sure who invited my double chin to the party.

We still haven't taken this banner down almost a week later.

Cupcake pops inspired by Bakerella.

Hey Inara!

Smooches!

He's not spoiled.

Pool time. The water was cold, really cold.

Not in love with the party hat.

Singing Happy Birthday.

He had no idea what to do with the cupcake:

Also check out the first post on the party.

Party Pictures

2009-09-29T08:22:00.030-05:00

These were taken by our talented friend who shall remain anonymous. Clearly she's awesome and captured our little man and the party details perfectly. Check back later for more pictures as well as a link to all the ones I won't have room to post.

Ready for cake.

Reading with Grandma.

Sneeking a snack before the party.

The Goldfish Cracker sippy cup buffet.

Party favors waiting to be filled.

Balloons!

Cupcake beach inspired by Bakerella. These were made by another talented friend who also would like to remain anonymous. We're all hoping she makes baking her full time business 'cause she's great at it.

Amery and Mama. That's his newborn picture around my neck.

Not exactly party-related, but still birthday-related. Here are a couple of pictures of the amazing painting given to Amery by Aunt Jennifer's Mom and Dad, Gail and Dayle. Gail painted it just for him and we treasure it!

One Year Old!!

2009-09-26T20:55:00.002-05:00

Our baby boy is one year old today. It literally seems like yesterday we showed up to the hospital thinking they would send us home. Nope. Instead they sent Jon home to get our bags cause we were havin' a baby! I had good intentions of a long post all about the fun we had today, but we're still having fun even though he's been crashed out for two hours now. He's such a lightweight. ;) Awesome party. Awesome friends. Awesome food. Everything was perfect and crazy and chaotic and wonderful. Every single person in attendance played a role in us making it through the past year. What a fabulous, crooked, winding road it's been. Lots and lots of pictures to come. For now, I'm heading back out to the patio.

Rocky Mountain High

2009-09-18T08:57:00.006-05:00

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Breckenridge, Colorado to celebrate the engagement of our dear friends Mac and Louriann. It was really tough to choose just a few pics to share, but if I posted them all it would take forever!

Family photo outside the party venue (French Creek Clubhouse). Right after this was taken it started raining/snowing.

Amery with Mac and Louriann. We can't wait to celebrate with them at their wedding in Charlston, SC next year.

Amery and his future girlfriend, Avah. He's actually really stoked about the idea. He was just getting impatient waiting for his birthday pancakes.

Amery with his godparents Carrie and Drew.

The Valdoro crew: Godfather Drew, Carrie, me, Amery, Jon, Nate, Ann, Avah, and Chris.

Amery shredding it up in downtown Breckenridge. On Sunday we strolled around downtown with Nate and his dog, Shay.

We went out to dinner on Sunday night at the Blue River Bistro. Awesome food and awesome company. Amery took a liking to this wine cork and would not let it go until he finally went to bed.

He didn't want to leave Colorado on Monday morning.

On our way down the mountain we stopped to catch up with Cristy. I hadn't seen her in a couple of years(!) which is just wrong. We only had a few minutes, but it was great to see her.

If you want to see the rest of the pictures from the trip, you can check them out here.

Do you think we're related?

2009-09-09T11:42:00.003-05:00

Me in 1977 and Amery in 2009.

Did I mention the walking?

2009-09-08T17:04:00.002-05:00

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-08T07:28:00.001-05:00

We've had a sick baby on our hands since last Tuesday, so we've been laying low. We did manage to get out of the house for breakfast at Jim's and a quick shopping trip to the outlet mall on Saturday.

Amery and Papa waiting for some pancakes at Jim's.

He ran into someone he knows at the outlet mall.

Blasts from the Past

2009-09-01T06:38:00.004-05:00

I've been searching the internet trying to find a certain discontinued push toy that Amery is obsessed with. It's a yellow and white truck with a red handle that you stand behind and push around the room. There is one in his daycare room and another in the church nursery. Both of them are ooooold and most certainly are no longer made by Fisher Price. I thought maybe I could find one on Craigslist or Ebay. In the midst of my searching I came across several toys I had as a child that are now considered vintage. My parents probably paid $20 for some of these items that are selling for upwards of $100 on some websites.

School Days Desk. Remember how the chalk would never actually write on the chalkboard part? And then you used a wet paper towel to clean it off and it made it even dirtier? Maybe that was just me.

See the blue thing on the right? That's Grover. Really.

Every time you opened the barn doors...MOOOOOOOO!

My mom must have found this one at a garage sale because I never had the little carriage thing. The best part about this castle was the secret room behind the staircase.

The picture on the box lies. This thing floated for about 2 minutes before it got swamped. They may as well have called it The Minnow. I'm also not sure why it was necessary to include the dog figurine with this set. What did they do, stick him in the dingy and send him to shore every time he had to poop?

I still have this at our house and my neice and nephew play with it every time they come over. The website I stole this picture from is selling it for $125. Please, don't come and rob my house for the Woodsey set. If you are that desperate I will just give you the money.

I could go on and on, but I'll stop here. If you want to go buy your own Woodsey Log House, you can find it here. I don't think I will ever be able to find the push toy Amery likes. If I get a chance, I'll snap a picture and post it here later. I think the more likely scenario is we go out and spend $40 on a new one this weekend. Then, 32 years later, Amery will be surfing the internet (or whatever virtual portal exists by then) and he will find a picture of his old push toy from 2009. He will realize with a mixture joy and sadness that he is, at 32, vintage.

Busy Saturday

2009-08-31T09:04:00.003-05:00

Amery and I had a busy Saturday this past weekend. We started off with a playdate at Julie's house where there were four other babies to play with. These first two pictures should give you an idea of the (happy) chaos:

Then we headed over to Ryan and Kelly's house for their housewarming party. They just bought a house in our neighborhood. The little guy in green was Amery's buddy at the party. His name was Phoenix and for some reason Amery kept trying to chew on his toes.

We finished off the day with some play time with Aunt Jen and Uncle Derek at our house:

11 Months

2009-08-26T19:52:00.010-05:00

I know, it's blurry. But what can I do? The kid moves fast in all directions all the time. This is the closest thing I had to a genuine smiley 11-month-old photo.

We usually get a bunch of pictures like this before we get a good one:

We recently introduced Cheerios and they're a big hit. He's careful to get every last one:

Unless there are too many to eat, then he shares with others:

He also learned the proper resonse to "How big is Amery?"... sooooo big. (Where did this little game even come from? It seems that almost every parent and grandparent I know plays it).

Spending time outside after papa gets home:

And his favorite time of the day - naked play time after bath:

The End.

2009-08-19T10:03:00.001-05:00

He's been clapping for a while now, but I finally got it recorded. The scoop he's playing with is his favorite "toy" of the moment. It's this weird melon-baller/ice cream scoop combo that I've had since college.

Found it! Playing catch-up.

2009-08-17T09:28:00.005-05:00

We found the camera battery charger! I don't have a lot of time this morning, but I wanted to post a few quick shots of what we've been up to the past couple of weeks:

We met Grammy's new kittens.

Loved on Kona.

What happens to your shirt when you love on Kona.

Found the stairs (new gate arriving via UPS today).

Got contained so mama can start dinner once in a blue moon.

Tried spaghetti for the first time. He liked the first couple of bites and spit out the rest, so I guess the jury is still out.

Sorry

2009-08-14T08:06:00.001-05:00

I have stuff to post, I do. Just as soon as I can find the charger for our camera battery...

10 months

2009-07-26T15:07:00.001-05:00

Today we have a 10-month-old (Amery) and a 4-year-old (Kona). We spent the afternoon with Jon's parents in Lago Vista. We had a fun time meeing their new kittens and playing at their neighborhood pool.

The birthday boy:

Four Years

2009-07-16T10:20:00.003-05:00

Today is our 4th anniversary! Here's a pic from the happy day:

It was 100 degrees that day which is unusually warm for Minnesota. Now we live a few thousand miles south and it's the same temperature...every day. Luckily we don't go around wearing ball gowns and wool tuxedos on a regular basis down here.

New Robe

2009-07-08T06:40:00.000-05:00

Check it out, there's a dinosaur on my head (x 3).

Aaand we're done.