Family Lobsterfest 2009

Every year Jon's aunt and uncle send the family an awesome Christmas gift: a full lobster dinner. This year we got together on Beth's birthday to enjoy some tasty crustaceans. I refuse to be in the room when the lobsters are slaughtered. I admit, however, that I have no problem eating them when they are done.

This year's menu included cheese fondue, lobster bisque and shrimp corn chowder, fresh salad, boiled fresh Maine lobsters, and chocolate lava cakes with vanilla ice cream for dessert. I proudly made the lava cakes from scratch and, from what everyone tells me, they turned out great. I've had no sense of taste or smell for the past week due to a nasty cold (not swine flu, I swear) so I had to take everyone's word for it. Oh the irony.


Place mats that came with our lobsters.


The ginormous pot (aka, the instrument of death).


Nothing says ambiance like floating lobster candles.


Jon and the seaweed-covered lobsters.


The birthday girl (take the damn picture so I can eat my lobster).

Seven Months!

Amery is seven months old today! I have to cheat a little with this picture. It's actually from his six-month photo shoot. I promise I'll post an official seven-monther soon! We've been so busy with Grandma in town this past week that we haven't taken a single shot of them together.

First Easter (new pics added!)

Here are a few shots from Amery's first Easter.


Surprisingly chipper considering he did not want to wake up for the 7:00 sunrise service.


After church.


All dressed up with papa.



Right after this one was taken we broke the news that he can't actually eat the chocolate they handed out to the kids on the way out the door. Turns out he really just wanted to chew on the plastic eggs anyway.


It turned out to be a beautiful morning and we were able to have brunch out on the patio with our friends Drew and Carrie. The menu: Bacon-and-Egg Casserole, Amish friendship bread, mixed berries, coffee, juice, and mimosas.



Amery hung out with us on the patio.



Later that day with his cousins Jax and Jade.

More 6-month pictures

As promised, more cute shots of you-know-who! These would not exist without the awesome talent of our friend who took precious time out of her hectic schedule to spend a couple of hours with us.

Happy Easter!

When they told me they were taking Easter Bunny pictures at daycare, I pictured his teacher with a scary rabbit mask on her head. Good thing I dressed him in something cute, because we were pleasantly surprised by the final portraits.



Thirty-five dollars later we have enough wallet-sized copies to choke a French lop eared.

First Trip to the Zoo

Auntie Laura is in town so we took a trip to the Austin Zoo on Saturday. The zoo is really more of a rescue/sanctuary. All of the animals there have been rescued from a bad situation. Many were pets first before the owner realized that having a giant Bengal Tiger isn't such a good idea.

He was less than impressed with the fake gorilla in the gift shop.

It was almost 90 degrees on Saturday so we broke out the sun hat.

One of the large female lionesses. Check out that huge paw.

Checking out some monkeys with Auntie Laura.

Sneek Peek: Six-month photos

These were taken this morning by a good (and talented!) friend. There are more to come, but these were two of her faves that were waiting for me on my email shortly after our session.

Shopping Milestone

Amery sat up all by himself in the cart at the grocery store a couple of days ago. Hey, this is a major milestone when your mom likes to shop as much as his does.

Saturday Morning in Black and White

Hail. Lots of it. And big too.

Here are some pictures of the hail damage from a big storm that hit Austin last Wednesday. I also took some video out the back door of golf ball and tennis ball sized hail falling into our pool. It looked like the pool was boiling. We talk to the insurance people this week about my car and the house damage. Not much else to say other than we're pretty bummed.


Hood of my car. The whole thing looks like the upper right corner, you just can't see it in the picture.


The roof of my car. Again, the whole thing is banged up, but it's hard to take a picture of a silver car.


Canvas canopy over or deck/grill. The deck is also badly damaged but I didn't get a picture.

A few of the holes in the siding. They are roughly the size of tennis balls.

Close up of two of the holes.

I'm HOW OLD today?!

6 months!

Halfway to the big 0-1, buddy.



Sorry for the blurry photo. I didn't have a chance to take a picture this morning so all we had was this gem from Jon's camera phone.

At 6 months, three of my favorite things:

1. He reaches for us now when he wants us to pick him up. If I'm holding him, he will reach for Jon, then he'll turn around and reach back for me. This game continues until we become aware of his shananigan.

2. When I sing to him before bed, he touches my lips really softly with the tips of his fingers and closes his eyes. I think maybe the vibrations are calming for him. Every night we do the same songs in the same order: Norwegian Wood, I Will, Blackbird. Repeat. Sometimes I throw in Allison Kraus' When You Say Nothing At All on the end for some variety.

3. He grabs my cheeks with both hands with a big smile like he's going to give me a big kiss. But he's teething, so instead of a kiss, he leans in really fast and chomps the end of my nose. Too funny.

Avocado FAIL.

First bite:

Second bite:

No likey.

When in Texas

Sunday started out pretty normal. Get up, go to church, run a few errands. When it was time for lunch, Jon and I decided the only thing that sounded good was Smokey J's. Smokey J's is a cash-only barbecue stand that has been in Austin for years. I think Jon even frequented Smokey J's in high school. They have the best BBQ wraps in Austin in my humble non-native Texan opinion. On any given summer weekend I myself have been known to polish off three chopped wraps in a row with pickles and cheese, then top them off with potato salad and banana pudding.

Back to the story. As we were leaving Smokey J's, we saw a huge LONGHORN PHOTOS sign across the highway. Are you kidding? Of course we turned around. When we pulled up, we realized that the owner of said longhorns was non other than our old friend Ralph Fisher. Our faithful blog readers may remember our adventures in armadillo racing with Ralph way back in November 2007.

Amery wasn't too sure about sitting atop a giant steer. And he was BIG. I'm 5'4" so you can see how wide it is from tip to tip of those big horns. Immediately after this picture was taken, he stuck his lip out and started to wail.



Somehow I don't think the Easter Bunny photos in a couple of weeks are going to go over much better.

He was a little more open to the resident pony. Much closer to his own size!

Hey Sweet Potato!

Amery had his first "real" food last night.


He wasn't so sure about the first bite.


By the second bite he thought maybe there was something he liked about this "food" thing.


By the third bite he figured he would just do it himself.


He was clearly a pro by the time papa showd him how to do it.

Say Ya to Da UP, Eh?

If you're confused, you haven't been there.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Kiss me - I'm approximately 1/8 or less Irish.