seven month update

• 20 lbs. & 28 inches long

• sat at the end of the month on his own (in kansas), but almost the entire month he had the help of his bumbo

• still has his baby blue eyes

• puts anything he can get grab into his mouth

• thinks his big sister is the funniest person ever, especially when she plays peek-a-boo with him

• first independence day parade! loved waving the flag.

•met caleigha and crystal for the first time!

• went swimming for the first time (hyatt hill country) and loved it

• has 2 naps a day

• goes to bed around 7pm and sleeps until around 8 am, but has been known to go to bed around 5:30-6 p.m. and sleep that late.

• wakes up and is in the best mood. i'm always greeted with a smile!

• loves the jumperoo

• loves when we read books to him

• doesn't like to be held as much anymore. wants to be down on the ground where all the action is!

• had his first jar of food...peaches...on our trip to san antonio with crystal. he loved them!

• went to the alamo for the first time

• first train ride (at hermann park)

• got lots of hugs, kisses, hand holding, and footsie playing with caleigha (and we have the pictures to prove it!)

• is a great little shopper with mommy

• is full of smiles

• still enjoys sitting in the bumbo, although he's about to figure out how to crawl out!

• starting to see more signs of drool, but no teeth yet

• first plane ride (to see g.g. in kansas)

• trying to sit up without my help

i just love the heck out of this little guy! i was worried that he'd get the short end of the stick being the third, but he and i have lots of special time together. now his baby book getting filled in...that's another story!

7 months & heading to kansas!

what a crazy week it's been. i handmade melinda's baby shower invites, lost another 2 lbs, and bought clothes for our trip to kansas!


i'm glad they were excited about flying! i was a nervous wreck! we got to the airport without any problems. the big kids were a huge help carrying their booster seats while we carried all the other pieces of luggage. after breakfast we took a few pictures because this is brandon's FIRST trip on an airplane!


james sat in front of me and jared and lauren sat next to me. james and i passed brandon back and forth a few times, but mostly he sat with me. it was better for me to hold him. i stayed much calmer. and i took pictures of us to keep my mind off of the turbulence. and there is a picture of lauren actually holding my hand through one rough area. so funny that my four year old is keeping me calm! ha ha


after lunch at cracker barrel and a 2 1/2 hour drive into kansas, we arrived at g.g.'s nursing home. we were so happy to finally be there. she was so happy to see the kids and meet brandon for the very first time. it is obvious how smitten she was in the instant that she held him.

we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to find aunt kristin had made it into town! the kids love playing games with her!


brandon put on a great show as usual. lots of big smiles. the big kids were also very well behaved. they colored with aunt kristin and jared read us some of his new star wars book.

after a few hours visiting with g.g., we let her rest and we headed off to dinner at braum's with aunt kristin. afterwards, the kids talked aunt kristin into coming back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. it was too chilly for me and brandon! we enjoyed watching everyone else splash around.

we called it a night early. all that traveling made us tired!

linus

i can't believe that brandon is going to be seven months tomorrow. this sweet little guy is growing up so fast. i seriously cannot get enough of his cuteness!

i found this shirt at my favorite store! i don't know why, but it makes me giggle! and the big kids think it's pretty funny too! he definitely loves his little owl blankie like linus loves his!

hugs and kisses

just hanging out in the playroom. i love these kids. especially when they are behaving like this!


brandon kisses are wet! but brother and sister don't seem to mind!

let me poke your eyes out while i give you some love!

"okay you two, NO MORE kisses!"

"alright, maybe ONE more slobbery kiss for my big brother!"

lil buckaroo baby shower

i was glad to have something to focus on this week after crystal and caleigha left. i've been all moody and sad since they went home.

yesterday i went to see my sweet friend katie. she is the most amazing cake decorator. seeing her cheered me up. we came up with a design for the lil buckaroo baby shower to celebrate cheryl's sweet baby boy who is due in september!

these are the invitations i made by hand for her. i LOVED how they turned out. my favorite part was using the cowprint fabric for the ribbon ties. james' favorite part was that i finally used my fancy cutting machine to cut out all the little denim letters! :)

the hostesses and the mom-to-be

me, marie, cheryl, and alice

cheryl is doing baby boy's room in a western theme, so we decided to carry that over to the baby shower. i didn't want to go overboard though. i went with sunflowers, raffia, bandanna prints and a little bit of denim. this was where we had the cake set up. i also had really cute sunflower cupcakes made. the vases were too plain, so i dressed up with burlap and the matching paper that i had from the invites. i tied raffia around it and put three huge sunflowers in them. i picked up the pony as soon as i saw cheryl register for it. i knew that i wanted it to be a part of the centerpiece!

yum food. the corn dip was to die for. seriously. i think i ate most of it.chili and cornbread muffins

along with all the other goodies alice, marie, and i got for cheryl, i wanted to do something special just from me. i found casey the cow and then i made her burp cloths. i hope that she knows just how excited i am for her family and looking forward to watching this little boy grow up.

depressed

i just got home from the airport. i was fine until i got to the security check. i was holding caleigha and giving crystal one last hug. i felt my eyes welling up and i was like, "gotta go!" i took off towards the ticket counters and couldn't even look back. i hate living across the country from my best friend and her family.

it's so funny. a couple months ago i was heartbroken to lose a friendship with a girl from high school. i reconnected with her and crystal at our 10 yr. reunion. i felt like we were the 3 musketeers. i always felt like i was there for her...to celebrate the good times and support her through the bad times. but during my pregnancy, and especially in the days following brandon's birth...i realized she was no friend of mine.

ANYWAY...

what is my point? crystal and i had planned on surprising her at her baby shower. i am so thankful for that trip falling through because we would have been there in florida this past weekend instead of creating all of these fun memories here. after this trip, i'm reminded that crystal is such an amazing friend to me. she is here for me no matter what is going on in her life.

miss you already crystal (and your plane hasn't even taken off yet)!

pictures, hermann park, and the last supper

this morning after dropping jared and lauren off at summer camp, crystal and i took the babies around to take pictures. i wish i could post them all. we had such a fun time. here are some of my favorites!

sweet caleigha can almost stand up all by herself! i love that little dress!

now brandon's trying to make the move on her!

this picture makes me crack up! i am totally saving this one for the slideshow at their wedding! :)

crystal with the sweet babies

we found this fun little wall near vintage park. it was soooo bright outside and crystal wouldn't take off her glasses.

i'm trying to get in front of the camera more often. helps having crystal around since she knows how to frame a picture up. or to tell me to pull my shirt down. or to wipe the booger off the edge of my nose. ha ha

work it girl!

i took crystal over to a neighborhood where we had been considering building a house. we got some great pictures of crystal at a rock waterfall there. then we stopped at zaxby's for lunch. i got to hug on my sweet caleigha a little after i finished my lunch. i'm trying to get in as much as i can. i'm dreading them leaving tomorrow. i just love her. so glad crystal picked up the camera and took this one of us.


after we cooled down from the heat (did i mention it's 3 degrees cooler than hell here right now?) and picked the kids up from summer camp, we headed down to the medical center. i wanted to show crystal that area of town. it's so beautiful. she got to see where brandon spent the first week and a half of his life. at a stop light crystal took this picture of me. i don't know why, i just really like it a lot!

we went to hermann park and had to pitstop several times on the way to the train. omg. it was soooo hot outside. lauren was hanging all over crystal today. i think she knew that her time hanging out with her was running short.

lauren and jared are behaving...for the moment! and the girl is totally into her shades because crystal wearing her sunglasses!

finally got on the train! you can't tell in this photo that well, but brandon was bright red and sweaty. don't worry mom, we cooled him down on the ride!

our last picture together on this trip.

after the pictures and the train ride, we drove down to the galleria for crystal and caleigha's last supper. i wanted to take them to the grand lux cafe. the food was delish. some of the behavior from the guests at our table was less than desirable, but we managed to have a great time despite. besides, if we got rid of the main troublemaker, we wouldn't have been able to pay the bill! :)

crystal & caleigha outside of one of my favorite houston restaurants.

after dinner, we got home and we stayed up into the wee hours visiting. i busted out some of my scrapbook and wedding photos. some crazy pictures from college. we finally both hit that point where we had to go to bed, even though we wanted to stay up and talk some more. it was really hard for me to go to sleep knowing that when i woke up a couple hours later, that i would be sending them back home. i wish that we lived closer. i hate, hate, HATE this.

crabcakes!

this morning crystal stayed at the house with the kids while i took jared on to summer camp. when i got back, we got dressed and visited. we took some pictures of caleigha outside. i found this chair in my neighbor's yard, and i LOVE the fabric. you can't tell from the picture, but it's all soft and velvety! these are a few of my favorite pictures of her.

we had brandon dressed up in a cute outfit that crystal got him (so that they would match), but he was passed out in the stroller, and we didn't want to wake him up. these pictures post too small on this blog, but caleigha's eyes are stunning.

after we picked up jared at summer camp, we stopped at gringo's for lunch. we had a great meal and some fun conversations. what cracked me up was that while we were at lunch, we were already trying to figure out where we were going to go for dinner.

we decided on houston's. YUM! some pictures while we were waiting for james to arrive.



dinner was great. i loved the spinach artichoke dip. and had james taken the kids home and left me and crystal to dine with the babes, we wouldn't have such a funny story to tell about the crabcakes! by the way...my crabcakes were to die for! they were totally worth every penny. :)

another fun day with crystal and caleigha. i'm dreading tomorrow. it's the last full day of them in town. i don't want this trip to end!

i heart the hyatt hill country

we woke up bright & early this morning thanks to my kid's excitement! we got dressed and went down to breakfast in the little cafe. we told the kids that we were going to go outside to take a walk and try to get some pictures. the grounds of this resort are amazing. surprisingly, the kids were on board and we got some great pictures. here are a few...

crystal taking a picture of me taking a picture of jared!

caleigha and brandon

me and my littlest love

brandon is such a heart. he has been such a sweet addition to our family.

he is such a happy boy!

yay crystal for capturing a few good pictures of me and brandon!

crystal and caleigha

caleigha was NOT a fan of the grass!


lauren loves crystal. we did not plan this, but lauren and crystal almost had the exact same shirt on!

caleigha is such a happy girl, and it is obvious her mama is smitten by her!

after our little photo taking session, we went back upstairs and got packed up and then dressed for some more lazy river time.

lauren is having a blast!

jared and lauren are behaving nicely. lots of giggles and smiles make me happy!

caleigha is having fun in the water too! everyone keeps stopping us to talk to her and comment on her cuteness!


goofy boy!

love those raisin feet!

there were a few more pictures after this, but on the disposable camera. those are too grainy to even bother posting. don't ask why we had to bust out the disposable.

okay...i'll tell you.

we are floating along the back section of the river. i'm daydreaming and i look over at brandon who has been sleeping in his floatie for a while now. a little visual...he's leaning over the seat part of the floatie and resting his head on the front donut part. i notice that the front of his hat is all wet. i jump up and out of my float to grab him and scream for crystal who is a little ways back from me. i thought he had his face down in the water. it wasn't though. i think at some point water must have splashed over. obviously any mother would jump up and freak out over a situation like that. so thankful that my worst nightmare of a child drowning wasn't true. but something did drown. crystal's camera. crystal's camera that i dropped jumping out of my float. i pass off brandon to her and start grabbing underwater for the camera. THANKFULLY i got it out before water got into the battery/camera card compartment. i was sick to my stomach. all of our trip pictures outside were on that camera. not to mention it was crystal's mom's camera, and she hadn't uploaded a lot of her photos off of it either. obviously i was sick to my stomach.

we ended up busting out the disposable camera to get a few pictures just in case the camera card was ruined, ate lunch and then headed back to houston. after james got back from denver, we rushed to cvs and found out that the camera card was indeed okay and we breathed a sigh of relief. the camera could be replaced, but the memories of the trip couldn't. so thankful. and thank goodness that crystal didn't give me too hard of a time about ruining the camera. :) now i just have to figure out how i'm going to break the news to her mom!

even though we were exhausted from the quick road trip, we went to the movies to see "my sister's keeper." it was a boo hoo movie. and mine and crystal's first movie together. awww. how sweet. :) i'm going to be so sad when she leaves.