Quick Videos

This first one was the 2nd time this happened, so I had to get it on video. You see, my car is my stage, and my dance floor. I guess he's picking up on that as well! HAHA.



Thisone is what happened after I told him his cousin Fletcher was coming in tomorrow.

Halloween Weekend

Beauty in the Common Things: A good doctor. As a kid, I had to wait almost an hour just to get to the little room, then wait again to see the doctor. Now I get in the doctor, have time to flip through the front part of a People magazine and I'm in! Then I sit in a comfy room and see the doctor pretty quickly.

Listen In: My boys are playing hide and seek this early Saturday morning.

View from Kitchen Window: We are finally getting our new fence today. Looking forward to getting that done.

Last weekend we went back to our old stomping ground for SFA's homecoming. First stop was the big bonfire.

The next morning, we met friends for the annual homecoming parade. This is the first one I've actually been a spectator at. I've been in a few back in the day, but it was fun to watch and see Grant enjoy it. Here is the Yellow House's (the Church of Christ Student Union where Daniel and I met) float. The theme was "Lights, Camera, Axe'Em!", a Hollywood theme. The float is along the lines of Jurassic Park.

Here is Grant's favorite part, the Lumberjack band.

Daniel's sister, Erica, is now a freshman at SFA. She met us at the parade.

That afternoon, Grant and I had a great nap while Daniel and his Dad, and sister Erica went to the football game. We saw many friends that we miss and their kiddos. That night Erica showed me her dorm, where is actually where I lived, and is actually named after a relative of mine. This sign was on the wall of the dorm, and I thought it was pretty appropriate!

I learned many lessons while in college, some good, some not so good, and some just plain stupid, but I bet I'm not alone. In the end, I got my degree hanging on my wall, met life long friends, and met the man God made for me. Ok, enough of the reflecting...lets get back to the subject!

That evening we went to one of my favorite restaurants, one that I crave quite often, Szechuans Chinese Restaurant. Thanks to my in-laws for going with us, even though they aren't big Chinese food fans. In college, my friend Matt and I used to hit this place up about once a week and definatley before going to look at Christmas lights (an annual event for us). In this picture, Daniel is eating what the call the PooPoo Platter. Its basically some meat items with fire in the middle. Fun to say and fun to eat!

My sister went to SFA as well and we have mutual friends at the Yellow House. We were able to spend some time with them as well. Here is Vivian and Daniel hanging out. I love how they both have a little smirk on their face.

Speaking of Vivian, my mom sent me these pictures of her and Grant playing one day. Aren't these the sweetest. I'm confident that Grant will be a great big brother one day.


Ok, back to the weekend, we left SFA early to be back for Halloween festivities. First stop, Trunk or Treat. Mimi went with us while we left the men at home to watch the World Series. Grant wanted to wear his rooster costume, but it was covered in pizza sauce from children's day out. I found a train whistle for him to use with this conductor costume, so he then got easily excited to wear that.

We ran into Christine and Eric while we were there. Their little monkey kept trying to eat the Play-Do.

From there, we headed to another church's festival. Here is Grant checking out his finds.

Oh, those dimples!
The church had many games for the kids to play.

We were glad to see Corbin who invited us to come. They are so cute together!

Grant patiently waited for his turn to ride the horses. He kept turning around to me and saying, "It's my turn, Mommy."


Grant finally got his turn and he seemed like a natural. Of course, I had to pull him off as he was screaming for more.

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend. Nothing better than friends, family, and candy!!!

On This Farm There Was a Rooster...

Grant's Halloween costume was already purchased when we found out that Children's Day Out was having 'Noah's Ark Day' and he had to dress as an animal. My wheels got to turning and I knew I couldn't spend too much and it had to be simple as well as cool and comfortable for him to play in. I asked him several times what he wanted to be and he answered rooster (or as he says, 'woosta' in toddler talk). So to accomodate those dimples of his, I went out to seek the best way to make this costume. I have minimal sewing skills that I learned from my grandmother and home ec in high school. I have sewing machine I got for Christmas last year that I've used to hem pants during softball season, but nothing major can be done by me. So with the help of the internet, my mom, and the October edition of Parent's magazine, I came up with this mix to make an adorable and functional custom.

I started with a bright yellow $3 t-shirt from Wal-Mart, a white toddler hat from Ebay, and white sweatpants from an internet store.

I got white and yellow felt and cut 'feathers' basically in the shape of a leaf.

I cut a rooster comb out of red felt, stuffed it with pillow stuffing and sewed it to the top of the hat.

I made chicken feet by using orange felt and pillow stuffing and sewing it on the front of the sweatpants.

I sewed the felt feathers along with white craft feathers to the front of the shirt, making sure to cover the blue shark. I sewed it all by hand so it could be easily warn again with the feathers off. Grant wasn't interested in trying it on when I was done for a picture, so I conned my unhappy husband into doing it!

It took a while to convince Grajt to put it all on (and I had to take some feathers off around his neck) but we got it on and he loved it!

He ran around his classroom screaming "cocka cocka doo!"

It was a hit and Grant was one happy customer!

Halloween Costume Time!

Beauty in the Common Things: people rallying together for the Rangers. Looking for another win on Friday so we can rally some more!

Listen In: "Life" on the Discovery Channel. Daniel is recording it on DVD for class to show them some clips. What a great series!

View from the Kitchen Window: Who cares, its almost bed time!

Earlier in the week, my sister and I took our babies to a local pumpkin patch for some costume pictures. Grant was a train conductor and Vivian was Snow White. They had a great time and we got some great shots.

He loves being a 'big cousin'!

Vivian in her stylish fall outfit

He couldn't decide where to start!

I had to bribe him to keep that hat on. It worked, I love it!

Now Starring: October!

When October 1st rolled around, I did a mini-dance. To me, October means the beginning of cooler weather, holidays, activities with people you love, and shopping!

Daniel's family came in the first of the month and I thought it'd be a great time to carve some pumpkins. I did one with Grant last year, but he just sat and watched me. This year, I was thinking how much he'd love to play in the slimy gunk of the pumpkin carving process.

So, it turned out I was wrong. Grant got all excited to help me out. So I got everything set up, started pullling out the gunk and I see him gagging...repeatedly! We had to run him out of the room! Daniel brought him in later just because he thought it was funny and there Grant goes gagging again! So much for family fun. However, Daniel did join me and we ended up making some great looking jack-o-laterns!

Grant just decided to dance and entertain us from the next room...away from the smelly gunk!
I made the cat, and Daniel made the "Trick or Treat". Not bad!

Our HS football team isn't doing so hot, but the bright side of this is that we can sit where we want to because the stands are empty! WOO HOO! We got to sit next to our friends! "Toot and Boogie" got bored for awhile and began playing on our iPhones. It was hilarious, looks like they are texting!

Like I said in the previous blog, we got to go to a family reunion today, located in Hutto, TX. Apparently home to the fighting Hutto hippoes. HAHA. They had them ALL around town. Looks like Grant doesn't know what to think!

Grant had fun seeing cousin Fletcher and even made some new friends! I loved the sign on the swing set.

What a great looking clan! The result of 11 siblings...and this wasn't even half of it!

Sister in law and our newest addition, my beautiful niece!

I was told to be silly, but no one else followed this rule. My siblings and I.

Best Mom ever...hands down!

They were all sitting on this swing and Fletcher was telling them a story as I pushed them. It was pretty adorable!

Fall on the Horizon, Bye Bye September

Beauty in the Common Things: Seeing family. Went to my first family reunion today on my Dad's father's side. It was nice to finally put faces with names that I've heard for 20 some odd years. Wish I could have had more time to get to know them.

Listen In: Grant reading to his giraffe and elephant. Grant and I read his favorite books every night now before bed time, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "ABC with Dr. Suess". Cloudy was one of my personal favorites that I bought for his first Christmas, so I'm excited he's taking a liking to it. The ABC one (which we somehow have 3 copies of!), we both have basically memorized by now, so that's what he's reading to them. Smarty pants!

View from Kitchen Window: A dogless backyard. Honey and Rowdy have escaped for the last time...they are camping out at MiMi and PawPaw's until we get a new fence. It is frustrating all the way around!

September seemed to go by so fast. Daniel and I have been busy with school, getting the Interact club back in full swing, getting Grant back into children's day out, and just life in general. Right now, there is no free weekend for quite awhile! I guess I should have plenty to blog about!

Of course, the weather has began to get cooler and therefore nicer, so we've been spending more time outside. Grant got a sandbox for his birthday in April, but we finally got to fill it and and let him have at it. I think there are almost as many toys as there is sand in the box, but thats ok!

I'm continuing to work on my masters and will finish in 8 months! I now have a few friends that are in the same program, so we've been working hard together. I was cracking up at Christine and I in these heaphone/mics that I borrowed from school for a project. "Welcome to Wendy's, can I take your order?"

One Saturday morning, we made an impromtu visit to the Dallas Zoo. We recently became members, so its all free to us....this is a good thing since it poured down rain once we came into Dallas County! We decided to get some ponchos and brave it anyway.

This is Dallas Zoo's new exhibit that I had yet to see.
Some of the animals were hiding from the rain, but not the lions. We walked up to the glass and there was about 5 of them hanging around. I noticed a small lion looking like he was ready to pounce, and he was glaring at my son. I punched my husband and told him to take a look, and as soon as I did, that lion took off running toward Grant. Now of course we are on the other side of this thick glass, but I grabbed Grant up and Daniel stepped in front of us. Gran just laughed. This lion turned fast and then began trying to dig to get to Grant. The large female lion slapped this one on the behind to make him stop, there was roaring back and forth. Grant was just laughing. Then this lion, as you can see by the picture, began pawing at Grant on the glass. At that point, I thought, "OH! Good, this thing is just playing, not trying to eat my son. Phew!" The zoo keeper was standing there and said the lion was 2 years old...haha just like Grant (but much bigger!)


The male lion of the pride just enjoyed the rain, I guess. I thought this was a cool shot.

Like I said earlier, we got some ponchos with our gift shop discount and I laughed most of the time at Grant with that poncho on. It was way too big and to me he looked like E.T. in the scene where he is dressed as a ghost for Halloween.
The rain wasn't letting up, so we decided to go eat lunch somewhere and head home. But of course we had to hit the merry-go-round first! Check out those dimples on Grant and the chest on the gorilla (haha!)

Oh no, someone caught me making that same face my mother does! EEK! Grant didn't want me holding him....

Another afternoon, we took a visit to my friend Vanessa's house. She has several horses and let Grant 'play' with them. He loved sitting on Faux Pas. She's about 8 times older than Grant!

He also got to brush Penny and make her coat shiny! Thanks Vanessa for letting us come over! We'll have to do it again soon!