Santa Fe Baby!

Brad and I took our Christmas/Annivesary trip this weekend to Santa Fe. The trip was so relaxing and perfect! We had a great hotel (free!!!) and we had a nice room upgrade so we had a little living room, fireplaces, and the bedroom. The pool area was awesome and since it wasn't even remotely hot, we just sat by the pool without getting in. We walked around Santa Fe for a little bit on Saturday then relaxed the rest of the night at the hotel. Again, the hotel was awesome, so we were occupied with the hot tub, a walk through the casino, and watching the boob tube in our comfy bed! On Sunday we had an amazing free breakfast and then headed over to Bandalier National Park. We visited the cave dwellings (I wasn't impressed!) and then hiked for about an hour. I wasn't prepared for the cool weather and had to buy a t-shirt at the gift shop to wear for part of the hike. So yes, I was that person wearing the shirt while in the location stated on said shirt. Does that make sense?! :)

We were back in Dallas by noon on Monday and were excited to get back to John. He looked so old and big when we saw him! He is so good a pulling up on the coffee table, couch, crib...anything that is sturdy enough to hold his weight! He cracks me up because when I get him after naps, he is just standing in his crib smiling at me! Precious!

Speaking of...John is waking up so enjoy the pictures...

Happy Father's Day Brad!!!!

We celebrated our first Father's Day this weekend! John and I took Brad to Amore's on Saturday night for an early Father's Day dinner. As usual, the food was yummy. Also, there were only 3 other groups of people there so I wasn't super paranoid about John making too much noise. This was only his 4th time at a restaurant and his FIRST time in a restaurant high chair!! He did really well...and the music was loud enough to cover up his 'talking'.





This morning I let Brad sleep in (although he said he was still woken up when John was crying. Oops!!) and got him some breakfast for when he woke up. I took John to get Brad an apple fritter and chocolate milk from his favorite donut shop. I would have make him something at home, but he doesn't seem to like when I make him breakfast for some reason. hmmmmm.... John and I were crafty and had made some of Brad's presents. Well, I guess I should say I made them and John kept trying to eat the paper so all wrinkles in the project were courtesy of John.



Later we continued the celebration by going grocery shopping (FUN!!) and got some Father's Day Wendy's!!! After John woke up from his nap we went swimming in the backyard for a little while. Brad has one of his 'Daddy Dark Ale' beers...and John had his first experience of choking on pool water! He did NOT like that one bit!! :(



That about wraps up our celebration...unless you count going for a walk after dinner and giving John a bath before bed. But I don't count that...but then again I counted going to Kroger's as part of the celebration, so whatever...

John did have some random acts of cuteness over the past couple days. (He is always cute, so I guess they are random acts of SUPER cuteness!) He is still crawling all over and FINALLY caught Gracie today! He LOVES Gracie, but she doesn't seem to care for him all that much. However, John took full advantage of Gracie being preoccupied with food and pounced! Gracie just kind of looked at him and kept on eating. John was laughing and loved petting her. Too cute!





John also managed to make his way onto the shelf on our coffee table. Am I seeing a future of a really active child that I can't leave alone for a second????



He also is learning to pull up on things. I was on the laptop this morning and I see John's head pop up on the other side of the coffee table and there he was standing as if he had been doing that forever! By the time I ran to get the camera and turned it on, he fell. (Don't worry. I caught him...that time.) However, he wasn't quite so lucky the next time he tried that and I couldn't catch him in time and he hit his head and cried for a little bit on that one. Now my poor baby has a mark on his face. :(



I need to do some more baby-proofing now since not only does he hit his head alot, but he can grab things on the coffee table now so I need to keep that cleared off! Why don't people tell you having a baby is hard work BEFORE you get pregnant?!?!!?! :) Good thing John is so cute and totally worth all the hard work (especially when he sleeps like this!)

Weekend Update...and Monday :)

So John has done it again and met new milestones!!! But let's not get ahead of ourselves and start with Saturday...

Saturday we went to a mom's group Family BBQ. We had so much fun with the other families (about 9 all together). We went to a neighborhood pool and then cooked out at Carrie's house while the babies played on the floor. They were all so cute together! John is younger than most babies, but I think is advanced! hehe. I mean, there was only one baby there that was crawling so John will be schooling them tomorrow at our weekly playgroup! Well, if you can crawl in the pool, then he will be schoolin' it up!





Sunday we headed out to Em and Jeremy's summer BBQ, which again was super fun! Up until Sunday, Sweet Baby John has been on the verge of crawling. He gets on all fours, bounces around, and even would move his legs and arms randomly. Then on Sunday at Em's BBQ, he just decided he was ready and crawled across the floor with pretty good coordination! I was so excited! Ever since then he has been a crawlin' fool and I can't leave him alone for a second. He loves to try to crawl to Gracie, but right now she is MUCH faster than him and gets away easily (which is amazing considering she is about 50 pounds overweight). Yesterday when Brad came home, John starting laughing and crawling right over to him as fast as he could. How cute is that?!

At the same time that John 'mastered' crawling at Em's, he also went from a crawling position to a seated position. Not sure if that was on purpose because he hasn't done that again, but I was impressed. Maybe we need to go to Em's more often and John will learn to walk in no time!



John got tuckered out at the pool and fell asleep as soon as I put him down.






The summer has been nice so far...well it has only been two days! :) John is too cute and I am glad I am home to see him because he is certainly different during the day compared to at night when I see him when I am teaching. He smiles and laughs all the time and is so interested in everything around him. Monday he was slightly cranky so I took him for a walk in his new stroller. Note the before and after picture. Too precious! Tomorrow we are going to the library for story time in Frisco which should be fun. Then we will head to the playgroup so he will have a full day! Thursday and Friday will be spent making Brad his Father's Day gifts...not sure what they are going to be yet so I had better start getting that together! Any ideas???





Also, here is a sneak peak at what I am making for Laura's daughter's 1st birthday next month. I think it will turn out super cute. So...question...should I put her name on it or leave it plain?

Latest and Greatest

Well, school is officially out for summer! Oh wait...I am still working. Boo. Only three more days until I am finished writing curriculum and have two months off! I was leaning towards not going back to work next year and living the glorious life of a stay at home mom. After talking to Brad tonight (for the millionth time!), now I am back to going to work for another year. This will help us build up our savings again (new air conditioners are EXPENSIVE!) so I can stay home the next year. I am not thrilled with going back to work so hopefully I can tough it out for one more year.

Anyway...

John is getting super big and learning new things. He is on the verge of crawling. I know, I know. I have been saying that for a while. BUT, he actually started to crawl tonight! He moved his legs and arms, just not in a coordinated fashion. I give it another day or two before he figures it out and keeps his balance. It is funny because he picks up his leg and extends it all the way out and doesn't know how to place it back down again to keep moving. Too cute! He has learned how to hold his bottle now basically without any help. He is eating his veggies like crazy and even starts to get cranky when you stop feeding him. He LOVES to eat so I am glad he isn't a fat baby! John is also getting really strong and can almost pull himself up to standing. He is always wanting to stand and can even hold himself up against my arms or an ottoman for a couple seconds at a time. Very impressive! I am so excited that I get to spend every day with him starting next week!

I made a couple more tag blankets and crinkle blankets for John and Bella. John of course loves his and hopefully Bella will too once she gets old enough to hold things. My next sewing challenge will be to make bibs and hooded towels. I can't wait! I am also going to make a blanket for Laura's baby that I am hoping will turn out really pretty. I am excited to go to the store next week and pick out some pretty material for little Ellie's first birthday. Can you believe she is almost a year old?! I can't wait for them to visit this summer.

Enjoy the pics!