Alphabet Wall

I'm posting this so I can always remember this idea of an alphabet wall - I LOVE it! I'm hoping that our next house will have a fully dedicated space for Connor and any other siblings that might join him in the future. I think this would be so cute for a play room or loft area with a red couch.

11 Months Old

I can't believe Connor is almost a year old! This past month he has really changed, it seems like every 3 or 4 days he has mastered something new. He just recently mastered the art of drinking from a sippy cup, it took him a while to realize that you had to hold the cup up at an angle to get juice. He is also on the verge of walking. He has stood a few times on his own and even taken a step on his own a few times but he gets scared when he realizes we aren't holding him and lunges for us. I definitely think he will be walking by one. Connor certainly knows how to give attitude now, if he doesn't like something he isn't afraid to let you know. And he has been going through a phase for the last month or so where he is very clingy with mom or dad, his choice of parent varies from day to day. Connor still loves soup and yogurt, he has also become quite a fan of veggie snack sticks and cinnamon sticks. Connor has also moved up to a big boy car seat, everyone is traveling much better now that Connor has more room and is facing mom and dad. And this little guy loves music, anytime a song comes on he moves up and down and claps his hands and smiles. One of his presents from Santa was a sit and spin that plays music when you hit the top of it, Connor will continuously hit the top so the music will play.

It's unfathomable to Michael and I that in just one month Connor will be a year old, it's almost scary how fast time has gone by - I just can't imagine how quickly the next few years will go by.

Connor wasn't in the mood to have his picture taken today (he didn't want to be put down he only wanted to be held) so this is the best we could get!

Cruisin'

When we got back to Corpus today we took Connor for a ride around the neighborhood in his new red convertible. He was cruisin' for his neighborhood girlfriends; Lucy, Lola, Sydney and Jayde (he is quite the ladies man).

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was fun and magical this year with Connor. Even though he doesn't understand Christmas it was still so special sharing this holiday with him. Below are some pictures from Christmas morning which was spent in Huntsville at my parent's home.

Connor's presents from Santa.
Connor sorting through all the goodies in his stocking.
This ended up being the item that Connor was most interested in from his stocking, Vick's Baby Vapor Rub. Connor has a lot of congestion at night, I guess Santa figured Connor could really use this.
Santa brought Connor a car, we can push Connor in it and when he gets bigger he can push himself in it with his feet. It even has a horn, lights and a radio! Connor liked his car so much that he decided to sit in all morning and open his other gifts in it.
Connor opening his set of Elmo books.
Connor opening his Elmo boom box. I think Connor got 3 stuffed Elmo's for Christmas including a giant Elmo from Grammy, several Elmo toys and DVDs - I think the kid now has everything ever made with Elmo on it.
Connor riding his bull from Santa.
And just because I thought this was cute!
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, it is the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas Card 2009

First Christmas

Connor had a busy Monday! We went to visit Nana Sue who had several presents for Connor. Connor loved seeing Nana Sue and visiting with her. Nana Sue is very special to Connor and I, she is a very dear friend and we are blessed to have her in our lives.

Connor and Nana Sue unwrapping Connor's very first Christmas present! He loves ripping paper so unwrapping presents was pretty exciting for Connor.
Connor mesmerized by his very first tractor. The tractor has a farmer and cow that came with it, Connor has carried both around nonstop.
Connor checking out his new clothes from Nana Sue.
When we arrived back home Connor helped me deliver our annual cookies to our neighbors (we live on a corner so we have a lot of neighbors). During our deliveries Connor even got to stop and play with his friend Sydney and I enjoyed visiting with her mom Elizabeth.

Notice Connor holding the cow in his hand.
And then we had Christmas with Grandad and Grandma! We had our annual Christmas dinner at Texas A-1, then went to the grandparents to open Christmas presents. Grandad wore his Santa hat for Connor, next year we need to see if we can get him in the full suit.

Grandad and Connor opening his Elmo Live, of course Connor loved it and anytime Elmo sings Connor dances to the music.
Connor and Grandad opening another present, as you can see Connor was enjoying Christmas.
So it's true, babies like the paper and boxes the most! Connor playing in the big box.
This was what was in the big box, his retro rocket. He loved it too. He played with it all day today, he loves pushing the buttons that say "blast off".
We had a wonderful start to Christmas, it was amazing watching Connor open his gifts and see the excitement in his eyes. We are truly blessed to have so many friends and family that care so much about us.

Room for Rent

So this is where we found Elf today. I wonder if he is trying to tell us something? Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to have Elf move in so we always know he and Santa are keeping an eye on Connor. It would certainly help Connor to remain on his best behavior, at least that is what one would think!

Shortcut

Connor discovered a shortcut to the dinning room window, just walk under the table!Enjoying the view, not a great view however since the entire lower half of that window is blocked by a giant palm tree.

Christmas Cookies

Every year I make Christmas cookies for our neighbors, this year I wasn't going to make them, our schedule is a little different with a 10 month old and I've been gone for two weeks in a row. However I decided to make cookies so that I could give them as a gift to Connor's teachers at school. When I decided to do this I didn't realize that I would have to have the cookies made this week (Connor is out of school all next week) so the night we got home from Vegas (Wednesday) I started making cookies and finished them up the next night, Thursday. I made five different cookies; monster, chocolate chip pecan, toffee snickerdoodles, Nieman Marcus and chocolate white chocolate chunk. The good news is with making this many batches of cookies we have plenty for teachers, friends and neighbors and even a few for ourselves!

Connor's teachers cookies in Christmas cookies jars.
Here are a few of the cookies for our neighbors. I have about six more I still have to assemble.

Connor's Ornament

A few weeks ago we took Connor to an art center to make a Christmas ornament, I finally got around to picking it up yesterday. I'll speak for Michael and myself by saying it's quite beautiful and our favorite ornament on the tree. Connor did have some help from mommy with making the ornament, Connor's hand was used to make a reindeer and I painted the antlers, name and polka dots. We had a fun time making the ornament and best of all we have a lasting memory!

Daddy and Connor hanging his ornament on the tree.
The most beautiful ornament on the tree.
And as you can see it looks amazing on our tree.

Las Vegas

We spent the past three days in Las Vegas with some of our best friends; Nick, Misty and Nick's girlfriend Felicity (who if from Australia). We had a ton of fun, we ate great food at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill and Mario Batali's restaurant, B&B Ristorante. We did some gambling and Michael and I both won a little money, I managed to squeeze in a little shopping and we also went to two shows; The Price is Right and Mystere.

This is in the Palazzo, the bears are made out of white poinsettias.
The gang headed to The Price is Right, Felicity was called to contestants row but overbid on a popcorn machine.
The announcer for the price is right is Dave Ruprecht, in case that name doesn't ring a bell he was the host of the fabulous show Supermarket Sweep. Misty and I were pretty excited to meet him!
The girls before Mystere. We had drink coupons at the bar right outside the theater - buy one get one. We each ordered two drinks for the show not realizing that you couldn't take them into the show. We reverted back to being under 21 and snuck the drinks in our pockets and purses, pretty smart.
We had great seats for Mystere, the show was amazing. I think one of the highlights for everyone was when the clown from Mystere used me as a prop during the show. I had to hold a candle for him above my head. He ended up taping my arm up and putting a foam Statue of Liberty cap on me, everyone got a good laugh of it and Michael was able to sneak a picture of me in my costume on Misty's camera.

And on the way home, Misty and Felicity stayed out all night before we headed home. We couldn't believe that they made the flight, Misty lost her boarding pass three times at the airport - we will blame that on the alcohol!

Nick and Misty passed out before the flight even took off.
And Felicity napped as well! She didn't even remember the plane taking off or landing!
We had a great time, hoping we can go back soon with everyone, Viva Las Vegas!

Saturday

Well we finally met Lola Nuse, the new daughter of our close friends Adam and Sarah and the little sister of Connor's girlfriend Lucy. Lola was born Monday when I was in Indianapolis and with work and the Nuse's having two small children we were just able to meet Lola today. She is beautiful just like her older sister and from what I can tell they look a lot alike. It was great to see Adam and Sarah and to hear all about how Lola has perfectly fit into their family. Lola sleeping, we didn't see too much of her eyes while we were visiting, apparently Lola is quite the sleeper according to her mom and dad.
The Milam's and Lola. Lucy was asleep while we were over, while I'm sure it broke Connor's heart not to see Lucy he was able to focus his attention on Lola. I wonder if he is going to be in love with both sisters, my guess is yes!

After our visit with Lola and the Nuse's Michael headed to the ranch to deer hunt so Connor and I decided to do some shopping, our favorite! I made the mistake of going to Target, yikes, it was so packed with Christmas shoppers. If I can help it I'm going to try to stay out of their the next two Saturday's before Christmas. Then I decided to go to the mall, another mistake. I went with the purpose of getting two things, a necklace and face lotion. I only got those two things but somehow Connor and I managed to shop for almost three hours. Luckily Connor is a great shopper, as long as you feed him a snack he is good to go! So he ate Teddy Grams while I browsed. They are redoing our entire mall and every time I go in it seems like we have a new store so I tend to get sucked into walking the entire mall and going into every new store. By far my biggest mistake of the day was going into Spencer's to look for a white elephant gift for my company Christmas party tomorrow night. Oh my gosh, we got trapped in the store and could not get out, it was filled with teenagers and more teenagers - I don't think I'll ever go back in there again (even though I go in once a year for a white elephant gift and that's it).

While we were at the mall Connor and I ran into my other best Corpus friend Jen (the other is Sarah). Jen was shopping at the mall with her mom, sister Val and her daughter Ariana. I love Jen's family, they are all wonderful and so caring towards Connor, Michael and I. Jen and Val took turns playing with Connor, while Connor enjoyed playing with both of them he was focused on Ariana the majority of the time. I don't know what it is with him and older women.

Jen and Connor posing!
The whole family (minus Jen's dad and youngest sister Melissa).

Baseball Winter Meetings

I just experienced my first real trip away from Connor, and while it was fun, boy was I ever glad to get home and see my little guy. I was in Indianapolis Sunday - Thursday for the Baseball Winter Meetings. I always have fun on this and the good news was that their was a lot to do so it helped the time to pass while I was gone from my boys. I cried the entire way to the airport, I sat in the back with Connor and we held hands all the way to the airport, then when Michael dropped me off at the terminal I really lost it. Once we were in Houston today, headed home I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, I couldn't wait to see Connor. When I picked Connor up from school he was taking a nap so I didn't get quite the reaction I was hoping for. But Connor and I did plenty of playing and cuddling this afternoon to make up for lost time.

Indianapolis was freezing, but it was worth it because it snowed everyday that we were there! When we left this morning the temperature was 12 degrees and the day before it was 20 degrees with winds up to 50 mph! I have to say even though it was freezing I enjoyed the cold and the snow, especially since it is Christmas, every time I walked outside and it was snowing I would sing White Christmas or Let It Snow.

When I first started going to the Winter Meetings 6 years ago I was 23 and could stay up late every night socializing with everyone. This year I amazed myself by staying out one night until 1:45! The other nights I was in by 11:00, I even got to sleep in until 10:00 a.m. one morning - it's been at least 10 months since I've done that!

The other great part about our trip was that we stayed right across the street from the Circle Centre Mall and it had two of my favorites, Nordstrom and H&M! Once again Connor made out better than I did, I got him three shirts from H&M, it's a really good thing that they didn't have a huge selection of baby boy clothes or I would have needed a separate suitcase for his purchases. I also ate at Steak & Shake for the first time, it was great, our President, Ken loves Steak & Shake and insisted we eat there before we leave.

We always get to do some pretty neat things when we are at the Winter Meetings. This year we went to an Indiana Pacers basketball game, we had amazing seats behind the Portland Trailblazers bench. The Trailblazers stayed at the same hotel we did and I kept seeing them in the lobby, so I tried to see which players I recognized by their shoes. We also attended the Winter Meetings Gala which was held at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Colts. The entire stadium was rented out for attendees of the Winter Meetings. The highlight by far was getting to go on the field and to the press box. It was unbelievable how big the press box was, it was the entire length of the stadium and we got to go in the booth where network TV broadcast from, it was neat to see the same view that you always see on TV.

I'm so glad to be back home and with Connor, Michael flew to Odessa this morning so I won't see him until Friday evening, but I can't wait to be reunited with all of my boys!

This is a picture from outside our hotel, this is the lighted Christmas tree in downtown Indianapolis. It was gorgeous at night when you could really see the lights.
My feet compared to one of the Indiana Pacers feet, this player wears a size 18 shoe!
My Round Rock work buddies and me at the Pacers game - Larry, Heather and Clint.
And at Lucas Oil Stadium.
I just had to take a picture of this from the press box, this is the sign outisde of the instant replay room.

Breakfast With Santa

Today Michael, Connor and I all had a special treat, we got to eat Breakfast with Santa! We were invited to a waffle breakfast with Santa at St. James Episcopal School. St. James is a private school that we are looking at sending Connor to when he is two. They put on a lot of neat events like Breakfast with Santa which is just one of the many reasons while Michael and I are considering this school. Our good friends the Nuse's were also at Breakfast with Santa, we had lots of fun hanging out with them and watching the kids run around in their festive holiday outfits. Connor had a great time at Breakfast with Santa, he didn't eat any waffles but he sure ate a lot of watermelon for breakfast. Connor was fascinated with all the kids running around in their red and green outfits, he also met Santa for the first time and listened to a Christmas story being read.

Daddy and Connor at Breakfast with Santa, I think Connor was looking at some cute little girls while I took this picture.
Connor and his favorite girl, Lucy.
Connor listening to a story being read.
And Connor losing interest in the story.
And finally, Connor meeting Santa for the very first time. Connor was very curious about Santa, he stared at him for quite a while before he would look at the camera for his picture, then he went right back to staring at Santa. I wonder what he told Santa he wanted for Christmas?

Santa Baby

Well here is my Santa Baby, pretty cute!

Elf on the Shelf

Connor's Elf on the Shelf has now made two visits to check up on Connor, he started visiting on December 1st. Elf comes every night to our house and when Connor wakes up we go find Elf in our house. So far we've found Elf on Connor's crib and the very top of our refrigerator. Elf is checking in on Connor to see if he's been a good boy, and then he travels back to the North Pole to give Santa a full report! I think Connor is going to get a pretty good report, even though the past two nights Connor hasn't wanted to go to bed.

Every time we see Elf in the morning Connor gets excited, he points and grins and I even think he is trying to say Elf. I guess Connor knows how important Elf is!

Elf checking in on Connor while he sleeps.