Friday Night Football

It's that time of year again... what Cole refers to as "the most wonderful time of the year." Texas high school football is back and we have spent the past two nights in the stands watching.

Thursday night we headed to House Park to watch Cole's cousin, Michael, play for Austin High. You can see him in this first picture on the right (he is #20).

Connor got to see Nana, Poppa, and his great-grandparents so it was a fun night!

Connor hanging out with Poppa

Friday night we headed out to Dripping Springs to watch another game. Since it is impossible to keep our little man still for more than a few minutes we (Cheryl and I) spent most of the night letting him run around. He loved watching all the people and would just take off squealing in excitement. Needless to say he had lots of fun even if it didn't really involve football.

Nana and Connor

On another note....

All of you Friday Night Light fans would be happy to know that we saw Kyle Chandler "Coach Taylor" out at the DS game. How cool is that?!? Cole and I have enjoyed watching the show over the past few seasons. It is about a small town football team and is filmed here in Austin. We weren't sure why he was there, but maybe he was just doing some research. I restrained myself from taking a picture, but here is one I found online for those of you who don't know who he is.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Splash Day at Mimi's

Yesterday Connor and I spent the day at my mom's house. We had been waiting for this splash pad to go on clearance at Target and it finally did so we celebrated with a "Splash" party in the backyard. Connor had fun getting splashed by all the little fountains. He also loved going down the "whale" slide. I told him he had his own Sea World water park in Mimi's backyard.

While we were outside Connor saw his sand table and pool so we got those out to add to the fun!

Thank you Mimi for such a fun day! We don't mind it being so hot outside when we can do fun things like this! :)

Special Visitors

This past week Momma Lou and Ed came down from Texarkana for a visit. We all enjoyed spending time with them and Connor loved all the extra attention. Cole and I even got to go out on a date one day while they watched Connor for us!

Momma Lou, Connor, and Ed

One morning we all took Connor to Goin' Bananas here in Austin. It is a huge building filled with lots of inflatables and toys for kids to play with. Connor had so much fun!

They had an area that was just for toddlers which was perfect for him.

Showing off for Momma Lou and Ed

Taking a break to give Mimi a hug and a kiss. :)

Connor and I both had a fun time going down the huge slide!

Momma Lou showing Connor how to roll the trains on the track.

Thank you Momma Lou and Ed for coming down to visit. We had such a wonderful time and can't wait to see you again soon!

Just Like Daddy

Connor is his Daddy's #1 fan! He loves his "Dada" so much and watches everything he does. Well, a few nights ago we were just about ready to go out and I went to grab Connor's clothes to put on. When I turned around I found that he had grabbed Cole's deodorant from the cabinet and was rubbing it all over the side of his body. (Luckily the cap was still on!) Cole and I could not stop laughing because we had never shown him what deodorant was or even realized he had seen us put it on. Just one more reminder that he watches everything we do!

More Beach Pictures....

My sister-in-law, Amy, was so sweet to take some family pictures for us while we were down at the beach. She did such a great job!! Thank you Amy!

Here are a few of my favorites:

He's not a baby anymore...

My baby is growing up by the minute! I can't believe how much he has changed this past month. He is now using a lot more words and has even started using a fork and spoon to feed himself! He still uses his fingers for foods that are hard to pick up or when he is in a hurry.

Connor showing us how he can use his fork.

Amazingly he hasn't even made a very big mess (yet)! Anytime he gets food on his face or lip we have to stop and clean it up before he will take another bite. :) Here is a short video of him using his spoon to eat his applesauce.

We have also decided that it was time to take Connor's pacifier away. For the past several months he has only used it for bed time and naps, but I knew that the earlier I did it the easier it would be. He has grown to LOVE his paci and would even want to go take a nap just to have it! We are on day 1 and have cried lots of tears. He slept about 25 minutes for his morning nap (usually he sleeps 2 hrs) and has been asleep for about 40 minutes so far this afternoon. After his morning nap he started searching through his diaper bag, the crib, and looking in all his drawers trying to find one. So sad! It just breaks my heart to hear him cry, but I know that this day has to come eventually and we are just trying to get through it. Everything I have read said it usually takes kids about 3 days to get over it so that is what we are hoping for. I will let you know how the rest of our week goes! :) Pray for us, this might be a long week!

South Padre Island

This past Friday we headed down to South Padre Island to meet up with Cole's family for a weekend at the beach. Cole, Connor, and I all flew from Austin which was so nice to not have to make the long drive for a short trip. The plane was not full so Connor even got his own seat! We were able to bring his car seat on which made it even nicer. He did great the whole time. Even the couple behind us leaned over at the end of the flight to thank Connor for being so good. :) Cole's parents had left on Thursday and offered to take all of our luggage for us. What a blessing it was to have a great, short flight down and have our luggage already there waiting for us when we arrived.

Shortly after we got there we were in our swimsuits and down at the beach. We were all so glad to see Amy, David, and Kate. Connor loved watching and playing with Kate. It is fun to see how they start interacting more the older they get.

He wasn't quite sure about the sand at first.

Sweet Cousins

Checking out the sand closer to the water.

Shaking his hand trying to get it off.

Cole, David, Amy, and Kate

Connor loved feeding the birds with Poppa and Nana.

We weren't sure what he would think about the water, but he had so much fun in it! He made the cutest little giggle everytime the waves would crash on him.

My sweet boys!

Cole and I helped Connor build his first sand castle.

I love this picture!

Thank you Nana and Poppa for taking us on such a fun trip! Lots of fun memories were made of Connor's first trip to the beach.

Sneak Peak

We just got back from a wonderful vacation to the beach with Cole's family. The unpacking is finished, the laundry has begun, and as soon as I get all the pictures uploaded I will post about our trip. Until then here is a sneak peak....

Happy 14 Months Connor!

I am 14 months old!

Here are some things Connor can do now that he is 14 months old:

-Say lots of new words. Sometimes they are hard to understand, but every day it gets a lot more clear. He also tries to repeat words I say.

-Understands so much of what I am saying! (I have lots of stories where I thought he wasn't listening when he actually was and understood what I said)

-Walking EVERYWHERE (getting faster everyday!)

-Exploring!! He loves to check everything out and figure out how it works.

-Enjoys reading books and pointing to pictures.

-Likes to stack his blocks and knock them down.

-Sleeps 12 hours at night and is still in between 1 & 2 naps a day.

-Has 10 teeth (6 on top, 4 on bottom)

-LOVES to brush his teeth!

-Also still loves to eat. He usually cries when the food is gone.

-Loves to sing and dance still. New favorite song this month is "Zaccheus was a wee little man"

-Loves repetition and thinks its funny to do things over and over again.

-Here is a video of him listening to "Itsy Bitsy Spider." This is about the 15th time we listened to it. :) Once he realized I got the camera out he decided to put on a show with his hand motions.

Free Desktops

http://shabbyprincess.typepad.com/

I found this great website last year that has free desktops each month for you to download and add your own pictures. I have never really done any of the digital scrapbooking, but love that they offer these for free. The only thing is that you have to have Photoshop or some program like that to edit the template. Here is our new desktop for the month:

We went over to my mom's house tonight and I ended up taking some pictures to use for this months desktop. Here are a few of my favorites.

"Tree, Tree"

Connor loves to explore!

Here is a short video of him that I just had to share. He loves trees for some reason! Be sure to turn up the volume to hear him say "tree". At the end it sounds more like "Trrrrrrrreeeeeeee" :) (Sorry about the moving back and forth, but we had been playing peek-a-boo around the tree.)

Yikes!!

If there is one thing that I am scared of the most it is snakes! Over the years we have had a few run-ins with them, usually small garden snakes, but nothing ever in our home... until today. Cole was outside mowing our yard and was just about finished when he yelled through the front door "Lock the garage door and make sure Connor doesn't come outside! There is a snake in the garage!" Immediately my stomach starts turning at just the thought of it and of course I am imagining this huge venomous snake ready at any moment to attack my poor husband! Can I just say how thankful I am that it was him out there and not me? Well, in case you didn't get the feel for how anxious I was about the scaly creature in my garage here is a visual to help...

Snake vs. Cole

So I stood in the laundry room listening out the garage door... I'm not sure what I was listening for but, I was hoping to hear some clanking sounds to let me know the snake was dead. Well, in the end the snake was defeated and we can all rest a little easier tonight. Cole later told me that it had come from under our neighbors fence and worked it way straight for our garage.

Sorry this next picture is a little graphic, but there was no way I was going to be in the same room with that snake to take a picture while he was alive!

I am so thankful that Cole found the snake before it found us!

Hopefully that is the last time we find any unwelcome guests at our house. :)