Zilker Zypher

Connor's 1st train ride

Mr. Fish

This past week Connor took his first trip to Pets Mart. We walked around checking out all the animals they had for sale. We saw the cats...

all kinds of birds...

and tons of fish!!

He has always loved watching the fish in the aquariums at church and the mall so we knew he would love seeing all the different kinds at the pet store. While we were there Mimi bought him his first pet fish. We named him "Mr. Fish", but Connor just calls him "fishhhh." :)

Here is Mr. Fish in his new home.

Too Cute!

Connor woke up from his 3 hour nap today just as happy as he could be. He saw my camera on the table and started saying "cheese" so I decided to take a few pictures since he was in a very cooperative mood. I love this sweet boy!!

Animal Fun

We recently went to a 2nd birthday party where they had everything you could imagine for entertainment. Connor's favorite part was the petting zoo. This was one of the first times he had seen some of these farm animals in real life. He has been learning the different animal sounds for awhile now so it was neat to watch him observe the actual animal making those noises. If you catch him at the right time he will go down the list and tell you all the sounds. Here are the animal sounds he knows so far:

puppy: "ruff ruff"

cat: "mmeoooow"

cow: "moo"

duck: "quack quack"

pig: "oink"

sheep: "baa"

horse: "nnnei"

bird: "tweet"

bumble bee: "bzzzzzz"

lion: "rroar"

monkey: "e e e e" (his favorite!)

Can you see the excitement on his face? :)

He loved chasing the bunnies around!

When he saw all the chicks he started saying "quack quack quack." :)

This pig was tiny!

The goat loved Connor and followed him everywhere he went. (Connor was not a fan of his new friend.)

He quickly made his way over to the ducks.

Checking out this cute calf!

It was so fun to watch him with all the animals. Overall, I think Connor liked the rabbits the best. They were definitely more his size! :)

Trip to Temple

On Friday night we headed up to Temple to see the Armstrong family. We had not seen baby Jenna since the day she was born so we were thrilled to get to see her again. Sally and Lee were so sweet to feed us a wonderful dinner while we enjoyed catching up and playing with babies.

The old college roommates with their kids. :)

Isn't she adorable?!

Cole and I with sweet baby Jenna

Connor had so much fun at their house. He loved watching the dogs from the back door, listening to Sally read him books, and playing with Jenna's toy giraffe. We didn't get many pictures that night because Connor was way too busy to stop and smile.

I can't remember what they were laughing at, but I thought their faces in this picture were so cute. :)

Thank you Lee and Sally for having us over. We had such a great time and can't wait to see you again!

A New Look

After Connor was born, our study quickly became a playroom. I finally decided that it was easier to have one central location for all the toys instead of having them scattered throughout the house. I have absolutely LOVED having this space. It is where we spend most of our time during the day.

When we first moved in the room was painted red, but after spending more time in there I soon decided we needed a lighter color. One Friday I told Cole I wanted to paint the playroom. On Saturday he was at Home Depot buying primer and had the whole room primed by the end of the day. He told me to pick a color and he would paint it on Sunday. Well, to our surprise Cole's painter from work heard that we were painting and offered to paint the room for us! So in less than a week I had the room painted and reorganized!

The most exciting part of the whole project was getting Connor's early Christmas present from Mimi... his new table and chairs!! I have been eyeing this table from PBK for a long time and was so happy for Connor to have it. Connor thinks his new table and chairs are great! After breakfast it is the first place he goes. Since he is really into climbing right now he spends most of his time getting in and out of the chairs. It is so fun to watch him grab a book and go sit at the table to read. He also has decided that it is a perfect place to play with his block sorter (which we play with daily).

I love the new wall color so much that I think I might paint the rest of the house too! :)

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend we headed to Longview to spend Labor Day weekend with Cole's sister Amy and her family. We love getting together with them and especially seeing Kate! We spent most of the weekend just hanging out, but on Saturday we headed over to David's parents house to take some family pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

On Sunday afternoon we all went swiming and had a great time.

We celebrated Cheryl's ("Nana") birthday on Sunday night with dinner, cake, and games!

Thank you Amy and David for hosting such a fun weekend!

Texarkana

A week ago Connor, my mom, and I all headed to Texarkana for my grandmother's knee replacement surgery. The surgery went great and now she is recovering and doing several weeks of physical therapy. We were all impressed with how well she did! Even though surgery is not a fun thing, it was still great to see all of my mom's family.

Along the way we stopped at Baylor and found this adorable kid seating area in the bookstore. With Connor's new love for climbing this was the perfect place to stop and get some of that energy out!

We arrived in Texarkana just in time to go to my cousin Callie's volleyball game. It was so fun to see one of her games for the first time. She did great! Connor had a great time hanging out with my cousin Courtney who kept him very entertained.

You can see Callie by the net on the far right in the picture (#10).

We finally made it to Momma Lou's house where Connor was so happy to be out of the car after a long ride. He quickly made himself right at home.

While my mom was at the hospital with Momma Lou, Connor and I were able to spend some time with my Papa and Ginny. They even kept Connor for me so I could go visit my grandmother. He had such a great time with them. He especially loves to run around and swing in their backyard!

Papa, Connor, and Ginny

On Friday, we packed up again and headed to Canton. This was Connor's first trip to Canton. We had always said that we would never take a baby to Canton, but when you are already so close it suddenly doesn't seem like that bad of an idea. :) Connor was amazingly great the whole day. We fixed him up a nice seat in the wagon where he could lean back comfortably. His favorite part of Canton was not the shops, but all the dogs people brought to the shops. Every time he saw a dog he got so excited!

We took a break and Connor got to enjoy his first snow cone. Yum!

Towards the end of the day Connor decided it was more fun to push the wagon than ride.

All of the fun wore this little boy out!