It's official.... Blake is ONE!!

My little guy is officially one year old! I cannot believe it!

Me and my baby boy on his birthday celebration day!

He is just too much fun!!


We had a great weekend celebrating and to make it all the more special, Chris' parents were able to come in town for the first time since Dana was hospitalized a year ago. It was so great and amazing how much was squeezed into the past 12 months! Blake seemed to know we were celebrating just for him- he was all smiles and had a great time!

He just had his one-year doctor appointment. Here are his stats:
Weight: 18 lbs 10 oz (Only between 5-10%)
Height: 29 1/4 inches (25%)
Head size: 18 3/4 (80-85%) - we love you and your big head Blake! :)

At this age, Hunter was 22 lbs and 31 inches tall. Funny how totally different they can be, especially since Hunter was 7 lbs 7 oz at birth and Blake was 8 lbs 13 oz at birth. I think when I think of it like Blake hasn't even gained a full 10 lbs since he was born do I think he is on the smaller size. But, he's just perfect and just the size he is supposed to be. He's getting busier and busier these days... pulling up on everything, crawling with speed to get where he wants to go, exploring EVERYTHING, putting all sorts of things in his mouth, eating like a champ, snubbing the sippy cup- he would rather take from a bottle, still loves his pacifier, sleeps
7-6:30ish every night, still naps twice a day, wears size 3 diapers, still has to face backwards in the car (bummer for him).

Here are recent pics from this month..

Went to Waco and played with the cousins. Here are Blake and Adam. Blake is nearly one and Adam is 8 months.



Took the boys to the zoo...



Hunter scored his FIRST goal on Saturday. He had his biggest audience ever! We were so excited that Mimi and Bapa (Chris' parents) and Shay Shay and Babs (my parents) were there to see it!



At his party on Sunday, he loved his cupcake!




Of course Hunter HAD to help open the presents!


Our hardest thing was deciding what we could get him. He doesn't need anything and having an older brother means he really doesn't need anything. We found this ball pit and he loves it. I need to get more balls to add to it. We had some for a toy Hunter used to have, but obviously they are no where to be found!


On Blake's actual birthday Tuesday, I took him to ride the train while Hunter was in school. We had a great time even though it was chilly!

1 Month = 300 pictures

Between soccer, camping, Halloween and playing, I have accumulated 300 pictures in my folder for October. So, here is an attempt to catch up here on the blog. Oh, and they are in no particular order. At least I labeled them!

One of 11 "Sharp Shooters"

Smores with my sweetie

Hunter, Blake, Luke, Kate and Rollins...
aka, Pirate, Elephant, Monkey, Peacock and Bunny Foo Foo

Blake and Luke on the sidelines of the game....won't be long boys!

Cari and Luke with Blake and I at the Halloween party...looks like a monkey and an elephant escaped from the zoo!!

Camping with Blake at the country club. I know how that sounds, it was very "Troop Beverly Hills-ish"

Blake in front of our tent...don't worry, he did not spend the night. He went and slept at my parents' house.

The four of us when we were visiting Chris at his office the day before Halloween

Blake eating his first taste of cake at Bab's birthday dinner at our house

Hunter helped blow out the candles

Soccer game with Blake

Me and the soccer player himself

Before the first game. Blake was wearing a little outfit Mimi (Chris' mom) had bought at Neimans for Hunter. It says "Little Kicker" with a soccer ball on it. It has special meaning b/c Chris' nickname growing up was "Kicker"- sort of sounds like Christopher.

Swinging in the backyard on a beautiful afternoon. He LOVES to be outside!

Back to the Land of the Living

We have all 4 been sick this last week and weekend. I feel like we are slowly emerging from a fog. It all started with Blake waking up Tuesday and throwing up twice. Obviously, that's not normal, so I watched him closely and took him in. He did not have any other symptoms and seemed to act fine. He got sick again later that afternoon but it didn't really phase him. Aside from that, he was fine.

So, I spent Tuesday cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and disinfecting like a crazy lady. I thought we had it nipped in the bud. Little did I know....

Wednesday by mid-day I had it. By that evening Hunter had it and last but not least, Chris came down with it early Saturday morning. Yuck!

I have never done so much laundry to just clean the virus out of the house. We spent several days with windows and doors open to air out the virus and have cleaned every inch of this house. I'm exhausted!

Happily, we are all on the mend. I think the boys had the milder version. Blake certainly did. I will post some pumpkin patch pics soon! Just glad to be coming back into the land of the living!

Something Sweet

Knowing that Halloween is always a mad dash and pictures are sometimes the last thing I am thinking about, we decided to pull out the costumes and do a "trial run." Hunter was a little irked about it because he saw his Buzz Lightyear costume from last year hanging in the closet and wanted to be that instead. I bribed him to put on the new one instead! Needless to say, lots of the pictures of Hunter are of him pouting. Blake was not so thrilled about the enormous trunk in his face and I know he had to be hot seeing as it was nearly 100 degrees that afternoon. But, they both stuck it out and I have a few good ones to show for our photo shoot. We are really excited about Halloween around here!

The baby elephant...

...does not like to stay in one place anymore.

Even though they are not looking at the camera, at least they are looking in the same direction.

So happy not to have that hot 'ol elephant costume on anymore!

My pirate!

Takin' care of business!

I've mentioned this before on the blog, but we have this thing around here with a Size 0-3 month business suit. Yes, there are 3-piece suits for infants. Just in case you needed to run out and get one for your 2 week old's interview. Seriously! Anyway, it was a gift for Hunter back in 2005. We got a kick out of it then and we are still getting a kick out of it now.

So anyway, back in August of 2006, when Hunter was about 8 months old, we pulled that puppy out. I was bored, Chris was out of town for a week and we were sending pictures over email to him so he wouldn't miss anything. So, I disassembled that suit, got it on Hunter without too much trouble and went to town taking pictures. I am not kidding when I say that I actually went and developed the pictures within the hour and drove around showing people (people I knew if course). It has been something we have laughed about since. So, without further ado, here is Hunter...


Today, I found that suit. It was crumpled up a little in the bottom of the dresser drawer, but it had to be brought out. I could not let Blake pass up an opportunity to look professional. Who doesn't want their baby to look professional? (Oh, and the size is 0-3 like I said, but that is some big 0-3 month old if my 8 month old Hunter and now nearly 11 month old Blake can wear it!)


He's giving himself a thumbs up, "Lookin' good my man!"

These just have to be a part of their rehearsal dinners someday! Is that bad that I am already planning which pictures will most certainly make the cut from their baby-hood?

So, onto other items of importance... Getting a halfway decent picture of the boys together is maddening. I think it's my camera's fault- it's just not fast enough. I am screeching and trying to get Blake to even look at the camera and Hunter is making funny faces which makes Blake look at him instead- oh gracious! So just so you know, here are several of my attempts last night before we went to celebrate Morgan's 1st bday and my brother Blake's birthday.
A little drool on the shirt and I was totally off center! Darn it!

Anyone watch "Everybody Loves Raymond?" Does Blake resemble Frank Barone in this picture? That little tuft of hair off the back of his head is what makes me think of him.

Here Blake is with the birthday girl. The party looked like an advertisement from Orient Expressed. All of the kids were in their cute little outfits and it looked like they could have stepped out of the catalogue!

Then, off to celebration #2 with Blake. Here is Blake, Blake and Kristin- does that sound confusing? We are trying to avoid the "Big" and "Little" titles!

And on a totally random note, here is my new wreath for Halloween. I like the fun stuff of Halloween, not the scary and creepy. This wreath is so fun and playful and such a fun thing to have. Thanks mom!

It's October...

...and I've already started listening to Christmas music! Is that bad? I just can't help myself. I love it and it makes me so happy.

I love fall too, though. I can't wait to take the boys to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out pumpkins, start a fire in the fireplace, carve pumpkins, trick or treat, begin Christmas shopping or at least start looking around... It's such a wonderful time of the year.

Hunter officially started soccer about a week ago. We had his first practice and Chris is coaching. I should say he is wrangling because that is what he is doing- wrangling 11 3-year olds with minds of their own. It's actually pretty comical because our team is dispersed in 6 different directions while the team practicing next to us is running drills and running laps. Oh well, we'll just have fun!


Hunter loves it though and is red in the face after practicing. Our first game was supposed to be last weekend but it got rained out. So, with a bye this weekend, we won't play until next weekend. At least we can say we are undefeated!

The long awaited YTAC Golf Tournament is tomorrow, so life should get back to normal after that. Looking forward to not thinking about it for awhile!

We visited the school the other day so Hunter could be a part of the firemen's visit. He loved running the smoke alarm drill and crawling through the smoke tent. He couldn't get enough of that.


Blake is almost 11 months- I refuse to believe that! He is still my wittle-bitty baby no matter what!



Cari and I took the crew to breakfast on Saturday and they had a blast. Blake and Luke love watching each other and are hungry little boys.
Hunter and Kate having fun coloring and (trying to share!).

Luke and Blake... it was non-stop eating on that side of the table!


...and finally we have a costume for Hunter for Halloween....

Argghhh matey!

On the move...

It's official! Someone is on the move. Blake crawled today for the first time! I think it's been the most anticipated crawl on the face of the earth. He's been up on all fours rocking for awhile now and finally, took a couple of crawls forward today! Yahoo!!