First Birthday

We celebrated our baby boy's first birthday over the weekend. It was perfect in every way. We kept it small, which I am so glad we did. I was really able to enjoy the day celebrating Kyler and didn't feel like I had to "entertain" anyone.

We managed to DIY most of the party. We made most of the decor, borrowed plates and napkins that my mom had leftover from a party, I made the cake and cupcakes, my sister (master cake decorator) decorated them, and we kept the food super simple: all of Kyler's favorites. My awesome brother in law, Greg, was Photographer of the day so we didn't have to worry about remembering to snap photos. Everything was just perfect!

We gave Kyler a wagon for his birthday and he looooves riding around in it! It might just be the cutest sight every! His gift to us was walking! He started walking a few weeks ago, and it was so fun to have him walking around his party. I will always remember this special day. Happy Birthday Baby!!!

Family Photos

A few weeks back we had some family photos taken by our friend Kate. She is not only a wonderful and super talented photographer, butshe has been a friend of ours for years. She knows us so well (a little too well?) and I love that because I feel like she can really capture the essence of our family.

These are some of my favorites, which was a hard choice because there were hundreds (literally) of good ones...

We absolutely love these photos! Kate even captured Kyler's very first clap in a photo! The kid has good timing...and so does Kyler.

To see more of our family photos go check out Kate's blog.

Pregnancy Announcement!!

Gotcha!! Not me, my beautiful sister!!

And this is the video they used to announce it to the youth group at their church. Soo funny and creative. I'm so proud.

I can't wait for their little nugget of joy to be born! It's like having another baby, except I don't have to do all the birthing part! They are going to be such wonderful parents!

Mother's Day Weekend

My first real Mother's Day weekend was fabulous! My parents and my sister and brother-in-law came into town for Kyler's dedication at church and we had a blast. Talk about a packed house! 6 adults, 1 baby, 2 dogs, 3 ipads, and not enough rooms. It was great! We had a picnic, ate lots of delicious food made by the men-and cleaned by the men, and we got pedicures. Kyler even wrote me the sweetest little card with the creepiest/weirdest (cough cough CODY) design drawn on top.

I promise I will update with more posts soon. I've just been a leeetle busy with Dallas Moms Blog.

A Hard Day's Work

Staying home and learning how to raise a baby has been such a joy. Of course, every day has its challenges. Sometimes I have to use both hands, 3 toys, and maybe even a leg to help hold him down to get a diaper on him. Some days I have kitchen walls covered in apple sauce, peas smashed between the wood planks of the floor, and I’m picking chicken pieces out of the dog’s (very long) hair. I might get a quick break during nap time only if I have successfully showered, returned all of the toys back to their holding spots, cleaned up the food-smeared kitchen, consumed some sort of nutrition other than a cup of coffee, and taken care of all the other daily chores that loom over my head constantly. There is not much reward other than hopefully having a child that is not incarcerated 20 years down the road. I don't get paid for it and I don't receive any awards or tangible gratitude.

I do what I do for the happiness and love that I hopefully instill in my child. And every day, when his dad walks through the door and he hears his favorite deep voice echo through the house, the expression on his face is worth all the insanity that comes with raising a child. I know my baby feels secure and confident in the love that he knows is just around the corner.

Whoa. That just got deep.

Lessons from Hawaii

We had the wonderful privilege of going to Hawaii to be a part of one of my best friend's wedding. We had so much fun being with so many friends, in such a beautiful setting, celebrating so much love. I thought I would document some of the things (baby and non-baby related) I learned from such a monumental trip. Hello 13 hours of traveling!!

1. Have really great friends. Nothing (and I mean nothing) would have been possible without the help of so many kind, generous, gracious friends. Everything from caring some of the 14,000 pieces of luggage that we brought, to wiping off sand from baby rolls in an outdoor shower at the beach was helpful. Even just their understanding and sensitivity to the baby made a huge difference. I cannot count the number of times our friends helped out, it was just constant and wonderful. Thanks guys!

2. Don't wear your hair down for a windy beach wedding ceremony. Wear it in a bun. Pinned down. With 2 bottles of hairspray caked on. Then slick it back with gel. And add more pins.

3. Get tan before you go. Otherwise, you might as well wear a big sticker on your head that scream "tourist!" Everyone in Hawaii is tan!

4. Make lots of friends on the plane. Kyler is way more entertained by people than he is by toys. This will help some of those 8 hour flights!

5. Try not to get sick on vacation. Kyler and I both failed miserably at this. Make sure you have lots of Tylenol on hand!

6. Take a baby pool to the beach. The waves were huge, so there was no way I was even sticking Kyler's pinky toe in that water. We set up a little blow-up baby pool next to our group and he splashed away for a good while. He was safe, contained, cool, shaded, and happy.

7. Eat the local food. This is always my favorite part of vacations.

8. Be flexible! Diaper changes in the park, nursing while laying out at the beach, naps in the mountainous shade, and just complete schedule mayhem.

Spring is here.

A Little Update

Aunt Jana has been asking for pictures of her favorite nephew. I think these photos sum up our days as of late.

Kyler experienced his first snow! So of course I took the opportunity (probably the only one) to bundle him up in this ridiculous snow suite that was handed down from our sweet neighbors. The poor little munchkin couldn't bend his arms or legs!

This picture is hilarious! We stopped by the Hobby Lobby 90% off Christmas sale, and Kyler was less than excited to say the least! He's got the typical guy-being-dragged-along-shopping look and pose. Thankfully, it's not just an opposition towards crafts, he did the same disenchanted lounge in the cart at the grocery store yesterday.

Kyler decided to help me with the folding of his cloth diapers. He is officially mobile via rolling. And apparently he can pull over a laundry basket and empty out the contents, spreading them around the room.

No, I did not style my baby's hair in a faux hawk. I pulled off his warm little polar bear hat (seen in top photo), and his hat hair just happens to look awesomely rockstar-ish.

In other news, Kyler has finally started taking real naps! Like, longer than 20 minute naps! He is now napping only twice a day, but usually for about 1-1.5 hours each! Now for most people, this is the norm from the beginning, but not for Kyler! Kyler would never sleep longer than 3o minutes. I feel like a new woman. I actually have my baby on somewhat of a schedule and I actually know when I will be able to get a few things done around the house!

Out with the old, in with the new...

2010 was soo last year. 2010 was also a year that changed our lives forever, and now we are excited to see what 2011 will bring us. Here are some of our highlights from last year and a glance at some things to come this year.



In 2010...

I started the year off pregnant and just getting over the awful morning sickness part.

my little Jetta failed us for the 5,325th time, so we finally kissed it goodbye and traded it in for my cute little Versa.

we enjoyed a "babymoon" in beautiful California.

Cody was hired on as the Worship Pastor for the new campus plant of our church. Full-time. And full-time seminary student. The man is a saint.

our world was rocked when the cutest little boy came into our world late one Thursday night.

we gave up sleeping for 11 weeks.

I started my new career as a stay at home mom. Not an easy job but so infinitely rewarding.

we traveled to Arizona for the first time with Kyler to celebrate Thanksgiving.

we saw so many of our wonderful friends get married. We also had to miss many of our wonderful friends getting married.

we also had so much fun over Christmas in Houston and hunting in South Texas.




In 2011...

I turn 25 in January. Dun dun dun.

we will spend an amazing week in Hawaii celebrating the wedding of one of my best friends!

we will celebrate our 3rd anniversary shortly after the little mister turns 1.

the "Supper Society" will actually become a reality and bring about many enjoyable evenings centered around food, friends, and fun.

I will try to cross off most of the books on my reading list.

we will try our darndest not to adopt another dog, which means we will have to continue shielding our eyes when those heart-wrenching puppy adoption commercials come on. Gets. us. every. time.

I will be better at blogging. See?



I will leave you with this picture. We call it "Kiss the baby".

Hehe. Look at poor Kyler's expression. This picture better not end up on that awkward family photo website. Wait...maybe I'd be proud.

Our December

We kicked off December by celebrating my BF's wedding down in Houston. It was such a fun wedding full of close friends and lots of love. They had a beautiful outdoor ceremony complete with romantic lanterns, wonderful music, and 5 of us shivering bridesmaids.


We had the pleasure of driving back to Dallas at 5 in the morning on Sunday to get back in time for Cody to lead worship at church. Let me tell you how fun that was! Especially since Kyler got confused a few weeks ago and seems to think he is a newborn again, waking up every 3 hours at night...and still doing so.

Before we went to celebrate Christmas in Houston with my family, we had our own little family Christmas here in Dallas. We opened up all the presents under our tree (which were so generously given by Cody's family) and we gave Kyler his gift from us.

Kyler really enjoyed all the wrapping paper. He got tons of books, a few precious outfits, and hand puppets that we have way too much fun narrating for.


Our gift to him was a swing for our back patio. Now some (namely the manufacturers) would say a baby this age is not ready for a swing like this, but ah..the benefits of having a huge baby with impeccable head control. We push him very very slowly and he just loves it. Notice the squealing of joy.

After we did gifts at our house, we went out to breakfast. Kyler had a great time in the high chair wishing he could eat pancakes with us.


The day before Christmas Eve, we drove down to Houston to spend the holiday with my family. We made our usual stop at Bucee's, which is like the Disneyland of Texas, and little Kyler tried to drive the rest of the way.


Once we were in Houston, everything was so nice. My whole family was there, though I did not get many pictures, and we had so much fun playing games, eating way too much food, going on Christmas-light-looking-walks, and even some crazies went for a "polar swim".




After Christmas was over, we then packed up our entire life in my little car once again, but this time we drove to South Texas for a hunting trip. We stayed on a great ranch of some friends, and enjoyed the company of Cody's parents and brother, and lots of friends and hunting folk. I grew up with a hunting Dad, so the whole animal-killing aspect is not too bothersome to me, but I did see a few too many dead animals for my liking over this trip. Please skip the next picture if this topic is already making you cringe. Actually I'm kind of wishing I could crop that deer out of this picture, but this post is already far too long and I'm quickly growing tired of navigating my way around this computer.

Cody definitely got to add a few punches on his man card and I'd like to think I can add a few punches to my wife card just for going on the trip. I showered with spiders, watched hunting videos, played poker, and glanced (not without cringing) at several prized kills.

My favorite part of the weekend was the ride on the "War Wagon" through their property. This might have been the best mode of transportation I have ever seen. This family basically built a double-decker-bus by creating an upper level of seats on top of an old suburban. We drove around the ranch at night with spotlights, and got to see deer and tons of elk. I had never seen so many elk, they were huge and cute at the same time. It was great.


Once we returned home from all of our travels we were exhausted. So exhausted we had a very low-key New Years Eve at home. We rang in the new year by cooking one of Rachel Ray's 30 minute meals (it took us 45), watching The Other Guys, and eating cookies. And yes, we actually stayed up past midnight.

2010 was incredible, with the birth of our son making it a monumental year in our life. We are excited to take on another year (no babies to be born in this one) and see where it take us. We have some pretty awesome goals and I am taking on a killer reading list. Maybe after I (and you if you are still reading this) recover from this post, I will whip up one for the new year.

Santa! I know him!

I hope you know the movie my title is alluding to. If not, then how are you in the Christmas spirit?


We have been busy getting into the Christmas spirit over at our household. One of these days I might even blog about it if I retrieve my camera (which I left in Houston) and I devote enough time to actually upload pics.

We've been traveling to Arizona for family time, buying and putting up a tree, baking lots of delicious treats, and watching some of our favorite holiday movies. Someone has even learned to roll over, laugh out loud (a lot), and start eating foods like sweet potatoes.

I have been reflecting a lot on Christ's birth in a new way this Christmas. Having recently given birth to my favorite little boy just a few short months back, I can't help but imagine what Mary must have felt giving birth to her favorite little boy. To look at her child and know He was sent to save this world of sinners. I can't even wrap my head around it. She didn't even try to selfishly protect him from his fate, but she submitted to the Lord and raised her child to fulfill his divine purpose. How hard a mothering task she had.

A Thankful Heart

Like every year, I have so much to be thankful for. There have been good times and bad times, but I am thankful for it all. Here are a few things that come to mind....

I'm thankful for my amazing husband. He is the peanut butter to my jelly, and he continues to make me a better woman just by being himself.

I'm thankful for all of our family and friends. I feel so blessed to have such a great family and in-laws who graciously love us and take care of us (especially when some of us our emotional wrecks after child-birth).

I'm thankful for Duma. She has really stepped up her game as a guard dog since Kyler arrived. Even though she has taken a back seat in the love train, she has made it her sole purpose to sit by the front window and scare off pedestrians. It really makes me feel safer in this neck of the woods.

I'm thankful for inventions like iPhones, microwaves, and pony-tail holders that all make my life a little easier.

I'm thankful that my old Jetta broke down in January, drained our savings account, and forced us to buy a new car because it's times like this that teach you the importance of saving and being wise with your money.

I'm thankful for blogs. Weird, but true. I love being able to keep up with friends and non-friends (don't act like you don't blog stalk random people that you don't know).