Christmas Day

This Christmas was soo much fun watching Daniel's face take in all the presents Santa brought him! He was amazed that Santa ate most of the cookies and drank all the milk that he left for him. Then he had a blast opening presents. After presents I made a big Christmas day brunch then we headed to Conroe to have our annual Christmas dinner at my Grandma's house. It was a great day but exhausting!!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we headed to my dad's house to open presents with that part of the family. We had a big cajun feast this year and it was delicious. We also made the big announcement that we'll be having a BOY in May. My brother and his wife also found out they're having a boy so they announced on that night too. It was a lot of fun--we each made a cake that had blue on the inside so when the grandmas cut into the cake, they knew it was a boy! My sister-in-law is MUCH more creative than me so her cake was just adorable, and mine was well, a bit embarassing next to it! :) It was a great night and we had a blast!

Christmas Cookies

Daniel was a big help in the kitchen making Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve for Santa. He helped me bake and helped Daddy decorate (and by decorate I mean eat)

Moody Gardens Christmas Party

This weekend we had our family Christmas party in Galveston. We went down early to hang out at Moody Gardens where we went through the Aquarium. Colton and Daniel (and Scott) had a blast!! There were a lot of sharks, and the penguin area was really neat! After the Aquarium we had our big family dinner at Fish Tails. Dinner ran long so we weren't able to make it back to Moody Gardens for the Festival of Lights, but it's OK since we already saw plenty of Christmas lights at Santa's Wonderland a few weeks ago.

Bowling

Colton's 6th birthday party was at the bowling alley this year and it was Daniel's first time bowling. He LOVED it!! At first he would go up and roll the ball and watch it hit all the pins, but by the end he would just go up, throw the ball and run back and try to get another one! I had to teach him that he had to wait for the same ball to come back. It took so long to roll down there I understand his impatience (see video :) )

Santa's Wonderland

We went to Santa's Wonderland (just outside of College Station) a few weekends ago. We took a hayride and looked at >1,000,000 Christmas lights and Daniel had a lot of fun. I sipped on some hot chocolate to stay warm (although it wasn't too cold yet thankfully). After they hayride we hung out by the fire and listened to some fun Christmas music. We saw Santa was there, but we just waved at him through the window because the line was super long and Daniel already saw Santa and told him what he wanted.

Halloween 2010

This Halloween the Yates' came over for trick or treating and we all had a great time. It was so much fun seeing them both get into saying "Trick or Treat" and understanding that they actually GOT something for it!! Haley was the cutest ladybug ever and Daniel was a fierce Spiderman!

Dewberry Farms

This fall we went to Dewberry Farms. Daniel had a lot of fun this year because he could do so much more than last year. He had a blast on the slide, seeing all the animals (he made us go to the barn 3 times), jumping on a big "trampoline", doing a hay ride, and playing on the huge playground. We look forward to going back next year!

Haley's 2nd birthday

Last month Haley turned the big 2!! We went to her birthday party and had a lot of fun--they had a big inflatablel water slide set up which was as much fun for the adults as it was for the kids. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate fully, but the kids still had a great time!

Kemah and Cousin Time

The first nice weekend this fall we headed to Kemah with Courtney's family to enjoy the boardwalk. Daniel couldn't ride too many rides, but he really enjoyed the train and the ferris wheel. Best of all he LOVED playing with his big cousin and watching him ride some rides with his daddy. We finished the evening with a great seafood dinner! It was fun!

Clown

At school Daniel was learning about the letter "C" so they decided to do face painting to make them all look like clowns. It was hilarious walking in to a room full of 2 year olds with clown face paint!

Tour de Texas

Well we just got home from our family vacation. It was a super busy vacation this year and I think we should've taken an extra week off to recover!

We started out in San Antonio with some friends from PA school. The first day was spent at Sea World and as you can see from the pictures it was a blast. It's August in San Antonio, so it was HOT, but the boys cooled off by going to the splash park after seeing all the shows. Daniel was asleep before we even left the Sea World parking lot.
After the PA folks left, the rest of the time we spent in San Antonio was at the Hyatt Hill Country's pool--they have an awesome lazy river, beach, and kiddie pool--and we definitely got our money's worth because we were there almost everyday. One evening we took a River Walk boat tour, but I didn't get any pictures--I was too busy trying to pay attention to the tour and keep an eye on Daniel. Oh well-maybe next time.

For the second leg of the trip we headed to Fort Worth to see Scott's parents ("Grandma and Grandpa" to Daniel). Thankfully the day we arrived a cool front blew through, so we decided to take advantage and head to the zoo. Daniel had fun looking at all the animals, and he even got to pet a sting ray!

For the final leg of the trip, we headed to Austin for Marshall's 2nd birthday party. I think at that point I was tired of taking pictures, so I didn't get any pictures of the party, but everyone had fun swimming and eating pizza! Daniel had so much fun that he passed out less than five minutes of being in the car on the way out of Austin. After we left Austin we finally made it home! Although we couldn't rest long because on Sunday we went over to my brother Jacob's house for a big family BBQ. Daniel and Colton wrestled most of the time, which is their new favorite thing to do together besides chase each other. It was great to see everyone and I found out I'm going to be an Aunt again--my brother and his wife are due April 19th! We are so happy for them.

I think next year we won't try to do so much in one trip!!

Random Silliness

Since it's been a while since I've updated, here's just a few silly pictures that make me laugh. Sorry they're all without pants, but they were taken when we were in potty training boot camp :)

White Linen Night in the Heights

This weekend we went with my parents to a festival in the Heights known as "White Linen Night". If you're not familiar with the Houston Heights is a neat little neighborhood that is lined with antique shops, cute clothing boutiques, and coffee shops (think of Galveston's Strand). It was a pretty neat festival that went on all day/night where they blocked off the streets and opened up the shops, had booths set up with vendors who had lots of art and jewelry, and had bands lining the streets. It was a lot of fun and Daniel had a blast! He especially liked the Sno Cones :)

Two!!!

I can't believe it's been two years!! Daniel is turning into such a little boy and it's been such a fun journey for our family!

Daniel's 2 year STATS:
Height-34 3/4 inches (75%)
Weight-33lbs 5oz (95%)


Here are some photos from the birthday party weekend:

Meow

This is how Daniel came home from school the other day...

High Five!!

We started rolling the camera because Daniel was singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" with his house toy and it was just adorable. Of course when we turn the camera on he always stops what he was doing--but he did end up going over to Maggie and loving on her. The funniest thing to me was that he gave her a "high five"--poor dog is a good sport :)

Memorial Day 2010

We had a fantastic Memorial Day this year! The Keys and Seph came into town to celebrate with us, the Elledges, the Yates, and the Daigles. Friday evening we went to dinner with the Keys and went to a local splash pad for Marshall and Daniel to play in. The video below shows how excited they were see each other.
On Saturday morning we went to Galveston (our old stomping ground) and went to Moody Gardens' "beach". It was a lot of fun--for both the adults and the kids. After a long nap on Saturday we went to eat at Lupe Tortilla which has an awesome playground for the kids...with more sand! Needless to say we had a very good bath Saturday night.
On Sunday the men went to play golf and the ladies and the kiddos went to Hermann Park to ride the "choo choo train" and have a picnic. It was a very hot day but still pleasant in the shade. That evening we came home and Scott made us some awesome burgers (Erin "loves" Scott's meat :P )while the kiddos played in the swimming pool.
On Monday we had a quick trip to the neighborhood pool (which I didn't get any pictures of) before everyone had to head out of town. We spent the rest of the day recovering from a fantastic weekend with amazing friends!!

Advanced apology: I decided to upload all pictures from that weekend in case those of you who attended want to download pictures of your children. To those who did not attend--sorry for the mass quantity of pictures!!

Counting/ABC's

Daniel loves counting and singing his ABC's...he's always singing in the car or walking around the house. It's funny though because he used to actually count to 10, but now he goe "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 DADDY 8, 9, 10!!!". And of course he can't actually sing the full ABC's...he usually goes ABCD...NNNOP :) Either way it's super cute!

April/May Photos

Here's just some random photos since it's been a while:

Little Gym

Here's some pictures of Daniel at Little Gym. He has a great time there every week and it definitely wears him out!!

Sound sleeper...

We always go in to check on Daniel before we head to bed, and recently we always find him in the funniest positions. Here's the ones we snapped pictures of...

Easter

On Saturday night we went to Easter service at our church and Courtney, Chris, and Colton came with us. We went to dinner afterwards and then came back to our house and dyed eggs. Daniel had a good time using his hands to dye the eggs and also enjoyed licking the eggs which grossed Mommy out!! On Sunday we all went to my dad's for Easter dinner and another egg hunt. Colton was quite competitive with the eggs, but Daniel didn't seem to mind because each time Daniel found an egg he would sit down and eat the goodies inside. He seemed quite content.

Random happenings this month

I just wanted to post a few pictures from this month--nothing too exciting but just thought I'd share!



This video may be a bit boring to most, but I think it's hilarious. Big D was reading alone in his room and talking up a storm, but by the time I got the video camera he is talking a bit, but I think the funny part is he starts saying "NO" to himself for no reason. Gotta love toddlerhood. I also like when he finally sees that I have him on video

Young Love

We went to the Livestock show and Carnival with the Yates' this year. The kiddos had fun and the weather was perfect. Haley did GREAT at the petting zoo, but Daniel was a little skittish around the pushy animals. He finally came around to the ones that were smaller than him like the baby goats.

Why buy toys?

It's funny how seemingly insignificant things can become the best toys--from boxes, to tissue paper, to furniture! Daniel LOVES to be closed into a little cabinet we have set up by our bedroom, but the only problem is he can't close himself in because his fingers get in the way. The cabinet is a bit small too, so every move he makes the doors fly open which makes him mad. I put a small video of him trying to close himself in and get mad everytime the doors open. I also took some pictures of him playing in it.

18 month visit

Daniel went to the Dr. Friday for his 18 month well child visit where we got a clean bill of health! The boy is growing like a weed--below are his stats:

Height: 34 inches (90-95%)
Weight: 29 lbs (75-80%)
Head: 19.5 inches (90%)--yep he has Scott's big noggin!

First haircut

Well, we were quite overdue for the first haircut, but I had a hard time coming to terms with cutting the cute little curls. We took Daniel to a kiddie haircut place right by our house and it was so fun. He was so interested in all the music, lights, and toys they had around. His hair stylist was super nice, and he just sat in the chair by himself like a big boy eating a sucker! I hope all of his next haircuts are so easy!!