Ho Ho Ho!

And I'm finally back! I think part of the reason I have such a hard time keeping up with blogging (other than taking care of Brendan all day and trying to work when he's napping ;)) is that it takes SOOOO long to upload pictures onto blogger! I can only do 3 at a time or it malfunctions and doesn't work and it takes me about an hour from start to finish, which is a pretty long time for a little blog post. If anyone has any tips about getting pictures to upload faster (other than having to go through the whole process of making them smaller on my computer before I upload them), I would really appreciate it.



This was a few days before we left for Red River. I just thought he looked precious and I hardly ever am able to get close up pictures.



This is blurry, but I wanted to show him "sharing" with Shiner. He spends a lot of the day trying to give his toys to Shiner or picking up Shiner's toys or bones and waving them around until Shiner comes and gets them. It's very cute. Shiner is currently staying in Waco with my Dad and Nancy because we didn't want to go through the hassle of driving 10 hours to RR with him and they were nice enough to say they would keep him until this coming weekend when we are going to visit them. Thanks, Nancy and Dad!

He loves to look out the window and "talk" about what he sees outside.

Mommy, THIS is a bear! He has started pointing in the past couple weeks. He points at things and makes a noise that sounds like "that?"

When we got to Red River, Peepaw was rocking him in the recliner. He thought it was pretty scary (is this a hilarious face, or what?!)

Luckily, Peepaw stopped and either CiCi or Daddy was making him laugh :)

It snowed the night we got there about 5 inches. This was Brendan's attire to go out to lunch the next day. He tried to pull the hat off at first but then left it alone. He did NOT like the gloves. Notice he even has some little ski boots!

He thought it was the greatest thing ever when CiCi would play patty-cake with him (she does it a different way than we do). Isn't this the sweetest picture with him looking at her?

Daddy and Brendan on Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve bath in Nanny's tub. He was a happy boy!

Family picture before bedtime on Christmas Eve. It was really warm in the house with the fire going, so that's why we all have red cheeks! And Brendan's were a little wind burned from when we went out for lunch.

We made some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for Santa. The note is from me, telling Santa Brendan has been a very good boy and is excited about his first Christmas and to tell Mrs. Clause and the reindeer "hello."

Santa ate all the cookies and drank the milk! He left a note back telling Brendan he had been a very good boy and to enjoy his Christmas and remember that Santa is always watching :)

Brendan's loot from Santa. He got the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn House, an alligator xylophone and his stocking had two sets of Fisher Price Little People.

Christmas morning, checking out his new toy! Notice his long john pajamas. They say "Brendan's First Christmas." He LOVES the house and plays with it constantly.

Let's open this gift! (sorry for the lighting)

Daddy helping Brendan open all his gifts.

This is fun!

He got a Fisher Price Little People Farm, which he really likes.

And a cat keyboard that makes tons of different sounds. He also really likes it (I don't think there is any toy he got that he doesn't like!)

CiCi showing him how to put the shapes into his shape sorter. He's actually gotten pretty good at it and knows where some of the shapes go but still has a hard time getting them through into the bucket.

Playing with his new house with Papa.
What, Mommy? I'm trying to play here!

Picture of the scenery. This was on Sunday, so a lot of the snow had melted.

Close up family picture.

Brendan with his ladies :

Handsome boy

One thing I'm not sure Brendan mentioned in his last post (I've got a picture, but it's on my phone so I will post it later) is that he had his first Oreo the other day :) He is definitely Mommy's boy and LOVED it. Today, I gave him a few mini Oreos after his afternoon snack and when he had about four of them I told him that was enough and put the box of them away. Whenever I put them away, he started crying! I think I might have a sugar addict on my hands!

And, most exciting of all, Brendan started walking a little bit!! I know I posted before he had taken three steps one day, but he hadn't really done anything since then. Right when we got to Red River, he took 6 steps to go over to CiCi! The rest of the weekend there, he would take a few steps here and there and even stood up, took a step, stopped, and took another step (verses just getting going and taking steps until he fell). Today he walked back and forth between Tim and I several times. I know this is a WHOLE new ballgame when we start dealing with walking, but I'm really excited!

I hope all of you and your families had a very wonderful Christmas and have a very Happy New Year! My baby boy turns ONE in ONE week! I can't believe it!

*Hangs Head*

I'm so, so sorry I've been such a terrible blogger! Probably none of you even want to read anymore because I've been so bad at it.

We have been really busy around here and went to Red River, New Mexico for Christmas (we left the 23rd at 4:00 AM and got back last night about 7:45). I have lots of pictures to post and Brendan had a wonderful first Christmas.

I plan on doing a blog post either tonight or during the day tomorrow. Again, my profuse apologies for not posting sooner. I feel like I never quite get caught up with everything I need to do!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! See you tonight or tomorrow :)

30 Days!

Hi, everybody!!
Sorry my mom is such a bad blogger. She just gets so busy and I make her really tired by the end of the day!

Sunday after Thanksgiving, I went and saw Santa! Here's a picture of me after seeing him. I was really excited!

This year, I liked Santa. I've heard that I might not like him so much next year, but this year he was pretty cool.
Mom had to take a picture of the picture to post it. See how good I was for the picture?!

Then, Santa and I had a serious talk about what I want for Christmas.

My mom is constantly sticking this camera thing in my face. One day, I just had enough of it and told her "Mommy, you STOP taking pictures!"

One of my new favorite things to do is play with Mommy's Coke Zero can after she gets done with the drink. I like to pretend like I am drinking it, too.

I'm already a good sharer, too. Look, I share with Shiner!

My first Thanksgiving was at our house this year! Here's my Pops, Aunt Emily and Suzie hanging out and watching some football before we ate.

Daddy and Uncle Alex are obsessed with some game on the computer called ESPN U. They always fight about whose campus is better.

My Nana came to have Thanksgiving with us, too! Here we are hanging out and I'm trying to sneak a peek at the TV. We're a house divided (notice my maroon pants and Nana's burnt orange shirt?!)

Here is Mommy's first ever Thanksgiving turkey! It turned out really well and everyone said it tasted delicious. I thought it was good, too, but I don't have anything to compare it to.

Here I am ready to eat some Thanksgiving lunch/dinner! I ended up getting too tired, though, and didn't want to eat anything so I took a nap instead. Later, I ate stuffing, turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole and broccoli and rice casserole! I loved it all!

The night of Thanksgiving, it was REALLY cold outside so Mommy had to buy me some new fleece pajamas. Don't I look cute in them?

Here I am wearing some new pajamas that my CiCi got me. I really like them. I also still really like this elephant that makes classical music noise whenever you push his tummy. It always makes me smile :)

On Sunday after Thanksgiving, Mommy got out all the Christmas decorations. After she took everything out, I really liked playing in this box. I don't mess with the tree too much but there is a little tree in Daddy's study that I always try to pull on the ornaments. Now they keep the door closed to the study and I can't get in there so I just stand and bang on the door.
This is a new favorite activity of mine, in addition to opening all the cabinets and drawers. I'm very good at helping Mommy unload the dishwasher.

The other night, Mommy made the mistake of deciding to let me try to feed myself my dinner. Here is what it looked like shortly after she put it in front of me.

And here's what it looked like 5 minutes later. Oh, and just in case you thought I ate all that pasta that was in the middle part of my plate, I didn't. I just rubbed it around all over the tray and dropped it on the floor. I think maybe I ate 5 bites of it. I didn't like my banana and I didn't like my vegetables. Mostly, I just like to eat peanut butter, applesauce, yogurt, grilled cheese, and sometimes some peas and butternut squash. It's getting pretty difficult for mommy to come up with things for me to eat!

Here's another new favorite of mine. I love to open and close the garbage and recycling cans. It entertains me for a very long time.

Mommy and Daddy had to put gates at the bottom and top of the stairs because I learned how to climb up the stairs but I also try to follow Tucker and Shiner down the stairs and I'm not so good at that yet. Whenever Mommy has to go downstairs real quick to get something, I like to stand at the gate to watch for her to come back
I turned 11 months old yesterday!! And today, it's only 30 days until I turn ONE year old! Can you believe it?! Also, I took TWO steps yesterday!! But, I decided I didn't want to do it anymore after that, except I did take one little step for Daddy when he got home, just to show him I can do it. I also have SIX teeth now and I think I'm about to get two more. I say "hi," "yeah," and "bath" now. Sometimes Mommy thinks I say "bottle" whenever she says it to me, but she's not sure. I talk a lot of sentences, too, but Mommy and Daddy still aren't quite sure what I'm saying yet.

I'm still really loving Little Gym. We went back last week for the first time in two weeks because there was a break for Thanksgiving. Right when we walked in the gym I started screaming in excitement to be back! Everytime they bring the balls out, I runnnnnn as fast as I can when I'm holding Mommy's hands so I can get to the balls as quickly as possible. Sometimes I like to kick them and other times I like to crawl after them and hit them with my hands.

I think that's about all going on with me right now. Most of my friends are about to turn one year old as well so I have lots and lots of birthday parties coming up. I can't wait to eat cake!

Yayyy for turning 11 months old!

Hope everyone had a fun weekend and has a good week! I'll pester Mommy to make sure she posts again next week and doesn't take a long break!

Update**

I'm sorry I haven't posted this week. I'm really busy with work stuff right now but I will try to post ASAP.

If you click on the link that I posted below to vote for Brendan, it IS tied to a place. Yesterday, he was in 19th place but today he fell to 20th place, so you would need to click forward one picture to vote for him. When the new rankings come up in the morning, I will post a new link for tomorrow.

Thank you to those of you who have voted!

**Unfortunately, as of today, Brendan has fallen to #35. I know lots of people are voting for him, so I think it's just one of those things that other people have had a surge in voting for their pictures since this started. It is still SO awesome that he might even be in the top 100 out of thousands of pictures! We really appreciate y'all voting for him and trying to help him win! I'm leaving to go out of town for my cousin's wedding early in the morning, so I likely won't post until Monday or Tuesday, but I definitely will post one of those days. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Vote for Brendan!

I entered Brendan's picture in a contest to be on the cover of Parent's magazine. One of the pictures I entered was selected to be a finalist in this week's Reader's Choice contest, where the winner wins $250. It's based on votes, so I would realllllly appreciate it if you would go and vote for him! Voting ends December 5th and you can vote once a day until then.

You don't have to register or anything, you just follow this link, click that you want to vote on his picture and it will bring up an ad for a business (mine was a Toyota ad) and you will have to type in a word from the ad (mine was Corolla LE). The word will either be bolded in black or it will say something like "please enter this word into the box below." Easy peasy :)

http://photos.parents.com/american-baby-cover-contest/48/2010/1823

Please be so kind to let me know if the link doesn't work. It is the picture of him sitting and looking up at the camera with a half-smile in front of a blue door from the post from last week. Thanks in advance for helping Brendan's college fund :)

Busy Bee

I'm really busy this week getting ready to host my first Thanksgiving at our house, but I wanted to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and leave you with a few pictures of the handsomest boy I know from our Christmas photo session last month (pre haircut) :)

What is going on here?
Happy baby!

Hey everyone!

Also, Bobbi made me realize I left something out of my post last week when she commented on last week's blog. We actually HAVE lowered Brendan's crib mattress as low as it will go and he can still stand up very easily. But, he hasn't even begun to attempt to climb out, thank goodness. He's been waking up super early for him this week (like, by 6:00 AM) and although I don't get him out of bed at that point, I can hear him squealing and talking so I don't really get any extra sleep. Add that to sometimes having to bring Shiner out at 2:00 AM and I am a pretty tired Mama! Luckily, Tim won't be working after tomorrow for the rest of the week so I can get some Zzzzzs >:) Just kidding, we usually trade off days so we both get some extra sleep!

Happy Thanksgiving!