it's the little things...

My goodness this was a busy month, Buns!  Yesterday especially.  We took so many pictures and had so many wardrobe changes.  But more on that later. You have gotten so big!  I think you're around 20 pounds now.  Still a good 10 pounds lighter than your sister (which makes a world of difference) but you're so squirmy that you're hard to hold sometimes.  You still love being held, though.  You're in 9-month clothes.  We had to buy some the other day since Mama was still trying to squeeze you into some 3-6 month stuff. You've gotten better at eating solids and have 3 meals a day.  You've tried yogurt now and had meat once (chicken).  We've tried to give you finger foods (peas, puffs, bread) a few times and it's hit-n-miss.  You have managed to squeak out 2 teeth, though!  I swear, they've looked ready to pop through for months now.  You're still on the bottle.  Mama wants to try to get you started on a sippy c...

Friday was the Astros' home opener. This was maybe my 5th consecutive Opening Day--I'd have to do some serious thinking to confirm that statement. But I do know that it was Daughter's first Opening Day and her first game period. She did great. Let people hold and feed her, wasn't bothered by the noise, and since we left during the bottom of the 7th she wasn't saddened by the team's loss. Her gifted Astros attire is still too big for her so I had to craft a onesie for her. She also had tiny Astros socks on. So cute! And call me crazy but I think her red-haired gene is showing in this first photo.

Way back in July, I marked a few things off the ol' Life List--visiting a new state (Minnesota) and a new ballpark (in, um, Minnesota). Because things got pretty crazy in August and September, I've totally neglected blogging about this. So July 15-19. I traveled up to Minnesota with my MIL and SIL. We flew into Minneapolis and then drove on up to Pine River. It's a small, quaint little town with two motels. We chose the better one. They had a Dairy Queen and a farmer's market. We visited both. The main reason we went up this far north into the state was so that we could drive up to where my MIL spent summers as a kid. She hadn't been in a very long time and my SIL and I had never been. One of the numerous lakes in Minnesota is Lake Ponto. It's small and quiet and has just a few lake houses on each side. We visited the house that my MIL's grandfather had built and talked to the next-door neighbors. Things were very much like my MIL remembered, and it was grea...

On Saturday, I crossed ballpark #8 off the list. Hubby got me tickets to a Royals game for my birthday (back in February) and we finally made good on the gift. We made it to Kansas City early Friday evening. We actually stayed in Independence, a small town to the east. Our room at The Inn at Ophelia's was very nice and comfortable and ended up luring us in for a more relaxing weekend than we had originally planned (but was much needed). On Friday night we walked around Independence's little square and had a nice Italian dinner. Then we just lounged about. On Saturday, we had the head chef at Ophelia's cook us breakfast (we were the only guests at the inn) before browsing some of the shops. Hubby got a root beer phosphate float at Clinton's, a soda shop that was formerly a drug store that employed Harry Truman. Then we headed to Kansas City to tour Boulevard Brewing Company and then score some Arthur Bryant BBQ . And we were off to the ballpark for an afternoon game. Whe...

I'm totally off track with this blogging thing lately. No Wedding Wednesday this week. We're about to leave town again tomorrow and I figure I should blog about the last Life List item before I mark off another one... We went up to Dallas the weekend before last. Hubby's sister lives there and we hadn't visited her there yet. And she got tickets to the Rangers game. Hadn't visited them yet either. So we packed our bags, loaded the dog in the car, and drove up to the Big D. The three of us (we exchanged Maggie for SIL) headed to Arlington to visit the ballpark that afternoon. The super awesome part about going up that weekend was that SIL had passes from her company that would get us on the field to play catch prior to the game. Now, I don't know if it was because it was about 5 hours before the game or if it was because there was a Boy Scout event being held there or if the Rangers are just super trusting, but we waltzed right into the ballpark (with a cooler, ...

I'm pretty sure that everyone has things they would like to do in life. Things they want to accomplish or see or experience. I feel fairly strongly that people should write these things down. 1) A list helps you keep track of these items and brings them to the forefront of your mind. 2) Doesn't everyone like to cross things off lists? No? Is that just me? 3) It seemed like as soon as I made my list, I got some pretty incredible opportunities to mark things off of it. And 4), if you make your list public, odds are you have some pretty nice folks around you who will try to make things happen for you. So last Friday, my SIL, The Brother, Hubby, and I went to see professional tennis live. Turns out that sometimes the pros actually come to our city. SIL found out about it and got us tickets. We saw one doubles and one singles match. Let me tell you, these folks can hit some balls. It was impressive. I'd totally go see it again. Who are these people? Semi-finalists at the US Men...