dear hunter~6 months

Hunter, I cannot believe you are 6 MONTHS OLD! Just 6 short months ago, Daddy and I were anxiously awaiting you. Waiting and Waiting....we don't wait anymore! You keep our lives busy and FUN and FULL. Your laugh just sends me into orbit. When you are really excited about something, you wrinkle you nose before you let out a big squeal and subsequent belly laugh! I love it. You love Okee. You love to watch her. The other day when she got eye level with you (when she was disobeying the rules and sitting on the couch), you stared at her with your mouth wide open. The banner over you read "bliss." Your mouth kept going from a silent, wide open "o" to a big smile and then back to an excited "o" -- Oh my! You were like a Norman Rockwall painting of a boy opening a box for Christmas when a golden retreiver puppy pops out. Oh, if I could have bottled up that face...I'd have been a millionaire. At least to me.

You are looking very blonde in your 6 month pics. Although you definitely have some brown hair. I think you inherited my blonde streaked hair. You will be the only kindergartener with highlights. :) ha! You look like a little froggy in the above pic. Where did you think you were going? :)

You love your solid foods. You like them all. Peas was first. Your favorite songs right now? Well, "Time to eat lunch" is where you made your debut in our Sunday School class. I started singing it to you after class one day and you started laughing with glee. You were such a ham...you had all the moms rolling. But you also like "Skiddlemarink-y-dinky-dink" and "Oh, How I love Jesus"--especially if I pull your face towards mine every time I say "oh!" You can sit up on your own very well (see pics!) You are starting to want to crawl--at least if it means you can get closer to your toys. You haven't started yet, but you are trying. I promise to be in God's word daily so I can give to you out of His overflow instead of anything I could come up with. I love EVERY bit of you. Love, Mommy

Mother's Day Weekend!

We had a great Mother's Day weekend! These first 2 pics were taken before we left for Brenham. We had 14 people from our family eat at the Southern Flyer Diner! (Who knew our family was so big, by the way?) The Flyer is a great restaurant if you have never been! It's the restaurant at the Brenham airport--totally decked out in 50's decor---waitresses in poodle skirts, judebox, you name it! Interestingly enough, PBS was filming a documentary series in the restaurant that day, called Day Tripper. It was very funny--first of all to see them film this little skit, stage it, etc. And secondly, it was funny because they were trying to film around the 14 of us, laughing our heads off at who knows what in the background. Not to mention someone kindly handed me some of Hunter's "links" that had flown across the diner at some point. Maybe they won't even cut that out and he'll have a little claim to fame early in his life. Needless to say, we did not get any pictures at the diner. It was all Josh and I could do to get the stroller, the kid, the high chair, the squash, and the toys into the establishment.

Mommy and Hunter about to walk out the door to Mother's Day lunch. I had a letter in the mailbox earlier in the week that read "mommy" on the front from Hunter and Daddy. They wanted to treat me to Vargo's on Sunday.

Hunter's first Peacock :) @ Vargo's. I think he was more excited about the rice he ate off of Daddy's plate, though.

At the end of Mother's Day, I concluded it had not been much different than any other day. Josh always lets me know how much he appreciates me as a mom to Hunter and find special ways to surprise me everyday. Thank you for being a great husband, Josh!

dear hunter~5 months

dear hunter,

april marks your 5-month birthday! i really can't wrap my mind around how this year has gone by since november. we are having so much fun with you. as you can see in the pic above, one of your favorite things is looking at yourself in the mirror. i started singing "who's that baby" to the tune of "who's that lady" and now you want it every day! :) your favorite books to read right now are fifteen animals and muddy pups. i'm telling you this in case you ever are asked a question for an email password or if you get one of those forwards one day, asking you about your favorite childhood reading material. you see, i'm your mom, and i try to provide you with everything you need. or might need. sometimes i anticipate too much of what may happen in the future...i'm trying to mellow for yours and daddy's sake. :) ha ha right now you are playing in your exersaucer; you are so strong, as you bend that dragonfly over with all your might.

you love to smile. you feel so big sitting up by yourself. you like to do this thing with your hand where you look like you just want to say "cha-cha-cha." will you like to dance like we do?

i don't always know what you are up to, or thinking, but i'd like to, like in this picture above.

and this one is one of my favorites. you love to laugh, and i can't wait to teach you that song, "i love to laugh" from mary poppins. i may teach you the words, but you are teaching us how to live it out.

your daddy and i love each other more now than ever with you in the middle of our hugs.

love, mommy

dumplings downtown with daddy day!

Today was Hunter's first trip downtown to Daddy's office! Ever since Josh's co-workers saw Hunter's "first jean day" pic, they have been wanting him to come up for a Casual Friday lunch!

Hunter got to experience the infamous Doozo establishment. YUMMY! Line was long, but moved fast.

Here's Hunter in line at Doozo. Uh-oh. We realized we forgot the list of what everyone at the office wanted to order on Josh's desk! This is an uh-oh because the lady who runs the place is the dumpling nazi --straight from the Seinfeld set. You get up to the counter and you don't know your order--no dumplings for you!!! We couldn't risk that, so we got out of line...composed our list...and got back in. Whew. I saw her for the first time today. She did look kinda like she'd make you go to bed without supper.

kissable. huggable. loveable. unbelievable. i think if the dumpling nazi had seen this face, she would have had to give mercy. ;)

hunter's first easter

daddy and hunter in matching khaki shorts and white polos :)

4 generations :)

how can you resist this?????

first family picture in the brenham bluebonnets

Back in the Day...

Here's a pic of Amanda in my wedding in June of 2004...just had to post these together!

More fun wedding pics! What a fun entrance to the bride's cake, might I add!

Hunter's FIRST wedding!

Me and the Mrs. :) Congrats Amanda and Dustin. So glad I could celebrate this day with you. Thank you, Amanda for standing my my side when I married Josh 6 years ago!