It takes a village....

Have you ever heard the saying... "It takes a village to raise a child"...... well that's how it was on this trip! I would classify Brody's personality as an explorer. He does not like to be cooped up and restrained in a stroller for long periods of time. So being that one of the main things we did on this trip was shop.... it took the whole family to help entertain him. Ja and I were very thankful for all their help!!! As you can see in the pictures below Brody was not short on attention..... :)

We went to this store called Ikea.... it has everything you ever wanted for your home. In the kids area it had this cool rocking toy that Brody loved. We will have to get it when he gets a little older.


Papaw is entertaining Brody while waiting as we shop.



Jeremy and Brandy playing peek-a-boo with Brody on some rugs. Sometimes he gets so squirmy and does not want to be held... so since the floor was dirty and his shoes would not stay on his feet, I put him on some rugs to hang out on for awhile. He had a fun time with them here.

Brody got to hang out in the car while we were waiting to get seated at this yummy restaurant called Chuy's. He liked being able to be free and not being held by someone.

Ja was entertaining him while we were waiting for our food. Sometimes it does not take much. It was so cute because while we were eating Brody would put his head down on the table because he was tired. He was like.... come on guys are you not done yet.. :) However for being that tired and off of his normal routine he did a great job!

Happy to be home and play with some of his favorite toys and people!

Brody loves to be outside so we went on a walk.... literally... Brody walked.... with me holding his hands for support of course.

We were able to wait outside for our table at a delicious restaurant called Saltlick barbecue... the food there is so good! So here Brody is being entertained by live music, Heather and Brandy.

Ja's parents were very nice to keep their car running while Brody would take a nap. He will fall asleep in his car seat so that is where he would take his naps on the days that we were out shopping at the outlet malls. He is one tired little boy here.

The bats in Austin

We went to see the bats in downtown Austin. Yes there are millions of bats that live under a bridge downtown and they come out every night to go and get some food. It is quite the site to see and a famous attraction for visitors and people that live there.

You can see that there are a lot of people waiting for the bats to come out .... you can either stand on the bridge and look over to see them flying out, or you can go under the bridge and get a good look at their home. We did both. It was interesting to see them under the bridge. You could really see them good when a tour guide shined an infrared light on them. Because it was so dark when they came out I was not able to get any pics of them but it was really cool and something Ja and I have never done before.

Brody stayed with Nana and Papaw while we went to see the bats.


Heather, Holly, Ja, and Jerm waiting to see the bats. We could not see them yet, however you could smell them. :)

We had a great time spending time with our family! Thanks Heather for taking us around Austin and showing us the sites, it was great being able to spend some time with you and Drew! We had a great time eating, playing games and shopping! I know Brody had a good time playing with his Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles! We are already looking forward to our next trip down there!

PGA Championship

Fun time with the Fam!

Eating is so much fun!

Learning how to walk

This is a video that I took while we were waiting to go swimming. I think he looks so cute in his swim trunks! This is a great to to help teach him how to walk. It is so cute to see those little legs just a movin! Enjoy!

9 months old!

As you can tell by the pictures Brody loves being outside and playing with water. :) I guess that is a boy for ya! :) We were watering the flowers and decided to let Brody play in the water. He loved it and had a great time!

He is now 9 months old! Wow where has the time gone! It is amazing how fast they grow up and learn new things! He is now eating everything and loves anything you put infront of him to eat. (I am so glad about that!) He crawls everywhere and pulls up on anything and everything. It is so fun to watch his little brain working.... like when we ask him where something is, or when we tell him no no.....you can see the wheels turning. He still does not like to be confined to a stroller which makes shopping loads of fun! :) He wants to be out and exploring everything around him. It is a little difficult to let him do that while shopping. He is definitely learning new things every day and developing his personality. I just love him so much!

Aunt Amy coming for a visit

My sister came to visit this past weekend. It was great having her here and I know Brody had a great time with her. He now loves it when someone chases him around while he is crawling on the floor. He would look back at Amy and see if she were coming to chase him.... it was very cute. We also took some video of him laughing... I am going to try to put that on here later today. It was fun being able to spend time with her and have her stay at our house for a couple of nights.

In the pics above my mom and sister are entertaining him in the water. He like to splash and play in the water and so they thought he would get a kick out of playing in the sink.... :) I think these are cute pictures ... like he is saying "hey this is fun... mom's never let me do this before".

Happy Birthday!

This is one of my favorite pics of Ja. He looks so relaxed and happy. Like he is thinking... "man this is the life". Yesterday was his birthday so I wanted to wish him a Happy Birthday! We celebrated his birthday with presents and his favorite dessert... apple gingerbread cake. It is a family tradition to make their favorite dessert on their birthday. Brody and I sang to him and I know Brody was wishing he could of had some of Ja's birthday cake. Poor thing had to smell it all day long and did not even get a taste! I know I am a horrible mother! :) He will have the rest of his life to try all those goodies so why not just wait a little while. Happy Birthday Ja! I hope you had a great day and enjoy your 30's! You are my best friend and a wonderful father! We love you very much!

Learning meanings of words

Poor Baby!

Today Brody and I went to see the Dr. Brody has been running a fever and since he was still on meds for his ear infection I figured we better take him to see the Doc to make sure the infection was going away. However when the Dr. looked in his ear he saw that it was still infected. :( Apparently it is a pretty bad one and he needed some stronger antibiotics to help clear it up. THEN he routinely checked his mouth and when he did he said hummmm .. well if you are at the Dr. and they say hummmm that is never a good thing! He said well I am sorry to say that Brody has HFAM. (Hands, foot and mouth .... it is a virus) I being a first time mom had never heard of that and was like.... ahh what? He explained to me that it is a common virus that children pick up from other children. (I am thinking... oh fun that is nice of them to SHARE!) He went on to say that it is one of those things that they will get immune to and most adults are immune to it. He said that he is going to be fussy... may not feel like eating much and may run a fever. Poor thing! So to make his ear infection go away he gave him a shot... so that he did not have to fight two things at once.

I have memories of my mom comforting us when we were sick. She would make us drink honey and lemon (mixed and warmed) if we were coughing ... it is my grandpas remedy and it works! She would hold our hair back and put a wet wash cloth on our neck when we were sick, bring us sprite to drink... with a straw of course... and love on us when we did not feel good. So now it is my turn. I am going to put my mom jeans on (J/K) and get in there and comfort my baby when he does not feel good!

The pic is of Brody today at the Doctors office.... looks good for having all that wrong with him!

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July! Every year we go to Ja's parents house to celebrate the 4th. We always have great food and lots of fireworks! This was Brody's first 4th..... however he did not get to see any of the fireworks because he was fast asleep. I am sure he would of enjoyed the sparklers and the fountains.... the other loud stuff I am not so sure about. I guess he will just have to wait until next year to see the big show. Here are some pictures of us infront of the pond that they have. I was trying to get a picture of Brody in his old navy flag shirt however he was to busy crawling and pulling up on things. He loves to wave at people ..... even if he does not know them... that is what he is doing in the picture with me. :)

Softball and Ear Infections

Tonight was Jason's softball game, so Brody and I went and watched him play! He plays on a team made up of some family and some church friends and they are very good! Last year they won the whole league. So it is fun to go and watch them play. Brody was entertained by Kristin's chair and anything else he could pull up on! This week we took him to the Dr. because he has not been feeling very good. Turns out that he has his first ear infection. We are so glad we ended up taking him. For awhile we thought it was just him teething... but then one night when he was practically up all night we thought it might be something else. Now that he is on some meds he is feeling a whole lot better and back to his normal self!

Peek a boo I see you! Michael and Kristin were out watching the game as well. Brody enjoyed playing with her and showing her all the new things he can do!

Wow bubbles! Can it get any cuter then that! Keeping a baby who wants to crawl everywhere on a blanket (so he would not scrape his knees on the cement) is not an easy task! However when I broke out the bubbles he stayed still for a couple of minutes. :) Where has my baby gone..... he looks like a little boy! :) (I see a lot of Ja in him in this pic.... so cute!)

OU vrs OSU

My Aunt Cindy was in town this past weekend and we were able to get together with her! It was great to see her and show her how big Brody has gotten! She brought Brody a little gift.... an OSU football! He enjoyed throwing it down and hearing it play the fight song.... and putting it in his mouth of course. :) Now before any of you say anything don't worry he is not going to be brought up to be an OSU fan (sorry Dad and Cindy) he is going to be a die hard OU fan like his Daddy. :)*

What a cute picture of the two of them! You can see here how Brody liked to put the ball in his mouth! (Teething is so much fun!)
Here is a picture of them with out the football in his mouth.

Pop's getting real excited that Brody has something OSU...... Brody thinking.... "my dad told me that OSU was bad and OU was good.."
Grandaddy playing with Brody on the floor. It was great getting to see all of them and have Brody entertain them for awhile!

Brody's nap time

This is a video I took of Brody when it was his nap time. However as you can see he was not taking a nap. His new favotite thing to do is pull up and stand in his crib.... I guess he found a new friend when he was looking in the mirror. It takes him a while to wind down and go to sleep...... I did not mean for him to see me so I had to go back in and say that it was nap time. Eventually he did go to sleep. :)

Swim Day

This whole week it is supposed to rain every day.... except for yesterday. So I decided that if Brody and I were going to go to the pool we better go before the rain comes! So we put on our sun screen (which baby sun screen just smells like summer in a bottle to me).... and headed out the door. I have a pool pass for this pool so that we can just hang out there for a couple of hours and splash around and then leave and not feel guilty about only being there for 2 hours and having to pay every time we went. This pool is cool because it is a zero entry pool which means that you can just walk right into the pool like you do the ocean. I like this because then Brody and I can sit and hang out in the shallow end without all the big kids! So we were sitting there yesterday and all of the sudden this life guard comes up to me and says, "Um Mam we are asking that everyone gets out of the pool". I was like uhhh ok... then I look around me and almost everyone was out of the pool already. ( I must of been in Brody world because I had not noticed what was going on)..... So come to find out some little kid (who was not wearing swim diapers....) did something in the baby pool.... you can only imagine what. I was thinking man I am glad I did not take him over there today! I was just going to hang out for a little while until they shocked the pool and let everyone get back in. UNTIL I found out that both pools are connected and that is why everyone had to get out of the big pool! That kind of grossed me out and needless to say I packed up our stuff and decided to come again anther day!

8 months old!

Wow I can't believe it! Brody is 8 months old today! He is growing so fast and doing new things each day. He can now eat some finger food which is nice because it entertains him for a little bit while we try to eat. It is amazing how something as simple as a cheerio will entertain him for a little while. If it were only always going to be that easy. :)* He is now pulling up on everything and anything! So that is making our lives a little more fun. :)* Just this week he started saying mama!! He already says dada so that is fun. Now granted he does not know what he is saying but it is good that he is getting his m's down! He is very interested in anything and everything and wants to always be on the go! If you know Ja at all he gets that trait from him... :)* He is not the type of baby that will just cuddle in your arms.... so when I get those moments where he is asleep on my sholder or simply sitting there on my lap while I read him a book (instead of trying to bite the book) I cherish those! He is such a cutie if I do say so myself!

Brody crawling!

No shoes, no shirt, no problem

On Vacation.....

This week we are on vacation! On some vacations you are very busy and are always on the go. These vacations can be very fun yet sometimes not relaxing, so this year we decided to take a relaxing vacation. :)* So we have popped in the Kenny Chesney CD (that reminds us of being on the beach) put our vacation clothes on and hung out together and with family! Ja has gotten to play some golf and I have gotten to go shopping and to the pool! What more could you ask for! ..... well I could think of some more things like a room on a cruise ship but hey maybe another time. This will always be a memorable vacation because it is when Brody started to crawl! Yep he is now strictly crawling. No more scooting. He is on the go and pulling up on everything! While Amy and Eric were here they brought Laney (their very pretty lab). It is so funny to see the two of them together! She will just lay there and let Brody crawl all over her! He has pulled her tail, tasted her fur (which he did not like...yuck!) and used her to pull up on so that he could stand. Instead of saying man's best friend they should say babies best friend (at least to Laney). Fun times!

Swim Day!

On our vacation we went to a water park.... it was a lot of fun and as you can tell in the picture above all the fun stuff we were doing just wore the poor little guy out! When we first got there he did not know what to think about it. However after he took a little nap and ate lunch, he liked it a lot better! Funny how that works.

Marmee and Brody playing in his raft. I think the water was a little cold for him but after he got used to it he had a good time.

Brody taking a break with Pop's to chew on some toys.

Aunt Amy trying to get Brody used to the water..... I think this is a cute picture of the two of them.

Here they are feeling the water come down.
We all had a good time and were all worn out by the time we left!

Happy Anniversary

3 years later....

Ja and I have been married for 3 years now! Wow where does the time go! Our Anniversary was June 19. All day we were playing the "at this time 3 years ago we were doing...." game. It is very weird to think about where you were three years ago and how your life has changed. We are now no longer just a couple we are a family and have a beautiful baby boy! What a great three years it has been!

Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day!

This was Ja's first fathers day and he just happend to be on vacation! What a great way to spend your holiday not having to go to work! I love how he is always willing to jump on in there and do whatever needs to be done! We love you Ja! You are a great dad!

Love ya

Em and Brody

A great weekend

We had another great weekend this past weekend. Heather and Drew came up to visit and it was great seeing them again! I know what you are thinking.... what is up with Brody in this picture. Well it was 11:00pm and he had been asleep so the poor little guy was tired and wondering why I am pulling out my camera at this time at night. :) I guess we are all allowed a bad picture every now and then... even adorable little Brody! (Sorry guys I should of taken your picture earlier the weekend just flew by)! Drew taught us a game called Nert's, and we pretty much played that all weekend! It is a very fun game! We watched some old home videos of Ja, Jerm, Holly and Heather when they were kids..... it is so funny to see how you used to act sometimes. It made me really glad that we have a video camera so that one day we can show Brody how he used to act.... and show is wife or girlfriend some embarrassing moments in his life.... :) Or just to see what a cute baby he is!!! :)
Brody is almost ready to start crawling, he does it for about three steps but then thinks forget this I can get there quicker if I scoot. It is funny to watch his thought process sometimes. He now goes from his tummy to sitting up which is very nice. However I still have to look twice when I walk into his room to get him up from his nap and there he is just sitting there waiting for me to get him. Funny.
Well what a fun weekend! It was good seeing you again Heather and Drew!

Swimming!

I decided that today was a great day to break out the pool! I have always loved to swim in the summer and wanted to introduce Brody to it! It was a lot of fun to be outside and get cooled off a little (it is hot outside). I think Brody had a good time and got used to it. He likes his baths so I figure he would like swimming. :) He looked so cute in his little swim shorts and hat!! The next summer thing I want to introduce him to is snow cones!! hahaha .... just kidding... he will have to wait a little while for that sugar high!

on a side note... we wanted to tell Brody's Aunt Holly that we are thinking about her today and we hope she has a speedy recovery! Lots of love and slobbery kisses!