Brian's 1st snow!

We had our 1st measureable snowfall yesterday/last night. About 6-8 inches in the St. Louis area. Brenden had an old skateboard that he took the wheels off and tried to snowboard!! (Came in yesterday asking for duct tape..... to tape his feet to the board!) We took Brian out this morning to see if he liked it, but I think he's not so sure. He had a hard time walking and could not get up on his own, which made Mr. Independent cranky. He did like sliding down the incline in our backyard on Brenden's board though.

Brian will be 17 months on the 21st and goes a mile a minute. He's learned lots of new words like "Oxie" (Roxie our dog), "mo" (more), "mi" (milk..which is his favorite drink. He's put a cow on his Christmas list to help us out with the milk supply!), "cwack" (crackers) and "Kashy" (Aunt Kathy). Of course he LOVES to yell "Daddddddyyyy", but doesn't say "Mama" much. He knows how to say "uh oh" too..... and LOVES to say it when he does something he shouldn't. Like tossing stuff (his cars, newspaper, etc) over the railing to the basement. (That's just a bit of what he does when he says "uh oh" :-) )

He also did not like his 1st visit to Santa. Daddy and Papa took him to a breakfast with Santa while the rest of us were at Elena's baby shower. He REFUSED to sit on Santa's lap and cried. He LOVES the Hallowee monsters, but HATES the guy in the red suit. We had gone to dinner at a local bbq place after my MRI and he wouldn't walk in the door because they had a pig figure dressed in a Santa suit!! We tried walking him out after dinner and he RAN the other way!!

Have a great week!! And if we don't see you all before (or talk to you) have a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are a few pictures I took yesterday... We were over at Uncle Tom and Aunt Vilma's. Tom, Candi and their 2 boys (Logan (3) and Lawson (10 months) ) and Elena and Jesse were both home. Brian had fun playing with Logan. Hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving!!

PS- these are several of the same photo..just in black and white. I was just playing around with Photoshop. Brian was still asleep at 7am!!! :-)

daycare picture day..

Brian's daycare had their fall picture day a few weeks ago. We got our order last Friday. So, I decided to post it up on the blog. We ordered 2 poses since the thumb one was cute. (SOOO Brian!)

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. It's not easy for me to use the computer much. Most of you know I've had problems with my left wrist all summer/fall. It seems I've torn/damaged the TFCC http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_trifibcc_sma.htm (just a bit about it). I am going after Thanksgiving for an MRI Arthrogram. Will find out the 4th what the next steps will be. Dr. doesn't reccomend the repairs since most who have it done regret it. We may go for another opinion. Since the pain makes it hard to do any computer related work (hard for my job since our grades are now all online!) and picking up Brian! Even the day to day stuff is difficult. Oh well...we'll just have to wait and see.

Hope all of you have a GREAT Turkey day on Thursday! Hopefully I'll get some good photos and will post them over the weekend!

Brian and his "vroom vrooms"..

Brian LOVES his cars. Tonka makes a car for little guys that have an entire body that is soft plastic. Just right for little hands. Papa has gotten him a bunch already and when Geegee saw him today she brought him a set of smaller cars. He can entertain himself for quite sometime with these. He was playing on our living room floor with Papa while we waited for Grandma P, Wayne and Aunt Kathy to get to the house to go to Spaghetti Factory for dinner. (We were celebrating my birthday a little early)

Halloween display

Well..thought some of you might like this. Rob video taped our display Halloween night. Hope you enjoy!!! (The voice you hear is a recording that goes with the witch that Rob puts out only for Halloween night.)

Happy Halloween!!

Brian has his 1st Halloween party today at daycare! Then tonight we will take him to some of our neighbors to trick or treat. I got him a monkey costume at Old Navy and he loves it!! He will actually leave the hood on..most hoods he pulls back off!

Hope you all have a great Halloween!!

transformation....

well....I couldn't get any night photos, but this is how part of our front yard looks. (He has lighting set up as well as strobes) This is Rob's favorite holiday and he goes all out. (This is the 1st he's put up the display in 5 years though.) It took 4 days to set up (2 different weekends) and on Halloween night he also adds fog. The fence you see he built. It's all wood that has been painted. To store, it comes apart and put in the attic above our patio. (which is why it took 4 days...1 weekend to get all of it down and then build the fence!)

Yes..that is a real casket. Rob said that he got it at Hood's (a store in St. Louis) and it was a display from a funeral home that had a fire (you can see up close that there is smoke damage). There is also a dinosaur that hangs next to the front door and the dark square on the upper side of the house (what looks like it's above the casket) is a hanging of a creature climbing out of a wall.

one more....

well...I was able to edit 1 more photo today..(this was pretty dark.) I should add that I've been stepping out of my comfort zone and using our dslr (digital slr). Not only using it alot, but also keeping it out of auto!! So, the photos sometimes come out dark when I don't have the settings right. Consequently, I have to go into Photoshop and edit. :-(

I took this one last weekend when we were over at my Mom and Dad's and Brian was playing outside. (You can tell he LOVES to be outside!!)

I'm hoping to get some photos at night of the nightly transformation that's taken place in our front yard. (It's been going on for the entire month...and will soon disappear until next year!)

Have a great week!!

15 months old....

Well...our little guy has grown in the last 3 months. He had his 15 month dr. appointment on Friday (26th). He got 4 shots (which he didn't cry TOO much!) and we found that he is off the charts in height and in the 95th percentile for his weight. He weighs 30lbs 10oz (!!) and is 32 1/4 in. tall! He's grown 2 inches and gained 2 lbs. since his 1 year appointment. He also has 12 teeth (all 4 molars) and he's teething again. Working on his eye teeth now.

Here are a couple of pictures I took while he was having fun playing outside at Nana and Papa's on Sat. Papa, Nana and Daddy were working on blowing insulation into the dormer and storage spaces and we spent a good part of the morning outside playing since it was SO nice! If Brian is nice, I'll try to get some more edited (I got up early this morning to do these!) and post later. (I got what looks like a good one of him in his Halloween costume!!)

Time for new photos....

Hi!! I've needed to get some new photos of Brian up, BUT haven't been able to get any that are good. This weekend we were over at Papa's and Grandma's and I was able to get some good photos. I have some more to post, but they need some work done on them. So, I'm hoping while Rob is out of town Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (he will be in Boston Tuesday-Wednesday and then goes to Minneapolis Wednesday-Thursday. Will be back that evening.) I can get them done when Brian goes to sleep.

Brian was caught playing on the steps in the 1st and was eating a vanilla wafer in the other. He's running around now and understands ALOT! He'll pick up his toys (when we are getting ready to leave...wish he'd do it at HOME!!). He's also gone to the door when we've said "Do you want to go outside?" or "Let's go home!" He's also trying to repeat words. We've understood "pew", "sorry" and "dat" (that).

Hope everyone has a good week!

Ride'em cowboy!

Friday, Brian and I played "hooky" from our schools. It was a special day for Papa as it was his last day of work! So we went with Grandma to his retirement party at work. Brian enjoyed eating 2 (!!) pieces of cake (he RARELY eats that much sweets!) and playing at Papa's computer and desk (we couldn't take photos since it was actually at work). We (Brian, Grandma and I) came back to the house and B ate some lunch and played before we headed back home. One of the things B has found he likes to play with/on is my old hobby horse "Charger".

B also has his Halloween costume...he's going to be a monkey. I'll make sure to post pictures!! Rob's also been busy with work....he's going to Chicago (he'll leave early in the AM and back late PM) and will also be going to Orlando sometime in Nov. His big project is here at home...setting up the Halloween display. I'll have to get some photos and post later!!! Hope you all have a great week and had a good weekend!!

a little fun....

Brian was playing around the family room tonight and decided he wanted toys out of his toybox. Well....I put the toybox on its side so that HE could get the toys out. He decided after getting the big toys out that he was going to get IN the box!!! I grabbed my camera and snapped these!! He played in there for about 15 min.

fall weekend

Hi! Hope everyone had a good weekend! We took Brian out to the Millstadt Eckert's Fun Farm this afternoon (Sunday). He seemed to like looking around and watching people. Got to see the pumpkin launcher, watch pig races, play in a strawbox (a pit filled with straw instead of sand) and pet some goats...he liked that the best!!! (especially when the goats licked his hands!) Because the Millstadt farm didn't have the apple that Papa liked, we went to the Belleville farm (they are both close to our house) and Brian and Daddy enjoyed a funnel cake....YUM!!!!! Enjoy the photos! Hope you all have a great week!

a few more.....

Thought I'd add a few more while I waited for itunes to burn some cds for school.

The 1st one was taken July 31st at Wayne's. (Vera's friend) Rob had to work late and Vera had asked us to come for dinner. B had a grand time playing in the yard with Aunt Kathy!

The rest were taken June 22nd on the way to Cinci for Ashley's wedding. B enjoyed the 5 hr. ride..sleeping for about 1 1/2 hrs. and looking out the window the rest of the time. He got cranky the last 1/2 hr. on the way there and on the way home. He was just tired of sitting. I discovered that turning on some classical music calmed him down. (Though Daddy said lucky.)

just a few more for tonight! :-)

these are the last 4 for tonight.... the 1st is B with his Aunt Kathy (holding him) while a neighbor of Grandma P's and Wayne's gives them a ride in a go cart. One of B's favorite toys is Daddy's remote....he will fight to get it! Daddy had this bear chair from when he was a little boy and I got it out for B last weekend...he loves to sit in it since it is his size. The last is a random photo Papa took one weeknd when they were over.

Hopefully I will get a chance to post some more later!!! Hope you all enjoyed! Have a good week!!

meet the new cookie monster!

I forgot to post these.....Guess I was interrupted and forgot that these were in the draft....

Well...Rob decided B just HAD to try oreo double stuff cookies. He LOVED them as you can tell on his face! The 1st 2 are from the 1st time he had ever had them. Then the next weekend Nana and Papa came over and they wanted to see him eat a cookie....so this time we stripped him. Thank goodness...he had it all over!!