Happy Halloween!

From our adorable little peacock!

Pumpkin Patch

Friday night we headed out to the Corn Maize with the Hutson's to check out the pumpkin patch...unfortunately there wasn't much of a pumpkin patch, but we at least got some really cute pictures of Will and Emma Kate! 

Boston Part 2

Saturday morning we woke up and decided to venture out and see what Boston had to offer. We opted to walk instead of taking the rental car and were so glad we did. In honor of Miss Priss's 10 month birthday we thought we would take her to the Boston Children's Museum. Along the way we came across a beautiful park called the Boston Commons, which just happens to be the oldest park in the US (according to Brice anyway, I think he said he read that somewhere). The scenery was just breathtaking! There were tons of people out jogging and walking their dogs, and  the weather was just perfect, cool but not cold. Emma Kate fell asleep on the way to the museum, so we had to wake her up once we go there. At first she wasn't too sure what to think about everything, but eventually she warmed up to it and had a good time. The museum was so cool, and would have really been perfect had she been a little older. Guess we will just have to go back! :)

After the children's museum we headed to The Cheesecake Factory for a yummy lunch and then back to the hotel for a nice long nap. While Emma Kate and I were napping Brice headed off for his conference (the whole reason we were on the trip in the first place!). :) 

That evening we ventured across the street to the Prudential Center to walk around and eat dinner. Everyone told us that the one place we had to eat at was Legal Seafood. And although we had to wait over an hour and a half we were so glad to took their advice. It was excellent!! I even tried raw oysters for the first time and actually enjoyed them! Brice said they didn't taste anything like the ones he's had here in Lubbock, so I think I'll save my oyster eating for when we're on the coast. :)

Again, I haven't quite figured out how to move these pictures around (anyone with a Mac have any suggestions??), so bear with me, they are really out of order!

Crawling through a tunnel at the museum...she thought she was so big!

Brice outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Policemen on horseback!

Brice enjoying his yummy lobster at Legal Seafood!

 The fam...EK was quite the entertainment for everyone around us!

 Checking out Arthur's tent at the museum

 Arthur's classroom

 She thought we were crazy and couldn't figure out what in the world we were trying to do!

 Playing with a truck

 Getting a haircut..haha!

The Swan Pond in Boston Commons

Just outside the museum

Boston Children's Museum

The walked pooped her out! 

Arthur's neighborhood

Boston Library

A beautiful church

The park

George Washington

Ahhh, isn't it beautiful!!

Up next...Red Sox v. Angels game!!

Boston Part 1

Brice had a Financial Planning conference in Boston last week, so Emma Kate and I decided to pack our bags and tag along with him, and I'm so glad we did. We had such a great time!! I am going to have to break this down into several parts however because we took over 300 pictures...I promise I won't post them all! :)

Friday: We left early Friday morning to fly to Dallas, and after the first flight I was about ready to hop on a plane and head back home. Emma Kate was not too fond of her first flying experience. It was time for a nap, but there was way too much going on and not near enough space for her to move around. Luckily that flight was only 45 minutes though and she was much happier once we landed and got off the plane. We had a 2 hour layover in Dallas. At first I was dreading it, but it worked out perfectly and we were able to feed her, eat some lunch, let her play a little and by the time we got on the 2nd flight to Boston she was wiped out and slept for about an hour and a half! (Praise God!) After her long nap she read books, talked to the people sitting behind us and even watched a little Veggie Tales.

This is a picture of our hotel...it really should go down at the bottom, but I can't figure out how to move it!

All packed and ready to go...can you imagine seeing us trying to lug all this stuff through the airport!? I'm sure we were quite the sight!

One more picture before leaving the house

Lunch break at the airport..."hmm, what should I order?"

Enjoying a little Veggie Tales on the plane

Flying into Boston was so amazing. The trees were gorgeous, there were lighthouses everywhere, adorable little beach houses...I knew right off the bat I was going to love it there. Once we got off the plane we picked up our rental car (which by the way, was the biggest waste of money. We only used it twice because we ended up walking everywhere!), and headed to the hotel to unpack and settle in. We stayed at the Colonnade and I highly recommend it. It was so nice and in a great location! After unpacking we decided to venture out and meet some people from Tech at Cheers. At this time we didn't realize how close everything was and decided to drive...bad idea! First of all it was Friday night and there were people everywhere! Second of all, we rented a car with GPS. It was a "girl" so we appropriately named her Simone (from the movie about the computer graphic girl), anyway Simone worked out perfectly getting us to the hotel, but once we got down town we decided that she was retarded! Ugh, it was so frustrating, because we were downtown with all the buildings we didn't get very good satellite reception and every 5 minutes she would say "recalculating". I thought Brice and I were both going to throw it out the window! Needless to say, after driving around for 2 hours we never ended up finding Cheers, and just decided to head back to the hotel and order room service. A frustrating end to a long day! 

Before heading out for our "joy ride" HA!

Luckily Saturday was MUCH better...part 2 coming soon!

My Husband's Favorite Things

I have been tagged to blog about Brice's favorite things...so here they are!

1. Being a husband and father (most of the time!)

2. Movies, movies, and more movies. If you've ever seen our DVD collection you know what I mean! Brice loves watching movies at home or at the theater, and will gladly go to the movies by himself if there's something he really wants to see.

3. College football - especially Tech.

4. Food...the boy can eat!

5. NASCAR

6. Fox News - and anything related to politics.

7. Playing with Sydney and Lana (the dogs).

8. Laying on the beach, relaxing, reading a book, and soaking up the sun.

OK, ok so I totally made the last one up, but wouldn't that be GREAT! :) Stay tuned for an update on our trip to Boston, as well as pictures once we get our new computer set up!

Now I tag: Shaunna, Laura, Candace and Ashley N.

Weekend in Review

Friday evening Brice and I were able to enjoy a "double the fun" date night! My mom graciously offered to watch Emma Kate, so we took her up on her offer and hit the town. haha. We got to see not one, but two movies! Now, pre-parenthood this wouldn't be all that out of the ordinary, however, since becoming parents Tinseltown hasn't been on the received quite as much of our money as it used to. First we saw Eagle Eye, the new movie with Shia LaBouf, which was great! Honestly, I wasn't all that excited about seeing this movie but thought I would go along with it since Brice really wanted to see, and I'm so glad I did! It was full of action and a little far fetched, but highly entertaining. Next we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Abuelo's (my favorite restaurant), and then ended the evening with our second movie, Nights in Rodanthe. Brice definitely wasn't all that excited about seeing this movie, but I had been begging him ever since I saw the previews to take me to see it. I was SO disappointed! I had myself all hyped for a great love story and unfortunately it just wasn't all that great. No where near as good as the Notebook. But we enjoyed our date night none the less.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and participated in the American Diabetes Association walk at Mackenzie Park. There was a huge turn out and it was a beautiful morning, we really couldn't have asked for better weather. But it definitely made me realize how much work I have to do in order to get back in shape, and I was pretty thankful I wasn't pushing a stroller as we were heading up the last hill! After the walk we came back home and watched 88 Minutes, with Al Pacino, another action movie that I actually liked. Later that afternoon Emma Kate came home, we played for a minute then I went and got my hair done. I have been going to a new hair "lady" (it sounds so weird calling her that since she's the little sister of one of my friends from high school) named Kacy. I just love her! She is so sweet and fun to talk to, and she does a really good job. She and her mom own a salon called Panache, if you're looking for a new hair stylist, I highly recommend her! Anyway, after getting my hair done I came home and played with EK some more and then cooked a lasagna. I always thought home-made lasagnas were too difficult, but they really aren't. It was fairly easy to make and way better than the frozen ones we used to get! Emma Kate even enjoyed some for lunch today - her first real table food.

This morning we headed back to a new church called Redeemer. We have been "homeless", church home that is, for a few months now. This was our second week to visit here and we both really like it! The worship is amazing, the message is really challenging, and to top it off Emma Kate has done really well in the nursery both weeks. As we have been looking for a new church home our prayer has been that God would lead us to a place where we would grow in grace and knowledge, and it seems like we have maybe found just that. We are looking forward to meeting more people and visiting a "Redeemer Group". Here are the lyrics to one of the songs we sang this morning...so powerful!

May the mind of Christ, our Savior,

Live in us from day to day,

By His love and power controlling

All we do and all we say.

May You dwell richly

May You dwell richly

May You dwell richly

In us

May the Word of God live mighty

In our hearts from hour to hour,

So that all may see us triumph

Only through His grace and power.

May the peace of God our Father

Rule our lives in everything,

That we may be calm to comfort

All the sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill us

As the waters fill the seas;

Him exalting, self abasing,

This is all our victory.

May His beauty rest upon us,

As we seek the lost to win,

May they forget us as the channel,

Seeing ever only Him.

**ugh, I have no idea why blogger is messing up the spacing. I realize this is kind of hard to read!

And this afternoon we have just been hanging out watching football. Go Cowboys! Overall it's been a great weekend. Nothing too exciting, but extremely nice to hang out as a couple and as a family! What did you do this weekend??

Blogworld....

We have a tooth!! Finally!! I didn't think that first tooth would ever make it out, but it finally has. I was pretty shocked yesterday morning when I reached in Emma Kate's mouth and actually felt something sharp. Here's to hoping the other teeth aren't quite as painful! :)

(and I've been trying to get a picture of it, but she hasn't been cooperating...I will be sure and post it when I do, I know you are all DYING to see it, haha!)

Firsts

I wish I was posting pictures of our first day of school, or Emma Kate's first time to try out her big girl car seat (oh goodness that picture was too cute!), but unfortunately the aforementioned computer problems recently got worse and our computer finally died....taking with it ALL of our pictures and files that we had yet to move to our external hard drive!!! :( But that is a post/rant for another day!

Instead I get to share with you a couple of Emma Kate's other firsts she had today.

1. Formula - yes, she has finally tried formula, and much to my surprise she loved it. I have been thinking about trying it out soon anyway because I'm almost out of frozen milk which I send with her on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and since she seemed extra hungry today I thought we would go ahead and try it out. She downed 4 ounces in no time and acted as if it was nothing new! I was really hoping to make it to a year and be able to skip formula all together, but I guess a couple of bottles a week won't be too bad.

2. Dog Food - that's right, folks! I'm sure every child at some point tries it and today was Emma Kate's day. I was in the office working on some stuff for school tomorrow and she was in the living room playing, or so I thought. All the sudden I realized she was being awfully quiet and decided I needed to go check on her. I came out of the office and didn't see her so I figured she was at the back door watching the dogs (her favorite place to play these days)...nope I walked around the couch just in time to see her put a handful of dog food in her mouth!! And I think she really liked it because both her cheeks were full!! YUCK! Needless to say I immediately started freaking out and called my mom to see if we needed to call poison control. She assured me that if the food didn't harm the dogs then it wouldn't hurt her, nice!

So there you have it, not quite as exciting as pictures, but you can check out Denae's blog for some 9 month pictures we just got around to taking today. :)

Tricks

The last couple of weeks have been so much fun. Emma Kate seems to be learning a new "trick" every single day! Here is what she has been up to:

• About 2 weeks ago she started feeding herself puffs, and has since started eating cheerios as well (which she loves!).


• She has started bobbing her head like she's dancing, and she will mimic you if you do it first!


• She has started clapping her hands, and she thinks it's the funniest thing. I'm not sure what the title of the song is, but we are constantly singing "Clap your hands, all ye people...sing for joy unto the Lord". This is her cue to start clapping...so cute!


• Last Friday she started crawling for the first time. She would barely crawl from one end of the blanket to the other, and only for a cheerio. I thought about making a sign that said "Will crawl for food" and taking her picture, but she woke up from her nap today and decided she was a big girl now and has been crawling all over the place all afternoon!


• In addition to crawling she has also figured out how to sit up on her own as well...I think it's definitely time to baby proof!

We are just so proud of our big girl, but it's so funny the range of emotions all these changes bring on! I found myself in tears earlier today because I just can't believe my baby girl is old enough to be crawling. The last nine months have gone by so quickly. God is so faithful and I'm so grateful for each day I get to spend being Emma Kate's mommy!

And of course what would a post be without a picture?! We went to the Tech game on Saturday and decided to test the waters and bring Emma Kate along to see how she would do. She was so quiet and still for about the first 20 minutes just sitting in my lap wide eyed taking it all in. Once she got comfortable she decided to let loose and ham it up for everyone around us...she definitely stole the show! She was clapping and waving and smiling at anyone who looked her way!

One Question....

How in the world am I supposed to change a diaper like this?!

(she will probably kill me someday for posting this, but I couldn't resist! :))