First of many Anniversaries

For our first anniversary, Casey took me to The Roof restaurant. It was an amazing view and delicious food. Especially dessert-tried almost all of them (it was a buffet). Both Casey and I loved the creme brulee! After that, he took me to the same park where he originally proposed to me and asked me to be sealed to him. He was delighted when I said, yes! It was a wonderful night, with an wonderful man.

Thorn in my side...no wait my FOOT!!!

Well, mystery solved.  Yes, this is a thorn coming out of my foot.  How we got to this is quite the adventure.  It all started back in August as I was training for the Ragnar Relay.  I never noticed any sharp pain or bleeding, but I started to notice a small inflammed bump on the side of my foot.  I didn't pay much attention to it since it didn't hurt, just a small bump.  So after running the race winter hit as did my inactivity.  The bump went away and I forgot all about it until about 4 weeks ago. 
I played basketball 4 weeks ago and noticed that the bump returned.  Again, not a huge deal and I didn't pay much attention to it.  Then I played the next week and the bump became twice as large and twice as red.  It then started to hurt when I walked.  I tried different shoes and walked on my toes, but when the pain increase I decided I'd finally bite the bullet and get it checked out.  So I made an appointment with the podiatrist and went in last week (even though it actually started to feel better).  She was stumped.  Xrays were clear, nothing related to muscle or tendon.  She suspected a foreign body and wanted to cut into it to see if there'd be any drainage.  Well she cut a nice size slit, no drainage and somehow she missed this giant thorn in there.  She then wanted an MRI to see what was going on.  As you all know I'm not one to fork out $900 for anything, especially since it was feeling better.  I agreed that I'd get the MRI if it got worse.  As luck would have it I was playing with Paxton yesterday and as I rolled over the top of my foot I felt this intense stinging pain.  I looked down at my sock and saw something sticking out.  I thought it was just super inflammed but when I pulled my sock back, this is what I saw. 

I called Connie over and she started freaking out / laughing all at once.  We took a ton of pictures and then I pulled it the rest of the way out.  My foot has never felt better, and what a blessing it is to not have to get an MRI.  I just can't believe that has been in my foot for that long.  Yowzers!!!!

She's a talker!

It's sometimes frightening how smart this girl is! I'm always amazed at how fast she picks up songs and books. Sometimes the day after we go to the library she's reading the books to me! I love that she has started to sing with me and has stopped "singing" entire songs using the same note :) She has the sweetest voice and I can't get enough of it. The first video she is "reading" one of my childhood favorites. See if you can remember this little gem. (sorry it's so soft. Every time I got closer she would stop talking and want to "watch it.")

Here's one of her singing every dad's favorite song!

When she went to Michigan to visit Grammie and Grampie she needed some boots! I couldn't find any in Texas (shocker. It's like 70 degrees here). So we went to Meijer (oh how I miss it...) and found these. She struggled with the small heel so we didn't buy them. I'm regretting this decision daily.

Her other favorite song is "if you're silly and you know it make a funny face." She always wants me to sing it so she can do this face. What a goof. 

I'm still trying to get this morning sickness behind me! Being pregnant is the worst! But then there are moments like this when you remember that it's worth it. Can you see the family resemblance yet?

We're trying to teach her what it means to have a BROTHER. I'm pretty sure she's not getting it. 

Bigger and Bigger

Time is flying and we can't believe that our little guy is growing up so fast.  Here's a few videos of his latest tricks. 

Pax has just learned to clap.  And loves the attention he gets while doing it. 

 

Paxton gets braver and braver each day.  He now ventures off with his walking toy and loves being able to move around so well.  He's becoming such a big little guy (if only he could grow some teeth).

Asian Dance Sensation!!!

I might have over sold the Asian part since Carter is only one quarter Asian, but I feel that its a dominating quarter. It's amazing to think that at one time I wanted to give away my cute little Carter. I'm actually really sad to have to go back to work and miss him for 10 hours a week. So, I have been making the most of all my time with him and trying to teach him cool stuff. Casey's a pretty good dancer, but these moves come from me. Mostly it's just the worm, but it's got some pretty great commentary by Casey. We still need to get a video of him rolling over.

He's usually dressed in the same outfit for about 3 days, which is just how we roll. But today I decided that he should look cute. So, we busted out the Super Turtle or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (you know the episode where they got shrunk back to babies) outfit! I think he rocks it pretty well.

He's getting so big, but still is pretty sweet. I'm hoping to keep him small forever because I'm sure he will have serious attitude as he gets older since I've been told I had a bit of one as a child.

Pax Update

Well, it's been a long time since our last post.  This is what happens when you don't have a wife who blogs it up for us.  I just thought I'd put up some good pics/videos of our little guy growing up.

Our first family pic. (FYI nets we do have copyright for this one) :)

 

 Pax at Halloween

Bath Time

Gettin Into Trouble

 

Pax Eating Peas (Just like Ruby)

 

 

A little tickle time.

 

Pax scooting.

(This was taken a while back - he's crawlin like crazy now)

Yikes!

What has happened to our blogging y'all? It's been like a month! What this blog really needs is an obscene number of newborn baby pictures ;) Until then I'll fill in and post some of my favorites from our Florida trip! Wait, what?! Florida?? Yeah Preston decided to gift himself a trip to Disneyworld after finishing the first half of his boards. It was very last minute, VERY. We bought the tickets about a week before we left - thank you spirit for always having insanely cheap tickets.

So we did have to go to a timeshare presentation in order to afford the disneyworld tickets and hotel. We got a great deal and we ALMOST bought a timeshare. I mean seriously we were THIS close. We went into it saying, "why do they even do these presentations, people just come to get the free stuff, no one really buys into all this timeshare stuff, right?!" And there we were agonizing over the decision for like 45 minutes. They made a lot of great points and we might do it someday but in the end we couldn't do it. It wasn't 10 minutes after we left that we were both like, "oh my gosh I can't believe we almost just did that! Yikes."

Anyhow, because of that we got a slow start on our first day and so we HAD to stay late to get the most of our day at Magic Kingdom. We stayed until midnight and somehow Ruby kept it together. We tried to get in all the classics - dumbo, winnie the pooh, small world, tiki room, etc... But we started with the tea cups which may have been a major mistake since Preston went crazy spinning us and I felt dizzy the rest of the day :) Ruby loved it.

petting her "neigh."

Day 2 - Epcot. Half the park is "future world" but the other half is a "world showcase." You get to travel through several different countries - super cool. They have food and buildings that represent those places and EVERYONE working there is actually from that country. In one day we travelled through Japan, China, Canada, UK, Morocco, Mexico, Norway, France, Germany, America.

UK

When in Japan...do as the asian's do :) Peace. 

Mexico!

Day 3 - Water park. We were SUPER bugged with Florida weather because the first day it was for sure not suppose to rain, and it did. day two was suppose to be sunny and warm - around mid day we had to share sweatshirts because it was cloudy and freezing. Day four was suppose to be cold and highest chance of rain so we decided day 3 would be best for the waterpark. It ended up being the coldest day and day 4 was GORGEOUS! Needless to say there were NO lines at the waterpark and most of the lifeguards were in winter coats, but Ruby LOVED it. We warmed up with a very large, very delicious funnel cake!

Don't freak out mom she's wearing a life jacket! And she actually did go on this slide again and loved it. We were surprised at how much she liked the slides. We tried to take her to do other things but she kept saying, "slides? slides."

We couldn't stay all day - too cold. So we left early and drove to the temple. We took turns running in and Ruby LOVED hanging out on the grounds.

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom. This park was insane. They make it to feel like a real jungle so you honestly can't see beyond 20 feet because there are thick trees and bushes and flowers everywhere. We saw lots of cool animals - favorites were tamarins, komodo dragon, bats, and hippos. We enjoyed our safari and took turns going on the rollar coaster that was awesome and even had a part where you went backwards.

The dragon is on the rock. Hard to see.

You could easily lose a child in this park! Ruby climbed into some trees. Can you see her little green pants in the middle of this picture?

It was a VERY busy trip but super fun. Ruby seemed a little overwhelmed by it all but was a super champ and is now obsessed with minnie mouse (although when she actually met her she got super scared and tried to punch her in the nose :)

This is pluto trying to recover after getting an uppercut from the Rubes :)

****For a significantly longer version of the trip with infinitely more pictures check our blog in a few days. ****