This past week in pictures

Adelyn had a play date on Friday with Forrest and her granddaughters A and E.  They had a great time becoming friends...

This weekend, she had fun posing for pictures in her dragonfly outfit.  Well, okay, she didn't exactly pose... Brian mostly had to capture her in action!

She loves this little travel size bottle of scope... and she also loves to play fetch with Lucy!

 "Hey you!  Why are you taking so many pictures?  Can I have that camera? I love all things electronic!"

 She loves to play with these animal hand puppets.

Taking a rest. 

Okay, now she's posing! 

"Really, are you finished with the picture-taking yet?" 

 Today, Adelyn and Brian explored the Dallas Botanical Gardens for their fall festival.

This involved a lot of pumpkins! 

She wasn't too sure about the bales of hay... 

Happy autumn to all... we are finally enjoying some milder weather (although yesterday it was 89!) and it's starting to feel like fall.

Family

Adelyn is learning early on the importance of family, and she loves to say everyone's names... she prays for many of our family members by name each night at bedtime, and throughout the day she can be heard saying (or sometimes almost shouting) "Mimi" (for Brian's stepmom) or "Amy" (which comes out with a nice Texas drawl "Aaaa-meeee") or "Papa" (for Papa John - my dad), or Mike, etc...  so sweet.  But we weren't too sure if she actually knew who all these people were (if she could pick them out of a line-up, so to speak...) until she discovered the photos of both our parents in the dining room.  Turns out, she knows who they are!  Enjoy the video...

Since Blogger is cooperating today, here is another fun one from last month.  Addy things tongues are very funny, and she had been laughing for several minutes when we shot this video...

17 Months Old!

Can it be?  Adelyn is already 17 months old!

She is getting to be so much more a little girl and so much less my baby girl.  Now that she has got walking down solid, she is back to working on talking.  She has learned to make many animal sounds.  She has also learned many names of family members... she will randomly call out names through the day, and she prays for everyone by name at night.  So sweet.  Some days, she will point at everything wanting to be told the word for whatever it is.  She is just the happiest baby - oops, little girl!  She can seriously concentrate, but she is so full of joy about everything.  

Some of her favorite things at 17 months: yogurt (she asks for this at every meal), playing on Mommy and Daddy's bed on weekend sleep-in mornings, sleeping (seriously, she sleeps at least 13-14 hours every night without waking and takes two small naps (1 hour-ish) every day), playing with anything musical - especially her drums and the xylophone, making animal noises (especially the pig, which by far makes us laugh the most), gummy bears, taking a bath, playing with Lucy (Lucy makes her laugh!), giving kisses, touching her bellybutton (and mine - she will pull up my shirt and say "be-be" and kiss - so cute because it sounds like she's saying "baby" and then kissing the right spot), talking on skype (Uncle Mike is hands down her favorite, with Papa John a close second), reading books, and listening to any kind of music, which makes her dance!

We love you little girl!

The Texas State Fair and other September Happenings

We made our second annual family trip to the State Fair last Monday - the weather is finally starting to cool down, and it was a gorgeous day in the high 70's.  It wasn't too crowded either.  We got to enjoy the usual favorites including Fletcher's Corny Dogs and something fried (this year, it was a fried Snickers and a frito pie - separately of course!).

We took Adelyn on the ferris wheel again this year - she still didn't quite comprehend what was happening, but she loved the breeze in her hair.  We enjoyed great views of Dallas and even of the Fort Worth skyline.  I didn't manage to capture any very good pictures, but here's one to document the experience.

The petting zoo was a bigger hit this year - lots of cute animals, and we got to feed them too.  We've been working on animal sounds at home, so it was fun for her to actually see the real animals.  Unfortunately, she still called each animal "doggie!"

 

We also got to walk through the huge stock yards to see the cattle that were getting ready to be judged.  We got to talk to some of the ranchers and ask questions. Made me realize how much of a city girl I am... although I've come a long way from the days before I moved to Texas when I didn't realize that cows come in different colors!

Here are a few other random pictures from September - the first home Cowboy game (even though they lost and did not play well, we had fun!)

Here is Brian with Lee Roy Jordan from the Ring of Honor.

 And my personal favorite, Jason Witten coming through the tunnel...

 Finally, here are a few more of Addy... wearing mommy's childhood dress.  She is just too cute!

Happy October everyone!

Catch up Blog from June, July, & August

Don't miss the "Exciting News" post below!
I'm still catching up on blogging and posting pictures from our summer, so here are some highlights!

Just because we now have a real child, this doesn't mean we've forgotten our sweet first "babies"... I forget to share their pictures sometimes, so here are a few recent pics...

Lucy and Ringo love their new backyard, aka - their kingdom.  Ringo hunts the wild animals beyond the fence, and Lucy plays ball until she falls over!

Cousin Harper has become close friends with the doggies.

In late June/early July, we had a wonderful trip to Sunset Beach, North Carolina.  I didn't get too many pictures because I was early pregnant and perpetually nauseous, but here are a few... The beach was beautiful and the water was warm.  We got to see much of my Dad's family - Grandmother Holton, Uncle Charles & Aunt Anita, Cousin Andrew & Charlotte & Ben, Cousin John and Sarah, and Uncle Jim.  Plus my Mom & Dad and Jacque & Mike of course!

Here's the whole gang (except Brian, who was taking the picture).

Addy wasn't too sure about the pool or the beach at first, but she learned to love the water by the end of the week.

I love this picture of her with my dad!

We came home a few days later to find this little prize sitting in our library!  Hmmmm.... if it isn't the family treasure: Pop-Pop's Indian Painting.  Jacque & Mike, thank you so much for parting with it so we could have it to decorate our new house.  It just helps so much to make our house a home.

Watch out everyone - you never know where it will choose to make an appearance next!

We finally got some pictures of Adelyn in her ACU Wildcat onesie...

Aunt Erika took this next series of pictures....

Sometimes a girl's just got to rest a moment!

I'm not sure what the name of this yoga pose is...

Just girlfriends sharing secrets!

Our final day of summer (although with a heat index of 105F today, summer is still very much hanging on!) was spent with Uncle Carl and Aunt Jo and the Mason family at Lake Richland-Chambers.  We didn't get in the water because a storm was on the way making the lake very choppy, but we enjoyed relaxing and hanging out with everyone.

Addy loved riding in the golf cart - my girl loves the wind in her hair!

On the dock...

Well, that about rounds it up... We are looking forward to fall and some cooler weather!