Swimming pool fun

We went to a pool-side baby shower a couple of weeks ago. Sure was fun.

Padg's birthday weekend...

Padg turned 33 on Saturday. Happy Birthday!!!

Can't get enough

Topher just loves the spray park so much. We had to go again today. We met Allison and Luke there and just had all kinds of fun. Just wanted to share the memories...

Backyard Fun

Ok, so we wasted a little water while playing in the backyard, but it was sooooooo hot and we just needed to cool off. Topher loved playing in the pool and with the water hose. He also loves helping his daddy with our garden (or mini-garden if you will). We just have a couple of tomato plants, a bell pepper plant, and a jalapeño plant.

Mother's Day Out

I enrolled Topher in a Mother's Day Out program for the summer. He goes to this "day care" every Wednesday from 9am to 3pm. Last Wednesday, June 4th was his first day. I was a little nervous how he would react when I dropped him off, but it turns out there was no need to be. He was such a brave little guy. There were 3 kids who had just been dropped off and they were screaming bloody murder for their mommy's but Topher went in and headed straight for the toys and didn't even look back. I have to say I was the slightest bit hurt that he didn't cry when I left, but I was mostly proud. I've been told that it means he's very secure with himself.

I had a great day off. I went shopping for a dress to wear to a wedding and then I had lunch with a friend and just enjoyed having a few hours to myself to do what I wanted to do. This Wednesday I'm thinking of painting our dining room, or maybe rearranging the nursery to make room for his big boy bed. Or maybe I'll just relax and take it easy that day. Nah. :)

Here's a pic of him in the back of the day care room playing with the toys right before I left.

Memorial Day Weekend in Kansas

We made another trip up to Kansas for the Memorial Day weekend and had loads of fun, as usual. Grandpa introduced Topher to the joys of mud puddles, wheel barrow rides, tractor rides. He also got to see some cows up close. He went to church with us on Sunday and I was so proud of him. He sat through the entire service without making a peep (mostly due to Grandpa's pocket full of Cheerios). ;) And thanks to Grandma, he was kept busy all weekend with tons of fun toys. Grandma kept all of his daddy's and uncle Jon's toys from when they were little so he got to play with those. It was a really great weekend. We started to head back to Dallas on Monday (Memorial Day) but had to turn around and go back because we were experiencing car troubles. Thank God for small towns because Grandpa called his mechanic and it was no problem for him to fix the problem that day. It only took him 2 hours to get it all fixed (on a holiday at that!). So we could've gone ahead and come back that day, but we decided to go ahead and stay another night instead.

So thanks Grandma and Grandpa for such a fun holiday weekend.

Fun, fun, fun!!!

I've been trying to come up with different activities for Topher since he's constantly on the move these days. We've had some really fun times in the past few weeks. Our friends Beth and Lil' Pete met us at the Galleria Mall's "PlayPlace" a few Friday's ago and that was a blast. It's an awesome and safe place to let kids just run and play and be kids (and wear themselves OUT!). Then last Friday, we went to the Dallas Zoo with Allison and Luke. That was a very interesting outing. Topher seemed to enjoy the brass statues more than the real animals but that's probably just because he couldn't get close enough to the real ones to give them kisses. I think his favorite part was the little pool that we found towards the end of the zoo trip. He just loves water play. Which brings us to our new favorite thing to do...SPRAYPARKS!!! Bryan and I took him to a local spraypark and he absolutely loved it. It was so fun to watch him run in and out of the water. We can't wait to do that again really, really soon. So I wanted to share pictures from all our recent adventures. Good times. ;)

The Galleria's "PlayPlace"

Our Zoo trip...

The Lake Highlands SprayPark

Mother's Day Weekend

It was such a wonderful weekend. Padg and Topher did such a great job of making it extra special for me. I wanted to share the memories with you all. I hope your Mother's Day was just as special as mine...

The kid loves his fruit...

We spent the afternoon with our friends Johnny and Shelly this past Sunday and had a great time. Topher went to town on some watermelon and a banana. These pictures, courtesy of Shelly, are priceless. Thanks, Shel. Please note the filthiness of his shirt. He's such a boy...

Such a little man

Topher got his hair cut again today. It was his second cut and he was so great. Not one tear shed. He's such a sweet little guy. Here's the before and after...

Before
After

Topher's new 'do...

This kid has got some great hair. Must have gotten that from his mommy. ;)

I've learned...

...that getting a toddler to sit still and pose for an Easter photo is pretty impossible. Oh well. It was fun trying.

My new playground

I've got my very own playground now! The park that's across the street from my house just got a fantastic, age-specific playground. I'm so excited. All we have to do is walk over to the other side of the park to get there. It's awesome! My friend, Luke, came over on Tuesday and we took our mommies over there to play.

Quality Time

Topher and I spent some quality time together at the lake on Valentine's Day. The temperature was in the 70s and it was awesome...

Topher is ONE!!!

I can not believe my sweet little angel boy is already a year old. How did that happen so fast? It seems that I was just cradling him in my arms yesterday and now he's walking! He's becoming quite the little man. We are so proud.

We threw a really fun birthday party on Saturday, February 2nd. And since it was the day before the Super Bowl, we made it a Super Bowl theme with a football cake and decorations. Here are some pictures of his big day and a video of him devouring his first cake. Pretty funny.

Ring around the sofa...

Topher's new favorite game since he started walking is being chased around the sofa. He absolutely loves it. I can't tell who loves it more though, him or Padg. :)

He's gettin' good!!

Didn't take him long to get comfortable with walking. He's getting really good and is moving faster now. He just looks so darn cute... ;)

Topher's first Christmas

We had some great times over the Christmas holidays this year. We spent the weekend before Christmas in Houston with my family and headed back home on Christmas Eve to meet the Padgham's who spent the rest of the holidays with us. Of course, we just can't have the Padgham's visit us without giving them a project and wouldn't you know it, the week before Christmas our bathroom decided (all on it's own) that it needed a complete renovation! We were planning on doing that renovation at some point in the future but not this soon. But as luck would have it, the floor finally gave in causing the toilet to leak and, well...just see pictures below for further information. We'll start with Christmas pictures, though...

Houston pics (unfortunately, we hardly got any Houston pics) :(...

Pics at home in Dallas...

And the bathroom demolition and construction. Since this is our one and only bathroom, we had to rent a port-o-potty (kept in the backyard) and a hotel room for showers. Padg and Bruce got a ton of stuff done over the holidays, but now Padg is back to work so we'll have to finish the rest during the weekends. We've still got electrical, a window installation, floor tile, bath tile, drywall, wainscotting, and medicine cabinets to do. We'll be lucky if we get done by this summer. ;)

And he's off...!

Topher started walking on January 1st! He's still in that "drunk-walking" phase, but he's getting stronger and better balance every day. It's so fun to watch him...

Thanksgiving in Kansas

We loaded up and headed north to Kansas for Topher's first Thanksgiving and ended up experiencing Topher's first snow as well. It was beautiful and we had a great time playing in it. It didn't last long, though. It was pretty much all melted by the end of the day. Kind of like it does when it snows in Dallas. ;)