Cabela's

Since we were celebrating Mike's birthday...after the race track we went to one of his favorite stores...Cabela's! We spent hours looking around and even ate a wonderful lunch there!

Mom and I tried out some of the black powder guns they sell.

Daddy Steve showed Brody the boats for sell outside.
Mike, Caleb, & Tyler spend some time playing a shooting game in the camping section. According to Mike, Caleb & Tyler kept shooting the object that squirted water on Mike (not sure what it was...but I saw the evidence on his shirt).

Saturday night we got to go see Mark and Angela and eat dinner with them! It was good to get to spend a nice, quiet evening with them. Angela is scheduled for a c-section on October 9th and could really use your prayers!

 

Speedracer

For Mike's birthday LAST YEAR (2005), the whole family went in to buy him race car driving lessons at the Texas Motorspeedway. Well...after weather delays and scheduling problems he finally got to do it! We had to be at the race track by 7:00 am on Saturday morning. They started off with a class on everything you'd need to know to drive a Nascar 150 mph. Mike holds Brody before he gets on the race track.

Before they let him drive a car...they put the race car drivers in a 15-passenger van and drove them around the track at 100 mph showing them how to enter, exit, etc.

They put 11 racers on the track at a time. Mike was in the 2nd group out of 5 since he was from out of town and storms were brewing. He was in car #40. He did really well and actually passed 2 cars!

Caleb and Tyler were the paparazzi. They followed Mike everywhere he went taking video and still shots :) Notice the storm clouds in the distance. One more group of drives got to drive after Mike...then the rain hit and the rest of the lessons were cancelled for the day.

 

Friday

After a morning of garage sale shopping and (of course) shopping at Fry's Electronics with Caleb, Daddy Steve, Mike, and Whatshername...we spent some time just chillin'Brody got to sit on a Harley for the very first time :)

Weeze stopped by to show off his new ride.

After sitting on the Harley...we decided to take Brody for a ride in his Jeep (stroller). We walked down to one of the neighborhood parks.

It won't be long before Brody will be big enough go down the slide on his own (sob, sob! They grow so fast!!!)

 

Brody was really happy Thursday morning. It was warm in TX and he liked going shirtless. This picture was for Tyler (who is always without a shirt on!)

Daddy Steve & Whatshername (mom can't decided on a grandma name...so right now we're calling her "what's her name" lol!) bought a crib on Thursday. It's really nice! It converts to a toddler bed, daybed, and even fullsize bed! I'm sure it'll get lots of use over the coming years. Brody enjoyed being able to stretch out to sleep!!!

We told Brody that Mike was going to be getting to town on Thursday night...so he stayed up late to see him. He missed seeing Daddy all week!!

Mike didn't get to Arlington until 1:30 am...so both Mike and Brody needed a nap on Friday :)

 

Lunch with GG

After we got home from Temple...Daddy Steve and I decided to take Brody on a walk at River Legacy. It was a beautiful evening. Brody enjoyed the walk. I think he was facinated with all the trees! He doesn't get to see trees like that in KS!

I took our Moses basket to TX for Brody to sleep in. It's a little smaller than the bassinet that he's used to sleeping in at home. I woke up to find him turned sideways and scrunched up! I think he needs more room!!!

Wednesday we went to have lunch with GG. Julie, Katelyn, & Collin met us there for lunch. Grandma (I'm not sure what to call her?!? I've called her Grandma my whole life...but now she's "GG" to the great-grands. I'm sure before long she'll be GG to me since that's what I'll be calling her to Brody.) Anyways...GG bought Collin and Brody matching outfits. Collin was born June 6th and Brody August 14th.

GG rocking Brody (after he'd had a blowout and diaper/clothes changing)

 

Temple

Monday we went to Temple to visit more family. Everyone was very excited to get to meet Brody. Ginger even took off work for the day so that she could sit and hold him all day :) I don't think she wanted to share him with anyone...but they finally talked her into letting other people hold him too ;) Daddy Ken holding his first great-grandbaby.

Sharon (holding Brody) is now a great-great aunt! Staci, Daddy Steve, Ginger, & Grandmommy stand around watching Sharon hold Brody.

Grandmommy with her great-grandson.

This is a rocking chair that Sharon gave us. It belonged to my great-grandparents. Both Grandmommy and Sharon were rocked in this chair as babies!

 

Saturday

I know...I've been a terrible blogger as of late. This week I've spent every available minute (whenever Brody wasn't crying, eating, or pooping) studing for my accounting test. I finally got it taken yesterday...so now I have time to catch up on my blog. We spent all of last week in TX, so I'll give you the picture updates :)Daddy Steve playing outside with Brody.

Ann & Audria hold Brody & Collin while the rest of us put furniture back in Ron & Jan's house. They had some remodeling done and we were trying to make it look nice before Ron got home from a 3 month business trip to Virginia!

Jennifer, Staci, Julie, & Brody at Lori's wedding

I know this is a bad picture...but it's the only one I have with Lori in it!

Sunday Audria and I went to watch Caleb, Josh, & Jon play softball. Tyler and Ann babysat :)

(Since Blogger isn't letting me load more than 5 pics...I'll have to do this in several posts!)

OKC

Friday Brody made his first trip out of Kansas. Mike drove me and Brody to Oklahoma City where Mom and Grandma meet us. Mike had to work this week...so Brody & I rode to TX with Mom and are going to spend the week visiting friends and family! It was fun getting to spend that much time with Grandma (aka GG) and Brody enjoyed her company in the backseat on the way to Arlington.

Mike was very sad to have to say goodbye to me and Brody for a week!

In OKC we stopped to eat at the Rib Palace. It was really good! It was also in a beautiful location!
Brody was sad for Mike to leave!

To try to cheer himself up, after we left for TX Mike stopped at the Bass Pro Shop just down the road :)
 

AWAKE

Julie Little emailed me asking if Brody is ever awake. Yes! Here are a few awake pictures.

Happy just sitting on mama's lap suckin' my paci :)
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Where did my paci go?

Stop tryin' to make me smile.

I've discovered that Brody has Mike's temperature sensor. It is always set to HOT! We had our windows open last night (it's 68 degrees in our house right now with the cool breeze blowing in). Brody was crying in his bassinet at bedtime. After letting him cry for a while...I went to check on him and he was wet with sweat! No wonder he was upset! I held him in front of the fan (in front of the open window) to cool down and he went right to sleep. Keep in mind that he was only in his diaper in the bassinet and I was wearing sweat pants and a sweatshirt around the house! I guess I'm doomed. We've added another person to our family that will vote for keeping our house cold!

 

Daddy Time

Yesterday we went to the KS State Fair (after Mike got home from work). We enjoyed the beautiful evening walking around outside. We stopped and looked at various tractors, 4-wheelers, hot tubs, and of cours RV's! This is a picture of Mike and Brody hanging out in an RV that cost $240,000!!!

Brody stayed nice and warm inside the front carrier. Only towards the end of the evening did he start to fuss!
This morning I got up (like I have most mornings since I've been on maternity leave) and made breakfast for me and Mike and then a sack lunch for Mike. He drove off and left it this morning...so I thought that was a good reason for him to meet us in the park for lunch! It was a beautiful day. Cool breeze and sunshine! I took this picture with the timer :) Don't worry...if you can tell what shirt I'm wearing know I'm only wearing it for Mike (besides...my Cowboy's shirt is longsleeve) ;)

Brody fell asleep in Mike's arms during lunch. It's such a sweet thing to hold a sleeping baby!
 

I Did It!

For the past few weeks I've been going on daily walks with Brody. I push him 1.5 miles in the jogging stroller down our dirt road and back to our house. Last week I tried jogging the last 1/4 mile back to our house. I could tell I wasn't ready to jog yet. Yesterday I felt great as we were leaving the driveway...so I decided to start out jogging. It felt great! I thought jogging with a stoller would be easier because you'd have something to hold on to, but it turns out it's a little harder because you're not able to swing your arms.

Not only did it feel good to jog...the weather was beautiful! It was so cool outside that I wore a sweatshirt for the first 3/4 mile and had to wear my Earz for the entire run (sorry Megan...that probably makes you a little jealous ;) I had Brody dressed in a sleeper and stocking cap and then wrapped a blanket around him. He was plenty warm and fell asleep as soon as I started down the road.

When I was almost home again the sun peaked out from behind the clouds and something caught my eye. I looked to the left and saw my shadow jogging along beside me and was taken back in time.....*insert dream music*

The year was 1998 and I was running in the Dallas White Rock Marathon. It was a beautiful day, but it was a bad running day for me. Around mile 14 I got heel bruises in both feet and for the rest of the race felt excruciating pain with every step (word for the wise: don't wear the same running shoes throughout your entire training and race!) As I rounded the corner and could see the finish line I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my body. I began to sprint and run faster than ever (or so I thought). I made it to the finish line and into the embrace of my Dad who had finished the race ahead of me.

A few days later I saw pictures of my "sprint" towards the finish line. It made me laugh! I was hardly moving! I probably could've walked faster than I was "sprinting"!

When I saw my shadow jogging yesterday I could tell that I was going about as fast I was going when I was at the end of my 26.22 mile marathon! But it didn't really matter to me. I did it. I jogged again!

NFL

Today Brody is 1 month old! It's really hard to believe that he's already been outside the womb for a month! Each week we've been taking a picture of him with Mike's football after church. This Sunday he spit up on his outfit as I was setting up the picture...so we decided to just do a diaper picture. Mom asked me if we thought NFL stood for Naked Football League! Mike said it stands for Newborn Football League :)
Yesterday I had a baby shower at the LRC. Below is a picture of me & Brody with the shower hostesses.

Marcia made the cake. Check out her blog to see how she made it. The shower was teddy bear themed. She had made the bear cake and then they also had some bear decorations and teddy grahams :) It was really cute!

This is the hostess gift. Tina and her mom made this beautiful quilt! Not only is it a beautiful, comfy quilt...it also goes with the color scheme of Brody's room!