Catching up....

Our camera is slowly dying on us and we've been super busy, so I haven't been posting much. Here are a few things I missed....

Milo's birthday. We still haven't gotten the pictures from the party, but here are a few from his birthday morning. He was so excited when he woke up in the morning and saw the presents. This was the first holiday for him to open his presents himself, and it was so much fun for us to watch his excitement! He did not like us taking pictures, though.

Milo was so excited to get "Elmo live" but he was a little nervous to get too close at first and was happy just waving from afar. Since then he's become braver.


Milo has discovered a love for bubbles and gets mad if every inch of his water isn't bubbly.

Milo has been busy being 2. He loves to line up his toys in order, and he's very particular about the order and thinks about it before placing each toy. He's not a big fan of the cold we've been having, and he insists on being carried out to the car when it's cold. His favorite word is "more" and he's getting better at pronouncing the "r" at the end (it used to be "mo!"). More toys, more snacks, more juice, more milk, more Sesame Street, etc. His vocabulary grows every day and he loves pointing things out when we're in a store or in the car. He flips through catalogs and points out Elmo.

We have a busy month up ahead - our Hornets play in the state six-man football championship game this weekend, we're finishing up school for the semester, we have a cookie party, a drive to Tennessee, Christmas with the Coffeys, a drive back to Texas, and New Years with the Fitzhughs all to look forward to. Hopefully I'll find time somewhere to post more pictures!

TWO years old!

This post is a little late, but sometimes blogging has to take a backseat to being a momma, wife, and teacher. Last Thursday my little boy turned TWO. I can hardly believe it. He had an exciting morning with presents, a fun day at daycare with chocolate cherry fudge bar treats for his friends and teachers, and a relaxing evening hanging out with us. Then Saturday was his super fun birthday party, pictures of that to come later, and a photo shoot at Sears. We weren't completely happy with Sears - I thought we should have had more pictures to choose from, and Trav wasn't impressed with their editing software, but all in all we got a couple ADORABLE pictures, so we can't be too upset!

And, my absolute favorite to be framed and cherished forever:

I just adore this boy's personality. He is getting so much better at expressing what he wants - and I can usually understand what he's saying. His laugh is infectious and one of my favorite times is right before bed when we all cuddle in our big bed and tickle and laugh and read a bedtime story. He still loves to help out around the house, and his help is becoming more and more...helpful. He's started to play with his toys instead of just carrying them around, and he loves making noises. He was playing with his little plastic giraffe and I asked him what noise it made, and he had to think a moment before responding. I'm sure he didn't have any idea what noise a giraffe makes (does anyone?!) but he made one up anyway. He likes to feed his plastic animals and dinosaurs, give them drinks, and cover them with a blanket to go to sleep. And if he's fussy about leaving a toy behind if it's time to go to school or bed, all we have to tell him is "say bye-bye" and he'll say bye to the toy and be happy to leave it for now. That works for his toothbrush too - he loves to brush his teeth, and when it's time to be done, if we just pull him away he throws a fit, but if we let him say bye, he's ok. He LOVES balloons - I got him an
Elmo one at Walmart one day since he was a good helper while I shopped and it was just his favorite thing ever. He'll wake up in the morning and run to find his Elmo balloon. He got a Thomas the Train balloon for his birthday party and he loves his "choo-choo" and tries to sit on it to ride it.

I'm so excited to see my family for Christmas - we weren't planning on going, but just recently decided to make the trip to Tennessee, and I can't wait! We're going to be starting to attempt potty training, so that'll make the car trip even more interesting.

Yoda at the Carnival

Last year Tigger went to Highland's fall carnival and last night Yoda went. And we also had fun with Cici, Emi, and her friend Christian who all came from Abilene to join us.

The sponge toss was set up in my classroom - when the class I sponsor (the 8th graders) chose sponge toss I was unaware that because of construction all the booths would be set up in classrooms, but it turned out to be less of a mess than I pictured, so it all worked out okay.

Cici and Yoda watching the sponge toss (which consists of people paying to throw wet, whipped cream, or shaving cream at 8th graders) - it was a huge hit!

Milo met up with his friend Jolenn and she helped him play all the little kid games.

So many people kind of overwhelmed little Yoda.

Observing the craziness in Momma's classroom.

Selling chances for a $50 Academy giftcard.

Daddy and Milo left before the play, but the rest of us stayed to play bingo and cakewalk. Christian won a red velvet cake and Cici won a pumpkin full of cookies. So this morning Milo had cake for breakfast. At first he was fine using a fork, and then he discovered it was faster to shovel it in with his hand. Good thing Milo likes cake as we enter Birthday Season around here.

Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch this Saturday and got a few cute pictures before the camera battery died. Milo was a good sport, even though he was just coming off of strep throat and hadn't had a nap all day.

Through Daddy's Eyes

Since I got an iphone (thank you Travis!!) I've been taking pictures on that and posting them on facebook instead of updating the blog, but Travis has been taking pictures on his camera so this post will be pictures that he's taken the past few weeks.

I can't believe Milo is almost 2! He's changing so much every day - he's starting to talk a lot more and he loves to help us, whether we're cleaning or cooking, he just wants to do what we do.

Travis has been making brownies as a fundraiser for the Ceramics field trip, and Milo's been a big help with that.

Eating a cookie and playing the drums.

I love how excited he gets when he plays the drums, and how expressive his face is. It really shows off his personality.

The thing I'll definitely remember most about Milo at this age is his animal noises. When you ask him what a bird says, he squints his eyes in a certain way and says "tweet tweet tweet" really softly and just melts my heart. And according to Milo, dogs don't say "ruff ruff" ... when you ask him what a dog says he pants real hard. You can tell he's been around dogs a lot!

Football + Fair = Fun Weekend!

The amount of fun Milo had this weekend was measured best by how late he slept in the next day. Friday night he went to the Highland football game and Saturday morning he slept in till after 9. Saturday night he went to the West Texas Fair and Sunday morning he slept in till almost 11.

He had fun cheering on the Hornets! He was watching, and clapping, and dancing with the cheerleaders. He high-fived everyone around us when we made a touchdown. And then he got invited to play the drums. The only thing he didn't enjoy was Sporty, the mascot. He's not too sure about a giant hornet trying to high five him!

Saturday morning, sneaky boy made a mess in his room...

Then off to the fair! Aunt Emi did his hair just for the occasion.

We went to the petting zoo first.



We had some dinner.

Milo's favorite part of the fair was the train....he learned to say "Toot toot!" He can't wait until next year when he can ride it all by himself, but this year he had fun riding it with Daddy first, then Cici.

Then he and Daddy went on the obstacle course. He wasn't too sure at first, but then he had fun climbing.

Milo played a couple games and won a giraffe!

Toward the end of the night he was getting sleepy, but he still had fun sharing a turkey leg with Emi.

Milo thoroughly enjoyed his first trip to the fair and can't wait to go again next year!

What a smile!

Milo has had a lot to smile about the past few days - and while he's been way too busy to sit and pose for a picture, I've gotten some fun "in the moment" pictures.

On Friday, we watched Jolenn before the Highland football game since her mom had gate duty. I have never seen Milo show off so much. They had fun dancing, jumping, playing catch, playing with playdough, playing catch with playdough.

Then we went to the game and Milo stuffed his face with french fries and ran around a lot.

Yesterday was a relaxing rainy day at home and Milo decided to play peek-a-boo with his "pack-pack."

It was this outfit with his jeans and tennis shoes that made us realize yesterday that our baby is really a little boy now.