Driving Home

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I enjoyed spending time away from work and with my family. It seems like when you child is in daycare, you don't really get to spend much time with them during the week. We spent the holiday in Kermit Texas again this year. The tricky part of the drive nowadays is timing the stops so that Allie has enough time to get out of the car seat. If we skip a town and move to the next one, we have to make sure that we can make it before she wakes up. On the way home I didn't feel as rushed as I usually do to make good time (guy thing). I was having fun listening to the audiobook we got and just being close to the family. By the way we listened to Twilight. I thought Veronica would like it, and I wanted to see how it compared to the movie. Honestly it wasn't too bad of a read. I could have done with less of the Edward is so hot, and I'm so in love with Edward...anyways. During the drive we stopped in Sonora or Ozona, I always get them confused. Right across from the Town and Country store their was a park. We thought it would be nice to stop there and let Allie play for a while. I am glad we did because although we were only outside for about 20 minutes, it turned out to create some of the best moments of the week. Allie, Mom and Dad played on the teder toder together. Another first for my little one. She enjoyed it. She also got a chance to go down the biggest slide I think she has ever seen. I have it on video, I'll have to upload it so you can see. She goes down backwards and looks like she is loving it. I guess in the end it pays off to slow down and smell the roses. Like Robert Frost says, we took the road less traveled, and that made all the difference.

Sunday Car Wash

She loves being outside. I can't say it enough. Here is the proof. Allie wanted to help me wash the cars on Sunday. Naturally she found a way to get soaked and sudsy. I remember what it was like to be a kid and slosh around in the puddles. Not a care in the world, and not a worry about what Mom would say about how filthy dirty you are getting...

Here is a link to all the photos...

Catch Up

Its been way to long since I have posted something on my blog. So much has been happening. Allie is walking now, by default instead of crawling. I was waiting to say anything because last time I think I jinxed her. Her new favorite thing to do is go outside and wander the front yard.She likes going outside to the park as well. Veronica and myself are so excited for her. She is growing up so fast. One of the funny things that I have noticed recently is that she now can engage more with Sadie (our dog). Sadie used to grab a toy and run around with it and Allie would watch her and laugh at her as she ran by. Now Allie started to follow Sadie and try to take the toy away from Sadie. The first time it happened, Sadie was definitely caught off guard. Soon they will be inseparable.

First Steps

Allie took her first 2 steps on Friday, July 24th. She didn't even realize it, but she was going for the camera string that Veronica was holding and she let go of the couch and took 2 wobbly steps toward mommy! She has been standing up on her own, but once she realizes it, she gets scared and sits down. I think she'll be walking before her 1st birthday.

She also found the toilet paper roll in the bathroom. Here she is caught in the act!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

We had a great long weekend just relaxing with Allie at the house. It has been so hot here its not even funny. I took 3 showers yesterday!! Anyways we managed to clean the garage and do some tidying up before our vacation. I am excited to be going on our trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. I hope to take some great pictures and enjoy ourselves. We will definitely miss our little one when we are gone, but we are confident in our parents to watch her while we are gone. Here is little Allie in the front yard. We caught her with the biggest smile on her face.

Allie has been pierced

As much as it pained me to go through, Allie now has her ears pierced, along with my heart. It felt so strange to willingly inflict the pain to her. I was against it, but her mom really wanted them as you can tell from the photo. I guess all in all it will be good for her. I just felt so bad inside, knowing that she was going through this pain and it wasn't for something absolutely necessary like her shots are for school and such. I will say that she surprised me with how tough she was. She didn't cry at all for the first ear, the second she cried (no tears) for about 10 seconds. Then she was fine. Actually she was more than fine, she was laughing and smiling as she normally does. Oh well, I think one day I'll look back and be glad we did it early.

Da Da Da Da...

Allie is starting to put some syllables together. Although she didn't say da da, it was close enough. I was so excited, I decided to make a movie about it.

Sweet Surprise

Adam and I used to have lunch together everyday. Then... work became really hectic and it was no longer condusive to my schedule. So, we stopped going as much. We have started to go about once a week. It is a nice break from work.

But today... I got an extra special treat. We had Chesters!! Yummy. Love the burgers... and I came back to work. To my surprise, he called to let me know he was going to bring me a Mocha Frap. When I went to meet him to retrieve it... He had a James Avery gift for me... It is a little charm to symbolize Allie. It was a great surprise. I LOVE IT!! I secretly wanted one but didn't want to purchase it for myself. And now I have one.

Thanks honey. Your the GREATEST!!

Look, I have a tooth

Allie is definitely mobile. Her favorite new thing to do is go exploring around the house. She also has taking a real liking to her dog Sadie. She likes trying to sneak up on Sadie and try to touch her. Sadie plays along pretty well I have to admit. Just today she sprouted her first tooth. We noticed it started coming in on Monday, but today it broke through. A new tooth hasn't slowed her down a bit.

Allie goes mobile...sort of

Allie has been growing up so fast. I don't even remember how she looked when she was born. I can only picture her now with her new chubby look. Anyways, she has been teetering on the edge of crawling for weeks now, and finally she's mobile, sort of. For the past couple weeks she has been getting on all fours, and rocking back and forth, but not really making any headway. But last Sunday, she hit another milestone when she took her first few steps crawling forward. Of course she was going for the remote, a hereditary trait she picked up from her mother. The best part is we caught it on video. Once I figure out how to get it uploaded, I would be happy to share it with ya'll. Since then she is getting better and better everyday. She's like a finely tuned sprint horse in that she's only good for one good run before she's pooped. We'll have to work on her endurance. She's still eating her baby food well. She pretty much as eaten everything except carrots. She even likes cold bananas. She is at grandma's today with pink eye.

In the meantime I leave you with a beautiful picture of my cosita linda in our front yard.

Get In My Belly

So... Allie is already 6 months. Man o Man.... Time does fly by... Well... I personally couldn't wait because I was getting so excited at the idea of being able to feed her "real" food. Enough already with the liquid formula diet. If she is anything like me... She will love food!!

Well.. with that said... Here are a few pictures to capture her eating adventures. Her first experience was with Sweet Potatoes... She gobbled that up right away. I wish I could describe the expression on her face when she first tasted it. She was a bit confused and then excited... Her legs started to kick and her face lit up. GIVE ME MORE!!!

The next was carrots.. that didn't go over so well. She is definitely no Easter Bunny. The squash is going okay. Aaahhh.. the joy of deciding what to give her next.. Don't know if we are going to do greens or go for some sweet stuff... Bring on the fruit!! (But hold the prunes)

Say Cheese

I haven't told my wife yet, but I bought her a present that I think she is going to enjoy. Its a new camera. Ever since we had my boss come over and take pictures of Allie with his fancy DSLR camera, she has been wanting a new camera. Now, my boss says its not the camera, as much as it is the subject and the photographer. So with that in mind, I also bought her a book that shows you how to use the camera and how to start taking better pictures. Be on the lookout for some really great shots.(In time) I decided to get her the Canon G10. Its a prosumer camera that I was told can take some really great shots if you know how to use it. I think she is going to excel at this like everything else she does. Time will tell...

Sing, Sing, Sing

Sunday, February 21st, Veronica and I went to the Chris Tomlin concert with another couple from church. It was awesome!! (He's kinda short) He rocked the Municipal Auditorium. The floor was shaking from the bass. When I came in, I was expecting a more mellow type of concert because a lot of his songs on the radio sound more acoustic. I was definitely mistaken. The band sounded great but the drums sounded awesome! The energy in there was incredible. I was blown away with the performance and the music. The only bad part about it was we didn't bring any cameras. We had to resort to the blackberry cameras so you'll have to excuse the poor quality of these images. To this day, I have the song "Sing, Sing, Sing" in my head.


Here is a player I found on his website. You have to hear the drums on sing sing sing. Its my favorite song on the album.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone had a great day. I had the best Valentines ever this year. There are couple of reasons...

My daughter Allie... She makes everything.. every day so much more special and enjoyable. We are truly blessed with her. She is always smiling and enjoying life. I try to embody that same spirit she has.

Secondly... My husband. Adam makes me feel special. This year we agreed not to spend money buying each other gifts.. instead we would either "shop together" or not at all. I really like the idea because it takes the stress off of me of having to think of a gift he would like. I can now get him exactly what he wants (within budget it is... Dave Ramsey baby !! )

So.. this V-day was going to be a no-gift holiday. But.. to my surprise.. Adam "gave" me some "quality time" as a gift. To understand this, you would have to know about Gary Chapman's 5 Love Languages I think that book speaks mountains about a marriage and I would highly recommend it to any married couple. And for our friends that have children, they also have one geared towards children.

So.. I love you Adam. Thank you for being my husband, my partner, my friend, my support, and my dream come true... XOXOXO

I took my daddy's hair

Well... I haven't posted anything in a while. Adam has been posting away... about many things. As many of you know... I love to talk.. but for some reason.. I can't seem to "talk" often here... I have so little time these days.. They just fly by.



Well... Our daughter is growing like a weed. I got a digital photo album for my birthday and I spent a couple of hours looking at pictures of Allie. She has grown so much and it has only been 6 months... here are a couple of updated pictures... I get so many comments on her hair.. Allie always responds by saying.. My daddy loves me so much.. he gave me his... :) Thanks Honey... I knew she was a "Daddy's girl"!!!

My Rock Pedal is on its way!

In an effort keep on track with my goal of playing songs in rockband on the expert level on the drums, I decided that it was necessary for me to purchase the Rock Pedal. Plus I wanted it. It will be a great compliment to my Ion drumrocker setup.

 

I can't wait...

 

Next on the list of "needs" is a pintech hi-hat cymbal. Pictures soon to come when my setup is complete.

       

Where did she go?

My little cosita linda finally did it. She has been on the
brink of rolling over for a few weeks now, but on the morning of Jan.
27th she made us so proud. We have video monitor that we are using now that she is sleeping upstairs in her
own room. In the morning I went up to give her the pacifier to put her
back to sleep and as I was standing over her looking down at the crib
she grabbed the rail of the crib and pulled herself on her stomach. I
was shocked. I was half asleep thinking, did she just roll over? Well I
didn't want to get all excited because I wanted her to go back to sleep.
I told Veronica through the monitor that she rolled over. Of course she
came running upstairs and picked up Allie and got all excited (and woke
her up). So we went back downstairs and let her rainforest thingy entertain her while we got ready and took showers (by
the way, I love this thing. It plays some cool sounding songs). Then,
while I was watching her in the little monitor screen, she suddenly was
out of the picture? I thought, did she just roll over again?! I went
upstairs and lo and behold, she did! Little stinker. Since then she has
lost interest in rolling over. Sounds like she's easily distracted like
dad.

Baby Daycare Blues

Not much has been going on for us. Allie got sick last week with a
stomach bug and so we were dealing with that. Of course, being the
gracious child she is, she passed it on to mommy and daddy. We took her
to the doctor and she had an ear infection on top of all that. She's
much better now and smiling away as usual. Here she is from back during
fall when she was at her first pumpkin patch.

You know you want one...

Now we all are weary of the only for TV products. But you have to admit, sometimes you come across one that looks pretty cool. I was tempted to buy that little hand steamer to be totally honest. I mean it was only 20 bucks! But the snuggie blanket was one that I hadn't thought I would need. The commercial was so cheesy. I mean c'mon, its just a blanket. The people wearing them looked like monks! Well little did I know that we would get them as a Christmas present from Veronica's sister Christina.

So today we tried them out, and I have to admit its a warm blanket. One down side I have noticed is that they produce some good static electricity - Ouch. All in all they are pretty nice. Anyways we couldn't resist taking funny pictures with them on.

Happy Birthday Veronica

Allie and Daddy wanted to wish you very Happy
Birthday!

Me and Allie playing with daddies mac

I knew she was a mac just like daddy when I first laid eyes on her. Here I was introducing her to the photobooth application on my macbook. After a while even mom jumped in. She's a pop star what can I say. Technology can be so fun sometimes.

New Years Resolutions

First of all I didn't even know we had a "family" blog. (I wasn't even setup to be an author) But now that I know about it, (and can contribute) I will add my two cents every so often. 

With the new year storming in, we all tend to think up ideas or things to start doing that we have always wanted to do, but never really wanted to do that much. Honestly if we wanted to do all these things the whole time, why didn't we just start doing them in June or October? Anyways, thats what's so great about the new year, we get to put our 2 quarters in the machine and start over. With that in mind, like everyone else I decided to do way too many things, and add them to my already busy schedule! Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Don't worry, this year I thought of everything. I added a resolution that will add 2 extra hours to my day. More on that later. Everyone from the The Today Show to CNN were talking about how to make resolutions (never had a problem with that) or tips like writing down your resolutions so you can refer back to them later. As a matter of fact, I am killing two birds with one stone by putting them in this blog right now.

Here is my list, so far:

• Organize the House (regularly)
  
• Check the mail (regularly)
  
• Read the mail (regularly)
  
• Get to work on time (regularly)
• Learn to play the drums on Rockband 2 on expert (This one might take some time, may carry in to 2010)
• Read my Daily Walk Bible (you guessed it, daily. With the intention of reading the whole thing this year)
• Lose weight, get more fit (why not?)

And the most genius resolution yet, the one that will help me fit all the above into my busy working dad schedule is: (this one deserves its own list)

• Wake up between 5:30 and 6:00 AM every day 
  

Now I know what your thinking. I know it sounds crazy to get up that early and start doing anything! But I have tried it for this past week, and its GREAT! I get up and start doing a P90X video and I am ready for the day! Once I even had time to read Genesis 10-12. I think I'm on to something big this year. I know great things are coming my way. I'll keep you posted on my progress through the year.  So far we have done a great job organizing the house, and putting the mail in this new mail holder thing we bought. We also bought some overhead shelving for the garage which I plan to hang this Saturday around 6:45 or 7:00 am. Either before or after I reorganize the garage, wash my car, and trim the hedges. All before lunch or so. I have the extra time thanks to my early bird schedule.

Anyways thanks for reading our blog, I would enjoy some comments on my resolutions or anything else I wrote. 

This blogging thing is pretty fun. I may have to setup the mobile blogger thingy on my blackberry...

Adam