One Year Old!!!

I can't believe I'm so behind in getting these ridiculously important posts up, but life's been crazy.

Ruston seems like such a little boy now.  The baby seems to feel further and further away each day.  I say it every month, but the changes in personality are just happening so quickly! This kid is hilarious...and he knows it! He loves to make us laugh and laugh at/with us.

We had his 1 year checkup last Friday.  He didn't gain as much weight as I thought he had.  My arms beg to differ with the Doctor's scales! haha

Stats:

Weight - 20 lbs. 8 oz. - 20%

Height - 30 inches - 60%

Head circumference - 47 cm - 75% (gotta have room for that big brain he's got!! :))

Eating: Still loves food! There isn't much he won't eat.  Favorites right now are any kind of fresh fruit, but especially bananas.  Isn't that weird that he hated it as baby food, but loves them now?  Speaking of baby food, he's really not interested in it anymore.  He likes feeding himself.  He's the messiest little eater around, but he's getting better at it.  He's really good at mashing up and "chewing" all the big people food that we give him.

He's got 2 teeth now! Both on the bottom, and cute as ever when he makes his funny face. He's really funny about showing them though.  If you try to look at them, he shuts his mouth tight and won't budge. So you've got to catch a glimpse when he forgets and smiles. :)

Moving: Still a super duper crawler and expert cruiser, but he is starting to walk a little now! He's been taking a step or two from the couch to the coffee table for a while now, but I didn't really count that as walking.  He finally did about 4 steps on the 23rd.  He did it twice that day and then hadn't done it again until today.  When I went to pick him up from Amy's, he randomly did 4 or 5 steps a few times and one time he walked like 12 steps!! It was so weird to see him standing up, walking by himself!  He also still loves pushing and moving furniture, toys, and anything else he can get his hands on.

Talking: This kid is a screamer.  He's a squealer.  He's an all kinds of funny sounds man.  But he keeps his words to himself. ha! He still does the babbling and every once in a while he'll say dada and mama to the right person.  Most everything is called "da".  He understands a lot of words though.  He definitely knows the word no! And he does not like hearing it. :)  He knows bottle, bird, dada, mama, and Diesel for sure.

Playing: Such a fun guy to play with! He got so many new toys for his birthday and he is having a blast playing with them all! Tractors are his number 1 love, and he scoots them all over the place.  He still loves his books and is now enjoying "doing" puzzles.  He likes to play with his blocks and is starting to play with some of his little stuffed animals.  He loves playing with us.  He likes to climb, smooch, and wrestle with us. And we really enjoy it too! :)

Sleeping: Still doing well! I'm still jealous of those mommies that have 10 hour sleepers, but we're making due and happy with our 7-8 hours a night.  It's much better than it was before! He still normally wakes up a few times each night, but we can usually just give him his pappy and he'll fall right back asleep.  He usually takes 2 - hour/hour and a half - naps each day.  Every once in a while, he'll take a 3rd, but only if he's gotten up really early that day.

And for those of you who refuse to believe the kid is ever unhappy or in trouble.....

...this is the face of a very upset child whos mean ole Mommy won't let him play with the cleaning supplies. :)

Master Bedroom!

I'm still playing catch up with the "Show Us Where You Live" blog from Kelly's Korner.  Last Friday was master bedrooms.

I love our bedroom.  It's so big! We actually spend a lot of time playing with Ruston in our bedroom.  It's the only place with a large stretch of carpet, so it's perfect for rolling around and practicing walking.

 Our bedspread is actually from Sam's! We got something crazy, like a 21 piece set, for a really good deal.  It came with all the sheets, pillows, comforter, valances, and a rug.  The picture above the bed is from Kirklands and all the furniture is from Rooms to Go.  I bought it when I first moved to Mesquite and it has really held up well.  We'd like to move up to a King sized bed some day, but this works great for now!

 The view from Danny's side of the bed. :)

 Another big wall that I'm still working on.  I'm a picture freak, so I'd like to get some sort of corner bookcase or shelves going so I can put some more out.  The room really is a lot bigger than the pictures are giving credit for.  When we came and looked at the house, before buying, the owners had a chair, lamp and end table on the wall under the wall art on the right.  We'd really like to do that also, when funds appear. :)

The color on our walls is kind of a caramel.  Lucky for us it was this color when we moved in.  I think it looks great against the black furniture and our wall art really ended up matching well.

I wanna play!!

I've been reading the blog, Kelly's Korner, for a while now.  She has always done some fun "Show us your life" posts that I've participated in once or twice.  Now she's started a "Show us where you live" weekly post.  I love looking at all the different ways people decorate their homes.  So I wanna play too! I'm already behind, so I'm playing catch up.  This living room topic was actually from 2 Fridays ago. Oh, well!

I love the color of our living room.  It was this color when we moved in, so I'm not sure what it's called exactly.  But it's like a sage green.  Our living room is much more kid friendly than it was when we moved in.  I had picture frames and knick knacks on the coffee tables and end tables, but they have now been put away. :)  The bouncer and exersaucer have taken their spots as permanent living room furniture.  haha.

 I'm still struggling with the wall above the TV.  You can't tell in the picture, but it's HUGE, so it needs a pretty large piece of art. I have something I really like, but I've got to find something to add to it, or it's just going to look silly up there.  I'd like to find an entertainment center/stand that I like soon.  We got the one we have now at Bed Bath and Beyond for $30.  It's definitely been worth the money, but we just need something bigger.  The cords need to be taken out of the way so they will quit tempting Ruston to pull them.  And I'd really like something with shelves or something so I can get back some of the picture sharing space.  Someday. :)

 I absolutely love our fireplace.  I think it's beautiful.  It's a gas fireplace, so you just turn a knob and light the lighter stick thingy and it starts up.  Then you just turn the knob again to turn it off!  Super easy and I don't have to worry about catching myself on fire.  The log took some getting used to, but it's grown on me now.  Notice, I still haven't even put candles in the candlesticks.  Silly me. :)  The candlesticks and cross on the right are from Kirklands and the cross on the left is from Mardel.  It has the serenity prayer carved into the middle circle.

 Couch and loveseat with pillows from Kohl's.  When we lived in Mesquite, we had some cute blue pillows, but that color scheme didn't work with the green walls.  Please excuse the massive horse laying in the floor....he wouldn't move! haha

Oh, September....When will you end?!

Soon, thank goodness!

September is a great month full of fantastic holidays for our family, but MAN, it has beat me up this year!

We started off the month with a sick little boy, who got better for 2 days, only to get sick again! :(

Then he passed it on to Dad....and everyone at daycare....and Dillon....and Kathie...and then he gave me a taste of it. I was glad when it was finally all over!

We made the trip to Donna's for his 1 year pics, which turned out amazing! Here are a few of them....

We celebrated Danny's birthday with lots of dinners.

Then came Ruston's birthday, which took most of our energy for the month. ha! It was fun, but I am so glad it's over! haha.  We spent the night in San Antonio the night before his birthday and went to the zoo on Friday.  It was a great trip and he had an amazing time, but Danny had orders due for work that day and it was the end of the grading period for me, so it was a hectic time.

Then was the party! Super fun and I promise, I'll write about it soon! ;)

Last night we gave Lauri and Rayne a couples baby shower.

This week is POKENO! Can't wait. :) 

And then it will finally be over and maybe our lives will go back to normal! 

I have so many things I want to blog about from the past couple weeks and I'm going to get on that!

Flashback Friday!

What a whirlwind of a day! 

A year ago today I met the cutest, funniest, craziest little pooper I know.

I can not believe how quickly this year has passed.  Seriously, the fastest of my life.  At the same time, it's strange that it's only been a year because it seems like I've known him all my life.  I don't know how we got along with out him. :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Ruston! Love you more than you can imagine.

Happy, Happy Birthday!

It's a double birthday today!! Happy Birthday to my Hubby and my Mommy!! :)

Call me crazy...

and maybe I am. :)

Yesterday we got up bright and early to drive to Lufkin for pictures. Yes, I drug my husband and baby on a 4 hour drive for pictures. :)  But it's Donna!! Originally she was coming here, but her place to stay fell through.  So we planned on flying. (She lives right across from the airport)  But then the person doing the plane's annual inspection has dropped off the face of the earth.  We're not sure where he is in the process, so we couldn't just jump in and fly off. :/  So we had to drive.  We finally broke out Ruston's big boy car seat. About time! He's only a year old! haha

We headed to Nacogdoches first.  I was really excited because I hadn't been there in over 3 years and I really wanted to show Danny where I spent over 4 years of my life.  We also wanted to give Ruston some time to stretch his legs and take a nap before pictures.  So we visited my friend, Kat, at her place.  She won't be able to make it to Ruston's party, so she had his gift waiting for him!

The child has a rather large head (that's the only thing big about him!), so the hat didn't quite cover the whole head. :)

After a snooze and a change of clothes, we headed out.  I didn't get to show them around much, but we did have time to stop by the Stephen F. statue and take a picture.

I am beyond upset about these pictures.  When we first got this camera, I LOVED it, because it took such great pictures.  The last couple of weeks, the quality has really become awful.  This picture makes me so sad because you can't even see our faces.  They are a complete blur.  It almost looks like this is a copyrighted picture we tried to copy from someone.  Sad. :(  Looks like a new camera is in our future again.

Anyway, pictures went great.  Ruston took some in his A&M gear and then we took some family pictures.  We ended with some pictures of him eating a smash cake.  Oh. My. Goodness. Did he make a mess!!  He started out just sticking his finger in and licking it.  He ended by grabbing huge chunks of cake and then sticking his legs in it.  So funny!  I can't wait to see them. :)

We had some more craziness going on today. But this time it was Danny's idea.  He went to the store to pick up some things and came back in a tractor! haha. For Ruston's party we are pulling a hayride with the tractor and Danny wanted to show it to us.  So he drove it home and parked it in our driveway!

Of course we had to climb inside. :)

We then proceeded to drive the tractor around our nice, calm neighborhood.

haha. There were a few neighbors out in their yards and yes, we got some pretty strange looks. :)

Wordless Wednesday - Poor Diesel :)

Ten on Tuesday - Busy Month Ahead

September is a crazy busy month for us! Here are the 10 upcoming highlights. :) 

1. September 8 - Girls Night! I love every Wednesday. :)  Much needed adult time with a glass of vino.

2. September 9 - Open House. I am actually looking forward to meeting some of my kids parents and finding out where they come from.  You learn a lot about a child by talking with their parents.

3.  September 11 - Family pictures! We're heading to Lufkin to see Donna and get our pictures taken.  We've got some cute outfits for Ruston's 1 year pics. I'm always excited about what Donna does!

4.  September 12 - COWBOYS!!!  Preseason is over and the real games begin! Can not wait to put on my jersey, drink some beer, and yell at the TV.

5.  September 13 - My hubby is turning 27! What an old man. :)  I'm just glad that he's catching up to me and he can't call me an old lady. haha.  It's my momma's birthday too!

6.  September 15 - Pay day, what what! Good gracious it's hard to stretch a check all month.  I swear it's already all gone, but I'm still ready for a deposit! :)

7.  September 17 - My little guy is turning 1! What?? I know, hard to believe, but he's a big boy now.  We're taking off work and going to the zoo that morning. I can't wait!

8.  September 18 - Ruston's tractor party! We're just having burgers at the house, but it's still going to be super fun.  I'm making him a cake in the shape of a tractor. Can't wait to see him tear into it!

9.  September 22 - National Pen Pal day! I haven't talked to them yet, but I'm hoping to pair my class up with a class in Mesquite.  Any of you McKenzie ladies up for some pen pals??

10.  September 25 - Lauri's baby shower! We're throwing Lauri and Rayne a couples shower at their house.  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone and checking out all the new baby stuff!

What are YOU doing this month??

Breakfast for Dinner?

Saturday evening, Ruston and I headed to Georgetown for Stephanie's wedding.  Stephanie and I have been friends since junior high.  I was so excited to get to see her and Avery join Avi into their little family.  They got married on the golf course at Berry Creek Country Club.  It was absolutely beautiful.  I had a little wiggle worm in my lap, so this is the only picture I got of them during the ceremony.

We headed inside for the reception and I was blown away by the smell of cinnamon rolls....  We were having breakfast for dinner!! Best idea EVER.  Ruston and I chowed down on cinnamon rolls, fruit, Fruit Loops, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and French toast.  So delicious.  Ruston hung out with Mr. Wallace a lot and ended up giving him some nice Fruit Loop stains on his shirt. :)

The wedding party came into the reception and started it off with a cute dance medley.  They looked like they were having fun and it was definitely entertaining! 

The decor was beautiful.  They had oranges, lemons and limes floating in water, candles, and candy set out on the tables.  The colors were so pretty and perfect for an early "fall" wedding.

So happy for Steph, Avery and Avi!

Birthdays Galore!

Last Saturday, after Buck's wedding, we spent the night in College Station.  Danny's family all came up the next afternoon for lunch.

Kathie and Dillon have the same birthday! It was Monday, so we wanted to celebrate that Sunday.

We went to Wings and More and had a delicious lunch.  Came back to the condo for presents and cake. 

 Great way to end the weekend!