Thanksgiving 2009

My immediate family

For Thanksgiving this year my dad requested that all of my immediate family come to their house this year. I think it's been about 5 years since my 4 siblings and I have all been together with my parents for any holiday! Way too long in my opinion! Of course my dad made this request before I found out I was pregnant. Since I didn't go into early labor with Ryan and this was such a big event, we decided to travel with me at 31 weeks along. Luckily we had some free tickets from Southwest Airlines we hadn't used so we were able to fly instead of driving at least 10 hours. It was definitely worth the trip and Ryan absolutely loved the remodeled house with the great big concrete front porch and all the old metal cars and trucks to go on it.

He enjoyed things more when he was able to just go out in a sweater instead of his bulky coat. Luckily the weather wasn't too bad for us Austin-ites!

Ryan also loved playing with all the cars and his train set on the round coffee table I grew up playing on. It's just the perfect height to walk around with a car. It also makes a fun tent, but we'll have to do that next time.

Ryan also ate lots of cookies that Grandma made, and we bribed him with one so he would sit and let his Grandma and Granny read a book to him. He was just too excited to explore the house and didn't want to sit much. He did get to have his bedtime books read by Grandma the first night and PawPaw the second night.

Joe and I got to spend lots of time relaxing. My mom spent alot of time preparing food before we even came, and Ryan loved all the attention from my parents. I don't know how many times I heard him say "Show PawPaw" or "Grandma play trains". He wanted to know where they were at all times, but didn't need us nearly as much. I loved seeing how much he enjoyed their new home and all the attention.

Ryan also enjoyed his cousins at Thanksgiving. He knows his cousin Zach pretty well and he was good to play trains with him alot. Here's a shot of all the grandkids. I wish we got to see them more! They are growing up fast.


After a big long nap we of course went outside to play. Joe started up an impromptu baseball game with the nieces and nephews, and of course Ryan got in on the fun. He loved running around the bases and even got to hit a few with his cousin Elizabeth's help.


The day was too short and everyone went home. Ryan enjoyed looking out the window at the "starses" before bed.

I think the hardest part of the trip is that our return flight was for 8:05 on Friday morning. Since my parents live over an hour away from the airport in Amarillo, that meant we had to get up at 5:15 that morning to get ready, drive up there, and get to the gate on time! I seriously was a walking zombie. Poor Ryan was great except when he had to watch his stroller go through security without him and then give up his cheerios snack. I don't think I would have made it without Joe. I think finally around 10 am I finally woke up and started functioning. Still, it was much better than driving all that way. And I got a big long nap that afternoon to make up for it.

I was thankful for many things this holiday. I'm thankful for Jesus and his sacrifice for me. I'm especially thankful for Joe and our strong relationship. We really are partners and work so well together. I'm also very thankful for Ryan and his sweet, kind heart. I loved seeing how much he's bonded with my parents and family even though they live so far away. I'm also thankful for a healthy pregnancy and another little miracle from God. What a huge gift and responsibility! Finally, as my dad reminded us, I'm thankful for the huge sacrifice of so many of our soldiers and their families as they fight to protect us as we ate in our comfortable homes with plenty of food. I'm so blessed beyond measure, and I hope to not take it for granted in the coming year. Happy Thanksgiving!

Cookie Monsters

Joe loves cookies, and he's been passing on his love of them to Ryan.

"Daddy, can I have a cookie?"

"Sure, let's make them together!" (By the way, Ryan is wearing a visor hat that Joe made when he was a kid. It's his favorite hat right now, and he wears it several times a day. )

"Yay! Cookies! Eat it!"

And this would be the result of cookies right before bed. Just kidding, this is Ryan showing off his new jumping skills. This is from a week ago and he's already much better!

Ryan jumping from Kim Pollard on Vimeo.

Those crazy Okies!

A few weeks ago Joe's sister and brother-in-law took time off from work to come visit us in Austin! We so appreciate people coming here to visit us. We had a great time hanging out, and Nate did his best to keep his belly full at all times. He even finished off one of the huge "Round Rock donuts" in about 10 minutes. One of those is the size of a dozen donuts! I kept waiting for him to go into sugar shock but luckily it never happened. Did I mention he also downed it with a regular Dr. Pepper? He really is crazy!

On the way to their favorite restaurant, Hula Hut, we stopped by Mt. Bonnell. Can't have people visit without going there, especially this time of year!

Nate & Mary picked out several houses they're planning to buy when they invent something to get rich. We're hoping to just live in the guest house!

Love the views from this park! We really don't go here enough.

And finally, this is how Ryan felt about them leaving. Come back soon MayMay and Uncle Nate!

Pumpkin Farm

Two of Ryan's good friends had a super fun combined birthday party at the Elgin Christmas tree farm, which of course was selling pumpkins instead of Christmas trees this time of year. I'd never made it out there but heard lots about it. Joe actually had taken the day off for our vacation, so he got to come with us and make a family day of it. I asked my friend Noelle to take some family pictures for us since it seemed like a good place for them. She took some great ones, and of course some really funny ones. Here's some of them in a collage.

Ryan was a good sport and wore the Hello Kitty birthday hat much longer than I expected! Ryan, Luc, and Joe also enjoyed just being boys and running around outside. The weather was perfect, the hayride fun, and food was great. Glad we got to celebrate Mia and Maizie's birthday with them at such a fun place!

My sweet, goofy husband

So earlier this week I'd had a really emotional couple of days and was looking forward to relaxing with my husband, watching tv, and eating popcorn. I was really hormonal/emotional...even cried while watching Ugly Betty that day! Well, wouldn't you know that after putting Ryan to bed we discovered at 9:00 at night that we were out of popcorn! I almost cried again. Joe was a good husband and simply put on his shoes and went to the store, coming back with the biggest box of popcorn he could find, some beautiful mums, and ten dollars for whatever I wanted. Yes, I was finally one happy girl =) Oh, and that popcorn Joe picked out is way better than what I usually buy!

On Friday night Joe's company had their holiday party at the famous Driskill hotel in downtown Austin. We'd actually gone there about 6 months ago just to walk around and I'd mentioned how great it would be to go to an event there. Well, it was! Wow! I'd never been to a real company holiday party like that before, and it was so fun. The food was wonderful, and they had a fun band that we listened to before we left. I'd never seen people dressed that nicely in Austin. We honestly felt pretty out of place walking from the parking lot down sixth street to the hotel. Joe's sister and brother-in-law were in town and he'd asked them to watch Ryan for us so we could go out, and it all worked out great.

One of Joe's "not serious" pictures before we left

And the real one..

And finally, here's a picture I've been wanting to get for weeks. Thanks to Joe for being a good sport. I call it...

The Great Pumpkin Growing Race

Halloween Saga 2009

This was kind of a crazy Halloween for us this year. I made Ryan a lion costume out of a borrowed brown hoodie, but didn't really want to wear it. He liked looking at it but when it came time to try it on he didn't want to. Maybe the fringe was too scary. I gave up and decided to go to costume idea #2. Joe nicely pointed out that next year I really won't have time to make a costume and since the hoodie was big for him, he already is one step ahead and has a nice costume for next year.

So idea #2 was a baseball player. Ryan already had a Round Rock Express baseball cap and baseball, so I just went and bought him a matching Express t-shirt. I didn't take many pictures at his Halloween party at school because I figured it would be easier to just do it on Halloween. Here's one his teacher took and passed along.

Ryan really enjoyed the "roller coaster" ride at the carnival, but when it came time to do the group picture all he wanted to do was eat the bag of pretzels he'd gotten. You can tell he wasn't very happy that we wouldn't open them in this one.

We tried to trick or treat in the office with all the other kids but Ryan was a little overwhelmed by the crowds and really just wanted his pretzels. I'm sure next year will be much more fun.

So the rest of the Halloween saga is that we'd planned a fun dinner at our house for Halloween and then to trick or treat with a few of his friends around the neighborhood. Unfortunately Ryan woke up with a fever on Friday and had it still on Saturday, so no friends and no trick or treating for us. We did pass out candy and he enjoyed going to the door and watching Joe give out candy (from a safe distance, of course). That also meant I didn't dress him up in his costume or make him take pictures. Didn't really want to torture the poor sick kid and by then I was just done with Halloween.

He really wasn't that sick this weekend, mostly just a low to medium fever that responded well to Motrin, so we didn't go to the doctor. Well, several in his class last week and this week were diagnosed with swine flu and his timing and symptoms are very similar, so I think that's probably what he had. It's actually a relief because now I'm not worried about him getting it or the rest of us getting it since we've all been exposed. What a crazy Halloween! Here's hoping next year is more fun for the little guy!

More laughs

You know you're driving too aggressively when your toddler announces "crash" from the back seat every time you hit the brakes!