Welcome Heather Ann!

We would like to welcome our newest addition Heather Ann. She was born on September 20 at 2:19am. She weights 7lbs 2oz and is 20" long. She had a rather fast arrival into the world. I know that everyone says the second child's delivery is a lot faster than the first, but I also thought that delivery would be somewhat similar. Brooke's delivery was by the book, but Heather couldn't be more different. I had a lot of back pain and contractions never were at regular intervals. I just decided to go to the hospital when the contractions became so intense that I couldn't talk while I was having one. Once we arrived at the hospital I was dilated to 6cm and contractions started coming a lot faster. I delivered a healthy baby girl less than 45 min of our check in at the hospital. I didn't have enough time to receive an epidural or any pain meds. Now that I have had a delivery with an epidural and without, I definitely prefer an epidural. In the end, we are very happy to have a healthy baby girl. Enjoy the pictures and I will try to update more frequently than I have been.

Big sister and Little sister


Heather with knitted booties from Nana and quilt from Great Granny


First family picture

PICTURES!!!!

I have finally gone through some of our pictures from the summer and I have uploaded some. I will try my best to go through and narrate each one as I go. I tried to upload them in chronological order. I sincerely apologize for the long time between posts. It seems that our internet upload speed for pictures is a lot slower than what we had in Arlington. I still have a lot more photos, but this is what I was able to upload in the meantime.


This is Brooke begging for eagle brand. I had just made a key lime pie and Ryan loves to lick the can of eagle brand when I am done. He really didn't want Brooke to taste the delicacy of eagle brand because he knew that he would have to share the rest. You can't help but give her what she wants when she give you her puppy dog look. He gave in and let her have a taste. She also loves the eagle brand!


I just thought this was a really cute picture of Brooke wearing Daddy's hat. She loves to put on hats backwards.





This is my first bass fish I have ever caught. I don't fish. I catch, but the biggest fish I had caught up until now was a 3 inch brim. Now that we have a stocked pond in our neighborhood it nice to be able to just walk across the street and go fishing (or catching). On my birthday, Ryan was giving Brooke a bath and putting her down for bed and I decided to take my parents down to the pond and fish. This was also my first time to fish at this pond. So, knowing how little I know about fishing I had no idea how to get this thing off the hook and I am sure it was pretty funny to watch, but eventually I got it off and back into the water.


The week after my birthday we took a trip with Ryan's brother, Jonathan, and his wife, Stacy to San Antonio and Concan, TX. This is our family in front of the Alamo. Brooke is a true Texan, now that she has visited the Alamo.

This is a picture of Brooke and I in front of our cabin in Concan, which is located on the Frio River. Ryan and I visited Concan on our first anniversary and had a blast tubing down the Frio river and we figured Brooke would like it too. One of our days there, we decided to rent tubes and have one of the local tour businesses shuttle us up river and then we would be able get out at our cabin. It turned out to be about a 3hr tube ride and Brooke did great. I rented a tube with a bottom and held her in my lap most of the way. We bought a life preserver for her. She was not thrilled about wearing it, but during the river ride she didn't mind. She also took about an hour nap in the middle. After that ride, she would constantly go to the door of the cabin and say "river". She loved playing in the water. I don't have any pictures of us actually in the water because I was too scared I would drop the camera in the water.
This is Brooke inside our cabin in Concan. She discovered that she could stand up in one of the cabinets and she loved to play hide and seek with this cabinet.

On our trip back to Longview, we made a few road stops along the way. One of Ryan and I's favorite old town stops is Bandera. The OST restaurant is a must stop if we are anywhere near Bandera. I thought this picture was really neat with the water tower and storm brewing in the background.

By the time we made it to Fredricksburg, Brooke was ready for a walk break! This is the town's courtyard and she had a blast running around. I love how is picture captures her running stance with her arms bent and her shoulders shrugged. Just a block away from the courtyard is one of my favorite wine stores, Water 2 Wine. I am not a big wine drinker or drinker at all for that matter, but when I do have a glass I like it to be sweet and fruity and this store has the best I have tasted so far. So, while we were her I thought I should buy a bottle because who knows the next time I will be here. Stacy also went into the store with me. So, here are two pregnant ladies walking into this wine store. Luckily, no other customers were in the shop, but the workers sure had some questions. It was funny, but now I have a bottle of my favorite wine to celebrate after the new baby arrives. While in Fredricksburg, we also got some milkshakes. I quickly discovered that Brooke loves milkshakes and I should have bought two instead of sharing.

Our next stop was in Luckenbach, TX. Here is a picture of Brooke and me in front of the Postoffice/general store/saloon. There is a dance hall across the dirt path, a music stage in back, and washers set up to the left. There is only a population of 3 and the saying is "Everybody is somebody in Luckenbach."

Hondo bought the town in 1970 for $30,000 and has kept its strong Texas roots alive today through music.

Here is a picture of us sitting around back listening to a guy play his guitar. Brooke love to clap and dance to his songs.

Here is a picture of Brooke discovering that she can climb inside of the cabinets all by herself, but needs some help getting back out.

At the end of July, my Nana from North Carolina came to visit. My brother and his family also came into town. Here is a picture of Brooke and her cousin Andrew having fun at the nearby Pump-it-up.
Here they are again having fun in the pool on our back patio.


It was Ethan's birthday the week prior to everyone coming in, so we had a little party for him at our house. Here he is checking out the cake.

Brooke loves chocolate. I have no idea where she got the idea that she could lick the plate. It was a big mess, but cute to watch her enjoy cake that much!

This is a picture of Andrew helping Ethan open his presents.

This is a picture of Brooke playing in the cardboard playhouse I made out of one of our moving boxes.

Here is a picture of my side of the family. From the left, Chris (my brother), Andrew, Amy, Ethan, my Dad in back, my Nana in front, Stan (my Aunt's husband), my Mom, me, Brooke, and Ryan.

Finally --- A Post!!

Since our move, we have not had internet at our new house. We are now going on 2 months without regular internet access. This would be the reason that I haven't updated the blog. We should expect to have internet by the end of the month. We have been able to have minimal access via our iphones and using relatives computers, but that can only get you so far and it doesn't take long before you are fed up with looking at a small screen on the phone. I am taking advantage of using my parent's computer, while I am sitting at their house waiting on a plumber to come and fix their shower. Unfortunately this post will not have any pictures. I will have to add those later.

We are finally getting settled in the new house. Most of the boxes have been put away. I am in the process of going through all of Brooke's old clothes and washing them in preparation for the arrival of her new sister in 6 weeks!! I can't believe that in 6 weeks I will have 2 children!

Brooke is now 18 months. We had her well-check a few days ago and everything seems to be right on track. She is still small on the scale for weight 3%, but she is in the 54% for height and 64% for head circumference. She loves to hear her voice echo in our new house and she is climbing on everything. I have to keep my eye on her. There was one day I was getting her food ready for lunch and I turned around and she had climbed in her high chair all by herself. I am glad she didn't fall! She is also picking up on a lot of words and starting to use them to communicate what she wants. She is also starting to drop her morning nap. Most days she has been taking only an afternoon nap lasting 2-2 1/2 hrs. It has been nice to be home with her and watching her grow and learn about the world around her.

The plumber is finished with his work. I know this is a short post, but I wanted to let our readers know that we are still alive and starting to get settled. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will get our internet working at our house and I will post a more thorough blog.

Pics from Nana

These are some pics my mom took, while they were watching Brooke for us on Saturday.

Where did that cat go?

Yeah, swimming!

Look at this fun pool all to myself!

Another Busy Weekend

I will start this post with last Thursday. I wanted Brooke to make something for Father's Day this year. So, I bought finger paints and a picture frame with a mat and some travel mugs (for grandfathers) that you can insert a picture or artwork. I thought Brooke would really take to doing the finger painting because I know she has done some at daycare, but she didn't want to stick her fingers in the paint. I brought out some sponge brushes and she liked painting with those much better. Her is some pictures of her in action making her art gifts. Don't worry about the paint on the tile. It is washable and came right up with a wet cloth.

Making her masterpiece

Wanna help?

Then on Friday we headed home to close on our house in Longview. Yeah! We are so excited to be moving back. We now own 2 homes and I hope that it will soon just be the home in Longview!

A couple of weeks ago Ryan's great Uncle Burt died. He was Ryan's grandad's brother. So this past weekend they had a lot of family in town for a memorial. Friday night Ryan's parents had a huge cookout for everyone that came into town. So we headed over there after the closing to visit with everyone.

Brooke and her Aunt Sara

Brooke and Big Mama

Our new house

The AWESOME kitchen

Living room

Part of the master bath

Then on Saturday Ryan and I headed back to Dallas for his End of Residency Party. Brooke stayed in Longview with Nana and Poppy. I am so happy Ryan is done with residency, well, almost; he has to work until June 30th.

All of the graduating residents with the head of residency, Dr. Jones.

Then on Sunday, we went to church and met up with my parents in Terrell to exchange Brooke. She had a blast with Nana and Poppy. They bought a kiddy swimming pool and she loved swimming in that. Then she had a lot of fun playing with our cat, Calypso. My mom took pictures, but I will post them as soon as she emails them to me. We also celebrated Father's Day with them. Poppy really liked his travel mug with Brooke's art work. After we got home it was Daddy's turn to open his gift. I found this recordable card from Hallmark that had the Jungle Book song, I wanna be like you. (The Jungle Book is Ryan's favorite Disney movie, so this was a perfect card for him) You were supposed to record a message then it played the song. I thought it would be really easy to get Brooke to say "Daddy" since that is one of her favorite words. I tried so many times to get her to record it and she was silent every single time I wanted her to say daddy. I finally resolved that I would just have to record "We Love You Daddy". Then after we got home on Sunday, I decided to take her into her nursery and while I was changing her diaper I would try one more time to get her to say "Daddy". I started off saying "We Love You Daddy" and then she followed with "Daddy". I was so happy that she finally said it and I got it recorded. Of course her favorite part is listening to the song and dancing.

Helping Daddy open his gift

Playing with the gift bag. I think she looks a lot older in this picture.

Dancing to the song.

Brooke's Father's Day Gift

My Ears are clear

Today Brooke had her 2nd check up visit after finishing 2 rounds of antibiotics trying to clear some cloudy fluid in her ears. All was clear and we don't have to see an ENT. Yeah!!!

Happy 16 months!

Brooke is now 16 months old. I can't believe she is already 16 months. I often think about when she was a newborn when I am rocking her to sleep. It seems just like yesterday and now she is so independent! She weighed 20.6 lbs at the doctor's check up today. She is a great eater (although currently on a vegetable boycott). She loves to go outside and play and discover things in the yard, like grass, leaves, flowers, plants. She is babbling so much now and trying to imitate our words. She understands a lot more than you think. I can tell her to go upstairs and get Daddy and she will stop whatever she is doing and head straight for the stairs saying "Daddy". She tries to run away when I ask her if she has a dirty diaper. She likes to play with other kids. She is fascinated by puzzles and how buckles work. She can buckle herself into the grocery carts. I know there is a lot more that she is able to do now, but I am running a blank. I will update as I remember.

Weekend Fun

Playdate Friends

On Friday, we had our last playdate with our friends from church. I met a couple of ladies that go to the same church we do and we all had our first born children within a month of each other. It was really great to get to know these ladies and watch our children develop over the first year together. We will miss them so much!

Ryan had his end of residency party thrown by JPS (the Ft. Worth county hospital) surgery staff on Saturday night. Sara (Ryan's sister) and her husband, Lane, came up on Friday to spend some time and also watch Brooke for us while we went to the party. It was nice to catch up with them. Brooke loved playing with her Aunt Sara and Uncle Lane. Unfortunately I forgot to capture some pictures of them playing with her. Here are a couple of pics from the party. The man in the white suit is head of the surgery department. The male residents grew out mustaches the week of the party in "honor" of the head of surgery and also wore medallions around their neck. He got a kick out of the residents copying him. It has been a gag gift to give away plastic dinosaurs, so every resident got one to take home. It is about as big as Brooke, but she likes to knock it down.


On Sunday morning, Brooke discovered that she can climb inside the dryer if mom leaves the door open. She didn't want to come out and had fun banging on the sides.