God bless you, baby Ross!

Last weekend we traveled to Houston to celebrate (and in Carlton's case participate in) the baptism of our precious nephew. Ross is Carlton's brother, David's, son and he is a PUMPKIN!! We are so proud of you sweet boy and we look forward to watching you grow in the coming years!
Here's a pic of the boys and their daddies.

This was Carlton's second baptism -- the first was Robert's. We were so thankful to be there for the special day!

My Little Monkey

I promise that this is the last pumpkin picture. I just couldn't resist!

Robert was a little monkey for Halloween. We visited one house and he was more interested in the dog than anything else. You might be wondering what kind of art style we were trying to imitate on our pumpkin this year. We didn't carve anything -- the squirrels in our yard took it upon themselves to decorate for us...

When Texas plays OU, we go to the zoo!

Yep, that's right. Carlton gave up watching the second half (but fortunately Tivo-d!) of what might have been one of the greatest football days in recent memory to hang out with his family at the zoo. Thank you, sweetie! We had a blast, and Robert loved seeing all of the animals in person that he's been reading about in books!

Trying to touch the elephant...

A bit frustrated with the window that kept him from getting closer to the giraffe.

While BooPa and Leeley were here a few weeks ago, BooPa bought Robert a toy ride-on plane. He was terrified when he first saw it (it lights up and the propeller in front goes pretty fast), but now he loves it!

And we're back to the pumpkin patch. I can't seem to get enough of the pumpkins this year and Robert seems to enjoy them too!

And a note to end on -- THE PUMPKIN DANCE! Apparently he was so excited he couldn't help himself. He just busted a move right there in front of any and everyone.

Happy fall!

Robert and I have been out and about a lot more due to the slight decrease in temperature outside. Last week we ventured to the Arboretum for "Mommy and Me Tuesday." There were lots of mommies and babies and tons of pumpkins!



His favorite part was the petting zoo. This baby goat was particularly fond of my little bug. I took a chance on my child's safety here and risked his foot being mistaken for hay in order to get a good shot with the camera.

Last week Robert got his first haircut. It was LONG overdue and I couldn't believe that he still had hair left after all they cut off.

And here's the finished product!

My parents came in town this weekend and we went back to the Arboretum for more pumpkin-time! We loved having you Leeley and BooPa!

Robert's buddy, Gaddis, had his first birthday party. To celebrate, the Killians had a bounce house for the kids, and the dads, to play in. Robert stuck close to Carlton the whole time, but he enjoyed watching the other kids bounce and mostly fall:).

Here are the moms and our boys! Quite the line-up of little ones, huh!?

This was the best we could do to get a group shot of the boys. Pretty hilarious.

Growing Up (Way Too Fast!)

I've taken a little blog hiatus as of late, so I thought that I'd catch you up on some of what we've been doing these past few weeks. 9 1/2 months is such a fun age and it just seems to get better and better with each passing day!

I could not believe my eyes the other day when Robert picked up our home phone and put it up to his ear! This is probably just the beginning I'm afraid. He'll likely draw a cell phone attached to my ear when his kindergarten teacher asks him to draw a picture of his mommy.

My cousin, Eli, came to stay with us for a while when New Orleans was evacuated due to Gustav. We loved having Eli stay with us and Robert adored her! We miss you, Eli!

Yep, nothing gets by this kid. He is into EVERYTHING!! I should have stopped him because I was trying to clean the bathroom for guests who were coming into town that night, but it was too cute, so I let him unroll to the end.

Here's a shot of Robert with his friend, Charlie. The boys look like they were separated at birth! These two sure can turn some heads.

Too cute. This is one of those moments when I was so thankful the camera was close by. John Randall, one of my son's heroes, and Robert get to play together a lot. Today John Randall decided to help Robert finish his snack. What a doll! I've decided to hire him to "feed Robert" so that I can get some work done around the house while he's eating.

This was an unsuccessful attempt to catch some ducks. It was a valiant effort though.

Here he is out in the sun, which is where we'll be spending a lot of our time now that it's beautiful and somewhat cool outside!

Labor Day at the Lake

Over a portion of the Labor Day weekend, Carlton, Robert and I went to the Wynne's lakehouse to spend time with some of the family. We had so much fun and Robert loved getting to see his precious cousins, Anna Cate and Ross.

There were multiple moments when Cita had her hands full. Fortunately, I think she loved every minute of it!

Robert followed Anna Cate around the house as best he could. She was definitely a major source of entertainment for the little guy.

Robert and Ross had some great conversations. Robert was fascinated with Ross and Ross, who is already talking as much or more than Robert, was very responsive when Robert would put a little extra bounce in the bouncy seat by pulling down on the back.

Back from the Beach!

This past week Carlton, Robert and I joined my mom's extended family in Florida for a family reunion. We had an amazing time and it is definitely confirmed that we have a water baby! Robert loved being around all of the people (22 total for the majority of the trip) and he had a blast feeling (and eating) the sand and seeing the ocean for the very first time.

The preferred mode of transportation for his ocean voyages (which never exceeded 15 feet or so from the shore) was this car. For the record, he's a very good driver. Thankfully, I'll have nothing to worry about once he turns sixteen.

There were three babies at the reunion ranging from 14- to 8-months-old. I had to include this picture because it looks like Robert, the youngest, is being ganged up on by his older cousins, Josie and Jack.

Fortunately, before the baby brawl could begin, all three were distracted by the obnoxious mothers behind the cameras who were desperately trying to get them to look in the same direction.

Robert loved the sand. He also loved the bocce ball that probably weighs about as much as he does (thereby preventing him from ever throwing it very far).

We were shocked to see that not only did he not mind the sand, but he was perfectly content to army crawl through it.

This was his first time in the surf -- taking it all in and loving every minute...

I couldn't help but to include this one. The mess all over him are remnants of his "biter biscuit." He LOVES biter biscuits, but they sure do make a mess. The beach proved to be the perfect place for him to enjoy them though because we could easily hose him off or dip him in the ocean to get him cleaned up after he finished "biting" it.

We've discovered that Robert loves to dance. Here's our little dancing machine in action.

Daddy and his boy

You would not believe how hard it was to keep the little guy still for this pose. At 8 months he's become quite the wiggle worm!