It's been a great year...

....but we hope 2009 is even better. We hope all of our family is healthy and happy and that we can spend more time with those that we love. We know we will face many changes in the coming year and we hope that we can face whatever comes our way.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin

Christmas Eve

Beck before Christmas Mass...isn't he dapper?

Beck and Maddux

It snowed a few weeks ago and I caught this of Beck and Maddux looking out the window...thought it was sweet.

Beck and Santa

Not a good combination

Silver Dollar City

We took Beck to Branson to look at the lights at Silver Dollar City. (Mommy also did some shopping). We went with Hoelzeman's (Josh, Laura and Ayla) and the Stobaugh's (Sarah, Kyle and August). He enjoyed the tree, the parade and riding the train. It was a little cold but he was bundled up pretty tight :)

Holiday Cards

Here are some of the photos we took to use on our Christmas cards this year. It was a hard decision but #3 was our winner.

Boo at the Zoo/Halloween

We took Beck to Boo at the Zoo this weekend. We went with his best friend, Evan, (from day care) and his parents. The boys had a lot of fun but were really too young to get candy or ride any rides. "People watching" was fun and the highlight was when Beck saw Elmo and smiled and waved at him for ten minutes. It was precious.

The boys were really cute in thier matching costumes. They were a "pair" of sock monkeys.

Beck missed out on trick-or-treating because of the rain on Halloween but he was an awesome Charlie Brown :)

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Pumpkin Patch in Mayflower today with Laura, Josh and Ayla. The kids had a great time.

Beck's First Birthday

We had Beck's First Birthday Party this weekend...It was supposed to be a Razorback party because of the Arkansas/Texas game, however, the game was postponed due to Hurricane Ike. We still held true to the theme but had no game to watch. Beck had a fantastic time and loved every minute of it anyway. He was a little skittish at first because I don't think he has ever seen that many people in our house. However, once he started opening presents and seeing all the toys, he switched to "show out" mode real quick.

He is growing up so fast. Right now, Beck's favorite things are playing with his toys, practicing walking, dancing, disciplining the dog and growling...yes, growling. (I blame day care for that one).

More Beach pics

The Beach

We went to Gulf Shores, AL the week of Memorial Day. Everything about it turned out better than I expected. It was our first trip with Beck and he was a CHAMP. From the car ride to the beach, he was almost perfect.

Beck loved the water and the sand (he actually ate loads of both). The ocean was a little scary for him but the kiddie pool was a hit.

There were 11 of us total-Bubba, Mandy, Jeremy, Sandra, Laura, Josh, Ayla, me, Brad, Beck and Keyleigh all in two condos. It worked out well and surprisingly we all seemed to have our own space. Keyleigh was a great help, especially in the car and shopping. She also let us have a little adult beach time. The nights were pretty much spent bowling on the Wii and playing Guitar Hero...ahh the joys of getting old and acting like 12 year olds. I'm pretty sure that Keyleigh is mentally scarred.

We can't wait until next year.

Horrible

I'm horrible at this, I know. So much has happened since my last post! Mother's Day, Father's Day, vacation, 4th of July... jeez! And we're crawling, pulling up and cruising like crazy! Beck is almost 10 months old---wow!

Here's a quick summary of our summer so far:

Mother's Day was great. Beck made some paintings (see picture above) for his Grammy and Grandmama. He did a great job. Too bad mommy stole the one he made for Grammy and kept it for herself. Sorry, Grammy! (I know what you all are thinking, if it's taken me 4 months to post how long is it going to take for poor Grammy to get her painting...we'll see)

Father's Day was nice also. Beck (and mommy) made daddy a photo book. He loved it.

Vacation was fabulous- I think I'll devote my next post to it.

4th of July- We went to Joey and Djuana's for the Fourth. Beck had a great time being the center of attention. He really enjoyed playing in the pool with all of his cousins. The fun ended the moment mommy decided to see if he would like going under water...he didn't.

Okay, I feel better.

Welcome Spring?

We met Laura and Ayla at the Daffodil Festival on Wye Mountain today. The flowers were blooming, but it was still quite chilly. It made for some good photo ops but we didn't stay very long because we didn't want to catch a cold...

Snow Day!

It's snowing outside right now, daycare is closed, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to post--finally. Beck experienced his "first snow" this week. He wasn't sure what to think of it but he wants to touch EVERYTHING now, so he had fun doing that.

He is getting so big. He is rolling over, sitting up (sort-of), saying "da-da", eating solid food and wants to crawl SO bad.

His favorite thing to do right now-- Jumping. God Bless the makers of the Rainforest Jumperoo.

Daddy and Baby

There is nothing more precious than a daddy and his baby. Here are some pictures to prove it...