We're thankful for . . .

We're thankful for baby #2 due 5/6/13!

For some of the photos, Collin smiled as a happy big brother - but much of the photography session he was busy throwing the sign and ultrasound pic like a frisbee!

Our 2 1/2 year old is pretty clueless as to what this means.  Since May is an enternity away in toddler time, we're happy to keep it that way for awhile longer.

We are as happy as Collin looks in this picture!  After 3 miscarriages, we are much more aware that God alone creates and sustains life, and we're so grateful for a healthy pregnancy so far! 

We've been prepping Collin for a Thanksgiving family reveal for the past week . . . and then praying he keeps his mouth shut when we're out to dinner with aunts and uncles or on the phone with my brother Alex.  So far he hasn't let the cat out of the bag, but we'll see if he freezes when it's his turn to say he's thankful he's going to be a big brother!

Blue lion and Big Tex pizza

The first weekend of November, my company had a family event at the zoo.  Cas was out of town, but Collin and I explored the zoo and then met up at our company's pavilion for the picnic lunch.  They had games and at one point, invited children to the front to make animal sounds into the microphone for a sticker.  And my child, who had his Bible verse down for days and yet froze on Sunday when he was supposed to say it to his teachers, had a surprising moment of bravery as he made an elephant sound for my ~100 co-workers.

 

After lunch, Collin got his face painted.  He requested a combo of his favorite animal - lion - and favorite color - blue.  And the face painting artist happily complied, creating a masterpiece on a blinking, squirming two-year-old. 

 

At the end of the zoo visit, it started to rain, so here's his slightly smeared face after our dash through the rain to our car - 

Blue shirt, blue name tag, blue face painting = one happy boy.  His blue obsession is mostly fun, but sometimes leads to tantrums over outfits (when he wants to wear blue from head to toe) or arguments when I select non-blue labeled food at the grocery store.  I'm sure I sound ridiculous as I walk the aisles trying to reason with him about why we're not getting the particular cereal that he wants only because it has a blue font. 

Later that night, my parents and grandmas came to dinner.  My parents asked me to order the pizza and I was afraid a large pizza wouldn't cut it.  Which is kind of ridiculous considering my mom and two grandmas eat one normal person's portion of food combined.  Anyway, I asked for the next size up, the x-large, thinking it would get us a few more pieces.  I should have known when the order was $70 that we were in over our heads.  It was the largest pizza we had ever seen -

The pizza place called it the Big Tex pizza and my dad had to say "yee-hah" before leaving the shop.  Here's Cas demonstrating why everyone left dinner with two days worth of leftovers -

And just one silly shot from the next day.  As we got ready for family pictures, I had to snap one of Collin in shirt, underwear, and my boots -

Halloween 2012

This was the first year for Collin to "get" Halloween - understand the trick-or-treating basics and be excited about dressing up in a costume.  He was a T-rex, which just so happened to be the same green dragon costume he wore last year.  Luckily his memory of what he wore as a one-and-a-half year old wasn't that great.

 

Ready to go on Halloween night, he practiced roaring in the mirror before we left -

 Posed for one picture in the house -

And then we visited our closest neighbor . . . who wasn't home despite our days of trick-or-treating preparation!  I had high hopes for trick or treating in our new neighborhood and meeting a lot of our neighbors since we've only met a few so far.  Collin didn't mind, there was a bucket of candy for the taking!

Our first neighbor to answer the door - after about 15 unsuccessful houses.  I was quite disappointed, especially when we'd see two cars in the driveway but no one would answer the doorbell.  At first, Collin tried to give her his candy, but after some encouragement, he picked a few pieces.  Do you see this poor woman's bucket?  We were the ONLY trick-or-treaters out, so she had a ton of leftover candy (as did we)!

On the sidewalk headed for the next house with a porch light on -

My sweet guys -

Back at home, sweaty from the hooded, fleece costume in 80-degree weather, Collin was all grins as he surveyed his jack-o-lantern loot.  We only met 4 neighbors, but they were all very generous with their candy since it was such a quiet night on our street - 

Naively Brave at the Animal Safari

The last weekend in October, we took Collin to an "animal safari," a huge ranch with exotic animals that you can feed from a tram.  When we were greeted by a deer that was so friendly it let us pet him, I wasn't sure we'd ever get Collin on the tram.  But with the promise of more time with Buster the deer after the ride, we headed off.

 

This photo, taken by my mom, makes me laugh at what a poser I am - not paying attention to the animals like the boys but smiling away for the camera -

And here's where things got a little too exciting.  We were the first tram ride of the morning and those animals were hungry and friendly -

 
The instructions from the driver were to wrap your fingers around the food bucket so the animals didn't mistake fingers for food . . . as my son reaches out to pet the horned gazelle-like animal!

This ostrich befriended me a little too much for my liking, very aggressively pecking at my food bucket.  I was alone in the back of the tram, a spot I picked thinking of my son, and instead I rode most of the tour by myself, often the first person the animals could attack greet. 

Collin was all grins and squeals of excitement with each animal we'd pass, equally thrilled with a goat or a rhino!

Just some zebras that we fed in the background, you know, typical Saturday morning -

My mom and Cas feeding the camels -

Collin was not at all scared of the animals, ready to hop out of the tram and play with them -

Back at the starting point where he could once again pet Buster the deer -

And feed some goats - 

Family pic by the giraffe -

We ended our visit with one final thrill, Collin's first pony ride -

Yee-hah!

Neighborhood Fall Festival

We had a great time on a beautiful fall day at our neighborhood park's annual fall festival.  Collin tried his hand at putt putt for the first time.  

But the petting zoo was more his style -

There were lots of activities including a build-your-own dinosaur habitat.  Of course Collin selected a blue tyrannosaurus. 

There was a gigantic, real pumpkin to pose on -

My smiling boys -

Despite the games, bounce houses, slides and other activities, Collin had just as much fun scooping up hay, which was not an intentional activity - what a boy!

But his highlight, and the memory he still talks about weeks later, was "driving" the fire truck. 

And the flip side, the worst part of the day was being told it was another child's turn to drive -

He recovered from the tragic sharing of the fire truck seat with a lollipop and some A&M football at home on the couch -