Birthdays with friends

We had the pleasure of attending the first birthday party of Ryan Ott. It had an Elmo theme and everyone had a great time. He did a great job of getting his red Elmo cake all over the place - we are very proud of him!




















We also went over to our friend Gina's house for a Cowboy's watching party. We had a great time seeing her and Piper enjoyed seeing everyone stand up and yell at the TV...




One of Piper and Amy's favorite cold weather pass times is to go area malls and check out thier play areas. We took a break from Christmas shopping last weekend and played a bit. Piper really goes nuts on all these things and it gets pretty funny. She doesn't like to stop for a picture though, so this is the best one I got.

Thanksgiving and Beyond

Hello Everyone. It's been quite a while since I last posted to the blog so here is an update.
My camera just came back from being repaired last week, so most of the pictures on this post are courtesy of my father - thanks Dad!
















The weeks between Halloween and Thanksgiving were crazy - Amy was out of town for one week and Kurt was out of town for the other. Piper was a trooper and enjoyed her one on one time with each of us. She came down with a little fever and overall yucky feeling thanks to the flu shot, so we won't be doing that again.

Amy's parents came into town for Thanksgiving and we had a great time together. They were gracious enough to watch Piper one night so we could go out and have dinner. Amy and Vickey made the Thanksgiving feast (mostly Vickey) including a chocolate cream pie and coconut cream pie made from scratch. This is the first time I have made a cream pie and they turned out great - Mom did a great job of showing me the ropes. This is my big accomplishment this month!






We have been enjoying a very mild fall - mostly 70's and 80's, but we had a big storm roll in last night and we are now in the 30's. The bright side of this is that Piper finally able to wear some of her cute winter clothes we weren't sure she would ever wear!

Halloween

It's been a while since we posted to the blog, so there is a lot to report. We took Piper to a pumpkin patch with our friends April and Jason and their son Ryan. We put them in their Halloween costumes (Dorothy and the cowardly Lion - not planned to go together). It was freezing that day, so the outfits got a little messed up, but we had a great time. The kids fell asleep on the way but were soon ready to investigate. We saw lots of pumpkins and even took Piper down an inflatable slide.






Amy's parents came down to Texas to visit and stayed through Halloween. They helped us out so much with putting on some finishing touches onto the house. We are in the home stretch now of getting this place squared away thanks to them. There was a whole lot of Piper spoiling going on too!! Events included cooking with Pop, dancing, swinging, playing, hair styling playing dress up, going to the park and trick-or-treating. We all had a great time and are currently in the process of "unspoiling" Piper (assuming that's possible)! We are looking forward to their next visit at Thanksgiving! Mike took a ton of pictures...here are the highlights...

DO WE LOVE THIS KID OR WHAT???????

Coming to you from our new house!

Well, we got moved in and are getting down to the last of the boxes and are really excited to be in the new house! Piper did great with the transition although all the work has temporarily limited our photo opportunities. I am also sidelined because my camera died and is currently at Fuji for repair (thank God for manufacturers' warranty). I did manage to take a few photos in the interim and here they are.

A lot of exciting things are happening with Piper these days. She is getting very good at drinking from a cup and especially likes it when we put ice in there. She also said her first word..."ball." She can even go get the ball when you tell her to. She has also started to wave AND say "bye bye" at the same time. The other day she even did it at the right time...when we were actually leaving somewhere!

She can say "dog" as well and says it every time she sees one...which is pretty often at our house! She has also started dancing. It's really more of a sway with arms out by her side but she loves doing it.

We went to a fall festival last weekend and there was a petting zoo. Piper loves animals and was all over the place touching the goats, horses, bunny and chickens. She had a great time...

Finally, now that the weather is starting to cool - out of the 90's for the most part - we have started spending more time outside. Piper loves being outside. We can't decide if it's because she truly enjoys the outdoors or if it's because it's the only place we let her play with open water bottles and cups...

Have a great day!

Another week in paradise!

Piper had a good week...not much happened besides more packing. The one thing that did happen was that we went over to our good friends the Ott's house and had dinner with them and their little boy, Ryan, who is 9 months old. They gave Piper a gift for her birthday and a cupcake...only this time she had a partner in crime...Here are the highlights:

Happy (official) Birthday Piper!

Piper's official birthday was last Friday, September 15th! So hard to believe that it's been a year, but what a great year it has been. Amy and Piper spent the morning roller skating with Piper in her stroller...it was tons of fun. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures there because Amy was by herself and afraid she would break her camera since she was on rollerblades! We also went to the YMCA where she had her picture made with Grace...

We met up with Kurt for lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing and napping.

On Saturday we met Whitney (Amy's friend from college) and Whitney's husband Rusty for dinner. Whitney's birthday is the same day as Piper's, so we celebrated...again! This time, Amy made a cake instead of buying one. We had it at dinner at the restaurant, so this time someone else cleaned up - yay!



We spent the rest of the weekend packing boxes for our move at the end of the month...even Piper got in on the act...

Piper had her one year doctor's appointment today and she got a clean bill of health! She is 30 inches tall and weighs 20 lbs. and 5 oz. We get to start giving her real milk and, much to Kurt's delight, peanut butter. We hope that all of you are doing well and we appreciate all the love and support you have given us during Piper's first year! Hope to see you soon.

Houses, Birthdays and Remotes, oh my!

We'll start off this edition of the blog with the news that we are moving...again. But, this time, it's just around the corner...literally! We have been considering moving to a larger house since Amy works from home and uses up one of our three bedrooms as an office. Someday we hope to have another child and simply have nowhere to put him or her. So, we found this house and move at the end of this month. A photo of the outside is below...

The big news is that we celebrated Piper's first birthday (a few weeks early) over Labor Day weekend. We went back to Decatur, AL for Amy's 10 year high school reunion and used the occasion to celebrate with Amy's family. We had a great time as evidenced by the pictures below...

Before

During

After



This picture was taken one Sunday morning as we were all getting dressed for church...I just liked it and thought she looked pretty...

This picture was taken one afternoon when we were playing chase and she had a huge grin on her face...

Also, she loves TV remotes...she even holds them up to the TV (and other things) to see if she can get it to change.

She discovered balloons a few weeks ago...they are very interesting and she doesn't even mind when they pop in her hand. She just wonders where they went!