Dylan's 1st Birthday

My beautiful niece and Molly's cousin, Dylan, turned one this month! Molly was super excited to celebrate. I was so surprised that this hat didn't bother her at all, she wore it for over an hour! Too bad the birthday girl would have no part of the hats! Dylan loves monkeys so it was so appropriate for her to have a monkey party! My sister found this precious cake for her to use as her smash cake!

Dylan was not having any part of the monkey cake, she screamed and wouldn't even touch it! I have to admit, we all got a kick out of her reaction! She is so cute when she is mad! Fiery red head!

When all else fails, try a cupcake! She went after it...and had orange icing all over everything!!

Birthday girl and her mommy!!

Silly one year old trying on her papa's glasses!

Happy 1st Birthday Dylan! We love you!

4 months

Molly,
I know I say it every month but I can't believe how time has flown by. You are already 4 months old and growing up way to fast! You are now 15 lbs. 9 oz and 25 inches long. We call you our little chunky monkey. I love the way your cheeks look like they are full of marbles and how your little buddah belly sticks out! You are so fun right now. You love to laugh, squeal and give that shy little smile when someone new talks to you. You love to sit up in your Bumbo and on anyones lap, you are still a little bobblehead but have gotten much better with your head control. We had to put a whole storage bin of clothes away that you have grown out of! You love to play under your play gym and look at yourself in the mirror. You love to talk to all your toys and even to Jack. You have found your voice and are not afraid to shout!

We started rice cereal today, not quite sure how that is going to work! You ended up with more on your face and bib than in your mouth! I know you will get better, you love to eat!

You had your first cold this month. You had a fever for a day and a little cough. You handled it great, although your mom was a mess. Luckily it didn't last long and you were back to your happy self in a few days.

One highlight of the month was dinner with your poodle aunts! You got to meet Auntie Sarah from Chicago and hang out with little Joesph! His mom and I are hoping for a romance one day! Fingers crossed!

I love you more and more each day little girl and thank God for you every night! I couldn't think of anyone I would rather spend every day with!

Love,

Mom

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas and some extras

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Well, I know it is far into the new year, but I am finally able to update this sad little blog! Our holidays were just wonderful! They started with a visit from my Grandpa Paul, Molly's great grandpa. This was the first time that Molly and him have met and it was love at first sight. Grandpa was so excited to meet Molly Joan, who is named after his wife, my late Grandma Joan. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house and Molly was mesmerized by the lights on the Christmas tree. She is such a chunky monkey!

Christmas morning we opened gifts at our house first and then headed off to my parents to meet the rest of my family. The one thing I wanted for Molly this Christmas was red and white striped footed pajamas. I looked everywhere and finally found some at the Gap. Add a santa bib and we were all set!

Present opening at my parents is always a long ordeal and she passed out just as we got started. Jeff held her and I had to open most of his gifts for him. He said he didn't mind, he had the best present already! Love those two!

Jeff''s family came to visit after Christmas, but the bad parent that I am, I didn't take any pictures! :) That is the short of it, I figure Christmas will be a little crazier next year! I can't wait!

Molly saw her first snow here in Texas! Brrr.. it was cold, but she sure looked cute in her hat!

3 months

Happy 3 month birthday little one! This by far has been the most amazing month so far. I feel like you are changing every day. I am not sure how much you weigh or how tall you are but I am sure you have grown. We will find out how much at our 4 month doctors visit. You are wearing 3 month clothes in Carters and 3-6 months in other brands. You are a little chunk, and I love all your rolls! You are still eating every 3 hours or so and taking short naps after play time. You love to sleep on my chest and I know it is a bad habit to start, but mommy loves the snuggle time! You go down for bed around 10 and then you are usually up at 3 and 6. I like to bring you in bed with me in the morning where you cuddle up and sleep til about 9. I am still rocking you to sleep and you are loosely swaddled. I think after the holidays we will start a little sleep training, lord help us! This pic cracks me up. It is such a great representation of your curious nature this month. Your head is always turning and looking at everything. Your eyes follow your daddy when he walks away and you have started noticing Jack too. I love it, but you also tend to do this when you are feeding, which makes for a very messy meal time.

You have always hated tummy time. It was torture for you and for me. But just yesterday, we actually saw some progress. I tried to capture it but the picture doesn't do it justice. You finally are lifting your head up and trying to prop up on your arms. Hooray!! All that torture time is paying off! You love rattles and your set of plastic keys. You grasp them and shake them. I don't think you really know what you are doing but you sure do like it! You smile and laugh often and you love to talk after a bottle. You will put your index finger in your mouth and just babble away! Your daddy and I fall more in love with you everyday! Love you baby girl!

Mollys newborn photo shoot

When Molly was only 6 days old we had her newborn pictures taken . We were so lucky to find a wonderful photographer here in Flower Mound. Her name is Jamie Rogers and she did a fabulous job. I would highly recommend her!!
www.jamierogersphotography.com

Here are just a few of the fabulous images!

Turkey Day

Well, we survived our first road trip! We decided to make the normally 4 hour trip down to Houston to spend Thanksgiving with The Brands. Molly really likes the car so we thought it would be pretty uneventful as long as we kept the car moving. We headed out on Wednesday late afternoon through Ft. Worth. The traffic was horrible!!! It took us almost 2 hours to get to Hillsboro! Molly did great and slept the whole way until we got right outside of Waco. She was hungry and so were we, so we stopped at Wendys and had dinner. It was quite interesting feeding my baby in the parking lot of a Wendy's in Waco but we managed! Luckily the rest of the way was traffic free and she slept again for the rest of the trip. I am so glad she is just like her mama, asleep before we can pull out of our driveway!!

Grandma and Grandpa Brand were so excited to see us, well at least excited to see Molly, Jeff and I are offically on the back burner! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, lots of visitors, and we showed our support for the Aggies. Molly watched the game with Grandpa and mama in her maroon outfit! I think she is the good luck charm!

We left on Saturday to hopefully beat the crowds on the highway. We planned to stop in College Station for some Freebirds and a trip down memory lane. After an extremely fattening lunch we stopped by Aggieland Outfitters to buy Molly some more Aggie gear, she has already grown out of what she has! We also stopped by the brand new ZTA house! They had to rebuild due to structural issues. It was huge but beautiful. Lots of fun memories in that old house and I hope that Molly will one day make memories of her own in the new one!

All in all a wonderful holiday and a very successful trip!