18 months!

Tripp turned 18 months on Christmas day! He really timed it out great, receiving presents exactly six months apart! Lee took him to the doctor this morning for his well check up and he had a great visit. First of all, I think the doctor gives special favoring to dads because they were in and out of there in less than an hour. That never happens to me on a well check visit. The appt was at 8:45 and he called me at 9:30 leaving!! Last night I was preparing him for a long wait and even longer wait in the little room once he's called back. I told him he was going to have a new found appreciation for me doing all the doctor visits. Now he thinks I am crazy because it was so easy and quick.

Anyways, he did get a couple shots but other than that everything was good. He weighed 24 lbs (25%) and is 33 inches tall (70%) and his head is 19 3/4 inches around (95%). He didn't gain much weight from 15 months, but he did grow about 3 inches!! I should have known, he can now reach the door knob and pull the door closed.

He is now talking non-stop. We counted last night how many words he can say, and we got to 20 and stopped. He knows what a lot of animals say and his new favorite thing is trains. He also loves tractors and cars. He is still sleeping pretty good. He eats when and what he wants, but lately he's done better. His new favorite is cheese grits! He is getting tired of being in a high chair and it's usually a struggle getting him in it and keeping him in it. I think he is really starting to learn how to test his/our limits. He will fuss more if he doesn't get his way, and he thinks its funny when we say no. He does love telling the dogs no no and usually will point his little finger at them.

He still amazes me every day and we are so thankful!!
We love you Tripp and can't believe you are growing so fast and getting so big!

We went over to the Mancil's on Saturday and Martha pulled out some cookies to frost and Tripp also decorated a birthday cake for Jesus. He loved licking the frosting the most!!

Singing Happy Birthday Jesus.
(He really thought we were singing to him.)

Blowing out the candle!

Mmmm Mmmm Good!

christmas!

Well I don't even know where to start. We had a very busy week full of fun! We started Christmas a little early in Birmingham on the 20th at my grandparents. Tripp had a lot of fun playing outside since it was nice outside. He got a new truck with animals and a new ball with a choo-choo on it. Choo-Choos are his new thing. My dad has started a train set upstairs and Tripp loves going up to see it. We often had to tell him that choo-choo was sleeping.

Tripp was out of school all last week so he came to work with me on Monday and Tuesday for a little bit. He did pretty good for the most part. He didn't want to play with the toys I brought, but instead loved the calculator, phone, keyboard, etc...

Wednesday night we always have Christmas Eve dinner with my parents, and he stayed up till about 11:00. I had to wake him up on Christmas morning to get going. We had to start early! He loved all his presents that Santa brought and didn't want to stop playing to open some more!

He got a new "rock and roll" trike. Right now he loves rocking on it, and in a few months we can take the rocker off and he can peddle it.

He got lots of blocks from Santa!

We then headed over to my parents house for breakfast. Santa came there too! Tripp loved opening and playing with his new presents.

He got a barn full of animals and a mini john deere tractor to name a few!

We finished up there and headed over to the Whatleys. Santa made a stop there too! We had a great time and a wonderful lunch.

On Christmas Day riding the golf cart since it was so nice outside!

He loved his new bubble machine!!

Tripp did pretty good but crashed hard around 3:30. He took a long nap! We got home and I put him asleep on the sofa while we unloaded and he woke up to play but just couldn't stay awake. He finally woke up around 6. I think it will take a few days for him to get back on track!

He tried to wake up to play with his toys, but just couldn't stay awake!

We are so fortunate and had a wonderful Christmas day with our families!! We enjoyed a great weekend too and I'll post later about it!

the swiffer

I was starting to wonder if Tripp was going to like any of his new presents that were coming Chritmas day. All he wanted to play with was the swiffer!! He drags it all over the house and been obsessed with this thing for a while now. Lee took out the middle parts so it's just his size. We tried to hide it and put back in the closet, but he knew where it was. I'm glad that he has new toys now to keep him occupied, maybe he'll forget about it!

hey santa, hey santa

We took Tripp to see Santa today at the Bass Pro Shops. I was thinking he wasn't going to even attempt to sit with Santa, but he surprised me! He just looked at Santa and then looked at the camera. What else could I ask for??

He also picked out a few things he wants Santa to bring him... Too bad he'll have to wait a long time before he'll ever see anything of these under the tree.




I should have told him that his daddy's also been asking for these things, and he's also going to be waiting a long time too!

be careful little ears...

So two Saturdays ago, Tripp woke up with an ear infection. I thought we were sort of done with those since he had his tubes put in last February. The pedi sent us home with ear drops and antibiotics. And I thought it had cleared up...

Fast forward to today - Tripp's checkup with his ENT. He sees Dr. Evans every four months to check on the tubes. In July, we were in and out, perfect tubes! Not exactly the case this time. He said that his right ear is trying to naturally close the hole and therefore, not allowing tube to do it's job. Not really the report I was hoping for. He got more ear drops, this time with cortisone to hopefully clear away the stuff that's trying to mend the hole.

We go back in two weeks to see if the drops work. He said it should clear away just fine, and for me not to worry. Yeah right... He didn't say what would happen if it doesn't, but I have feeling they'll have to go back in to fix the tube. I don't want him to have to go through surgery again, not to mention I am still paying for the first one! Poor Tripp doesn't even know what's going on, he was too busy having fun running around the doctor's office!

We'll be hoping and praying the drops work!

getting in the holiday spirit

We had a lot going on last weekend (see previous post) so we haven't done any Christmasing to our house. No tree, no decorations, nothing... yet! This weekend we are going to try and get it all out and up and put together. It should be interesting this year with the tree, Tripp and the ornaments. I am hoping to get his Christmas picture tomorrow, it should be nice outside, hope he'll cooperate!

I'll leave with you this special treat! Hilarious!! Go make one for yourself!

20 Days Until Christmas!!

busy thanksgiving weekend recap... a little late

Our Thanksgiving started out on Wednesday when Tripp and I ventured up to Birmingham to visit my grandparents. They had a ball watching him play and making him laugh. I did take some pictures with my other camera and I will post them later... Thursday we enjoyed a big Thanksgiving feast with the Whatleys. It was so nice outside so we played out there for a while. Tripp had to move to the front yard to avoid the turkey-frying setup and the six dogs in the back. He made sure to wave to every car passing by!

Tripp played so hard, he wasn't in the mood for lunch, but a nap instead. Later that afternoon he did enjoy some turkey to my surprise (he isn't the best eater). He also like the sweet potatoes!

Friday morning, I didn't get up as early as I have in the past, but I was at Toys R Us at 7:30. There were a few things Santa eyed in the sale ad that needed to be purchased. Tripp came along (it's not like he understands, yet...) in his pajamas and made quite a few friends. It was pretty crazy with some hard-core shoppers, but we got what we came for and got out! We visited with my parents since we missed them on Thanksgiving Day, and Tripp new favorite thing at their house is this radio. He knows how to turn it on and dances along to the music. My mom got this video and it's pretty hilarious.



Saturday we woke up and got ready for the big game. Although Lee was pretty excited with the outcome, I was pretty disappointed. I mean I figured Bama would win, but a blow-out, seriously!?!? At least we were in good company and Tripp had a great time playing with his friends Lila, Ella Jane and Price. I didn't have my camera, but I would have got some cute pictures if I did!

Sunday Tripp had a birthday party for his bff Price at the church. He had a lot of fun playing on the slide and playing with lots of friends. During the party Tripp and Ella Jane made a break for the life-size nativity set. Ella tried to ride the cow and the lamb, too bad they didn't budge.






We ended the weekend celebrating Lolli's (Lee's mom) birthday too. What a busy five days we had. I love spending the whole day with Tripp when he's out of school and I am off work. We pretty much go non-stop. I finally got to rest at work on Monday!! Now it's time to decorate for Christmas, hopefully we can do that this weekend! Oh and the gas prices are still dropping! At the Ztec this morning, I filled up for $1.59 a gallon!!

austin, tx

We had a great long weekend in Austin!! Started off Thursday by flying out of Birmingham. It's been a very long time since I flew with Southwest, but all of our flights (4) were easy in and outs! Tripp was a perfect little flier!! He loved looking out the window and trying to climb over the seat backs. He did take long naps on two of the flights which was very nice!!

We had fun walking around downtown Austin, enjoyed some good Texas BBQ and drove around the UT campus. It's right in the middle of downtown. Friday night we took a short trip to Round Rock, Texas to the Dell Diamond, where Lee's cousin works for the Round Rock Express (Houston Astro's minor league team). They hosted the after-rehearsal dinner there with a true Mexican Fiesta. The food was very authentic and very good!! Tripp enjoyed playing around the playground and playing his cousin Sam!

Saturday afternoon we drove just outside of Austin to this little country church for the wedding. It was beautiful and the wedding was very nice, complete with a gospel choir! The reception was a lot of fun. Tripp loved dancing with the band!

We had a great time catching up with family that we haven't seen in a while. I hope it won't be too long before we see everyone again! I have to say that I have the best little traveler! Tripp really does a great job when we travel. He wasn't fussy and we didn't have any major meltdowns! He just keeps up right along with everyone else, not missing a beat. We are very fortunate to be so lucky! He's now 17 months (today!) and has visited 6 states! Here's just a few more pictures from the flight home!

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!!

taking off

We are headed to Austin, Texas for our last wedding of the year for Lee's cousin Laura. We are looking forward to getting away for a few days and turning this trip into a mini-vacation. Tripp will take his first plane ride and we hope he (and all the other passengers nearby) will do okay. We didn't have to buy him a ticket since he's under 2, thank goodness he'll have plenty of laps to be passed around! I have been worrying about his ears since he has tubes and how the changes in altitude would effect him. Come to find out he'll manage better than a child would without ear tubes. He shouldn't even feel the normal ear popping that usually occurs thanks to the tubes. Hopefully I'll have a lot of good pictures to share next week!!

$1.79

That was the price for a gallon of gas when I filled up for this morning!! There's a new gas station by our house, and we think it's just a grand opening special, but we're taking full advantage! Lee and I both filled our cars up for under $80.00 this weekend. A little over a month ago, that's what it took to fill Lee's Tahoe up, sometimes more than that!! We are loving these new gas prices, hopefully they'll stay like this for a little while.

We took a quick trip up to Birmingham on Saturday to visit my grandparents. They were so excited to see Tripp and couldn't believe how much he's changed. He was all over the place and loved helping pick up pecans from their big pecan tree. I'm sure we'll do more of that in a couple weeks when we go back for Thanksgiving.


Playing "baaawl" with the dogs! He's so full of energy these days, he would play all night if he could. We're definitely having lots of fun around our house and loving every minute!

wedding pics from n.c.

Here are some pictures from the wedding Tripp was in this past weekend... Look how cute my little man looks!


Opening his ring bearer gift from Mary Peyton - a silver piggy bank with his initials and a ring bearer book!


With the bride-to-be!





Resting with Mommy before the wedding.


Doesn't she look gorgeous?!?! Her veil was worn by her grandmother, mother and aunt.


Check out her cake!! It was beautiful!

Thanks Claire for the pictures!

vote for a free starbucks!

Well that's not really the reason to go vote today, but you do get a free coffee when you go to Starbucks wearing your "I Voted" sticker! So this morning Lee and I stood in line for over an hour to cast our votes! We vote at the jr. high school that Lee attended for a short time, and it brought back some memories for him... As we stood in line, some students making their way to PE tried to convince the line of voters who to vote for by shouting out their choice. Apparently they are not up to code on election rules and campaigning at polling locations. It was nice to get in and vote this morning and not have to worry with even longer lines after work. Watching television has not been easy the past few weeks/months with all those political ads, they get worse and worse with each election. I am glad today has finally arrived!!


P.S. Someone told me at Starbucks that you can also get a free doughnut at Krispy Kreme. That would be a good treat for waiting in a long line tonight!!

roadtrip!

Tripp and I just returned from Raleigh, North Carolina yesterday. We traveled up to see Mary Peyton (my sorority sister) and Daniel get married. Guess who the cute little ring bearer was?!?!

We started our weekend a little early, way early to be exact. We pulled out of the driveway at 3:30 a.m. and headed north. It was early, but Tripp slept all the way to the South Carolina line. We stopped half way in Greenville and ate a good breakfast and he burned some energy playing.


We arrived in Raleigh about 1:30ish. It was a long drive, but not one fuss from Tripp. He did soooo good!! He got out of the car ready to play. He was pretty good all weekend. We stayed with 3 other friends. Bless them! I know it wasn't easy sharing space with Tripp, but it was great to hang out and catch up with everyone. I was so proud that he walked down the aisle with the other ring bearer. They were both so precious! We got up Sunday morning and made the long trek home. Tripp was so excited to see his daddy when we pulled up.

I hardly got to take any pictures, but I am hoping to get some to post. He was so cute in his outfit and Mary Peyton was a beautiful bride! It was great to be a part of her special day! Look for pictures to come!

Oh and we have no trick-or-treating pictures to share... Tripp didn't dress up this year since we had the wedding. It was good timing since he really can't eat candy and such. Well just wait until next year.

pumpkin patch fun!

So this weekend we went to the Pumpkin Patch at Dream Field Farms. We had the best time and they had so much to do!! Started off at the petting zoo, which Tripp liked looking at the animals, but did not want to touch them.

Then we went for a hayride to the get our pumpkin. As soon as we rounded the corner of the patch, Tripp gets all excited and points out and yells ball! Which I guess to him it was a field of orange balls.


As soon as we got off the wagon, off he went. He was on a mission to find his perfect pumpkin, only to find they weren't like his balls at home, they were heavy!


After a few attempts of trying to pick the big pumpkins up, we led him over to some that were his size.


After find the perfect pumpkin to take home, we rode the cow train, which was about 6 gallon drums turned on the side cut out so you could sit inside it pulled by a motorized mule.



Tripp loved the racing pigs and tried to go through the mini maze with Lee's help. I think his favorite thing besides picking his pumpkin was the giant inflatable slide.



We had so much fun that Tripp slept all the way home!