We thought it would be best to let Leah get addicted to all sorts of bad habits at an early age.

Like watching TV... Scarface, no less. (Yes! Guns! Blood! Foul language galore!)

And playing video games with Jared! Here she instructs him on his next move...

And here she watches how it all plays out. They're a pair, aren't they? It's only a matter of time until Jared has a live-in Halo partner.

And here she's just being cute. That's not a bad habit, right?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We did some Christmas shopping on Friday night at the new Town Center. Luckily it was nice and cold, so it helped us to get in the Christmas spirit.

Jared's showing Leah all of the lights on the Christmas tree (notice the palm trees in the background... weird, isn't it?)

A family photo... with a ridiculously tired little girl.

Snow!

A rare thing happened last night-- it snowed here! I suppose I'm being pretty generous when I say that it "snowed" because we didn't get much more than a dusting at our house, but still, there were flakes falling from the sky! Of course such an event had to be documented with pictures...

The pups sat nicely on the bench for a photo op.

At first Leah wasn't so sure what to think...

And then she decided she did not like it. (She likes to accentuate her sadness by making her eyes look like frowns when she cries.)

I tried to make her happy by raising her up and down in the air so she would realize that snow is actually fun.

It did not work.

You're too late, Obama!

This is Jared. I recently exercised my right as an American and purchased an AR-15. More specifically, a Bushmaster M4 "Patrolman". It's a semi-automatic version of what the military uses, the M16. It's commonly referred to as an "assault rifle" by most folks. Most people will immediately think "Nobody needs a gun like that." Personally, I couldn't agree more. Right now, no one needs a gun like this. And I hope it stays that way. But who knows what the future holds, and the right to purchase this gun (and all guns if some had their way) will soon be gone, possibly forever, so I broke my own rule of only buying what you can immediately pay for and made the purchase. It's not that I wanted or needed the gun right now, it's just that I don't like anyone telling me that I can't ever have one. Besides, it's hella fun to shoot. That's why I'm giggling like a school girl whenever anyone around me is shooting it. I also learned why soldiers always walk around so hunched over. Even though the kick of a single shot isn't bad at all, continuous shooting literally pushes you backwards:

Even Gina took her crack at it:

Of the guns I have this is her new favorite.

One more reason to own the gun: who doesn't like seeing a pretty girl holding a mean piece of weaponry. This may be my new favorite pic of Gina, even with all the cute ones of her and the little girl on this blog.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

To answer your questions:
(1.) Yes, we took pictures of Christmas tree buying at Home Depot.
(2.) Yes, I dressed our child in a snow suit, even though it was warm enough for me to leave my jacket unzipped... and we live in Texas... and there is no snow. To be fair, she is only wearing a onesie underneath, to make sure she doesn't overheat. I just wanted to make sure she got some use out of wearing the suit before she grows out of it. And she looks cute!!

It's a pretty sweet tree for a mere $35. Go us.

Nap time, Shmap time

Leah has been particularly tough with naps these days. I guess she just doesn't want to miss anything, but she seems to have a hard time falling asleep. When she does finally fall asleep, it usually only lasts for about 15-20 minutes, and the good naps are only about 45 minutes long. This makes for a particularly cranky girl by the time the evening rolls around, and she ends up crying herself to sleep because she is just SO over-tired. Poor kid.


This picture was taken during a lengthy (and extremely rare!) two hour nap. She completely crashed after playing with the girls next door for a few hours. She's also become quite the thumbsucker, which is so darn cute. Remind me of this, when we are paying orthodontist bills in the future.
And the subsquent post-nap photo. I look that confused when I wake up too.

In everything, give Thanks.

We spent our Thanksgiving this year at my parents' house here in Texas. My mom outdid herself again and cooked a delicious meal, and the pie I made actually turned out to be pretty good! (For those of you that don't know, my cooking/baking skills are slim to none. Thank goodness Jared knows his way around the kitchen.) We have so many things to be thankful for this year, and we both feel very gracious to God for everything we've been given.

Leah looks silly with her hair clipped out of the way. It makes her receding hairline quite obvious.

I know this picture is blurry, but they were having such a good time, I couldn't help but include it.

A quick get-away

Jared had to make a trip to San Antonio for work last week, so Leah and I decided to tag along. Unfortunately, Jared spent all day Monday and Tuesday in meetings, but we did get to hang out and walk along the Riverwalk on Monday night. AND we got to take advantage of cable in the hotel room by watching Monday night football! During the day, Leah and I spent the time hanging out in the hotel room and taking walks around the city.

Enjoying some play time on her play quilt.

I decided we didn't have enough photos of me and miss Leah, so we attempted to take some shots together...

It's tough to keep those hands out of her mouth!

We wandered around the city and ended up at the Hemisfair Park with the Tower of the Americas. I don't know what that is either, but I do know that they charge you $11 to go to the top of the Tower. No thanks. Like I said, tough to keep those hands out of her mouth.

Leah's grandparents bought her these two nice presents. The play pen helps us keep this roly-poly girl from getting away from us, and the high chair is SO NICE to have during dinner. She's not using it to eat yet, but she sits at the dinner table with us now and allows us to have dinner in peace. (Yay!)

Leah like to hang out with her bear, Thomas, which her great uncle sent her from Germany. Check out how happy she gets when she spots him.

A belated update

About 3.5 weeks ago, Leah learned how to roll over. Since then, she's become a rolling machine, moving back and forth in both directions. The unfortunate part is that she tends to roll over in her sleep, which causes her to be VERY upset upon wakening. The good news is, she's lifting her head up a lot better, and is a bit more mobile now. We've also had 2 blissful weeks of sleeping through the night, which is FANTASTIC. It's almost as if she hit the 3 month mark and turned a corner-- no more night-time crying spells, sleeping all night, and smiles and babbling all-around. It's really quite wonderful.

And, to add to the fact that the wee one is growing up, she's getting her first tooth. (I know! So early!!) At first I was excited... about 30 seconds later, I realized teeth would bring a whole new element to meal times. Yikes.

Anyway, some much delayed photos are below!

Leah just can't stop curling up in the fetal position. I'm pretty sure this is not how the soothing center intended babies to lay.


What's the point of "back to sleep" if they don't stay on their backs?

Our friends Paige and Josh lent us this doorway bouncer. She's a bit small for it, so we have to prop her up with blankets. She also doesn't understand the bouncing concept and pretty much just spins. (Have you noticed the theme of unruly hair in these photos?)

My boss gave us this really cute nightgown with a cap. She finally fits in it, and look how happy she is!

And on a completely unrelated note, this is Heidi, reminding Rowdy that she's the boss by standing over his head while he plays with a toy.

Happy Halloween and such

Ok, ok... so I'm starting to realize I suck at this updating business. But in my defense, this week was my first week back in the office and I was way too tired when I got home to even think about posting anything. Here are some pictures from last weekend--Jared's parents came to visit for the long weekend and we went to the Texas Renaissance Festival and held Leah's Baby Dedication at church. And of course, Halloween!

Leah REALLY likes Jared these days... I think she likes him better than anyone else. (Apparently being somebody's food source means nothing.)

One of our favorite sounds is the "Guh" noise (pronounced with a hard G). And this is the face she makes when she says it.

I will not lie. The following pictures were not taken on Halloween. It was a really busy day for us and she only wore her costume (home-made by the way, and finished at 1 am the night before) for a short while at my work Halloween party. So we made her wear the costume again a few days later so we could take lots of pictures.

WHY do I have to wear this????

Oh wait, this isn't so bad...

Can you believe they dress me in this?!?!?!

Here's the fam at the Texas Renaissance Festival.

Leah had a good time. I don't see how she couldn't. That place was like one giant lunch buffet for her, as most of the women were very scantily clad and there were boobs and cleavage all over the place. Despite that (or perhaps because of that for some people?), it was fun and a source of entertainment for us all.

Let me tell you about my pretty dress...

Leah thinks her Grandmom is so silly!

Look at us all in our Sunday best. Apparently this Baby Dedication is interrupting her nap time.

My new blue jeans

Ok, there's no point to this post, other than to show off Leah in her first pair of blue jeans. So cute!!She has taken to "talking" with the animals on her play quilt lately. The animals are mostly nice to her (shown by the smile on her face when she babbles to them), but every now and then they say something mean to her and she starts to cry. I keep trying to get it on video, but haven't caught it just yet. When I do, I'll be sure to post it for y'all.

A homecoming at its finest

Sorry everybody-- I've been remiss in posting. We've been a bit busy around here, as Jared was out of town for a while, and Leah and I took a surprise trip to meet him up in Delaware and visit the fam last weekend. We had an awesome time, until the flight home when Jared got stuck sitting next to the largest man on the planet, and then our bags (including our car seat and some "nursing essentials", we'll say) got lost. So after waiting an hour at the airport for bags that got sent to Austin (why?), we tried to head home and got stuck in some crazy parking ticket fiasco when trying to exit the lot. It was not our night. Needless to say, the weekend was fabulous until that point and it was great to see everyone again. Enough rambling-- here are some pictures!


After arriving on Friday, we went to lunch at the Deer Park and took a walk through White Clay Creek State Park to take in some fresh air and fall foliage. I forgot just how tall and beautiful the trees are up there... those darn Chinese tallow just don't cut it down here!


Jared and I have come a *long* way from the first few times we'd been at this park together in bird taxonomy class 5 and a half years ago. I totally aced that class, and it had nothing to do with him being the T.A. thank you very much. :)


Little Leah taking in all her surroundings-- she's had an exciting day!

The next morning we all got up early to do some pre-game tailgating and then everyone headed to the game while Leah and I met up with Jenn and Kate and ventured down to see Kimberly and her new little baby Evan.

This is what happens when you let a lawyer drink too much...

Ok, so he didn't really pee his pants, but still, it's funny.



The goobers at the game where UD apparently got trounced.

Leah got to "meet" her cousins Katelyn and Evan for the first time. So of course we found it necessary to dress them all in matching outfits!Here are Leah and Kate spending some quality time with Grandmom. Kate isn't sure how she feels about all these new cousins around. I think she liked it better being the only one in the spotlight!


Leah and Evan hanging out together. It looks like Leah is stifling a yawn-- I think Evan is boring her with all his sleeping. :)


Leah and Grandmom getting in some last minute QT before we head out for the weekend. Leah says, What's with this cold air? Where's the heat? Where's the humidity?

We got to hang out with Jess, Stef, and Amanda (my sister, brother, and sister-in-law) too before we left, but Leah did a lot of crying so unfortunately no pictures were taken. We'll have to remember next time!