A Sesame Street Sea World Morning with friends!

Jessica and I took our boys (or if you ask Matthew, the boys took their Mommies) on a date! Sea World breakfast with Sesame Street characters!

It was a great morning and afternoon complete with dolphin feeding, climbing all over a huge playground, the aquarium, etc...it was a great time with our boys!

Me and the boys. We walked a lot like this. One because we were trying to keep Ryan Tootle from roaming off with some stranger and two because Matthew wanted to be held a lot so I bribed him to walk by telling him he needed to hold 'Ryan Tootles' hand! Matthew LOVES 'Ryan Tootle' almost as much as he loves saying his name! Always first and last together!



We started off the morning with a buffet breakfast with lots of Sesame friends. Is this Oscar? I was really bad at knowing who any of these people were besides Cookie Monster...although Matty and Ryan loved the pink and orange girls with their 'pretty dresses'.



The best date a girl could have!!



I am not sure who cute orange girl is, but the boys loved her!



We walked over to a HUGE playground that had several rope climbing walls, slides, tubes to crawl through...we often call Matty 'Monkey' because he LOVES to climb anything and everything, so he was a happy boy!






LOVE this photo - so cute they are! Melts my heart. And please note the awesome bed head that my sweet Matty REFUSED to let me fix before we left the house. I told Jess it looks like he has one of the "bump its" in his hair to make it look poofy!



The highlight for the boys at breakfast (besides the Fruit Loops and being with thier Mommies) was Bert and Ernie for sure. Bert and Ernie were so great with them..they stayed at our table and played with them for a while! I do not remember their noses being so HUGE...they were the size of the boys heads I swear...and Bert had this panic look on his face that really made me laugh!



Honk Honk! Matthew honked his Berts nose so hard his head almost came off! HA



Prettiest boys I ever saw!



I have to admit, I liked feeding the dolphins just as much as Matthew did! Minus the slimy dead fish, of course!





Sweet boys enamored with the dolphins!



Jessica and I laughed at this poor shark...he looked like he was missing a top lip...so wierd looking!

Thanksgiving in Dallas

WE went to Dallas to be with Brians Mom and Family for Thanksgiving! It was so fun to be with family that we dont get to see very often! And, 'Grandpa Eddie' is a professional chef so we do a lot of watching and eating...the food is always out of this world!

Anna with 'Grandpa Eddie'



Matthew after he got in to Mommys make-up!



Matthew and Anna working together to "cook dinner" according to Matthew! They are starting to play together now which is so fun!



After we were good and stuffed, we went to play at the park near 'Grandma's' House. It is the same park Brian played in when he was a little boy!



Anna's first time to swing...she loved it! This is one of those pics you need to click on to see her sweet face close up! Such a happy girl!



the 3 things I am most thankful for!



Mommy and Baby Girl!



'Grandma' and Matthew playing together...sweet memory I had to capture...



THanksgiving morning with Dad! I LOVE footie PJ's!

Things I dont want to forget...

We got our blog printed out...its amazing. We went to www.blog2print.com and ordered it and it came in a great hard back version. Matthew loves it, and always asks to see our "special book". So, being that this is officially our family/baby book, I need to keep track of all the little things I always say I dont want to forget!

MATTHEW - 2 years and 8 months:

You LOVE to sing and play guitar! I have to get good video of it because you look up, close your eyes and totally jam out!

You love to play "super guy" with your Daddy! You use this big guy voice and scrunch up your face like you are so serious and say, "Momma, I save you, I super guy. I have a stone like David"

If you are in a "mood" and know you are about to be disciplined, you will say, "I not obey Momma, you no put me in time out" pointing your little finger at me! Can you say strong-willed?!?!

EVERYTHING is a gun...a straw, a pencil, a crayon, a hammer, your hand - everything. Your favorite thing to play is "fire gun" with sound effects and all!

Yesterday, you woke up and the first thing you said when you saw your Dad was, "come on Dad, lets go shoot the dear!" So funny...I mean, Brian hunts, but not that much! How does he come up with those things.

You LOVE to pretend now. Its so cute. You make us lunch and check our temp and put us to bed and pretend like you are our "Daddy" so sweet

Last week, you said, "I want a baby brother and another baby sister and we will name the boy Samuel". Okay then!

You run and fall and jump and wrestle and dance and hop and move ALL THE TIME!

You love to sing Jesus loves Me, Away in A Manger, ABC's, Veggie Tales songs, etc...

When we get in the car, you find something that will reach the seat in front of you and say, "come on Momma, lets drum"

You love to make lists and run through what we are going to de step by step...at night, you will say, "Okay Mom, FIRST, we are gonna take a bath, THEN we will brush a teeth, then we will put on 'Poojays', then read a book, then Night Night....oh wait wait, I forgot to pray"...and the list starts all over!

You call your Pajamas 'Poojays"

You LOVE your cowboy boots! You want to wear them with everything! Even your poojays!

You love to wear hats...helmets, hardhats, whatever - all the time!

You are so funny and you LOVE to make us laugh! Especially when you know you are headed to time out!

Every morning, the first thing you say is, "is Anna awake?" You love her SO much!

The other day, one of my friends asked Matthew if he knew what his name meant and the conversation went like this,

Amanda - "Matty, do you know what your name means?"

Matthew - "Yes, My name means Matthew Josiah Garrison"

Amanda - "Thats great Matthew! That is your name. Do you know what it means?"

Matthew - "Yes, it means, I'm gonna shoot a dear!"

Amanda - (laughing hysterically) "Oh gosh Matthew. Thats not what your name means, your name means 'Gift from God'"

Every night before you go to bed, we pray and you say the same prayer with us every night, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might! And love your neighbor as yourself"

I love you my sweet passionate, smart, handsome boy!

ANNA FAITH - 8 months

You weigh about 17 pounds

You have 5 teeth. 2 of which are the top ones which totally change the way you look...makes you look like such a big baby girl!

You smile with your whole body still...and always the biggest at your brother who you adore.

You are still VERY laid back and gentle, but are getting more of an opinion all the time!

You threw your very first fit a few days ago...I laid you down to change your diaper and off you went, arching your back, screaming, kicking! It made me laugh so hard because I have never seen you do that!

You are a major paci girl...love your paci when its bed time...it serves like a switch to get you to sleep!

You seem so little to us because your brother was so solid and chunky and big at your age. In reality though, you are just about the 50th percentile in everything.

You are crawling...full on! My how life changes when babies become mobile! You are busy busy exploring your world and of course, everything goes in your mouth.

You have your Daddy's disposition for sure! So peaceful, gentle and calm and yet a little spice and strength when you least expect it!

You are not a fan of all the cute bows I bought you. You wrestle and grunt at me when I try to fix your bow...I did not think it would start this soon!

We love you sweet tender baby girl!

It snowed in Boerne!

Well, the photos were so disappointing because you couldnt see any of the snow. It was REAL and big and fluffy and Matthew loved it. He kept running around looking up saying, "Mommy, when are the snowmans gonna fall down?" So funny! You can tell he is a Texas kid when he thinks that snowmen fall out of the sky already assembled! :-) ha ha!

Even though the photos are not great, I wanted to blog it to remember when it snowed!

You can see the snow in his hair so we have proof it really happened...