Ooops....again....what Blog?

Well, for the second time now, I have completely abandoned our blog. The real reason is that I had too many pictures posted in my PicasaWeb albums and exceeded the storage amount for the site. Ooops. I deleted all the albums so that I could blog again.

Since December, when I posted last, we've had so much happen!

Braden is getting to be such a big boy. He is a wild, wild toddler. He loves his animals, and even kisses them goodnight at bedtime every single night. Things he loves right now are: Special Agent Oso, Mickey Mouse, and Toy Story. He also LOVES ice cream. He started at a new school back in May, but only part time. He now is watched by my parents three times a week, which has been great. I love that he gets to spend so much time with my parents and is getting to know them so well. He calls my dad "papa" and my mom "ma". We're not sure where he got papa from, but it sure is cute. I know he got the "ma" from my dad, because that is what he calls her around the house. He kind of even says it with my dad's northern accent. I may have to work on his southern twang a bit...after all he is a native Texan (whereas me, his mom, is just a wannabe Native Texan). We go to the Dr for his two-year check up the week of Aug 23rd. I'll have new stats them, but I know he weighs about 28 pounds now....and one of his ear tubes recently fell out, and sure enough the ear infections are back. We're pretty bummed about that. I cannot believe he's going to be two. I'll post a seperate entry about Braden turning two and his birthday party later in August! Until, then here are some updated pics of B:


Spending the day at the zoo with Papa and Ma!


MMMM ice cream!

Now, onto other news!! We're expecting baby #2!!! We have another precious baby BOY on the way. We are due October 6th, but have scheduled my c-section for Wednesday, September 29th. I am so excited for Braden to have a brother to grow up with. This pregnancy has seemed so much longer than Braden's. I didn't feel as well this time around, as I did with my first pregnancy. Being pregnant, and chasing an almost two year old around sure does get tiring! We decided to name this precious baby Weston James Wright. We decided all our boys would have the middle name, James, which is after Mike's late father. His middle name was James as well. Our boys should be honored to share their grandpa Wright's middle name. As they grow up we look forward to telling them all about Grandpa Wright. Also, we're excited that Weston already has a best friend! How you might ask!? Well, our wonderful neighbors and friends, are expecting their first baby, also a boy, on September 30th. Talk about good neighborly planning! Just kidding, it was purely coincidental! But it has been fun having another prego friend to hang out with.

We did manage to get one vacation in this Summer...we went to Destin, Florida for a week in June. It was a fantastic vacation, filled with wonderful company, relaxation, and some MAJOR shopping. They have an awesome outlet mall there. I went crazy at the Coach store. Braden stayed at home this time. He was able to get spoiled silly by his Grandma Sue and my parents. Sue came in from California to watch Braden, and my parents relieved here a couple of times throughout the week, as he sure is a handful.

Well, since I am a little rusty at this blog thing, I don't want to wear myself out by writing TOOOO much on my first blog back. ;) I'll post again after B's second birthday!

Til Then!
Katie and Mike

Mike's 29th Birthday!

This past Sunday was Mike's 29th birthday! That's right...one more year and he's the BIG 30!!! Work and life in general has been really busy for us, but I wanted to make his day special nonetheless. So, I invited some friends over and made a couple cakes. His request was a snickerdoodle cookie cake. So I threw up a couple decorations, made the cake pretty and we all had a good time watching the UFC fight. Then, on Sunday, we celebrated with family by going downtown to the hockey game. I made him a second snickerdoodle cookie cake, then we were off to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch, and then finally to the Toyota Center for the game. We got to the game a little early...Mike wanted Braden to watch the big guys practice. One of the opponents even threw a puck over from practice for Braden. I was so excited about that. Braden has such a great time at all the hockey games and we all have such fun watching his reaction, although we did find out he is extrememly scared of Chilli- the Aero's mascot.

B is 15 Months!

Braden turned 15 months November 22nd. As usual, we're not sure where the times has gone. He's turning into such a little boy. He has more energy than I could ever imagine having! We had our 15 month check up with Dr Flanagan on Tuesday, November 24th. He received a couple of vaccines, including the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine. He usually doesn't cry too much or get too mad when he gets shots, but this time was a little different. I guess it was because he had four at one time. He was screaming mad at the nurse. But, after a couple minutes and a ride in the car he was fine. Here are his stats:

Weight: 22.6 lbs
Length: 31 inches
Head Circumference: 19 inches

The doctor said he's on the lower percentile of weight, but since he's active it's ok. We agree that he's active. He loves to run around the house and yard with his hockey stick these days. We even took him to a hockey game downtown to see the Houston Aeros play on Sunday, November 22nd. He really had a lot of fun. He was even given an official game puck (a puck they actually used in play)! A nice gentlman from the Aeros saw Braden walking around in his jersey and just handed it to him. We also got him a cool little Aeros hockey stick. He amazes me in that we actually can use the hockey stick and knows how to shoot the puck. Daddy is so happy that Braden is taking a liking to his favorite sport. Well, that's it for now. Hope you've enjoyed our update.

A Fun-Filled, Packed October!

October was probably one of the busiest months we've ever had! I had a whole list of things I wanted to do: decorate for Halloween, get B's costume, go to as many pumpkin patches as possible (see previous posts for our pumpkin patch adventures - we went to a total of THREE!), go to the zoo, and hang out with friends. We somehow managed to get it all in, barely! I actually decorated the house the last weekend in September. I figured if we're going to go through all the work, it needs to be up for a while. We went all out this year - hung up a grim reeper, ghosts, had a graveyard. We even had a scary skeleton butler inside that talked to us. Braden LOVED him. He actually cried when he saw us put him in the box. We made it to the zoo the weekend before Halloween. I had such high hopes for Braden loving the zoo, but it just wasn't a good day for him. He was really fussy the entire time. With his love for animals, I expected he'd have a much better time. The one thing he did like was the DJ playing Michael Jackson music. That boy sure does love to dance. I definitely want to try the zoo again in a couple of months. All in all, October was a great month. B is as active as ever, loves to be outside, play at the park,and still loves his cats and dogs. Enjoy some pics from October posted below.


B's Costume


Spooky House ;)


Braden Dancing at Zoo Boo

Trip to Canyon Lake

Recently, we headed out to Canyon Lake to celebrate my Dad's birthday. We wanted to try to find something fun to do for the weekend and lucky me, I found Sweet Berry Farms! They have an awesome pumpkin patch and best of all it was free! :) So, Saturday we headed to Marble Falls and checked it out. They had tons of pumpkins, all different sizes, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin painting, petting zoo, face painting, etc. Unfortunately, it was very hot and Braden didn't want to stay all that long, but we were able to get some fun pictures.








We also went out Saturday night to Gruene, TX. It is one of our family's favorite places. Lots of live music, cold beer, and just plain fun. Braden got up and danced with the band at one of the places we went to...and then crashed.


As you can see, by the end of the weekend he was so very tired. Below is a picture of him on the way home.

Viva Las Vegas!

Mike and I had the opportunity to get away for a couple of days with Mike's mom to go to fabulous Las Vegas! The trip started off Thursday morning. We left Houston Intercontintal early Thursday morning. We had fun going into the President's Club at the airport for breakfast and looking completely out of place in there. The flight there was great...not bumpy and on-time. What more could you ask for!? We arrived into Las Vegas around 10:30am local time and had the coolest cabbie ever from the airport to the hotel. He was from Scotland and was absolutely hilarious. This put me at ease because I hate taking cabs. We stayed at the beautiful Bellagio hotel. We checked in and went to the Conceirge Desk to get ticket's to see the show "O". We quickly found out that there were no 3 seats together, but with a little pushing and a phone call we finally were able to purchase three together. They were literally the best seats in the house, after all they were the Producer's Seats! The show was truly awesome. Unfortunately, we went to the 10:30pm show, which was 12:30am our time and we had been up for almost 24 hours straight. We were exhausted and so ready for bed at the end of the show! Mike and I also went up into the Stratosphere one night...that was so cool! I love being up that high and being able to see everything. I certainly was not crazy enough to ride any of the rides up there though. We also did alot of shopping while we were there. Sue and I stocked up on some holiday decorations and Halloween goodies for Braden. I think my favorite place was New York New York and I loved JP Chocolates located in the hotel...they had the best crapes!! The biggest bummer of the trip is that Mike and I took a camera with a full memory card!! (OK, no wait...the biggest bummer is we never got to go to In N Out. So sad!!) So, we were only able to take a few pics with the iPhone. When we got back from our trip, we were so excited to see Braden...he stayed with Grandma Carol and Grandpa Joe. He was like a different little boy when we got back....in just 4 days he had changed. It's amazing. Well, that's it about the trip. We had a great time and enjoy the couple of pics!

What Happens in Vegas Doesn't Always Stay in Vegas....Mike actually drank a Martini!


Our View from our Room


Our Hotel....the Bellagio

One-Year Photo Shoot

We had Braden's One-Year photos taken Sunday. We found a photographer through Cody and Devon- Jenny Miller. She was great! She is breaking into the business and I have no doubt she has a very successful future ahead of her in the photography world. Braden took to her right away. He put his arms out and wanted her to hold him as soon as we walked up to her! We stayed in the Woodlands, near the Market Street area, for the photos. The hardest part of it all was arriving there in one piece for the 8am appointment! Braden lasted for about an hour. Really, by 30 mins he was totally over it, but we made him keep going! Here are some of the "sneak peek" shots Jenny posted on her blog.


Please visit Jenny's blog to see more of her work. www.jennymillerphotographyblog.com