Turkey Trot

A group of my girlfriends and I decided to do the Turkey Trot this year on Thanksgiving. I am not a fan of running, but signed up to give myself motivation to get into better shape and accomplish something! Come race day, I really didn't feel that I was ready to run my first 5k, but knew I could at least run/jog/walk the whole thing. I managed to impress myself and run the entire 5k! I was so proud of myself and my time was 37.12!! GO ME! Jamie and I are planning to do another 5k in January, and I am hoping to improve my time. Maybe this is the start of something! Hmmmm when are the next Olympics?!?! HA!

The gang...pre-race!

Jamie, Me, Jen, and KWall after the race

I was runnnnnnning!

17 Months

The biggest accomplishment this month has been that Garrison can put words together, not full sentences yet, but he is learning that two or three words go together. Garrison and my cousin, Katie, were playing together and Katie took Garrison's cup from him. Of course, Garrison wanted it back so he said "Mine cup!" It shocked me but was so cute!! Such a smart boy! He now says mine ___ for everything, we are trying to teach him sharing, but so far the concept is beyond his grasp. He knows his name and can say it pretty well. We are teaching him manners and how to be polite. He knows please and your welcome. He was at my work one day last week and I told him to go give something to one of my co-workers. He did and John said thank you and Garrison said your welcome! His please doesn't sound like please but he says the same "word" every time and nods his head, like he is telling you ok I said please now let me have that! He is a very affectionate boy and gives me kisses all the time. Awww he just melts my heart! He can run, climb on things, walk backwards, and he can drink from a straw. He has a big boy cup that we let him use instead of a sippy, occasionally and only with water. If he spills his water, he even tries to clean up his mess. Someone please make him stop growing.....

Halloween 2009

This was Garrison's 2nd Halloween but really the first one that he got to enjoy! I looked and looked for a costume and finally found one that I loved.....Adam was not too sure of it! Somehow, I managed to win...It might have to do with the fact that I bought the costume to see if Adam would change his mind when seeing it in person ;) Well....it worked! Garrison was a Garden Gnome! We have several friends with kids a little older than Garrison, so we got all the kids together and went trick-or-treating. We had a great time and the kids are so funny! Garrison didn't get to enjoy his candy, other than a couple chocolate pieces and smarties, but that small amount of sugar kept him up til almost midnight! Already a little party animal! :)Mama and Dada on the other hand, helped make sure all that candy got put to good use!!! Enjoy our pictures....


Here is my handsome lil' guy!!

15 months old

Here are some recent pictures of my handsome lil guy. People are finally starting to say he is looking more and more like mama...my prayers have been answered!! Haha...I didn't really pray about that, buuuut it's still nice! His personality is starting to come out and he really enjoys being the entertainer. I think once he starts school, I may have a lot of parent teacher conferences. *sigh* He will do something that he knows is funny, and then look back at you to make sure you are watching. If he hears anyone laughing, even on t.v. or the radio, he laughs along with them. He loves to dance and bob his head to music. He knows his animals sounds, knows the number 1, and has added some new words to his vocabulary. His new favorite word is MINE, which I'm thinking he must of picked up at day care. He tells our cats no-no when they are bothering him. He loves to go for walks or be at the park. So far 15 months has been a very entertaining age!!

Changes in the Bal House

After over two years with Fox, Adam has decided to take a new job offer. It is more money and better "family" hours, so we are hoping he really enjoys it. He started last week and so far is enjoying it! The only downside for us, was that he would not be home during the day as much with Garrison. My mom will still keep Garrison some during the week, but we also decided that we wanted to put him in a more structured environment. Garrison will be going to Children's Choice learning center one or two days a week. We really want him to start socializing more and learning, other than once a week for two hours at Church. We found a place that we absolutely love, the classes are very small (only 3 or 4 other kids his age), and the teacher is great. Everyone is very professional and welcoming and I think Garrison will grow to love it. The first day I dropped him off was SO hard on me. I cried almost all day, I felt like I was abandoning my baby! He did art work on his first day and I already have it hanging on the fridge.

Garrison's First Trip to Meet Big Tex!

Last Sunday we took Garrison to the good ol' State Fair of Texas!! Of course we waited and went on the last day, so it was packed! He really enjoyed the petting zoo and looking at all the animals. The weather was perfect. Adam and I shared a fried cheesecake, and boy was it delicious! Adam also had to have a fletchers jalapeno and cheese corny dog, which of course I nibbled on :)

14 months old

My son looks like a little boy rather than a little baby. Where has time gone?! I look at him and wish that he would stop growing!! (Just for maybe a year or so...not forever!)Words cannot express what my heart feels everytime I look at him...he is so perfect and precious to me. Garrison is just about running! He is the fastest little walker I have ever seen. He started walking right at his first birthday and has not stopped since! He always has a bruise or scratch somewhere on his body to confirm to us that he is all boy. It is this age where he really is a little sponge! We have caught him doing several things and been shocked that he knew what to do. He will grab our keys and walk to the front door and try to unlock the door with the key. Thankfully all of our plugs are plugged in, but he will also take a cord and try to plug it into the light socket. (Yes, he gets in trouble for this) He holds his cup up to the fridge to try and get ice. He will grab my lotion and shake it on his hands as if he is putting it on....Yes, he is a little sponge!! Thankfully he hasn't picked up any bad habits just yet ;)

Words: Garrison knows alot more than he can communicate but he also has a pretty large vocabulary. Last week after Church, I was buckling him in his car seat and he said hot and wouldn't let his back touch the car seat. Poor baby, he does not like the Texas heat!! He knows cat, dog, ball, mama, dada, pop pop (for my dad), whats that, juice, side (for outside), shoe, i'm sure there are more but so far these are the most common ones he says. He has an infatuation with shoes and often you can find him in our hosue running around in a diaper with shoes or boots on. As soon as he gets up in the morning he will find his shoes, bring them to you, sit down on teh floor, and hold up his foot! I think he would sleep and bath in them if we let him. He does not like his diaper to be on and often takes it off and then we find him running around naked.

Food: He still eats really healthy and for this I am thankful. He had cuccumbers last night for the first time and loved them! He had blueberry waffles this morning ofr breakfast with daddy and Adam said he wanted more. He still loves bread, bananas, strawberries, eggs, pasta pickups, pork, chicken, peas,and zucchini. There really isn't too much he won't eat and want more of. Last night he grabbed an onion off my plate and even ate that!!

Seems so crazy 14 months ago, he was totally dependent upon me, and now he is a toddler enjoying the world!

My darling 3 year olds....

This past Sunday was my first day volunteering in the Church Nursery. My classroom was with six 3-year olds. I received my lesson plan about a week before the first day and had read over it several times as I prepared myself for Sunday. The Bible verse that I was to teach the children was Phillipians 4:13: I can do all things through Christ. The first time that I opened up my email and saw this verse, my heart literally skipped a beat and I knew that this was exactly where I was meant to be. For those of you that don't know what this verse means to me personally, let me explain. I have a dear childhood friend who passed away in 2000 of cancer, Tana Jo Thomason. Tana was an unbelievable Christian and I know that in her short time on earth she helped bring many people to the Lord and made a huge impact on everyone she touched. I could speak all day about her uplifting personality and all the wonderful memories I have with her. This was Tana's favorite Bible verse and what she relied on during her struggle with cancer. So for me, when I saw that this was the first verse that I would be teaching my new 3 year olds, I felt that Tana was with me and that I would be making an impact in these young children's lives. God is great!

The first Sunday went very smoothly and I really cherished my time with the children! They were so pleasent, funny, and cute and I cannot wait to teach them and form a bond with each and every child. I hope that I can manage to be a positive role model for them and help in some small way along their life journey through Christ.

Ladies Night Out!!

Adam and Garrison left for the weekend and went to visit Adam's grandparents in Mississippi. I had class from 9-5 on Saturday so I couldn't join them. It was very hard to let my baby go for so long, but I knew that he would have a blast. I was worried about Adam on the plane, and trying to keep Garrison maintained, but Adam said he did great. He didn't cry and was entertaining everyone around them. I'm so glad he didn't have a bad experience!! It was Garrison's 2nd time to fly. I am fortunate enough to have amazing girlfriends who kept me entertained all weekend! Saturday night we went to Pete's Piano bar and then all stayed the night at Jamie's new house. We had a blast!! Thank you ladies for keeping me busy!! Love yall!!

JoJo and Les


BOOOO LONGHORNS!!


Me and the birthday girl, Linds

Me and Jacque


All my beautiful friends!! Look how well we coordinated our outfits!! :)

Garrison's first Rangers game!!

A couple of tuesdays ago we took Garrison to a Ranger's game. We went with some friends of ours and had a really good time! AND the Ranger's WON!! GO RANGERS!!

Garrison's first trip to the zoo!

Adam and I took Garrison to the Dallas zoo about a month ago. We picked the perfect day because it was only in the low 90's and we didn't get too terribly hot! Garrison really loves animals. I think his favorite was a gorilla named Timbo. The zookeeper said Timbo loves babies and he sat right next to the glass where we were the entire time. When we got there, I was holding Garrison, and Timbo was on the other side. When he saw Garrison he darted over and then sat by us. I wonder what it is that makes him love little ones so much. It was pretty neat!

RIver Time!!

Every year we go float the Guadalupe River with our friends. Sometimes we camp and others we stay in condos. This year we decided to camp at Lazy L&L. We had a blast!! We have so much fun when we get time to get away with our friends, especially now that it is few and far in between. Enjoy the pics!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Vacation 2009

We went to San Antonio for 5 days and took Garrison to Sea World. He really enjoyed Shamu and we are hoping next year, we will be able to stay longer. He is so curious about everything.

Make a Smilebox slideshow