Logan's 1st Birthday

Logan turned one on June 12, 2008. It was a great first birthday! We had a little family party. Both sets of grandparents were able to come as well as Logan's aunts, uncles and cousins.
Logan LOVES pizza! So, his first birthday was a pizza themed party. We all had a great time!

Logan eating pizza.

Even his cake was a pizza.
The family singing to Logan.
Logan enjoying his cake.
The family: Cole, Daddy, Mommy and Logan.

Get Ready!

I have not disappeared from the blog-isphere completely!--I just took a bit of a hiatus. I thought I should catch you up on what has been going on lately.

We have been:

Celebrating!

Logan turned ONE!!!

Here is a picture of his special breakfast.

(More on this later--it deserves a special one.)

Hanging out.

We have enjoyed our friends this summer. Cole is really started to have friends that he asks for by name.

Learning to enjoying each other.

Reading together.

Visiting family.

Here are the boys with cousin Hannah.

As cute as ever!

Doing a triathlon!

Here is mom and her friend Kathleen waiting to start the swim.

Biking!
Running!
Swimming for the boys!

Here is Cole.

And Logan!

The last two pictures sum up a lot. Cole is cautious. Especially around water. Logan jumps right in--he doesn't know that he she be afraid of some things. Maybe it is the birth order thing? Logan has a great mentor (Cole) that has already taught him so much.

In other news:

• I (Lauren) had my neurology appointment today (follow up for the Bell's Palsy/temporary face paralysis). Things look pretty good--although she said my eye was still a little saggy. I have a follow up brain and neck scan scheduled on Friday.
• We got a lot of work done on our front flower beds. Our house is actually starting to look like we are doing things on purpose.
• We bought a boat. Yup. It is 20 ft. long and cost $500 (so you can imagine the condition it is in). It is Zach's project for the next year (or two, or three, or ten...)

Hope this brings you back up to speed. And I promise to try and not let it go so long between posts again!

Vacation Highlights

Among other things, one of the reasons I have been behind in blogging lately is that we took a family vacation.

We left home and stopped in Louisiana to spend the night on the way there and on the way back to break up the trip. When we got to Destin, we camped for three nights and then stayed in a hotel the last night. The kids were great (except when it was our own fault for completely wearing them out and not leaving time for a nap).

This is us gassing up and pulling out of Louisiana on Saturday. The kids are still smiling...they are not old enough to ask "are we there yet?"--but they are old enough to think it.

Here is the beautiful beach. We had so much fun! (On a side note: Beware of the spray-on sun screen--it is very easy to miss places--all of us had some funny shaped sunburn at a random spot on our body.)

This was my favorite thing we saw while we were there. The dolphin jumps up and takes the fish out of her mouth. I can't believe the height and accuracy.

This was a picture while we were on the dolphin cruise. The little girl is the daughter of the woman taking the picture!

We were all exhausted after camping and driving and just vacationing in general. I don't know that we have fully recovered yet. The week after our vacation was exciting too! (See Dr. Bri blog.)

We had a great time! It was our first family vacation (and Zach and my first vacation since our honeymoon six years ago). More pictures and details are forthcoming!

Dr. Bri

Tonight my sister-in-law and best friend graduated from dental school. We now have a dentist in the family!

The ceremony was in the symphony center. We were very high up!

Here is Dr. Bri and me.

Charlette, Dr. Bri and Nick

Fred, Dr. Bri and Vicki (Bri's parents)

We are so excited for Bri. She has worked for long years! She was recognized for being on the Dean's list. I know she is going to be a GREAT dentist. She starts in July--so I can soon recommend a great dentist if anybody needs one!

Pictures from Abilene!

We went out to Mom and Bill's land. Cole had a blast. It is such a fun place for boys (little or big, I'd imagine). Cole loved the tractor and Meemaw was brave and agile enough to climb up there with him at his request.

Bill and Cole were checking out the tires of the tractor. They were so big that Cole was scared sitting on top of it.

At Mimi and Poppa's house, Logan made himself at home. We had to baby proof quickly and hold things down so Logan didn't not them over. Cole helped us baby proof by finding all of the candy for us.

Cole and Poppa had a great time playing with the hose. Cole got the hose and tried to fill up the bird bath, then decided it was more fun to try and spray Poppa. Watching all of this was one of the funniest parts of the entire trip.

About 30 seconds from when this picture was taken, Cole tried to use the hose for more mischievous purposes...

We met my one of my best friend's from high school at the mall. Her three kids and my two had a great time playing on the indoor playgroup.

Here are more pictures of Cole in the tractor.

Logan loved being held my Mimi. She had to take her glasses off because Logan kept trying to take them off of her face (probably to put them in his mouth).
And here is Poppa out at the land, he was watching Cole and helping Meemaw get down from the tractor.

We had such a fun time and can't wait to go back again. Zach was sad when I showed him the pictures. He said it looked like we had so much fun and he wished he could have been there too!

Trip to Abilene

Zach has been working a TON lately for some project at work. Last Thursday he came home and told me he was going to have to work a long day on Friday and on Saturday. Friday morning I woke up and thought that the boys and I would have a lot more fun in Abilene with family than staying by ourselves all weekend. So Cole, Logan and Mommy took an impromptu trip to Abilene and Daddy stayed home to work (poor Daddy!).

We had so much fun! It was great to see Meemaw and Peepaw, Mimi and Poppa, and Paul, Lenda and Mendy. Cole had a great time out at Meemaw and Peepaw's land and sitting on the tractor and playing with Meemaw. I think he had the most fun, though, trying to spray Papa with the hose. I had fun eating breakfast with everybody (Mimi cooked wonderfully as always), visiting with family and friends, and shopping with my mom. I also got the all-important food from Abuelo's! Logan loved trying to catch Jesse (Mimi and Poppa's dog), trying to play with Mimi's glasses, and attempting to escape as Meemaw changed his diaper.

I have ton of pictures to post, but that feature is not working on blogger, so I will keep trying. Look for them soon!

Gross!

Two stories about my sweet little Cole:

First Story: We were at a friend's house recently eating dinner. She had gotten those big, soft cookies with icing for dessert. Cole wanted one, but hadn't eaten any of the dinner she made (this is no suprise--Logan out eats him every meal and THEN has a bottle to go with it...). We told him if he ate one black bean he could have a cookie (aren't we mean!).

Cole obliged and ate one bean. He gagged. He got that bean out as quick as possible just pawing at his tongue and then yells "Gross!" We didn't even know he knew that word. Good manners Cole!

Second story: I told you about Cole wanting to go poo outside while we are playing in the backyard. He tries every time we are out there and I always tell him no. I tell him we "need to go inside the house if we want to poopoo."

Today we were playing outside and the poo attempt happened followed by the directions to go in the house for poopoo. He said "okay" and kept playing. I was working on the computer and he was playing so well with his truck and swing set and just keeping himself busy. After a little while, he as a little too good and not yelling while playing in his playhouse. When I went to check on him, I opened the door and he was squating and pushing out a poo (isn't he going to love me posting this on the internet when he gets older). I told him he got a spanking for not listening and as I carried him away he pointed to his playhouse and said "Poopoo in the house! Poopoo in the house!" I guess I need to be more specific as to which house I mean.