Christmas Cookies

Garrett loves to bake. He is my little helper in the kitchen. We usually have a big mess, but it's worth all the fun. Santa is visiting our house a little early this year, so we decided to go ahead and bake him some cookies.

Gaitley is Four Months Old

Gaitley is already four months old. I took her to the doctor this morning for her check-up and shots. Here are her measurements.

Weight 14 lbs. 9 oz. 60%

Height 25.25 inches 80%

Head 16.25 inches 50 %

North Pole Express

We went to the Grapevine Vintage Railroad for the North Pole Express on Sunday. It was their version of the Polar Express. We got to wear our pajamas, ride the train and Santa even came to visit us. We went with our friends Morgan and Annie and their two-year old Luke.

OCD

Garrett has always liked things in a certain order. Britt and I say he's a little obsessive compulsive. He was eating yogurt the other day and for some reason had to have six spoons. He would take a bite with one and line it up on the other side and then move on to the next spoon. He did this until his entire yogurt was gone. He's a mess.

Family Pictures

Our neighbor took these on Sunday for my mom's Christmas card. I'm thinking I might have to use one for mine too.

Gaitley is 3 months old

Gaitley is now 3 months old. It's hard to believe how quickly time flies. She is doing all sorts of fun things these days. She laughs and smiles all the time and has started trying to hold her head up while she's in her carseat. She has rolled from tummy to back once, but it might have been an accident. She has also found her thumb and loves it.

Goodbye Paci

Little did Garrett know but this would be the last night with his beloved pacifer. I cut the tip off the next day and he hasn't had it since. Not to say that he hasn't wanted it. He tells us he needs it at bedtime, but once he falls asleep he's fine. We have been needing to get rid of that thing for quite some time, but I was just too scared to do it. Kids are always much better with things than we think they're going to be.

Daddy's Girl

Gaitley just lights up when Britt starts talking to her. She already has her daddy wrapped around her little finger.

Park

Britt heard of a great place to take pictures in Richardson, so we went to check it out. If you are thinking about Christmas card pictures and want someone to take yours please let us know. It is really pretty! Poor Gaitley. She's not in any of these pictures either. She did come, but never woke up to get her picture taken.

Halloween

We had a great time on Halloween. We started off the night at a Fall Carnival at one of the neighbor's houses and then we went trick-or-treating. Garrett got a little tired from all the walking, but having candy as an incentive helped him make it to the next house. Britt and I decided it would be fun to dress up too. I wore his old football jersey and he wore his ref outfit from his reffing days. Gaitley did go too, but we never managed to get a picture of her. She was passed around from neighbor to neighbor, so we barely saw her the whole night.

Halloween Costumes

We decided to try to get some pictures of the kiddos in their Halloween costumes before things get too crazy on Friday. Of all things, Garrett wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween. I don't know if it was because Gaitley was going to be a pumpkin too or if he really just wanted to be that. He didn't really want to have his picture made and poor Gaitley was burning up in her costume. We changed her clothes halfway through. I have realized it is very hard to get two kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time.

Pumpkin Patch

We visited the Pumpkin Patch on Tuesday. Garrett loved wearing his new John Deere boots from Nanny and Papaw. He decided that this was the perfect time to start walking. He just took off as soon as we got out of the car. He still prefers to crawl because it's faster, but he is walking a lot more. He picked out two pumpkins while we were there; a little one for Gaitley and a big one for me. He already had one and decided we needed one too.

Gaitley and Colton

Colton Barber came over to play today.

Update on Garrett

Garrett has been out of the cast for three days and is doing really well. He has taken a few steps while holding onto something. He is in such better spirits and is much more fun to be around. We have already been to Target and the grocery store. He loves being able to ride in the shopping cart, which is something he never really cared for before. He is sleeping great too. He's always been a stomach sleeper and with the cast on that was impossible.

No more spica cast!

What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. That's what they say anyway. I know that having a newborn and one in a spica cast sure did make us stronger as a couple and as parents.
Well, five long weeks have passed and the big day finally came. Garrett got his cast off this morning. He wasn't sure if he really wanted it off. It's kept his leg safe for so long, so when we asked him about it on the way to his appointment he said he wanted to keep his cast on. Mom and dad were not about to agree with that. We got to Children's about 9:30 and it didn't take long for them to call us back. They used a saw attached to a hose to cut off his cast. It looked and sounded like a vacuum cleaner. He was great the entire time they were cutting it off. He did get upset when it finally came off and he moved his leg. His hip was so stiff. After the cast came off we went down the hall for x-rays. More tears - he had to move his leg several times to get the correct picture. Next, we met with the doctor. His leg looked great. It is 95% healed. We just have to watch him for the next month to make sure it doesn't break again. He did put a little weight on his leg for a second while holding on to Britt. He was very unsure of himself. Then we left. We don't even have to go back unless we are concerned about something. That seems crazy. He was thrilled to ride in his carseat again and be able to see out the window. When we got home he went straight to the tub. He stayed in there for about an hour. He was really moving his leg well in the water. The only reason he wanted to get out was because his hands and feet were really wrinkly. He told me they were rusty. He had a great rest of the day. We played and he scooted all over like he still had the cast on. He did get brave and start bear crawling and tonight he stood on it for a minute with support. The doctors said he would start walking in a couple of days. The only thing that is really bothering him is the dead skin still on his legs. The night of the bike wreck we put a band-aid on his leg because he thought it would make it feel better and for some reason they didn't take the band-aid off when they put his cast on. The skin under the band-aid looks terrible. Hopefully this will be the one and only broken bone.

A few things we won't miss about the cast

Dirty feet and blisters from scooting.

All the diapers - Garrett had to wear two diapers and anytime we went outside the outside diaper always looked like this.

Washing his hair in the sink - this picture captures Garrett's mood perfectly. He hated it.

The harness - Garrett couldn't fit in his carseat, so the only way he could travel was lying down in the backseat.