Fast trip to Lubbock

We made a quick trip home to Lubbock this last weekend to celebrate our nephew, Landry's, FIRST BIRTHDAY! Gregg had to work on Sunday so we decided to fly down Friday afternoon and fly back Saturday afternoon. This was our first time to fly with Cade so we were a little apprehensive about how he would do! The flight was GREAT and was so much easier than the 6-7 hour drive is! On the way to Lubbock I held Cade while he played with his toys, flirted with the little girl in front of us, ate snacks and bounced all over the place. On the flight back to Dallas we were able to carry his car seat on so he was strapped in.

Cade on his first flight!

Little monkey loved looking out the window

Once we got to Lubbock we went to my parents house to have dinner with them, Seth, Bailey, and my grandparents. The food was yummy and the company was even better. I love getting to spend time with my grandparents and see them with Cade!

My brother started stock car racing about a month ago. We haven't been able to see him race yet so after dinner my Dad, Gregg and I went out to the track to watch. It is really loud out at the races so my Mom and Bailey stayed home with Cade. We had a great time and enjoyed watching Seth and getting to hang out with him and his girlfriend Julie. They race on dirt tracks and basically turn left the entire time that they are racing- it is crazy! Seth is getting better and faster with each week. He got 3rd place in his first race but had a blow out and then spun out and wrecked in the 2nd race and wasn't able to finish.

#14 Seth
Go Seth Go!
Seth racing

(he spins out in the bottom right corner of video towards the end)

leaving the race :(

blown tire

We got up early Saturday morning and had breakfast with my parents before heading to Cody and Misti's (Gregg's sister) house. We spent time just hanging out with them and getting ready for Landry's birthday party! The boys enjoyed playing together

cousins and friends
silly Landry

Cade likes playing with all of Landry's cool toys

Misti and Cody did a great job planning the party and with all the decorations! I was especially happy to get several party planning tips from her for Cade's first party!

main table

drink table

the cake

cute cupcakes that Cody and Misti made

Landry's smash cake

Cody and Misti with the Birthday Boy!
Misti and Landry getting ready to open presents

Cade watching Landry open his presents

(shout out to my Mom for making Cade's cute bib to match the barn yard party theme!)
Landry playing with one of his new toys

Happy Birthday Dear Landry!

fun with the smash cake

Cade and Aunt Wendi (Gregg's older sister)
The boys in their farm bibs that my Mom made

Cody and Landry with Gregg and Cade

We had such a great time on our quick trip home to Lubbock and were very glad that we got to be there to celebrate with Landry! Anytime that we are able to spend with our families is always treasured and we look forward to being able to make another trip soon!

Summer Work Party

We had our summer get together for my job a couple weeks a go. One of my Managers, Shirin, invites the entire department and their families over to her house every year to hang out by the pool and relax! As chair of our Rewards and Recreation Committee at work I oversee all the party planning and food shopping. We have hamburgers and hot dogs along with all sorts of chips, dips, and desserts. Gregg was put on grill duty for the first part of the party but had lots of help with the cooking this year. Cade did great at the party and was a big hit! He sat on a big blanket playing with toys most of the day.


Later in the afternoon we got out a baby pool that we had brought for Cade and the other little ones to play in. They all loved splashing in the water and playing with each other!

Cade playing in his pool

Cade and Emily playing with water guns

The party was lots of fun and a nice chance for us all to unwind and de-stress from our day to day life. It is always fun to get to see everyone outside of the hospital and meet their families. I'm already looking forward to this get together again next year!

7 Months Old

Well, I am a couple weeks late on actually typing up this post since Cade actually turned 7 months old on November 5. I did manage to get his pictures taken on his actual birthday and also to jot down on paper a few things that he was doing at the beginning of the month.

I can't believe how fast time is going and how quickly so many of Cade's baby characteristics are disappearing! I LOVE this age right now and while I am looking forward to all that is still to come I also wish that I could bottle Cade up right now and keep him like this forever!!!

Here are a few things about Cade from this month:

- He is almost crawling. He will push up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. He can crawl a couple of times before falling and going back into the army crawl scoot that he does.
- He is starting to pull up on us and on pieces of furniture. We will be lowering his bed real soon!
- He is eating every 5 hours or so during the day and will go 8 hours at night. I am still breastfeeding and love that special time that I have with Cade. We are giving stage 1 foods and starting stage 2 foods. Cade really likes the orange veggies and LOVES all the fruits.
- He is improving his pincher grasp and is able to pick up his puff snacks but not quite able to transfer them to his mouth.
- He has not been sleeping very well recently and has started waking up around midnight every night. I usually end up rocking and sleeping with him in the recliner most nights for a couple of hours and sometimes even going to the guest room to sleep with him- a big NO NO for us since we are totally against bed sharing!
- He is wearing size 2 diapers during the day and size 3 diapers at night. He mostly is wearing 6-9 month clothes but sometimes has to have a 12 month shirt or onsie in order to get it over his head!
- He loves being outside and gets so excited and starts bouncing every time that we open the door up!
- He is enjoying playing on his own more and will entertain himself for 30-45 minutes at a time with his trucks and toys.
- He enjoys playing in the bouncy and babbles to himself the whole time he is playing.
- He LOVES music and has started to dance (bounce up and down) when anyone starts singing during a cartoon!

We love you so much sweet boy and look forward to watching you grow and change even more over this next month!

Chair pictures are becoming much more difficult!

standing up in his bed- definitely time for it to be lowered!

New trick!

This boy is growing up WAY too fast!!!

6(ish) Month Pictures Sneak Peek!

While we were in Lubbock last weekend we had Cade's 6(ish) month pictures made! I say 6ish months because he is actually closer to 7 months old but this is the first time that we could get to Lubbock for the pictures. The wonderful and talented Lynette Reeves with Only Imagine Photography once again took the pictures and we are so excited about the sneak peek pictures that she posted yesterday! I cannot wait to see all the rest of the pictures and get new pictures ordered for the house!!!

Maybe we are winners!

As I wrote in the last post we went to Hico a couple weekends ago for the steak cook-off competition. We gave it our best shot in both the steak and the appetizer but to our disappointment we struck out both times. My brother happened to look at the FB page for the cook-off and noticed that the #1 winner for the appetizer competition had gone UNCLAIMED! Seth immediately texted my Mom and I and sent us the picture of the FB page and said that he had a feeling that we had won.

After scrambling to find our ticket stubs with our claim #'s on them, my Mom called the organizers to inquire about the appetizer winner. She told them what both of our ticket #'s were and they said one of those was the winner and asked what it was that we had made! My Mom described our fantastic grilled appetizer with spicy shrimp dip and the woman said that was the winner!!! We couldn't believe it- we won first place appetizer out of about 70 entries! For winning 1st place we were sent a plaque and $300 (enough to cover our entry fee!) plus we get to be one of the teams that will get to cook steaks for the public next year!!! Way to go Steak Medics!

2011 Hico Steak Cook-Off

This weekend was the 8th annual steak cook-off in Hico, Texas. My family has been entering this steak cook-off for 3 years now and we have the best time participating! We won 10th place in 2009 when we entered and have been trying to emulate that skill (and luck) ever since! My parents, Seth, and some of our other friends went down on Friday and then Gregg, Cade, and I went on Saturday afternoon.

There were over 100 teams entered in the cook-off this year. The entire town of Hico basically shows up to help out for this event. The downtown area shuts down for all the teams to set up their cooking camps.

The teams all lined up
our set-up

We changed our team name this year to "Steak Medics" and we went for a medical theme at our camp. We all wore blue scrubs and had different medical equipment around the area. We already have more ideas for next year on how we want to decorate and really make our theme stand out!

our team sign

The Hico Volunteer Fire Department was out raffling off tickets for a chance to win $200 of gas. Since all the guys on our team are firemen and most serve on a volunteer department we had to support their cause and made a donation. In return, Cade got a cute plastic helmet to wear!

our little Fire Chief

We had 2 grills that we used to cook on plus a propane stove. In addition to the steak that we cooked and entered in the contest, we also entered an appetizer into a contest and then cooked several things for the public to sample.

one of the grills that we cooked on this weekend

For our appetizer we made a spicy shrimp cocktail and served it in grilled avocados. We also made extra of this to serve to the public with chips instead of the avocado. It was a hit with the masses but not with the judges because we didn't make it into the appetizer finals :(

our appetizer headed to the judges

We also made green chili stew, jalapeno cheese sausage, and bison sliders that we served to the public! All the food was excellent and serving the public was a lot of fun!

We turned our steak in during the 2nd heat. All the meat is provided by the organization and then you get to season it and cook it to your liking. You are given 2 steaks to cook and you get to choose which to turn in. We were really pleased with the way that our steak turned out and thought that it tasted just perfect. Once again fate wasn't on our side though because we didn't make it into the Top 30 this year :(

our steak

All the teams that participated are given 4 additional steaks to cook after the competition is over. We immediately started practicing for next year and cooked all 4 of our steaks different ways and voted to see what we like the best. Of course, we all still choose our original seasoning as our favorite so we are going to have to keep practicing! We brought a bunch of vegetables and some bread with us so we made a vegetable melody to go along with our steaks.

cooking some veggies to go with our steaks for supper

After we got everything cleaned and packed up we headed to Stephenville where we had hotel rooms for the night. We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out and letting my parents and Seth love on Cade for a while.

Gregg reading Cade's new book to my Dad

This morning we got up and re-packed all of our stuff so that we could all head home. We spent some time in the hotel lobby with my Dad before heading out to eat breakfast with everyone. My Dad is a complete softy when it comes to Cade! He has really surprised me in just how much he has taken to a baby. It melts my heart to see them together and I just treasure every moment!

My Dad feeding Cade his cereal and bananas for breakfast

Saying goodbye is always the hardest part. Luckily, we are going to Lubbock for Memorial Day weekend so we will get to see everyone again very soon. And the best part is that my Mom came home with us for the week! (Gregg is flying to Lubbock Tuesday to help his Dad plant Cotton so my Mom will be staying with Cade and I to help with Cade while I am at work. Mom, Cade and I will all drive to Lubbock Friday.)

We had such a fun time this weekend in Hico and are already looking forward to next years cook-off and hopefully making a steak that will be a hit with the judges!