Playing at dinner

Wanted to share this little video of Brendan playing with Daddy after dinner was done. This is a typical dinner/meal for our family...we love our kid! :D

Brendan tackles Mommy

It is a cute short video, but wanted to share. He's tackling Mommy. :D Common occurence. Usually accompanied by mom yelping in pain...the dude is STRONG!!! lol

Aug 30th, 2008: Brendan's first birthday!

I can't believe it has already been a year since our little miracle baby was born!!!! I'm late posting these pictures, but his first birthday was several weeks ago on Aug 30th. :)

A review of his original 'birth-day'. :D

Sonogram a week before his birth...

A couple of hours before he was born!!

He was born via C-section on August 30th, 2007. He was HUGE! 8lb 12 oz!

This picturei s proof he was happy and smiling right away!!!! We knew he'd be a happy baby. :D He was so happy to be here with us. :D

Mommy's in love!!!
Looking up at Mommy!

Our first family picture!

Daddy's in love too!

Brendan's big chubby cheeks!!!!

First night at home! Our precious sleeping little newborn...

Now, jump forward a year, and here he is!!!!! He's huge! 28 lbs, wearing 2T shirts, and 3T sleepers! He's sooo fun!A video of him opening his birthday card, and mommy and daddy singing to him! :D

Then Brendan wanted to sing his favorite song a little bit, while he ate some cheese...he didn't sing as much as he normally does to that song, but you get the idea. He likes it. :D (In case you're wondering, it's Sugarland's song "All I Wanna Do")

Mom's camera died during the initial poking and testing of the cake, but we got the full fledged smearing and eating of it! :D Here is Brendan eating the last of his cake. However, at the end of the video he got very unhappy with the cake smashed between his fingers...wanted it gone!!! :D So he gets cranky at the end. :) But he LOVED his cake!

We went to Toys-R-Us right before we had the cake party and we bought SO MANY TOYS for the little man! :) (Thanks Grandma Karen and Grandpa Wylie for the gift certificate! so fun!) It was a fun birthday. :) We just can't believe how fast a year can fly by. We love our baby boy! We can't wait for every birthday in the years to come! ;) Life is so stinkin' fun now. :D

Videos in TX

Brendan's first time at an airport...here we are at the Lubbock airport...he was thrilled by the guys walking around below us on the tarmac. It was cracking me up.

Playing with Cheyenne...he was showing off his 'cheesy grin', and being cute...

On our drive to Lubbock, he was playing with his seatbelt and making us laugh.

We went back home because we didn't get on any flights out of Lubbock, so we stayed an extra day. Cheyenne was tickling Brendan, and he was giddy about playing with the dogs.

WOW do I have a LOT to catch up on! TX Trip!

Okay...so I've been a total slacker and haven't gotten online in over a month on this site. SO sorry that I haven't posted all our recent trips yet. The week before Brendan's 1 year birthday we went down to Midland, TX where my parents live and visited for several days. It was SO FUN! The videos for some reason won't work, so that'll be in the next post. Grrr! (IF I can get them to work...it really bothers me that blogspot doesn't upload videos very well...UGH!)

Here are some pictures anyway....these were taken for free the night before we left at Babies_R-Us...he loved that little beach ball! These were in TX!!! Brendan's first flight! :D He was SOOOOO good. Only a couple of times did he try to get off my lap. :D We played and read books the entire flight.

Driving with Grandma...in the parking lot of course...

Hanging out with Grandma Karen...

His pre-birthday party for his first birthday!

His birthday cake...the bakery had already closed, so I wrote on it with a knife. LOL!

About to eat the cake, waiting for Grandpa to come home from work...he LOVES Cheyenne!

Afterward...he was covered! :D

His bath...we gave him a typical mohawk for fun...he had fun in a new bathtub. :D I just can't believe how long his hair is! He badly needs a haircut. :DMy mother's HORRIBLE leg bruise, from when she fell down the stairs. She has diabetes, so she doesn't heal apparently...OUCH! It covered her entire leg! I felt so sorry for her. Yuck!

Hanging out with Grandpa before bedtime...Grandpa Wylie had a hard time holding him, since Brendan is such a brick and SO STRONG! Grandma Karen had a really hard time too. So does Daddy. Go Mommy with her mommy muscles! :D This picture is precious to me. :D

This one makes me laugh...they are making the same face. :) Melts my heart.

Uh oh! He got Grandpa's ear! LOL!

Awwww...getting kisses from Grandpa! :) MELT MY HEART! :D

Grandma and Grandpa LOVED having Brendan around! :D They love their grandbaby! Sorry it's kinda blurry and dark...my camera is giving me issues.

With Grandma again...Grandma's little buddy...

One more with Grandma...

One with Mommy...

With Cheyenne...he's almost as big as she is!!!!!

Since I'm in a country band now, and I was in Midland, TX, I had to go buy myself a country hat. LOL! I love it! What is happening to me?!?!?!? LOL!

Now I want to post a ton of pictures from our car ride to Lubbock...Brendan was being so darling...and his eyes looked so blue...I had to take a bunch of pictures. I think he's pretty cute! :)

Such big blue eyes!!!!

Smiling at Grandma from his stroller in the Lubbock airport...

Back at home (Since we couldn't get on any flights) playing with Cheyenne...

Hanging out on the couch with Grandpa and Cheyenne...

Look at the huge mess Brendan made of Grandma and Grandpa's living room!!!! Playing while Grandpa watches TV...

We had sooooo much fun! :) Can't wait to go back at Thanksgiving!

Mommy's helper

Tonight in the bath Brendan quickly learned a new skill. He watched Lamar put all his bath toys in that blue cup after last night's bath. And so today, he figured out he could do it too. And spent the entire bath practicing putting those toys in and out of that cup 'til he became really good at it. :) The best part about this particular video is how he sounds like he says "I Did It!" at the end of it. It's crazy. I'm positive he was just blabbering, but it sounds like "I Did It" really clear...we've been giggling over it. :D Even funnier, is that it didn't dawn on me what I heard him 'say' until I turned the camera off...then I freaked out with "Did you just say..." LOL.

He did this over and over for a half hour...it was fun. He got used to me counting 1...2....3....4... each time he did it. So in this video listen carefully to him the first time he puts the toys in. He is trying to count...says something before each toy. The 'two' actually sounds like 'two'! But you have to listen very carefully 'cause he says it under his breath and I'm loud right before it. . Again, I'm sure it was a coincedence, but we loved it. :D He now grunts before each toy as if he's counting. It's fun. The other thing I LOVE about this video is he is such a Cook kid. After he finally gets the octopus in the cup he gets totally ADD/distracted and I have to remind him of his task. He responds exactly the way I would've or anyone in my family. It CRACKS ME UP! LOL He says something resembling an "Oh" (like oh ya...that's what I was doing) and then right away the '2'. And after the first round he yells "YES!" Like yes I'm a good helper. I just love this video. I love pretending he knows what he's saying. :D

Soon he had almost every toy in the tub in that cup...including his wash cloth. Now if I can just get him to stay in helping mommy clean mode for the next 18 years I'd be set. :D

My giggly sleepyhead...

Forgot to post this last night after we took it. :) I love my giggly little slap happy sleepyhead! :D

Introducing...my band!

So...I'm in a country/cover band now. Singing lead vocals. LOL. Who knew? Just wanted to share a couple of pictures from rehearsal with our band. That's Kasey behind me...has his masters in guitar performance...KILLER chops.

And Kirk, my drummer buddy, surprised me by expressing total confidence in my ability to learn the drums he does for "Sweet Home Alabama", so he can sing it without having to play on the set as well. He handed me his sticks in mic check and had me play the basic groove for it so he could go into the house and hear the mix. (I haven't played a drum in over two/three years, but it came right back.) And then the three union guitarists joined me for fun and it was such a high. I totally held my own with those three for the entire song and I was like a kid in a candy store. So Kirk decided I was going to do the drums for it in our set, and he'll teach me his more complicated fills. (YAAAAAAAAAAY! See...he ROCKS! He subs for "Mamma Mia" drummer all the time...the dude is amazing. He used to be my drum teacher...so excited to learn this song!) So I'm going to be passing him the mic, he'll be passing me the sticks for that song. SO COOL!!!! I'm really giddy about it. In rehearsal, during the giddy revelation that I was to be drumming during "Sweet Home".
It was awesome last week to play live together for our first gig and just get it up onstage. We're going to record three tracks in the next few weeks. I'm excited! I will keep you posted and will eventually post something we do, but it'll be awhile. I'm a perfectionist, and unless it's perfect it won't be posted. :D Sorry! :D I love love love those guys in the band and we're going to have a BLAST working together! It's just cool to do something new. :D Who knew I'd ever do country? LOL!

Brendan is ALMOST WALKING!

Can you believe how fast he's growing up!?!?!?!?

Quick story...at church today Brendan was totally intrigued by this 14 month old little baby girl (who is about 10 pounds lighter than Brendan) that was walking in the church hallways. She looks way too little to be walking already...it's SO PRECIOUS! Well, Brendan caught sight of her and started following her around the church, totally intrigued by her walking. He'd crawl right alongside her and just stare at her walking. She probably thought she had a stalker. :D He followed her for about twenty minutes and was totally taken by her.

Okay, so tonight we were all home at the same time for the entire day. WHAT A TREAT! It was awesome. We had so much time to play and be together as a family tonight. Yay! So we noticed Brendan was happy we were finally all at home together without rushing to and fro, and he decided that while mommy and daddy were BOTH home he would start walking!!!! He must've been inspired by the little lady at church today!

He averages about 2-3 steps most of the time, but there are times where he can get up to 6!!! This is a progression of him getting better and better at walking! We had so much fun with him today. Forgive my messy house in the background. I'd much rather spend my free time playing with my kid then worrying about a messy house. :) Tomorrow I'll clean it. Today was Sunday. Anyway...this is the start. And by the way...he is SO MY KID! The second he sees that camera he turns into a ham and a half. He's done that since he was 6 months old. uh oh! :)

This was taken after I got back from ward choir today, and Brendan was back in his sleeper for his nap.

Starting to walk without holding my hands...




He is such a ham! Look at him! He's not even concentrating on walking! (He was doing better than this before we pulled out the camera!) He was just grinning it up at Daddy holding the camera. The little stinker! LOL. I had no idea he was hamming it up so much...Lamar didn't tell me. Wow is he my kid. I was an obnoxious camera hungry kid too. Lovely. He is not even a year old yet. Not a good sign. LOL. I'll tell ya what though...Lamar is quite the ham when you put a camera on him too...so the kid's doomed.

Another cute little attempt, but being distracted by trying to be cute for the camera! LOL I swear he does not act this cheesy ever, without that camera in view! Can you believe how tall he is??? That is a 2T sleeper on him, and clearly he's almost out of it. He won't be a year old for another two weeks!

And he took mom out with him a couple of times...! :D I sound like my sisters laughing at the end. So weird!

This is one of my favorite videos lately too...he is still hamming it up, but he starts his jibber jabber that is so funny and adorable. You can really see his bubbly personality on this video. He's so addicting. I love his laugh at the end of the video...turn up the volume so you can hear him talk and giggle....we were having fun! I love being home with my baby and honey!

He finally stopped obsessing about the camera (I think he realized we weren't going to be taking his picture...no flashes...and got bored. WOW!!!! What on earth am I in for?!?!? LOL) and started walking. His first two steps on camera! He was all proud of himself-applauded himself when he walked the two steps! :)

I laugh SO stinkin' hard at this next video. My child looks like a directionally challenged muppet. :D And when he walks he puts his arms above his head like a monkey. LOL

He got four steps in a row! First day of any of this walking business. So excited for him. :D I wish you can see his face in this video...he looked shocked and SO proud of himself! :D It was darling.

He started getting more and more consistent on the four steps away from the couch to me!

He was being so cute and proud of himself...one last video.

Yes, there were lots, but I wanted you to see the progression. More tomorrow. :D You only get one chance in life to get these first steps on video. :) Isn't he doing SO GOOD considering he's HUGE and started crawling way late? 27 lbs. :) LOL I love my tall little tank!