5 Years

I can't believe it's been 5 years since this day.

Happy Anniversary to the most amazing husband, baby daddy, and friend I could have ever hoped for. Love love love.

Scallywag

Barrett was a pirate this Halloween. He chose the costume for himself after watching Garfield's Halloween special and getting pretty excited about Garfield and Odie's pirate costumes. We had a very full weekend of festivities, so we were all about comfort this year. I was able to make his shirt, pants, and belt, and we just found a little pirate accessory pack to finish off the look. He's pretty handy with that sword.

Getting psyched...

Our first event was trick-or-treating at Matt's office on Friday afternoon (You'll notice that Barrett wasn't much for posing this Halloween - I did my best).

Playing with the horses outside Dad's office after plundering for candy.

Trunk or Treat with our home group at the Village Church on Saturday night - BIG fun. Our group's theme was "bun in the oven," so we did a kitchen theme with chef's hats and aprons

Barrett with Marissa and Andrew (aka: Danger) - I LOVE this picture - thanks, Marissa!!On Sunday, Barrett was a CHAMP at trick-or-treating. This was Dad's first year to get to come along, and it was fun getting to go as a family. We couldn't believe it, but Barrett was all about going up to people's doors by himself. He seemed like such a big boy as Matt and I watched him from the sidewalk, but he very politely waited his turn, said "trick or treat" and held out his bucket. A couple times, he ran back down to us afterward yelling, "I got some candy!!!" So adorable - I got one good shot of him at a neighbor's door.

Barrett Sings the ABC's

I don't think we've posted a video of Barrett since he started walking (the video featured four or five steps followed by Matt saying, "holy"). That was around age 11 months. How far we've come - this is Barrett at 2 years and 3 months old. Nothing cuter than this.

Family Pictures

We wanted to get some family shots before 3 becomes 4 -- and before I become too enormous. (I guess that statement serves as our official blog announcement that baby #2 is on the way! I don't think there's anyone who reads this who didn't already know that, but there it is again in writing, none the less. More to come on that later, though). Here's our little family to date...

I included this last one because Matt and I were both surprised to see how high he goes when we do this! Good thing we both have a good grip on him, I guess. Love love love my boys - so blessed.

Still Cute

We just returned from Chelsea Brown's wedding shower where we had the priviledge of seeing Justin Wolfshohl (known to many of you as the author of the reknowned WJW). He asked if Barrett was still cute and expressed his concern about the lack of close up pictures of Barrett on the blog as of late. So, Justin, thanks for calling the problem to my attention and - yes - he is cuter than ever (if that's possible). Here's your proof.

The West Dallas Tigers Go to Houston

A couple weeks ago I took my Little League team to Houston for a tournament against frighteningly superior competition. We performed better than expected but the box scores would look pretty embarassing to any outsider. On the bright side (depending on how you look at things), I got to share a hotel room with four hilarious kids all weekend.

My roommates: Reggie Rusk (4'5"), Claudie Perry (sporting a mohawk to which he kept applying baby oil), Cesar Sosa (I'm pretty sure he only came to get a free trip to Houston because this was the only time he's been with our team in the last month) and Jose Cortez (some kid from another team that only got to come because no one thought Cesar would show up).

Our room contained two double beds and a roll away bed for me. When discussing sleeping arrangements, the kids insisted that it was too "gay" for them to share a bed. However, the gayness seemed to only apply if they were sleeping vertically. One of them suggested they sleep head-to-toe, but Reggie was afraid he would accidentily wind up with someone's toes in his mouth during the night. After making fun of him for a while over that comment, they decided to sleep horiztontally on the bed - a move that apparently removed all possible gayness. The weird thing is that because sleeping horizontally afforded them a lot more room on the bed, three of them decided to share one bed together. I tried to make them aware of the fact that their new arrangement was probably the gayest arrangement of them all, but they immediately disregarded my input. Claudie came out the winner by getting a bed to himself the whole weekend.

A room favorite was telling "yo momma" jokes. One night after lights out, they stayed up "scoring" each other, as they liked to call it, for a good 45 minutes. However, these weren't memorized insults - they were freestyling. They were scoring each other with the best insults they could think of off the top of their heads. What followed was an endless string of poorly constructed and unfunny jokes. An example from the mouth of Jose Cortez - "your mama smells so bad...she smells like poop." Their jokes would generally illicit an eye roll from me, but a series of giggles from everyone else. About 20 minutes in, a couple of kids started to take offense to the jokes, so they proceeded to start each score with "someone's mama is so..."

The kids also loved the hotel pool. After a trip to the Astros/Cubs game, everyone begged to do some night swimming before bedtime. Claudie insisted, "i'm going to do like 16 cannon-balls and that's it!" He wore regular shorts, a collared shirt and socks in the pool. Watching 12 year olds play in the pool is vastly different than being at the pool with my peers. I think the longest anyone stayed in the pool before getting out to run and then jump back into the pool was 50 seconds. Reggie brought his own personal life vest. He wore it for a little while until he "remembered how to swim".

A couple of other humerous items...

One morning, while they were still in bed, Jose said to Cesar, "hey Cesar, I woke up last night and saw your mole and it scared me." Cesar has a medium sized mole on his upper lip. Jose didn't mean this to be rude. He was just merely letting Cesar know about it. Cesar didn't seem to take too much offense.

Black kids apparently love Axe body spray. They douse themselves with it before anything: a game, bed, lunch, the pool. Our room constantly smelled like someone spilled a bottle of cologne. Only one kid brought their Axe, so I constantly heard the phrase, "yo Michael, let me borrow yo Axe, bro!" followed by 10-12 seconds of aerosol spray.

Good times.

2nd Birthday

Barrett turned 2 years old last Thursday! On his actual birthday, my mom came into town and took us to the Dallas Aquarium - it was pretty packed, but much neater than I expected and certainly a hit with Barrett.

On Saturday we had a little party for him with my family. My parents and Ryan and his family came down to help us celebrate

Barrett is obsessed with alligators (thanks Grandma Wood for all the great alligator presents!!), so I decided to try my hand at an alligator cake for him this year. It was my first time working with fondant, so I was a little nervous, but I was really pleased with how well it turned out.

Happy Birthday buddy!!

The Many Faces of Matt Wood: Wedding Guest

I am probably the only person who finds this funny, but for some reason, I find it hilarious. Matt came to bed last night and asked, "Have you seen the wedding pictures from Travis and Lauren's wedding yet? ...It's a little awkward how many pictures I'm in." I had not yet seen them, but I just had the pleasure, and he was right. Apparently he was sitting in just the right spot for the photographer to catch him in the shot as the bridal party came down the aisle. It isn't the pictures themselves that are so funny, but the volume. This is only 5 out of many...

Am I the only one who thinks this is hilarious? If so, it is a result of my keen ability to detect awkwardness a mile away.

Fort Worth Zoo

We took Barrett to the zoo for the first time this morning, and it was perfect! The Fort Worth Zoo is really incredible - Matt and I were both really impressed, and so was Barrett, naturally. Some pictures...

This picture makes me so happy. I love my boys so much.

Barrett's favorite animal is the alligator. He stood in front of this guy for several minutes stomping his feet and yelling, "Wake up, Alligator!"

Kangaroos

There's a fantastic bird enclosure filled with tiny tropical birds that will hop and fly right up to you. Barrett and Matt loved feeding them seeds - if you know me at all, you know that I was very jumpy in there.

Couldn't miss this, though; he was so happy in there, it was precious.

Snow Pictures