BJG turned 1!!! (5 weeks ago)

Like I mentioned in past posts, we have a lot of catching up to do. Why don't we just start from the top. Hello, we're the Garcia's......and you are?

BJG turned 1 on July 23rd. I'd always heard that time flies when you have kids, but I didn't expect it to go so quickly. It seems not long ago, we welcomed CRG to this world....now, he has a buddy to grow up with. BJG's first year absolutely flew by. We're so glad that our friends and family were able to celebrate his birthday with us.

BJG's day started very early with a surprise visit from Grandma. And of course, she couldn't come empty handed. Luckily for us, we didn't have to make breakfast! A gourmet feast of donuts and cinnamon rolls were had by all!! And yes, that's a candle in that cinnamon roll.

Birthday Cinnamon Roll!
FIRE!!!

Katy decided to make BJG's cake. Well, she has this little motto, "Go big, or go home", and she means it! Katy went way above and beyond this year with her creations. After lots of research, she decided to do an ocean theme with a turtle cake for BJG and an ocean for everyone else. Katy made the cakes on BJG's birthday (Friday) since his party was the next morning. CRG was definitely interested in helping out. For those of you who ate the cake, this next picture was taken after everything was baked....I promise!

The party was lots of fun. The little ones played in a baby pool and on a slip-n-slide. BJG, CRG and their buddies enjoyed the water while we enjoyed watching them.

Turtle, Turtle!
The Beach Cake

Is that cake for me?
The Fam
What do I do with this?
Ohhhh! Fun!!!

Please enjoy out little peek into our world. Hope you enjoyed it!!

BJG's 1st Haircut

Here comes what I hope to be a flurry of blog spots. We're going to try and go in chronological order so today I give you BJG's 1st Haircut.

On June 17, BJG went in for his first hair appointment. Yes, he had an appointment for a cut. Thankfully, we know someone who does hair and is great with our little ones. Thank you Christina!!

BJG's Before Shot with Mom
Be still BJG, be still.
You're going to cut around my ears??!!
So when do I sit under that dryer thing?
Just about done....
Ta Da!! He looks like a million bucks!

Thanks for letting us share a little bit of us with you. Hopefully, this is just the first in a series of new posts. We look forward to hearing from you!!

Wow....

Has it really been that long since we've let you in to our little world?

Stay tuned.....

Summer Fun - 4th of July

It's been so busy for us lately, how about you? Maybe that's what happens when you have kids who are old enough to play and want to do things. Don't get me wrong, we've enjoyed every minute of it, but I'm tired!

BJG has had a slew of "firsts" recently. First pool party. First 4th of July. First time climbing the stairs. First Oreo. And so on.....Oreo, you say? Must have been Dad, huh? :)

We spent most of the 4th with my family. Burgers, sausage, dogs, watermelon, slip-n-slide. Yep, it was a pretty good day! That evening we met Jim and Avery at the Falcon Point Clubhouse to watch the Katy Mills Fireworks. We had an awesome view and the kiddos loved it. Last year, CRG was still a little scared of the noise that fireworks made. He absolutely loved them this year! He also loved having his cousin Avery there too! They danced and ran around all night....then crashed hard! Thanks to Aunt K for spending the day with us. We're so glad that you came out and hung out all day!

First Pool Party
First Oreo
Random picture of how BJG eats.
Getting ready for fireworks
Watching fireworks!
Fireworks

We hope you had a wonderful Independence Day and have had a great summer so far! See you soon!

Father's Day and a few pics

Father's Day 2010 was a good one. I woke up to two boys on top of me with a card that had CRG's recorded voice saying "I wuv you, Daddy". It was the greatest card. Ever. After an enjoyable breakfast and morning of fun we headed to my mom's house for lunch with the fam. Grandma's fried chicken was had by all followed by too much dessert...as always.

I even played a little sand volleyball with my uncle's church league Sunday night. I thought for not touching a volleyball for almost 2 years I did pretty well. I definitely had a lot of fun.

Here are a few pics to hold you over until next time.

CRG and BJG having a good time.
BJG on Father's Day
Great-Grandpa and CRG

1 Week Anniversary!

So today marks our 1 week anniversary without a diaper on CRG's hiney! Also, it marks a week without an accident. (I'm knocking on wood now!) We are so proud of CRG and are very excited that we are only buying diapers for one!

There's a potty going on over here...

For those that think this is too much information, stop reading here. But don't worry, there are no pictures.

We are on day 4 of potty training with CRG. We knew what to expect, sort of. An accident here, nothing going on over here... For the most part CRG has taken to chonies very well. What are "chonies", you say? Well, it's Spanish for underwear. Your welcome, you just graduated Spanish 101. Anyways, CRG really likes his chonies and is doing great! On Day 2 he had his first #2 incident. We made it to the potty in time and sat there...and sat there....and sat some more. Finally, he got up and said "I did it!" Well, he didn't really know what he "did". **Warning, may be graphic for those without kids** When CRG stood up, he had a little "nugget" stuck to his hiney. I helped him get it off and place it in his potty and proceeded to show him his "good work".

Dad: Look what you did!
CRG: I did it!
Dad: Great job, CRG!
CRG: (nervous voice) That came out of my hiney?!
Dad: Yes it did.
CRG But, why???

I had a hard time not laughing at his inquisitiveness, but managed to get his chonies back on and reward him for his deposit. =)

Again, we are only on day 4, but he's doing great. He went all day today without an accident and has been SO good about telling us when he has to go. We're hoping that tonight is his last night to sleep in a diaper. Tomorrow night, we're going to let him sleep in his undies. Wish us him luck!

Fayetteville Power Plant Lake

We had a great weekend at the lake with friends Tracy and Nathan. Thanks go to Katy and Tracy for setting this up a few months back. We got in to Fayetteville Friday evening and immediately fired up the grill for burgers and hotdogs. After dinner Nathan, Tracy and I took their boat out to set up jug lines. We thought there might be a few bugs out there (it was very calm), but we had no idea we were headed into a wall of bugs. Seriously. I'm pretty sure all of us ingested a few bugs that first night.

Saturday morning all 3 of us plus CRG went out again to check and re-set lines. We made it back with enough for dinner, but opted to keep trying. CRG absolutely loved the boat and wanted to go "faster" all the time. BJG didn't get to go on the boat, but he had a great time none the less.

While the women and children took an afternoon swim Nathan and I hit the lake again hoping for more haul. We decided to keep it modest and kept only what we could consume that day. Unfortunately, the wimenz weren't able to see the coolerS full of fish. We thought we would do a good deed and spread the wealth with others. Pictures of the fish you say? They got lost somehow! The fish we did keep went straight to the belly Saturday night. Nathan did a great job frying fish, hush puppies, french fries and other food we couldn't finish.
After dinner, Nathan and I went out for an evening of fishing. We spent a good 3+ hours on the lake that evening and brought in a few more fish.

Overall, we had a great time with our friends and look forward to hanging out with them again. Hopefully, they didn't mind "babysitting" us too much since it had been a good 6-7 years since Katy and I last fished.

"but why?"

Enjoy the pictures!

From Collages

Memorial Day 2010

Slowly but surely, you will be caught up.

Memorial Day 2010 was spent at Rock-n-Box Ranch. For the most part we sat, did nothing and had a relaxing weekend. CRG loved driving the ATV, swimming in the tanks and fishing. BJG had a great time swimming too, and really loved all the dogs (5) running around.

From Collages

Where do I start...

Katy and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary on May 21, 2010! To celebrate, we had our first night away from the boys. We've been away from CRG for one night before, but that was because Katy was busy having his brother so that doesn't count. I had a hard time convincing Katy to stay somewhere over night. Luckily, I made a reservation without asking her first and it was non-refundable....so she reluctantly went.

We stayed in downtown Houston at the Hyatt Regency. After relaxing for a while we had a nice dinner at Brennan's. In September 2008, a two-alarm fire, which broke out during Hurricane Ike, engulfed the historic building in flames. 80% of the building was restored. Honestly, unless you knew it was the same building, you'd never know. Katy had the filet and I had the pecan crusted mahi-mahi. Both dishes were excellent! For dessert Katy had a slice of cheesecake and I had Bananas Foster. Apparently, this fine dish dish was created in 1951 by Paul Blangé at Brennan's Restaurant in New Orleans and named for Richard Foster, a friend of Mr. Brennan. Interested in making a copy of the original recipe? Find it here.

The next morning we went to The Breakfast Klub for breakfast. I had read about this place before and it sounded good. I didn't tell Katy where we were going, but she said that she had seen it on the Food Network. Yes, I had wings n' waffles and Katy had the french toast. Both were very good, but next time I would get wings n' french toast. Yummmm. I'll try and get some pictures of the wings n' waffles on here soon!

Before:

After:

Thank you to Gi-Gi, Pa-Pa and K-K for watching CRG and BJG for the night. We know they had a great time hanging out with all of you!

Update

I promise I will have one soon.

Any requests?

Almost here!

The Papp's will be here this Friday! We can't wait for them to join us for 10 days of family fun....and hopefully a guy's night or two!

CRG is excited! When asked if he knew who was coming this weekend he said, "my friend Kevin and Julie". It was pretty cute.

Can't wait to see you guys! Be sure to bring your little monkey too!

Family Photos

We recently had family portraits taken by Sara at Sara Griffin Photography. Here are a few of our favorites.

Sneak Peek

Thanks to Sara Griffin Photography for making this photo session very easy with 2 small boys. Check out our "sneak peek"!

http://saragriffinphotography.wordpress.com/

1911-2010

Anastacia Campos, my Great-Granma, passed away yesterday morning. She would have been 99 on May 4.

What a wonderful life she lived. I'm very thankful that she was able to meet her 2 Great-Great-Grandsons.

Tracy in TX!

We're always excited to see Tracy, even if it is just for a few hours. Since she moved to NYC (I know, I know....get a rope) we don't see her as often as we used to, but it's always like she never left when we do. CRG adores her, and had a great time playing with her. Thanks go to Uncle Robert for making crawfish, potatoes, corn, and a pork tenderloin for those wussies allergic to shellfish.

It's snowing........flowers.

Tracy holding BJG

Aunt K swinging with BJG

Paw-Paw pushing CRG and Avery.

Tracy helping CRG make Smores

Pictures

Even though I failed with my camera battery last weekend at the Zoo, I remembered that I took a few pics with my camera phone.

Enjoy!

Two monkeys

Jellies!

Getting ready to ride the train

After the Children's Museum

I pity the fool.....

That tries to call my home....during dinner time...to try and sell us something. My sweet little Katy worked them over! Vacation Network Inc. called last night and first got me. I don't mind giving them a moment to try and do their job. I actually like messing with them a bit. Katy on the other hand, is the complete opposite. After she took the phone from me, she immediately called them out as a scam. Long story short, I had a great time watching and listening to Katy work over the poor guy on the other end of the line. I'm quite certain the telemarketer had never had an encounter like that. WAY TO GO, HONEY!! Seriously though, I don't think we'll be getting those annoying calls anytime soon.


Oh well, there goes our free 8 day, 7 night vacation PLUS round trip airfare for two. It couldn't have been free, anyways......right?

Welcome Back...

Miss us? Come on, you know you did!

So what's been going on with us you ask? Well, where do we start?

Katy and BJG spent 4 days in Ojai, CA this past weekend. Unfortunately, it was for her Great Uncle Bill's funeral. Fortunately, she was able to visit with family she hasn't seen in a VERY long time...some she had never met. I love the fact that she was able to see and go inside her Great-Grandma Consuelo's house. How cool is that!

Katy and BJG in the house.

BJG not only took his first plane trip, but also made his first trip to the beach.

The Pacific Ocean

Katy, Kim and Michelle representing Texas!

Katy and BJG at her cousin's beach house

BJG waiting for the funeral service

While Katy and BJG were gone, CRG and I tried to stay busy. CRG got to spend Thursday evening playing with his cousin Avery while I had a work function. He came home with pink eye. =/ At least he had a great time! Friday (before we knew about the eye) CRG and I went to the Houston Zoo and the Children's Museum. I took my camera, but forgot my battery. Go ahead...tell me how awesome I am. CRG loved riding the train. The train is so much longer than I remember. As a kid, I remember riding around the lake and that's it. Now, it actually goes all the way around Hermann Park. I like how after exiting the train, you HAVE to walk through the gift shop to leave. How convenient. We sped out of there, but many other parents were suckered into their trap. Over the next few days, CRG and I did a lot of hanging out. I think that may have been more fun then our Zoo/Museum trip. Just my buddy and me.