Transition to a Toddler Bed

We have made the leap to the toddler bed! I didn't put much thought in to how much of a change this would be! The biggest seemed to just hit me. My "baby" isn't in a crib anymore. There is no turning back and I'm kind of crushed. :( I just didn't think to cherish those last couple of weeks. But also there's the other stuff like years ahead (possibly) of him coming into our room at night. Or refusing to go down. Or like today when I put him down then got in the shower like I often do. And then it occured to me that I probably shouldn't have done that b/c he could be wandering the house or going out the doggie door and I'd have no idea! Eek. 


Besides my mental breakdown, Grayson did great! We started with naptime so that night time wouldn't be too big of a transition. He lay right down, didn't try to get out once and really didn't even squirm through the 2 hour nap. Now, I've been a mom long enough to know that just because they do something once by no means they will always do it that way. So I'm prepared for a lot of sleepless nights and short naps ahead! 


Meanwhile, here is our transition in all it's glory!

Grayson was by his Dad's side every step of the way. He enjoys helping!

Holding the screws for his Dad.

But that wasn't enough. He wanted to HELP.

He ran and got all his tools to assist. Melt my heart! It was the cutest thing.

Overjoyed that he could be of assistance. (Love the color-coding, by the way :) )

The final product!

Couldn't believe how fast he went down. 

I love how he puts his hands behind his head. Such a guy. :)

Wish us luck the next few nights and weeks! I'll provide an update soon. OR hopefully I won't because it will be so un-newsworthy! :)

Ft. Lauderdale

I know I owe this blog two monthly updates for Grayson but I just don't know where to start. He has so many new things and changes that I can't possibly capture them all, which is overwhelming so I avoid the blog posts altogether. :) So in the meantime, let's talk about my trip to Florida this past week! 


Beau was so, so sweet to book me a flight to join him in South Florida this week. He was in Ft. Lauderdale for work, one of the cooler places he's been since I've met him. I just haven't had much interest to go with him to Atlanta or Kansas City. :) Of course, my parents are the ones that make it SO easy for me to jump a plane with a week's notice. They took such good care of Grayson AND came by the house 2 or 3 times a day to feed and care for the dogs. We are so appreciative!


I flew in this past Tuesday, a day after Beau. He is the greatest guy to worry about me. I received several text messages like "You should be boarding soon" and "You will need cash for the cab." Haha, thanks honey. ;) Once I arrived, I turned on the news for a bit and learned that my trip looked like this:

Are you kidding? Story of my life, I swear. I'm a walking Alanis Morissette song. Yes, there WAS rain on my wedding day. And I HAVE had 10,000 spoons when all I needed is a knife. But my plane landed safely, so there's that. :) 


I didn't see the sun at all or put on my bathing suit once but this DID allow me to stay in bed and watch The Today Show through the whole morning guilt-free. And I also got to do things like this...

We had dinner the first night with Beau's co-worker at a great italian place called Bravo. The following night we had dinner with his former co-worker, Fernando, who actually lives in Ft. Lauderdale. He took us to the strip where we had a fabulous dinner at a chop house, then walked over to YOLO (You Only Live Once) where I couldn't believe the crowd! On a Wednesday! It was like a Saturday night where everyone had their tightest dress, tallest heels, best accessories and nicest cars. It's exactly how I envisioned South Florida :) I'm really glad we had a chance to experience it. 

Stuffed my cardigan in that clutch. I assure you I was the ONLY one with a sweater. :)

We drove down A1A to see the view. While our hotel had a pretty cool view of the marina, some boats and a huge draw bridge, we couldn't have grasped the magnitude of homes and yachts there. I'm glad we took the drive. We've been to our share of ocean vacations but haven't quite seen anything like it. Huge yachts were dwarfed by huger yachts (not a word, I know), which were then made to look small again by even larger yachts. It makes you wonder just where all that money comes from. ;) 

Draw bridges never get old for me. We didn't have those in Corpus. :)

Probably my favorite part of the trip was that one of my best friends in the world drove 3 hours round trip with her 11 week old son to come have lunch with me! I was never brave enough to try that kind of road trip! It means so much to me that Nikki did it so that we could visit and so that I could meet this guy!

It's so cool to see your friend hold her own baby! Especially when it's a little version of her husband. ;)

Passed out while burping!

Weston is such an easy baby! So not fair for her first - ha! But it was great - he allowed us tons of time to eat lunch and sit in bed and catch up. I got REALLY sad when they left. Goodbyes are getting harder for me these days. But we go back to see them in July so that's good!

Beau goes back to Ft. Lauderdale in 2 weeks but so far I haven't gotten an invite. I was even sure to say things like "See you in 2 weeks!" to his co-workers and "I wonder if we'll get this same view when we come back." So far, he's not biting. :)

Mother's Day Weekend & Silver Dollar Ball

Here's what we've been up to...


Took pictures of Grayson - I decided to bring out the nice camera for some pictures. I was planning to get Grayson dressed in something cute but he was going on outfit #3 of the day and neither of us felt like messing with it. I have 7,000,000 pictures but here are 3. You're welcome.

Self tanner (or BBQ sauce). Obviously the face of regret.

His surprise face, of course.

I like the antique finish offered in iPhoto editing. This bench just calls for it.

Broke out the Jeep - We bought this at a garage sale about a year ago and finally figured that Grayson might be old enough for it (even though it says 3 years and up). Check out the video - he drives it like a champ. ;) My baby is getting so big!

Spa Day - What a special day Beau gave me - 6 hours of spa treatments with plenty of down time between them and childcare while I was gone. I can't say enough good things about Stonebriar Spa in Frisco. So comfortable, clean and friendly. The staff was professional without being snooty (did you hear that, Four Seasons?) and I felt so relaxed there. If anyone does book an appointment, ask for Angela for a 90 minute massage and Jenna for a facial. :) 


Beau watched Grayson in the morning then my mom came over to sit with him while Beau and the neighbors played golf. A little side bit of info - while they were playing, Scooter got word that both his son AND dad were in the ER at separate hospitals for different things. Lowery was hit in the head with a golf club and needed stitches and Scooter's dad was in a car accident and totaled his car. Both guys are A-OK! How's that for a dramatic day?! Do you think they stopped playing golf?! .... ;)


Piper's birthday party - I'm so sad that I didn't get any pictures of Miss Piper with her adorable shirt and matching cake! (which was so delicious and by The Cake Stand btw) Rain brought us in from the park but it was a great time regardless! So much so that Grayson got a black eye. Ha! All in good fun. Here is the only picture I did take...

Mmmm cake. Loved the pink/green combo!
This is Rick, Liam, Beau, Grayson, Ken and Emmie.

Silver Dollar Ball - Beau and I accompanied my parents to this huge event last night benefiting American Cancer Society. People showed up in their boots and hats, dressed to impress, and I loved all the people watching! My Mom's good friend Beverly owns the ranch in Aubrey, TX that has hosted this event for the past 5 years. I'm so happy she invited us all and that we got to be a part of it. The live auction was TOO much fun! It ran a little long for my taste but the items were all really interesting! A longhorn, mini champion horse, signed sports stuff, a private party for 100 with Jack Ingram performing (I DIE!), custom hats, boots, trips to Hilton Head, etc. All lovely but I was ready to see Joe Diffie perform! No, you don't remember him? Of course you do. Google him. His music shaped my middle and early high school years so it was really fun to see him live. I could go on but the rest will be in photo captions. :)

The sky was so beautiful! Even without my snazzy Instagram app.

I LOVE being out in open spaces! Something I miss very much from my South Texas days. The air is different. You can breathe. The smells, temperatures, skies, stars. Everything is just better. :) Beau and I vow to live on property someday.

Mama and Jeff - they are such a blast.

My beautiful Mom

One of the decor "sets"

My Pick Up man ;) NOW do you remember Joe Diffie?!

Drew Pearson auctioning off his signed jersey (center) and to the left, a man holding up a Staubach one too. Went for like $7k. People are crazy!

Blurry miniature horse butt. Sorry, that's all I could get. But he was precious!

Joe Diffie can pack a dance floor!

This has really been a perfect Mother's Day for me. A perfect mix of Grayson time, Beau time, Me time and family/party time. The icing on the cake is that Beau has booked me a flight to travel with him this week to Florida!! He will be there for business. And I will be there to play. ;)


Happy Mother's Day to my family/friends of human babies, fur babies, scaly babies and all the like! xoxo

Team Connor Benefit

Britney and Scooter invited us to be their guests at this incredible event Sunday night and we were honored to attend. The managing partner of Scooter's company, Northwestern Mutual, and his wife lost their son Connor to children's cancer and this is just one of the inspiring, special, big events they do to raise money for the cause. Part of the cocktail hour/formal dinner/silent auction/live auction was that they each had a chance to stand up and speak. Probably not a dry eye in the place. I simply can't imagine losing my child. My biggest fear. 


I really want to rave about the efficiency and professionalism at this event - by far the most organized and high-tech of any I have attended. They had the entire first floor of III Forks and it was buzzing. We were met by hostesses (ahem - models) who guided us to the registration room. I don't think we made 3 steps in before servers also greeted us with glasses of wine. Y'ALL. We were drinking before we made it thru the lobby. They are so smart. Why? Because people who drink spend money. I'm sure that's been proven somewhere. PLUS, the silent auction was completely digital!! We registered our phones and were able to bid throughout the night. No silly pieces of paper with competing bids next to each item that ends once you sit for dinner. The app was the most user-friendly set-up on our phones, which created so much more fun and SO much more competition on the items since everyone was bidding through dinner! We even received text messages when we were outbid. Of course that fired us up to bid again. Simply brilliant.

Beau and I took this for my Dad. We thought it was hilarious that the starting bid for OU tix was only $35 ;)

Beau bid in the silent auction (and won) 4 VIP tickets to Texas Motor Speedway, which includes a parking pass and all you can eat/drink in some suite. Sadly, it's on the same day as the Race for the Cure for which I signed up. We'll sell the tickets, hopefully. I'm sad though because we've always wanted to go to a NASCAR race and this sounds like the only way to go! I didn't bid on anything because the only item I wanted had a starting bid of $990 (I love you, Bachendorf's.)

Ahh, iPhone pictures :/

With the Asels

Dinner was delicious and those servers never slowed down with their wine pour - they were dangerous. We had a blast with the other couples at our table and the live auction was a HOOT! There were a ton of trips that went for about 10 grand each. I can see how people get caught up in the excitement! I wish I had a picture of the auctioneers in their big cowboy hats. ;)

Seated for dinner

I have no idea why I didn't get pictures of the rest of our table.

Oh good grief. Can we not create a mess wherever we go? This indian that stands at the III Forks valet ended up on the ground about 3 seconds after this picture was taken. Valet said it happens all the time. Ha! 

Our beautiful centerpiece that I was lucky enough to take home.  Obviously I was trying to be artsy with Instagram to no avail.

I just can't say enough about how special this event was. I hope they raised everything and more that they hoped to. We may insist on an invitation next year! :)

Instagram Photos

In the spirit of Instagram selling for a bajillion dollars (like 3 weeks ago but whatever), I decided to post some of my photos. I'm pretty late to the Instagram club but am so stoked about this app. It just makes any average photo so much cooler. Here are mine...

My boy.

The Observer

That profile!

Bubble bath

Froggie love

Smile!

This is a repeat but I love it so much. Our boy watching his first baseball game.

Loves his construction books

Dinner fixer

Pure. Heaven.

The HUGE swan at my parents' house.

I wonder where he gets it from....

He hates it when I do this but I had to include it with the picture of Grayson above :)

I pulled back the covers and found this little gem. I love never knowing where little remnants of Grayson's playtime will show up. :)

Our beautiful Brinkley 

cartoon watchers