A Day of Thanks...

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and had as much fun as Tess did...

We spent Thanksgiving day with my parents this year. We all wore our texan gear and the game almost gave all of us a heart attack. Glad we were able to pull it out in the end.

5 Months

I am way behind but I am going to try and catch up. It's been pretty busy around the house. Tess is growing like a weed and it seems like she is doing something new each day. This month she started rolling around to get places. She loved to get under cribs. At daycare the ladies said she would get under the crib and act like a little mechanic. We were in Dallas for a weekend and I walked into the room and at first didn't see her, until I looked under the crib. She was having a blast and didn't like that I was taking her away from her big toy. She really started to smile and react to both Clayton and I. She started sitting up a lot better in the bumbo and reached for everything around her. This is when we started to have to clear a circle around her and take away the things she shouldn't play with.

 She started using her walker and loved it. She only moves backwards though. So Clayton and I continuously have to push her forward. She hasn't gotten the hang of the moving forward part because she always drags her feed which makes the whole process a little more difficult. She sometimes gets distracted by the TV. She loves to watch sports.

The Daycare ladies found out it was my birthday and they helped Tess make me a cute little card. It was really cute and made my day!

These monthly pictures are getting harder and harder to take. I think this was the last month that she would actually sit still

Jailbreak....

 About a month ago Clayton and I completed a jailbreak event. It was a 3.1 mile run with a lot of obstacles. The race was a challenge between HPD and HFD. The event benefited the Houston Police Department. A bunch of people came out and it was a pretty fun day. A cold front came in the night before and it was freezing.

The day warmed up a little but it was still cold. We were in the first wave which started at 8:30 in the morning.

Pictures were taken of the HFD team before the race started. We all were huddling around a couple HFD vehicles because the heater was on. Everyone was trying to warm up before the race started.

People also used the vehicles to warm up after running the race. The picture above are people that actually work for HFD and the one to the right is everyone that ran on the HFD team.

I rolled my ankle minutes into the race so I told Clayton to go ahead and run it since he was trying to get a good time. I stayed back with a guy from the station.

George and I ran the race at our own pace. One of the last obstacles was a soapy water slide. Yes this obstacle was cold.

There was another huge water slide you went down before you got into the mud pit. Clayton finished the race about 10 minutes before I did. He was happy to cross the finish line and rest before he started watching for me to come around the corner and finish up the last portion of the obstacles.

I was not that far from Clayton. Here George, Carol, and I were trying to figure out the best way to go down the slide. The guy told us the best way was to go down on your stomach.

What he didn't let anyone know is that there were rocks down at the bottom and your hands instead of your feet where the first things to find the rocks.  

The Cargo Net was another obstacle that was after the soapy water slide. This one was a hard one for me because there are so many people that are climbing it once that the whole thing shakes constantly. 

You are wet and really cold at this point in the race. The finish line is within site but there are about 3 wet obstacles between you and victory. After you go down the huge slide you crawl through a mud pit and then have to roll through sand. If you are not really dirty at the end you have done something wrong. 

 Clayton and I had a lot of fun doing the race. We even said we would probably do it again. Here is a picture of the Station 51 team.

Everyone finished and no one came in last place. I think we did a good job. The only bad part is.. George was listed as a girl!

Happy Haunting...

This was Tess's first halloween. One weekend we took her to a pumpkin patch. We had a ton of fun. She was pretty intrigued by the orange pumpkins. I love all the pictures, couldn't really narrow any down to being my favorite.

This halloween Tess was a lady bug. She didnt last long in her costume but we got at least one good picture. She was asleep by the time the trick or treaters came to the house. Clayton and I sat outside just like we did last year. So much has happened in a year, last year we found out I was pregnant with Tess and this year she is dressing up! Hope everyone had a good halloween!

Four Down... Many to Go

 Tess is a pretty good mixture of Clayton and I. Tess had her first school picture and there is no denying that she is Clayton's little girl. She looks more and more like him every day. A lot of people actually ask if I am

jealous that my child looks a lot like her daddy. I think its a little funny because this child may not look like me but she sure does have a lot of my personality :) We tried to take a four month photo... this is the best that we got... got to love the look of death. I probably have a ton of pictures where I am giving my own mother this face.

This month Tess started smiling back at you when you smiled at her. Now she smiles all the time, mostly when she sees her puppies. Her whole face lights up when she smiles. My mom use to call me her ray of sunshine, well Tess is the same way. When she smiles everyone else in the room smiles. .

One weekend everyone came to the house to watch the game and eat an early dinner before Matt flew back to Florida. Tess had to support her team. It says "My First Texans Tee" T

We had a couple rough weekends during the fourth month. Tess came to visit my mom and spend the night with her Oma and PawPaw Charlie. Her she is helping my mom work. Clayton and I picked her up on Saturday morning. Clayton got sick with the horrible stomach bug that passes through Houston once a year. So I shipped Tess off the my parents so she wouldn't get sick. Good thing she wasn't at home because I had to take Clayton to the ER to get an IV. The next weekend I got the stomach bug and again Tess was shipped off to my parent's house. We are all so thankful that Tess never got the bug (Clayton, Matt, Mona, Kevin and I were not so lucky)

 It finally got a little cold her and Tess was able to bust out some cute winter clothes. While I was getting her pants and jacket out I realized we really were not prepared for the cold weather. A bunch of clothes were bought and she is set for all the cold weather. The weather was nice and chilly for Clayton's game. We put a hat on her to shield her ears from the wind. I think she likes the cold weather as much as she likes being outside.

We hit another milestone this month... guess who can roll-over. Now she rolls everywhere. She realized she could roll to get places so that's what she does. She would roll across the room if we let her.

Three Months and Counting....

We have been pretty busy the last couple of months. Tess has grown way more than I expected. I don't know how ready I am for her to be getting this big!

This month Tess started focusing more. She would focus on the dogs, the tv, our phones, and the iPad. She still loves the tv and gets distracted by it all the time, especially during feeding time. The dogs are still her favorite and she loves to cheer on the Texans on Sunday!

Tess also found her fingers this month. The minute she found out she could put her fingers in her mouth it was over, they barely come out. She also puts everything else in her mouth also. She used to love her soothie now you can see that she now prefers her own fingers. She usually doesn't suck her thumb, it's usually her ring and middle fingers.  

We were at an outlet mall and I saw the cutest converse shoes. They are a little big for her but when she is able to start wearing them she will be able to match her mommy (except I have black ones). This picture makes her feet look huge :).

Clayton started playing outdoor soccer this fall. We have been able to go to a couple of his games. Tess loves to be outside. Sometimes the only thing that will calm her down is going and sitting outside. She doesn't really sit in her stroller for too long, she likes to sit on my lap and watch the action. She is pretty entertained by the game and pretty much the coolest kid in the park!

During her third month Tess hit a pretty fun milestone, she started laughing. For a while she would only laugh for her daddy, but she warmed up and her and I have a ton of fun laughing and playing.

Daycare here we come!

Tess started Daycare last week. I thought I was going to be fine dropping her off but I had to do it fast or I was going to breakdown.

  

Here she is right before

we walked out the door

 

Her bed is one of the ones on the far left and
you can see her playing with one of the workers





   

Here is her report for her first day,
Clayton picked her up and the
ladies had nothing but good things to say!

 



Tess goes to daycare every morning. When Clayton is home she gets picked up early and if he isn't then I swing by on my way home and get her! I am pretty sure she likes going because they have cool toys that we don't have at home!