Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!! God has blessed us in so many ways over the past year (and our whole lives) and we have so many things to be thankful for. We hope you pause today to remember all the things you are thankful for. We like reading our blogger friends' lists of things they are thankful for so we will do the same (in no particular order).

Barrett - Our beautiful son. You have changed our lives in every way...all positive. You make us want to be better people.

God - We are thankful to our Lord for his saving grace.

Freedom - Our freedom to worship our Lord, to say what we want, to live how we choose. We are thankful for the troops that are fighting and all the people who've fought in the past to provide us with these freedoms.

Our families - We are so blessed to have such wonderful, caring parents who have set excellent examples of marriage and how to love and respect one another. Thank you for your unwavering support of us in our lives. Barrett is so lucky to have you all as grandparents. We are thankful for our siblings and their spouses. Thank you for your love and support and for being wonderful friends and excellent aunts/uncles to Barrett.

Our nephews and niece - Preston, Zachary, Jake, Abby, Hudson, Alex. All of you hold special places in our hearts and always will. We love watching you grow and develop into wonderful people. We love all of you so much.

Friends - Mark and I have the most wonderful group of friends. We really do. We are so thankful for all of you. Your support and love over the years has made an incredible difference in our lives. We look forward to many more years of friendship.

Health - We are happy to be healthy and that our families are healthy.

Sadie - Our crazy, barking dog. We love you and you're a great "sister" to Barrett. Woof, woof!

Each other - We are each other's rock. We would not be half the people we are (which might not be that much - lol) without our "better halves". We love each other more every day which just amazes us. We have a great marriage and look forward to many, many, many years together.

Lastly, we are thankful that the 2008 football season is almost over. Our beloved Ags are terrible this year and it has been a painful season to watch. :)

B's Buzz 11.11.2008

Barrett is a busy little guy. He took his first steps a few days after he turned 11 months old. Each day he has added more and more steps and has been walking exclusively for a few weeks now. He has quite a vocabulary as well, including, quack-quack, all done, up, down, on, off, mama, dada, dog, cold. Now if you heard him say these words you wouldn't recognize alot of them but we recognize them and so far he is using them correctly. :)

Barrett loves reading books and often times we find him with several books around him and he is flipping pages, pointing at the pictures and words and of course talking out loud. He loves push toys and shape sorting toys. He received several puzzles for his birthday but right now he just throws the pieces everywhere. He LOVES when people sing to him. His favorite song is patty cake. He claps and tries to do the hand motions. He still loves the ABC's as well. That's been a favorite since birth.

We moved him to his front facing "big boy" carseat before our drive to Iowa. He loves it and has discovered the DVD player in the car now. We let him watch Baby Einstein occassionally which he seems to love except for one part where it is raining on a bear holding an umbrella. He screams everytime it gets to that part. It is so bizarre and we crack up and fast forward.

We switched him to whole milk on his first birthday. He is having a little trouble adjusting to it so he is still nursing. As soon as he starts drinking milk more, we will work on weaning him. Yay Steph for making it this long!

Stats:
30 inches (70th percentile)
21.6 lbs (30th percentile)
Head size is still 90th percentile

We take a picture of B in his diaper on the last day of every month. This is his 12 month picture.

A&M Games

It has been forever since we updated the blog (as usual). During our blogging absence we have been keeping busy with A&M football. We took B to the Army game. This was a big deal since it was his first trip to Kyle Field! We also trekked up to Ames, Iowa for the Iowa State game. Both games were wins thankfully. It was really cold in Iowa but we had a great time and Barrett and Steph ending up being pictured in the 12th Man Magazine.

Barrett and Daddy walking to Kyle Field.

Barrett pointing at the mecca of Aggieland - Kyle Field.

Barrett snoozing during the Army game. Yes those are noise blocking headphones. Come on people...are you really surprised he has those???

Sweet boy...

I had to post the picture of Mark wearing the Baby Bjorn in Iowa :)

Whoop! Barrett with the Yell Leaders.

Birthday pictures!

Barrett turned one on Halloween! We had a little party for him a few days after his actual birthday. Here are a few pictures...

Check me out on my new tricycle that Mommy and Daddy bought me! I love when Mommy pushes me around the neighborhood. I push it by myself around the house too.

Keeping with our Malhiot tradition, we took Barrett to breakfast on his birthday. We go to breakfast 2 days in a row now since Mark's birthday is the 30th. Here we are at our fave breakfast place - Ballard Cafe.

Barrett eating at Ballard Cafe.

Ballard gives you a free piece of pie on your birthday! They sang to him but said Bennett instead of Barrett. Oh well.

Birthday boy outside - his favorite place to be.

Yoda has a pacifier????? He did not like any candy in his treat bag. He would take it out immediately.Not a fan of Mommy's Princess Leia wig but seriously how could we resist taking that picture?

Barrett's cake...his party was football themed.

Um, why is everyone looking at me and singing?

They are still staring and singing...

You mean this whole cake is mine? Yummy!

Super yummy cake! Straight to the bath.

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!

Barrett is 1!!!! This past year has been the best one of our lives. It is amazing how much love and joy having you has brought to our lives. Since your birth our lives and perspectives have changed in so many positive ways. We are so grateful and thankful for you. We love you Barrett! Happy Birthday little man!

Love,
Mom and Dad

New hairstyle??

Barrett's hair is getting longer so we decided to experiment with a new hairdo. Let us know what you think! :)

Pictures around the house

Barrett doesn't get to watch much TV so when he does his eyes are glued to it!
Remote control vs. cordless phone confusion
If I could just pull up a little higher I could see what is out this window!
Yay! I'm racing my tupperware around the island.

Feeding the ducks

Last week Barrett and I went to fBreckinridge Park to feed the ducks. I explained to Barrett that we would be feeding bread to the ducks. Apparently he did not understand!

Barrett eating the bread that he is supposed to feed to the ducks.
The ducks waddled up to us and were eating out of my hand. It was so cool!
Barrett watching the ducks. He loved them.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?

Barrett is very into his books right now. We read books all the time and go to storytime at the library. It's paying off because this is often how I find him. When he doesn't have his nuk in he sits and babbles as he turns pages. It's so cute.

Shhhh! He doesn't know it's upside down!

Gig 'em

Being that we are big Aggie football fans and since we missed the first game (thankfully!) for Shane's wedding in Boston, we decided a while back to go to New Mexico for the A&M game. We flew to Albuquerque on Friday. We took the Sandia Peak Tramway up to 10,000 feet. It's the world's largest aerial tramway. It took about 15 minutes each way in a little cable car. I'd done it before when I was 14 but gladly did it again because the view is spectacular.

Barrett pointing at the view from the cable car
Family pic at the top of Sandia Peak
Mommy and Barrett at the base of the peak

We went to the game on Saturday and it was so hot! There was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was beating down on us. At halftime we moved under a huge shade tree so that Barrett could have a little freedom and some shade. He wore 50 SPF sunscreen so he didn't get burned at all. :) This was Barrett's first football game out of the belly so we were glad the Aggies won. We might not take him to any other games this season so that we can keep his record perfect and this season is shaping up to be a very loooonnnng season for the Ags. ;)

Hanging out in the hotel room
Barrett at the game
Family pic at the game
Daddy and Barrett at the game

On Sunday we drove to Santa Fe (about an hour drive) and turns out they were having their Fiesta to celebrate the birthday of Santa Fe. We checked out the street vendors, had lunch and bought some of those cinnamon roasted almonds. Yum! We also visited the San Miguel Mission which is the oldest church in the US and the Loretto Chapel which is home of the Miraculous Spiral Staircase. Again, I'd already done these things but if you know me well you know that my last trip to Santa Fe didn't go so well for me. I don't remember alot of the details from that trip so it was nice to do it again. We drove up the mountain in Santa Fe which was a 14 mile drive each way. We saw so much beautiful scenery and stopped to take pics at one of the scenic turn outs.

Daddy and Barrett on the mountain. I love when Barrett looks at the camera and smiles.
Barrett hanging out in his stroller.
Barrett on the mountain.
We ate lunch at La Fonda because it reminds us of Napoleon Dynamite and we love that movie.

Boston

So after we went to NYC we took the train to Boston. We stayed in Boston for about 4 days. We'd never been to Boston so we did alot of the touristy things - Duck Boat Tour, Fenway, the Aquarium, Boston Common. The reason for our trip in the first place was our good friend Shane's wedding in Boston. He is one of our friends from A&M and he got married on Saturday in Worcester, MA which is about an hour outside of Boston. The wedding was awesome and Shane and his wife Laurel are a beautiful couple.

Barrett and Mommy at Fenway

Barrett and Mommy at Fenway. Barrett spent alot of time in his Baby Bjorn.

Barrett at Fenway with Nelson in the background

Barrett and Mommy in Boston Common. The pond on the left of the picture is called Frog Pond. Having never been to Boston we thought we would see frogs. Alas, no, just a bunch of kiddos splashing around.

Daddy and Barrett

Nelson, Daddy, Barrett, Shane (groom), Dave
Barrett and mommy at the wedding

It's dark in the background but Barrett is pointing at the fish, sharks, turtles in the huge central tank at the Aquarium.
Barrett touching a starfish!
A cute pic from the hotel room.
Barrett is done with this trip and ready to go home!