Family
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Scenes from Christmas Weekend
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Cookie Monster
Last weekend I finally got around to making cookies with Forest. He’s become more and more interested in watching us do stuff in the kitchen and I figured it was about time he got a little more involved. I’ve had him mix batter in bowls before with my help but this was the first time we’ve done cut-out cookies. He’s a Play-Doh loving toddler so he’s already familiar with making snakes and balls with that and I have little cookie cutters for him to use with the Doh as well but he hasn’t quite gotten the process down yet. I totally forgot to take photos mid-process so I have after-the-fact…
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Forest Friday | Caddo Lake Canoe Edition
“Whoa! Big Boat!” – Forest
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This Boy
This is a fun age. I remember liking the toddler stage when I was around Zoe and Grayson, my niece and nephew, at that age. Every day is a new learning opportunity, where something clicks in his brain and new words sprout out of his mouth and phrases are put together. Sure, there are the tantrums, the trying moments, but once you manage to wade through those it is pretty enjoyable being the parents of an exuberant toddler! I mean, it is of course exhausting, too, but thank goodness for weekend naps. Oh, well, when he wants to take them; he’s fond of figuring out how to get out of…
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Photos in the Beautyberries
Two years ago we started taking photos at a particular spot in Sam Houston National Forest. We were a few weeks later than usual this year but we finally made it out to take photos. I like the progression: Before Forest Two weeks after that first photo Last year’s photo And this year! One thing I do notice from being out there and in the photos is that the area needs to be burned again, there’s quite a bit of undergrowth and it doesn’t look as nice as it did those first two times. I’m also annoyed with the painting on some of the trees, I’m guessing to mark trees…
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Birthday Fun at the Texas State Aquarium
For Forest’s birthday we spent most of the morning at the Texas State Aquarium. I hadn’t been since I was a teenager, about 20 years ago, and during that time period went two or three times. I had vague memories of it but couldn’t quite recall everything about it. It appeared based on the website that the aquarium had more attractions but it was also working on an upgrade to the facilities. When we actually arrived to the aquarium I began remembering more about it, recalling that I had been to some of the features before and that definitely some of it was new. They are working to upgrade to…
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Forest Turns Two
We chose to take a short vacation to North Padre Island for Forest’s second birthday instead of having a party. While part of me still wished for that party, I’m very glad we opted to go on a vacation and spend some time at the beach because Forest loved it so much! We kept it pretty simple, chosing to find a hotel that had a kitchenette so we could cook some meals in our room and for the most part we just stuck to heading for the beach with one excursion on Forest’s birthday into Corpus Christi to go to the Texas State Aquarium. Compared to last year this was…
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Whitlock Weekend July 2016
*Prepare for a photo overload!* Last weekend the part of the Whitlock clan, my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew, came down for a visit. The four of them haven’t been here together since Forest’s birthday last year and my SIL, Zoe, and Grayson haven’t been here since last November. It was time for a visit! Friday evening we all walked over to the park so they could hunt some Pokemon. While Zoe and Curt were searching for pidgies and the like Grayson and Forest played around on the jungle gym and were being silly boys! Grayson told me he was a monkey as he was climbing the jungle gym—lots of…
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Forest Friday | Playground Shenangians
This kid: turning into a big boy, got a hair cut, always has a cracker in hand, ready to explore the world. Love, love, love him!
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Toddler Life | Summer 2016
These days, the toddler is much more of a toddler than he has ever been. There’s glimpses of little kid coming through, too. I realized this more the other day when I was looking at photos from February’s trip to Village Creek State Park. He’s a baby in those photos! I know that in six months I will look back on photos from this summer and think he was so little now and that yes, this will be never ending. Forest’s verbal skills are improving immensely but he hasn’t hit the sentence stage yet. Words that he’s never even tried to say will just come out all of a sudden.…