PawPaw's Birthday

We celebrated PawPaw's birthday a few weeks ago.

One of PawPaw's awesome gifts. A reciprocal saw- everyone needs one, duh.

PawPaw and PatPat got this "roller coaster" for the grandkids.

I try not to think of the dangers.

We once tried to make Henry wear a helmet.... that definitely put a damper on the fun.

WEEEEEE!

30 weeks

Margaret Gray turned 30 weeks last week.

She's moving all around... sometimes I think more than Henry did.And thank goodness Henry is getting better at picking up his own toys, because its getting a little hard to bend over.

(Jenny, this is for you. I remember your belly pic wearing this shirt :)

Baby Jackson

Our sweet nephew, Jackson Barnard Louis, was born on November 6th to proud parents Megan and Walter.

We are super excited that he has arrived!

Absolutely precious!
His red hair has me green with envy!!!

We love you, Jackson, and look forward to meeting you.

And she has a name!

It's been a battle here in the Louis household... Tom holding out for one name, and I holding out for another. But little did Tom know, I had been calling her "his" name for quite some time now.

Margaret Gray Louis

It just feels right to me.

(So sorry all you Anna fans. )

>

Some info behind the name-

Both my grandmothers are named Margaret.

My father's mom's name is Margaret Gray, her mother was named Margaret Gray, and her mother was named Margaret Elizabeth Gray.

Tom also had a great aunt whose name was Margaret.

I went to get the paint for the nursery... "Sunny Day".... a light, buttery yellow.

Hopefully we can get it painted soon.... Margaret's nursery will completed before she comes, right?

(Sara, I stole your idea of writing her name of the wall. Thanks.)

Halloween '09

Henry wanted to start out his 2nd Halloween with a shout out to his baby sister:

We then headed out to our friend, Cooper's 1st birthday party. His mom, Liz, and I met in college. I wish we lived closer so we could get together more often!

She is super creative! The party had so many amazing details!

Here's the cake she made-

Liz and Cooper


The kids at the party
(Coop's older brother, Jackson, is the UPS worker- 2nd from the left. notice Henry's feet/knees... ha!)


Henry loving his ghost cake pop



With the birthday boy

Great friends! Both with child!

(Liz is expecting in June with her 3rd... I had a dream she was having a girl before she even knew she was preggers, so we'll see!)



After Cooper's party, we headed over to the Seamans to hang out with them and the McAdams family.

Carrot-girl, Brinley, with Amy

Isn't that the cutest costume!?!

Henry (unwilling to take another pic) and Brinley.... Ava was already asleep :(

Kristen made us these matching Halloween flowers...

and one for Baby Girl Louis- I sported her's on my belly.

Turned out Henry didn't get to go trick or treating because by the time we made it to the Seamans, it was time for him to go to bed.... there's always next year.

"Happy" Halloween

Being the great mom that I am, when it was time to think about Halloween costumes, I went to Kate and asked her what costumes she had in Henry's size. (who wouldn't want a free costume, right?) Henry's cousin, Ella, wore this costume when she was Henry's age.

He isn't that excited about his too small costume.

After playing a while in it....

... his "duck feet" went from hovering above his feet...

... to shin guards.

"Quack! Quack!"

"Wildlife" of the Waco Zoo

My sister, Sarah, and I met today in Waco (halfway point for us) to spend a little quality time together.

After eating a so-so Mexican lunch (served by a terrible waiter), we made our way to the Cameron Park Zoo.

Here are some of the very interesting animals we saw:

a komodo dragon sculpture,

giraffes, locked in a big garage looking thing,

half of a dead fish, a turtle,
a dead frog,

and several pictures of the animals that were supposed to be on exhibit... here, the elephant.

ALL THE ANIMALS WERE LOCKED UP!!!

(Well, I take that back, we did see a lemur (that ran away when we walked up) and a huge rat looking mammal)

And did the ticket people tell us that we weren't going to see any animals when we paid admission- NO!

While leaving, we inquired where all, excuse me- most all, of the animals were, and they gave us vouchers for the next time we visit.... we'll see about that.

They did have this neat "chime panel thing" on which Henry enjoyed making music.

Sweet Liam

Cousins in orange... not planned, surprisingly.

I love me some Sarah time.

(I love you too, Elizabeth. We missed you)

Weekend

The Louis family had a busy weekend.

We first met our friends,the Pettkes, at the pumpkin patch so we could take each other's pics. This was quite an adventure. The boys, Henry and Luke, didn't want anything to do with family pics.

Here are Tom and Michelle trying to corral the boys... before they ran into the street.

I was trying to get Henry to hold the pumpkin... he didn't. I look silly.


His face makes me laugh.

The 2 crazies playing in the parking lot.... don't worry, it was a safe environment.



After the pumpkin patch fiasco, we headed over to the Huntley's to bring them dinner and meet sweet Baby Ava Grace.

I couldn't get Henry to stand next to her.... I guess that's better than him poking her eyes out.





On Saturday, we were productive. We cleared out the guest bedroom (yes, there is a mattress sitting in the middle of our living room floor until it finds it's home- Henry enjoys jumping on it, thinks its the best thing).....

Henry helping Tom take the headboard apart.

... And we put together Henry's new crib.

All ready to sleep in his new bed.

We moved Henry's old crib to the nursery and I finished her crib skirt. I'll post those pics later.

After church on Sunday, we met my mom and my grandparents in Dallas for lunch.

Henry enjoying some after lunch literature with Mimi (I've given up on M'Dear... no other grandkids call her that, so it was getting confusing)

Henry showing Papaw the Elmo Dog book.

As always, so nice to see my grandparents. They are so special to me.

Pumpkin Patch 09

Henry and I went to visit a pumpkin patch on Tuesday.

It was too sunny, too windy, too crazy.

I just followed Henry around to see if I could snap some good shots... didn't get many.

Giving hugs to the pumpkins

This could have been the best picture... but seeing that I cut off half his face, guess we'll never know.

This year's grumpy pic

Found some his size

So excited!

Found one to buy

Last year's pics weren't any better.