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The last month has been super crazy, and our calendar looks like we're going to be swamped until Christmas. Here's a quick update:

John spent the last 4 weeks in Amarillo, working in the Family Medicine department. He had a great time and everyone there loved him. I think he got brownie points for having a wife from Amarillo, too. Drew and I managed without him, but last week I took vacation so we could go hang out in Amarillo with John and my parents. We had a great time eating and relaxing and then eating some more. Drew is especially silly when my parents are around, probably because he knows how easy it is to make them laugh.

Now we're all back home, and I'm so glad! It was really tough to be a single parent for a few weeks, and it made me appreciate all the things John does for us. We're heading to Oklahoma City for a couple of days for Thanksgiving. I promise to upload some pictures from the last month so you can see what we've been up to.

This time of year always makes me count my blessings, and I'm especially thankful for my two boys - John and Drew. They just make my life fun. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Family Pictures

We (finally) went to get Drew's 1-year old pictures done. We were just 2 months behind, but I think that's close enough. Since it's getting near Halloween, we took his costume and let him get all dressed up for photos. His favorite part was eating Daddy's stethoscope. Here are some of my favorites:

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, we went to the pumpkin patch with friends from church. The weather was chilly and dreary, so we got out our warm jackets. Drew usually hates hats, but I think he liked that this one kept his little ears warm. We ate lunch with our friends (Drew ate an entire corny dog -- that kid has an appetite!) then let him roam the pumpkin patch and took photos.

This year instead of propping up Drew on the pumpkins, he wandered all around, talking to the pumpkins and running down the aisles.

Family picture time!

He was delighed to learn that the pumpkins make a hollow noise when you thump them.

Daddy was the supervisor as Drew marched through the pumpkins

My favorite picture -- Drew watches Sesame Street when we go to Grandmommy's house in Amarillo. Occasionally we'll watch it on a Saturday at home, but he sure did recognize Big Bird. He seems surprised that Big Bird was at the pumpkin patch and not in Amarillo at Grandmommy's house.

Tooth brushing

Now that Drew has a mouth full of teeth, we have introduced him to the toothbrush. Usually I put a little toothpaste on the brush and quickly brush his upper teeth. He only lets me brush them for a second before he takes away the brush. He'll brush his bottom teeth a bit and chew on the toothbrush for a while. (Side note - Did you know they don't make mint toothpaste for kids? All the flavors for kids sound disgusting to be toothpaste - bubble gum, tooty fruity, fruit punch. Ugh.)

So many pictures, so little time

It's been a while since I've uploaded any pictures. In that time Drew's been to visit both sets of grandparents and has really mastered walking around. So - here are a few of my favorite photos from the last month:

Drew playing in the cupboard with his cousin James. We spent the weekend at Nonnie and Paw Paw's house (John's parents), and the boys had a wonderful time playing together.


There is a little park across the street from their new house, so we all went to play. Drew went down the slide a few times with Daddy, then by himself! I love that he still sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating.

After all that play time, Drew took a bubble bath.

Last weekend we went to Amarillo to visit my family. Here is Drew with his cousin Ryan from California. The boys are only 2 months apart and had a great time playing with each other.

"The spaghetti was good, Mom. Do you want a kiss?"

One tooth, two teeth, five teeth

Never one to do things the easy way, Drew just cut three teeth - at the same time. Poor kiddo. Please forgive my lack of blogging the last couple of weeks, but I'm sure you can imagine that things have been hectic.

We had a great visit to Oklahoma City to visit John's family. They were delighted to see how much Drew has grown. He loved playing with his cousin James, and I have some adorable pictures of James (who is 9 months older) sitting on a Mickey Mouse truck while Drew pushes him around the room. They were quite a pair!

Drew continues to figure out this walking thing. He now walks all the way across the room or down the hall on his own. He's just figured out how to get onto his feet from sitting (without using a wall or furniture to pull up on). He is now trying to run, but hasn't mastered that yet. I have a feeling that once he takes off, he's going to be hard to stop!

On the tooth front, two of his three new teeth (all on the top) have made their way through the skin and the third one is starting to appear. We haven't seen any more bottom teeth coming in, so hopefully there will be a respite before more of this teething fun.

We're heading to Amarillo this weekend to visit my family, including my Aunt Lainie, cousin Melissa, and her son Ryan. Those two are about 2 months apart, so they should have a great time together. Hope you enjoy your Labor Day!

First Birthday Party

Last weekend we had Drew's first birthday party. We were so blessed to have our friends and family join us for hamburgers, hot dogs, and, of course, birthday cake. Here are a few of our memories.

We decided to go with a Veggie Tales theme. I was SO happy with the way the cakes turned out - we had Larry the Cucumber as the cake for everyone and Bob the Tomato as Drew's smash cake.



Gavin, Ashley, Dad, and Gracie

The Webb family - Joey's birthday is in just a couple of weeks, and I saw him eyeing Drew's cake.

Drew helping me open gifts

Lots of friends watching Drew open gifts

Drew got many great gifts. As soon as we opened some books, he wanted to sit down and read them.

Next up: Cake time! We set Drew up in his high chair and let him go to town on his cake. He didn't seem to mind the 20 people standing around watching him. He just dug right in.

The Slatons

The cake was pretty good for the first little while... then Drew started smearing the icing around. Once he got icing in his eyes, he went straight into meltdown mode. I took him straight to the bathtub and scrubbed off the red icing.

Poor Drew was on a sugar high for hours. At about 8 o'clock, the sugar high wore off and he crashed. He's already looking forward to the next time he gets to eat cake.

We all had a great time. Thanks to everyone for coming to join us!

First Haircut

Drew was starting to look like a backwoods truck driver with his mullet. His hair is super soft and fine, and it was starting to curl up behind his ears and around his neck. We decided that it was time to cut off that mop of hair. Here's what he looked like before:



Drew sat in the barber chair all by himself and looked like such a big boy!

He didn't realize that he was supposed to keep his head still so she could cut his hair. He was checking out Laurie, the stylist, and the little girl behind him.


Drew was a champ and didn't fuss, except for the last couple of minutes when she got out the electric razor. He didn't like that noise so close to his ear. His favorite part was playing with the smock!

The finished product. What do you think? He looks like such a grown up now!

Now he's all ready for his big birthday party next weekend! If only Mom was ready too...

Major Milestone

Drew is walking. He had been taking two little steps but now is going 5 or 6 steps at a time. I'm sure in the near future he'll be running all over the house!

Quick catch-up

I'm short on time so this will be a quick update of what we've been up to this last month...

For our anniversary (6 years - can you believe it?), John took me to a Keith Urban concert. We had a fantastic time and even John enjoyed himself. It's hard not to marvel at Keith's amazing guitar playing.

We took Drew to his first Rangers game. We went with our Sunday School class and had a really great time. Drew was precious when he kept looking around the stadium like he was awestruck. We're hoping this will be the first of many trips to the Ballpark.

Drewby with the field in the background

Daddy and Drew...the hat didn't last long :)

Drew's great grandfather gave us an OU shirt when he was born. He's now grown into it but clearly doesn't want to be a Sooner. He seemed much happier when we promised that he could still be a Baylor Bear. Look close and you can see his first tooth. Tooth #2 has come through but isn't all the way in. We think he's getting one on the top too. I personally hope they all come in at once so he can get the fussiness out of the way, but I guess we have to wait and see.

Til next time...

July 4th...a little late

To end the marathon vacation post, we wound up in Amarillo where John and I went to pick up Drew. He had a great time visiting his Grandmommy and Granddad. From what we hear, he watched some Sesame Street, visited Great Grandmom and Pop every day, spent Saturday with Great Granny and Papa, and generally had the run of the place. My folks have moved to a new house in the country with a few acres, so I'm sure Drew will take full advantage of the space when he gets to the tricycle-riding and baseball-throwing phases.

Here he is with Great Grandmom and Pop, who just light up when they see him.

Here is Drew playing with his favorite toy - the box. Of all the toys that Grandmommy got for him to play with, he seemed most fascinated with the big box.

I just love this picture. My sweet baby with his 90-year-old great grandfather. And look at that face - does it get better than this?

We celebrated the 4th as all good Americans should - with explosives. Drew was afraid of the booms of some of the larger ones, but liked the lights and colors. I'm sure in a few years he'll want to be out there with his Daddy setting them off.

Vacation's over... back to real life. Boo.

Vacation Post 3: New York City

We took the train from Philadelphia through the Pennsylvania and New Jersey countryside to New York City. We took an obscene number of pictures (at last count, we had over 400), but I promise to only include the highlights.

We arrived at Penn Station, which unbeknownst to us, is underneath Madison Square Garden. We took a cab to our hotel, which was in a fantastic location, a few blocks north of Times Square, a few blocks south of Central Park, and a couple blocks west of Rockefeller Center. The first day we got our bearings and did some sightseeing. Here's John at Times Square.


For dinner, we went to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory in Times Square. While in New York, we tried to eat at non-chain restaurants. I think this is a chain, but it doesn't count since there isn't one in Dallas and I'd never been before.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by the Times Square Toys R Us store. It was enormous! It was 4 stories tall, with a 3-story ferris wheel. Of course we bought a few things for Drew, and we marveled at all the cool stuff, including this enormous (must have been 15-feet tall) Statue of Liberty, made entirely out of Legos.

We did some more walking around and saw Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center. I love this photo, with the neon reflecting off the fountain.

We wound up at the NBC studios at Rockefeller Center right at sunset. We decided to take the elevator up and do the "Top of the Rock" which had amazing views of the New York skyline.

Here's my favorite view, looking south at the Empire State Building.

The next day, we got tickets for the double decker bus tour. It took us to all the big tourist highlights. I'll spare you the details, but we pretty much went throughout the city to see all the different neighborhoods, major landmarks, and movie settings.

John and I hopped off the bus in Soho and walked around a little bit. There were lots of cute shops and a ton of artist-type street vendors. We went to Lombardi's Pizza in Little Italy for lunch. John wanted to do a pizza tour of New York, so we hit a different pizza place every day. Lombardi's was my favorite because they use a coal-fired brick oven, which makes a sort of crispy crust, and there was fresh basil on top of the cheese. Yum!

We hopped back on the bus and headed downtown. We saw Ground Zero, then walked through Battery Park, from the North Cove Marina (featured on Hitch) to the tip of Manhattan. Here we had a great view of the Statue of Liberty (below on the left) and Ellis Island (on the right). The weather was fantastic -- probably low 80s and just a little cloud cover.

We winded our way back through downtown, stopping at Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, and then the city park. John wanted to walk the Brooklyn Bridge, so here he is as we started our trek. An interesting Brooklyn Bridge fact - it was built for horses and carriages, so it's not tall enough to accommodate buses or trucks. It's cars and vans only allowed. We caught another tour bus and did a tour of Brooklyn. We went back to the city and had a fun dinner at a Chinese place.

The next day we hit the sights of uptown Manhattan. Again, we took the tour bus and saw all sort of cool things, like where lots of celebrities live and where some of our favorite shows were filmed. The bus went through Harlem, so we saw the Apollo Theater, which was jammed with people writing tributes on the wall to Michael Jackson. We also saw the office in Harlem, where Bill Clinton conducts his affairs. (Get it? Affairs? Hahaha) We hopped off the bus on the Upper West Side and got a hot dog from a street vendor.

We wandered our way through Central Park, which was full of people on the beautiful Sunday afternoon. We walked all the way around the reservoir and got some fantastic pictures of the skyline.

Next we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have 57 Monet paintings, which were my favorite. It was crowded but we enjoyed wandering around, feeling cultured.

After the Met, we headed to another pizza place, Famiglia's, for a quick bite to eat before we went to see the musical "Wicked." We got a great deal on the tickets and our seats were wonderful. Neither of us had seen it before and were thoroughly entertained. I think now I might even be able to convince John to go see one of the Dallas Summer Musicals with me.

The next morning we started with a tour of the NBC studios. We got to see the sets for the NBC Nightly News and the CNBC studio, the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon set, and Saturday Night Live. I was really surprised at how small the SNL set was, but the guide said that they use a lot of wide angle lenses and other tricks to make it seem larger. After our tour, we headed uptown. We saw some commotion at The Plaza, where Mariah Carey was filming her new music video. She's super skinny in person.

Then we wandered over to Serendipity for ice cream (which was actually a big disappointment), but I almost ran straight into Diane Sawyer on the street. That might have been embarrassing. We stopped by FAO Schwartz, then headed across town. John wanted to find the restaurant they used to film the Seinfeld shots at, which was in this cute neighborhood. As we were taking this picture, a lady who apparently lives nearby, warned us not to eat at the restaurant, as the food was "horrible." We took her advice.

That evening we ate at John's Pizzeria, which was recommended to us by several tour guides. Then we hopped back on the double decker bus for the night tour. We went all around Manhattan and Brooklyn to see the sights at dusk. Here are a couple of our favorite shots - of the Empire State Building (lit up in blue, I guess for July 4th), and the view of downtown Manhattan from Brooklyn.

On our last morning in New York, we went back to Rockefeller Center to watch them film the Today Show. We got to see all the anchors, and Al Roker stopped to shake our hands and take a picture. We were even on the Today Show as they panned the crowd. It was really fun just to see how things run behind the scenes.

That afternoon we headed back to Dallas, ready to be back in Texas, where people are polite and there aren't a million people everywhere. Next stop was Amarillo to pick up Drew.