A little vacation....with family

So since the holidays are here, and my husband works for a state school, we get 2 weeks of vacation!!! We visit our family, eat good food and have a good time. Surprisingly, most of it is enjoyable!

The first weekend in a while that Aunt Caren had a weekend off, so we decided to go see her in Arlington...

This is Caren and Andrew taking a break on the Sears Home Department floor

In Earthbound, checking out the crabs. Andrew didn't want anything to do with them.

Lookin' good at an Arlington park.

This was another park that had a pond on it.

Such good pictures!

Forgive this picture, for it is not photoshopped when it needs to be! HA!

Up in the Tower of the America's in San Antonio with Gary's side of the family.

The one thing that Andrew never gets tired of, is pointing and going "ooooohhh...."

Great Aunt Natalie and Andrew

Going into a 4D mini-movie of the awesomeness of Texas.

Aren't we a good looking pair? A dorky but good looking pair...

FYI, I love this state!

Trying out the big guns at the Buckhorn Saloon in San Antonio.

We ate lunch here before heading out the Disney's Lion King play at the theatre. I wish I would have taken a picture of the place...I can't believe I didn't. There was not a single spot on the walls that wasn't covered with a type of wildlife head. Deer, caribou, cows, elk, you name it; even a polar bear stood up high in its once-alive defensive stance!!! Burgers were nothing to be excited about, but that place was sure something to check out!

At the bowling alley in Waco with the Bates and the Wittys.

We played husband/wife teams. Damien (bro-in-law) had a great idea--whose ever team lost, they'd pay for dinner. Guess who lost? The Bates did...the Bates did. =)

Andrew loves his uncle Damien, he's always beating him up ;)

Elita (Nana) and the Bates boys played on a separate lane with gutter rails...they kicked our butts!

Here's Nana letting Andrew roll on her turn.

This little dude climbs on EVERYTHING!!!

Merry Christmas y Feliz Navidad!

Hope you all have a wonderful time with family and have an good New Years!

Mischievous behavior and Snow!!!

So I thought about all the pictures that I've been taking but not uploading and I figured I better get to it...

Well, since Andrew has been growing, he's become more mischievous...for instance, climbing up on his table! (But it can only be blamed on his parents first for letting him, second because his mischievous genes are hereditary)

More of his mischievous behavior in my kitchen. He loves to open those cabinet doors and pull out things that most intrigue him. Apparently he found something in the back that caught his fancy and decided to crawl in...

I know this looks bad, but every time I get on the stove, he whines and whines until I pull up a chair so that he can see what's going on and then proceeds to take the spoon away from me. He knows it's hot and tries to blow the steam away. Here we were making Chicken & Dumplin' soup for lunch for Gary.

There's a park nearby our house, several "cuadras" (blocks) away, so we decided to walk to it and spend some time outdoors. The day was perfect and there was nobody at the park which is always nice. Sometimes there's rowdy kids and Andrew just pays attention to what they're doing...never takes his eyes off them.

I love how Andrew now likes to wear his shades, I always say "how cool do you look?" and make a big deal about how good he looks...he's hilarious because he pushes his shades back if they're falling off his face and it seems like he thinks he's it!!! He's a pro at lookin' good.

There's these plastic rocks to get up into the 'jungle gym' but this isn't the first time he's climbed them.

He is so good at picking up his leg and climbing it amazes me how kids instinctively know how they're supposed to do that to get to the top.

He had a little trouble climbing this time around, so Gary pushed his hiney up. It cracks me up!

I think I posted this on facebook, but this is such a good shot of his funny faces when he whines.

...and of course, when he can't get his way this is what he does: he cries until something else distracts him, and completely goes back to normal. Gary's side of the family claims he's a 'faker' but real crocodile tears come out if only for a few seconds - haha!

This is another funny face, but this time he's grinning and laughing...he's mouth is full of teeth now (which I think they are too big for him and I know his huge head with grow into them) and he just clinches his jaw and props back his head...as his mother, I think I have a right to think that my kid is the cutest being on earth!

He just learned this trick a couple of days ago, Moomie bought this for him before he was born and lately, he's been using the heck out of it. So now he's learned a few tricks on it...

He's a stunt man.

The 2nd of Dec was officially the first snow here in Abilene. We got up at 7am with Gary to look at the snow but no way we were going to get out in it...so we went back to bed and by the time we got up (9:30am) the snow was already half melted!!! Crap!

But that didn't stop me from bundling Andrew up real nice and warm and getting the camera out for his first snow pictures.

He initially didn't know what to think of going outside. It was so cold, 30 something degrees, and there was water dripping from the roof. The entire ground was wet too.

He's always pointing his little finger and going "OHH" but he never took a step...I think he was assessing the situation - Ha ha!

He didn't know what the heck the gloves were for...he kept opening and closing his fists trying to figure out what they were I guess.

I threw a snowball at him, but he just looked at me like I was an idiot...

...and just watched it fall to the ground.

I took off one of his gloves since he wasn't touching the snow with his gloves, the snow kept sticking to the glove and he kept flicking it off...I love his face in this shot.

"Heck NO Mom!"

"Ooooh"

I made him pose in our neighbor's back yard since it was the only snow on the ground. Ha!

Again, he didn't move at all...

Maybe next time it snows more and we get up earlier, we'll have more fun. :) Maybe.

Kodak Moment from the backseat

He's gotten into a phase that he loves to put on shades and this time he actually kept them on the entire way home, I look back and he smiles at me! So I had to get my phone and snap a picture...

He makes my day!

So proud of my little "artiste!!!"

Since most of you know me, you know that I am talented in the art department.

Andrew nowadays wants to get on my lap while I'm on the computer so that he play on the keyboard. But recently he's been getting this pen/highlighter combo and scribbling all over the place! So I put a notepad in front of him, and this is just one of the doodles he's done.

Notice it's also on the desk and also on his hands...

He even holds the pen/highlighter almost correctly in his little hands! What can I say?

Gary still is hoping he can play sports AND be good at them, maybe I haven't ruined that part of his genetic make-up =\

Eating home-made yogurt at Moomie's while we were house sitting...what a mess!

He sat in the box and his butt got stuck!

Pumpkin carving...errr...painting!

Hand prints for eyes and a scribbley line for a mouth and a smudge for a nose!