Rogan's Almost Birthday!

Since we were with my family the week before Rogan's birthday we decided to have a party for him at my parent's house. We'll have another this weekend at our house for Brian's side of the family. His birthday is actually this Thursday, so I think we will have fully celebrated it by the weekend. We cannot believe he's already one. It seems like it was just yesterday, that we were planning our vacation to Colorado and headed to Texas to pick him up instead. I was just starting to blog the month before he was born and if you look back to those old posts you'll see how he entered our world in a whirlwind.

He's the happiest almost 1 year old around. He smiles and giggles non-stop. We're so thankful to have him and he's a great little brother for Brice. He's so laid back and easy going, he doesn't even care when his big brother steals his toys and refuses to share (we're working on it).

Rogan dug into his birthday cupcake, but just wanted to smear it all around. He wasn't interested in eating any of it. We can't wait for his party this weekend and there will definitely be more pictures to come!

Fisher

As we were getting around yesterday morning and preparing to leave my parent's house, we got a call from our veternarian that our lab Fisher had died. We were shocked. Apparently, he suffered a gastric torsion and died suddenly. Gastric torsions are common in labs but we weren't prepared to have him leave us quite yet.

Fisher was a handlful of a dog, he tore up more things than I even care to mention. He was full of energy and loved to play fetch with his tennis ball until he would almost collapse. We would have to hide the ball to get him to stop. He and Brice were buddies and they loved to play outside together. He was a big ol' blockhead, but he was our big ol' blockhead and we loved him very much and we miss him. Luckily, Brice is young enough that he really doesn't know what happened and hasn't looked for him. He still has our old dog Maggie and even though she's 10 years old, she is very patient with him and lets Brice walk his dinosaurs all over her while she is just trying to lay around and rest.

If you're in my family, you love dogs. We've even cried over each other's dogs. We'll miss Fisher and we're thankful he was with us for six years.

Griswold Family Vacation

The Griswolds made it through another road trip. This year we went to Texas for a week to spend time with my family. We went with my parents to Dinosaur World and Fossil Rim Park in Glen Rose, TX. Brice loved Dinosaur World. He ran full speed through the dinosaur trail, but that's just Brice. The adults were all suffering trying to keep up with him in the relentless Texas heat. He was so excited, he couldn't wait to see what was around the next corner. He kept looking back to us and waving saying, "come on guys, look at this!". My cousin and his family and my aunt and uncle met us in Glen Rose. We all went to Fossil Rim Park which is great. It is a 9.5 mile drive through animal park. You stop halfway through to visit the petting zoo, gift shop and snack bar. You are able to feed the animals by dropping food from your car window all the way through the park. The giraffes come up to your car and you are able to hand feed those. It was a blast.

After Glen Rose, we followed my family back to my aunt and uncle's home in Lampasas. They have about 10 acres and the kids were able to feed chickens, pet some goats, climb on tractors, ride in golf carts and play with the dogs. They had so much fun and were covered in dirt (and other stuff I'm sure) from head to toe.

The rest of the week we spent at my parent's house in Denton. We took the kids to a water park and spent time with my cousin Tracee and her husband Derek. They brought poor Louie their puppy over to hang with Brice again. Poor dog, he ran non stop with Brice for two days and even responded when Brice consistently called him RUE-WEE. My parents set up a miniature water park in their backyard so the kids had three swimming pools to play in. The adults took advantage of the cold water to cool off too.

We had a great trip and lots of fun with all my cousins, second cousins, cousin-in-laws, aunt, uncle and my parents. We hope they all had as much fun as we did.

Happy Father's Day!

11 Months

Better late than never...I'm almost a week behind on this one. Rogan turned 11 months old on June 9th. He is starting to babble a lot. He said "Bubba" last night, which I'm convinced he was attempting to get Brice's attention since they were on the floor together. He says "Dada" all the time and of course nothing even close to mom. He'll probably follow in Brice's shoes and call me Boss. Either that, or he will call me Mom or Momma and the first time Brice hears it he'll say who's that? Mom? I don't understand. Why do you call her that? That's Boss. Such is my life. It's okay, I know I'm loved.

Rogan is pulling up and starting to try to stand on his own a little bit. He stands and starts to bounce, trying to figure out how to get his legs to move. He hasn't attempted to take a step yet. He prefers to drop down to his knees and crawl at warp speed to wherever he's headed.

Rogan is all smiles, still. He laughs at everything. He's a giggle box. He even laughs when you're trying to feed him. He'll look at you, smile, then start to giggle. He can't help it. It's so funny and we love it. You can't help but to laugh along. He's so happy.

Four teeth have arrived, finally! His top front two teeth have finally come through. He has figured out how to grind the top and bottom together to make the worst sound in the world. It's worse than fingernails on a chalkboard, of course he finds it hilarious.

We'll be in Texas the week before Rogan's birthday so we are going to have a get together at my parents' house with my family. When we get home, we'll have Rogan's birthday here at our house for the rest of our family. His first birthday sure did get here fast.

Our Weekend

The neighbors had a birthday party

then...we pretty much played outside the rest of the the weekend.

The Pool

Our neighborhood pool opens this weekend, but we decided to get a jump start on summer today. I have shrugged off all responsibility this week and have played outside with the kids everyday. I have managed to cook dinner every night except one...although we've eaten most of our meals on the patio. We may not have clean socks or underwear, the house may be messy, the carpet has not been vacuumed, but we have had a lot fun this week. And, we're getting a good start on our summer tans.

The boys and I ran to Big Lots early this morning and bought a pool. We had a great one last year, with a slide and everything, but at the end of summer our lab Fisher decided to jump in with Brice and he managed to tear a hole in the bottom of it. So, Brice and Rogan got a new pool this year.

Here is our day in pictures...