Costume party!

Our Life Stage (aka Sunday School class) had a costume party on Saturday night and the Wells family went in style. :-) Russ was Jack Bauer, I was a Soldier, and Garrett was a little white tiger. I let Garrett choose his own costume at Walmart and he chose the white tiger over a frog or a giraffe. This made me smile because it makes me think of my cousin Brent...he loved white tigers. I can't believe it's been almost 2 years since he passed away. (For those of you who don't know my family, Brent was the same age as my younger sister Krista, and he had cystic fibrosis. He had a lung transplant that gave him an extra year or so of life but he passed away two Novembers ago. He accepted Christ right around the time of his transplant and he reached a lot of people through his life and death.) Garrett wasn't sure what to think of his costume at first and he had a meltdown when he saw me with the Army hat on. But after some snuggling he was all smiles again. The party was fun and Garrett stole the show as usual. It's been fun getting to know these folks and getting involved a bit in our Life Stage group.

The Barricade and the droopy drawers

Garrett is into EVERYTHING these days so we've devised a barricade out of whatever laundry baskets are hanging around. So far it seems to do the trick and he enjoys pulling things out and putting things into the baskets. He has fun and we have fun watching him!

The pictures below illustrate my current frustration with baby pants. Garrett fits the 9 month pants perfectly--lengthwise--but they literally FALL OFF his body because of his skinny little torso. Here's a million-dollar tip for any would-be baby clothes designer...make the waists adjustable! Or put real drawstrings in the waists, not just the fake little strings that don't tighten anything. I never dreamed any child of mine would have an issue with clothes being too large.

PS: The droopy drawers don't seem to bother him unless they keep him from crawling and/or standing up. Then he whines and shimmies out of them. Such a little problem-solver already!

My Birthday

Last week was my 28th birthday. I'm slowly creeping closer to the big 3-0. Russ likes to claim that we're only as old as the average of our two ages...which makes us both 29 1/2ish. Ick. Works for him, it makes him younger than he really is. Anyways, Russ made me dinner and brought home ice cream cake (YUM!) on my big day. Then we opened cards and gifts. And I do mean WE. Garrett had just as much fun as I did. Thank you to all who sent cards/called/texted me that day. I felt very special and loved!! The video below is of Garrett playing his current favorite game: Peek-A-Boo!

Pumpkin Patch

Today was Pumpkin Patch day! The weather was perfect and we had a great time walking around in the sunshine. Garrett wasn't sure what was going on exactly, but he loved being outside with his parents.

Disclaimer: I'm having issues with the formatting here on Blogger tonight. I've uploaded and re-uploaded these pictures about 3 times now and it keeps wanting to add spaces and lines where they don't belong. So, I'm not writing captions for the pictures like I usually do. They're pretty self-explanatory anyways. :-)

Fall Fest

Tonight was the Fall Festival on campus at DTS. I didn't know what to expect but they had quite a few kid-friendly games and activities going on. And most of them involved winning candy--who doesn't love that? (Besides our dentists.) Garrett was a bit too young to appreciate the games but he did like sharing my BBQ sandwich and watching all the people running around. The weather was perfect and fall-like which was extra-nice since we've had nothing but rain and cloudy skies for the last week. Have I mentioned how much I love sweater weather? It's here! We had a great time hanging out with some friends from our Spiritual Formation group and some other classmates of Russ's that I got to meet for the first time. Next year will be even more fun because Garrett will be able to get down and run around. Hmm...maybe we'll need to invest in one of those kid-leashes I've seen. Ha! Anyway, here are a couple of pics from our fun evening and a couple of other random pics from the last week or so.

Garrett was having fun sticking his tongue out at us.

Family photo op!

Wearing his slicker on one of our rainy days and getting into trouble. Doesn't he just look mischievous? Probably thinking about Lucy's bowls.

This is what I walk into his room and find every morning now. He's up and ready to go. Mostly. As you can tell in the bottom picture, he's not entirely coherent yet but he knows that he's awake and wants to stand up. Always standing up. :-)

This video shows you Garrett's first wave. He's not 100% sure of what he's doing but he knows that he should be doing something with his hands and that we get very excited when he does it. Close enough for me! Yay!! (I know that some of you skeptics out there will say this doesn't count, but you don't get to decide...we do! So there.)

The Kitchen

Garrett is all over the kitchen these days. And he doesn't limit himself to just the dog food bowl anymore, either. It's the water bowl, the dustpan, the table, and everywhere in between. We have a busy, busy boy on our hands!


Splish splash!!


This is the view that I have a LOT right now...Garrett's backside quickly crawling away.


Wonder what this can do?


Cleaning up!

Standing up.

Grammy Time

Garrett (and his parents) had a great time visiting with his Grammy last week. There were a lot of books read, songs sung, and hugs given. :-) It was fabulous! Here are some pictures from her visit.

Grammy's last morning in Dallas.

Showing off his standing skills.

Lucy LOVES her Grammy and rarely leaves her lap when she's here.

Garrett figured out the joy of kleenex while his Grammy was here. Apparently this was his Uncle Phil's favorite game as a baby too.

Lucy is helping with the kleenex demolition project.

Grandparents Visit and Aggies Game

Garrett has had the pleasure of a visit from his Grammy and Granddad this last weekend (Mike and Nancy to us grown-ups). Granddad had to leave this morning but Grammy is with us for a few more days so expect some more pictures after that. :-)

On Friday they were able to go to DTS with Russ and sit in on some classes and a chapel service as well as visiting the bookstore (my own personal favorite on campus!). Russ and I enjoyed a date night that evening and had dinner alone before wandering the NorthPark Mall and getting some Cold Stone ice cream. Mmmm. On Saturday, Garrett and Mommy went to work while Daddy, the grandparents, Aunt Hillary and Uncle Jason went to the Aggie game being played in the new Cowboys stadium. This was a whole-day event and even though the Aggies lost, they all had a blast and agreed that the new stadium is beyond amazing. :-) On Sunday we did church, lunch, Cowboys game, and SF group with a lot of visiting time mixed in there as well. Today Russ spent the day deep in his studies while Garrett and I took Grammy to the mall after I got a much-needed haircut.

Chewing on Granddad's glasses...NOT the teething toy in my hand.


Wearing a napkin hat.

Outside the Cowboys stadium.


Are you ready for some football? Yes. The answer for these two is always always YES.

Russ and Jason inside the new stadium.

Our 8 Month-Old!

Garrett turned 8 months yesterday and "celebrated" by going to church, lunch at Babe's with his parents, grandparents and Aunt Hillary, and watched the Cowboys (sad sad sad) game. He's growing all the time and as cliche as it sounds...time really does fly by. :-) Since he's already mastered the crawling thing, he's decided to start working on his walking skills by pulling himself up to standing using ANYTHING around him. He even does it using the sliding glass patio door. So here are his 8 month pictures with the Airborne Bear. He was getting hungry and only sat still for a couple then got really crabby when we did the standing-up picture. The little monkey can hardly sit still anymore unless he's asleep. And this is only the beginning of his mobility...

Sporty Boy!

Trying to escape the photo shoot

I'm hungry...and I want to be done...

Bonus picture: Playing during the Cowboys game and staring at his crazy Daddy shouting at the TV. Not sure what was going on at this point, but it got Garrett's attention!