Our Christmas was awesome! We spent it in Earlysville, Virginia with my family: Mom and Dad; Ryan, Teresa, and Cletus the fetus; Kirk, Gretchen, and Carter; Candice and Craig.

We hung out a lot, played lots of games, went bowling, went on a hike, (Sidenote: Dan was depressed that he couldn't scale a rock like Kirk did so he decided to take a dip in the FREEZING cold water. I've got a video. I'll post it later if I remember.)

got family pictures taken,

played mini-golf (I came in second out of 7), went go-kart racing (I came in 11th out of 11... Don't get me started),

and went to the Museum of the Confederacy and Confederate White House in Richmond.

I also gained 3 pounds which is better than I thought. I could have sworn I gained about 10 with my mom's delicious cooking. But maybe C&C's moroccan chili made my stomach turn enough to keep some of my holiday sweet cravings at bay. Ha! Just kidding. I actually liked it.

Also, on New Year's Eve I got to see one of my BFFs - Katrina Rice - and her adorable baby girl, Juliet. I want Sam and Juliet to get married, but she wasn't all that interested to tell you the truth. That's okay. For now. She's got 21 years to come around.

It was so nice to be together as a family and I hope that it happens again sooner rather than later.

Sam met his cousin Carter for the first time over Christmas break. It's crazy to see how different two little babies can be, but their personalities are very individual! Hopefully they'll become good friends. I think Sam liked him a lot.

Our Top 10 of 2008

(In no particular order.)

1. Finding out we were having a boy.
2. Our babymoon to Costa Rica.
3. Dan graduated from law school.
4. Dan passed the Texas Bar.
5. We moved to Houston, Texas.
6. Thanksgiving with some of Dan's family.
7. Christmas with my family.
8. Experiencing our first hurricane.
9. Samuel Durst was born!
10. Making money instead of borrowing it.

Happy New Year!

Here's Sam sitting on top of the new toy chest that Dan built. He can sit up now for about 30 seconds before he tips over. Dan was waiting in the wings to catch him.

After church yesterday we wanted to go on a walk, but it was SO freezing (so freezing meaning like 48 degrees)! So here's how we bundled Sammy up:

Last night we got together with Dan's old roommate Adam and his cute wife Kacie. They were in town visiting her family. They have an adorable little boy who's just 3 months younger. It was so fun to see them and their little guy! I'm sad I didn't get any pictures with Kacie!

Last night we celebrated Christmas since we're leaving TOMORROW for my mother land. (YAY!!!) Sam got some great gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Durst.

We forgot to take pictures of each other with our presents. Maybe I'll take some today. Maybe not.

Santa Comes to Town.

Saturday was the church Christmas party. I was on the activities committee so I was at church a lot of the day. While I was gone, Dan made Sam a toy chest using some of his new tools. It's nice. He did a great job.

Santa came to the party and Sam got to say hello. Some babies cried out in fear. Sam couldn't care less. I was kind of hoping that Sam would cry - it's better for pictures. But he kind of just sat there and looked around. I guess after dealing with these guys:

Santa's no big deal.

(Sidenote: The planned Santa bailed at the last minute so the part of Santa was played by a 16 year-old boy.)

I made a cool cupcake Christmas tree but I forgot to take a picture. So here's a picture of me and Sam. He got pretty tired.

Pants are overrated.

Sam has been doing this thing lately where he opens and closes his mouth but nothing comes out - no sound, no food, no barf. It's just cute.

A Haiku

Titled "Sam"

Used to poop weekly.
Now it has changed to daily.
Tragic occurrence.

*snap* *snap*

The BRAINWAVE

Much like my obssession with bongo drums, Dan has been begging for a Brainwave (a head massager). Back when we lived in Provo from 2004-2005, Dan's boss got a Brainwave. He let Dan use it and ever since, Dan has been asking for one at each birthday and Christmas. So, for his birthday (which was Dec. 6) I scoured the web for it. The only place I found that had a Brainwave sold it for $30! $30?? That's insane. I wasn't going to spend that much for a battery-powered head scratcher. Not to mention, I had a $50 birthday limit. So I looked for alternatives. Finally I found something on ebay called the Ting Ting Uno. It looked basically identical so I snatched it up for a fraction of the price. I didn't notice until after I had already bought it that I had gotten it from an adult store! YIKES!

I gave it to Dan on Saturday and he immediately put the batteries in and went to town.

Although it's not the Brainwave, I think the Ting Ting Uno worked out well in the end.

We started off Dan's birthday celebration by going to Red Robin on Friday night so that Dan could redeem his "Free Gourmet Burger" coupon. It was really good. Minus the random bits of paper I found in my chocolate shake. Nasty.

Saturday we went to the temple, worked out, Dan took a nap, and we watched ELF. I love ELF. Probably even more than my dad hates it. He can't even stand to watch it. I think it's hilarious and it gets me in the Christmas spirit.

Here's pic of Dan with his spoils.

Happy birthday, Dan! We love you!

6-Month Stats

Weight: 75th percentile
Height: 50th percentile
Head size: 95th percentile

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

This year we got to spend Thanksgiving with Dan's brother and his wife in Austin, Texas. Dan's parents also flew down from Washington so it was a big party. Thanks Adam and Yinelli for letting us crash at your place for a few days! Yinelli made an awesome turkey. I didn't get any pictures. Dan, however, got a mean shot of our niece chowing down on a turkey leg.

It reminded us of this guy we saw at the TexRenFest.Or maybe this guy:

Sam got a little too much tryptophan in his system...

We played Settlers (which I used to hate but has grown on me) and some super intense Monopoly. I did not win either game. No surprise there! I stink at strategic games.

The sunset on Thanksgiving was absolutely gorgeous.

On Friday, we drove back home with Dan's parents in tow so that they could experience the Houston Space Center and see some of NASA. We took a tour to mission control. It was pretty neat to see and also hard to believe that they sent people to the moon with such basic equipment. Sam did great the whole weekend! He is a dream baby.

All in all, our Thanksgiving was wonderful. I love to spend time with Dan. Thanks to his parents for coming to visit!

BABY FOOD

I'm guessing a lot of you already do this, but no one really talked to me about it, so I thought I'd share it with you other new moms and soon-to-be moms out there. Lately I've been into making Sam's baby food. So far I've made it out of carrots, green beans, apples, and sweet potatoes. It's really easy, doesn't take very much time, and saves money!

Today I took two yams (about $1.50) and pureed them with some milk and poured it into an ice cube tray. It filled the whole thing - 16 cubes worth. So that will feed Sam 16 times! A thing of Gerber baby food that will last 4 meals costs about $1 I think so I'm saving a lot!

A site that I've found useful is http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/.

Also, today Sam is 6 months old! I can't believe it. It's gone by so fast. He's such a fun little guy.