Happy Thanksgiving 2011

We traveled to Lubbock to see my family for Thanksgiving this year!  We left Wednesday after work and made it home on Sunday afternoon.  We had a great time visiting with all our family, unfortunately my camera did not get taken out of the bag until Saturday so not many pictures:((  My Aunt Judy had us over for Thanksgiving and it was wonderful!  I LOVE the food on Thanksgiving!  I am sure the scale will not be too forgiving when it comes to my next weigh in for Hallie's next check.  Oh well!  We also got to see my dad's sisters and my brother's family.  Chance had so much fun with his cousins.  He loves to play with them and watch everything they do!  It was fun hearing him talk to them and say their names.  On Saturday we went to the Science Spectrum, it reminded me of our old Muleshoe field trip days!  They have a Children's Museum for the young children that Chance had so much fun playing in!  They had all different stations from bikes, air station, vet office, grocery store, classroom, and music room!  He just ran from station to station! It was great seeing him pretend and have so much fun.

Before we left for Lubbock I had Chance paint a picture for his Gran and BigDaddy who would not get to see him on Thanksgiving.  After we were finished I let him paint with water on the paper.  He thought he was such a big boy!

Painting!

Riding with Sealy

Examining the kitty!  Look out Dr Nichols you may have some competition:))

He was a big fan of the carrots and bananas, Unfortunately they didn't make it into the basket but on the floor

Music room,  They lit up when you would stomp on them!  This was one of his favorites!

Such concentration.  It helps to stick out your tongue!

Dog Pile on Ben:)) Poor Ben!

He loves his Uncle Barak!

Picture of Lauren missing her front tooth.  She is growing up too fast!

Vamanos Miami!

A couple weekends ago, Ben and I headed to Miami for Carmen's wedding!  Carmen was the only other girl in my residency of six at Baylor!  So needless to say we spent lots of time together so there was no way I could miss this day for her!  Chance got to spend the weekend with his Gran and Big Daddy and he didn't complain one bit!  He loves being with them which makes it easy for us to take a trip!  Ben took the day off on Friday so we left bright and early!  We stayed on Ft Lauderdale beach!  It was pretty cool and windy so no getting in the water for us!  We really enjoyed just hanging out together, site seeing and eating!  On Saturday we ventured down to South Beach!  If you look at the pictures closely you will be able to see what part of the beach we really ended up on!  Too Funny!  Miami was definitely a cultural experience!  Carmen's wedding was on Saturday night!  Carmen is from Venezuela and her groom I believe is Cuban.  The wedding invitation said 4pm to start little did I realize that that really means you start at 5:30!  They operate on a different time table than I do!  What a great wedding!  I have never been to a wedding quite like this!  From Carmen being brought in by a horse drawn carriage to a station rolling Nicaraguan cigars!  Very interesting!  I got to catch up with some old friends and of course got to talk "dental" which I always love to do!  We got to sleep in a few days and overall had a great time with the hubby!  We missed our buddy but we were really glad for some time away just the two of us before our family becomes four!

Ben kept saying it really felt like the video game "Grand Theft Auto"

Right outside our hotel

Walking by the water!

Dinner date

The part of South Beach we ended up on:))

View from our balcony on the 24th floor

All dressed up!  Pregnant at almost 30 weeks!

My buddy Carmen!  She looked amazing!

Old buddies!

Happy Halloween!

Well the little buddy has a slight obsession with cars, trucks, etc.  So of course for Halloween we had to incorporate that into our costume.  He is too small to walk around with a box to become a car or truck so I found an idea on the internet for him to be an interstate.  So Chance "became" Interstate 10 for Halloween.  He was so proud of his costume and has already worn it 3 times before the actual Halloween.  We had a Boo Bash with work for referring docs, a party with some friends, and then of course our neighborhood parade.  Enjoy the pictures!

All the kiddos at the party!

Tyler and Chance holding a conversation with McCoy!  Too funny!

Wouldn't stay still long enough at the pumpkin patch to get good photos.

He spotted the fire truck leading the parade

So excited!!

Running after the fire truck!

We probably ran two blocks straight!  He was so excited!

Sitting in the fire truck

Our Family:))

The Sayings of Chance

Chance has started saying the funniest things!  We have to watch out because he will repeat everything you say!  I just wanted to record for my own record the funny things our 18 months is saying:

• He calls Boomer "BoBo" Bailey "BeBe" (imagine a french accent) and Sealy "See". He also feels the need to discipline them by telling them no all throughout the day.
• I heard him in his crib this morning talking to himself saying "Hey Chance No No!"  I wonder who he hears that from!
• At swim lessons they teach them to get out of the pool by doing elbow elbow knee knee,  As he was climbing onto a kitchen chair he was repeating this phrase to himself!  
• This week once we got home we climbed up into the kitchen chair told me boldly "Eat"  I then asked him what he wanted to eat and his response was "Pasta!"  Thank goodness I had some around because that is what he then ate!!
• One night this week Ben and I were playing ball with him in the living room he kept saying over and over "I catch it!  I threw it!"  He was so proud of himself!
• We were practicing catching the ball in his room.  He threw the ball to me and he loudly proclaimed Yea Yea Yea!!  He was so proud that his mama caught the ball.  
• He has a love for all trucks and as we drive down the road he points them out, "Bobcat, Biggg truck, dump truck, garbage truck, tow truck, Pickup.."  This list goes on and on.
• He is known for crying wolf!  My mom watched him a few weeks back and he got her to get him up early by yelling "Help Help Help" over the monitor and of course his MiMi went in and saved him!
• During dinner time he will continually ask us to "Pay (pray)" and then he will clasp his hands.  He then will proclaim Amen once we are done.
• Anytime he is on the couch he reminds himself to "Sit" over and over.
• Will turn the TV on and ask for "Mickey House or Hotdog" to watch his favorite show!
• Likes to count with you and his favorite numbers are 3, 6, and 8!  Maybe he has a love for numbers like his Aunt Stacy!
• Can say Hallie's name but often refers to Mama's belly as "Ball!"

That is all for now!  

And her name will be.....

Hallie Ray Hembree

When deciding on our little girl's name we didn't agree for the first 20 weeks.  Ben had names he liked, I had names that I really liked as well.  SO... we agreed not to discuss it until we found out what we were having! So the day or two after we found out we turned to the good ole internet for suggestions.  It went back and forth for awhile with no consensus.  Out of the blue I mentioned the name Hallie and we both really liked it.  Then of course I turned once again to the internet and found out that her name is really short for Hallelujah and means Praise the Lord!  With having such a difficult time getting pregnant with Chance, God really blessed our family quickly with our little girl and what else could we say but PRAISE THE LORD!  Her middle was very easy to choose!  My middle is Ray, my sweet GeeGee's middle name was Ray as well as her mother.  It always bothered me growing up that it was a boy name, but as I have grown up I would not change it for the world!  It has such a special meaning to me and my family being named for my GeeGee Dorothy Ray (those who knew her can attest to what an amazing woman she really was!) I always joke that Ray really stands for Ray of Sunshine when discussing my own name.  So there we go our little girl has such a special name and means so much, and we cannot wait to meet her!  Praise the Lord for our little Ray of sunshine:)) Chance Russell's name by the way does not have such a story, but no less meaning to us.  He is named after Ben's granddaddy Howard Russell, and we really just liked the name Chance.  Chance by the way really has no idea that I am pregnant and what that means, but can point to my belly when asked about the baby!  Last night he said Hallie for the first time and I just about cried!  He is such a sweet little guy that is going to make such a great big brother!

Into the woods we go!!

This evening we went to the "woods" in our neighborhood!  This is a frequent place for Chance and Tiffany our nanny so he pretty much acted like he owned the place.  He is cautious enough not to tumble down the hills but crazy enough that Ben and I were chasing him the whole time!  It  is amazing to watch him be so confident!  He is such a big boy and we are definitely starting to see a very independent stubborn side to our little guy!  Enjoy!

Daddy and Chance! Love Love Love this one!

Mama and Chance! Pregnant belly at 22 weeks!

Trip to the Library!

I had a Wednesday off a few weeks ago so I was able to take Chance to the storytime at the Boerne Library.  He loves to read and had so much fun with his friends Tyler, Hailey and Kate!  Debbie gets to take him now on Wednesday mornings and I know how much she loves it!  We are doing well and have been sickness free for a couple of weeks!  Slowly but surely he is gaining back the weight he lost from not being able to eat for several days due to the Hand Foot and Mouth!  A funny story: if you remember Chance sings Good Morning to "usually" people he picks!  He started out Thursday morning by picking a truck so we sang to the truck, but then this was followed by poopoo with a huge grin.  I had to quickly tell him that we do not get to sing to poopoo and that wasn't very nice!  So funny how boys are such boys even at such a young age!  Enjoy!

Wearing his hard hat like his daddy!

Music time

He loved the BIG book!

BUBBLES!

Looking at gerbils with Gran! Such a pretty picture of Ben's mom!