Road trip part 1: Nashville

After 12 hours on the road, we made it to our hotel in Nashville, our half way point to Michigan to see my family.

It was, of course, a very long trip, but it actually wasn't that bad! Rhodes was an excellent traveller, which made ALL the difference!! Of course we had a few moments of craziness, but he was super for 90% of the drive! For lunch, we asked a few locals in Arkadelphia (such a funny name) where a nearby park was so Rhodes could get some energy out and hopefully nap really well. I was expecting/hoping for him to take a nice long nap like he does at home, but alas, 1 hour was all he could do. I was dreading his mood, but much to my surprise, he woke up happy and was content the last 6 hours of out drive! I'd like to thank Elmo, the invention of portable DVD players, yummy snacks and most importantly, God, for keeping our littlest traveller so happy and safe today :) I hope tomorrow goes as well as today!



(Happy to hear we're almost to our hotel)

Lots of love!
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Date night with a younger man

Today, Graham left for Stamford, TX with his dad to go quail hunting for the night. After a fun and busy day, I decided that I needed a nice dinner with my little man to decompress, so Rhodes and I went to Apple Bee's. Eating at Apple Bee's is a running joke with Graham and I for various reasons, so I was excited to text Graham and let him know of my dinner plans ;) Rhodes was a true gentleman the whole time and tried a booster seat, rather than a high chair, for the first time. He did great with it, but tried to go under the table a few times before he got used to it! Even though it's usually the two of us during the day and sometimes for dinner at home when Graham's working late, it was so fun to go out and have a dinner date with Rhodes! I truly can't wait when we have real mother-son dates when he gets older! Hopefully he won't be too cool for school by then and mind being out with his old mom ;)
These the best pictures I could get of our date:






Here are a few I took during the day:










Lots of love!
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What a Thursday!

The morning started out gloomy and rainy, so Rhodes, Chrissy, Ellie and I headed to North Park mall around 10 to go to a free toddler music/ story time at the library inside of North Park. Chrissy and I used to take Ellie and Rhodes to the library once or twice a week when they were itty bitty because they have a free music class for babies called Baby Bounce- the best part being it was FREE!
Rhodes and I got there first so we sat and "talked" to the ducks for a bit. I tried to increase my "fun mom" points and asked if he wanted to get out and see the ducks, but he was happy in his stroller. At least I asked! He loves his stroller and being in a grocery cart, so I'm hoping that doesn't change because it makes running errands with him SO much easier. This is a huge change from when he was 0-15 months and hated being confined to them. I think he's starting to realize that walking takes up a lot of energy and being pushed around isn't so bad ;) Here are some pictures of him watching the ducks before Ellie came.










After nap, I gave him a brownie after I made some for our small group and whoa- I realized why I don't like giving him chocolate! He went bonkers!



Brownie covered mouth!

To get his brownie induced energy out, I took him to the park. Lots of action shots!















The day went from being rainy and gloomy to sunny and beautiful, so we had a great day!

Lots of love!
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20 months

Rhodes, today you are 20 months on February 20th! I can't believe that in exactly 4 short months, you will be a big 2 year old! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about how time has flown and that our sweet baby is slowly coming out of "babyhood" and turning into a full fledged kid. You are our most wonderful blessing from God and we are amazed everyday with your funny personality, sweet charm and crazy antics! You are our little love that we love BIG time!




Here are some things you are doing at 20 months:
- You love music and sing "Wheels on The Bus" "Old McDonald" and "ABC's" everyday (not exact versions, of course, but close enough!) You catch onto music quickly, so much so that sometimes I have no idea you know a song until I hear you singing along to it. Your current favorite is "This Little Light of Mine" because you like the part where you can say "NO!"

(mommies on the bus say shush!)

- Physically, you are a wonder! You jump, run and climb like a boy that is much older than 20 months. We are happy you are so physically strong and agile, but you definitely give us a run for our money, as well as a few heart attacks. Example: you know how to get yourself up our bar stools and into your highchair that is hooked onto the counter top. Mommy learned this when I turned my back to fix your lunch and when I turned back, you were standing on the counter!!



-You have always been a great night sleeper (7:30-7:30) but naps have recently gotten better. This is a blessing for everyone...but probably more so for mommy ;) You have gone from one 1 hour nap to one 2-2.5 hour nap! We are BOTH refreshed and re-energized from this wonderful, wonderful, change (did I mention this is wonderful?!).



- You love to talk and are learning more words and phrases everyday, but we still have to ask you a lot of questions to make sure we know what you're really saying ;) The phrases you like to say a lot are "Where'd it go?" "I got it", "Love you", "Where's brother?" and just call out for your "brother" a lot, much to Sherman's dismay. Yes, Rhodes calls Sherman "brother"! You also do a great job taking care of your trains and do not hesitate to tell me when they need new "bah-rees" (batteries). I can't wait to have little conversations with you and hear your stories :)



There's so much about you that never ceases to amaze us and we can't wait to tell you stories when you get older about all the good, bad and ugly things you did when you were this age! We love you, joy boy!!!

Lots of love!
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Wordless Wednesday

Lots of love!
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All You Need Is Love!

Happy Valentines day (yesterday) from the Catheys! Graham and I celebrated early on Friday with dinner at Charlie Palmers, followed by an over night stay at a great boutique hotel called The Joule. We felt like we were on a mini vacation! It was a really cool, uber modern room-we couldn't even figure out how to turn the lights on and off when we got there ;) Our wonderful friend Rexanne works at The Joule and helped us score a great deal and of course, made sure we had a fabulous dinner and stay, which we did. Thanks, Rexanne!! I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of us because I have to say, we cleaned up pretty well! On actual Valentine's day, we had a delicious dinner with Rhodes at Nanny and Pop's house-thanks for having us over!

On Valentines day afternoon, Rhodes and I met some of his friends at a park to enjoy the return of some beautiful weather. I love these kids and their mommies! With the exception of Chrissy (though I did meet her randomly before we had kids on Myspace.Long story. Ha!), I met Ashley, Laurie and Jessica, at the most random times (Cafe Express, Little Gym and Baby Bounce) and they've become such good friends of mine. You never know what relationships will form from a simple "Hi!". Being a stay-at-home mom can be really isolating if you don't find women in the same situation that you genuinely enjoy and like, so these ladies have really become an important part of my life and many times, a sanity saver :) Below is a picture taken from Chrissy's birthday. Laurie, we need some pictures together!



Our kids have a great time together and are 1-3 months apart, so it's wonderful having friends in the same season of life.
Here are a few pictures from our afternoon at the park. Jessica, we missed y'all!



Who knew dirt was so interesting?


Navigating around the park.


Running around a dugout.


Rhodes getting his Valentine's day kiss ;)

Since this is a Valentines post, I'll end with the sweetest picture of true friendship. Rhodes and Ellie have "known" each other since they were just twinkles in ours and the Heintz's eyes, so they came out of the womb fast friends ;) They have a truly sweet bond!



Lots of love!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Back to (blogging) business!

So, as you can see from the last post, A LOT of time has passed since I last made an entry. I really thought I'd be able to keep up with blogging once I had Rhodes, but sitting at a computer was the last thing I wanted to do when I had free time, so I stuck with the old pen and paper when it came to keeping track of Rhodes the first year and a half of his life. Now that he's almost 20 months and doing such funny/mischievous/amazing things, I figured I better nix the excuses and start using this blog for what I intended- keeping my family and friends updated on with Rhodes and pretty much life in general these days. PLUS, I stepped into the 21st century and got an iPhone (Graham's old one), so now I can blog anytime I want, thanks to a handy Blogger app! I won't get into the cool techie things I've learned lately (like being able to post all my photos online AND synced to my blogger app!!), but what I will say is that it's so great to have things all bundled together into one tiny phone. Enough with the talk. I'll leave my introduction back into the blogging world with a picture of Rhodes during a walk around White Rock park today. We are finally having nice weather in Dallas, so we loved being able to enjoy the outdoors without freezing!