Brock Meets Santa and Mrs. Claus

Santa Claus and his wife were at Daddy's office today for the Christmas party and Brock got to meet Santa and tell him what he wants for Christmas. He also got to run around and try all of the doors in the office.

Here are a few more pictures taken recently. Yum! Brock loves chili!


I caught him reading books in his room.


Decorating the Christmas tree was great fun. All of the ornaments within reach are like brand new toys for Brock. I find them all over the house. His favorites are a basket bell, Aggie football, and a barn with a tractor inside.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Brock was very happy because Daddy was home all day. He got to go on a wagon ride and play outside for a long time.


The shirt he is wearing says "I'm thankful for Mom and Dad, Yummy Turkey, and Football", but Brock was not really thankful for turkey. He ate one bite and refused to eat anymore. He wouldn't try the dressing either. He ate apples, green beans, and crescent rolls.


What Brock is really thankful for is his barn and animals, and that Mama found his giant chicken.


These are some pictures we had made recently.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Brock turned 2 years old today! To celebrate his birthday we traveled to Tampa and spent the weekend with Brock's Great Uncle Lawrence, Great Aunt Phyllis, and Cousin Sara. We went to the Florida Aquarium and we went on an Ecotour of Tampa Bay.



We saw some dolphins on the tour.


I was determined to get pictures of the dolphins and didn't even notice when Jared and Brock left. Apparently all the excitement was too much for them.


Brock loves to play with his barn and farm animals, sing Old MacDonald, and make animal sounds so we decided to make a barn cake.



The first present Brock opened was a set of magnetic letters. He loved them and took all of them out of the bag one by one and was happy to find lots of e's.




His favorite so far is this guitar from his aunt and uncle. We let him play with it on the way home and were glad when he suddenly fell asleep.



We planned on opening his other presents when we got home tonight but we couldn't get his attention away from the guitar so we will continue celebrating his birthday tomorrow.

Swim Class

Brock took swimming classes this fall and his last one was on Saturday. I was able to go and take pictures of his last class. He got very excited when we got to the building because he loves it so much.

Brock is very comfortable floating on his back now. He gets very relaxed and will stay there for a long time. He is pretty close to floating on his own. He's also real good at holding his breath. When he goes under the water, he comes up happy and doesn't cough or anything.

Happy Halloween!

Brock dressed up as a farmer this year. He loves wearing his overalls and it's the only item of clothing that he doesn't want to take off. He does not want to wear his cap and I could not get a good picture with it on because he immediately takes it off. Anyway, since he loves farm animals and playing with his farm toys we thought a farmer would be appropriate. Also, there is the issue of him not wanting to wear the real costume that Jared made for him.

We began Halloween weekend by going to the party at Jared's office. After a few trick-or-treating stops Brock got the idea of putting the candy into his jack-o-lantern.



There was this incredibly awesome ball pit in the conference room and Brock loved it!



This year's scary and creepy carved pumpkin


Tonight we went trick-or-treating to a few houses, but the mosquitoes were horrible and we have a terrible neighborhood for trick-or-treating. These pictures are at our neighbor's house. Brock loves their fountain.

Playtime!

Today Brock's friend, Thomas, and his big sister, Halley, came over to play. They played in Brock's room at first but spent most of the time outside. Here are a few pictures.

Thomas loves the ball popper.

Halley and Thomas chillin' in the ball pit. "This is so relaxing," Halley said.

Halley was very sweet to read stories to Brock and Thomas.

Halley and Brock hiding from Thomas.

Brock pushes Halley on his truck.

Thomas is a monster and Halley and Brock have to run from him!

St. Augustine

We visited St. Augustine earlier this week. It is the oldest city in North America so there is a lot to see. Our first stop was Fort Matanzas Park. We walked the nature trail and then rode the ferry to the fort. Brock loved the canons.




We stayed in a very nice golf resort. It had a kitchen so there were lots of fun cabinets for Brock to explore. Brock likes to eat Cheerios in milk now and he loves juice boxes.



On Monday we went to downtown and rode the sightseeing trains. The trains take you to all of the historic sights and you can get on and off whenever you want. Brock liked riding on the trains but got mad almost every time we stopped. He wanted to keep moving. The first place we stopped was the lighthouse. It is 14 stories and Jared and I both climbed to the top. We had to take turns because Brock was not allowed to go up.




Brock loves numbers and got excited whenever he saw some. This bell is outside the lighthouse keeper's house.

After the lighthouse we rode around almost the entire town. We stopped at the Plaza and went to some art galleries and the Spanish Military Hospital and got more canon pictures. It was so hot (we are having record heat) that we decided to go back to the hotel and let Brock go swimming.


Tuesday was a much better day. Instead of temps in the 90's it was in the 70's. We spent a lot of time at the Castillo de San Marcos. It is made of coquina. We heard about coquina constantly during our trip. That's actually one of the only things I learned.







Then we went to the first Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, had lunch at a seafood restaurant, and toured the Lightner Museum. All of this sightseeing tired Brock out!


We had great weather on Wednesday too. We got on the train and rode to the antique shopping area. Unfortunately the Die Cast store was closed so Daddy didn't get to see it, but we did eat at a great cupcake restaurant! Then it was on to the Fountain of Youth park. We drank water from the fountain and saw three presentations about the fountain and the explorers' voyages to America. There was a planetarium, shipwreck artifacts, and an indian burial ground.



Did you know that Ponce de Leon was only 4 feet 11 inches tall and he was the tallest person on his voyage?!?!?!?!

The last thing we did was visit St. George street, which is a historic area that is now shops, tour houses, and restaurants. Here is Brock enjoying his Cheerios at the Spanish Restaurant.