One year ago today, Matt and I were blessed with the most precious baby boy. Here is a little slideshow video I put together with pictures from his first year. It's about 13 minutes long, so settle in and enjoy!
Annnnddd....since I'm many many months behind on posts, I will try to do some back posting to cover some major milestones (Christmas, Easter, etc.) and I am vowing to better during the second half of this year!
Well, Matt and I officially survived two years of marriage WITHOUT killing each other - so we felt we should celebrate! :)
My sister was working for the new Omni Hotel in Dallas so she helped us get a great rate on a room and even hooked it up with some complimentary meals at Fogo de Chao - can't beat anniversary on a budget! (thanks sissy!)
We spent the morning with our favorite little ginger boy - and then we shipped him off to Grams' house for the night.
We checked in and we got an upgrade to a junior suite (again THANKS SISSY!) and we had a sweet little note and piece of cake waiting for us.
We hit the CROWDED balcony pool (apparently this was the place to be in Dallas), and enjoyed some sun and adult beverages.
After sunning, we roamed around the hotel to check things out, and we had a little happy hour on the patio at the Owner's Box sports bar.
Then we got all spiffed up (we do that every now and then), grabbed our dinner certificate and headed off to Fogo de Chao for the ultimate "meat fest" dinner. Those guys don't mess around - when you flip the card to green, they're in your face with 15 types of steak!
We went back to the hotel to "stay up late and enjoy the evening" - which promptly resulted in me falling into a deep sleep and Matt watching the Ranger's game. What can I say? We tried!
After a lovely patio breakfast at the rustic Texas Spice restaurant, we got our wedding rings cleaned and scooped up a few new chairs on clearance at The Great Indoors (woo hoo!) before picking up our little bundle of joy.
All in all it was a great weekend and I can't wait to celebrate surviving another year with my man!
Well, since I'm working backwards I realized I needed to do a little blurb on my first Mother's Day. Just like everything else in my life, I pretty much took ZERO pictures and I'm blogging about it 2 months later.
I woke up to Matt (and Ronan) making me breakfast - yummy egg scramble, turkey bacon and of course...coffee. :)
Ronan helped me clean my plate. And when I went to snap one of the few pictures of the day, he posed like a little doll! :)
My boys got me a gift certificate to the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa - and I will be using that sucker VERY soon! I also got a great 8x10 photo of Ronan and I from his 6 month photo shoot.
After hanging out at home for most of the morning. We made the rounds to see Matt's mom and my mom. Ronan "made" each of them a little gift - and I think it actually turned out pretty cute!
Matt's mom gave me a framed poem with Ronan's little painted handprints (so sweet!) and my mom gave me a really nice card and some shopping $ :).
My sister and I took my mom to PF Changs for dinner and then we got our nails done a few days later. Ronan was a crazy kid at dinner though - he actually threw up an entire bottle at the table and decided he wanted to screech and test his yelling skills throughout the whole meal.
By the end of the day I was one exhausted (and BLESSED) mama!
The Easter Bunny came to the Hodnick house! He brought Ronan a few goodies - no candy just yet - but he did get a pretty sweet "chocolate" Mickey bunny, sippy cup, clothes and eggs filled with coins (SO fun to shake when you're a 9 month old).
We went to brunch with the Hickey family at Bonnie Ruth's (YUM!) Ronan was a total flirt with the waitresses and we all chowed down. After brunch, we stopped in my parent's neighborhood park to take some bluebonnet pictures before it started storming.
Ronan got a TON of Mickey Mouse swag from my mom and dad and his aunt Shannon - lots of figurines, movies, and even a giant Mickey Mouse easter basket! Grandma Peaches and Tom also sent him a GIANT teddy bear that literally takes up an entire corner of his room. We got on Skype so they could see his reaction to it.
We had Easter dinner with the Hodnicks and Ronan got even MORE goodies from his Grams and Granddad. I swear I have NEVER met a more spoiled baby boy. He is one lucky kid!
Later in the month, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Wendy came to visit! We hung out, had some dinners, and Ronan even took a day trip to Oklahoma with Ryan and Grams. It was great catching up, and we are so glad that Ronan got to spend time with them - we even managed to sneak in some family photos.
Throw in birthday celebrations for Matt's mom and my dad and all-in-all, April was a great month for spending quality time with our families.
Ok, so here I am AGAIN...nearly 2 months behind on an update. But, better late than never. Even if no one reads this stuff, I just want to get it down somewhere, so I can look back on the memories and maybe even show it to Ronan someday. Anyways, I digress....
The month of October is usually a beautiful one for Texas. We get the best weather, but it only lasts a week or two. The first weekend of the month we decided to take a trip to a nearby Pumpkin Patch to get into the swing of family outings that will be a big part of our life for the next decade or more. The weather had been perfect all week long while we were busy at work, but the minute we stepped out of the car at the pumpkin patch it was HOT! The temps spiked to the low 90's with very little clouds or breeze.
Being the delicate-skinned Irish-boy that he is, we knew Ronan would be a victim of the sun very quickly. And being the new, inexperienced parents that we are, we didn't even consider bringing sunscreen. So, needless to say, the visit was a quick one. We rushed around and tried to snap as many pictures as we could before our happy little Ginger Baby turned into a pumpkin himself!
The rest of the weeks flew by very quickly. We watched the OU/Texas Red River Shootout, and we captured Ronan's first full-bellied laugh on video.
Matt went to Shreveport for a bachelor party for one of our good friends, so Ronan and I had our first weekend alone together. I'm proud to report that we survived. :) Shannon and I headed down to Fair Park for the annual Texas State Fair and blew way too much money on deep-fried goodness. The deep-fried grilled cheese is still. the. best.
The following weekend, Matt and I attended the rehearsal dinner and the wedding with some of our friends at a beautiful vineyard in Grapevine. We had a great time, and if I can get my hands on the one picture we managed to take, I'll update the blog with it soon.
The weekend before Halloween, Grams graciously babysat Ronan so we could have a little bit of adult fun. Matt and I, along with Shannon and Ashley ventured out to a friend's Halloween Party. I was Minnie Mouse and Matt - ever the frugal costumer - was "Saint Tebow."
He even did the pose!
This year, we were also able to celebrate our first Halloween as parents. I searched and searched for the right costume for Ronan - and I fell in love with THIS:
I thought it would look SO cute with his chubby little face, but Matt and others quickly vetoed the idea, so I came up with Plan B - a bear!
He was a real trooper. We suited him up and took him to the Hickey house to visit his Gigi, Pepaw (he REALLY better come up with another name!) and Auntie Shannon.
After 30 minutes or so, he became a grumpy bear. We put him in the car and he was OUT. But, we had to make another stop at the Hodnick house to see Grams and Aunt Ashley, so the nap was short lived! He helped pass out some candy, had a bottle and that was pretty much his night!
But don't worry - he paid us back with a night of NO sleep - waking up every.single.hour.
That's pretty much the month of October in a nutshell. I can't wait until next year, when we can actually take Ronan trick or treating! I hope everyone else had as great of a month as we did. Now...onto the November post :)
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