Matthew and I enjoyed a long weekend with Gilbert, Jason, and the Texas family. We went to a barbecue at the Monaghan's on Friday and that was fun. There was a lot of Guitar Hero played and lots of kids running around.



Our pastor, Brian, with his niece and nephew



Kelly barbecuing and the guys being silly



The family on the 4th. Matthew couldn't be bothered to look at the camera.



We had some more friends from California visiting, too. The Kennedy's are here for a bit. Ryan and JT playing Guitar Hero



Matthew wearing his 4th of July shirt that his grandma bought him that's a couple sizes too big.



Hanging out in the Monaghan's back yard getting attacked by mosquitoes.





Matthew and I stayed behind with Kelly and Roseann while everyone else went to watch fireworks. Matthew was beat and I didn't want to force him to stay awake.

Saturday we went to Elijah's birthday party. I can't believe these boys are (or are going to be) toddlers.

No more pictures, please!



Matthew and Eden. Just one of the many older girls he likes to flirt with.



Uncle John is in town right now, too. It's so good to see him.



Matthew and Elijah at church this morning.





Matthew with Uncle John and Uncle Jimmy



I just love the outfit he wore to church this morning so I took some pictures while he was playing.

I came to the realization that Matthew will be 10 months old soon. It bums me out a little. By the end of the summer I will no longer have an infant. He will be a toddler. This brings on a lot of emotions and I think Gilbert gets a good chuckle out of my emotional moments. My baby is turning into a little boy. Sure, he still looks like a baby, but everyday he grows more and more. He's already thinning out from all of the crawling he's doing. He's even started to push his Stride-to-Ride Lion around on his knees. Pretty soon he'll be walking and I won't know what to do with myself. Then again, pretty soon we may be expecting baby #2. Who knows?

This is what I get to see when nap time is over. The quality is clearer than this in person.





Bath time in the big tub





Now that he's pulling up to standing, he decided to try to climb over Daddy.





I gave him a little something extra to help with the teething. (Not really, but it looks like it in this picture)



You know how dogs sit under the table waiting for food to fall to the ground? Matthew waits for me to give him a taste of what I'm eating.



Playing with Mommy in the morning



California hair



Texas hair





More bath time in the big tub













Jason is in town visiting right now. We're having fun with him.

Playing with Uncle Jason





Well, this afternoon we're off to a barbecue at the Monaghan's. John will be flying in this afternoon, too, so we have a full weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow is Elijah's birthday party. I can't believe he's already 1!!! Matthew is just 2 months behind him. Wow.

We're home!!!

I managed to kick that stomach bug by the middle of last week and was able to enjoy good food the rest of the trip. However, I went to upload some pictures from the beginning of the trip and our memory card broke on us. So all of the pictures we took at the beginning of the week are gone. We're going to try one more thing to get those pictures off of that card. We think that card was left behind at our friend's house when we left California, though, so it may take a while.

Matthew's tooth FINALLY broke through his gums. We can see one of his top teeth coming in, too. He's also pulling up to standing now. It makes for some interesting and stressful moments for Mommy. I can't believe he's getting so big.

Gilbert was left in charge of Matthew for more than an hour for the first time on Saturday. I went to Reanna's bachelorette party, so Gilbert was in charge of Matthew his bedtime bottle and putting him to bed. Here are some pictures of their time together:







So after Matthew was asleep and my mom got home from the errands she had run, Gilbert joined up with a few of the guys to take Luke out the night before his wedding. They dressed him as a cowboy and took him bowling.





Good times.

Matthew didn't want to take a bottle from Gilbert that night so we were nervous about how he'd do staying with my mom most of Sunday while we were at the wedding. He did GREAT. It just confirmed our belief that we have the best baby in the world =)

The wedding was beautiful. Luke looked so handsome and Reanna was absolutely stunning. So happy for our friends. I didn't almost pass out (!!!!!!!). Everyone kept giving me a hard time because they knew I would be wearing heels in the 90 degree weather and they expected me to have to sit down. While it was hot out, everyone made it through the ceremony. Once we took the bridal party pictures we all danced to some good music and we even participated in some Armenian dancing. It was fun.



The beautiful bride



Gilbert and Luke















Matthew and Grandpa the day we left for home



Matthew and Auntie Val with the same hairdo



Flying home

Well, we're in California. It's been an adventure so far. We arrived Saturday morning and got off the plane to find that the airline had lost 3/4 of our luggage. I am the only one whose bag arrived with our flight. Gilbert's bag, Matthew's bag, and Matthew's car seat all got lost. So we waited for the next flight from Houston to come in to see if they were on that flight, but they weren't. So we went and filed a claim and then they gave us a loaner car seat (which was absolutely disgusting) and we were on our way to get some food. Rough start for the trip. Our bags ended up getting to us about 10PM that night.

I seem to have caught some kind of stomach bug back in Texas, because by Saturday afternoon I was a complete mess. Taking care of a 9-month-old is one thing. Taking care of a 9-month-old while having to run to the restroom constantly is like competing in the Olympics. I seem to be getting better but I've lost even more weight and I told Gilbert that I feel skeletal. I'm sure I'll make up for it at some point. I'm just hoping this thing has run its course by the weekend. I can't imagine trying to make it through a wedding with this thing. Especially since I hear it's supposed to be 102 on Sunday. WOW.

Matthew is having a much easier time this time around. He's had several good naps and he's taking seeing all of these strangers in stride. He's fun =)

No pictures right now. Those will have to wait. That's all for now!

9 month appointment today. Shots went well. Here are his stats:

Weight - 21 lbs 7 oz (70%)
Height - 28.5 in. (55%)
Head - 19.5 in (>95%)

He lost an ounce from his last appointment. He initially gained weight but then he started crawling. Not a whole lot of growth in one month but he looks good. Only cried for a little bit with the shots. They want to see him back in 6 weeks to measure his head again just to make sure he doesn't have a big jump in size. The only reason she wants to be sure is that she just started treating him and I can't remember how big his head was at 4 months. She's not worried at this point, especially because Gilbert has a big head.

Well, off to California in the morning.