Kristy and Uncle Gary

My best friend, Kristy, came to visit us on Memorial Day weekend. We had a blast! We got to go shopping, go to a nice restaurant for dinner, and mostly catch up! Thanks Hubby for watching Pax man :). Pax loved Kristy and always smiled and cooed at her when she walked in the room. Here is a sweet picture of Paxton with Kristy.

Uncle Gary also was in town for the weekend. He is not an uncle by blood but Kevin and his sister have always called him "Uncle" because they have known him for a long time. Uncle Gary is an MLB umpire and was in town for the Astros vs Nationals game. We got to go to the game on Monday and then he came over afterwards for some yummy smoked brisket by Master Griller, Kevin McNally. Here are some pictures of him and Paxton. He has such a soft heart for babies :)

Houston Zoo and Fort Worth

We have been pretty busy for the past few weeks. Last Thursday we went to the Houston Zoo with Kendra, Michelle, and Diane with all of their kiddos. We thought that there would not be very many people there but we were wrong because a lot of schools were there on field trips. We had a lot of fun though! I think Carter, Kendra's little boy had the most fun. He was so excited to see everything. The babies, however, were just along for the ride :).

Pax enjoying his stroller ride.

Carter and Ava hanging out during lunch

Kendra, Michelle, and kiddos posing for the camera.

Baylor, the new baby elephant! Only a few weeks old!

Pax doesn't know what he thinks about the zoo. Hopefully he enjoy it more in a few months.

Riley is more interested in her foot :)

I asked Carter to pose for the camera and he did this for me! LOL!

We also went to Fort Worth for one of Kevin's friend's wedding. We stayed with my college roomie, Ellen and her family! We had so much fun with them and loved seeing her kids. Pax loved Jackson and Jackson loved to entertain Pax! So cute!

Jackson and Pax playing with a bear Pax got from Nanya Pinson

Paxton's 6 months pictures

Thanks to Tricia Morey for Pax's pictures! She took his newborn pictures also. She is very talented and we are so grateful to her for doing these! Thanks Tricia! We love you!

Sister's Birthday!

Here is a video that Kevin and I did for his sister for her big birthday! Kevin went all out and got the electric guitar out and hammed it up. I also tried to get Pax to get in on the fun also. Happy Birthday Sister! We love you!

Where do I start?

Wow! Time has flown by and it has been hard to keep this updated. One of my issues with keeping it updated is downloading pictures. We apparently have been max-ing out our computer with pictures and videos and we have been running out of room to download more. Kevin purchased an external hard drive but we have yet to use it. Anyway, I will try to keep everything in order chronologically.

1. We kept Kevin's parents dog, Callie a few weeks ago. Pax loved her and I will have to upload a cute video of them later, but here is a picture of them getting ready for a walk. It was challenging trying to keep the dog in line with the stroller but she succeeded. Needless to say, she definitely got spoiled b/c we went on a lot of walks!

2. Playdates with Riley! We had another fun playdate with Riley. Pax and Riley are so cute together and it is fun to see how fast they are growing! Here are a few pics.

Pax seems to be getting a little fresh in this one :)

3. Derby Party and my birthday. This past weekend was a busy but fun weekend for us! We threw our annual Derby Party and celebrated my birthday. My wonderful Mother-in-law made me a yummy chocolate cake and we also enjoyed Kentucky Derby cuisine.

3. Paxton turned 6 months old! I can't believe he has hit the half way mark! He is sitting up on his own now and eating new solids. So far he has had sweet peas, zucchini, avocado, and sweet potato. It is so fun trying new foods because he always makes the funniest faces! To celebrate his 6 month birthday, he got to see the doctor :(. He ended up only getting two shots this time because he had a small allergic reaction last time, so I have to take him again in a couple of weeks to finish them off. He also weighed in at 17 lbs 15 oz, was 27-1/2" long, and was 46 cm in head size (97 percentile!). The doctor commented that he is almost taller than me :) Here is his cute monthly picture. Can't believe that he is sitting up!

April Happenings

We have stayed pretty busy this month. One thing however, that keeps dragging us down is allergies and colds. I feel that I have something every week and most of the time it is allergies, except as of today, Paxton and I are both fighting off colds that we got from Kevin last week :(. It is really frustrating before I volunteer at the Pregnancy Center because I always feel like I am changing the day that I work due to illness. Oh well. Hopefully things will be better for me once the pollen settles down! The good news of the month is that the Pregnancy Center has been such a blessing! I am reminded of what Christ said about "The Harvest is Plentiful" when I am there. Volunteering there has made me realize that there is such a need for people to hear about Christ! I have been blessed to lead three people to the Lord and it has made me much more bold with my faith. I even found myself asking an HEB employee if she knew Christ! It has also been overwhelming to hear some of these women's stories. They are so heartbreaking but I love it when they come to the realization that there is Eternal hope and the precious being that they are carrying inside them is LIFE. So many are amazed to see the heartbeat on the ultrasound. They are also able to see and hold little figurines of what the baby looks like at that moment. All of my clients so far that have been abortion minded have changed their mind once they see the ultrasound of their precious little one. I love every single minute of it!

As far as Paxton news goes, he is learning to sit up unassisted! It is so funny just to see him sitting there when I am used to him just lying around. Here is a short video. This was shot a few days ago and he has already improved so much as of today!

Here is another video of Pax doing a funny sound. He seems to be rolling his tongue or gurgling. We can never tell. I don't think I have ever seen a baby do this (unless I haven't been around a lot of babies) but he seems to do it when he is really happy or when he is playing in his crib. I figured that I better catch it on video since it is such an odd sound!

Paxton is 5 months old!

Paxton turned five months old today! As you can see by the picture, we also celebrated the Astros opening day (hopefully we will still be celebrating as the season progresses). The days seem to fly by and he is changing day by day. He learned to roll from back to tummy a week ago which has resulted in a few long nights because he would cry every time he found himself on his tummy. He is getting used to it though, and I find him in the weirdest sleeping positions in the mornings. I think he takes after Uncle Tyler! He is still eating cereal every night and I am currently gearing up to start making his baby food. I am just waiting for my new food processor to get here!

Paxton also got to see his sweet cousin Chloe this weekend for Easter. Both of them got spoiled rotten by lots of family. Uncle Bruce and Aunt Trisha came from Ohio and we had fun catching up with them. It also seemed that everyone came with gifts for Pax and Chloe. They got some cute outfits and handmade items. I can't wait for Pax to show them off! I wish I could post some pics from Easter but we forgot our camera!!! We will just have to bum off Gigi and Sister :)

Chloe's Birthday Party

I have been a horrible blogger! We have been busy for the past few weeks and I have been sick off and on with allergies. I heard that the pollen has been the worst in Houston History and boy do I testify to that! Anyway, in March we went to Austin to celebrate Chloe's first birthday! It was a lot of fun and Sister did a wonderful job creating the perfect cupcake party and Chloe looked like a cupcake princess. Sadly, Pax had to miss some of it due to a nap in order to alleviate his crankiness :) Fun pics from the weekend are below!

Grandmother pic! My parents were also in town to visit my brother so we also took pics with my mom! Pax had so much fun being spoiled by BOTH of his Grandmas!

Pax enjoyed Chloe's bouncer :)

I wish we had pictures from the party but I have to get them from Sister since we had a photographer shoot the party so we could all enjoy it. Looking forward to posting them!

Four Months

Paxton is now four months old! Wow time flies! He is 15-1/2 lbs and 26.5 inches long. I can't believe how much he has already changed and look forward to the many milestones that lie ahead. Here is a picture and a video to commemorate. The video is of him eating cereal for the first time. It is a little long (I am sure the grandparents at least will watch the whole thing) but it definitely captures most of the feeding!

Weekend at the Walls

This weekend was a fun weekend because we went to go visit our friends, the Walls in College Station. We knew the Walls from our Sunday School class and they moved away about a year ago so Ben could start his new job at The Foundation at Texas A&M. We drove up Friday and came back Sunday and had a blast! We got to go to an A&M vs UT basketball game and got to go out to eat Saturday night with no kids b/c of a sweet babysitter named Bethany who is a college student living with them. The Walls have a 6 month old named Sydney and a 2 year old named Addison, who are just precious. Here is a video of Pax and Sydney playing together.




We MISS YOU WALLS!

Volunteering

Thursdays are busy for Pax and I. I started volunteering at the Fifth Ward Pregnancy Crisis Center last Thursday and love it! This center basically counsels women who are abortion minded to choose life. However, that is not their mission. Their main mission is to share the gospel of Christ. Therefore, I am in love with this ministry! I met with the volunteer coordinator a month ago and told her that I would volunteer where they would need people the most. Basically we agreed to childcare for the other volunteers so that way Pax could be with me. So, we started last Thursday and watched a little two year old boy named Samuel. He definitely kept me busy but I loved him and Pax loved him too. Since then, God has really been dealing with my heart and fear. I actually "chose" childcare b/c it was easy and I didn't have to share the gospel. However, God has really been pushing me past this fear so I started to work on the material for counseling. So today, when Samuel's mother came to pick him up, she asked me point blank why I was not counseling. I told her that the center needed childcare but she said that she had been thinking and wanted to switch off with me every week so I could counsel. She would watch Pax and Sam one week and I the next. Right then, I felt God opening up the door for this. So after talking to the volunteer coordinator, it looks like I will start training next week! I am nervous and excited to see what God will do with my heart and the opportunity to see the Holy Spirit work. Stay tuned!

Chloe's Birthday Invitation

Today we got Cousin Chloe's birthday invitation for her first birthday! Time has flown by and we can't believe our niece is going to be one! It seemed like yesterday she was a tiny baby. We are definitely planning to be there (consider this our rsvp, Sister!) and are looking forward to Pax and Chloe playing together. Here is a video of Pax looking at the invitation. Before I got the camera out he was studying it very intensely so again, he stopped performing so well for the camera. Oh well. I guess we need to be quicker on the draw ;) Enjoy!

Videos of Pax

Here is a video of Pax giggling for Daddy. It is not his best performance because he usually does not perform very well for the camera, but it's still cute!



Here is another video of Pax with his friend, Riley. Riley and Pax have a play date every week and we always have a lot of fun hanging out with her and her mommy. Pax and Riley love seeing each other but each time they do, one of them is playing hard to get :)

Jumping on the Bandwagon

After some encouragement from friends and in order to provide some entertainment for grandparents (since they will be the main ones reading this), the McNallys have finally started a blog! Writing the first post is pretty daunting and designing it (thanks to Sister) makes my head spin but I think we are off to a great start! I don't know how often I will keep it updated but I will definitely be posting pics of Pax as he grows. Here is the latest picture of Pax. This was a picture we sent out for Valentines. I can't believe how chunky he is getting and I love how his little personality is coming out, as seen in the picture. He is truly a blessing and I love spending my days with him. God is sooooo good!