Halloween Pictures

Here are some pictures of tonight ...







More pictures to come of Britton & his cousin Will together in their Halloweenie outfits ... as soon as Blogger is working a little bit faster!

Costumed Boy

What would our little monkey be other than a MONKEY on his first Halloween? Here are some pics of our monkey'ed up boy!




Many more monkey/pumpkin pictures to come I'm sure!

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

The Laugh

Make that ...

two teeth!

Playtime with Dad

Here is Britton playing with his Daddy just before bed the other night:

Lil' Giraffe

My new favorite picture ... here is Britton sitting in our backyard this morning wearing his little giraffe sweater.

Britton's Eye

Word travels really fast and we are getting lots of questions, so I thought I would post on the blog to let everyone know that Britton is just fine ... after a visit to a specialist, we know that his eyes are perfect. Thank the Lord! If you don't know the story ... I was looking through some photos last week and ran across this one:

I had seen it before and never thought anything of the strange white eye. But, looking at it again, triggered something I had heard on the news a while back -- that a white pupil can be a symptom of an aggressive form of cancer found in babies. I immediately looked through Britton's huge file of pictures and found 7 others with a white pupil, some on the left eye, some on the right. Danny had seen the news story too, so he didn't think I was crazy when I called to tell him what I found. We immediately called Danny's ophthalmologist and got into see him that day (bless that dear doctor!). He looked at Britton's eyes (as best he could look into a squirmy baby's eyes) and said that he did not see any sign of retinoblastoma, but that he wanted to refer us to a retina specialist just to make sure. We had to wait 3 days to see the specialist, but the prevailing wisdom (at least in my book) was that if a tumor was large enough to show up in a photograph (thus creating a white eye), it would have been big enough for the doctor to have seen it. We really were quite confident that Britton's eyes were fine, but we were anxious for the specialist to give him a clean bill of health. When we went to the retina doc last Thursday, the worst part was them having to dilate Britton's eyes, and wait, then dilate them again, and wait, and wait. The poor folks in that tiny waiting room had to listen to Britton squeal and babble for a good hour. We finally saw the doc and showed him all the pictures of Britton's white eyes, and he immediately said, "I know exactly what it is", but he checked his eyes anyway, and said (much to our excitement) that "everyone should have retinas as healthy as Brittons"! Britton actually sat still for this doc, b/c the doc had this large space-age-looking contraption on his head, and it sure got his attention. So, why are his eyes showing up white? In a typical photo taken in low lighting with a flash, the pupils would typically show up with a red glow ("red eye") -- the flash bounces off of the retinas and creates the red glow. Red eye indicates healthy retinas. In this same setting, it's possible (as in Britton's case 8 times) for the eye to be at just the perfect angle, for the flash to bounce off the optic nerve instead of the retina and come back as a white glow. The doc said the pictures would be more concerning if the white eye showed up in the same eye in every pic, or if they showed up in both eyes in the same picture. He said, however, that if any photo of a young child has a white eye, it must be checked out immediately. So, we did the right thing. This visit also put to rest any concern that his eyes took a hit from the lack of blood and oxygen he experienced at birth. We are so grateful for the good report. Thanks, friends, for your prayers and concern once again for a little boy!


White eye reflex in Britton's right eye. The top picture shows it in his left eye.

Happy & Handsome

So, I really don't have much to write about, but here are some recent pictures. ;o) I decided since I haven't posted in nearly a week that I needed to get busy and put some pictures up.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Here is Britton all ready to head to Mother's Day Out on a rainy, rainy morning last week.

Passing Time on an Airplane

Trying to keep a baby occupied on an airplane is difficult when it goes something like this ...
...slobbers on toy, DONE, slobbers on new toy, DONE!

Texas-OU Weekend

We took a spur of the moment trip to Dallas last weekend to see family, celebrate with friends at a wedding shower, and to watch the Texas-OU game. Here is a photo recap of our fun times:


Britton playing with his Aunt Danica.


Britton with his Cousin Will. Yes, Britton is too big for the bouncer but he loved playing with those toys. Will was kind enough to give him a bounce or two!


Britton & the Tate-ster busy at play. Tate is the child of my college friends, Jenny & Rob.


Britton and his Grandpa watching the Texas-OU game. We figured out this weekend that Britton had two great-grandfathers who attended the University of Texas, and two great-grandfathers who went to the University of Oklahoma. I'm afraid, though, that he has no choice but to be a Texas fan!


Hook 'Em Horns!


My sister-in-law, Danica & me (so ... everyone dressed for the game but me).


We got to see my family, too. Here is Britton with my Aunt Peggy, Uncle Lee and Cousin David who came to watch the game with us.


Britton & his Great Uncle Lee.


Britton riding on Danny's old rocking horse. In case you're wondering, he is wearing the bottom of his Halloween costume. We dressed the boys up and took some cute pictures that I'll post closer to the big day.


Will is 6 months older than Britton. It is fun to see them together and to see the similarities in their expressions.


My how times have changed! We realized this weekend that we can't be as on-the-go as we used to be before babies. Here we are loading up the boys -- it only took 30 minutes to get the car seats installed in the back seat. Alas, the boys are strapped in and off we were!


Danny & I with the soon-to-be Ziafats at their wedding shower! We can't wait for the big day. Danny & I were in Dallas four years ago this weekend for our wedding shower, and we spent the day at the Texas-OU game with these guys before our shower.

And what would Texas-OU weekend be without a trip to the Texas State Fair?



So, these are only a couple of the things we consumed ... The entire roster included corn dogs, tamales (oh my, they were good!), fried oreos, fried cheese, corn on the cob, fried okra, grilled pork chop, frito pie, belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, and homemade root beer. There were 6 of us sharing all of this, but we each had our fill of the fair goodness ... and, later, stomachaches!

From Piper With Love

We are in Dallas for the weekend while Piper is holding down the fort at our house. Woke up this morning and found this picture waiting for us. So smart, that dog! Figured out photo texting.

Britton is 9 Months Old!

(you can click on the collage to make it bigger)

I glanced at the clock at 7:43 this morning ... exactly when Britton turned 9 months old. I am having a hard time believing my little boy is 9 months old today ... three-quarters of a year ... well on his way to his first birthday! Time has f-l-o-w-n by. He is such a little boy lately, as you can tell in the pictures. He has really grown some hair which makes him look less like a baby.

So, what's he doing lately?
He has been making lots of new sounds and combination of sounds. He is rolling around to get places, but hasn't started crawling yet. He is starting on finger foods like puffs and chunks of bananas and carrots and is holding his own there. He still loves to gnaw on a cracker for awhile. And he is now great with his sippy cup. He is serious about playing with his toys. He loves to jump in his jumper (or your lap ... everything is a jumper to him) and will hold up his feet so he can "swing" back and forth. He continues to be very social ... loves to look at people dead in the eyes and give them great big smiles. And occasionally he'll lean in to bump noggins. He's a fun little guy with lots of energy and personality! We are blessed to have him in our lives.

Britton Got His Grove On

We had a fun time on Saturday at Ole Miss' Homecoming game in Oxford. Well, Britton didn't really go to the game. But he did Grove (appropriately used as a verb here), and that's a big part of the Ole Miss gameday experience. The Ole Miss slogan, "We may not win every game, but we've never lost a party" certainly rang true on Saturday. Ahhh well, there's always next week. For more on the tradition of the Grove, click here.

Here are some snapshots of the day...

Britton and Uncle Jon at our Grove tent.

The fam. (Yes, over the course of the day Britton wore two different outfits. Teething is hard on a little one ... and his clothes.)

Lots of food at our Grove tent. Not all for us, though! There were lots of tentmates.


Jon, Britton & Danny sporting their new Ole Miss hats right before the game.


I miss seeing this sight on a regular basis.

Britton & GrandMarna. They hung out in the Grove while we went to the game.

Me & my sister, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, me, Jonathan & Britton. Family resemblance?

Britton & Jon

A sad little Rebel.

Jon & his mini-me.