Bats all folks!!

Brendan dressed up as a bat for Halloween. Don't worry, he was a fruit bat, not a vampire bat. No one was hurt. Well, except for that box of raisins. RIP, raisins.


After hanging at the old folks home, Allie brought Brendan and Cole (who was a monkey) to Mauston so we could start out trick or treating at my office. The women surrounded them like flies to garbage. There was a lot of ohhing and ahhing. As always, neither of them cared. We went outside to take a few pictures. After that, Allie and Cole went off to meet some friends for the evening. Brendan and I finished making our appearances at a couple other offices. Not the smartest idea to do office trick or treating at nap time. I'll remember that next year.


We headed to the Dells to pick up Jeremy. One of his employee's called in sick so he was stuck at work until 11. He was able to leave to for a bit to join us. Trick or treating is not like it used to be. What fun is it going in the daylight? You knew which houses you could go to by the light on front step. There were no lights. There were no kids either. I don't know where everyone was. We couldn't follow the mobs to know which house was a go and which one was not. We went to a handful of houses and gave up. Brendan could care less about the actual act itself anyway. He was in 7th heaven just being able to walk down the sidewalk with the stick he picked up along the way. He did stray a few times when he bolted thru the lawns after squirrels. He doesn't understand that every animal isn't meant for petting.


After we gave up on the streets of Wisconsin Dells we zipped thru the drive-thru of McDonald's because not only was the child screwed out of a nap, he was hungry. A Happy Meal it is.


When he was done pretending to eat, we went to the outlet mall because they had trick or treating. Again, he could care less about the actual act. This time he was happy being able to stroll thru the mall with the rock he stole from one of the beds. Ah, to be so easily amused. That adventure didn't last too long either. Sadly, he has less than 10 pieces of candy. That's not really a bad thing. He most likely couldn't eat it anyway, which means we would have to.


So, here are some pictures from today. I hope you aren't expecting smiles from Brendan because we know that's not going to happen.

I did take a couple short videos too that I'll upload some other time.

Happy Halloween!

This was him at one of the few houses we actually went to.

So What!

Currently, one of Brendan's favorite songs is So What! by Pink. If you're driving in the car and he's being crabby, turn the song on and you're guaranteed silence for the duration of the song. Tonight Jeremy was adding songs to his Ipod while we were watching TV. Like every normal individual, he is watching TV while wearing headphones to hear the music on the laptop. Go figure. Brendan was curious about what was going on so Jeremy put the headphones on him. He thinks it the coolest thing, ever. This is him listening to his song. There's not much for sound since so don't worry about turning up the volume.

And for those who haven't seen the picture previously, this is him earlier this summer listening to the headphones for the first time ever...

For the record, this video is really dark. It didnt' seem as dark before it was uploaded. Sorry.

One Year Pictures

Here are some pictures from Brendan's one year photo shoot. As you can see, he was very excited about the whole process. He was all smiles and giggles...or not. I don't care what he says, I think Julie and I were HILARIOUS.

The Pumpkin Bash

On Saturday we faced the cold and wind and headed to Mauston's 3rd Annual Pumpkin Bash at Red Ridge Ranch. Uncle Tony met us there. So did Tanya and Carly. It was too cold to do too much. We went thru the hay maze and fed the animals at the petting zoo. That was about the extent of our adventure.

Feel free to gush over the hat. Julie deserves a shout out for that one. All leather...straight from Sweden. Keep that bald noggin warm and toasty. Looks like Tony could use one too.

The last picture most of you already have seen, but it cracks me up so humor me.

Sweet Dreams

Oh, to be able to sleep any where, any time.

Don't you wish your Mommy could cook like mine...don't cha?

Mmmm, mmmm, good! Nothing better than mom's spaghetti. He has two new rules though.


1. He will NOT allow anyone else to assist in eating. If he can't feed himself, he's not eating. This is any meal. It's not limited to spaghetti.

2. He will NOT eat spaghetti noodles if they are cut up. The longer the better.

Note the handprint on the side of his head. Lovely!

Separated at birth?

You be the judge...

Happy trails to you!

On Monday, Ashley loaded up her silver Grand Am and headed off into the sunset. Next stop, Arizona.

We went to lunch with her on Sunday to say our good-byes. Brendan pretended to not care, but he was torn apart on the inside. Really.

At least she left with visions of mom trying to escape the evil bee. A vision she will probably never get out of her mind again.

Here is a picture of Ash and Brendan from Sunday.

Happy Birthday!

Saturday was Brendan's BIG birthday party. It was a very good turn out. He only had a very short nap in the morning so he wasn't feeling the love by afternoon. Because he was in such a pleasant mood, there weren't too many pictures. Kind of hard to take pictures when he's clinging to me. Thank you to everyone who came.


For his actual birthday, we went to the Milwaukee zoo. A good time was had by all.


Today we finally turned his car seat around so he's facing forward and can see the world. We went to Ski-Hi to get some apples and drove around Devil's Lake to look at the trees. He loved being able to actually see the trees and had a good time running around the orchard.


We are going tomorrow to have his 1 year pictures taken. Pray for cooperation. We know how he loves to look at the camera. And smile?? What's that?!? Watch for those pictures.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple days and a video of him eating his cake. Yummy!

A year in review...

After some peer pressure, I'm giving in and starting this blog. Emailing at work will soon be a thing of the past and my posse will be without pictures and updates of Brendan. That would be a tragedy for them. This will have to be their way to keep up, along with any other people we pick up along the way (I do support blog stalking). Who knows, with me this could become an addiction with lots of posts or I could grow bored very easily. Time will tell, I'm sure.

So, our first post is just a year in review as Brendan's first birthday quickly approaches. I know there is a fancy schmancy way of posting this directly to this blog, but I haven't mastered that yet. For now, here's a link to the montage.

Warning....this is a bit long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuihSNyi9tA