Brendan opening a few presents

Baby's 1st Christmas

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Brendan had a fantastic 1st Christmas!

Santa Express at Pullen Park

On Sunday December 14th we visited Pullen Park for the Santa Express. The park was decorated with lights to view while walking or riding on the train and there was also live music, food, other rides and Santa. We all had a great time and will make this an annual event.

A view from the train ride

Waiting for the train to start

Brendan and Allie on the carousel

Allie, Brendan and Dylan on the carousel

Visiting with Santa

Tuc

Tuc is a 1.5 year old pointer hound mix that was found wandering around licking dew off the grass. It took his 1st foster dad Clark several days to gain his trust and let him even come close enough to pet him. Since then he has enjoyed 8 weeks at Clark's house and then arrived at the DeMacy house to play with Carson and Abby for a few weeks. He is a gentle and loving dog and wants nothing more than to be by your side and be rubbed on his head and belly.

Standing up on the chair

Now Brendan's idea of fun is standing on the chair inside the playzone to get your attention. In this video he is being sweet, but typically he is screaming to get your attention. The video came out a little blurry.... sorry.

Raleigh Christmas Parade

This year A New Leash on Life Dog Rescue participated in the Raleigh Christmas Parade for the first time. We had a great turnout of volunteers and foster dogs even though the temperature at 8:15am was 22 degrees! Our foster dog Tuc found his forever family at the parade and we couldn't have been happier about that.

A view of the Fayetteville Street crowd

Allie and Eve leading the group

Allie and Mom

Dylan, Brendan and Poppy

Group photo

Video moments of Brendan from November

Pulling up on his own

Everything goes in my mouth!

Tower destroyer!

Playing with his new toy.

Bet I can make you laugh

Crawling

Brendan has been crawling since 8 1/2 months (1 month). This is the first video we have taken. Hope you enjoy it!

Favorite toy in the store

Brendan had a super time riding on this toy in the store. I wish we had space for it at home.

Laundry with Nanny

Brendan was having a great time watching Nanny fold socks last Sunday.

Chick-Fil-A

Our favorite weekly activity by far is having lunch with our great friends Anglea and Tyler. This particular location is especially clean, the staff is super friendly and the play area for Tyler is fantastic. Here is a very short video of Brendan eating puffs (sorry that it is sideways).

Oaks at Westlake Halloween Party

On Saturday October 25th 2008 Brendan attended his first neighborhood Halloween Party. Neighborhood kids of all ages dressed up in costumes, walked in a parade and played halloween themed games. We concluded the wonderful afternoon with a potluck dinner. We feel very lucky to live in a fantastic neighborhood that enjoys spending time with each other and loves to plan activites for the kids and adults.

Little Playzone

We recently purchased a Little Playzone for the family room so that Brendan can crawl and play safely in a contained area. There are 8 panels in total, 2 of which have music and activites as shown in the first picture. Brendan has a great time playing in here!

A visit to the Pumpkin Patch with neighborhood friends

This past Friday we headed to Youngsville, NC (about 35 minutes from our house) with our wonderful neighborhood friends to visit Hill Ridge Farms for some fun fall activities including a large slide, a hay ride and pumpkin picking.

New Foster Dog

I picked up our beautiful 8 1/2 month old Black Lab puppy named Tyler on Monday, October 13th. He is a great fit for Carson and Abby. He minds his own business, which is perfect for Carson, but also loves to play with Abby. I think his idea of a great day is following me around the house.

Kelly and John's wedding

The wedding weekend took place outside of Georgetown, SC about 45 minutes from Myrtle Beach. The weekend was filled with laughter and friendship from the very beginning. The Roberts kindly drove the DeMacy family and Alli Knode down to the wedding, while The Beard and Gomez families were only a short distance behind. We all shared a beautiful 6 bedroom home near the wedding site and it felt like we were back in college again (except now we have husbands and children in tow).

Pulling Up

Okay, so this picture was staged but I needed to show you what

I found Brendan doing this morning when he woke up from his nap.