The tour of Texas!

Here are some pics of our Texas tour. We have had a great time visiting everyone and getting to show off our son! We have some really good pics from the party at my Grandma's house, but they are stuck on the laptop which is dead and we think the power cord is in SC so we will have to add those when we get back.

Swinging with Grandma and Grandpa

Great Aunt Staryme rocking Maddox to sleep

Maddox is the first great grandchild for Nana and Pappa.

Uncle Shayde

3 months old!

He looks like he just finished Thanksgiving dinner and is lounging on the couch watching football and holding his fat belly!

Cousin Presley loved to hold Maddox.

Watching Sesame Street together

Mercy Me concert before the Ranger game

At the Ranger game - We had a great time and I had a lot to eat! I haven't had a good ball park hot dog in a long time!!

Dad and Garrett at the game

Maddox hanging with his Papa

The Baby Whisperer...also known as Mama C. Maddox couldn't wait for her to get home from work so she would rock him. He would sleep for hours!!

Showing off his Texas pride with Papa and Mama C

The "Sharp Dressed Men"

Maddox's friend Conrad. He is only 6 weeks older than Maddox.

Conrad waiting patiently for his Sweet Potatoes.

Gramie rocking Maddox to sleep.

Pappy rocking Maddox to sleep....do you see a pattern here? I am going to have one spoiled boy after this trip!!

Uncle Shayde bought Maddox this cool jumperoo. He loves to look at the Gecko and parrot. I think this was the first time he discovered them and it took him by surprise!

Having lunch by the pool.

More fun in the jumparoo.

Another car ride....he actually acts like he likes it now. (That makes mom and dad very happy!)

Rockin' in the "Training Room" at church. We had to strip him down because he was so hot!

Just chillin' at church.

He loves taking baths now too. (Another thing Mom and Dad are very thankful for!)

4 months old! I can't believe it!

He loves trying to stand up.

Caisson's Aunt Karon.

Caisson's Uncle Jerry. I think Maddox was very interested in his moustache.

Daddy and Maddox chillin' out after a great hamburger at Karon and Jerry's.


We will start the journey back to SC tomorrow. We hope to be there by saturday night. We sure have loved our time in the Lone Star State!

TAG!....I'm it.

I have been tagged by my friend Lisa to give 8 random facts about myself. I sat down to do this and told my sister about it, to which she quickly gave me 12 facts - I guess I am a pretty random/quirky person since she was able to rattle them off so quickly. So I am posting mainly from her list.

Here are the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (if you don’t have a blog, email me)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

1. I lived in the Caribbean for 2 years on a 5 square mile island named Saba. Our house was in "Hell's Gate" (yes that is really the official name). We made frequent trips to "Windwardside" to get our groceries, "The Bottom" to pay our bills, and I worked on "Booby Hill". After I recovered from the initial shock of it and got used to the "island life" I really loved it.

2. I take my shirt off by pulling my left arm through, then over my head and slide it off my right arm. According to my sister the rest of the world takes their shirt off by pulling it over their head and arms simultaneously. I can't help it if everyone else doesn't know how to prevent getting deoderant on their shirt! :)

3. I LOVE Peanut butter and I LOVE Chocolate. I HATE the taste of them together. Reeces pieces lovers are crazy. These two things were definitely meant to be enjoyed separately.

4. I eat my food one thing at a time. I don't like to mix them and would prefer for them not to touch on the plate if at all possible. (The divided plate is one of the greatest inventions of all time!) I eat them in order of what I like the best - of course saving the best for last. Michael can back me up on this one. If you have never tried eating like this, you should give it a whirl. It makes everything taste so much better. It is like the world of colors. Red is so pretty when it is just red. When you start adding too many colors with it, it just becomes a muddy brown.

5. I count my steps. Not deliberately, but I do. I will make it half way down a stairwell and realize the number 17 is in my head. I can usually turn around and count the steps and the number will be right. Don't know why I do it, guess I am just a little strange.

6. I LOVE the Price is Right. And yes, I am so sad that Bob is gone and I never made it on his show. I still watch it whenever I can. In college, I had one semester that I had no 10:00 class. I would rush home to watch and was usually running to get to chapel in time because I had stayed to see who had won the Showcase. I think it is the greatest game show ever.

7. I have 3 freckles that form a triangle just under my right eye. This wouldn't be too random or strange if I didn't also always have people trying to clean them off my face! I have had numerous old women lick thier finger and start to wipe them before I realize what is going on. I am ready and aware now though. I mean that is hardly ok when my mom does it, much less a strange woman's spit - on my face no less! Now people will start to tell me and I immediately point right to them and ask if that is what they are looking at. The speedier I am, the less likely I am to receive unwanted saliva!

8. I have these sudden inclinations to pour water on people. Caisson has obviously gotten the most harassment from this bad habit, but Michael got his fair share back in the day too. The first time I met Caisson's parents I was in a white t-shirt soaked in water. I had become somewhat stir crazy in the car and squirted Caisson with my water bottle. After a few times he decided it was time for retribution, pulled the car to the side of the road, and dumped the whole bottle on me. To this day I still think it is a very fun game. Caisson tries to start it sometimes but I remind him I am the champion of this game and he usually changes his mind. I think you should all try it sometime. It is very satisfying.

I am tagging Kimberly, Becca, Laura, Lindsey, Jodi, Meredith, Hollie, and Ally.

Sorry there are no pictures to post. We are in Texas right now. Caisson is in Wichita Falls and I am in Tyler. He has the computer and I have the camera. I am going to try to put some pics on my parents computer tomorrow and then I can post some. I have some great pics from when we were at my Grandparents house so as soon as I get to our computer I will put those up. Thanks for praying for our trip. It was a long 21 hours, but we made it. Maddox was a champ for letting us drag him around for that long. I think he is glad to be out of the car for a while though...as am I! Our first stop was at my Grandma and Grandpa's house in Little River. The whole family fixed food and drove up on Sunday afternoon to meet Maddox and visit with us. We were so excited to see everyone and felt so special that they would all drive up for us. We have the greatest family!! We even got to teach Grandma how to bowl on the Wii. It was so fun! Then we went to Nana and Pappa's house (Caisson's grandparents) and had dinner with them and Shayde and Caisson's Aunt Staryme and Uncle Ronnie. Staryme was working some magic on Maddox. He loved rocking with her. Then Caisson did a tour of Dallas to see his friends and brother and sister and I hung out with Kimberly, Michael and Presley. Presley is at such a fun age now. I really enjoyed getting to play with her. She was constantly cracking me up. I love Maddox being little, but I can't wait until we can interact with him. We took some pictures of the two cousins while we were there. I will try to scan them and put those up tomorrow too. They turned out really cute! I am now in Tyler with my parents. Maddox loves his Papa and Mama C. He talks up a storm every night when they get home from work. We got to show him off at the church I grew up in on Wednesday night. That was fun. He was trying to talk through the service too. Good thing it was a singing service! He just wanted to join in the fun. I will be in Tyler through next week, then on to Wichita Falls. We can't wait for Maddox to meet his friend Conrad. So goes the tour of Texas. I even found a onesie for Maddox that looks like the Texas flag. I have to make sure he can properly represent the great Lone Star State when we return to SC!

His future's so bright....

We got out to run errands yesterday and I put Maddox's sunglasses on for the first time. I couldn't quit laughing everytime I would look at him in the mirror. I thought I would share the laughs with you. Doesn't he look cute? He loved them.



We have stayed inside today because of the crazy heat. The picture below is from weather.com as of 3:45. It has actually cooled off since I checked it at 1:00. Oh my word it is so hot! The humidity is only at 56% which is somewhat low for us and it still is giving a heat index of 115!!!! Living by the ocean has its perks, but on a day like today, I am wishing for the drier heat of Texas! (in 10 days....Yea!!)



Hope you are all staying cool!

Well, not much has happened this week. Caisson is studying a lot and Maddox and I are having fun hanging out. I thought I would give you a few more pics.

This is Maddox's favorite entertainment. His Uncle Shayde sent this to him and he loves it! It is a light show that moves blue and red lights across the ceiling. He loves to lay in his swing and watch it. Thanks Uncle Shayde!

Maddox is practicing his channel surfing skills.

We had a play date with Sophie and Max last Wednesday. Sophie had just gotten a fabulous new hat. We had a fashion show/photo shoot with her. She is adorable.

This is her brother, Max. He will be one year old on the 18th. (Yes, Thea now has 2 kids under the age of 1. Superwoman, right?) He is also very adorable and so much fun! I can't wait until Maddox can actually play with them.

Well, I will try to have something more exciting to post this week. We are counting down the days until we come to Texas. Maddox has been practicing taking naps in his travel bed. He is doing pretty well. We have also been taking lots of outings for random errands to get him better aquainted with his car seat. He is doing really well - as long as we remember to bring the fan. I just can't wait to get him to the Lone Star State and in the arms of his great grandparents!

P.S. - the poll ended up 50/50 for Yankees vs. Braves so I guess Kimberly and Garrett will just have to keep battling it out for themselves!

Polling fun!

My brilliant friend Becca found this new feature on Blogger where you can add polls and let your friends vote. I love it! So to start it off I am helping my brother and sister solve thier long time debate about their favorite baseball teams. Please help them end the fued by voting in the sidebar on the right. This should be fun!

Get ready for some fun games of "Would you rather..."

All burning questions and debates come to an end here!

I hate HTML!

Ok, so I went in a while ago to try and update the blog. I also tried to put a new picture of Maddox on the Lilypie ticker. When I did that, I messed up the HTML somehow so all that was showing on the blog was stupid code. After almost having a heart attack thinking I had lost all the pictures and comments from when I got pregnant, I finally found those archives. Well, after hours of work and days of confusion, it finally hit me that maybe I can just change the template and whatever I messed up would be replaced with the new template. IT WORKED! Yea! So now we have a new look - I was kind of tired of the dots anyway.

So now that we have that crisis fixed, here is an update....

Maddox is doing great! The Zantac has worked wonders. He is now smiling all the time and even thinking about laughing. He is also rolling over! He started this a few weeks ago and we thought it was just coincidence because we thought it must be way too early for him to really know what he was doing. But after the 3rd time we figured he must really not like it on his stomach. Now every time we put him down, he immediately rolls himself over. It takes him a while to make it all the way and he is still really surprised when he makes it to his back. It is really funny. At his 2 month checkup, he weighed 11 lbs 4 oz, and was 22 3/4" long. Both of those are in the 50th percentile. His head was only in the 25th percentile, but the doctor said that is in the normal range. (I guess his cousin Presely took all the head space!) We are coming to Texas on the 18th of August and we can't wait to see our grandparents holding our son! If you don't mind, if you could add that trip to your prayer list. Maddox still isn't too fond of his car seat so we aren't sure how this is going to go and it isn't the shortest trip in the world.

Ok, enough talk...here is what you really came for....pictures!

Dad's dream...someone to play X-box with...start em' early!

All dressed up in his Longhorn gear thanks to the Bighams...once again...start em' early!

Ready for his first 4th of July (Thanks Aunt Kimberly for the cool outfit). He was so excited he slept through the whole fireworks show!

This is Maddox's new friend Sophia. Our friends Steve and Thea just adopted her from Guatemala. Isn't she beautiful? She has a brother Max as well, but he had already gone to bed. I will have to get a picture of him next time. I can see many play dates in our future!


On his 2 month birthday, Maddox got to go to the doctor and get a lot of shots! What a birthday present, huh? I should have known to take his picture BEFORE we went. He was not very happy afterward. We have ice packs on his legs here to try and numb them a little. He would scream if we would slightly touch them. Poor kid.

After he knocked himself out from crying, I finally got this picture. I was very careful not to wake him up, so it is not the best pose, but it will be funny to remember how we spent his 2 month birthday.

This was our first successful walk. We had attempted once before, but we only got a few blocks up before he was ready to go back in. This day was pretty cool outside, so I think he enjoyed it. We also bought a fan that is hooked to the inside of the stroller. That helped a lot. He is very heat intolerant...just like his Dad!

Chillin' on the couch after our walk.


And...his newest trick...rolling over!



We are having so much fun with him and can't believe how fast he is changing. He is such a sweet baby. It melts my heart when I walk in the room and he looks for me, and especially when he smiles at me! There is nothing better!

The Many Faces of Maddox

Here is a video we made showing off our happy little boy...well "Happy" is such a relative term...haha!

Here is a picture of Maddox being all dapper at graduation.

I'm a big boy now!

First, let me say thank you for all of the encouragement you have given us. It always helps to hear stories of parents who have survived hours of screaming fits. It gives us hope. :) Last week Maddox started throwing up after he was feeding. That, coupled with the fact that he was always fighting me when he was nursing made Caisson think that he might have acid reflux. With all the crying and fighting while nursing, we had assumed he wasn't able to get enough to eat. We had tried all sorts of things and kept supplementing with bottles, but it didn't seem to help much. So after the throwing up started, we went to the pediatrician and she agreed - probably reflux. She gave him a prescription for Zantac that we started last night so we will see if that helps. So, that was probably his problem this whole time instead of colic. Wouldn't it be nice if babies came out with the ability to talk? I mean we could have saved him weeks of pain and us weeks of sleeplessness and insanity! So I am hoping this will make him feel better. I always felt so sorry for him because we could tell he was hurting, we just thought it was from his excessive tooting!! ha ha! Thanks again for the comments...it makes me feel better knowing you had this problem too and the medicine helped.


We also found out at the pediatrician that he now weighs 10 POUNDS!! I can't believe it. Caisson had told his parents that was what he weighed and I told him he was crazy. Well, I was wrong! He is still wearing the smallest clothes we have, so I guess all his weight is in his double chin! He has just about doubled his birthweight in 6 weeks. The doctor said usually they want a baby to double the birth weight by 6 months! I guess we sped that process up a bit! I am sure our thinking he wasn't eating enough and stuffing more milk down him helped pack on the pounds!!


He has also gotten pretty good at sleeping close to 5 hours most nights. We are loving it!! I never thought I would be so excited about 5 hours of sleep.


Here are a few more pics for you...

All dressed up for church. Uncle Bud would be proud of his seersucker pants.




Chillin' in his swing. This is where he lives these days. It is the only place we can get him to go to sleep. Now that we know it is reflux it makes sense because the inclined position helps.


One of the many pictures we take when he is just sitting there making faces at us and we of course think it is the most adorable thing ever!



We are going to a dinner for the residents graduating tonight. I am hoping Maddox will get to wear his shirt and tie if it is not too terribly big. We will have to post some pictures tomorrow of his big night out.

Well, I better go get myself ready before he wakes up...more pics and stories soon!

We're still here!

I know it has been a while since we posted pictures of our new addition, but I will give one word as my excuse...COLIC. Yep, fun times in the Hogue house. We have our good and bad days, but not much sleep is going on here. So, when we have had free time, it has been used in bed with our eyes closed! Today has been a really good day so far, so I thought you might appreciate some pictures to catch up.

Some pictures of the "firsts" we have had so far...

First bath in the bathtub - He is not too fond of this yet!


First trip to church. He was presented with his own little Bible and the church said a prayer just for him. It was very special.



First butterfly kiss...Cousin Presley loved holding her new friend. She loved to pat his head too. It was so cute! She would constantly come over and rub his head and say "Hi Baby". I can't wait for more memories like this one.



First designer Polo shirt - Thanks to our resident fashion guru Uncle Bud. It has his initials monogrammed on the chest and the matching polo logo on the bottom right. Garrett is already trying to work him onto the golf course!



First outing - we went to Queen Anne's Revenge on Daniel Island to celebrate Garrett's birthday. Maddox was so excited he slept through the whole dinner!



Maddox has also had fun meeting his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin P during his first month. I can't wait to bring him home to Texas to meet the rest of the crew!

Thanks for checking on us! We will post more pictures soon. Please pray for Maddox to feel better and for our sanity as we make it through his colic. We love all of you!