Tristan For President 08!

It has been FOREVER since I posted on this blog and I feel absolutely terrible, but my friend Mikey hasn't done a very good job of posting to his blog Blah-Blah-Blog but then again he Blogs for a living. . . so maybe he's just to tired to do his own blogging. Me, I have no excuse.

But, a lot has happened in the last few months, so I'm going to take this opportunity to catch you up.

Christmas - Always great! We had Christmas day with my parents at their house along with the Franco family. My dad created a treasure hunt for Andrew and Ashley and then strung a very long string around the house for Tristan to wind up and find his special present. My dad made custom wood name plates for the each kid’s door. My dad made them for me and my sister when we were young, so it was pretty special.

Easter - At my sister’s house with the extended Franco family. Egg fun, nuff said! Check the pictures. By the time we got around to hunting Easter eggs, Tristan was about 2 hours past taking his late morning nap, so he wasn't EXACTLY happy about things.

Skiing - Seriously! What a great time! We vacationed with my folks and the Franco 4 to wonderful Taos, New Mexico for a great week of Skiing. This year my nephew, Damek came along and got his first experience with: The Mountains, lots of snow, skiing, altitude sickness/dehydration, ski school and long car rides. Uncle James got the first hand experience that my parents had teaching me to ski. Along with an awesome guided ski tour (disguised as a lesson) of the Taos ski valley. This year the snow was the best that Taos has had in the last 10 years. The whole mountain was open and I tried to take advantage of as much of it as I could. I even hiked up to the peak of the Kachina basin, which is a very steap 150 – 200 yards up a pretty steep and deep grade.

Babies! - Hello! like I was going to forget to talk about our new addition! Yes Genevieve Elyse Downing was born May 1, 2008. This new addition has been a transition for the family, along with me getting a new job that keeps me out of the house A LOT more. We are slowly adjusting and I think that Tristan is coping well under the circumstances. Tristan is still attending his daycare, while Amber is currently home full time with the baby.

I'm not going to go into too much explanation; most of you reading this have heard most of the stories already. Please enjoy the pictures and see the changes that Tristan has made in last three months. If you get a chance, click the archive section of the blog and see the pictures of this cutie from the day he was born, hmmmm (smiling proud dad)

Thanksgiving -

This year Thanksgiving was at my parents house. Amber and I were totally down for this because it just meant that we didn't have to have people over to our house and this rare 4 day weekend is the jumping off point for Christmas decorations. This year I rented some scaffolding to put the lights on the house. It was an arduous undertaking, but made all the difference in the execution. It was a little difficult to move the scaffolding by myself, but Amber helped out when she could.

Thanksgiving started with breakfast at my folks house. Originally Amber and I were going to "sleep in" something that we used to do before we had children . . .everyone once in awhile we get an extra 10 minutes but it's rare that we get to sleep much past 8:00 . . .ON A GOOD DAY! So we rolled out of bed and went to mom and dad's in our PJ's to take advantage of a home made breakfast. After eggs, bacon and mimosas our family went home for a quick nap before the carving of the bird. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holiday's because it's really all about family. It's like Christmas without the presents. You don't have the stress of getting everyone something and you can just spend time with them with out all the protocol of Christmas. I really like spending time with the family and talking Andrew into doing crazy things in the back yard and just laughing and being together. It's just good family time. Usually there is a Franco contingency at Thanksgiving and I really like that too, because the Downing/Franco family is close and we can all have a good time. But this year it was just Mom, Dad us and Jennifer's family so it was nice. We had that extended thing the next day at Jennifer's house for THE GAME.

My mother and I surprised the family by flying Aunt Nae Nae in from Vegas to spend the weekend with the family. I think that Amber was very excited to see Renae. They are very close and now that Nicole is getting married, all the sisters have stuff to talk about and are really putting forth and effort to help Nicole have a great wedding. I was looking thought my photo's from Thanksgiving and didn't see a single one with Renae, but I promise that she was there. It was good to have NuNae around. She used to live with Amber and I, and we were a pretty good team. We could always count on Renae to retrieve some type of food item in the morning and she was also handy when it came to working on the house. I actually had Nae help me put up some of the decorations on the house which she was more than happy to do. I actually think she enjoyed the work, it's always fun to decorate for Christmas.

Renae, Amber and Nicole also got some good sister time and were able to go dress shopping together. I know that was really important for Nicole and I'm sure that it made her feel special to have her sister's there with her. I'm really proud of the woman that Nicole has become over the last few years. She's had a few bumps in the road, but we all have. We all really like Jeremy, her fiancé, and I think that they make a really cute couple and two really great parents. I know that she's doing a really good job because the other day I asked Jeremy what he was going to wear at the wedding, a suit or Tux. His reply was, "Nicole hasn't told me yet". I looked him dead in the eyes and said, "Good answer!"

Aggieland 07 / Unsorted

So this post doesn't really have to do with Tristan so much as it does with his parents. But, since we brought him into this world, we deserve at least one post. I also added a bunch of random unsorted pictures form that last few months. These pictures don't really represent a specific occasion, but rather fun times around the house with your kid being so FREAKING CUTE!

So my mom procured some tickets to the Aggie/Kansas game through the Aggie Foundation because of some contributions that will be made in my parents names. I'm sure that my parents never thought that they would be helping some future farmer get their degree, but their son had to go and "sleep with the enemy", so now they have to spread the love. But at the same time, my parents are very respectful of education and A&M is a great school with some great traditions.

I really like going to College Station for game day. It's very different than a UT game. I don't want to ruffle any feathers with this statement, but UT thinks they have fans but Aggie really ARE fans. There are so many "re-locates" in this town that have chosen to be UT fans that have never even attended at class at UT, but there aren't that many "re-locates" in College Station, so you know that 99% of the folks attending those games actually went to the school and experience the traditions first hand.

I love the corp.. and what it stands for. I really hope that those kids know what they mean to the people that are currently enrolled and those alumni that attend every game. It's truly and honor to be part of something that special. I never really understood that it was such a big deal until I went to a non-UT/Aggie game and was able to really focus on just being there for the Aggies. I went to school at SFA, we didn't have anything like that and I'm really happy that Amber got to be part of that experience. It really has had an impact on her life. I'll be happy for my children to attend any type of higher educational institution, but I think that I would be especially happy if they went to A&M. I know that it would cause a ripple in the Downing family, but Amber needs some more folks on her side of the fence to keep it all balanced out!

There is this moment before the team enters the field where they play this montage of football stuff on the jumbotron. They do the same thing at UT and everyone gets all pumped and the players start jumping up and down and getting amped for the game. The Aggie Montage, is so far superior to the UT one, which is surprising because they have a film school at UT, you would think that they would commission some up and coming kid to put together something more exciting than animated longhorns turning into players as they enter the stadium . . . .man I'm down on UT this year . . . .but hey, The Aggies have taken UT to the woodshed the last two years so you got to give them props!

Enjoy the pictures from College Station and the random Tristan picks!