Judo Texas State Championship

Last weekend, I fought in the Judo Texas State Championship and took third place. Judo is a little more technical than Brazilian Jiujitsu and I made some errors out of ignorance that kept me from advancing further. Overall, though, it was a great experience. Here's a video and a couple photos of my win by submission (armbar).

"Little Pea" turns 14

At 5'9", the littlest pea in the pod isn't so little anymore. And a couple of weeks ago, she turned 14. In honor of the occasion, I was commissioned to take several (dozen) photos, of which these are just a small sampling. I'm still getting to know my new camera, so this provided me with ample practice.

In Brazilian Jiujitsu, We Work for Our Promotions

I received my first major promotion in Brazilian Jiujitsu this week. I'm now a blue belt. Following tradition, I had to run the gauntlet to get it. Here's a picture of my back after being pummeled by the Jiujitsu belts of about forty of my teammates. Well worth it.

9 Months Old

Emma is 9 months old today. As you can see, she's cute and crawling!

Misc. Events from Last Week

I know that's not a very exciting title, but I just have an assortment of photos from the past week or so to share. There are some of the kids outside, playing together inside, and from Valentine's Day.


Emma's 1st car ride

Big brother gives her a push

Morgan serves Emma a "meal"

My handsome Valentine

It was almost impossible to get one of Emma since she kept crawling away.

I finally got them sitting up together!

Morgan does his "school work"

He loves working with shapes.

The Weekend

We enjoyed some of the nicest weather we've had in a while this weekend, so we headed to the park with the kids. Emma loves to swing, but seemed a bit skeptical about the seesaw. Morgan did everything there was to do, including the rocking car and the "big boy" swings.
On Sunday, we went to our life group Super Bowl party. I honestly didn't watch so much as a single pay of the game since I had to keep a sharp eye on Morgan. He's become a very busy boy lately! Emma was a little lady, despite a few attempts to eat her own dress. And she did try to get in on a little of the attention focused on the game (as you can see in the last two photos).













Emma positioned herself in front of the TV to capture maximum attention...

And once she noticed the camera, she couldn't help but flirt.

The Week in Photos

Here is a sampling of what when on this week. We got out Morgan's ride-on toy and Emma loves it. Mostly she just bounces on it. The second picture should assuage my Dad's fears that I'm not reading to the kids. I've got photographic evidence! Then we have a couple shots form today, taken of Morgan and Fernando's cheerio necklace craft. Morgan worked diligently, although he did eat at least half the Cheerios before they made it to the necklace. Finally, to cap the week, we pinned Morgan down and removed his stitches. He was very brave. The cut has healed very nicely; soon you won't even be able to tell it happened.