12 Month Photo Shoot

My very talented cousin, Jennifer, comes to the rescue once again to do Cason's milestone pictures. Enjoy!

Back where my dad comes from...

We spent last weekend in Bainbridge for the annual Brock family reunion. It was great, as always, to see the family we don't get to see very often. Despite having his third ear infection, Cason did great on the way down and back. Thank God for portable DVD players and baked Cheetos! We always meet at the church Saturday evening for dinner and then again Sunday for lunch before everyone heads home. This year they had an Easter egg hunt for the little ones too. Cason "hunted" all of one egg before he decided he was more interested in walking up and down the ramp in front of the church entrance. Before we ate dinner, we walked Cason and Trinity up to see the cows in person. He thought they were pretty cool, but was more interested in playing in the grass I think. I have such fond memories of growing up going to the family reunions in the summer time, eating at Pace's for dinner, spending the night with Amber, driving the truck into the pastures at night and laying in the back looking at stars, hearing the coyotes and jumping back inside the truck, fishing at the river...not to mention my Memaw, Aunt Vera, and Amber's Big Momma's cooking. You can't beat flat cornbread made in a cast iron skillet! I hope Cason will have great childhood memories too...we all need to be able to look back on our experiences in life and smile.

Big Top

Me and Cason went with my family to the circus on Sunday. It was so cold outside but we made it through the elements (from the parking garage to Philips arena) and had a great time. Cason danced the entire first hour, and then after intermission, his batteries started to run out. I think he really enjoyed seeing all the animals, lights, and hearing the music! Half of the show was fluff, and the other half was really cool. I think they could have just shown the cool stuff in the first hour and been done with it. Have you ever seen 7 idiots on motorcycles inside of a metal ball all at one time? If not, catch the show the next time it comes around.


He has a fascination with poking everyone in the nose.


I didn't use my flash on this one so you could see how hard he was concentrating on the show.

How well do you know your husband?

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? Fox News, the Outdoor Channel, or re-runs of Burn Notice
2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Caesar
3. What's one food he doesn't like? Sour cream - I try to play dumb every time I make black bean and rice casserole and say, "Honey, do you want any sour cream with it?" He always says, "Steph, don't you know by now I don't like sour cream?" And I always respond with, "Well, I just thought I would check again and see if you had changed your mind." He never does.
4. You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order? Coors Light
5. Where did he go to high school? Harrison - our high schools were huge rivals
6. What size shoe does he wear? 10.5
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Deer heads...they're slowly taking over my house!
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? He really doesn't eat sandwiches that often...but I would say a grilled chicken from CFA
9. What would this person eat every day if he could? Tuna steak with sauteed squash and zucchini
10. What is his favorite cereal? Cinnamon Toast Crunch
11. What would he never wear? Dress clothes! He complains every time.
12. What is his favorite sports team? Georgia (because of me) & Georgia Tech (because of Tyler) - I know, it doesn't make any sense to us either
13. Who did he vote for? McCain
14. Who is his best friend? Me! - I'm going with Kristen's response on this too
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Interrupt him when he's on the phone to ask questions. I'm a girl, I can't help it!
16. What is his heritage? I'm not even sure of mine, so I'm omitting this question
17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind of cake? His mom always takes care of this part. But I do bake him sugar cookies from time to time.
18. Did he play sports in high school? I believe baseball and football
19. What could he spend hours doing? Hunting
20. What is one unique talent he has? He's like my dad...he can fix anything!

Your turn!

Happy 1st Birthday!

I can't believe it has already been a year since the sweetest little boy ever made an appearance in this world. What a wonderful year it has been! Our lives have changed in ways we couldn't imagine and we are all different people for having loved Cason. He has been the best, sweetest, smartest little thing and I can't imagine our lives without him. Although he isn't walking yet, he will take four or five steps and then resort to his quickest form of travel, the army crawl...with one leg out at times. His extended vocabulary includes momma, dadda, nana, papa, hottt (as in coffee because me and my mom are always drinking it), deer (shocker, I know) - which actually sounds more like dee but we get it, ball, oh wow - sounds more like oooh oww, tttt tttt - this symbolizes anything that he wants really bad and points at, boo - when he's trying to scare us, yuck, bye bye, and uh oh. He has also said Elmo and blue, but these are few and far between. His animal noises include dogs, elephants, monkeys, and pigs. He LOVES fans, lights, light switches, vacuums, bath time, Blue's Clue's, Franklin, peek-a-boo, opening and closing doors, banging on the drier, feeding Ryan's fish, taking walks in his wagon, and reading books. He is very curious and likes to try and understand how things work by investigation...poking at wheels as they move and turning everything over to see the underside. He will imitate anything. This morning in the car I moved a piece of my hair and then happened to look back in the rear view mirror...and he was moving his hair with his hand looking at the back of my head. I choked on my drink the other day, and he started coughing too. It's actually pretty comical that he pays attention as much as he does...which tells me we're really going to have to mind our P's and Q's before too long! Happy birthday Cason Rycher...we all love and adore you to pieces!

Seems like only yesterday...

4 months...

8 months...


The birthday party...

You know it's good when you have to put two fingers in your mouth, and one in your nose.