Christian Family Christmas

Event: Christmas #2
Date: December 23, 2011
Place: Grandaddy & Grammy Jen's house
Mission: Draw the last number to steal the best white elephant gift!

After a busy week of dealing with illness, cleaning, and working (just Mommy fortunately!), we were more than ready for Christmas #2. We stayed up late (again!) Thursday night getting everything ready and then packed the car and headed out Friday morning.

Ian was insistent on wearing his boots for the whole 3.5 hour drive! Of course, he wanted to "see" when I took a picture. :-)

Grammy Jen had been a busy elf! The fireplace looked beautiful!

Pretty Christmas tree with all the presents!

More presents.

Laura, Rebecca, and Aunt Erin chilling.

Little cousins hanging out.

Ian had a blast with Uncle Tray and his hat.

Pretty soon after we arrived, Ian and Ace wanted to head outside. Ace filled the back of the trike with a bunch of leaves and took them for a ride.

Ace and Uncle James walking up the big hill.

Such a pretty day!

Ace's Daddy ran up behind James and Ace and hid. His orange sweatshirt blended perfectly into the background.

Back inside, we settled down with phone games.

In the meantime, Ian flirted with Grant (Great-Aunt) Julie to score some cheese!

Aww...love how sweet Grant Julie and Ian look and how funny Uncle Tray looks!

Max, Grandaddy, Uncle Joe, Uncle Tray, Grant Julie, and Ian enjoying all the yummy food.

Sweet kisses!

Maci made sure she got her share of yummy food too!

Laura, Rebecca, and Hannah with Maci. Love the squinty face!

Ian and Ace playing phone games. :-)

Then Aunt Kt brought out Ace's cool car track and the phones were forgotten for a while.

White Elephant presents.

Grammy Jen, Grandaddy, and Uncle Joe looking at calendars of the kiddos. Love Grammy Jen's expression!

Sugars and smiles for Grammy Jen!

Aunt Liz playing guitar!

Happy giggles for Aunt Erin.

My favorite present ever!

Playing with bows.

Almost got a picture with bows on both boys' heads at the same time...almost!

Cousins wrestling.

Hehe...love this father-daughter pic!

Ian was thoroughly enthralled with Daddy's cousins. :-)

Our tired little boy got a story read to him and was thrilled.

Back to the bows!

Even though I didn't get pictures of everyone, we definitely enjoyed getting to visit and catch up with so many wonderful people at the Christian family Christmas!

Sock Monkey Christmas

Event: Christmas #1
Date: December 17, 2011
Place: Gramma K's house
Mission: Party like a sock monkey!

In what will probably become a new Christmas tradition, we had Christmas #1 at Gramma K's house the weekend before Christmas. We stayed up late the night before wrapping gifts and headed out the next morning for a day full of fun!

Hubby and I were both very glad when Ian fell asleep on the way there. A napped child is a happy child.

As soon as we arrived, Ian discovered Gramma K had gotten sock moneys for the kiddos. Ian's monkey was sitting in the highchair where he normally sits.

Ian was thrilled. He immediately put his drink on the highchair, signed HELP, and tried to pull his monkey out!

Ace had already discovered that his sock monkey was on the potty!!!

Monkeys ready to eat!

Aunt Kt and Uncle Tray talking with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa.

After playing with sock monkeys for a while, it was time to get on with more Christmas fun. Stockings had been hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that excited family members would soon peek in there!

In the meantime, Daddy sampled Gramma K's great cooking!

Pile o' presents!

Ian LOVED being outside while all the preparations were being made. After a while, he was the only one out there and came to the door to check on us.

This next picture melts my heart!! Ian decided he wanted in and Cousin Ace came to help him get by the heavy screen door.

Ian pushing Ace. Such good buddies!

Sharing!

Umm...yummy!

Hehe...staring at each other through the glass.

Two monkeys!

Showing off their monkeys. Ian's hand is waving because he wants to "see"...he has decided he has to see every picture we take now.

Big brother lovin' on lil sister. So sweet!!

Love Maci's expression!

A pretty little girl with her pretty Momma!

Getting some love from her Daddy too!

Ace is somewhere in this picture...can you find him?

Ian helping Maci open her present. Tray is obviously more interested in finding his own presents. ;-)

Ian's turn to open a present!

Daddy got a cool drumset shirt that really plays!

Great-Grandma, Gramma K, and Steve looking at calendars of the grandkiddos.

Getting some Gramma K loving!

Love this precious smile!

Enthralled by his new Word World DVD!

Steve playing cars with the boys.

Apparently while I was gone taking Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa back, Gramma K took pictures with all three grandkids. Looking through them, this was the best. Of course, it would be my child's finger up his nose!!

Then I saw this next picture and just about died laughing. Must be a boy thing!

Sweet Daddy-son moment.

Cousins playing with Gramma K's hula hoop!

When we got home after all that fun, Ian wanted to feed his sock monkey his popcorn!

A little later, I looked over and Ian had put his sock monkey on his little potty! I guess even sock monkeys need to take care of business sometimes. :-)

We had such a wonderful first Christmas!! Thank you Gramma K, Steve, Great-Grandma, and Great-Grandpa, Aunt Kt, and Uncle Tray for everything!

1-2-3, Spell With Me!

Ian loves to spell and count. He knows almost all his letters (F and Q still give him trouble sometimes) and can count up to 20 (usually he forgets a number or two in between, but it is never the same number).

The other day, we were in his bedroom after his bath and he started naming his letters on the wall and counting them. I-A-N! 1-2-3. Of course, by the time we got the video camera, he wasn't naming and counting them in the same order. But we still got some fun video of it!

Ian still loves to say the letters of his name. He will often go over them...I-A-N...and then jump into my arms. I have to be paying attention! We'll swirl around (although we didn't in this video) and then start all over again.

I had been looking for some magnetic letters and numbers for our fridge, but didn't want to pay too much. The other day, I came across sets of both at Wal-Mart for $1 each. Can't pass up a deal like that! Ian had a blast putting his numbers and letters on the fridge. He's a little hard to hear (Elmo is in the background). Granted, he's a little hard to hear even if you are right there sometimes, so we really can't blame Elmo!

When Ian had all of his letters and numbers up, he started counting them. I love watching when he wants to count fast. One, two, fee, foh, fiii, sik, sebenninetentwelveteen!

Ian, we are very proud of you!! You are doing a great job learning your letters and numbers and will be reading in no time!

Pah-dee

This face says it all!

Ian loves to go "pad-dee"! Well, at least he loves to sit on the potty. It all started last week one time when he followed me into the bathroom and decided he was going to go potty too. Of course, I was going to encourage such behavior! Now he likes to sit on the potty anytime we do and even a few times on his own after he has gone potty in his diaper. There are so many fun things to do on the potty...

...play with toilet paper!

...eat a snack! (Gross...I know...but hey - it keeps him on there!)

...check out the contents of the trash can (he wants me to give him empty shampoo bottles in this picture). He also thinks he has to take off ALL his clothes to go potty. Needless to say, he's getting better at getting undressed and dressed again on his own.

...and, of course, the all time favorite - read a magazine on the potty!

Ian loves to talk about going "pah-dee" and going pee-pee and poo-poo. We have Cousin Ace to thank for that! (Unfortunately, he didn't repeat the word potty in this video...I'll have to get that later!)

Ian, we are so proud of you! You are growing up! We are looking forward to the look on your face the first time you actually do go potty in the potty. :-)