Christmas in Knoxville

I loved our Christmas in Knoxville this year. We were so excited to see the girls and they are always soo sweet to us. I will just be sooo sad one day when they decide to longer refer to me as "Aunt kissy"....Ryan is precious with Crawford and sings him songs and plays with him and really is so sweet.Gotta have a cousin bathtime picture to pull out at their weddings in the future!

Loved watching the girls stroll Crawford around in their babydoll stroller.

Crawford was wooorn out from those crazy cousins of his

Once the babies were sleeping Ryan and I did some arts and crafts

Christmas Eve morning started with a dance party in the den followed by tracking Santa on AT&T santa tracker--so cute!

Hayden having a dance party to the sounds of Christmas Carols

Crawford was verrrry entertained watching the girls dance.

We took the kids out for a stroll around the neighborhood

Ryan was the leader and made us "stop and go" and "change directions"

We attended Christmas Eve service at the girl's preschool church. Then we headed to our annual chinese dinner out.

Then we changed into Christmas PJs and played

Practicing walking...not quite there yet.

It was time to make cookies for Santa. Ryan had a ball cutting out cookies

I know I enjoyed it as much as she did. My sisters and I had a decorating contest and Ryan participated as well. Corinne for sure won the prize and I was quite impressed.

All the cookies were ready and we just had to pick out the prettiest ones to leave out for Santa

Christman 2011

Started Christmas morning 2011 in Knoxville with my 2 sisters, 2 nieces and our 2 boys (the husbands were there too of course!) It was so fun to have Hayden and Ryan get soo excited about Santa. We were so excited when everyone was up and it was time to go downstairs. They immediately found their "big" presents from Santa (unwrapped) and were so excited about their first two presents. It was a whirlwind from there as the girls has soo many presents to open and with my crazy little guy crawling around and everyone trying to hand out presents it was chaos (but adorable to watch nonetheless) Crawford was obviously clueless this year and was more overwhelmed by everyone tearing paper and making a mess and I think he was a bit overstimulated.

Corinne had them all the cutest matching PJs (but Blake peed through his) and the girls adorable nightgowns are covered up (it's the thought that counts) I just love how different they all are in the different stages of life! Hayden (2.5), Blake (6 months), Ryan (5), Crawford (1)

The boys in their matching Kentucky gear. Dantley got Brad a Kentucky shirt and Brad loved it (though he's not a Kentucky fan)

The girls last surprise from Santa was on the deck. It was soo cute to watch them uncover it and jump right in. Hayden accidentally stepped on the gas without knowing it and they went flying. It was soo cute to watch

It was then time to pack up (around 8:30 AM) and we headed 3 hours back home to Greenville. Crawford got to start tearing open some of his presents.

He looved his laptop (as he is constantly trying to get on any and all of our electronic devices) and we can't wait till he is old enough to enjoy his cozy coupe.

We all got a laugh that this polo wearing guy is now a fan of lumberjack shirts --what happened to my husband?

Crawford's other set of cousins joined us at Brad's parents house in Greer. Crawford (1) Carter (9 months)

Grandpa is soo great with these boys and I can't wait to see what Crawford decides to call him when he starts talking

Crawford loves anything he can push around the floor and he was having fun with his new CAT truck

Poor Hope ---the boys destroying all of her presents. She is soo sweet and never pushes them away.

Christmas 2011 (oh how different it was from our sleep deprived, crazy new parent stage last year...soo much more relaxing!)

We are so blessed to have had a happy and healthy 2011!

12 Month Update

You are so sweet and busy all the time and getting you to look up at me with that smile melts my heart. You are so sweet and I just love every single second I spent with you. I always think people at the grocery or in the parking lot must think I am coo coo because I'm always talking to you and laughing at you like you are my little buddy and I love our special bond!

We are gonig to try to take a picture in you wearing daddy's shirt. I think it will be great to watch you grow into his shirt. You are such a little peanut but have grown so much over the past year. You went from 8 lb 7 oz to 20 lb 2 oz and from 21 inches to almost 31 inches. --- AMAZING!

I can't believe you are 12 months old--I feel like you are now referred to as a toddler and that is just too crazy! I just love love love this stage of your life. You are full of personality and quite the explorer. You are so happy and content and can keep yourself occupied all hours of the day. You play hard and sleep hard and I just love to watch you discover new things each day! You are hilarious now and make clicking sounds with your tongue and point at everything...those are probably your two newest discoveries this month.

Stats:

• Weight-- 20 pounds 2 ounces (12%)



• Height-- 30.5 inches (73%)




• You wear a size 3 diaper --but I think I'll be buying size 4 next time--you are filling diapers big time at night



• You wear size 6-12 month clothes and 9 month longalls but I have just pulled out a stash of 12-18 month winter outfits and they seem to fit just fine too.
  


• You wear a size 4 shoe
  


• You sleep from about 9 to 8-9 in the morning.



• Over the past month you have gone from nursing 3 times a day all the way down to once a day and you finished nursing Monday December 12th (I never every thought we would have made it that long--but you grew and stayed healthy and I wouldn't change it for anything!)
  


• You are now drinking whole milk like a champ out of your sippy cup. (sometimes you like it more than others but when you are in the mood you chug it like crazy)
  


• You loooove food. You are soo over baby food and when I am home with you you only eat table food (Grandpa still feeds you some baby food which is fine because then I know you are getting enough vegetables/fruit)


• Your favorite food is mandarin oranges followed closely by grilled cheese. You love them both so much



• You wil eat chicken, beef, turkey, yogurt, peas, carrots, zucchini, watermelon, grapes, applesauce, pineapple, melon, blueberries, waffles, black beans, lima beans, any kind of potato, macaroni--those are some that come to mind. I definitely need to feed you more veges
  


• You started getting separation anxiety--which is soo bizarre (but breaks my heart when I leave.) You have been going to the gym since you were 3 months old and know all the girls that keep you but when I go to put you down you squeeze my arm so tight and cry harder then I have ever heard. It makes me feel terrible but when I come to pick you up you are always having so much fun and don't want to leave
  


• You have to have your blanky to go to sleep. We know you are sleepy if when we hand you your blanky you put your fingers in your mouth and lay your head on our shouler it is beyond sweet and definitely one of my favorite things you do



• You are so easy to put to sleep right now. We just tell you night night and give you your blanky after having a bath and you go to sleep.
  


• You love going up and down the stairs



• You click your tongue in your mouth when you play a lot
  


• You point at everything. If you want something or want to go somewhere and it's precious



• You cruise a lot more and can stand unassisted for several seconds and can even take a step but you just aren't brave enough to take off yet and you always throw yourself onto your knees and crawl to wherever you want to go
  


• You still love baths -you have started to put your face in the water as I am trying to teach you to blow bubbles. You also love to float on your back.
  


• You really started liking tv this month. You can now watch about 15 minutes at a time and it's long enough for me to grab a shower before work. You really only watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (because that is the only show I DVR every day so it's always easy to access.)


• You don't like the stroller anymore. If we are out running errands we either have to make them super fast or we put you in the baby bjorn..Either way you are constantly grabbing at everything we pass and I am always just holding my breath waiting for you to knock something over.
  


• You still loooove the giggle bellies and it works like a charm to calm you down at any hour of the day.
  


• You have one new favorite show and it works like a charm if you are upset or getting tired --it's the Elf on the Shelf mini movie and it's absolutely adorable.
  


• You still sleep with your sound machine on and the humidifier going

Winter Onederland Part 1

Crawford --it was a treat to plan your first birthday party. I just loved all the ideas of a winter "One"derland and so that is what we planned for you. It was fun to use penguins, snowman, and some fun festive colors to create your party!

You were ready for your party to begin!

Aunt Cat came and helped us get things ready!

I just loved how your party hat turned out--too bad you weren't crazy about wearing it!

Some of the cupcake toppers

Party Favor tags-- "Thank you snow much for coming"

Your birthday banner was just precious--but it was soo large and I really should have gotten a better close-up picture of it

The ceterpiece for the cake table

Your monthly photo tags

The party favors --pottery barn ornaments with the last name monogram

The festive cup labels

The favors for the little ones--snowman sippy cups

And the Christmas tree was filled with M&Ms and everyone got to guess how many were in there--can't believe my 5 year old niece was the winner!

The table before we pulled the food out. I made the candle holders on the table --again should have gotten a close-up

The cake tablescape pre-party

The penguin cake that Molly made (She owns Cake Notice in Greenville)
It was soo perfect and was exactly what I had envisioned for his cake.

The favor tree

The snowmen that Ryan and I spent all morning assembling (of course no one ate them)

The precious snowman cheese ball my father in law made