Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from us and our Angels!

Ha never fails, one looks great and the other is a goofball.  Oh well these are my favorite kinds of pictures anyway.  This is why when I need GREAT pictures I hire someone to do the work for me :-)

Well this Christmas was very special, we had many newcomers and a little more fun with Waylon.  It is the best and so much fun with so many places to go.  No wonder we are home bound for days afterwards.

Christmas Eve begins with the PURE excitement that THIS IS THE DAY we have been waiting for....SANTA IS COMING TONIGHT!!! Waylon could not wait this year and then once it was finally here, he was super excited.  I mean who doesn't love Christmas Eve and then you add A BIRTHDAY to it...What a fun day we had.

1st stop was the Annual Christmas party at my Uncle Mike and Aunt Donna's.  This is the second year they have done it in their art gallery instead of their house.  It is so nice and roomy but I do miss going to their house, especially with Waylon being the age I was when they probably started this tradition.

As you can tell Waylon made out pretty well here, LOTS of Lightning McQueen stuff from Cars and lots of CARS in general.  He could not wait to open his Town, so the next stop we opened it after dinner.

This was Toni's first Christmas party and we made sure she was dressed well for it.  I did not get a PERFECT shot of her in her dress, but we have seen it a couple of times.  We did her Santa picture in this and I also took her 5 month shot in this dress too.  I was so glad that she fit into this dress because lately I was not sure if she would fit in it...she is growing like a weed. Toni made out pretty well at the party too, got several awesome gifts from family.

The next stop was Grandma D's and Papa Waylon's house for Grandma Pam's Birthday. As you can see we were all still in great moods when we arrived so the camera came back out. Here is Toni wearing Grandpa Larry's hat, she got a kick out of it.

So after a nice relaxing evening with some of the family we got our family picture and then headed home to get ready for SANTA's arrival.

Last year Waylon was so excited, I was amazed he ever fell asleep.  This year he was more on the anxious and worried side.  He kept wondering what time he was going to get there, would he go over our house if we were not ALL asleep and skip him, he was also worried about reading the story and doing cookies...he was not sure there was going to be enough time.  He really just wanted to go to sleep this year.  Jake and I thought this was so funny and such a change from last year.  We managed to get the cookies out and some treats for the reindeer and also sprinkle some reindeer dust in the front yard.  Then we quickly went to his room and read The Night Before Christmas. Daddy read it this year so I fed Toni and she was able to listen too...Great memory and all on video.

Finally Christmas Morning!!

Santa Arrived and he brought a lot of stuff for Waylon and a few treats for Toni too.  Mommy and Daddy had two presents from us for Waylon under the tree (the blue ones) and then the majority was all Waylon's.  Boy oh Boy Santa thought he must have been pretty amazing this year, becoming a big brother and all.  I would have to agree Waylon has been such a joy this year.

Toni sat in her Bumppo and watched the Christmas madness begin.  My favorite memory this year (again on video) is Waylon's reaction when he is first inspecting everything by the tree. He sees this Air Craft Carrier with all these planes on it...Daddy is so excited and Waylon...well his reaction was priceless..."umm what is this, I did not ask for this?" So Daddy tells him what it is and how they can BOTH play with it...and Waylon says, "Well looks like you can play with it because I did not ask for this."

Waylon did get a BIKE! We have not taken it out yet but are very excited too soon!

Then Christmas morning wraps up pretty quick at our house as we have another two stops to make.  1st we go to my mom's house where the kids again make out like bandits and come home with all kinds of great things to play with.  Waylon got more Cars stuff and a microphone so that he can sing in his room all he wants now.

Then of course we had to get some pictures of the cutest cousins together.  They were both awake here and not crabby for the moment...Can't wait until they are happy and playing together...hopefully sooner than later.. But looks like Toni is already telling Connor who is BOSS.

Then off to Aunt Heather's house where again...MORE fun toys...and so much fun playing with the boys.  In all the madness of fun we had on Christmas we did manage to squeeze in a nap between each place so this made the day more fun as their were few melt downs.

So we spent the rest of the weekend in the house cleaning and reorganizing in order to fit all these toys into our rooms.  It was a huge project but managed to get boxes of things out and add more in...

Then Monday came and my Cousin Eric was here with his kids...so we went out to see them and got several pictures of the boys but none of the grown ups :-( But what cute boys he has.  Miss him so much, wish he lived closer with these cutie pies.

 Sawyer his youngest about a 1 1/2 years old and such a ham~

                                                  Ethan (4 almost 5) and Waylon (3)...

We hope everyone had a wonderful and very Merry Christmas filled with many memories and more blessings.

How many Sweets?

Waylon and I have been on break for one week already and are LOVING our time together...We have really been into the sweets this week.  We started on Sunday making our Christmas sugar cookies.  This is the second year I have done them and I am getting better, but still have a hard time with these cookies.  Waylon was in to helping me the first batch and then he and I lost our patience with each other and decided I would bake them and he would decorate them.

As you can tell he did a great job decorating them and never lost interest on this task as it was much more fun!..Then later that night we drove around our great neighborhood and enjoyed all the lights.  Now that is one of the best Free things we have done (don't get me wrong the cookies were free this year and they were fun too).  It was so great to hear his excitement as we looked at each of the houses and all the fun things he saw.  He LOVED the houses that had music, mickey mouse or COLORFUL lights. If there would have been another me I would have loved to video tape those conversations with him. Daddy was working over time so he was unable to join us and we missed him, but appreciate all the work he does.

Then today we had our "neighbors" over for a SUPER FUN day!  We managed to plan another fun filled day, with gingerbread houses with a TON of treats and a small gift exchange and then they had PB & J sandwiches shaped as snowmen.  No worries Amy and I treated ourselves too we had some delicious crab dip (2nd year in a row) and yummy homemade chicken salad sandwiches.

Toni even had a great time.  We love the way she watches these CRAZY boys.  It seems that now more than ever, when the boys get together the house is FULL of noise and laughter!  Toni enjoyed herself by the tree feeling it and looking at the pretty lights.  She was practicing for Christmas morning, to see what all this present stuff is about.  Still trying for a really great picture of her by the tree.  

The first OFFICIAL picture of all the kids together~  This was pretty much Miss Toni's look at the CRAZY boys all morning!

Here is Waylon's finished Gingerbread house! Of course FILLED with Candy!

Oh the fun to come over the next 2 days I can not wait to blog about them!

Merry Christmas!

Waylon goes to the Dentist!

 Well the day finally came after months and months of waiting.  Waylon went to the dentist with me and he got a turn too.  Six months ago he came with me and just watched and did great so we scheduled an apt for the next time around.  For a while he has really not wanted to go, and then as it got closer he became more excited about the whole thing. 
  He had remembered a lot from the first visit, playing with Mr. Molar and Mr. Thirsty were the two things he asked for as soon as we arrived this morning.  I was pretty sure he was going to do fine and then the gal who ALWAYS cleans my teeth, was not there today...Uh oh, I thought, this might not be good.  But luckily the gal who was there was great with Waylon and after some talking too and practicing we managed to get a small cleaning in with some teeth counting. He chose marshmallow flavoring for his paste that they clean his teeth with. The overall visit for Waylon was fine for a first visit. Next time I am sure it will be even better as he will be 4 by then and will also get to visit with Dr. Smith too. 

Toni is 5 Months

Can you believe it?  I sure can't, time is going faster each and every day.  I have to stop and look at my two kids because they are getting so big so fast on me. Well we have had a busy month, but Toni is doing a lot of new things and so is Mommy.

 I have struggled with her in getting her to be on a schedule and actually sticking to it.  I found it so hard to do this time, because life would just keep going and I would get distracted and busy with things.  Because we were ALL not on any kind of a strick schedule, we have ALL lost some sleep and have been OFF.

So this weekend, I decided, since everyone is feeling better and VERY happy we would MAKE a schedule and stick to it.  Let's just say I AM IN LOVE....I know it is only a few days into it, but I am sleeping more than I have in over 6 months and I am happier and so seems to be everyone else.

I mean look how Happy she looks! OK so she looks like this most of the time, but Things are good right now with our new schedule~ Love these monthly pictures of the two of them.  Never exactly perfect, yet so perfect in so many ways.

 Last week Toni officially started cereal~ Yeah and Yippee...Now she is not sleeping through the entire night yet.  However, we are very close.  She is going to bed by 8 PM and wakes up one time for a 6-8 oz feeding and then she sleeps until 7 or 8 AM. You can tell she is more satisfied now than she was before.  This weekend I also made some baby food for her.  Yep, this coupon gal has come to the realization that this is something I TOTALLY should have done with Waylon.  Talk about CHEAPER and probably so much better for them.  Toni has had Pears and a little bit of Sweet Potatoes this weekend.  I will make more food for her to try next weekend and plan to make what I know she likes in BULK soon and freeze it.

 Toni is doing so many new things.  She totally recognizes so many people now and loves to smile and talk to them a lot.  She watches her brother so intently and just adores him.  She is grabbing more things and with that a lot more is in her mouth these days.  The one thing she has not done this month is roll over.  This is probably because she is not on the floor as much as she should be.  I worry about Waylon running over her and can't always lay with her. However, we are working on it every day.

Toni has also graduated to the BIG bath with Brother.  The little bath was just too little for her and this is so much more fun for everyone anyway!

Toni also got her first ear infection this month.  Not only did she get it in one but both ears.  Poor girl was miserable at her first Thanksgiving~not the Toni we all know that is for sure.  This made for a long weekend as the Dr. office was not open the day after Thanksgiving and we tried to take her to some clinics in Walgreens and Fry's but each of these would only see them if they were 18 months or older.  So finally by Saturday we got word of a Urgent Care to take her too, and were so pleased with the care and quality that I am no longer afraid of those two words "urgent care" any more.

All in all it has been a busy month but now things are really going to get busy as we head into the first Holiday season with "our angel" this year.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well the weekend started at Dad and Laura's house. It was so beautiful, Laura did an amazing job, everything was picture perfect. I wish I had gotten so many more pictures while we were there. However, Toni began not feeling well and quickly turned into a screaming child. We did not think of it much until it continued for a while and the screams became almost hurtful ones. Later in the weekend, we finally got her into an urgent care and found out she had a double ear infection. Her first one, poor baby. We are also pretty certain she was in pain from a tooth coming in too.


Then the following day we headed up to Payson to Aunt Pat and Uncle Barney's place. We stayed the night at a hotel, one of the few (and I mean few) perks of Jake's out of town travel was a free LARGE room. We almost did not make it up because of Toni's ears and the VanHorn's had a mishap but everything turned out OK and we were able to all be together for yet another beautiful Thanksgiving.

We spent the dinner portion in the garage. This brought back so many memories, because as a child I remember so many Thanksgivings in the garage at the VanHorn's. Ironically, Kurt had made a video of past Thanksgivings, and so many FUN memories and ALL of the Thanksgivings I had been remembering while eating in the garage just moments before we saw on the video. Such a great idea and wonderful set of memories, of so many people who we all miss.

Although it was a tiny bit chilly in the garage, the kiddos joined us in their car seats all bundle up as if they were heading out in the snow. These two constantly keep each other company as they sit side by side at family functions.

We had so much fun on Thanksgiving that we stayed the following day and night too. Waylon had so much fun playing with Kylie all day and Toni enjoyed watching the two of them play as she hung out in her swing. This was the same day I took her to the urgent care and I was 100% satisfied with our experience there and Toni came home a happy girl with meds.

Toni got lots of lovin' from her Great Aunt Pat...she was a good place to take a nap until her medicine kicked in. Poor Baby. When we left the following day at 8AM it was beginning to snow. Waylon was so excited and I was thrilled to be getting out of there, because Waylon had nothing that would have kept him warm in snow and was just getting over a nasty cold.

Later that day, I headed off to the 4th Annual Mother Daughter Brunch. We all look forward to this each year. My mom, sister and I and then my best friend Ahna and her mom, Nancy, all get together and just hang out. Last year was a load of surprises, because Ahna and I both announced our pregnancies and then a month later Courtney announced hers....Let's just say this year was perfect in its own way that there was No excitement just good times! Plus Mimosas!

So as you can tell it was a busy weekend and it took me all week to recover from it...but all in all each and every blessing was counted and recounted for the weekend. Life is GOOD!