Christmas 2010

What a wonderful Christmas we had this year! I have said it a dozen times but there is nothing like watching the holidays through the eyes of your child. It was just magical this year - C loved the decorations, the "kissmas tree" and just everything about it. It was so fun and it already has me excited for next Christmas :) I am pretty sure Connor is going through present withdrawal - he seriously opened gifts for a week straight between his birthday and Christmas, it was so much fun! 

He requested cars for Christmas and was so excited to see all the goodies Santa left him. He was SO fun to watch opening gifts, he was getting so into it. Laying across them and yelling out what everything was. Sweet little thing. We had a tiny snafu on Christmas morning when we went to light a fire to realize that there were some leaves stuck up there from the previous owner. The whole house filled with smoke and we were all outside, in the snow, on the front porch. Thankfully everyone/thing was okay and we were back inside in no time. Ha! Connor had opened up one of his presents, a remote controlled garbage truck so he had fun driving that all over the porch. We must have looked so funny in our jammies and coats!

In his little Christmas jammers from Nonny! I love the tradition of new jammies on Christmas so that is what we started this year. Bj and I don't typically get each other anything for Christmas, so we stuck pretty close to that this year. We used our Best Buy gift certificate and bought a flip video camera and we love it! I have to get some videos posted. Other than that we are saving for our new kitchen :) Though, Bj did get me the little heater I wanted for the bathroom and he got a golf bag organizer and new jamms. After we opened presents at our house, Nonny and Uncle Davey stopped by and then it was off to Ne-Ne and Paw-Paw's!

Cute little cousins! We were once again spoiled and so happy to be around our wonderful families. We stayed with the family for a little while and then we were off to Nana and Grandpa's house! Where, you guessed it, we were spoiled again :)

I didn't get a family picture of the three of us, but this one made me - kind of sums up how easy it is to get a "good" picture of my squirmy little toddler man!

We had such a wonderful time with Nana and Grandpa celebrating Christmas and Nana's birthday! Connor was totally spoiled - among his favorite: the toolset from Aunt Jen and the motorized Harley from Nana and Grandpa! He was a little unsure of it at first, but come this spring he is going to be terrorizing the neighborhood on it, ha!!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends - we had an absolutely wonderful birthday and holiday season this year. We think it's a pretty great way to end the year. We are looking forward to 2011 and all that it will bring! We hope you had a Merry Christmas as well!

Can you dig it?

 After going to the Magic House and dining on "no-no's and chicken" for Connor's actual birthday, we invited our friends and family over for his birthday party on the 19th. It was so much fun and I just had the best time getting everything pulled together! I had so much fun I didn't even really take that many pictures: cue: I was running around like a crazy lady!! C is so into his cars, trucks and anything that "go's" so the them this year was construction. We had the cutest little invitation, I will have to upload a picture and the colors I worked with were orange, brown, a little red and yellow.

My favorite little favors were the plastic construction hats and toolbelts! I just thought they were a little too cute, I found the hats at the dollar bin at Target over the summer and I used scraps of construction themed fabric to make the little tool belts. I thought they turned out pretty cute :) C would only keep the hat on for a hot second and was not about to put the toolbelt on, but you can see them in the next picture. :) I also had little dump trucks (from the dollar store), playdough, construction stickers in a little favor bag to take home.

 I like to try and keep the meals simple and not anything people would eat over the holidays since we celebrate the week before Christmas. This year we had fruit, veggies and chicken alfredo pasta and a pasta with meat sauce (I seriously can't think of the name of it, I am about to call my momma!). I also had pub mix that I put in a dump truck, so cheesy but I thought it made the table look nice and festive! It's times like this I am thankful we don't yet have dining room chairs for out table, it made a great little serving area! It's hard to see, but I made a cute little table runner - C loves it and likes to point out all of the bulldozers on it. I forgot to take a picture of my drink table, it was pretty cute too, haha!

 I had all kinds of little activites for the kiddos to do until I realized that we were having 25-30 of our closest friends and family over...and we have a tiny house! I had Connor's little table out for coloring, but the big kids ended up playing in Connor's room and the little babies napped on the table in their car seats - it worked out perfect!

 I thought Connor's little shirt turned out cute, he loves bulldozers and he was so excited to show off his "2". I love making stuff for him that he likes, it just makes my heart happy. He has since requested to wear it a few dozen times :) I did the "2" for him to wear on his actual birthday and then this number that matched the theme of the party.

 Auntie G once again outdid herself with Connor's awesome cake! He was seriously beside himself because their were trucks on his cake, he thought it was the coolest thing ever. He also had fun picking the candy's off the side :) He loves it when we sing happy birthday to him - he just stood on the chair like a big boy and blew out his candle with the help of Nonny.

 Seriously, isn't that the cutest little cake? I already can't wait to see what she comes up with next year! Also, a little biased but that's one pretty cute little 2 year old!

 Nana and Grandpa found him this birthday cake, it is the cutest little thing ever and will now be what I get all two year olds. He loves it. We sing "happy day" to everyone in the family at least three times a day, it's pretty funny. You actually "blow" out the candles too, it is darling!

 C was spoiled rotten and has so many fun cars to play with - he loves it! Every morning he gets so excited to play with all of his goodies. He loves his race car rug from Nonny too, he lays on the floor and pushed the cars all over :) Sweet thing.

 It is hard to tell and the one set of balloons are flying away, but I thought I was a little too clever (hahahaha!). I found this set of construction cones at the dollar bin over the summer and they were what held up the balloons, I loved it :) C, Daddy and I are totally into the movie Cars now (thanks Aunt Jen!) and I love that it tied in with the "Cozy Cone Motel" - I am seriously a dork, should I have this much fun planning a birthday party? I think so too!

 He spent the rest of the afternoon being goofy and showing off for everyone. Here he is showing you what Paw-Paw does when he watches football! He was WIRED until everyone left and his momma and daddy were beat. I was seriously so tired I didn't know if I was going to make it to his 7:30 bedtime. Thankfully at 6pm he looked at me and said "seepy seep please" and I happily obliged. The little man didn't move a muscle until 8:30 the next morning, ha!

I try so hard to make sure that Connor has a special birthday away from Christmas. I know it may not always be the case, but I sure hope it is. I hope he knows how much we love him and we can't wait to see what this next year brings. 

Snow!

We have actually had a decent amount of snow this winter, we love it! We were so excited at our first "good" snowfall that we bundled up and ran outside - Connor was excited but cold! Do you see that awesome santa in the top picture? That was a surprise from my awesome brother and Uncle Mike! My grandpa (my mom's dad) made the first one many years ago and since then my Uncle has made one for every family in the family. I just didn't think he was still in the business until he and my brother stopped by one afternoon with a "surprise" for me! I absolutely love it and the best part is that it was made with love by my brother and uncle. Don't you love the vintagey feel to it? It has been a tradition in our family to have all the kids pictures taken with Santa every year - it looks like we wasted now time in starting it with our little family :) 

2!

My sweet, silly Connor - are you really 2? Was that magical day that you arrived in the world really two years ago today? Crazy, sometimes it feels like you have been a part of our lives my whole life, and sometimes I feel like I have been getting ready for your first birthday. Aunt Steph sent me the message I left her on December 16th, 2008 and I cried, and cried and cried. I will NEVER forget leaving her that message. Telling her to pray for us and that I would talk to her when I was a momma. Listening to my voice I remember just how scared I was. Most births are exciting and filled with so much wonderful anticipation - I had all of that, but mostly I was really, really scared. Scared that you wouldn't be okay, scared of how long you would be in the hospital and then just the usual ohmystars we are going to be parents scared. When you came out and your charts described you as "limp and blue" - I will never forget that either. I will never forget asking over and over why you weren't crying and wondering why no one would answer me. Once I saw you - for that brief second before you were whisked away, I was smitten. You will forever and always be my heart - my whole world changed in that sweet instance I saw your face and found out you were my precious little boy, my Connor man. From them on - it was just joy. I will never forget your daddy calling everyone (except Aunt Steph, I wanted to tell her myself) and then ordering pizza's and pizookie's for all the nurses and doctors. I remember him saying "just call me daddy bj!" and how he kept going from me to you - he would return to me with pictures and videos. It made that very, very long day and a half before I got to see you a little more bearable.

Now look at you - you are a walking, running, talking, garbage truck loving, m&m loving little stink pot. You have brought more joy to our lives than we ever thought possible. I love pretty much everything about you - except the tantrums and endless battle with changing your diaper. Does that mean you will be easy to potty train? Don't you remember when you would just lay there for me!? :) Ha! 

I love your laugh, your smile, your enthusiasm, your amazing power of persuasion, your love of life and your willingness to try new things. I love that I can't see a garbage truck (or any truck for that matter) and not smile and think of you. I love that you can spot an "m" from a mile away and will smile that sweet smile until I give you as many as you want :) I love how you have started playing with your toys and you say "mon momma" when you want me to play with you - and everyone else. I love how you will repeat a lot of what we do, including throwing the word "shit" into your vocabulary every once in awhile. Oops! I love how you like to smile and wave at us when you are doing something naughty. I love that you love to color, dance and "go crazy" during Yo Gabba Gabba. I love that you ask for "meat" and you love "no-no's and shicken".  Mostly, I just really love you!

We started your 2nd birthday off right with Miss. Ju Ju bringing you a cookie! Daddy took the day off and we went on over to the magic house. We had so much fun playing with the musical instruments, the water and going down the slide. After we played, it was off to Chik Fil A for some "shiken" and french fries. I got you a lemonade to drink but somehow you manages to steal my drink :)

After a little snooze it was time for dinner and opening presents! We gave you a garbage truck and that was pretty much the only thing you cared about :) You love the garbage truck so much, it is hilarious. Your eyes lit up and you screamed "gababa truck" - it was priceless. I was so excited about that garbage truck, you and I had been looking it up on the Internet for weeks. Sweet Connor we are so blessed to have you in our lives. We love you to the moon and back and we can't wait to see what this next year has in store!

Gardenland Express!

Nana called the other day and said she wanted to do something fun with C for the holidays - we love spending time with Nana so we jumped on it! After looking we decided this was the best little adventure, Gardenland at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. This place holds a special place in our hearts as it is the site of our wedding reception! It was seriously the cutest little outing and C loved it!! Grandpa and Daddy were able to come too and we all had a great time.

 The scene changes every year and they build these scenes from scratch starting in October. All of the flowers were real and gorgeous! I had no idea that poinsettia's came in so many colors! The detail of all the little train "towns" was unbelievable. The story was the Appalachain trail and it was SO neat! Connor was seriously running around staring at the trains, yelling "choo-choo" and "running" after them as they were chugging along. The little villages were darling and we already can't wait to go back next year!

He loved having Nana and Grandpa there to play with - he kept grabbing their hands and bringing them back to the displays :) His favorite was a little one in the corner, it had TWO trains going back and forth!

After the trains we enjoyed a little lunch on the hill, it was a great morning! Thanks Nana and Grandpa, we can't wait to do it again next year :) 

St. Nick

St. Nick came to visit the Connor Man! We talked about putting our shoes out to see if St. Nick would visit our house :) He was so excited! St. Nick knows he is loving matchbox cars these days so he brought a few along with some markers and colored pencils! He was so excited he had to show bunny!

Sweet little man, we can't wait to see what Santa brings! 

Santa 2010

One word...HILARIOUS. We went and visited Santa today, Bj and I seriously about cried we were laughing so hard. This is the 6th picture they took - the only one he wasn't crying in. As the woman said "that is the most pathetic "momma" cry I have ever heard!" and I just couldn't subject him any longer. I picked him up, we said that one looks great and waited for the 5x7 to come back. When it did and we saw the SNOT running down C's face we were almost in tears we were laughing so hard!

In C's defense - as soon as I picked him up he told Santa that he wanted a car for Christmas peese.

Sweet thing!