Christmas afternoon with the family

By around 12pm on Christmas day, the rest of Anthony's family started arriving to celebrate Christmas with us. Anthony's sister Robin and her family came, along with Anthony's parents and his Aunt Eileen. When you factor in my mom, my brother, a very loud James, Rett, our two dogs, and a pug that we are dog sitting, the noise level was never below a dull roar in the house :)

After everyone got something to eat, we all sat down around the Christmas tree for presents! First my mom got 1$ scratch off tickets for everyone. I think we had three winners out of the 12 tickets! My mom gave James one of his own and he promptly lost it. Now it is hiding somewhere in our house and I secretly wonder if it was the big winner :)

 James got ahold of my phone because he loves to take pictures. This is one he took of Aunt Eileen:

Robin took a picture of James taking a picture:

Very interested in Grandpa's big camera:

Anthony definitely got some fun presents this year! It is a tradition that he get a fun t-shirt that says something funny, like "I'm awesome", or "It's funny you think I'm listening". This year he got two t-shirts, and after he opened the one from Robin, his mom started insisting that she originally bought him that shirt and this it was her idea to get it for him. They kept arguing back and forth and it was so funny!! Everyone else was laughing at what they were saying, but I was laughing that they were arguing so much about who wanted to give Anthony presents more. Seriously, everybody just loves Anthony!! :)

 

Anthony's sister also gave him a Walmart gift card... with a catch. There were 10 gift cards in the envelope and she told us only one has money on it. So now Anthony gets to take 10 gift cards into Walmart and try each one until he finds the one with money :) She said that she would have given the gift to me, but after she imagined me doing that with two kids by myself she realized that it wouldn't be funny at that point. She is probably right!

We also did our funny/original/ugly Christmas t-shirt contest again this year. I ordered great ones online three weeks before Christmas and they didn't arrive until the day after Christmas. Bummer. So I got a generic Christmas t-shirt from goodwill and Anthony wore his from last year. James took a picture of me modeling my shirt:

This one was a little bit later after I had to change Rett's outfit. If he doesn't wear a bib, his shirt gets soaked in drool and we have to change it so he doesn't get a rash.

 The winner definitely went to Nevada for the effort she put into making and sewing hers! It had a Christmas tree on the front, with a string of bells sewn along the shoulders. Robin was her model and we got a picture of it, but the angle was weird and it was not a flattering picture of Robin, so I deleted it. You're welcome Robin! :)

So the prize of the Weird Christmas Gun-slinging Gnome with his Pot of Gold chocolates went to Nevada this year. She definitely seemed to enjoy her chocolate!

I wanted to give our niece and nephew cash for Christmas, since I didn't want to get them something they didn't like or already had, so I decided to give it to them in a fun way. I saw an idea on Pinterest about filling a box with balloons with money inside, then they have to pop the balloons to get the money. That sounded like fun, so I made a box for each of them. After everyone opened their presents, they took theirs out onto the porch to get to popping.

 

Dallas wanted to pop his balloons, but didn't like the loud noise they made, so he was popping with one hand and covering his ear with the other :)



 Nevada was so fast, by the time I got over to her to take pictures she was all done!

 A happy girl holding her cash:

We had so much fun having everyone over and we spent so much time talking, laughing, and visiting. I can't wait to do it again soon!

Christmas has never been so fun

The Sunday before Christmas we all got dressed up in our nice Christmasy outfits. The boys both wore red ties and James wore his suit for the first time! (I got it at a consignment store for $8!)

Rett wore a tie onesie that I made! Yes, I am an expert at them now :)

This is the first year that James has really "gotten" Christmas. He knows the story of baby Jesus and why we celebrate it, and he knows about Santa and that he brings presents. It is so much fun to see how excited he gets about everything Christmas. Starting at the end of November, he has insisted that Santa was bringing him a bike. Whenever anyone has asked him what Santa is bringing him for Christmas, he has without hesitation stated that he is bringing him a bike. No doubt. It is a fact.

Christmas eve we got our cookies and milk out for Santa and our bowl of grass for the reindeer, and then we sat down at the tree to open our one present (of Christmas pajamas). I told James that we were going to open one present, and my little master negotiator said, "Weeeeeell....Santa said two presents" as he held up his two fingers :) He eventually dropped the pleading for more than one present once we explained that he could open the rest of them tomorrow. He was so cute opening his present. He didn't even know what it was and he laughed gave this excited, "Whoa!!":

Helping mommy open hers:

Christmas morning everyone was awake before James. Finally at 9am, my mom went into his room to wake him up. He came running into the room with the Christmas tree and started looking around saying, "Where's my bike??" We told him we had to open all the other presents first before looking for his bike and he was okay with that. Opening his stocking:

 The first thing he wanted was to eat a lollipop, so we let him. My brother got this awesome picture of it. He loves lollipops!

A new pair of spiderman sunglasses:

 A Curious George book to add to the 15 we already have :)

 Anthony got a card with some cash from my brother, and as a joke the card was completely in Spanish. It actually was a get well card.

 James loved to help everyone open their presents, especially if he got to use these tiny scissors of my mom's. Every time someone went to open a present, he would rush over to them and ask, "You need scissors?"

 A cool dinosaur/car transformer toy:

 I told Anthony that I didn't want anything for Christmas, that I couldn't even think of anything that I wanted. He was adamant that he wanted to get me something, so he got me a really cool water bottle that is super insulated and durable and opens with a little button on the side. I loved it! It was a really thoughtful gift because I can never find a good water bottle that doesn't get broken by little hands :)

A Junior circuits set. James is so technical, he loves putting things together and taking them apart, so I knew that he would really like this set. It is definitely a toy that he needs help playing with right now, but I don't mind because it is fun for me too!

 Anthony and Daniel playing with it:

Next James got to open a Jake the Neverland Pirates pirate ship! This was the hit of the year! He hasn't stopped playing with it for two straight days. 

 Finally we tore him away from the pirate ship to open up...a helmet!

Then we had to tear him away from the pirate ship again long enough to read him a note from Santa that said he put something for him on the front porch...

 Loving his new wheels:

We had so much fun watching James enjoy his Christmas this year, it seriously ranks up there with Christmas as a little kid. I almost had a hard time falling asleep because I was so excited to watch his reaction to everything! In the afternoon, Anthony's family came over to celebrate with us and it was so much fun, that it needs a post all by itself :)

Everett is 3 Months!

Our squishy boy is growing and growing! He is growing so fast and we have even had to move up in size of clothes and diapers!

 This isn't the cutest picture of him, but you can see his hair. Normally it is a curly fluff but he has these patches of hair around his head, especially a strip right down the middle. He definitely has more hair than James did, but he still looks like a balding old man on top :)

 He barely fit into the onesie, which is 0-3 month size. He looked so uncomfortable once I put it on. He had to wear it more as a shirt because the buttons to snap it barely came to the top of his diaper!

 His eyes keep getting bluer and bluer! I don't know how we ended up with two blue eyed children with Anthony's dark Italian coloring, but we love it.

We finally got around to having his 2 month checkup, about a month late, so we were able to get his stats. At 3 months he is 12.4 lbs (11th percentile) and 23.5 inches long (16th percentile). I had no idea he was on the lower end of the growth chart! He looks so plump and juicy and feels so big to us :)

He is smiling and making cooing noises all of the time now. When he gets really excited, he makes this high pitched squealing sounds that are so loud! During the day when I am nursing him, he often will pull off just to look up at me and smile and laugh. Once he isn't that hungry, he will go back and forth every few seconds: nurse/come off and smile/nurse/come off and smile, like he can't decide which is more fun, eating or playing. He loooooves to be held. Especially for the week after getting his shots, I don't know if he ever got put down. With my mom here, one of us was always holding him. His favorite position to be in is sitting on our knee, bouncing and facing out so that he can see everything going on.

Sleep is about the same, 90% of the time he gets up around 2am to nurse and then right back to sleep until around 6 or 7am. He is still in his little bassinet, but our plan is to transition him to the crib after the holidays once we transition James to a big boy bed (pray for us, please!!). These past 3 months have just flown by, I can't wait to keep watching him grow :)

Mornings with Mommy

Since Rett is a much earlier riser than James (he gets up around 6 or 7am, while James usually sleeps until 9am) every morning I get play and snuggle time with just him and me. He is usually so alert and happy in the morning, cooing, smiling, and making funny faces. I love his facial expressions! I decided to see how well he could sit himself up and see if I could take some pictures. He can do about 2 seconds :)

Then this happens:

 I. love. his. curls. Oh my goodness I hope his hair stays curly. While I was pregnant with him I seriously hoped and prayed that he would have curly hair. I can't wait until it grows in more, hopefully he will have a fluffy head of curls and I can die of cuteness every day.

 He would smile when I put the phone down to try to get him to smile, but as soon as I put the phone back up I would lose it. I can't wait to get a really good picture of him smiling. His entire face transforms and lights up. So precious.

 I love his one eyebrow quizzical look. He is so observant and thoughtful looking!

Man we love this kid so much!!

Christmas Parade and Ward Christmas Party

This morning we had our town's Christmas parade. All of the nearby towns have one too, so every year there are three different ones we can go to in a 20 minute radius of our house and we have never gone to a single one! This morning Anthony was out fishing, so I was debating whether I wanted to take the boys by myself. I am so glad that I did!! We had such a blast. The parade route was right at the end of our street, but since our street is so long I decided to drive to the end of it and then get out to find a spot on the sidewalk. James brought his wagon to sit on, but once we got there he just wanted to sit on the curb. It is a good thing we brought it because he needed something to carry all of his loot! I had no idea that every float throws candy/stuffed animals/t-shirts out to the crowd! I should have known something was up when I saw all the kids around us prepared with big bags ready to be filled :)

James didn't want me to take pictures, but then he got dirt on his hand and thought it was funny and wanted me to take a picture of it.

Both boys did so well! I was really impressed, Rett didn't cry once, not even when all the sirens on the fire engine went off. James waited very patiently for over 30 minutes for the parade to start and did very well sitting next to me for the majority of it. Towards the end of the parade and after several pieces of candy he started to get a little rowdy :)

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

High school marching band:

 1st piece of candy for the day. There was many more after this :)

 This Sheriff car was pretty cool. A sign on the back says that it was confiscated from a drug dealer:

 This float was blowing snow out of a snow machine. Our only snow experience this winter:

Peppermint face!

 So this picture is kind of funny. I was taking a picture of these guys doing circles with their motorcycles, and right as I was taking the picture the motorcycle in the far back fell over! I totally wasn't trying to take a picture of him falling down, I promise! :) His buddies and a few other people rushed over to try to help him get up and get his motorcycle back up. Once he got back on, everyone clapped and cheered for him. I hope he wasn't too embarrassed.

 While this was going on, the parade stopped and there was a large empty space in the street right in front of us. James decided that it was the perfect opportunity to run out in the street and imitate the motorcycles by running around in large circles. I had to run out there and grab him and pull him back! He had to sit right next to me for the rest of the parade.

A really cool army truck:

After the parade we took our loot and walked back to the car. Rett didn't even cry in his car seat the entire drive back to the house. That is a huge deal!! Even though it was only for a few minutes, usually you can't even get the buckles strapped without him screaming his head off. 

We got home and had some lunch while we waited for Anthony to get home from fishing. Both boys took a good nap (another reason I am so glad we went to the parade!) and then it was time to get ready for our ward's Christmas party. Recently we haven't had much luck taking the kids anywhere after 5pm. The crankiness has been too much to handle, so I was a little hesitant about how this was going to go. Luckily everything went great. A sister in our ward wanted to hold Rett while we got our food and James did real well waiting in the long line. After dinner, Anthony and I both walked around visiting with everyone we never get to talk to on Sundays. I didn't see James, so I asked Anthony where he was. He said he was running around the church with some other kids. Unattended... I decided to go look for him to see what he was up to and guess who found the unmanned dessert table in the young women's room? Oh yeah. He had a cookie in his mouth and chocolate on his forehead :) I told him Santa was coming and that he needed to go back into the cultural hall and he grudgingly went with me. After Santa came in and sat down in his chair by the Christmas tree, James turned around and went out the door back towards the desserts. Cookies trump Santa I guess! After we all had dessert we finally convinced him to go sit on Santa's lap. He did great. No crying and he even told him what he wanted (a bike and a helmet).

Rett sat on Santa's lap too, but all of the pictures turned out blurry :(

Then Santa offered to have all of us sit on his lap. So fun! James couldn't look at the camera, he was all about the candy cane :)

Don't you just love this time of year?!