A few Christmas pics . . .

Colin's mom and step-dad visited us for the week of Christmas. It was wonderful to have them here and celebrate our first Christmas in our new home with them. Following tradition, we had Christmas Eve dinner at my parent's house with my brother, aunt and uncle, and grandmother. We have El Grande our own mexican fiesta and then open presents from each other. This may be offensive to those of you who wait for Christmas morning to open gifts. But I love this tradition! A few blogs I stalk suggested that it was difficult to get their kids to open gifts after seeing what Santa brought. Our tradition eliminates that problem by having Santa only gifts on Christmas morning. Anyway, we start youngest and work our way up to oldest (i.e. Connor opened his gifts first) and my grandmother opened her's last. In the past we have modified the gift tradition, sometimes starting with the oldest and working our way backwards. In any event, I love this method because instead of traditional Christmas morning chaos - we still have the chaos on Christmas morning but get to enjoy watching the gifts we purchased for our family - opened and admired. It was slightly more difficult this year since Connor is so young and it was getting past his bed time.

This is Connor's usual position for playing with toys (squatting) - he must have thighs of steel. Anyway, nice hair pic too - (Colin was in charge of him Christmas morning)


Grandad Bob, Mom Mom, Connor and Colin on Christmas Day


Connor with his new Duplos from Great Aunt Ethlyn - he loves them! (Funny though he has dumped all the legos out of the container and is just so proud to be carrying the box)


Connor and his buggy - (you may call it a shopping cart - but it is a buggy down here). Connor is spiking the Cheerios into the buggy - serious shopper! Connor's Nina special ordered this gift - it is sooo cute (plus ya'll know how much I love grocery shopping!)

Being a little lazy/ tired I am cramming a few extra pics into this post. Here is the other picture we got the Santa at Bass Pro (luckily both pics were free)



And our Christmas Card - this year - as most of you should have received your card - if not - maybe it was lost in the mail - I received an empty envelope today from Colin's Aunt and Uncle - the card literally fell out of the envelope (which had been sliced on all sides but otherwise was in good condition) - Odd that the envelope was able to arrive in good condition without the card . . .

Merry Christmas!

Sugar and Spice . . . and Santa

Connor's new thing is "organizing" the spice cabinet. I tried to get a good picture of his handy work - but was not successful. At first I resisted allowing him free reign over the spice cabinet (mainly because some spices are in glass jars) but in order to get a few things accomplished during the day (i.e. while he is occupied with the spices) I gave in. I removed all the glass jars and just let him go to town. He loves it. Sunday morning we made the dry mix for the Gingerbread men we will make later this week when Colin's mom gets into town. Connor got to actually use the spices. He also unfortunately learned how to open the spices. I am hoping he forgets tonight (although unlikely).

Connor still has a cold (runny nose - helped along by lots of nose drops) and an ear infection (not sure if it is a continuation of the first ear infection or a 2nd one) but he has it. He has been on meds since Wednesday and I think is feeling better although he is still super congested. Poor guy. I got a Christmas card from my friends Brian and Iana (blog "A Ham Full") and it says "Wishing for a Silent Night" - how true is that? Well, they have 3 kids under 3. We just have our Connor but he is just not a sleeper. He finally got the hang of it (i.e. I wasn't expecting to be woken up at night) when he got sick and now we aren't sure if he will ever sleep through the night again. Nearly all of our friends with kids (younger and older and same age as Connor) have kids that rarely wake up - ever. We actually baby sat (i.e. watched him on the video monitor) for Will when we were back in Baltimore visiting . . . he was easy - never peeped. 10 minutes after his parents left the house a huge tow truck pulled up right in front of the house (and thus right outside his window) and it proceeded to unload a car for 50 minutes - VERY LOUDLY! Will didn't move! What a great little sleeper. We have determined that although Connor can sleep - when he tries and isn't sick - he isn't that kind of sleeper. Luckily Connor was in the basement with the sound machine and didn't peep until after the tow truck left.

Connor has also learned the word "no". He actually learned it several weeks ago and I am just now getting around to writing about it - mainly since he has been sick and will not nap in his crib at nap time - leaving me little time (when Colin isn't using the laptop at night and I am not exhausted) to update the blog. Anyway, it is so hilarious. For now, all is no's are pretty sweet and innocent.

Me: "Connor do you want to take a bath?"
Connor: "Naa" (while shaking his head)

Me: "Connor do you want to take a nap?"
Connor: "Naa" (while shaking his head)

If you ask him what the Doctor says about monkeys jumping on the bed . . . he will say "Naa Naa" while waving his finger back and forth.

Oh, and since it has taken me nearly a week to publish/ finish updating this post. Connor doesn't like SANTA. We waited in a very short line on Tuesday night at the local mall for the "best looking SANTA" (according to Aunt Cathy). Well, Santa may be good looking (debatable if you ask me) but Connor wasn't looking his best. He loved Santa all the way up until my arms left him in Santa's lap. Seriously, he was waving at Santa, clapping for Santa, eating his sugar cookie and "talking" to Santa . . . and then . . .



So today, I set out to obtain a better picture with Santa. I took Connor back to Bass Pro (where his picture with Santa was last year) and we talked about Santa, and looked at last year's picture with Santa, played with a Santa hat . . . I waited in a 30 minute line while my MIL and Bob played with Connor/ shopped in the store. Connor was same ol' same ol' - seemingly excited to see Santa, clapping, smiling, eating his snack . . .he actually seemed like he was going to run to Santa. 5 steps into the run he stopped and turned to make a break for the door. I grabbed him up, gave him a kiss, plopped him in Santa's lap and the result was the same (maybe worse). I'll scan that picture later for the blog. For now, Merry Christmas (almost eve) and lets hope for a semi-silent night (the monitor is starting to make noise as I type) - At least he is a sweet baby boy . . . Night, Night.

Grits . . .

are delicious. No one voted - not one person! for either grits or oatmeal. I am disappointed! I am taking down the poll.

Decorations

Here are a couple pics of our house decorated . . . these aren't good pics but if I wait until I get a good picture - it may be after Christmas - so . . . here you go.

Whew!

Happy 16 months to our baby boy. He is growing so quickly! We spent last weekend in Baltimore. It was a whirlwind trip but we packed a TON of stuff in and managed to see a bunch of family and friends (although we didn't see everyone). So, anyway, we flew up on Friday night - our flight arrived on time (LUV Southwest!) and we headed down to Virginia for the night. We were checked into the hotel and fast asleep by midnight. Saturday morning we got up and had a nice breakfast at the hotel before heading out to DC for Daniel's baptism.

So, I looked over the breakfast menu and found the PERFECT choice - Hot Cereal (or Cold), Banana, Bagel with Cream Cheese, Coffee and Juice. What could be better? (well, honestly, a lot of things but this was going to be the perfect breakfast for Connor and me to share). Of course my choices of Hot Cereal . . . only 1. OATMEAL. It is absurd that grits haven't caught on up in Yankeeville. Grits are delicious and well . . . OATMEAL isn't. I confirmed just how bad oatmeal tastes on Saturday morning. I mean ya'll - it tastes like paste! I fed some to Connor - who ate about 3 ounces and then offered the bowl to Colin. He almost licked the bowl! EWWWH! He must have been starving to eat that goop! Conclusion: Grits without butter or salt are WAAAAYYY better that Oatmeal. Grits with butter/ salt etc . . . super yummy! I put a poll on the side of the blog to see if everyone agrees. But honestly - how can you not??

Anyway, the bagel was delicious and since Connor loves cream cheese - it was a hit. The baptism ceremony was very sweet and intimate and afterwards we headed back to Leslie and Kevin's for some grub. Later that day we drove back to Baltimore to have Christmas with Heather, Ken, Brandon etc. Hopefully Heather will send me the group photo soon so I can post that - but in the meantime, here are a few pics from Sat . . .

Connor practicing taking up the collection for the church

Our attempt at a group kids shot - I chose this one since Connor, Colin and Leslie look good in it . . .
Colin with his godson - baby Daniel


Kevin - Daniel's daddy


Connor, Kenn, and Brandon . . .
Sunday we went to the Ravens game (it rained ALL day) - well it rained until the game ended - then it let up. Never again will I tailgate in the rain. I suggested that we NOT stand the rain all morning but I was outvoted - in favor of "being in the action" at the tailgate outdoors. Action alright - never again. It was miserable! There were a few moments of fun - but never again.

Christmas Cards . . .

This time of year is a little stressful - why? - of course, trying to get the best picture for a Christmas card. It was certainly easier when we just had to have the cats pose . . . but since Connor arrived we have eliminated the cats from the photo (my mom is thrilled). I have this really nice, new camera and I still can't manage to come up with the perfect photo . . . well time is ticking and Shutterfly is baiting me to order soon (with discounts) so I tried again today to capture a few more photos. It will be hard to top last year's card (as many, many people have mentioned) so the pressure was on. Well, I just placed the order so I suppose the pressure is now off . . . or at least the pressure is over. I must say I like the new card but I don't think it beats last year's card. The main reason is that I don't think the card selections were as good this year. . . I thought about having one specially made . . . but then I thought, this has to be over - I have to order the cards. We are travelling this month and I can't deal with having this as an outstanding project any longer. I'm not going to show off the photo(s) that made it into the card, but I will share one that didn't make it (although it was MY favorite).

MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL!!!!

Oh, and our house is now officially decorated! Thanks to Colin and my parents who helped us decorate/ take care of Connor who can't go outside due to his ear infection - which is still keeping him up at night - despite the ear drops! Just hope he gets better soon. Pictures of the house to follow this week.

Good Morning

GO GATORS!

Santa's Two Front Teeth . . .

So, I changed the blog background in an attempt to be festive. I just noticed that Connor has more teeth than this Santa! I may have to look for a new background. Connor is sleeping 50/50. Last night - not so good - the night before - he slept all night. So, we will see how tonight goes. . . Colin is running in the Jingle Bell 5K tomorrow morning - the forecast is for snow! I know - we live in Alabama - but we do occasionally get snow. In 1993 we got 13 inches! We were out of school for over a week. There were even t-shirts printed saying "I survived the blizzard of '93". When we got 20 plus inches of snow in Baltimore my boss was shocked that I couldn't/ wouldn't drive into work. I used to joke that Birmingham only had one snow plow for the entire state. That MAY not be true - I don't know - but I do know I have NEVER seen a snow plow in Alabama (not even on the news)!

First Ear Infection

I feel pretty lucky that we have gone nearly 16 months before our first "sick visit" to the doctor. Well, today that streak ended. Connor has his first ear infection and thus his first dose of antibiotics. Poor little guy. Lets hope he sleeps better than he did last night (which after 11pm was not at all).