Twas the night before Christmas...

Christmas has come and gone. Well, not really gone as my house looks like Christmas has exploded all over it! I have to figure out where to put everything! This being said, we had a really good one. We got to spend time together as a family for Baylor's 1st Christmas and had time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as well!

We had a series of celebrations to keep us very busy. On Christmas eve, Max, Connie, Billy, Kelly and Craig came over. This was Brighton's 1st taste of really opening gifts. He has never really gotten into it before now. He wanted to open everyone's and had to have a little lesson about taking turns. It was so cute though.

It was a very fun afternoon/evening.

Brighton was surprisingly easy to put to bed that night. We fixed Santa's plate of cookies, and milk, sang a few songs (Christmas tunes of course) and he was off to bed without any problems. No doubt our earlier celebrations with the Flowes had tired him out pretty good!

Somehow, we all managed to sleep in on Christmas morning! WEIRD, I know! When we did get up, we found out that Santa had come!! YAY! Brighton was so excited. The main thing that he had been asking for this year was a Batman cave. Santa delivered, along with some surprises. We had fun watching him play with all of his stuff, and then sat around the tree and went through the stuff in our stockings and opened some more gifts.

Rachel, Donnie and MawMaw came over later that morning and we had another celebration. After lunch we all went outside to test out some of Brighton's gifts! Things were just getting better and better for Brighton!!

After some afternoon naps, the 4 of us went to my mom's house to celebrate with my parents, Lacey, Mickey, Jameson and Michael. The kids were WIRED! My dad made his famous beef tenderloin and then more celebrations!!

What a very merry Christmas. Now we are all very concerned about Brighton. He has loved Christmas and Santa more than any other child I know. I think he will be belting out "White Christmas" until March. Hopefully he will not take it to hard when we undecorate. He was asking me this morning in the car why there was no Christmas music on. He is a happy little boy though and we are all so lucky to have so many people in our lives to share our Christmases with!! Oh and as a very special Merry Christmas to Jason and I, Baylor started sleeping through the night a week ago!!

Merry Christmas!!

This may be the last time I post until after Christmas, so I thought I would add this picture of the boys with Santa. Most of you who read this blog are on my Christmas card list, so have already seen this picture, but it is to cute not to include on here. I may not ever have the two of them BOTH looking happy at the same time while sitting on Santa's lap! I love the look in Brighton's eyes, it expresses perfectly his illumination for the holiday Season and all of it's magic! Sorry if that sounds cheesy!

This weekend I plan on finishing up my gift wrapping, cleaning my house, and hopefully doing some cooking preps for Monday and Tuesday. My last gift that I had to purchase arrived on my doorstep Tuesday, so I thankfully do not have to get back out into the shopping frenzy. Merry Christmas everyone! Now CHEERS to welcoming the year 2013!!

Back to Back Picture Time

I think that Baylor is starting to look like his own person, but he still reminds me alot of Brighton when he was a baby. I do these just for fun. Here is Baylor and below that is Brighton. Both at 3 months old.

Just like Brighton, Baylor has lost most of his dark hair that he was born with and what is left is turning blond. Jason's genes are STRONG!!

One week till Christmas!

Last weekend my parents took Brighton to visit my grandmother in Warner Robins GA. They had a great time, and said that Brighton was very good. He sang his Christmas songs the entire time. I doubt any of them will need to hear it on the radio after that weekend! Ha, they said that it was constant singing!! He came home with a brand new tricycle from Grandmother.

This is Brighton in his new Santa shirt. He claims that he wants a whole Santa costume. This might be as close as we get though. The hat has nothing to do with Christmas, they just picked it up when they had lunch at The Varsity (YUM, I'm envious)and that thing over his shoulder is his "Sack". My dad says he looks more like a Shriner here than Santa!!

Little Baylor is currently obsessed with his hands. He loves to look at them and study them. He does this ALOT! Also, the past two nights he has slept for 5 to 5 and a 1/2 hours!! This means that we have gotten more sleep than we have been used to in 3 months!! I am crossing my fingers that this is the start of better sleeping habits for all of us! Merry Christmas.

Santa Baylor

Haaa! I love this picture. These are not really Baylor's legs, but a double wine caddy that look like Santa legs that Baylor is inside of. Funny right?!

Christmas Parties on Lake Norman

Last weekend Jason and I had 2 Christmas parties to attend. 1st was the Anderson Landscaping party, which we go to every year. Chris is Jason's longtime friend and he out does his own party every year!We always look forward to it.

Then it was on to my friend Billie's party. She and Todd through a beautiful party, and it was so fun to see my girls.

It was really the 1st night that I have gone "Out" since having Baylor. Gigi stayed with the boys, so that was really nice. Getting dressed up and going out sort of made me feel like my normal, old self again!!

Bye Bye Batman...

and hello HoHo. Oh the magic of Christmas! Brighton has put his Batman obsession on hold as it has been replaced by his Santa one. He loved his HoHo's last year (remember the potholder that he would not let me put away and STILL has to sleep with) Well that was just icing on the cake for this year.

Brighton gets into Full On Santa mode and pretends to BE him. He stands by the fireplace with his finger on his nose, pretending to go up and down the chimney. He tells me to "sit on his lap" but really sits on mine instead, and asks me in a deep voice what I want for Christmas. He is LOVING Christmas! His teacher told Jason the other day that he has been teaching Christmas songs to all of his classmates! It is really funny. I know all children love this time of year but I have really never seen anything like this. He is already worried about putting everything away (decorations and Christmas toys) after Christmastime, so this could be detrimental to him! Good thing he will have a birthday right around the corner to distract him.

Saturday we went to the Denver Christmas parade. The Sunday before that we went to sit on Santa's lap. I have been busy trying to get my shopping done. Almost there!!

Baylor is doing well. He is showing signs of dropping one of his night time feedings (just not the right one!) so that is a start. After 10 weeks of maternity leave, I am about to start back full time at work. 10 weeks is almost as good as working for Corporate America benefits! I will be sad but I remember with Brighton, it was the hardest thing in the world, but got a little easier each week.

Michael is 2!

My baby niece has turned 2 years old! I will never forget the day after Thanksgiving, 2 years ago, watching the Alabama/Auburn game in the waiting room of the hospital, waiting on her to be born. Gosh has it already been 2 years since then? She is just precious and saying really cute things lately! She has been very into babies/dolls, and probably more so after seeing her new baby cousin. She is always playing with Baylor's car seat/carrier and wants to hold him. This year she got her own baby doll carseat/carrier, diaper bag and accessories. It is funny to see her make a fuss over them.

Christmas already???

It sure is at our house! I have two guys at home who get all kinds of giddy when it comes to Christmas. Jason and Brighton. They love the decorations, hoopla, and most of all, the music. I am not a Scrooge exactly, but lets just say that I usually listen to a lot more CDs at Christmas time in my car than I normally would! Not my boys though. Last weekend Jason got out the tree and all other decorations and had most of it up by the time I got home from a day of shopping. Christmas shopping, that is! I knew that if the tree was going up then I had to have something to put under it!! See, I am at least trying to get into the spirit!

Brighton is quite happy with all of his "Ho Ho"s, Christmas books and music. I have been trying to squeeze in some Thanksgiving lessons, although it is hard for him to get to excited about that with Santa on the brain! Speaking of Thanksgiving, I am thankful this year for so much. I am very thankful for my husband, who is a great father, Christmas decorator, and such a hard worker. I am thankful for both of my boys who are healthy, amusing, so sweet and the light of my life!! I am thankful for all of my family members. Sisters, mothers, fathers and aunts, uncles, grandparents to my children! I am also thankful this year for a very special boss who has generously given me an extended maternity leave and for my mother and sister for assisting in making that happen! I could just go on and on...

Baylor is 8 weeks old! He is doing pretty good. His cradle cap got better thanks to the prescription ointment. He has been eating well and spitting up less. I love this smiley picture of him!!

Side by side pics of the boys

Just for fun I thought that I would post these. Jason and I have been amazed by how similar the 2 boys look from when Brighton was a baby. The 1st 2 were taken when both boys were 2 weeks old and the 2nd set were taken when they were 1 month old.

The above is Baylor. Below is Brighton.

The picture below is Baylor and underneath that is one of Brighton at that age.

November!!

Wow here we are in November! Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away, I cannot believe it. I am getting into the Christmas spirit. I have gotten started with a few things. Jason is already wanting to decorate and put up the tree soon, since Brighton is so enchanted by it all, he wants him to be enjoying it. Brighton has his own tree for his room this year so he is going to be thrilled about that. He is also excited about going to see Santa and sitting on his lap along with his little brother! I cannot wait to take him (them) to see Santa. It is going to be so much fun this year. Collecting those pictures with Santa has to be one of a mother's greatest joys, or at least this particular mother's. Those pictures and seeing his excitement are priceless to me. Brighton's Christmas clothes are so cute this year that he should be hitting the Christmas party circuit, and Baylor's aren't to shabby! Can you tell I am excited??

Baylor is doing well. As you can probably tell from these shots he healthily gaining weight! He is sharing smiles with mommy and daddy daily. He does have some fussy times each day, and is not showing any signs of sleeping through the night, but we are working on him...!

We are having another baby!!

No not me! Our family is expanding though. I am thrilled to announce that my sister in law Kelly is expecting. She and Craig will have their 1st child at the beginning of May!! We are all very excited.

Most of all Baylor as he will have a cousin to boss around!! (Sorry Kelly!)

Fall Updates

Jason, Lacey, Mickey and I took the kids (minus Baylor) to Redwolf Farms Pumpkin Patch again this year. The weather was perfect and we had a great time! The day included a tractor pulled hayride up a windy hill, to the top, where they had a large pumpkin patch, huge playground with big corn bins for the kids to squish their feet around in, a petting zoo, toy tractor races and a corn maze. At the end we all got to pick out a pumpkin, of course.

Here is Brighton with one of the pumpkins that we carved. Yes, those are Christmas pajamas. I TOLD you that he was ready already!

Halloween

This year the kids went as Peter pan, Tinkerbell, and Captain Hook. They looked really cute and all had fun with it. Michael was "eat her up" cute in her costume!! Poppi made a hayride for them and they suffered through the cold to Trick Or Treat!

I know this is not the greatest picture but we had trouble getting a good group shot of the 3 of them. Tink must have put some pixie dust in Peter's boots because Michael kept dashing off as soon as any of us tried to take a picture of them together!