~B~I~G~ Boy!

On January 18th Jack turned 1 1/2 - I can't imagine how our life was before he was here, because it's so much more fun now with two boys running around!  He's 24.8 pounds, and 33 inches tall - and all of him is pure BOY!  He loves Riley, and calls "Bubba" up the stairs during the day when he's in school, it just melts my heart!  I guess he says about 30 words, he had a pretty big vocabulary for such a little toot, and he jabbers all day in what sounds like Mandarin.  His favorite thing to do is take a part his firetruck puzzle or shape short and line the pieces up on his windowsill (I'm secretly hoping he'll have my organizational skills!).  He loves books, but doesn't sit still for very long and his favorite toy is one of those nifty things that is a push - ride on - scooter.  He sits and rides for now, but I'm sure he'll be using it as a scooter before too long.  His favorite word this week is "OW" which he proclaims loudly any time you touch him.  He's going to be that kid in Wal-Mart that gets a little swat and yells "OW DADDY YOU'RE HURTING ME" at the top of his lungs, causing CPS to called and us having to run out of the store in a mad dash :)  He is finally turning into a good little player, he'll go to his room, or play in the living room, for a really long time.  The only time he gets mad that I'm not giving him enough attention is when I'm trying to read a book, or cook, because then he'll walk up and hit the book and make an ugly noise, and in the kitchen he'll wedge himself between me and the cabinet and make an ugly noise.  This noise is pretty much a daily occurence at our house, so he knows what a spanking is already!

Now that it's January....

....I guess I'd better post all the pics from December!  We had a crazy month, but it was SO much fun!  We had a party for our friends at church, Riley's birthday party, Christmas for Tim's family, tons of dinner guests, Christmas with my family at the barn, Christmas morning here at our house, a children's Christmas party at church....and that's just what I can remember!  We also had things for our youth group, and they are just the best bunch of kids, and we're so blessed to work with them. 

Here are some pictures from Riley's birthday party:

 The race track cake he wanted....

 ...then devoured!

 Definitely his favorite present - a huge remote control monster truck from Mamaw and Papaw!

His sweet friend Kimberly trying out the awesome Iron Man mask 

Opening presents NEVER gets old!

Now for some Christmas pictures of both my sweet boys - these are from the church party, Christmas Eve with my parents, and Christmas morning here at home:

Oh, you know, he's just a foot stomper... 

My sweet boys with their Mamaw at Riley's class party... 

HALO goodies from M&P for Christmas! 

Peek-a-boo, I see you! 

His present from the gift exchange at church... 

And me with my sweet boy...it's a shame he was looking somewhere else!

Family Pics

At the beginning of December we visited the most fantastic photographer, Buster Clem, of Clem Photography, to have family pictures done.  He took sports and Senior pictures for Tim and my brother Chad, and we went to church with him for years.  He and his wife do an amazing job, we were SO excited with the way our pictures turned out!

The whole family

Just the guys...and a dog

My sweet lil' family

My beautiful Mama and Daddy

Me and brother (this is my favorite...I think)

And the barn pic :)

I'm trying to catch up....

but am pretty sure I'm failing miserably!  It was so easy updating facebook, but when I blog I feel like it takes me FOR.EV.ER to say anything important, and uploading pictures isn't as easy either.  So, I'll try to do better from now on...but I'm not making any promises!

We had a great Thanksgiving, my Mom's family, plus two other families from church came to our house, and as with most families, we had enough for food seconds, thirds, and probably tenths!  I made the mashed potatoes, dressing, and pumpkin roll, and apparently they were all a huge hit, so I was very happy - it was my first time making dressing, and it was my Mom's recipe, so I needed it to taste just like hers....and it did!  The Saturday after we went to Tim's parents to celebrate with his Mom's family and had a great time there as well.  And my dressing got rave reviews again :)  I felt really good, because his Aunt Scarlet's husband said it tasted just like his mothers, and they had been trying to duplicate it for 17 years!  Any time someone says something is as good as their moms I feel like that the ultimate compliment.

We are SO ready for Christmas at my house, we decorated the Saturday before Thanksgiving, because I just couldn't wait.  We went that Friday and saw HP7, then went to Wal-Mart and bought a huge, gorgeous, pre-lit tree and decorated the whole house the next day.  Since this is the biggest house we've had since getting married it took all day to get it done just how I wanted it.  But I also cleaned things out, reorganized our storage area, and had to decorate all the garland, so it shouldn't take as long next year.  Jack has really liked the tree, he walks up to it every day, waves his hand over it and says "bribby", which means pretty.  He LOVES the lights, and did great the first week it was up, but the last three days he's turned into a little terror constantly pulling the same 3 ornaments off!  I was expecting it, but he fooled me by leaving it alone when it was first up!

We've got a bazillion things going on this month; a Christmas party at our house for families our ages from church, family pictures, Riley's birthday party, Christmas for Tim's family at our house, a progressive dinner for the youth group...and that's just what we're doing at home, not including all the other fun stuff that's going on!  I hope everyone is already enjoying a wonderful holiday season, and eating up this cold weather, because it never lasts, does it?  I like the cold, especially when it's sunny so today is my favorite kind of day!  And lastly, the work in our mudroom has finally begun!  Woohoo!  We've got one new door in, and sometime at the end of this week they're going to be replacing the flooring and the door that goes into our backyard - this makes me VERY happy!

Here's a look at what our home looks like all dressed up for Christmas!

I am so, so, so totally in love with my tree!  It's all green and silver and packed full of ornaments, just like I've always wanted.

Riley's first Christmas baby shoes :)

And Jack's.  It took a long time to find a pair last year that were similar to big brothers!

I had so much fun decorating the top of my china hutch.  There are silver glittery swirly things (how's that for a description?) tucked into the garland.

The plate rail - I didn't want to remove all my green glassware, but it needed to be "Christmased Up".

And the buffet....one of these days I would like to have enough of a village to put them around the plate rail, but it will take a looooong time to collect that many!

I found these adorable little things at Hobby Lobby where all the decor is for the miniature trees.  I love how they catch the light!

The garland :)  We've also got it over our two LR windows with a flower and 2 silver ornaments on each corner.

Kohl's had these gorgeous sequin covered candles, and I couldn't pass them up, they were less than $5 a piece and are so festive!

This is pretty much the only decorating I did in the LR besides a couple of cute metal Santas, because Jack wants to "touch" everything.  And touch is putting it mildly, lol! 

And this is totally unrelated, but this is my awesome new kitchen sink and faucet.  It's so shiny.  And white.  And CLEAN!

Getting in the holiday spirit....

I'm so ready for Christmas my lists have lists!  We're hosting Thanksgiving for my family at our house, this is the first "thing" we'll have in our new home, and the first time we've ever hosted a holiday since we've been married, so it's very exciting - but I declined cooking the turkey, I'm too afraid I'll mess it up ;)  Things are going so great here, there aren't words to described how blessed we feel to be back home; our church family is wonderful, and living right by my parents doesn't hurt either!  Jack keeps getting teeth, although he only has four on bottom - his two front teeth, and 2 molars, which I find strange!  He's funny and happy most of the time, but he's already learned what NO means, and he pitches the biggest fit when he hears it - I'm talking about throwing himself down on the floor fits.  But it's still pretty funny because when I ignore him, which I always do, he starts pushing himself around on his back and that's always good for a laugh!  He says a lot of words, a few of them are: Mama, Dada, Bubba, Uh-oh, bye bye, Hiiiiiii, Tataw (Papaw), Mamaw, Bite, Nana (for banana), night night, drive drive, no....and maybe a couple of others that I'm not remembering right now.  His favorite word is Bubba, he'll walk to the foot of the stairs and call Riley, who's his favorite person besides me and his Papaw.  He is also wanting to feed himself, and it's really messy.  Riley didn't show any interest in that until he was at least 2, so I see a lot of spills and messes in our immediate future!  Riley is doing really well in school, his teacher is still so wonderful.  Even when he has a less than great week she doesn't dog him about it, which I love, she understands kids are kids, and sometimes they're rowdy.  He got all A's on his first report card, and 1 B (an 89) on his second.  He has the entire week off for Thanksgiving, and that's awesome, I can't wait to take them to the park, and the Children's Museum, and start decorating for Christmas!  Back to Christmas....we don't have a tree, when we moved into the apt. while Tim was in preaching school we knew there wasn't room to store it, or put it up, so we gave it to Tim's parents, so now we get to buy a BIG pre-lit tree (since we have tall, tall ceilings), which makes me happy!  I've already been buying decorations for it, and planning where I'll put everything - I don't go crazy and decorate every single room, but I do decorate all the rooms where company spends the most time.  We'll start decorating Thanksgiving night, and probably finish since we're not having to go anywhere, so I'll post pictures then!  We've got a progressive dinner/Christmas party for our youth group, Riley's birthday party, Tim's families Christmas at our house, a 4th grade and under Christmas party, caroling at the nursing home, Family Game Night, and big New Year's Eve party, and a young married's Christmas party at our house - all next month.  It's going to be CRAZY, but I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

Here are some pictures of the boys, since they're the reason most people look here anyway ;)

This is the only one that really needs a caption;

Chad as the coolest Wolverine ever and Tim as Magnum P.I. for Halloween

Yes, those claw were really metal, and yes, I do have a thing for the real Tom Selleck...something about those dimples and that mustache ;)

AFTER (or at least some of it!)

I know most people have seen these on facebook, but we've got some family (MOM!!!  ANGIE!!!) that don't use it so this is mainly for them.

                   One side of the dining room and our living room

Looking into the dining room from the living room...it's such a pretty view :)

My huge, and wonderful, kitchen

I LOVE all the space I have for cooking now!

This is my favorite part of the whole house!  I've been collecting red and yellow antique kitchen stuff for a few years now, and it deserved it's own special space!

Sweet baby Jack's room

It's decorated with antique toys, and paintings of antique toys.

And this thing is amazing for storage!

The jack-in-the-box, and top were my dads.  All the books were mine as a baby!

Rileys room - he loves it!

 This very cool metal basketball player used to be my brothers, and he wanted Riley to have it

 Our bedroom - I still can't get over all the space we have!

 I finally got to use the bath tub, it's nice and roomy

And this is looking in to the living room from our bedroom