Christmas Festivities

We had such a fun Christmas. We figured we would see just how many people this house would hold and had Matt's parents, his two brothers, and his two grandmas come out and spend the holiday with us. We loved every minute of it!

While at the store, I got a call from Matt saying that Jackson was requesting carrots and celery for Santa's reindeer. So, I got the requested items and later that night Jackson and Charlie helped set up a nice little spread for Santa and his reindeer. Chocolate covered mint cookies and chocolate milk for Santa and some washed veggies for the others. The boys were so excited! (Well, Jackson was, Charlie had no idea what was going on.)
Almost done, Gramma and Grampa brought a whole car full of gifts for the boys.
Lots of balloons to make things even more fun!
Wow, those reindeer ate a lot of the veggies, and Santa was in such a hurry he knocked over his milk jug! Silly Santa, good thing he drank all his milk, I would have been a tad upset if he had gotten chocolate milk all over my carpet! And don't worry, he ate all the cookies.
Getting ready to dive into the presents.
Santa knew exactly what Jackson wanted....a scooter! What a lucky kid!
Charlie loved every toy he got. He would unwrap it and play with whatever it was for a good couple of minutes before moving on to the next. He loves this little puppy that he can drag all over the house!
Oh and he loves to pick it up by the tail and cart it around the house that way too.
Signing "more", he LOVES this cute little talking book.
Found himself a comfy place to sit on top of a couple boxes so he could look at his new Fisher Price barn with talking animals! Another favorite of his! How did Santa know what this kid would love?
Matt, his mom, and her mom! It was so nice having Great Gramma Donna here. We loved that she got to meet Charlie (Charles was Matt's grampa).
Matt's cute family!
Great Gramma Nana and the boys. We loved that she made the trip from Santa Barbara all on her own! It was great to have her here!
My sweet boys.
Could they be any cuter?
Very cooperative at this point!
Love this pic!

The True Meaning of Christmas.

Well, I am almost embarrassed to post this, however, I thought it was worth sharing. We have Matt's family coming for Christmas, including his two brothers and his grandmas, which we are very excited about. Since we won't be seeing my family Jackson got a big package in the mail yesterday from my parents full of presents for him and Charlie. We opened it up and put all the packages under the tree. Some may say this is cruel, as he is forced to sit in front of the tree staring, for very long periods of time, at the unopened gifts. He wonders and constantly asks, "Mom, what do you think is in this one?" Of course I reply, "I'm not sure but you will find out on Christmas!" But the poor kid has no concept of time and doesn't really know when Christmas is! So, as far as he is concerned he will have to enjoy looking at the presents for a very long unknown period of time rather than happily opening them and having his questions answered as to what new (and probably very loud) toy awaits him. So, after answering the above question over and over and over again, I went to tuck him in to bed. We said a prayer and after, I noticed Jackson just staring off into space, his mind probably going over the many possibilities of just what is under that tree. When all of a sudden he says, "Mom, I hope Uncle Ty Ty brings me a present!" Well, don't worry Jackson, I happen to know what Uncle Ty got you and I am know you won't be let down! More importantly, however, I think we need to have a little discussion about what Christmas truly is all about!

*As I write this post, Jackson is in the living room just staring at the tree and his presents....oh dear!

My baby turned one....

....a long time ago! Charlie's first birthday was October 1, 2009! Matt's parents came out to help us celebrate.

Charlie got to sit in his Elmo chair when it came time to open presents. He loves this chair!

Look at his sweet little face!

He got a lot of new toys, books, and clothes.

He, like most one year olds, enjoyed playing with the boxes and the containers all the toys came in.

And then he found the bubble wrap, that was the best present of all.

A shot with big brother...and still lovin' the bubble wrap.

He did take a minute to explore his new Leapfrog table.

We had to get a shot of Grampa and Jackson in their matching shirts.

And as you can see Jackson and Grampa don't have any fun together!

Unfortunately for Char, his allergies got in the way of enjoying a nice yummy cake or cupcake. I attempted to make eggless, dairyless, cupcakes, but was not successful. He was happy with his dinner though.

We just love this little guy. He is always so happy and he has the best giggle. He is so fun to have around and we really can't get enough of him!

Jackson was a great big brother and helped Charlie open all his presents.

He thinks he is so funny! :)

"I got more candy!"

Blogger annoys me in the fact that it loads all the pictures backwards. I always forget that so here are our Halloween pictures in reverse order! "I got more candy" t'was the phrase we heard after every every house on Saturday. Jackson got to go trick or treating this year with Gramma and Grampa which made it extra fun and special.

Charlie by the end of trick or treating was one tired Pooh! He didn't get to collect any candy this year, but he enjoyed walking around the neighborhood and following his excited brother. These were some cool pumpkins we found along the way.It never got old, the collecting of the candy that is. He was just as excited after the last house as he was the first house.....we was so happy with his loot!

One happy pirateStill happy!Charlie just happened to come across a bigger version of himself and had to stop and say hi. (Check out Matt's goatee, he had to put make up on so Jackson would wear it!) Charlie just takin' his time and enjoying the opportunity to walk. This was the very first house we stopped at. It was a beautiful night and usually in Arizona the people sit outside and pass out their candy.

Just walking along, and I bet you didn't know that pirates wore crocs!! Well, this one did anyway.

This was before the trick or treating began. Char got a hold of a Now and Later and loved it.
Being a grumpy and uncooperative pirate!
What a cute Tigger!
This is little Hadley, the one year old I babysit. She is such a cutie. The pretty ballerina with sparkly shoes!

We had a great time on Halloween. I am just wondering though, is anyone else having problems getting your children to understand that we can't eat candy 24/7....I love having the same argument over and over again. This morning I asked Jackson what he wanted to eat and he said a peanut butter sandwich, I thought it odd that he wanted a sandwich for breakfast. After he finished he said "Okay mom, you said I could have candy after lunch." He's a tricky one...he wasn't too happy when I explained that was his breakfast and we don't eat candy after breakfast!

Blogging blues!

To all my loyal blog readers, if I have any! These past couple of weeks I have had NO desire to blog. Call me lazy, a bad mom, a slug, what have you...I just don't have it in me! Even the fact that my baby turned one on the 1st of October has not motivated me any to post. Or the fact that the boys and I took a trip to Boise and spent time with my family in Sun Valley where we got to hang out with Sam and his amazing singing group, NOPE, still not motivated! Maybe one day I will get around to loading all my recent pictures on to my computer and then transferring them to my blog....maybe...maybe. In the mean time, we are excited that Matt was offered a job back in Phoenix (yes we moved from Phoenix to Tucson not more than 8 months ago) and so now we are heading back and very excited about this new opportunity! Charlie is still the cutest little thing, and when I say little, I mean it. Because of his allergies he is restricted on what he can eat. The doctor was a little worried at his check up because he had actually lost weight since his 9 month check up, HOWEVER, we have found lots of good fats he can have and we are still experimenting with different "milks" to find one he likes. So far we have tried rice milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, and a really really expensive amino acid based formula which is what he has gravitated to! So, not only do I get to shop for his foods at stores like Trader Joes, Sprouts, and Whole Foods (which prove to be more costly than regular grocery stores) I get to pay an arm and a leg for formula for him to drink! But it is worth it if he is gaining weight. And Jackson is finally loving t-ball and has a great time every game! He is doing well in school, and is always doing or saying something to make me laugh, or make me yell! He is such a funny kid! Well, there's an update...hopefully, someday soon I can get around to posting some pictures to match some of the events I have spoken about!

T-ball!

My sweet and sometimes very shy boy, started t-ball this last week. He was so excited to play. He ran and jumped in the car when we said it was time to go to his first practice. However, it was a very different story once arriving at the baseball field!

So excited to get to practice!

I don't think he realized there would be other children playing t-ball with him.

His excitement quickly disappeared the moment we pulled in to the park and he saw the small gathering of kids and parents. He announced he didn't want to play and his smile quickly turned to a scowl.

The coaches had all the kids run out to the grass where they started out with some stretches. You can see Jackson, in the red hat, wanted nothing to do with the those people and shut down completely. From across the field Matt and I could see him trembling as he stood there looking down at the grass with his fingers in his mouth. Oh, my poor, poor boy.

After stretching, they all enthusiastically and happily ran back to the diamond and got ready to practice throwing and catching the ball; everyone but my sad little Jack. Doesn't this picture just break your heart?

After some coaxing from Matt and his wonderfully patient coaches, he eventually came out of his shell. He did pretty well his first time at bat! He hit the ball and took off running!

He ran and ran and ran! He ran way past first base, you can see his coach pointing to the base. I wanted to yell "Run Forest run!" I think the thought of getting far away from all these new people made him happy!

I think the hard part is going to keep these three to five year olds focused on the game! Come on now, stay focused Jack!

Then Saturday we had our first game! Char had fun hanging out in his stroller for a little bit while I took some pictures. Matt literally had to drag Jackson to the baseball diamond, but once he got there he seemed to loosen up.

It came time to bat and he stepped right up there and gave a good swing! He hit the ball and took off for first base! (Luckily, this time around he knew where first base was).

For some reason he ran kind of weird, very timid-like, but made it safely to first base!

In between innings daddy took some time to give a little pep talk. I don't think this kid's facial expression changed the whole game! Hopefully, by the end of the season he will be smiling out there.

Gettin' ready to catch the ball! Getting some last minute pointers from the coach.

Unfortunately, as soon as the ball was hit, the whole team swarmed around the ball, so Jackson made sure to stay clear of that scene!

Little scowly face.
Don't worry, Jack was the only one in baseball pants, cleats, AND a baseball hat. Thanks dad for making sure he looked the part!
Never smiled once..... :(