Jingle-all-the-WAY!!!

"Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle all the way...."

If we heard that song once this Christmas, we heard it a thousand times! We learned very quickly that it was Dylan's favorite Christmas song. He showed us all of his very stylish dance moves when we sang this song, or when he heard it on the radio. No other song came close to this much excitement. This Christmas was very different than last! We had a little one that was quite the helper! He helped un-decorate the tree each and every day! He helped cook! He helped wrap and unwrap presents! We are still probably one Christmas away from truly "getting" it, but he had fun, and HO-HO did visit our house!

This is Dylan after opening his "Christmas" pj's. It happens every Christmas Eve! We also started a tradition of taking his picture with this Santa Claus. He looks so big next to him this year!
Christmas morning: Santa, or HO-HO as Dylan calls him, brought Dylan a Mickey Mouse car!
Dylan loved helping unwrap gifts. Nelli was taking it all in from outside. She came inside later for Dylan to give her a Christmas bone!
I love this feature of his car! We can help steer him along until he gets the hang of pushing and holding down the "go" button!
We headed to my parents for lunch. Dylan in his wagon from Uncle Craig, Aunt Carole, and the 3 big boys!

Family photo with a tired little boy....
Pop and Mawmaw got Dylan a Dancing Mickey, but his favorite thing was his new broom! He loves to sweep!
After a nap back at home, and an outfit change, we headed to Pawpaw and Nana's for supper! He was helping Nana make chicken n' dumplings!
He got a little baby boy Cabbage Patch Doll. He likes to give him kisses and put his paci in his mouth!
He had fun with Nana and Pawpaw!
Dylan was ready for church this morning! He has on a new outfit he got for Christmas. I think he looks mighty HANDSOME!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday! As I reflect on our big Christmas day, I try to remember the reason for the holidays. It's easy to get wrapped up in all the stuff, at least it is for me! We feel blessed with all of that, but it is not what truly matters. Laughter, joy, memories, and thanking God for our blessings. Those are the things that won't break, get old, or be thrown away!

Boot Scootin' Baking

Dylan has discovered "big boy" shoes. He loves to step in and out of any of our shoes lying around the house. He found my cowboy boots a few days ago, and really needed to give them a try. He loves boots and....
BAKING! He was such a big helper as we baked chocolate chip cookies for his Bible class teachers. I have to admit, I was quite nervous and skeptical at how it would turn out. He kept saying "cook! cook!" as we made the cookies. He LOVED it! He tried to mix up the TV remote! Hahaha!
He thought it was really fun when the mixer started going!
He dumped the chocolate chips in all by himself!
I definitely called it a success! He really was a big helper! We will be doing more cooking together because it was quite fun for mommy too!

Faith Like a Child

Each morning at breakfast time, we have our High Chair Devotionals. I cannot lie and say that I remember EVERY morning, but I try my best to remember, because:

There is nothing better than to see your child engaged in a Bible Story,

pointing to the pictures and saying "Je-sah" when you point to baby Jesus in the manger, andsinging along to "Jesus Loves Me", and then pointing to himself and saying "ME"!

Oh how it reminds ME to do my best to have faith like a child. We close our devotional with a prayer. I love those folded hands, and that voice that says "A-meh" when the prayer is finished.

Oh to have that innocent love for Jesus, what a great reminder for this Mama as we start our day.

*For anyone that is interested, there are 12 devotional cards in the set. Each month has a new card. The back has ideas and ways to have the devotional with your little one. December is Baby Jesus in the manger with his parents. You can find them on Ebay for $5!! Search Bible Picture Cards: I Love to Look.

Fall...Where did you go?

Fall oh fall where did you go? I am calling this my catch up post since I haven't updated in over a month! It seems like fall came and went, and now it's December 2nd and Christmas is just around the corner! Here is a small re-cap of our past month:
Dylan and I spent many beautiful fall days oustide enjoying the park! He loved the tunnel slide. I think mostly because his voice sounded cool when he yelled! He got his first haircut, strawberry sucker and all! He was a champ. He sat still in his little airplane (seatbelt on might I add) and chomped on that sucker while getting his hair trimmed.
He was a dalmatian for Halloween. My sister and I made his costume. Uncle Craig made his red fire hydrant candy bag (not pictured but oh so cute). Surprisingly, he kept the hat on for the entire trunk or treat at church!
Oh how I love those blue eyes! I also love the cooler weather, because then he gets to wear all his neat hats! I love this one. It was made by one of the ladies at church. I plan on taking him out even as winter approaches. We will just have to bundle up!
I can't believe how much Dylan is turning into our little BOY. I have said it a bunch, but it is so true! Here are a few of my favorites right now:
-You like to give hugs and pat-pats.
-Your vocabulary is soaring: Logan (lo-gi) ,Chester (ches-too) that is my sister's dog, Cheerio (chee-yo), Mickey is now (mi-mi-mou) Santa (sa-suh) but mostly you call him "ho-ho",
open-you say this when you open doors on your toys, up-you say this when your firefighter climbs the ladder or you want us to pick you up, grapes (g-aps) cheese (chee)
-You have started asking me for certain foods when you want them, or when you want your "mulk"
-You are a smart little cookie- You know things you are not supposed to do (stand on the hearth, grab ornaments of the Christmas tree, etc.) You start to do them and look at us and say "no-no" as if it is a question. Sometimes, you leave it alone, but most often you need us to send you in a different direction to play! STINKER!

Love all the changes! We had a blessed Thanksgiving and are trying very hard to stay on top of things in the holiday rush! Take time to be thankful! Christmas HERE WE COME!

Quite the Talker!

Dylan is almost 14 months old and is talking up a storm! And YES, he definitely has an Arkansas Southern accent just like his Mama! We were able to capture some of his words on film tonight before bedtime! Enjoy!

P.S. Scroll down and pause my music box on the left so you can hear Dylan!!!!!

Best Pumpkin in the Patch!

We went again to Schaeffer & Collins Pumpkin Patch in Mayflower. It has become a tradition to go on Sunday afternoon each year with our Small group from church. We had a blast, even though it was incredibly hot!!

We were missing one family from our group. Our total is 14 adults and 11 kids! It is a great, BUSY group!I think we found our pick!I think that blonde hair blowing in the breeze is so cute! His face was so red. He played SO very hard! He also loved the hay ride to the patch! He watched the tractors and has picked up that word too! "Tac-too" It is pretty cute! Oh won't his grandpa's be proud!!!Dylan has found his pumpkin!On Satuday, Jonathan had the company golf tournament. Mom and I took Dylan out to the golf course to see everyone and eat lunch. He has become VERY attached to his golf club. He was pitching fits on the course if he thought we were taking the club away from him. Yikes! That afternoon, our friends Matt and Lana came over to watch the Hogs. He now can say "Maa" for Matt and "Ana" for Lana. He was pretty confident about it too! Fun times!!

What's Happenin' with Our Talkin' Boy!

It is absolutely crazy what Dylan has picked up over the last month! There are so many things, I am just going to have to list them all! Dylan, here is what you are doing as a 13 month old:

-Walking is your ONLY way to move!
-You also are quite the little dancer. You dance to Mickey Mouse and whatever sounds good at the moment.
-You love to be outside and sweep the deck with your broom!
-You love spaghetti, ravioli, homemade chicken and dumplings and homemade chicken noodle soup!
-One of our favorite things is when you go pick out a book, bring it to us, and then turn your little bum around and sit down in our lap. It melts my heart, and your daddy's too!
-You have stared crying big when we have to come back inside from playing. You love to play outside, walk throughout the grass, pick up leaves, rocks, and sticks, and BE A BOY!!!

-Here are ALL the words in your vocabulary right now!

Yum-yum: You say this when you see food, when we ask you if you want to eat, when we walk to the fridge and pantry. It is so cute!
Uh-oh
Shew: This is said to your diaper, rocks, leaves, anything that is stinky and that we don't want in your mouth!
Dog (daw)

Ball (baw)
Diaper (di-poo)
Cracker (ka-kr)
Bible
Banana (nana)
Cookie
Shoe

Light (yigh)
Pumpkin (pu-kin)
Turtle (tu-tl)

-Here are all the family names you can say!
Mama, Dada, and Ne-ne were first!
Dustin: You looked at a picture of all the boys and pointed to Dustin and said his name!!
Bob: You see Uncle Bob at church or in pictures and say his name!
Pop
Mawmaw: and it actually sounds different than Mama!
Tanner (ta-tu) You also love to say Hi Ta-tu. It is cute!
Carole (ca-cul) for Aunt Carole
Nathan (na-nan) for your cousin Nathan Blevins

We are working on Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa comes out a little like Pa-poo so that may be the new name!!

I think I say this every time I post, but Dylan may be the MOST fun right now! He is like a little sponge soaking everything up! I love watching him learn so many new things!

I will leave you with my favorite pictures from the beginning of Fall. We went to the Park last Saturday because it was a gorgeous day to be outside, and Dylan loves to be outside, Remember?!Look at that sweet expression as he watches his Daddy!

"Oh I Just Can't WAIT To Be King!"

Doesn't this face just look like a little one-year old King?!

Walking in his new Nike tennis shoes. We went and bought him his very 1st pair! It really adds to the big boy look! He carries his blankie everywhere, usually just like this, in his mouth!

Getting the hang of things!

Dylan's 1st Birthday party was Jungle themed. My sister made him the precious outfit and safari hat. He really seemed to be quite overwhelmed during the present opening section of the party. I ended up opening the majority of them. He enjoyed digging into the cake but did NOT want to eat any! He invited one buddy, Brady, to the party! :) We had fun with a small group of family and friends celebrating Dylan's first year of life!

First Steps

As I watched you take your first steps
I cheered and smiled for you.
I can't believe how much you've grown
Your life shines through and through.

As I watched you take your first steps
My heart skipped a little beat.
You are changing into our little boy
And that is bittersweet.

As I watched you take your first steps
My mind quickly began to spin
A whole new world awaits you now
Oh the mischief you will be in!

As I watched you take your first steps
A new adventure has begun
Our sweet little Dylan Thomas
Is steppin' on to being ONE!

Love, Mommy

Dylan took his first steps on Wednesday, August 11th. He is becoming so brave about it! The most steps we have counted in a row are 12. I have a feeling it won't be long before his main mode of transportation is walking! He's cutting more molars so we hope that resolves itself before the birthday. It's causing some trouble sleeping at night! He also has started mimicking a bunch lately. If we say "shhh", so does Dylan! He "vroom-vrooms" his boats, cars, trucks, etc. He is so much fun right now!

Everything Changin' at Eleven Months!

Ok, so you hear everyone tell you over and over and over that "your baby will change so quickly", "time flies", or "don't blink or they will be grown" and for many years I half-heartedly listened and agreed. But, you can classify that with all the other "You don't get it till you experience it" things because IT IS TRUE! I can't believe that Dylan Thomas is 11 months old! Everything is changing in our world. We are seeing signs of a 'BIG BOY' at our house instead of a baby. He will ALWAYS be our baby, but he is becoming so much more independent. Examples below:
His new favorite place to play is inside this basket in our den. He can climb in and climb out all by himself. Oh, did I mention CLIMB??!!!!!!!!!!! He apparently has inherited his long legs and need for scaling things from me! He climbs onto the fireplace hearth, into the recliner, and my sister and I stared in amazement last week as he pulled out the bottom drawer of our chest to get a foot rest and began to CLIMB the chest of drawers. Really?! I can't leave this blue-eyed beauty alone for 2 seconds!We have graduated to ALL table foods! Once he got a taste of the "real" stuff, he was hooked. The only thing I can feed him from a spoon these days is yogurt. He likes hamburger, pickles, rice and veggies, grilled chicken, pot roast (yes, I said pot roast!), cheese ravioli, and FRUIT! The only fruit I have found so far that he won't eat is cantaloupe. He prefers toast for breakfast with butter and cinnamon. Yummy, right?! I have to admit I love the table food age. Now, when he eats I can eat too! I just have to make sure he doesn't have too much in front of him or it will all end up in his mouth!

On a side note, he puts anything and everything in his mouth. The smallest piece of string not even visible to my eyes, he finds and crams it in there! I have been bit on several occasions while trying to pry that mouth open to retrieve something! I did catch the orange crayon before it was too late :-(
Not sure about the pickle:

This was so much fun to watch. Instead of spoon-feeding him rice and veggies, I just poured it out on his tray and let him have at it. He had the best time! More definitely ended up on the floor than inside his tummy!You can't beat little messy baby hands! Enjoying our baby pool outside. Dylan played in the shade and I tried to catch a few rays. He has 1000's of facial expressions. I believe he gets those from.....oh yeah, ME!!!We now have locks on all the cabinets and drawers. This picture was pre-locks. One morning, I just let him have at it in our bathroom. He played for probably 30 minutes with my "travel" accessories. A kid in a candy store!

Other exciting changes:

We are working on our 1st molar. It is partially through.

He points at what he wants. It's a 3 finger point: his thumb, pointer, and middle fingers. :-)

The jibber-jabber is NON-STOP! He repeats after us, most of which in his own little language, but it is so much fun!

He can repeat these words after we say them:

Da-da, Ma-ma, and Bye-bye :-) but he also thinks it is really funny to repeat da-da even if you are trying to get him to say one of the other words. Such a pistol! ;)

When Jonathan gets home from work, he starts saying "Ne-ne" which is Nelli. He knows that Jonathan is going to take him outside to play with Nelli and feed her. :)

We are working on saying bible and dog right now.

He is still taking 2 naps a day. He has gotten into a pretty good routine with them and will sleep for at least an hour at a time, but he has cut the nighttime sleep down a little bit. He sleeps 10 to 10 1/2 hours instead of 11.

He is getting so brave at standing up by himself. He will stand there and look at me like "What's next, Mom?" I have to believe those first steps are around the corner.

He has a little bit of "stinker" in him already: telling us no-no, trying to bite when he doesn't get his way, but that's all apart of learning and growing up, I guess! He is such a joy.

Thanks for making in through this long post! I probably could write even more, but I need to go get a few more things done while Dylan naps!