A Whole Lotta Christmas...2012

Grab a cup of hot cocoa and settle in for our December in pictures!

We took our annual trip to Branson to visit Santa Claus.  No tears!  And Dylan asked him for a kitchen for himself and a baby kitchen for his brother.  

We also took a little time to shop, and Mawmaw let the boys do Build a Bear.  

Dylan chose a bear.

Name: Brown Eyes

Outfit: St. Louis Baseball player & Camo boxers

Caleb chose a puppy.

Name: Nelli (given by big brother)

The high while we were there was 32.  It was absolutely frigid.  We tried to stay inside as much as possible.  Dylan and Caleb loved playing in the hotel room.  They also enjoyed their first time to miniature golf.  It is the same indoor spot I enjoyed playing at as a child.  I love making those memories with my boys.  

We enjoyed the Arnold family Christmas get together, even though Dylan had a double ear infection.  Food, fun, family, and cousins always make you feel better!

Christmas Eve has become a day for just our family to enjoy holiday activities.  It is a day I look forward to because it is a little slower paced than the rest of the holiday festivities.  We went downtown and rode the trolley.  Then we drove thru Sonic for lunch (high-class, ha!).  Caleb was coming down with a bad cold and started running a low-grade fever.  Of course, the doctor's office was closed, and I was nervous about his ears, so a sweet "Dr." friend of ours checked him out.  Ears, chest, lungs, ALL CLEAR, so we took care of a very puny baby with a very nasty cough and cold.  As of today, he is still fighting it, but getting a little better.

Tasting the reindeer food, making reindeer cookies for the neighbors, and a flour explosion while making cookies for Santa.

 Our annual pictures with Santa on Christmas Eve.  I must say, the pictures explain so much.... And opening our matching pajamas!

Playing with his new kitchen, opening the hammer and nails Dylan picked out for Daddy, reading a new Dr. Seuss book, and testing out their chairs from Mommy & Daddy

Love these boys to pieces!

Christmas day at my parents house:

One of my FAVORITE pictures! (Thanks Uncle Craig!)

 Uncle Craig built a barn for Dylan, complete with a garage door, camo truck, tractor, boat, and 4-wheeler.  UH-MAZ-ING!

 My sister made the "gadget" board for Caleb.  It is awesome and full of things for his little hands to figure out!

 The digital camera is still a hit!  Thanks Pop and Mawmaw!

 A bike with training wheels to keep at Pop and Mawmaw's new house!  They have a huge driveway to learn to ride!

 Playtime with cousins!

 My great-grandfather: Daddy Vell and Mrs. Kathleen

 Love this for so many reasons! Makes me smile!

And here are a few from my phone of us playing the day after Christmas.

Trampoline, xylophone, and Caleb putting his blankie in the barn silo. 

Fun times!

Daddy is 30!

Our family enjoyed another milestone together.  Daddy turned 30!  We had a fun-filled few days celebrating HIM!  He most definitely deserves it!  

I smile every time I see this picture.  My sweet husband as a baby.  The left side he is one year and this picture favors Caleb big time!  On the right side,  I think he is 3, and it looks just like Dylan.  How special it was to look back through all of these pictures.  We didn't think Caleb had any "Daddy" features, but he does!  What a sweet thing!

His actual birthday fell on a Wednesday, so I made him one of his favorite Mexican meals: Taco Ring, Mexican Rice, and Refried Beans.  Dylan helped me made dessert: Gooey Cake (a.k.a. Sugar on top of sugar)  Dylan picked out a gift for Daddy.  I asked him what he wanted to get Daddy that they could do together.  He said, "a puzzle."  So we purchased a huge Jake puzzle and a small Wonder Pets puzzle.  They worked it together before church.  On Thursday, we celebrated with our family at our house.  BBQ was the meal of choice and his Mom's apple cake.  We had a "duck hunting/camo" themed table.  We enjoyed food, family, and a slideshow of Jonathan over the past 30 years!

 On Friday, we had a celebration dinner with a few friends and then we stayed the night Downtown.  He is super hard to buy for, so we decided the one night "stay-cation" without los chicos would be his present.  It was a great way to celebrate the best husband and Daddy on the planet.

Santa Breakfast and Bam!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we had a family morning that I am hoping can be the start of a new family tradition.  We had Breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus at Bravo! Italian Restaurant in Little Rock.  Dylan was beyond excited to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  We didn't tell him what we were doing until the morning of the event.  We went straight to Santa first.  Dylan told Santa that he wanted a kitchen....and a pogo stick "but those are for big boys."  This 3 year old CRACKS. ME. UP. Caleb was not a fan of Santa.  I think it was the beard.  We snatched him up before he started REALLY crying.  

 Breakfast was incredible.  Scrambled eggs, fruit cups, yogurt, bacon, and muffins.  My boys ate like little champs!  Dylan also made a pasta necklace and got a Santa coloring book.  It was morning nap time for the baby, so he was pretty tired after he ate.

Santa Claus made a trip around the restaurant to visit with all the children.  I loved the expression on Dylan's face when he got close to our table.  Then, oh how I wish I had hit record on my camera to capture the serious conversation that Dylan and Santa had with each other.  It went something like this,

Dylan: "How do you come down chimneys?"

Santa: "It's magic.  I come down the chimney because it is the fastest way to deliver your toys."

Dylan: "I really want to come to your house."

Santa: "Well, my house is at the North Pole and that is where my elves work to make your toys."

Precious. Memories.

Bam also made his appearance.  Bam is a NICE elf and only does nice things at our house.  He brought Dylan a Christmas Tree Glow Stick.

The holidays are in full swing at our house!

Letter to Santa...

Dylan wrote his very first letter to Santa.  He was pretty excited about it.   Well, if I am honest, he was excited about it all day until we actually started working on it.  Then it was like working with a huge jumping bean that would not sit still!  Ha! Here's to the Christmas season :)

 This year, Dylan is really getting into all the Christmas spirit.  He has a huge imagination and really thinks about all of the magical things that Christmas has to offer!  I love watching him truly relish in the magic of Christmas!  He can't wait for Santa to visit his house?! How about you?!?

13 (1/2) months!

I  am so incredibly behind on blogging about our boys! Caleb is now 13 1/2 months old.  He has done a lot of changing in the past month and a half.  I will do my best not to ramble on, but I have a lot of milestones to remember!

Caleb, here are your milestones:

-You love to point at everything!

-You are the KING of jibber-jabber.  You have your own little language and you get your point across for sure!

-You are doing great at standing on your own and walking behind your motorcycle!  But WALKING: not yet.  Mommy is okay with that.  It keeps you a little baby for a "little" while longer.

-Food likes: strawberries, grapes, beans, EVERYTHING except what's below:

-Food dislikes: bananas, green beans, mac n' cheese

-You sleep 12 hours a night (7:30-7:30) give or take 30 min.

-You take 2 naps and still love them both!

-You blow kisses but use the back of your hand.

Vocabulary: You are repeating everything we say.  You have the same inflection in your voice and you are even saying two word phrases, they just might not come out exactly the same, but you for sure will try anything!

*Dy-dee (Dylan)

*tink-too (Thank you)

*wu-woo (Love you)

*See (and you point to what you want to see)

*Tee (tree)

*Dis (this)

*Da (that)

*uhh-uhh (woof-woof) and you use this for every animal sound

-You went to one year old Bible class for the first time! 11-25-12 You did great, but you do not care for the jumping little wind up toys.  You have to stick with the walking ones. :) Your favorite part of class is the cup of goldfish snacks at the end!

-You love to hand Mommy books to read.  You get up on your knees and hold those books out.  Sometimes, you will even crawl over with the book and turn around and sit down in my lap.  Melt. My. Heart. 

-Your favorite toy is Dylan's little Woody doll from Toy Story.  You love to hold him and you know how to pull the string in his back so he will talk.  

-You also love all the musical stuffed animals we have out for Christmas.
-You love to take your toy phone and hold it behind your head to say hello. You can also say *Hi!  You love to push Santa's hand to make him talk.  You also love the puppies in the present.  You will dance away to the puppies "barking" We Wish You a Merry Christmas. 

-You love to bop your head to music and stomp your foot.  The newest dance move is a side to side motion, almost like the twist.  It is too cute!

You are so much fun! You have a great personality, with a little bit of attitude on the side!  You love your brother so much and want to be right next to him.  You love for Mommy to hold you and cry when I put you down.  (Spoiled, maybe.) You light up when Daddy gets home from work, and cry if he doesn't pick you up IMMEDIATELY! We love you always!

What are you THANKFUL for?

We certainly have much to be thankful for this season.  

1. A Heavenly Father that can paint a pretty amazing masterpiece in your life if you let Him.

2. Two healthy, precious boys.

3. A husband that provides for our family and is the best daddy.

4. Family and friends full of love and support.

and our list could go on and on....

We did a "thankful" tree for the first time this year with Dylan (thanks, Pinterest) and he really enjoyed it.  Some mornings, he would remind me that it was time to do a thankful leaf!  Mission.  Accomplished. 

We also made some pretty awesome turkey cookies (again-Thanks, Pinterest).  He loved eating, putting all of the candy corn on the cookies for feathers.  They were a hit at Thanksgiving lunch and actually tasted great!

This was our year to be with my Mom and Dad and her family in Amagon, Arkansas.  Caleb took a header into the coffee table before we left home.  Big.  Ole.  Shiner.  Learning balance is a tough job!  He enjoyed the car ride because I sat in between the seats and fed him blueberry puffs! He did take a little moment to call his friends on the phone! And what would you do without a DVD player?!? Dylan enjoyed watching The Berenstein Bears on our little road trip.

It was so wonderful for Dylan to get to play with cousins that he sees every other year!  Jayden and Keagan are "all boy" just like Dylan.  I know if they lived closer, it would be mud pies and black eyes for sure! We attempted some posed shots, but that didn't work out so well! The picture is a little small, but Zoe has the most awesome little girl curls!  She is a doll!  And Miss Cali, well, her big brown eyes just make you smile!  She and big brother Jayden are moving to Hawaii while their Daddy is stationed there.  Thinking, vacation?!?

We ate some amazing food!  My Aunt Vernadene makes THE BEST turkey dressing on the planet.  It has the PERFECT amount of each seasoning.  Most dressings tend to be heavy on the sage.  Not hers, I had a few servings.  I enjoyed catching up with all the "girl" cousins.  Caleb enjoyed a nice nap after lunch.  The guys enjoyed chatting ducks and electricity.  Our family motto ;)  And my sweet Dylan could NOT stop eating.  This plate of BBQ potato chips was after a plateful of "real" food and two servings of dessert.  He then went back for another plate of chips and a cookie before we left. Geez!

 Jayden and Dylan being BOYZ and checking out each piece of equipment at Uncle Wayne's farm!

Here are the little boy cousins enjoying a ride in the Kubota.  

 Caleb, Dylan, and cousin Westen enjoyed watching the horses and cows in the pasture. 

 Cauy got to ride on a horse earlier in the day.  He really had a way with them.  We had a wonderful day.  My mom counted around 80 family members there for lunch.  What a heritage!  Going to the part of the country where my mom grew up allows me to slow down.  Seeing the fields, the horses, the wide open spaces really allows you to appreciate God's wonders.  It allows ME to relax and enjoy a slower pace.  I am thankful that my boys are experiencing it as well.  

 Who loves Pop? My boys! Dylan calls him Poppy these days and now when we walk in their house, Caleb points and reaches for him, too! What can I say, he is the best Dad and the best Poppy!

 The best we could get of the family of four! Thankful, thankful, thankful.