This year we spent Christmas Day over at my brother’s house. Thursday night we had gone over to Kevin’s mom’s house to celebrate. We didn’t get to celebrate with his sister as they have a sweet brand new baby and aren’t quite at the traveling stage, yet. We had a great day at my brother’s. Every year it cracks me up to see the mass of gifts we exchange. And funnier that we don’t all buy for each other. Goodness!
Hat and scarf ladies! 
The entire Christmas season is just so much more fun with a 2 year old! His enthusiasm is honestly infectious! Looking at Christmas lights with this kiddo is heart warming. He gets so excited! He was so proud of the lights on our house, too. He loved singing Jingle Bells and to hear it will melt your heart. He loved our Christmas tree. I have a plate & towel in the kitchen that say Happy Birthday Jesus! He knows that’s what they say and when he would see it, he would yell – Happy Birthday Jesus! So sweet. We do Santa at our house. While we don’t want it to be the focus, it is a fun tradition! Instead of wrapping up gifts from us, we just put them all out from “Santa.” He doesn’t know the difference.
Here he is with the milk and cookies he put out for Santa. He loaded him up with cookies! He looks like he’s in pain, but this is a weaker version of his cheese face.
I just love this little outfit on Will. It was his official Christmas outfit! Thank you Ally for the cute sweater – so appropriate and perfect! This little boy has suddenly become a ham. I don’t know where it came from. Over the last month he’s finally decided to cheese it up for the camera. And I love it!! Here he is at G.J. & Neille’s house.
We took the boys to the Trains at NorthPark last week. As we expected, they loved it! Dylan had been before but this was Will’s first visit. He is obsessed with trains right now, so this was an absolute blast for him! They couldn’t get enough! Dylan was so sweet and kept showing Will different trains. Fun, fun times!
Will had a Christmas program at his school and sadly, I missed it! I was out of town for work but daddy, Mimi, G.J., Neille, Ally, & Bobby were all in attendance. He was well represented! If you’ll recall, he cried the entire way through his grandparents program. This time – no crying!! Progress! He didn’t sing a single word. But hey, he stood there and looked adorable. :) Below he is the 5th kid from the left on the front row.
They did jingle bells and below he is messing with this bells. He kept dropping them and picking them up. Cute boy.
Will and I made Christmas cookies a few weeks ago. And yes, we were still in our pj’s! It was my day off and we weren’t going anywhere, so we didn’t feel the need to get dressed up! Will loves to help these days. He will “help” us do all sorts of things! He is so sweet and so proud of himself when he does. He was very into the cookie business!
I had to post this picture to redeem my sweet boy from the melt down picture I posted earlier. This is one of the first pictures we took and he was picture perfect! Clearly, it didn't last long, so I am so glad we got this one! It was a gift for my mom, so I had to keep it under wraps until after Christmas. Just wanted to show you that Will did give us a good pic. Just one - but that's all we needed! :) How handsome are these 3 boys? Cousin fun!!
I have to capture this one on the blog. This is pricless. When it was happening, I was pretty annoyed and embarrassed. Now, I think it rocks. We tried to take a cousins pic with a photographer - so you know - we paid money for it. I am not sure why I thought my child would be interested in doing this. He's not always the easiest going kid and only likes to do things when it is his idea (not sure where he got that trait...oh yeah, that would be me). This was about 5 min into the session! Yep - that's him. Face down on the ground...crying. There actually was one good pic taken at the very beginning. I'll post it after Christmas so you can see is he a sweet, adorable 2 year old at times! (Actually, he's sweet most of the time!). I really am planning to frame this one. It beautifully captures the trials of being 2. The greatness of this pic is Dylan's cheesy smile in the background. It is clearly forced and you can just know what he's thinking - I'm still smiling like I'm supposed to! :) Sweet Dylan.
I never posted this. Here is his school picture this year. It isn't a very good scan for some reason, so please excuse. This makes me laugh. He's got that serious grin. It is a very Will pic!
Well, he still wasn't a fan this year! They took Santa pics at Will's school and I was excited because I really thought that if he saw his friends sitting in the old guy's lap that he wouldn't be as unsure. Nope! :) Maybe next year!Well, it looks like my blog fairy took the month of November off. What is up with that? She’s falling down on her job, so I guess I’ll have to get to work myself. No, I don’t have a blog fairy, but it appears I need one! I’m so, so far behind! I missed Halloween, but I will do some back blogging….soon.
I did want to pose this precious pic of my cutie patootie. He brought this home from school. How did they get him to take such a cute pic? I’m jealous! What has this tooter been up to? Well, he’s been pretty sweet the last few weeks, which has been a blessing. For a few weeks he was a bit of a handful. We’re working through it together. He is very opinionated. He now likes to pick things out. We always let him pick out his pj’s because well, that’s an easy one. It is a little harder when he wants to pick out his regular clothes. I didn’t realize this would start so soon! He is saying some of the funniest things. He seems to answer everything…yeah…ok. Not sure why he doesn’t just say yes! When you ask him if he’s okay, he says….yeah…I’m ok. Makes me laugh. He’s a mess. A sweet mess.
Well, you know we’re still alive and well. Maybe one day I’ll get caught up and back on track. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying the Christmas spirit!
Here we are with our neighborhood friends that we love! Ms. Paula and Bryce!
Before the trick or treating the kids all played and Will zeroed in on a ball and held on tight - surprising, right? :)
The actual trick or treating itself - was a blast! I wish I had video of it. Will was so well behaved the whole time and was so sweet! His sweet little voice when he would say trick or treat and thank you was so cute! I loved every minute of it! We just went back down our street home from the party, but it was such a fun memory. Sweet boy loved it! As I’ve said before – I love fall! There’s so much to love about it. I’m working less, the smells, football, the weather, AND fall festivities! Saturday we had a fun day. We started off at a classmate’s birthday party (where Will rocked the massive blow up slide & bounce house). Then we went to a fall festival at the school Will will attend one day and then a hockey game! Here is a cute pic of my cute little man! He is in the petting zoo section.
