Blessings and AMEN

Little man is so hilarious these days.....last night at a restaurant before we even got our water he reached out to hold our hands for the blessing and exclaimed loudly "amen" to everyone within a 10 ft radius. It was quite adorable. He tells the dogs ....."dood doddy", "bad dirl" and so on when they get in trouble. He really is the sweetest boy with his thank you and please .....he says it so sweet. Then he says "no" pretty sweet and yesterday we had a battle of wills over picking up toys and it lasted a good while. Finally he picked up the toys and said sorry mommy....at which time I gave him a high five.
Baby girl is doing fine and moving a lot. Still hard to feel her much on the outside but that's coming. I have another ultrasound soon and will confirm the girl parts hopefully and get a good shot of my kid without her arms in front of her face. Little man can say baby sister now so that is fun to hear and I suppose if it's a boy we have time to switch to baby brother. Right now he can point to my belly and say baby sister! So sweet! Oh, please let my next child be as sweet as Little man.
Daddy is working hard and I am busy with my new camera and keeping up with housework. Keep us in your prayers right now as things are stressful at work!
I will post some new pics soon of Little Man .......

The Lilliputians have taken over.....

or so BT thought......now you people out there who have read and remember Gulliver's Travels correct me if I am wrong.......but I think the Lilliputians were the little people who tied him down .....either way .....this AM little man tried to tie BT down with string just like the lilliputians. It was hilarious. As I checked my email they sat next to me and when I happened to look down poor BT was wrapped in string or thread really from a bobbin. It was hilarious!

On a different note we had an ultrasound yesterday and it appears we are having a baby girl. Not sure how to process that info because I only know boys. Girl names will be a little tougher since Daddy likes none of my names. We'll see....

Christmas has come and gone.......

Not happy with Santa
Mommy and me Christmas Eve
Fox in Socks, you say??
My new wheels, daddy give me a push.....

and I find myself longing for more, more. It went entirely too fast this year. Little man racked up and got many gifts and clothes.....thanks everyone. He was fascinated most of all with watching himself in our new camcorder and saying his name over and over. Mommy got a new camera to take more pictures of our growing family and it's very interesting learning all of this photography stuff. When I have time I am researching and piecing together info on what this mammoth of a camera is capable of.

We had a low key Christmas eve and went to candlelight services at church and home to open 1 present. Mommy and DAddy got up early Christmas morning to get the setting and ambience ready for little man's first Christmas (memorable at least maybe) experience. Then day after Christmas we had visitors......yeah! Daddy's parents came into town and we had a blast watching little man and listening to him learn new words and get pushed on his new tricycle. Although we only had one day of sunshine while they were here we had fun and daddy and I (as well as our furry friends) were glad to see the sunshine since it had been several weeks.

He is saying sentences now although we don't always understand them......my favorite new things are the noise a rooster makes, tilting his head and saying "awwww" when he sees something cute and pointing to my belly and saying "no baby"......then pointing to himself and saying "baby"......that should be fun when the new baby gets here. He is sitting in a big boy chair now at the table with us and drinking from big boy cups. Do you sense a theme here? Yes, everything has to be big boy this or that. I know daddy's parents think I am crazy b/c all I say is he's so cute. ......didn't know I could fall this in love with the little guy.

For New Year's we ate pizza and watched the AU game....WAR EAGLE at least they won in overtime which made for a much more pleasant evening in our house.

I am growing at warp speed and maybe I will post a picture ......maybe :) This one not as active as little man was at this time frame but that could be a good thing. We are anticipating the big ultrasound next week and hoping the baby cooperates and we find out the sex. We are working on names.....believe me it's a work in progress. We don't agree on much.......wait , if you know us we don't agree on much at all so that's not a shocker :0 Anyway, enjoy the new pics of little man and our Christmas adventures.

Cheeeeese

The new face we are making for picture taking-cheeese

Cheeeeese

Buddy.....

"Daddy"?

"Yes, buddy?"

"Buddy, buddy, buddy"

--------------------------Next time he calls daddy:

"Buddy?, Buddy?"

----------------------------

Now, I am a little partial but this could be the cutest thing ever.......hearing my son go around and call his daddy buddy. Ready to go, buddy?....Buddy, do!! It's so cute!!! It's so amazing he picks up on that stuff so quickly. He is full on talking and saying sentences.....mind you we only understand half of the sentences but get the idea what he is talking about most of the time.



We put up and decorated the Griswold family Christmas tree this weekend....It seriously is a monster. Every year daddy lets me pick a big tree because I love a big tree. For three years we had dinky spanish trees or no tree at all so I am having fun getting huge trees. This year let's just say I went a little overboard.....Daddy turned down the first 4 trees I suggested and now I know why. I have no ability to relate how big these things are when they are standing next to each other......so after little man chased the puppies at the tree farm and we took pics on the sleigh we picked a tree..not sure why I couldn't see this when the tree was next to daddy and much taller but hey it was getting dark and I was hungry and pregnant in my defense. So, we got the tree and somehow got it out of the car......correction.....daddy got it out of the truck from where it was poking out the back end. Then after hacking away at the bottom in the freezing cold the sweet husband I have discovers I have picked such a big tree that it is bending the tree stand. That's right! So , next morning he gets a new tree stand for "up to a 10' tree" ---which by no means does this mean I can ever have a 10 foot tree, unless of course we move to the white house :) Anyway, it finally comes in and we have the cutting of the netting fully expecting to blow out a few windows and a squirrel to come popping out at us a la Clark Griswold, thankfully that didn't happen but it was a beast to get decorated and we barely had enough ornaments to cover the three sides that are showing and we have A LOT of ornaments. So, we are enjoying the "dree" as little man says and have discovered it is almost 9' tall. A little ridiculous I know but I was blinded by hunger and darkness :)
Needleess to say my tree privileges have been revoked in the years to come......

December is almost here......

The little lemon to the left (yes, I know it's upside down) and remembering this time last year w/ Little man

I love Christmas....everything about it.....the hustle and bustle of the shopping, the lights, smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree, eggnog....pretty much all of it. I am looking forward to little man's reaction to all things Christmas this year. Daddy already hung our lights outside and we had a dramatic plugging in of the cord at sunset a la Clark Griswold although thankfully there were no damaged Santas and Reindeer as a result nor was cousin Eddie in the driveway as a surprise either ;)

It's such a special time of year to be with the ones you love and share all those fun traditions but with it can come such stress. I look around and see all my friends leaving to go home to family and how stressed they are about upheaving the kids and how exhausted they will be running around to see everyone.....it's sad but true. Every magazine you pick up has tips on how to keep all the family happy at Christmas and I think , what has this come to? It makes me sad to see people so stressed out to go home and see family for Christmas but I can say I truly understand how they feel about it.....pulled in 50 million directions.....EXHAUSTED........kids are cranky and out of their element not to mention all these new people......did I mention Exhausted? It is great and wonderful and I know everyone means well but it's sad when people are having anxiety attacks over going home.....I have had a few myself I must admit. Logistically trying to work the schedule is a nightmare and you can always count on getting sick after flying so pad time in there for that. I figure this is my blog and I can talk about what I wanted to talk about today and it's the Christmas good times and the stress......it just is sad that people can't be excited about going home and sharing the holidays with their loved ones. I can remember as a kid being pulled in 50 directions and feeling that pressure as a kid......little man and baby will not feel that if I can help it.

Okay , I am off my soap box and on to talk about more funny things ......

like the fact that he says "booty"...Mommy messed up and said sit on your booty and now it's his favorite word and is saying it everywhere, doctor's office, grocery store.

He helped me make oatmeal cookies tonight and I could only think of this picture of Daddy when he was little helping his mama on a chair make cookies or a cake and it's too cute. He loves to help me measure and sort out the ingredients and then to taste as it goes along. I am not sure how butter and sugar mixed together taste but to him it was pretty tasty. He climbs up in his chair to help and says "I big boy" in the big boy chair. Last night I started crying after kissing him goodnight because he looked up and said love you mommy......man how I love that child. My grandma keeps telling me I will never have another one this sweet and maybe she's right but I'd like to think it's my wonderful childrearing ;) that made little man this way so maybe baby 2 will be this way too. Speaking of Baby 2 I felt it move..... a little flutter in my belly when I settle down at night and since this is old hat I know what I am feeling this time and it's not hunger pains or other issues we won't discuss. It's exciting to think Daddy will be home this time to feel the first kicks .....he had to wait several weeks before he felt it for the first time last pregnancy b/c he was gone so we are thankful for that little blessing. AND......Beau did have cancer but it was same as last time and we caught it and will be on the look out for more.....another blessing and prayer answered. BT's scare was a reaction to penicillin injection and has gone away so "it's not a tumor" in my best Schwarzanegger voice. Anyway, happy holidays to all.....don't stress too much and take some time for yourself and to remember what it's all really about anyway.....and it's not us :)