Christmas in Winston Salem

Before we get to wrapping up Christmas - I'll fill you in on Henry's 6 month stats.

Weight: 17 lbs 11.5 oz (44th percentile - can you believe it?!?!?!?)
Height: 27.75 inches (82nd percentile, I think, and quickly catching up with his brother)
Head: Not sure exactly (::cough cough 99th percentile cough cough::)

Seriously, what is up with our kids and their big ol noggins?? Henry wears 6 month clothes and has 12 month clothes he cannot wear because his head doesn't fit through. And seriously, some of them have extra snaps around the neck. John Dickson is quickly outgrowing his 4T-5T hat. THE CHILD IS TWO!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, but... John Dickson is in the 3 year old class at school now. How crazy is that?

Anyway, the pediatrician was really impressed with Henry's motor skills (the nurse asked if he was rolling both ways... um, yes, and also, he can cross a room in 4 seconds flat). She said he seems a tad behind on the verbal communication.

Hmm... I feel like I've heard that before somewhere...



And look at him now - ahem - he never stops talking.

But back to Christmas... We got to Winston Salem on a Thursday night, and I believe it was John Dickson who convinced everyone we should open presents that night. Things were kind of a whirlwind and I thought our camera was not there, but then we found it later, so we have a lot of video - not so many pictures.

I tried to capture a good picture of these munchkins, but its quite hard to do.

And Henry, he was so over it.







This one is my favorite. I feel like I have a lot of pictures of John Dickson and Ella exchanging these exact looks.



Anyway, everyone played with everyone else's toys. I tried on Jason's new clothes, Glen wore my new shoes, Adam organized his pockets with Cathy's purse organizer - things got crazy! But seriously, John Dickson got a gigundo firetruck that he later used to transport one of Ella's toys back to our house in his secret compartment. True story.

The next morning, Adam and I fixed breakfast. It was gross. We spent the remainder of the day making up for it with delicious food prepared by people other than ourselves. And then the next day we did the exact same thing. We went to a BBQ place for lunch where Ella impressed everybody, shooting mandarin oranges like oysters and eating approximately 5 plates of food for lunch. And then growling at the table next to us. It was hilarious.

Make it Stop!!

I know, Christmas has been over for a month, and I've just posted about 15 posts... all about Christmas. I suggest you minimize the blog for the next week or so and rejoin us when we are finally in 2011. In the meantime, I've still got 2 more Christmases to cover! First up: Christmas at Bobbie's.

We headed to Bobbie's house the day after Christmas to celebrate with Adam's extended family. There was more delicious food and more present opening and we had a great time seeing everybody. I think this was a first for us at Christmas - we always spend Christmas with family, but not usually with so many people at the same time. We had a lot of fun, but poor Henry was ignored the entire time...




Cant you tell?

Anyway, John Dickson was nearing his post-Christmas crash, but he managed to hold it together. Not hard when you get some awesome Elmo toys :-)



Ella just hung out:



Ba dum chee. Here all week people.

Maybe Ella just doesn't get my sense of humor. She looks a bit underwhelmed.



So I hate to ask people to pose for pictures, so I usually don't. But then later I find a camera full of pictures of people under 3 feet tall (No, not my extended family, my kids and my niece) and I realize I missed out on all the people I didnt want to make pose for my lens. I'm really gonna work on that...

Columbia Pt Last

A few more of my favorites:

John Dickson helping Daddy with his stocking



And who is that??? He sure seems to be on this blog a lot...



(Its my cute ol' Daddy)

Jared and Zo Zo



Merry 1st Christmas Hen!!!!

Columbia Pt II

Hen meets Great Grandpa Chuck



Hen with his sweet Great Grandpa Grandy



Me, my sister and my niece. You can't see her because she's not born yet. As John Dickson says, "Emma's gonna pop out of her belly."



And I love these - Nana with her babies

Christmas in Columbia

Get ready for a bunch of pictures, in no particular order. We spent Christmas Day at my parents house with Mom, Dad, Lauren, Jared, Uncle Mike, Aunt Marianne, Grandpa Chuck, Margaret, Mimi and Grandy. It was Hen's first time to meet his Great Grandpa Chuck and Margaret. My mom and dad fixed an excellent meal of ham, broccoli salad, mac & cheese, cranberry something or other, green beans and sweet potato casserole. John Dickson was a tad overstimulated and had a major meltdown when they tried to give him ::shock:: ice cream. "It's cold!!!!!! Warm it up!!!!!!!" It was one of the funnier tantrums he's ever thrown. Anyway, John Dickson had a blast playing Santa and passing out all of the presents. He even helped everyone open their presents :-)

Aunt Marianne, Mom and Mimi, in case you were wondering what I will look like in 30 and 54 years.



Nana and her Santa Jr.



Me and this guy.



Playing with his new tools from Mimi and Grandy. I think they did better than Santa Claus himself! John Dickson got a train, some cars and a tool kit. Henry got some fun blocks and a Buzz Lightyear outfit, and yes, Buzz's wings are popped out. Whatever, man.



Christmas is a lot to take in for such a little guy. How sweet is this baby??

Christmas Morning 2010

As you may know, when John Dickson goes to bed, we have to put a bungee cord on his door to keep him in there. Now, he doesn't try to come out anymore (for the most part), but that's because he hears the cord. If we don't put it on there, we find him in the living room playing with his cars... he's learned if he gets out not to seek us out. It just doesn't work to his advantage.

So on Christmas Eve, we reminded John Dickson that Santa was coming that night. Might I remind you that we saw Santa 4 times this year, and 4 out of 4 times John Dickson told Santa he wanted Buzz and Woody. You may also recall that Santa stood in line for 2.5 hours to land said Buzz. So we tell John Dickson Santa is coming, and he says:

"Yes! Santa gonna bring me train. BIG train."

Psssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhh. That was the sound of us deflating.

Me: Umm... did you tell Santa you wanted that?
John Dickson: No...

Thankfully that was the first, last and only comment he made about wanting a train.

John Dickson is a bit of a Toy Story freak, and all we could get him to say that he wanted were various Toy Story toys. So one night I asked him what he wanted...

John Dickson: Buzz and Woody
Me: What else do you want? Do you want anything besides Toy Story things?
John Dickson: Yes. I want a dog.
Me: You have 2 dogs. What else do you want?
John Dickson: A Barbie.

I had to remind him that Santa doesn't always bring us everything we ask for.

So all of this to tell you, we normally remove the bungee cord when we go to bed so that John Dickson can come find us in the middle of the night if he needs to or come in our room in the morning. We just knew we had better keep it on all night on Christmas Eve, or we'd wake up to the sounds of Buzz talking about his trillion carbonic alloy wings or Woody trying to find his hat. Sure enough, so I thought, I heard John Dickson crying at his door around 2am. I went to get him, but instead of wanting to see what Santa brought, he wanted to get in our bed. He woke up the next morning, and we actually had to remind the child it was Christmas. This is the child who never forgets ANYTHING, with the exception of the order of numbers. I was pretty shocked. So we actually had to convince him to go in the living room and see what Santa brought. John Dickson spotted Buzz and Woody, arms linked, sitting on the easy chair, but I think he was actually afraid to go get them.

He soon changed his mind.



"Oh! He's flying!!"



There is a certain tune that Buzz plays that makes John Dickson think Buzz is flying. Buzz flies all the time in our house, despite his wings not popping out. Which, by the way, not one day has gone by where John Dickson has not commented on the fact that Buzz's wings do not, in fact, pop out. I asked him if he'd rather have a Buzz who could move and talk or a Buzz whose wings popped out. He said a Buzz whose wings popped out. Man did we miss the mark on that one. We changed the batteries in Buzz's legs the other day and John Dickson begged us to put batteries in his back so his wings would pop out. Man, Santa... get it right next time, would ya?!?!?

This little dude had a good first Christmas!



Santa came to see him too!





The boys spent the better half of the morning playing with their new toys and then we made our way down to Columbia to celebrate with my family. To be continued...

Christmas Eve 2010

It's not even 7:00 and both of our kids are in bed. It has definitely been one of "those" days. Anyway, I believe these are the last of the catch up pictures - a few shots captured from our weekend with Nana and Grumps.

Grumps and, for the next 2.5 months or so, his youngest grandchild, enjoying a little pre-Hollywild dinner at Five Guys. When my dad and Adam get together, its hard to avoid the place...



Nana and Grumps with their babies




Henry taking his turn driving Grumps' truck at Hollywild. Notice the lights in the background...



(Note: The blog might be a little Grumps heavy for a while... someone has been a tad vocal about the lack of pictures of him on the blog...)

Whiiiiich brings us to Christmas Eve. The night before was when John Dickson and I tried to make cookies for Santa and it turned into John Dickson Choke Up Fest. So, we got up early that morning to finish the cookies. I learned the secret to making cookies that actually turn out in the shape of the cookie cutter - homemade dough. The Pillsbury stuff puffs up like no one's business. Santa had some yummy snowflakes, stockings and gingerbread men that were actually sugar cookie men. They were still a tad crispy, because, lets face it - even at my best, I still cant bake. Have I mentioned that before? That's ok - from what I hear, Santa isn't too picky, and this guy was excited:



We've decided next year we are going to just slice up the carrots and throw them onto the roof.

And of course, you know somebody had to do a little taste testing...



I had to work that afternoon and didn't make it back in time for the Christmas Eve service, so we skipped it this year. Both boys were a little under the weather that week anyway, so we kept Christmas Eve pretty low key. In fact, we ate Ramen for dinner. Hey, dont judge.

Local Breaking News

Henry is speed crawling and has a tooth. I'm pretty sure it was 10 days ago I reported he was still sporting a toothless grin. Sad day. Oh, and as of Wednesday, Henry is able to get to the sitting position all by himself. Next week he'll be driving.

My Beautiful Babies

I love these kids.

Catch Up Pictures

Here are the pictures that went with the post I did umm... like a month ago. Enjoy.

JD shooting birds, making his Grumps proud



EY Christmas party



Mommy/JD Day - Playing trains



Mommy/JD Day - Lunch at McAlisters



Mommy/JD Day - Putt putt

More Pre-Christmas

I stayed up late one night wrapping as many presents as I could. I knew John Dickson would be thrilled to see presents under the tree, and I thought it would add to his excitement. WRONG. I mean, don't get me wrong, he loved it, but he was borderline obsessed with opening his, which he immediately idenfied as his, since it was the biggest. Fortunately he was right. He did a lot of laying right in front of the tree and just staring at the presents:



A few days later, I came home from work and found this Christmas robot had moved in:



This was my Christmas present from Adam. It was how he wrapped my gift card. I loved it, and its things like that that make me love him more.

My favorite part of Christmas are these:





My mom cross stitched both of those. They took her about 8 months a piece, and to say I love them would be an understatement. I keep them, along with our photo albums and scrapbooks in the closet next to the front door. In case of a fire, after people and animals are out, those are the next to be rescued. (Of course, this is assuming the fire is considerate enough to start in the back of the house).

My parents have this angel on top of their tree that they got for their first Christmas. They paid less than a dollar for her, she is made of cardboard, felt and plastic, and she is gosh awful ugly. She has been on top of their tree since I was born, and I have been begging and patiently waiting for her to move to my house and live on top of my tree. They cant seem to find the perfect angel to replace her, which is amazing, because almost any angel would be a step up. I think thats part of why I love her so much. Next year I steal her. I don't have a picture, I just thought you should know.

And this is another favorite decoration of mine - its an ornament from Henry's teacher at daycare, who we love love love. I thought this was so sweet and such a great picture of Hen, I had to share!



Henry's godparents, Betsy and Brandon, gave the boys the most adorable bird ornaments for Christmas. My godmother always gave me an ornament every year for Christmas, and while I don't think its in the "godmother responsibilities" list, I thought it was so cool that they did the same for Henry (and John Dickson). I love ornaments anyway - we have a fairly decent collection and every ornament received since Adam and I got married is in a box labeled with whose it is, who it came from, what year, and why its significant. So, the boys got these birds in Columbia, and I was so worried about then getting messed up that I put them in a box with an outfit Henry got. I had to exchange the outfit for a bigger size, and when I went to the store (now in Greenville), I realized the birds were in the box. So I take the birds out and immediately put them in my glove compartment. A few days later, Adam gets something out of my glove compartment and tosses the birds on the seat. The next morning, I am getting ready to take the boys to daycare, and I am still concerned about the safety of these birds, so I take them out, put them on the hood of the car so I can buckle in the boys and run the birds inside...

I'm sure you see where this is going...

I drive off. Birds fly. Except that they cant fly. Its muddy. There's lots of traffic. They are small. I'm sure they are dead. I run through all the options in my head, including calling Betsy to find out where they are from and then replacing them. I decide its too late after Christmas and they are surely sold out. I know I'll hate myself if I dont turn around, so I do, drive all the way back to our house, turn around, drive off again, and I find them. On the side of the road. Clean. Alive. (Well, alive as an ornament can be). It was truly a Christmas miracle.

What is it with me and losing things on the side of the road???? In my defense, I always find them :-)

Decorating for Christmas

John Dickson had a BLAST decorating for Christmas. He was so excited to help with the lights, he could hardly stand it.



You can kind of sort of see here, there are two little trees and some hedges between them. John Dickson was on the step ladder and was trying to do the lights on the hedges. He leaned over to put the lights on and fell head first into the bushes. Like, head in bushes, body hanging out. Fortunately he was just fine and we were able to laugh. Hysterically. We still laugh about it.