Merry Christmas!!!

We all had a wonderful time up in New York celebrating Christmas with the family!  We left bright and early Saturday morning and made our way to Castile.  Chris flew in from Guam Sunday afternoon, so that evening we were all home, celebrating Christmas together, exchanging gifts.  It was a short trip this year since Mark just started his new job and had no vacation time to use.  Luckily he had both Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day off!!  Monday morning we got up, and made our way to Buffalo.  Did our usual Christmas Eve traditions - 4:00 Church which both boys behaved themselves...A wonderful Christmas Eve dinner...and exchanging of Christmas Gifts.  Jim was into Christmas a little more this year, he had fun putting out cookies and milk for Santa.  And then in the morning Mark told him he had to wake up to see if Santa came, which Jim was pretty excited about!!!  Christmas morning was great, presents and a great breakfast.  And before we knew it, it was time to load up and get on the road to head home.  Both boys made out with presents this year - many thanks to everyone for everything!!!  That's a quick synopsis, and I will leave you with pictures!!  (As usual, there are lots!!!)

Cute picture of Ben standing...

Jim getting ready to go out in the snow!!!!

Jim helping shovel the snow...

Play Dough with Nanny!

Opening presents...

Checking out all their wonderful gifts!

Jim helping Mark open up presents...

Playing with new toys!

How cute is this?!  Jim put his arm around Allison - best buds!

Not sure who has the biggest smile - love it!

Jim is pretty lucky!!!!!!

He loves it!!!!

I'd have to say this is a pretty good shot - Everyone's looking and happy!  We missed Rob, Jenna, and Blake!

Grandma & Ben -

Me & my boys.  (We also used Mom's camera when we were home - I think that one has a shot of Mark, me, and both boys...)

Just hanging out.

The boys Christmas morning.  I've given up on getting a picture of both of them looking at the camera...

Present time!

Merry Christmas all!!!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!!

Jim has had a lot of fun with Christmas stuff this year - and of course, so have I!!!!  Here are a bunch of pictures from yesterday's sugar cookie baking & decorating...

Yesterday AM we made sugar cookies...Jim loves to help get all the ingredients together, and then watch the mixer go around and around and around...

Here he is waiting patiently.  I would roll the dough into a ball, and then he would press it down -

Look at how handsome he is in his Christmas tie -

After nap time we got to frost and decorate the cookies.  Jim was super excited about this!!!

Such concentration -

Haha!  Can you find the cookie?!?!  Just a little bit of frosting and sprinkles on this one...

Now he has to test a cookie out.  He ate it all, so I think he approves!

Jim did a great job!!!!

Playing Catch-Up

It's been awhile since I last updated this (with the exception of Ben's 9 month post...)  So here are a bunch of pictures from the past month...

Jim was very excited to help 'make' our Christmas tree this year...He helped put all the branches together, and every time he put another branch in he said he was 'making our Christmas tree'.  Ben have fun watching us!

Here he is trying to put his car into the tree - he wanted his tree to be just like Grandma's.  The car was a little too big for our tree though...

Here he is helping with all the ornaments -

Ben isn't too happy that we had to put the baby gate up.  He wanted to be able to go up the stairs!!!

This picture cracks me up...we got home from a play date one day, and Ben was asleep, so I let Jim play outside for awhile.  Jim wasn't ready to go in when Ben woke up so I let Ben stay outside too.  He sat on the sidewalk for awhile, but then he decided he wanted to crawl...not the best idea when the ground was damp in some spots.  Poor guy got all wet and muddy!!!

A happy Ben in the morning enjoying his big boy breakfast!

Jim being cute one morning.  Thank you St. Nick for the puppies - he loves them!

My 2 handsome boys!!!  Love them!!!!

Jim & Mark having a lunch break...

Don't worry - the bottle was empty!!!!

Trying to get a picture of the 2 of them in front of the tree....It's a hard task!!!!

Just a cute picture of Ben -

Happy 9 Months Ben

It's hard to believe in 3 months Ben will be the big ONE!!  It's amazing how fast time flies!!  Ben learned how to do lots of things this month...

What Ben is up to at 9 Months:

- He's full out crawling now - not just the army crawl, but on his hands and knees.  It's amazing how each day he gets a little faster and faster!

- He's pulling up on everything.  He's much happier if he's standing up!  His crib is now lowered all the way down because of that...

- He cruises all over the place.  He thinks he can stand by himself, but that doesn't work out too well for him.    He'll be walking before we know it!

- He's going from laying to sitting to standing...and from standing to sitting...he's moving all over the place!!

- He knows how to use the stairs.  I was in the kitchen one morning getting breakfast ready, and I come back to the family room and Ben is a couple stairs on his way upstairs.  Had to put the baby gates back up!

- He's done with baby food - much happier if he's eating real food.

- He's a great eater.  He's still nursing - 5 times a day, and eats a breakfast, lunch, and dinner...loves bananas and clementines...green beans...waffles...cereal...yogurt...you name it, he pretty much eats it!

- Still a great sleeper - he goes down around 9:00...and then gets up around 4:30-5:30ish to eat, and then falls back asleep until 8:00 or so.

- He's into size 4 diapers...

- I've been getting out more 12 month clothes for him.

- Doesn't have his 9 month check-up until the beginning of the New Year, so I'll have to update his stats then. Thinking his 21 pounds or so...

- And as usual, here are his 9 month pictures which are getting harder and harder to take!

Our Thanksgiving

Last week we were up in New York for the week.  We left bright and early Saturday morning to head to Buffalo.  Poor Jim did not do well in the car, 2 hours into the trip he got sick.  Seeing him get car sick is no fun at all. We ended up giving him some children's dramamine which helped him not to get sick again.  It did make him drowsy and out of it, but I guess that's better than him getting sick several more times.  

We had a great time in Buffalo hanging out with everyone!  Ended up having a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, which was very yummy!  Took the boys to go see Santa on Tuesday - Jim went up to him and started to talk to him, but did not want to sit on his lap.  We got Ben to sit on his lap, but after a couple of looks he started to cry.  So a Santa picture with the 2 boys was no successful, but we did get one with the boys + their aunts & mom!  

We made our way up to Castile later Tuesday afternoon, and had a great time hanging out there as well!  We had a great Thanksgiving visiting with everyone.  One afternoon we went down the road to check out a train set-up that one of their friends had in their basement - and Jim loved that!!  He also enjoyed a couple of tractor rides around the neighborhood.    

And then on Saturday AM, we made our way to Pittsburgh.  We got to meet Blake!!!  And visit with Rob & Jenna.

My camera battery was low, and I forgot to bring my charger home with me, so I didn't use my camera as much as I have in the past.  A bunch of pictures were taken with Mom's camera.  

All in all it was a great Thanksgiving break!!  Even though we weren't all together at the same time - it was great seeing the whole family!  

Ben's first Thanksgiving dinner!

Jim gets a haircut - Thanks you Grandma!!!  He got to watch some Caillou and enjoy a sucker, the only way he would sit still to get it all done.  He looks so much older now...

Ben really wanted Jim's sucker - 

We attempted to get some Christmas photos of the boys - it's so hard to get them both to look happy and look at the camera...

Jim helping put a Santa hat on Ben - 

Tried to get a picture of the boys together on Thanksgiving - again impossible to get them to both look at me...

Turkey makes one little boy tired...his first Thanksgiving, and he's already claiming a spot on the couch for a nap!

Some playdough fun on Thanksgiving

Me & Blake - I am an AUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!  So excited to spoil my little nephew :)