Christmas Day 2011

first of all, i LOVE being santa! it is so much better to see Christmas through your child's eyes. lawton still gets excited when he comes down in the morning and after his nap to see all of his new toys. now, our christmas day started of....ummm,okay.

lawton woke up crying and begging for orange juice. so, i tried to wake up jack (who was up with my brother until 2:30am) and that was a bit hard. keeping lawton from screaming his head off was hard too. trying to fix some juice and turn on the tree before him coming down, just didn't happen. even waking up my brother didn't happen. how come every other morning i can go down by myself, make breakfast and THEN go get lawton but not the morning i reeeeally want to? TYPICAL.

anyway, once seeing his loot, tears were replaced by a huge smile and he was in heaven. cue trent, orange juice and tree lighting.

one of my many gifts from jack that was taped. did he think the box would pop open or something? jeez!

little artist!

after that we drove over to pap and sus' for more presents and egg and sausage casserole and monkey bread that was to die for. i had two helpings. of each. forgot my camera!!

then, on to fayetteville to see the hall/brown families! this is lawton and his "mom" for 2 days. he wouldn't let me hold him, feed him, etc. it had to be emily. fine by me!

new Cars tent from uncle carl!

having fun with emily at lunch

showing off his dunking and shooting abilities. what is it about boys and their sports and guns??

such a great chrsitmas with family

but boy are we pooped!

back to our schedule please!!!!!!!!!

Christmas Eve 2011

This was a wonderful Christmas! A little too fast and warm for me, but it was wonderful. Where was the snow like last year?

Christmas Eve we had our annual brunch with the Oxendines at Eddies, good friends came over and then off to the Hawthorne Christmas Eve party!

Col Col got into the spirit too ;-)
chay chay (aka karen), mom and riley

the boys minus mark (we missed you!)

jack, law, dad and trent

lawton wishes he had gone home with pap and sus...BUT, we had guests coming!

my great friend courtney had cannon almost 8 months ago and i have yet to meet him. they live in atlanta, so we don't get to see one another often. i fell in LOVE! i totally forget this age and it was so much fun to see hime. he is so cute and happy and i was so glad to catch up with court and chris, it made my day!

sweet cannon

all cannon wanted to do was crawl up to lawton who kept scooting back and taking his puzzle with him saying "no baby! no baby!"

finally he warmed up to "the baby" and shared his ball. score.

after they left we went to my parents house before the Hawthorne party where lawton and trent did a little reading before heading out

he insisted on wearing his pajamas and they weren't even christmas related. FAIL.

christmas to come.....

Lawton: 3 - Santa: 0

we saw Santa 3 times this weekend. didn't sit in his lap once. lawton waved bye bye, but that is about it. i am having a hard time with this...should i subject him to sitting in santa's lap even though he is petrified?? i do need a picture....maybe later this week or next...i need some courage and some extra energy! anyone want to come with?

this weekend was very busy and full of holiday spirit!

friday we kicked it off with a party at noah's art and my gym with the whites and culps

here comes santa..those eyes got huge! he says " ho ho! NO, ho ho. BYE BYE ho ho!"leighton, the back of court's head and lawton

this guy tripped me out. great costume.

oh wait, katherine has a phone call...

okay, just the hubby ;) back to the kiddos ;-)
baaahhhaaa!!

making christmas bookmarks with court, tyler and harper

after that, we went over to see BG and have some dinner while mommies had some yummy champagne! here is PROOF about those greenbeans! thanks libby for feeding lawton!

saturday we attempted the mall to see santa and once we got in line, we got right out of line. i am starting to think that people who went right after thanksgiving to see him aren't crazy after all. if you waited in that line, YOU are the crazy ones. my fanny will be there bright and early 24th...well, maybe

sunday we celebrated Van's 2nd birthday with a panthers themed party no clue if they won or not and don't care. what? i still love NC

and then onto the white's annual Christmas Cookie party. we saw santa there again and got to the door of the room he was in and that was it. "bye bye ho ho, bye byeeeeee!"

cookie monster

merry! merry!

22 months

22 months and what you are doing right now:

• 
  
  you are a very good listener. you do as you are told and don't really put up much of a fight


• 
  
  you are no calling me "mommy" and not "mama" so much. so stinkin sweet!


• 
  
  you have learned to say "i scared". where did you hear this? do you want to see santa? "i scared", ready for bed? "i scared"...don't really know how to handle this one. we did get a night light that you love, so that is better at least!


• 
  
  still in obsessed with mickey mouse and know exactly how to get to it on the ipad


• 
  
  you are a sweet boy....you don't shove, fight, bite, slap, etc. you do get territorial with toys but that is it!


• 
  
  you give great open armed bear hugs and have learned to make the kissing sound when giving out kisses!


• 
  
  your vocabulary amazes me everyday! i just can't get over how much you know and soak in everyday....it truly makes me in awe!


• 
  
  not interested in much food right now except fruit and any "snack"


• 
  
  you are stubborn like your daddy! you have to wear certain pajamas and will NOT let me pick them out. same with your shoes. oh, and you REFUSE to wear socks.


• 
  
  you have the smelliest feet ever.


• 
  
  loves stickers, drawing, etc. i actually walked in on you yesterday drawing on the carpet. awesome.


• 
  
  you love to naked dance. every night after your bath, you run in my room and gallop around slapping your thighs. bet it feels good to hang loose!


• 
  
  you now have opinions about the songs i play in the car. "next song!!" " again!!!" well, at least i had 22 months to listen to what I wanted.


• 
  
  you say NO a LOT. when you don't want something or to go somewhere, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! that is how long the word is said


• 
  
  i have to bribe you to go places in the afternoon and the bribe is to mostly go see Pap and when we don't go see him, you don't forget and scream his name


• 
  
  ate greenbeans for the first time this friday night at the barksdales. its a christmas miracle!! a vegetable!!!


• 
  
  you looooove your colbie. she is the first thing you ask for every morning.


• 
  
  you are still throwing balls with mostly your left arm, but so some with your right...who knows what will be your dominant hand?


• 
  
  you hate taking pictures. won't sit still, won't look at the camera. whose child are you? ;)


• 
  
  you want to do everything "myself" now. walking, getting into the car seat, washing yourself, my boy is growing up!

Santa Baby

who wants to potty train when they keep coming out with diapers like this??

this mama is thoroughly entertained changing diapers this month ;-)

jump for Christmas Joy!

fro curls+too much gin and juice = awesome expression gin being fruit punch

Decorating the Tree!

sunday morning was lazy. and when i mean lazy, lawton didn't get out of his pajamas until after his afternoon nap. bliss! it was so much fun to decorate the tree this year, he was really into it, although he did keep taking every ball ornament off the tree and into his truck to zoom around the room a few times. i am pretty sure everytime i put them back up, they came off.

so what, who cares? joy behar voice

yes, mixed up pajamas. HAS to have cars on at some end. so high maintenance.
can you tell i keep a clean house? ;)

all done! i think this is my favorite tree that we have ever had for many reasons...

• first and foremost, it was free!! holla! (having a tree lot on my aunt's property and a cute kid that may or may not have winked at the guy help),


• second, we moved it into the living room (thanks mom) instead of the dining room even though the room is SUPER small now, but we can really enjoy it.


• this sweet little blonde boy helped decorate and just oohed and ahhed at every ornament we pulled out to put on the tree...seeing all this through a childs eye is priceless


• every singe ornament on the tree has a meaning for us. jack and i started collecting ornaments when we were dating and got one everywhere we went and continue to do that. that cardinal in the picture above is a gift from my mom to remind us of my sweet aunt faye who loved cardinals. front and center in honor of her.

we are really getting hyped for Christmas around here! i love having the tree lit and might even keep the tree until March like Jack did the year we were dating. no for real, he kept his up until march. can we talk about fire hazard?! let's not even go to when my brother got rid of his....let's just say it was so so far after chrsitmas that he kept it even longer because he was embarrassed to put it on the street for the garbage men to pick up and for people to see. what is it about men? what would they do without us?? ;-)

Friends

i have been thinking a lot about my friends this weekend. i have been very emotional as well. see, one of my oldest friend's mother passed away this week. sadly, i had not seen her in years, but it brought up so many childhood memories for me. kathy was a selfless person. someone who you wanted to be around. someone who did so much to help others. i really loved her... i usually have a hard time remembering things from the past, but these memories with these specific girls and their moms remain etched in me. it made me think of what a lucky little girl i was and what a lucky woman i am today. i cherish every friendship that i have and know how lucky i am to have them. this weekend was a weekend spent with old and new friends... a beautiful thing.

jack and i started our december/holiday season with the Levells seeing the transiberian orchestra...youtube them, they are the bomb!!!!!! so much fun!

jay and jack got a little upset at us because we talked a lot through the show...hey, we had to catch up! then on to the ritz because the boys always have to have "one more drink"

lovebirds ;-)

saturday morning we met the barksdales for breakfast and to pick out our tree!

lots to choose from

lawton and betsy grace having fun!

family photo sunisalittlebrightmama

friends!

my boys carrying in the tree

after this i went to the funeral. i came home exhausted and eyes burning. last thing i wanted to do was go out. BUT we were seeing best friends. our supper club. so, i rallyed and you know what? it was JUST what i needed. i haven't laughed that hard in weeks. brooks made so much fun of me at one part of the night about my "quirks" it was hysterical that i thought, do you have a camera at my house? but she just knows me that well. this group has the best time together and i got home and just reflected about my friends that i spent the day with. LUCKY is what i am.

and you know who else is lucky?

ian.

lucky that i haven't put this on facebook...yet

big boy lunch date

natalie is one of my oldest friends. we took ballet together when were 4 and then met again years later in school. natalie and i were due one day apart...both with boys! we talked every.single.day of our pregnancies. she lives in charleston and so, we don't get to see each other that often. she is in town this week and i am so glad it worked out that we could have lunch! the boys enjoyed it as well...

i told nat that sterling needs to start gym classes! boy likes to climb! ;0

can't believe these cuties will be 2 in just a few months! move back natalie!!!!!!! ;-)