Christmas 2010

This year we went to Livingston for Christmas to celebrate with Mimi, Papa Jud, Uncle Jason and Papa Jud's family.  The day after Christmas we went to College Station to spend the day with Mimi's family.  As always it was too short of a visit, but fun nonetheless.
Connor helped ice sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve and I'll have you know that Santa ate them!!  We had presents galore to open and in fact, Connor had so many that we left 5 gifts unopened for a later date (like 6 months from now for his birthday!!) 
Here is a slide show from our time together (the quality on some is bad):

When we returned home we noticed our lights on the outside were not on.  The outdoor timer had stopped working and I just figured, like our other timer, it got water down in it and stopped working.  Then last night Josh went to get something out of the freezer and noticed that the breaker had flipped thus our lights were not turned on.  Our freezer was also on that switch and we lost all of our food!!!!  That is where we kept all of our meat and ice cream.  :(  So we will be ordering pizza tonight instead of fixing the ribs I bought and froze before we left!

Pictures

More pictures from the past few days...

My best friend, LeAnn, gave me this toy when Connor was Reid's age.  It's still a favorite of Connor's and now Reid's too!!

This is a rocking horse, but Reid thinks it's like his jumperoo so he bounces on it until he loses his balance and falls off!

Connor is becoming so much more independent lately.  When he wakes up in the morning he goes into the kitchen, gets his yogurt, a spoon out of the drawer and sits in his seat to eat breakfast.  At 5:30am last Saturday I heard banging in the kitchen and here's what I found:

Reid has started crawling under and through the end tables...

Just like his brother used to do at this same age:

Getting into trouble!!

Connor loves trying to hold Reid.  Today I was watching them and Connor rolled Reid onto his lap, half of his body on, half off, and sang "Rock-a-bye Baby" to him!!

Santa Pics

Year 3 with Santa was a success!!  Connor is sooo into Christmas and Santa this year which makes it fun.  He keeps asking Santa for a horsey, some dirt and a tractor or dump truck to put the dirt in.  Good thing we already have a big sand box with lots of tractors and dump trucks already.  I'm not real sure about the horsey though...
It was next to impossible to get both boys to smile at the same time!  Connor would smile and Reid would stare up at Santa, then we'd get Reid to look and Connor would stop smiling. I finally just picked one where both kids were looking toward the camera!

We got to see Santa twice this year!

Stroll back through memory lane (notice the same Santa each year.  He must be the real one, right?!?)

2009 (18 months)

2008 (6 months)

And the Shepherd Steals the Show

Each year our church has a live nativity.  This year we were asked to be the Holy Family and were honored to do so, even though Baby Jesus weighs about 25+lbs.  Connor was a shepherd and as we were in the dressing room, he did not want to wear his costume and participate...until he saw the goats.  He quickly agreed to get dressed and the rest, oh my!  (This is probably one of those "you had to be there moments," but I swear if we had had a video camera we'd win America's Funniest Videos!)

So Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus begin the walk to the stable along with a very hyper and excited little shepherd.  Josh and I sit on a bale of hay and listen to the story being read.  Connor is running up to each goat putting his nose to theirs and talking to them.  It's nice and quiet and you hear a little voice saying "Hi goat! How are you goat?"  After talking to each and every goat, he decides they need to be fed.  Mind you, this is before any of the angels, kings or other shepherds have arrived so all eyes are on us, err him!  So he proceeds to pick hay and grass and attempt to feed them.  Then he'd stop and pet, talk, feed, etc. 

Then all of the angels, shepherds & kings arrive.  Each goat is leashed to a bale of hay and Connor decides to start chasing a goat!!  He and the goat are running around this bale of hay about 100 times, round and round while he is laughing so hard.  This is all taking place front and center, all spotlights on him.  The crowd is dying laughing.  Josh and I can't do much and are trying to stay serious but I start crying because I, too am laughing so hard. 

Afterwards people kept coming up to us telling us that was the funniest live nativity they have ever been to.  The narrator could barely be heard above all the laughter!  So needless to say, it was a performance we will never forget.  Oh and baby Jesus?  He sat quietly the whole time!