Me & My Boys: 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Fun with Landon

Here is a video that I couldn't pass up in sharing - this was taken Christmas morning. You'd think Landon was a cat - but no, just an easily amused baby! I didn't start shooting the video until this was almost over, but still fun to watch.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Landon's Birthday!

I took Landon's birthday off of work and here is how the day went!

Woke up in a great mood and received a little love and affection from Zane:

He rode front-facing in his carseat:

We headed to McDonald's for lunch and Landon got his 1st Happy Meal (that he nicely shared with mommy):

After his nap - he rearranged a few things for me:

While Zane and Daddy were napping, he headed out to run a few errands with me:

After Zane and Daddy woke up, we headed out to Bison Creek Pizza for dinner - where Landon gobbled down his pizza like no one's business:

We headed back home and opened his gifts:

And then let him dive into his first cupcake:

And just like that folks, Landon is ONE!!

Happy Birthday Baby!!!

He's 1 Folks!

As cliche as it may sound I CANNOT believe my baby is 1! Its bittersweet that he's approached this little age milestone. Bitter because I know he is my last baby and I will never experience all of the "baby" stuff that happened this last year again, but sweet because he is thriving, growing and doing just what he is supposed too and that is something to celebrate! The first 6 mos of life with Landon I often wondered if we would both reach this milestone still in one piece, but he has become such a pleasure and joy to be around! I absolutely love the big smile he gets on his face the minute he sees me walk into a room and I even love the instant whining that follows if I don't pick him up within 10 seconds of walking into the room! I love that he tries to climb my leg when I'm cooking in the kitchen when he wants up. I love how he follows his big brother around and wants to terrorize him in everything he is doing! I love that he has no fear and will dive headfirst off of the changing table in a matter of milliseconds - thank you Lord for blessing me with quick relfexes on more than one occasion. I love that he will eat just about anything put in front of him. I love that he sleeps 10-12 hours straight, wakes up for quick drink of milk and then back down for another 2 hours. I love that he claps his cute little hands. I love that you can just say "Landon, can you say hi" that he will start waving his cute little hand like crazy! I love that he says "maaaama, mum" when he's crying because he's sad, hurt or upset. I love that he MUST have a Hotwheel car in each hand just about any minute of the day and the sound it makes on the hardwoods when he's crawling with said cars in his hands. I love that he puts his little forehead down to my mouth when he wants a kiss. I love that he makes Zane's world go round. I love that God chose him to be the precious angel to complete our family.

A couple things that I don't love so much (for documentation purposes) :)

Absolutely refuses to keep shoes or socks on his feet EVER - so annoyed with the old folks in the stores who make comments about how his feet must be so cold - if they only knew this is how he prefers life and I'm doing him a favor by not super-gluing them to his feet.
Refuses to hold his bottle, unless he's laid down flat on his back on the floor and I place his hands around the bottle and force him to do it.
Won't take more than two or three sips out of a sippy cup - while, again refusing to hold it. We are on brand #4 or 5 I think of those darn cups trying to find one he'll take. Not sure what to do...
He loves to throw his food onto the floor the minute he is done eating it - with absolutely no warning to me that he just might be finished.
He enjoys standing in the bathtub.
The fact you can actually see the joy and excitement on his face the moment he realizes his brother's door was left open and his lightening speed of getting in there and tearing apart the train table tracks before I could get to him.
The fact he loves to throw anything and everything - maybe he'll be our early retirement by being a big major league baseball star!
I also believe he knows my annoyance for having every bucket of toys in the living room dumped at the same time and then he just crawls away from his handy work and acts like nothing happened.

All of those things aside - I love this kid so much and very excited to see what the next year brings!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Afternoon/Evening!

We had Josh's parents, brother, grandma and my grandma over for brunch - yummy food for sure, but man its a lot of work to host a holiday! I'm trying to convince Josh to go away for Christmas next year, wouldn't it be fun to be on vacation on Christmas??! Ok, so that may not happen - but its fun to dream! We had great company, great food and great fun - what more could you ask for?

For the second year in a row Josh's dad stepped out without Zane noticing and came back in dressed as Santa and for the 2nd year, Zane had no clue it was papa. I wasn't at the right angle to capture a picture of the look on Zane's face, but I could tell from his reaction that he was so excited that Santa made a quick stop by the house before heading back to the N. Pole! It was definitely a priceless moment!

The beautiful quilt Grandma Alexander made for Zane:

Landon having fun with his new ball popper:

Lego building time:

After all of the family left and things settled down a little - we broke out our Santa gift to the family, a Kinect for our X-Box. I have yet to play it, but watching Josh and Zane play it has been priceless. Zane gets so into it, seriously just cracks me up watching him.

Here is a video of Zane playing the Kinect for the first time - if you listen closely you can hear him "panting" - he is so out of breadth, cracks me up!!

Christmas Morning!

Due to the fact we took about a million pictures on Christmas, I am breaking up my Christmas posts into two. We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and all feel so spoiled and blessed. I always like to take time and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and this year really started telling Zane the true meaning too - he was very interested in the baby Jesus and hearing more about him. Sometimes its hard to remember the true meaning with the hustle and bustle of the season, but I want to make sure that my kids always know why we have Christmas and also want them to know how blessed they are to have the kinds of Christmas' that they do.

This year was especially great for two reasons...the first reason and probably the most obvious was that it was Landon's First Christmas!! The second reason was that Zane was so into it this year, I loved that! He was all over behaving so Santa would bring him what he wanted, he asked millions of questions about Santa and how he and his Reindeer did their magic Christmas Eve night, he had a hard time going to bed Christmas Eve night because he was so excited and that's exactly what I remember most about Christmas as a kid...being so excited I could hardly sleep, heck I still get like that - maybe its something you don't grow out of!

Here are just a few (haha) pictures from our special morning:

Santa Came! Zane's Santa gift was a Powerwheel that he is convinced is a quad - works for me! Landon's Santa gift was a Batman playset; Zane made sure to let every Santa he saw know that's what his little brother wanted for Christmas!

Zane's first look at his prized possession:

I think he might be a little excited:

Here he is talking to Grandma Hansen, telling her all about it:

Time to open presents - Zane's were wrapped in Spiderman Christmas wrap and Landon's were in penguin Christmas wrap!

Little video of his first test-drive - with a very cute passenger :)

Taking her for a test-drive outside:

Saturday, December 24, 2011

1 Day - Christmas Eve!!!

We made it - we finished our first Advent Chain and I'm so glad that Zane seemed to love it just as much as I did - that means we can do it again next year!!!

Today's link read "Open Brother Gifts"!

Before we did what the link said, we headed over to Brooklyn and Christina's tonight for a kid's gift exchange and a little dinner!! Once we were home and the boys were bathed it was on to opening up their gifts to each other and then the traditional reading of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas! As I write this - both kids are nestled all snug in their beds with I'm sure visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads!!