Christmas Time

Tanner's first Christmas was crazy!! We celebrated with Tommy's extended family on the 20th. We ate fajitas and the rest of the family played "fight me" Christmas. I don't usually take part in that because I never end up with something that I want. Tanner got his first Christmas present from Tommy's cousin Tammy.

Monday night, we had Christmas with Tommy's family. Tanner got a lot of little toys, clothes, and books! Tommy went ahead and gave me my Christmas present from him. It was a Cricut. I didn't ask for it, he just got it for me! He saw it on an info-mercial on TV one late night when we first got Tanner home and thought that I would enjoy it. I haven't gotten a chance to play with it much yet!

We made the trip home to NE Texas on December 22nd for Christmas. Although, it isn't very often that we made the trip, I love going home! It's gotten harder since Tanner joined us! A 4.5-5 hour car ride is not fun with a baby! We hung out with Mom and Dad the few days before Christmas. Tommy and I did make a trip to Longview where I found a pair of black boots. Since I have been looking for some for a LONG time now, we went ahead and got them. I am spoiled...I will admit it, right here, right now! We got Tommy a Carhart Jacket to work in....more on his present to come later! Kim, Brandon, and Carter came over to visit several times! We celebrated Dad's Birthday on Christmas Eve. Mom cooked steak and baked potatoes and we played board games. We even got DAD to play Apples to Apples with us. Surprisingly, it didn't take much convincing!

Christmas morning we opened presents. Tanner was really tired (because he refused to sleep when we were home) so I opened his presents. I was hoping he would be more like the night before when he got into one of my presents. We laughed at him because he tore every single little piece of wrapping paper off that box. Too bad he wasn't in the mood Christmas morning. Mom always hands out the presents Christmas morning and I didn't think Tanner's stack was going to quit growing. Let's just say, when everyone else was finishing their own presents I was still opening Tanner's. Spoiled little monkey!!!

Mom always cooks breakfast pizza Christmas morning! It is SOOO yummy! I don't think that she quit cooking the whole time we were there this year! She had so many treats and goodies. Tommy was in heaven with all the deserts mom cooked!

Mom and Dad got Tanner a tent with a tunnel. We took the tunnel out to see what he would do and he loved it. He crawled back and forth through that tunnel, laughing and giggling!

Kim and I got the boys matching Christmas PJs without knowing it. They were so cute Christmas morning. I tried to get them to sit still long enough for pictures but they weren't having it. I thought this one was so cute though! They sure do love each other!

Christmas morning before we opened presents! Too bad Tanner isn't looking at the camera and I don't have "real" clothes on!

After opening presents at Mom and Dad's, we made a trip to Mt. Pleasant to have Christmas with Dad's side of the family. We didn't have the traditional Christmas meal this year. We had Mexican food, which was wonderful! As usual, we had a great time!

Tis' the Season...

Wow...where does the time go? This year Christmas has snuck up on me. Usually, I am a lot more prepared than I am this year. I usually have everything bought long before I did this year. In fact, I'm still not really finished! Geez!

I am really excited that Tanner is old enough his first Christmas to "open" his presents. He has already started on one that is under the tree. He keeps on going to that one present and tearing the paper a little more each time.

Speaking of Tanner: He just turned 9 months old on the 12th! I cant believe it! He weighs almost 21 lbs and is almost 30 inches long. He just got his third tooth (one on the top) last weekend...teething is not fun with him!!! He has perfected his crawling and is working on walking by himself. He will take a few steps and then he will either sit down or fall down. He is getting more brave as he lets go of things. He has quite the temper and doesn't like to be told no. I had to laugh the other night as Tommy was telling Tanner "no" (a word that he is getting used to). He was getting into the Christmas tree, as he was standing holding on to the coffee table. Tommy said, "No, Tanner!" And Tanner just looked at him and proceeded to try to get the ornament that he was after. After no luck with just the word "NO", Tommy reached over and grabbed his arm. Tanner looked at him, braced himself with his other hand, planted his feet, and was pulling against his daddy, grunting as he did so! OH MY GOODNESS! I couldn't believe it...he had never done that before! So needless to say, I think that we have our hands full with him. He inherited my stubbornness!!

A few things that he enjoys most of the time...depending on the day...:-)

*eating things by himself, especially avocado, peaches, yogurt

*crawling FASTER as he goes somewhere he is not supposed to...especially the fridge

*soft stuffed animals, he buries his face in them and laughs!

*mimicking noises

*Morelli, my cat...I guess it is his cat now :-)

*chewing on any and everything!

*being outside

*music...his new thing is bouncing when he hears a song. It is so precious!

These pictures (except the 2nd one) were taken at Thanksgiving at Nana's house. We went to Mt. Pleasant with my family and had lunch. We put up Nana's Christmas tree while we were there. My Nana is such a sweet lady!