Christmas Round 1 with Nana and Papa

Last Sunday night (the one before Christmas) Clifton and I had my parents over for dinner and they brought our presents over because they didn't want to have to haul them to College Station later that week. Clifton fried up some delicious deer meat and I made home made mashed potatoes and Paula Deen's squash and zucchini casserole. I also made some yummy mint truffle chocolate cookies for dessert. We ate way too much and then had a great time watching Layton open presents. Having a child at Christmas truly makes it that more special. This was the beginning of opening presents for Layton and he did good and was so excited. My mom went to get his big gift out of her car and here is a picture of him waiting for her by the door
He was so excited about his new rocking horse.



We found his cowboy hat and he got on his horse and said "giddy up"Grandma Hill made him this soft Mickey Mouse blanket for Christmas and he opened it and then immediately laid down on it and said "I go night night" so sweet.Showing Nana his tractor ornament
Nana opening her snowman ornament from Layton
We had a fun night that evening with my parents. I got a sewing machine from my parents and some perfume and Clifton got a blue ray player so we were so thankful. I can't wait to learn how to use my sewing machine now. My mom has promised to help me a lot :) Clifton watched lots of movies during our Christmas holidays he is enjoying his present already.

Pre - Christmas Gatherings

One night last week we went to our friends Chad and Kellie's and had dinner then a few nights later we had dinner at Justin and Natalie's house with everyone. We exchanged gifts and Layton got to practice opening presents which he loved this year. Here are some random pictures from both nights.

Layton wearing Chad's boots

Sweet Emersen
Sadie posing by the tree
Cody playing with the train


Sadie opening her presentsThis is Justin and Natalie's tree so pretty
We are so thankful to have great friends that live close by we had fun both nights with everyone.

Frosty Fingers Handprint Ornament

Last week Layton and I made some snowmen ornaments for all the grandparents. I found the idea here at this website:

www.betterbudgeting.com/christmasornaments08/handprintornaments.htm

I found this by googling home made ornaments. First we attempted making dough ornaments and made some hand prints but for some reason they wouldn't harden up enough even after baking them in the oven and they seemed so heavy for the tree so I threw them away and started over with a new idea :) I wanted to make something with Layton's hand print so they can look back on it each year and remember how tiny his hands used to be. I found this idea and thought how hard could it be? Honestly this project would work better with older kids I'm sure because trying to get an 18 month old to stick his hand in acrylic paint and make the "perfect" hand print on a round ornament was next to impossible. We tried about 5 or 6 times on the first one and kept wiping it clean and starting over. Then I lowered my expectations a little and we did the best we could. Layton kept smearing his hands all over it after we got the hand print. By the end of our little project Layton had white paint all over him and me and was in tears but we got 4 fairly decent hand prints. Here are the pictures of the before and after sorry I was by myself when we did this so I didn't get any of him actually with paint all over him because I had it all over me too.

Layton practicing making his hand print on the ornament after I explained to him what we were doing.

The hand prints on the jumbo ornamentsSorry these pictures aren't that great didn't realize they were blurry until I put them on my computer.

I ended up using sharpie markers to write his name and make the snowmen. It said to use paint but the sharpies worked great and was a lot easier to work with.

We attached these little poems to the ornament and wrapped them in a gift box. The poem reads

These aren't just 5 snowmen
as anyone can see . . . . . .
I made them with my hand
which is a part of me.
Now every year at Christmastime
when you deck your halls,
you can look back and remember
Christmas 2010
when my hand was just this small!
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Layton

Once again I got the entire idea from the website above. I thought they turned out really cute!

All the grandparents were happy to get them for their tree.

Happy 18 Months Layton

Layton turned 18 months this week and I can't believe it. He will be turning 2 before we know it. I took him to his 18 month checkup today and he is still growing fast and is a BIG boy. Here are his stats:

29 lbs. 85th percentile
35 inches 98th percentile

The doctor said he is doing great developmentally and is advanced for his age with his speech. Some funny things he is doing that I don't want to forget are:

He calls every one's belly button a "belly butt".

He always wants to get his "trailer" broom out of the pantry and hook it up to his tractor. The end of the broom looks like the end of some of his toy trailers so he tries to hook it on his riding tractor. He drags the broom around the house everyday.

He loves to give the dogs Roscoe and Daisy treats. He knows where they are in the pantry and he asks at least twice a day to give them one.

He is remembering little things about places we go. Today I told him we were going to Costco as we were pulling up and he said "I eat Costco pizza" he remembered that last time we were at Costco we ate pizza there.

He is very much into daddy's ranger, truck, weed eater, lawnmower, tractor and trailer. He notices if daddy is hooking something up outside or driving it. He loves to ride with daddy in the ranger.

His favorite toys are tractors and trucks and he now pulls my hand and says "mommy come play with me." He has become a little bossy he tells me "mommy sit on the couch" if he wants me to come read to him or play with him.

If you ask him to say please he always says "please daddy" even if I'm the one getting his milk or whatever he wants for him and he really has gotten better about saying please and thank you.

He has become a big boy and we are officially done with the paci. He has been totally without it for 8 days now. He will occasionally ask for it and then say "paci in the trash bye bye paci I'm a big boy."

He loves the Christmas tree and if he comes into the living room in the morning and the lights aren't on he says "mommy Christmas tree on."

He loves to sing Happy Birthday and now sings "Happy Birthday baby Jesus" all the time. He learned this song when we went to Emersen's birthday party a few weeks ago.

Some other favorite songs that he is starting to learn are Pop Goes the Weasel, The Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Jesus Loves Me, Bingo and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the bed.

He comes and finds me and says "Layton's nose running" if he wants me to wipe his nose. Poor baby has had a runny nose for about a week now.

He gets the words you and me confused so if we ask him "Layton who is in that picture" and it is a picture of him he will say you instead of me because we are saying "That is you" It is kind of funny.

He tells us when he wants his diaper changed. He will say "dry diaper pease" or "Layton go poo poo" I hope this means potty training will be easy but we will see about that.

He will come ask daddy "Can I get a WEEEE?" Clifton throws him up in the air and says WEEE over and over and Layton loves it.

We got him a pillow pet for his bed since the pediatrician told us he is old enough for an actual pillow now and he loves it. I looked at the monitor this morning and he was sleeping on top of it all curled up.

He is still a great eater and loves to eat a bite of whatever we have. He will eat fruits and vegetables but has slowed down on how much he is eating. He loves to snack during the day but still eats pretty good at meal time too.

He loves hats and hoodies so I'm always looking for a cute hat for him to wear.

He also enjoys playing in mommy's closet. The other morning when I was in the shower trying to get ready to go to church I got out and he had every shoebox and picture off of the front that he could reach emptied in the middle of the closet and was just sitting in the middle of all of my shoes. I had to laugh he was having so much fun.

We are having so much fun with Layton and we are so excited about Christmas this year. He is going to love it. This stage we are in with him can be challenging at times but the good out weigh the bad for sure. Layton is such a blessing and has made our lives so much more exciting and meaningful. Happy 18 Month Birthday Layton!

Here are some random pictures of him lately.

Playgroup Christmas Party

Last night was our playgroup Christmas party at the Carr's house and everything was so nice. There were a lot of kids everywhere :) We had so much fun visiting with everyone and Layton had fun playing with his buddy Keaton. We had a yummy dinner and then the kids exchanged books in the book exchange. We didn't stay too late because I have been sick this week with a sinus infection and Layton has had a bad cold too. Here are a few pictures from our party.

This was our attempt at getting 20 kids to sit still for a picture yeah right :) You can see Layton had already escaped.

All of the moms

Layton opening up his book
Layton wasn't being very cooperative so this is the best we got of the two boys.
I made these snowman treats for the kids and they turned out really cute. I wish I could take the credit for being this creative but I found the idea on this website http://www.theidearoom.net/2010/12/oreo-snowman-pops.html
They were super easy to put together and I think the kids liked them.

Two Nights Out

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go out both nights and even though we were tired and ready to just stay at home we ended up getting out. Friday night we took our friends Juli and Clinton to the Spurs game. Clifton was given four free tickets so we took advantage and went. The Spurs won and it ended up being a great game to watch. Clifton's cousins Tommy and Sharon were so generous to watch Layton for us that night. He did great with them and was sound asleep when we went to pick him up after the game. Here is a picture of us after the game at the AT&T center we were checking out the live band they had playing that night.



Saturday night we had a Christmas party here in Pleasanton that we go to every year. A lot of Clifton's family is always there and a few of our close friends. My parents were so nice to keep Layton that night even though they had Kyleigh and Cooper too so Daniel and Lauren could go to Daniel's company Christmas party. My parents took a picture of us at their house before we left and I was bad and never pulled out my camera the rest of the night. Clifton and I just enjoyed the evening and danced a lot. We had lots of fun!

Sunday we were all pretty lazy and stayed home and I made a bunch of homemade cinnamon rolls for our family and friends. I used to watch my mom make them every year for all of our teachers but had never tried to do it on my own. Surprisingly they turned out really good and were so delicious. My house smelled so good Sunday night. We bundled Layton up that night after his bath and delivered 6 pans of fresh cinnamon rolls. I think everyone enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed making them.

We are so thankful that we have so much family around that can watch Layton for us and give us the opportunity to get out by ourselves every now and then. I'm looking forward to this weekend though because we have nothing planned and I can't wait to stay home and make Christmas cookies.

Bye Bye Paci

The past two weeks we have been trying to wean Layton from his paci. He loves them so much and even though he was only getting them for nap time, bed time and occasionally in the car he was asking for it a lot. Every morning when we get him out of his crib he puts them down and says "bye bye paci" with a sad face. He was starting to get really sneaky and would strategically place them in his crib on his blanket once we got him out of his bed in the morning. He would then go into his room while we were getting ready on the other side of the house and pull the blanket through the crib slats and sneak his paci and come show us like he was so proud of himself. He would also pull the diaper bags off the kitchen table or climb up there and dig through the bag until he found his paci. Clifton has been wanting to get rid of them since he turned a year old in June and I always said lets just wait until he is 18 months so the time has come. He turns 18 months old next week and I'm ready to throw the nasty things away. I will miss the convenience of it keeping him quiet in the car on a long road trip or when he was super tired and we were at a restaurant and I just couldn't deal with him whining for the paci it was so easy just to give it to him to make him happy and keep him quiet. I started two weeks ago by poking holes in them to take the suction out of them. Layton noticed the change immediately and I told him the pacis are all broken now. Then a few days later I started cutting the tips a little at a time. He will ask for it now and then say paci broken. We aren't completely finished with them because he wants to hold them in his bed at night and will sometimes hold them in his mouth because there isn't much tip left but I'm hoping by next week he will be ready to give them up. He has had a few melt downs about the broken pacis but for the most part it really hasn't been that bad. I know this is just another phase and a big step in him becoming a big boy but it is still sad he is growing up so fast.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday this year and I know I ate way too much ha. Ready to get back into the gym this week for sure. Both of my brothers, sister-n-laws, sister and brother-n-law and of course my niece and nephew all got to come down for a few days and we had lots of fun together. We had Thanksgiving day out at the ranch with my family and everyone was there including Grandma Hindes and Joe this year. My mom and dad did an awesome job with the turkeys, ham, dressing and buttermilk pie and we all brought all the sides and more desserts. Layton had so much fun playing with Cooper he keeps asking about Cooper and Kyleigh today.

I love this picture of Amanda and I with Grandma Hindes :)

Carter carving the turkey

We went by my cousin Kristi's house after we ate lunch and hung out with all of them for awhile. It was nice to see everyone and catch up and of course the boys had so much fun playing with Dillon, Riley and Preston.Cooper was enjoying riding on Layton's tractor.Kyleigh looked so cute all dressed up for Thanksgiving!

We also got to spend the day with Deborah, Leslie, John Paul and Mason on Friday and had round 2 of Thanksgiving. We enjoyed watching the boys play together and just visiting with one another.
Grammy D got the boys matching four wheelers and Layton had lots of fun riding it at her house.
Saturday I was able to meet up with my friend Jackie at The Guenther House for breakfast. It was great seeing her over the long holiday too.
This was the gingerbread house that was made to look like The Guenther House
This was back at Nana's house riding in the wagon with Uncle Daniel pulling the boys around.

Layton was trying out his hat and mittens this weekend too.Here he is ready for church this morning.

What a fun long weekend!