Sweet Baby Ray's 1st Birthday Edition

Our baby is no longer a baby. He's officially a one year old! We celebrated this milestone just the 4 of us, with dinner at our neighborhood pizza place and cake and presents at home. We followed it up with a visit from Namma and Baba and a small celebration at home with close family and friends. He's 26 pounds of pure joy and smiles. Unfortunately we've been battling some nasty teething and an ear infection that won't quit so he hasn't been sleeping or acting 100% like himself, but our silly boy shines through from time to time and gives us hope that he'll be back to himself in no time. He's crawling like a maniac, waving bye, and babbling all sorts of jibberish (just no actual words or recognizable sounds quite yet). He loves dance parties and thinks his sister is hilarious. He makes a mad-crawling-dash to her room to wake her up in the morning and is all sorts of giggles when (assisted) jumping on the bed with her. He's obsessed with dogs (stuffed and real) like his sister as well as his wubanub paci's.

Still dreaming of a white Christmas

I was so looking forward to our white (day after) Christmas in Michigan. I made sure to stock up on the winter clothing essentials for our trip to Michigan over the holidays. As per usual, "man plans and God laughs" and all we got was a measly dusting. You better believe we were out there playing anyways, sled  and snow angels and all :-)

Luckily the lack of snow was our only disappointment during our week back in Michigan. We got to spend some quality time with Namma and Baba and see so many great friends and family. As always, the trip went by too quickly and I'm already looking forward to our next trip. Overall the kids did great on our drive. A pit-stop to visit my life-long friend, Victoria, and her family in Indy made the trip back extra special.

Christmas Curveball

It wouldn't be the holidays with kids without a few curve balls thrown in. Christmas Eve is always at my in-laws. But a few hours of on and off crying by our rarely-ever-cries Lilly bug and a trip to urgent care meant a low key night at home for us. We threw together a last minute dinner (as the 90 meatballs I had planned to bring to the Christmas Eve party wasn't quite going to cut it) and had a nice quiet evening at home. The urgent care trip didn't uncover any sickness and she was back to herself in no time. Perhaps all the excitement/nerves of Christmas just caught up to her?! I guess we'll never know!

Luckily Christmas day was spent enjoying our own little traditions; presents and breakfast at home, then over to Carter and Taylor's in our PJs for presents and breakfast #2 with the Bruno clan before a quick visit (and mimosas!...one of my favorite traditions!) with some of the Taylor side of the family. Christmas evening is a low key night at home with Grandma and Grandpa...this year before a night of sleep and a road trip adventure to Michigan!

You wouldn't know we spent the
afternoon at urgent care

The dollhouse she'd been dreaming about from Santa

Just love these sweet girls!

Happy guy with his train clock

My sassy Goddaughter

Mini-mom...cousin Gracie

T-1 month

With all the excitement of the holidays and our trip to Michigan, Ray's 11 month birthday came and went without so much as a "you're 11 months!!". Second kid syndrome is real, folks.

Our big, happy, meat-loving mama's boy is getting into everything. He's a pretty darn consistent napper and nighttime sleeper which makes his mom and dad very happy.

Likes: Climbing/racing up the stairs, splashing my hands in Ty's water bowl, pulling clothes out of every single drawer and throwing them on the ground, eating paper products (cardboard boxes and board books being some of my faves), pulling the air vents out of the ground and, finally, taking baths!  Unfortunately, I also seem to like pooping in the bath. Yes, you read that right. There's something about a warm post-dinner bath that gets our little guys bowels moving. So, it's speedy baths for me now until we can figure out that issue...

Dislikes: Not a whole lot. Having toys, paper, books, etc that I'm chewing on taken out of my hands, losing all of my paci's (even though I intentionally throw them out of my crib myself), having food in sight and not being able to eat it.

"I know him!"

"10 AM tomorrow...Santa's comin' to town!" "SAAAAANNNNTTAAAAA!!! I know him!"

If you're confused, I'm not sure how we're friends. It's only one of the best quotes from the best Christmas movies ever! A couple of weeks ago, Ray got to meet Santa for the first time and Lilly got to tell Santa what she wanted for Christmas for the first time. Pancakes, sausage, holiday crafts and a meeting with St. Nick himself. Talk about a fun-filled morning!

Catching our breakfast (note the flying pancake!)

I'd call this a great success!

'Tis the Season

While this weather we've been having doesn't feel like Christmas, it definitely feels like Christmas inside our house. Per usual, we spent the weekend of Thanksgiving getting the Christmas decor up. My personal favorite...the Christmas tree and all of our meaningful, memory-filled ornaments! Lill was very excited as she got to stay up "late" (a whole 30 minutes past her bedtime!) to have hot chocolate with Mom and Dad and help decorate the tree. She was so excited and alternated putting ornaments on the tree and sneaking sips of the delicious chocolate goodness. This is certainly a tradition I look forward to continuing (and including Ray in next year!)

A quick shot with the tree and cute jammies before bedtime

Minnie was her chosen first ornament

"This is Michigan State!!"

Very excited to show Ariel the ornament to Ariel the doll

Another favorite holiday activity is going to see the Christmas lights at Tilles Park. If you are on top of things, you can purchase tickets for the opening weekend where you can walk through the park rather than drive...soaking in all the ooh's and aah's with your kids without the concern of accidentally crashing into the car in front of you :-) We bundled up on arguably the coldest night of the year thus far (of course!) and enjoyed the lights with MawMaw, PawPaw and our cousins Carter and Taylor :-)