Christmas Recap: Part 2

And so the recap continues.....Ryan most have known Santa came because he did not let us sleep in one wink. He was up bright and early, ready to open his gifts. Even he was still tired!

 checking out his loot

 he loves musical toys

 yay for the drum set

 now I won't have to play with Mommy's laptop all the time (yeah right, wishful thinking)

After Ryan opened his gifts and played with them for a few minutes, we all got dressed and headed to Sugarland for breakfast with Gigi, Allie, and Jon. After we stuffed our faces, we opened gifts. Ryan was delirious at this point. After not having fully recovered from the day before, he decided he didn't need naps either. He was a little fragile, but still demanded just as must attention and made us laugh a ton. Ryan was super spoiled this year by both grandparents. He better enjoy it now before any other kiddos come along and he's not the only one :)

 Ryan got a Radio Flyer and a train set, woo hoo :)

Early in the afternoon, we headed back over to Jersey Village for dinner with my family. We let Ryan open his gifts when we got there because he was so overtired, he had to nap.

Ryan's loot

 Next year maybe we should just get him a few rolls of wrapping paper!

not sure about my face here

 yay for the toy

 "This one is mine!"

 what a mess!

After Ryan opened his gifts, we decided it was time for a nap. We put him in his crib and an hour and a half later at nearly 5 pm, he was asleep. He didn't even cry much, just played and tossed and turned while we enjoyed wine and opening our gifts. We had a yummy dinner and eventually had to wake him up after he slept for an hour and a half, which was a mistake. He was so upset and cried all the way home. We put him to bed almost immediately as we began to prepare for our 6th and final Christmas get together.

Sunday afternoon, Wes' dad came to town and Allie and Jon came over to have Christmas at our house. We grilled steaks and played washers and enjoyed the nice, chilly day. Ryan was much more well rested and once again, was being a show off for everyone with his kicks and crawling.

 gifts from Grandpa

.It was a wonderful weekend of Christmas celebrations. We feel very blessed to be able to spend it with everyone we care about and feel very loved! I know they will just get more and more fun each year. I can't wait to see what next year brings!

Christmas Recap: Part 1

Christmas is always a crazy but fun time for us. With both mine and Wes' families and extended families living in Houston, we are always driving from party to party. We have done this routine for the past 3 years now and it seems to work out pretty well. We kicked off the week by going to my Aunt Vivian's house for Enchiladas like we do every year to see my dad's side of the family. My cousins Rob and Kim have a little one, Will, who is exactly 2 months younger than Ryan. I foresee best buds in the future :)

Wes and I only worked for part of the week, so we were able to finish up some last minute shopping and LOTS of present wrapping!

We continued the celebrations by first heading to my parents in Jersey Village on Christmas Eve morning for lunch with my mom's family. Another cousin of mine, Scott and his wife Christine have a little boy, Scotty, who is about 5 months older than Ryan. It is funny to watch them interact and try to steal what the other one has - mainly pacifiers - see below.

 Ryan going for Scotty's sippy cup

After lunch we opened presents and did a White Elephant exchange. It's a lot more fun now with a few little ones around to watch open gifts. Ryan LOVED the wrapping paper and eating it and would get pretty upset when it was taken away.

 our sweet little Santa

In the afternoon, we headed to Sugarland to Wes' grandparents house where we ate more yummy food and did another White Elephant exchange. Ryan was so busy playing and being the center of attention, we didn't get any pics. I think his cousin Michael, who does wonderful photography got some good ones though. Ryan was so well behaved all day (only napped from house to house which is about 25 min each way), so needless to say, he was pretty exhausted by the end of the day. This was the first year I didn't go to church on Christmas Eve (just too hard with him being so little and going to bed early), but we came home, put him to bed, and had our Christmas together instead.

 Wes' new watch

my new coat (the other pics of presents didn't turn out too well)

the mess from just our gifts

Afterwards, we decided to put together Ryan's chair and set-up his Christmas gifts while I baked cookies and we watched Elf. It was the perfect way to end the evening.

We were exhausted by the end of the day and still didn't end up getting in bed until after midnight!!!

Ryan's Baptism

Wes and I recently joined St. Luke's Methodist Church earlier in the fall. We finally got everything in order to have Ryan baptized this month. On December 19th we made it happen! Both of our families came to witness the event, as well as his"aunt" Jilly. We went to the pastor's office to get him dressed, where we met the other family that was having their son baptized as well. They had an older son, who thought Ryan was a girl (maybe because he was so pretty in his outfit :) ), but that is beside the point. Ryan found him very amusing for some reason and was just giggling at him. Here are some shots before the service.

The service was very nice, they have the whole family come stand behind you in support and the church was all decorated for Christmas. And just as suspected, he was not too fond of the whole idea. Once we saw the pastor hold up the previous child to the congregation, we knew he was going to have a cow. And right on cue, as he was presenting him, he dropped the lip, made the pouty face, and screamed! He was a trooper, however, and was able to sit through the rest of the service. Afterwards, we stayed around for a few minutes to get a few pictures since you are not allowed to take any during the service.

 Ryan with his godfather, my brother.

 My family

 Wes' family

 Ryan with his godmother, Allie.

 Our family.

We invited both of our families and our grandparents back over house afterwards for lunch and cupcakes, yum!

We enjoyed a delicious lunch and then Ryan put on a show for everyone, starting with his crazy kicks and then attempting his first army crawl. His godparents brought his some very sweet gifts as well. Allie gave him the Little People Nativity Scene, which was so cute. Ryan just wanted to lick the box.

Scooter had a Precious Moments Bible monogrammed with Ryan's name and gave him a cross as well. Ryan is very loved :)

It was a very special day for us and Ryan. Plus he started his army crawling that same afternoon!

Tis the Season...

....for Ryan's first illness. We have been very fortunate that Ryan has been healthy and sickness-free for the first 8 months, but two weeks ago he got his first double ear infection. It's such a sad site seeing him putting his fingers in his ears and yanking at them, but he was definitely a trooper, never ran fever, and was pretty much himself through it all. Other than that, he has been quite amusing the past two weeks. He started clapping last Friday out of nowhere. He just stares at his hands and gets so proud of himself when he does it. He especially loves to clap between bites while he is eating. We think he is learning the meaning of the word "no". He will just look at you with sad eyes and a pouty lip, it's pathetic! He is one stubborn kid. He is also trying to get up on all fours, but can't figure out how to really get moving, so he resorts to scooting around and spinning in circles on his mat to get toys.

We have been getting ready for the Christmas season filled with lots of shopping, decorating, eating, and Starbucks :) This past weekend we took Ryan to our neighborhood winter festival. See how excited he was to go?!?

He really wasn't old enough to participate in the snow piles, moonwalks, or face painting, but we did let him ride in the train. Wes said he had a good time, whipping his head around trying to look at everything in sight.

He also received his first balloon. Of course, his first instinct was to immediately lick the balloon and then try to hug it.

Afterwards we headed to go get pics with Santa. They had us first all three go sit next to him and take a few pics. Then, we just placed him on Santa's lap and moved over. Ryan just placed his hand on Santa's arm and that was about all the interaction they had. I don't think he really ever got a good look at him. He only got a little upset when I tried to move too far away. We haven't gotten the professional pics back yet, but this is what we got on our camera.

 They also had an antique fire truck that he had fun playing in.

We headed to Cyclone's at City Centre and did some Christmas shopping. It was such a fun day. That evening, we had our nanny watch Ryan while Wes and I had a nice dinner at Vincent's and then went to Lights in the Heights where we ran into a bunch of our friends. Next year, we plan to take Ryan with us! Sunday we went to Lola with the newlyweds and then continued our shopping (I think we are almost done!!). It was such a fun weekend and a great way to start all the Christmas fun. Looking forward to spending lots of time with our lil family over the next few weeks.

On a side note, here are a few pics of Ryan two weekends ago at my parent's house while we were in College Station. He is now obsessed with this tiger.