learning to walk

chef corey

One of my Christmas gifts was a Barefoot Contessa cookbook. I was excited to have some new recipes to pull from, but Corey was...inspired. He decided that we should cook one meal a week together (so fun!), and he decided to make the first one by himself! So, he made us portabella mushroom lasagna, and it was delicious! I was very proud of my husband (and hope there will be more dinners to come! I'd also settle for breakfast in bed or a dessert of any kind!)

silly boy

The thing I love about this picture is the snow boots. They are Ty's shoe of choice around the house these days. He wears them with everything--even pajamas! And, we think that Ty is going to be left-handed (or a "southpaw" as Grampa would say).

Here he is helping daddy put away the Christmas tree. He is such a great helper! :)

Christmas reminiscing

Christmas 2008 proved to be quite memorable (in a sweet, hilarious, and fun kind of way) for our family! We had such a great time with both of our families in Kentucky and came away with lots of fun memories. At my mom and dad's house, Ty had a blast sliding down the steps backwards on his tummy. He did it over and over again, and each time he'd say, "How did you do dat? I don't know either." It was really cute. Ty also loves my parent's black lab, Pepper, but only when she's laying down. She was bigger than he was when she stood up and that freaked him out a little bit. Drew, on the other hand, loved Pepper! He would crawl toward her and pet her (with no fear or reservations), and he even giggled (after he got over the initial one second shock) of her licking his face!

At Corey's parent's house, we couldn't stop laughing at Joe (Corey's dad). I know this probably won't sound funny, but it really was. (You had to be there). So, Joe (aka Grampa) had an injured shoulder on one arm from slipping on some ice the week before and an injured finger on the other side from slamming it in some kind of door at work. So, he was quite a sight walking around the house with one harm dangling down because of his hurt shoulder and one finger on the opposite side soaking in a cup of hydrogen peroxide (because someone told him it would help prevent infection.) Soaking his finger for a few minutes a day would have probably been sufficient to ward off any germs, but Joe soaked it three times a day for about 15-20 minutes! He's a nut! :)

So, our Christmas was really fun, and we had two! Here are some highlights...

The boys were fascinated with the tree and the ornaments. We could hardly keep little Drew out of it! :)
I'm not sure what they are looking at, but I love this pictures of my boys in their matching Christmas pj's sitting in Grampa's chair. (I love the idea of matching pj's being a Christmas tradition.)
Drew and Ty loved opening presents! Ty really got into unwrapping the paper this year and even said when he was all finished, "Need more stuff!" Drew, on the other hand, had a great time with the bows and empty boxes, and he ended up loving the gifts that Ty got (and vice versa)!
Here is Ty sliding down the stairs...

Then he gave Nonna a kiss!

Drew got a much needed haircut over Christmas break. My mom and I tag-teamed it, but she did most of the work. Great job, Nonna! Look at this little cutie...

I love this face...

We put the all of the gifts under the tree after the boys were in bed. Corey and I were just as excited as kids! We couldn't wait 'til Christmas morning. My parents got Ty a fun chalkboard/dry erase easel that came with magnetic letters. Since we didn't have chalk or a dry erase marker, Corey used the letters to spell, "Merry Christmas Ty." The only problem was that there were only two of every letter so it actually said, "Merpy Christmas Ty." (We had a good laugh about that one.) We didn't think he'd notice. :)

Drew's favorite "activity" was turning on and off Grampa's tv. It was so tempting because the power button has a bright blue circle around it, and Drew was drawn to it. After the 50th or so time of Drew darting over to the tv and turning it on, Grampa said he was going to buy Drew a blue button for Christmas next year!

Grampa forgave Drew for constantly touching his "big screen" and they sat out on the porch together (yes, it was that warm in Kentucky!!! So much for our hopes of playing in the snow on Christmas morning!)

early Christmas gift

Here it is! My new, RED, KitchenAid mixer! I feel like I've "arrived" in the world of baking! Bring on the homemade bread recipes and other yummy treats! I'm ready to do some baking! (Thank you, Mom and Dad Smith, for the early Christmas gift!) :)

musical talents

Well, at this point, we don't know if he's going to be talented, but we do know that he absolutely LOVES music and instruments! He has a toy guitar, multple drums (thanks to those "thoughtful" people in our lives who love to give our kids loud gifts), and he's getting a little keyboard for Christmas (he will be ecstatic!). Every Sunday, Ty is mesmerized by the worship band and loves to run up after church to see (and touch) all of the instruments on stage. Recently, Corey has gotten his guitar back out to play again (he used to play in college) and Ty loves playing daddy's guitar (in his opinion, the real thing is so much better than the toy version any day!) So now I have two cuties who can play the guitar and sing! :)

Milestones

I can't believe this little sweet potato is going to turn ONE in about a month!!! Where did the time go??? (I'm sure I'll be asking myself that question their whole lives!) Drew is a very sweet, smiley, quiet, darling little boy who is quite ticklish, loves to play with his brother, and is a keen observer--he likes to take it all in! And, he has been accomplishing so much recently--even this past weekend! A friend of mine asked me on Friday if Drew was walking yet, and I said he was not even close (because he hadn't started cruising yet). However, he might be closer than I thought. While we were out of town this past weekend, Drew took several steps as he held onto a dresser in our hotel room. Then, just so that I wouldn't think it was a one-time thing, he walked down the length of our couch yesterday as he held onto it! Yay, Drew! We were all so excited (including Ty who happily repeated me: "He's cruising!")

Of course, he too said, "dada" long before he said, "mama," but it was a sweet sound to my ears when I heard it for the first time over the weekend! He actually said, "meme" (short "e" sound) first, but I counted it as mama. Then he really did say, "mama!" (He's also becoming more of a babbler with sounds like "baba" and "nana.") Drew has been taking his time on his babbling skills, but like I said, he's usually a pretty quiet kid and prefers to observe (just like his mommy). However, he is faster than lightning when it comes to crawling, especially if a particular toy captures his interest--he can book it! I think he might be my little receiver someday (aren't those the guys who catch the football and run really fast down the field?--if not, I'm sorry, honey, and to all you football fans...I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to football!) :)

Finally, as you may have noticed in Drew's picture above, "all he wants for Christmas is his one front tooth!" I think most kids get their bottom two teeth followed by their top two teeth. Drew got his bottom two teeth and then his right eye tooth (yes, it was really funny to see that one "fang" on the top!) and only one front tooth! The other front tooth just pushed through and is making it's way down!

My favorite thing these days is seeing my boys play together. It is the sweetest thing to hear them both laughing or to watch them playing/interacting. (These are the precious moments between the times when Ty runs over Drew's fingers with his ride-on toy or pushes Drew away from a toy that he doesn't want him to have, or (my favorite) when Ty asks me to put Drew down so I can hold him instead! It's fun being a mom! (It really is.) I wouldn't trade it for the world!