Merry Christmas

We had the most perfect Christmas!
Chad had off on Christmas Eve which was wonderful. I was able to prepare a breakfast casserole for Christmas morning and make a huge pot of cream of potato soup, brownies, and cookies for the Rigdon family Christmas lunch. Later that evening we went to my aunt's house to celebrate. Santa Claus was even there! The last two times we have seen Santa this year, Weston has cried his eyes out. When we walked into my aunt's house on Christmas Eve, Santa was there waiting for the children. Weston waved, said "Hi Santa!", and ran right over to him and sat on his lap. It was adorable!

Santa came to our house when we went to sleep that night!! He brought Weston lots of new toys and books. His favorite gifts from Santa were definitely his bicycle and tools. It was so cute watching him open his presents and get excited about everything. Love this kid!

After opening presents, we got dressed and headed for my sister's house for breakfast. 

The boys waiting to open more presents from Gaga and Pop Pop. 

We had breakfast, opened more presents, and played for a bit. Then we had to get home... Chad's family came over for lunch. Weston loved showing everyone his new bike and helmet. Thank you Caillou for wearing a helmet. Weston loves that show and will copy off of everything he sees on Caillou. 

New big boy chair from Mumsy!

He loves his new bike!

It is so hard to believe that this was Weston's 3rd Christmas. Chad and I were talking that night about how much he has grown and how quickly he is learning new things. This year was our favorite Christmas yet and it's all because of him. 

Weston's 2nd Birthday

Weston's turned 2 one week ago! 

Bernard even celebrated with us!

Good morning, birthday boy!

Confetti pancakes for breakfast. 

Make a wish.

Happy Birthday!

We had to run a few errands. A lollipop was the perfect treat!
And he picked out M&Ms for dessert after lunch. 

Lunch with Grandmom.

Play time at home.

Gift from Mommy and Daddy.

Cannot believe he is TWO!

My Birthday Boy

He's 2 today. 
Where has the time gone? My life is perfect with this little boy.  

2 years ago...

Baking Cookies

On Monday, Weston and I decided to bake some yummy chocolate chip cookies. He loves working in the kitchen. I got out all the ingredients and he would dump them into the mixer. Once it was time to dump the chocolate chips into the mixer his fingers could not stay out of the bowl! Yum. 

FYI- these cookies are just for Mommy, Daddy, and Weston to eat- he sneezed right into the bowl.

Weston's Tractor Party

On Saturday we celebrated Weston's 2nd birthday- John Deere Style! Weston is obsessed with tractors so I knew this would definitely be the perfect theme for his party. I had lots of fun planning his big celebration. We had originally planned to have his party in the barn, but with the chance of rain we decided to have it inside Chad's parents house. The weather ended up being beautiful, so Mumsy (Chad's mom) took the kids for a hay ride!! So much fun!

After the hay ride, we sang "Happy Birthday" to the little man. He was a little embarrassed and needed some reassuring from his mommy.  He blew out his candle all by himself! So proud. 

 Then it was time to open gifts!

We we got home, Weston did not know what toy to play with first! :)
What a fun day! I cannot believe my little boy is almost two. Time flies. 

Meet Bernard

Santa's helper Bernard has arrived! He has been keeping a close eye on Weston to make sure he is being a good boy. Each night he heads back to the North Pole to tell Santa what the little man has been up to and whether or not he's behaving. :)

Weston gets so excited to find Bernard (or should I say "Saint Bernard"... that's what Weston calls him) each morning. He knows that he is not allowed to touch him or he will lose his magical elf powers. Yesterday morning, Bernard was caught eating mommy's cereal and he even spelled out HI with the Cheerios. Weston really got a kick out of that!

His own tree

The day after Thanksgiving, Weston and I pulled out all of the Christmas decorations and began decking the halls for the Christmas season. We even decorated a mini tree for his own bedroom. There's something about colored lights that make everything so much more magical for children. I am not a fan of colored lights, but wanted to give Weston a colorful tree. I had three tree skirts to pick from, but then I found a colorful crochet quilt I had bought at a yard sale over the summer. It looked perfect under his tree. 

I can already tell that Christmas is going to be so much fun with him this year. He talks about Santa all the time and says that he is asking Santa for a bicycle, motorcycle, and tools. He also reminds me that he cried when we went to see Santa in the beginning of November at a local store. He would not even get near him. I really wanted a pic of him sitting on Santa's lap so we will try again at the mall. I know this is horrible, but even if he cries I just want a picture of it! He also dances around the house singing Jingle Bells. What a cutie!

 

I am enjoying the Christmas season already!! Cannot wait until December 1st! I heard we may have a visitor hanging out with us during the month of December. ;)

Ruler Growth Chart and the "to do" list

This has been on my "To Do" List for months now...

and it is finally finished!

Thanks to the blog Because I Like to Decorate! She had a great DIY tutorial on how to make it. It was a challenge to get Weston to stand still for us to measure how tall he is at 23 months. Lil' stinker. 

Next on my "To Do" List:
- Finish up all of the baby girl bibs that I had started a long time ago! There are quite a few baby girls that are expected to be born in the next few months. So I cute out two of each pattern. :) My darn sewing machine keeps eating up the terry cloth so I will be making them at my mom's house one day when I have some time. ha ha. 

- I would really like to make these reusable snack bags. We only have one and use it all the time. 
- And of course write out my Christmas cards. Weston's birthday photo shoot was a disaster. He wanted nothing to do with it. We at least got the pic we wanted for Christmas cards though!
- I should probably be concentrating on getting things together for Weston's Tractor Birthday Party which is in two weeks. That should be first on the list!

Happy Turkey Day!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Our family enjoyed three feasts, but not all on the same day. On Wednesday night, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Chad's family. I made all the desserts this year- apple pie, pecan bars, and brownies. My mama's apple crumb pie recipe is the best. I tried out this new recipe: Pecan Pie Bars. I am not a fan of pecans, but Chad looooves them! So I sent him three different pecan recipes and he picked this one. It was pretty easy to make and it was very yummy!

Pecan Pie Bars

Thanksgiving Feast #1

Chad went goose hunting on Thanksgiving morning. Weston and I cleaned the house and organized a bit. Then at 3pm we headed for my mom's house for Thanksgiving Feast #2...

Weston was not feeling a family picture at the time. ;)

And then tonight we enjoyed our 3rd turkey dinner with Chad's mother's family!

It was so nice not having to make dinner for 3 nights in a row. :)

Phone Dump:

Upstairs Hallway Remodel- Before

Take a look at our hallway upstairs...

The dreaded laundry closet....

Chad began working on redoing the upstairs hallway last weekend. Our goal is to have new floors (as well as level the floor so we will have no more old house creeky sounds) and to make the laundry closet more practical. We have a very, VERY old house (dated back to 1849). The closet where we have our washing machine and dryer is super duper small. Before we had moved to Virginia, we had a smaller washer and dryer. Well now that we have a family, it was not doing the trick. So I insisted on having normal size machines. The only problem is that EVERY time I do laundry, I have to unhook the middle section of the wall where the doors close and sit it against the wall. Every time. It's a huge pain. I told Chad that this is just not going to happen when baby #2 arrives and that I need a normal door! So that is when he decided that we are going to redo the closet and the floors as well! I started pinning ideas right away!! 
This past weekend, Chad took out all of the old floors and added a subfloor. It is so level and sturdy! :) Cannot wait to see his progress this weekend. :)

Phone Dumps- Photo Book

I loooove my weekly phone dumps! I take so many pictures with my iphone and now that I am obsessed with Instagram, the phone dumps are a great way to showcase fun happenings throughout the week. I finally caught up on digitally scrapbooking all of my own family photos from January 2012-June 2012 and sent it away to get printed in a 12x12 photo book. I had lots of coupons through Shutterfly (if you are pregnant and order from Motherhood Maternity they always give you coupons). So this time around my photo book was printed by Shutterfly. I was so happy to get it in the mail and to look back at photos from the beginning of this year. Weston enjoyed sitting on my lap reading and looking at each page as well. Boy has he grown so much since January!

Here are some photo dumps these past 2 months...

yellow, one of our last walks with Norma, sparkling teeth,
reading the Sun with daddy

Weston picked a flower for mommy, Gaga found a 4 leaf clover for baby girl,
 Model Magic fun, Jumping at Fundamentals, walking on the ABCS!

Getting ready to go Apple Picking, Chuck-e-cheese with Grandma,
new cradle for baby girl

Weston loves his new table, lots and lots of apple pies, pumpkin spice playdough,
playdate with Liam, Smores with Pop Pop and Gaga, Mama is proud of her garden. 

Lil' artist, bib making time, the belly is growing, farm fun with Sam

Train set at Barnes and Nobel allows mommy to relax, Jville fire open house, mama is nesting,
potty time, new tent=so much fun, preparing for the storm

rain rain go away, no electricity, doctor appointment with mommy, storm clean up duty

Online Christmas shopping has begun, 28 weeks pregnant, new rug,
Christmas crafts... glitter everywhere