Christmas Day!

Christmas morning we leisurely woke up, made coffee, and opened our presents from Santa. Paul was still a little apprehensive about all the gift opening but he did like his new books, animal figurines, and POTTY!! We had a nice time just the 3 of us and then we started to get ready for my parent's house!

I don't know what switch clicked in Paul's head, but by the time we arrived at my parent's house he was a present opening machine. My mom still does presents from Santa and stockings. Yes, we are 30-somethings but the woman loves her stockings. Anyway, Santa brought Paul a blow up climbing wall. For some reason we thought it would take Paul a little practice to figure out this new toy, but he had that wall mastered in about 4 seconds.
In my brother and Ryan's stocking were some fake tattoo sleeves. Those two thought they were real tough.
Ryan had a Bronco themed Christmas on both sides of the family. Nothing makes this man happier then new Bronco gear!
Paul took a little nap while we ate dinner and then we opened MORE presents! Paul's most anticipated gift was a train set from Uncle Buck and Aunt Kascie. Whenever we asked him what he wanted from Santa he would exclaim, "CHOO CHOO," so their present was BIG hit!
Can this baby get any happier?

While everyone else opened their presents, I entertained Paul with new books and a candy cane.
I'm sure you will be surprised by this information, but when we finished opening gifts we played some basketball. Paul shot from the chair while his Uncle cheered him on and his dad caught all his rebounds. The little man was in heaven!

We had an amazing Christmas and this is my favorite picture documenting the day.
When I was younger, I memorized The Night Before Christmas to recited it on Christmas Eve (nerd alert). This year I read the story to my baby boy. At ever picture he pointed at Santa and said "Ho Ho Ho." What a special day.

Christmas Eve

I know I am back tracking here a bit, but I wanted to make sure to document our fun holidays. Hands down having a baby makes Christmas more fun. I am SO excited for him to wake up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning with that energized excitement about Santa. Paul didn't really get the whole deal this year, but he did have much more fun opening presents and receiving new toys then he did last year!

Christmas Eve we went to Ryan's parent's house for a little celebration and of course I didn't bring my camera. But I did snap a few iPhone photos. We had a great dinner, opened presents, and then my sister in-law and I drank red wine like it was going out of style. Fa la la la la.

We had some football team competition!
Kendra our 7 year old niece received a new American Girl doll. Do you people know about this obsession? A girlfriend at yoga told me about the store in New York City. Apparently it is HUGE and also includes a little cafe where you can have lunch with your doll. When this woman visited, the wait in the cafe was THREE hours long. Can you imagine? I scoffed at the idea of waiting 3 hours to eat lunch with a doll, but I guess until I have a girl never say never. Anyway, Kendra was pumped about her new doll and the trauma set (crutches, casts, etc) her Nana gave her.


Paul got a brand new little table and loves it. He can color and play and read books. Look how much work he is getting done:

We got home and were happy to realize there was nothing to put together or deal with. We put milk and cookies out for Santa and went straight to bed! So fun! Maybe next year I'll remember my camera!

Thanks Old Year!

Thank you 2011 for a little more growth everyday. Thank you for helping me find handstand in yoga. Thank you for home improvements that make our house feel a little more like home. Thank you for our work no matter how challenging, it can be equally rewarding. Thank you for our friends who make our hearts fuller. Thank you for a strong marriage. Thank you to a supportive family. Thank you for providing me with more time with my sweet son. Thank you for the absolute honor of being a mother. Thank you for the unconditional love and happiness that surrounds me. Thank you for another year.

What would you like to thank 2011 for?

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions, but this is Ryan's:
Recipe for the new year: read, think, create, question, learn, love, grow. Repeat infinitely.
I think it is perfect! Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a beautiful and "slam dunk" holiday season! See you next week!

Santa is scary.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Paul was not a fan of Santa this year. So to avoid a complete meltdown, I had to join my son in his annual Santa photo. I had not showered, nor do I have any make-up on so try not to judge.
What the hell is Santa doing with his finger? Why isn't he smiling? I know the job can't be that great with germ infested toddlers all over your lap, but come on man. But how cute is Paul with his hands in his lap? Love him!

Even though that photo was a flop, I absolutely love the holiday card we sent to our friends and family! This isn't that best quality, because I just took a picture of the card with my phone, but you get the idea. Is he not the cutest boy in the world?
Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

P.S. My calves are still sore from barre on Wednesday. That class is no joke!

19 Months!

I can't believe my kiddo is more than 19 months old. He is a rambunctious little dude that is talking all the time and of course being the cutest toddler in the world.

His one struggle is eating with a fork. He likes to start off his meals with utensils, and then I guess good table manners take too long so before I know it, he is using his hands to shove food in his mouth. Lovely.

He is full on saying Mama and I love it. Sometimes he says "Mum." Sometimes he says "Mommy." And every time it warms my heart. I guess it was worth the wait and all that time he called me the dog's name.
He is talking up a storm (I don't know if I can list all the words he says) and knows almost everything we are saying. This is good and bad since verbal opinions are beginning. Some mornings he has very strong convictions of what sippy cup he would like for the day. It can take up to 15 minutes to pick the right one. It can feel like the longest 15 minutes of my life.

His favorite phrase is "I did it." He makes a shot on the basketball hoop, turns to us and slyly remarks, "I did it." He eats a piece of pizza, "I did it." He reads a book, "I did it." You get the idea. Luckily, we think it is pretty cute.

Some new favorite tricks are to jump on the couch and then land on his rear end. He thinks this achievement is rather hilarious. He is obviously still playing basketball but is also into kicking the ball around the kitchen. He played soccer independently this morning for 20 minutes.
This kid still won't watch regular TV programs. And believe me that we have tried EVERYTHING. The only thing he will give some attention to is..... basketball. So I have started DVRing some random college basketball games for emergency purposes. So far these have helped us in a pinch.

Today at the library we were working on colors, and the librarian pointed to a blue house and asked the crowd of little people what color it was. Paul shouted, "BLUE." Everyone seemed very impressed with my son's intellect. I did not share that blue is the only color he knows.

Paul really loves making us laugh and trying out some jokes. He thinks hiding under blankets is funny. He thinks making silly faces is funny. He thinks jumping is funny. He thinks fake coughing is absolutely hysterical. He also thinks putting things on his head is pure entertainment.
Paul is such a good sleeper. When we are at home he takes a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. He should sleep that much for how high his activity level is when he is awake. He goes to bed at 7:30 and I had to wake him up at 8:30 this morning so we could go to the library. Amazing. Simply amazing.

I cannot believe how fast he is growing and changing in front of our eyes. I am just trying to soak up every last ounce. He truly is our little sunshine.

I Love Playing in the Snow!

From the time Paul wakes up in the morning until he goes to sleep, he chants "outside, outside." He doesn't care if it is -20 degrees, hailing, raining, snowing, he just wants to be outdoors. Saturday we had an unexpected snowfall, so after a few hours of someone pounding on the door yelling, "OUTSIDE" we bundled him up with snow pants, jacket, hat, and mittens. He resembled something like this:
Of course he had a great time. He threw snow in the air, built a fort, and ran around. I on the other hand, stayed inside where it was warm and only battled the cold to get a few pictures.

Thanksgiving and 31!

A little late on my updates, but we had a great Thanksgiving break off from work! We started our 5 day vacation by paying a ridiculous amount of money for Paul's first haircut! He doesn't have a lot of hair, but for some reason it grows faster on the sides and the back was starting to resemble a 1987 rat tail, so desperate measures had to be taken. The highlights were that Paul looked really cute in the grown-up chair, he had his first sucker (loved it), and it cost 20 dollars. I think I will cut his hair from now on. I mean we did half the work anyway by holding his head straight so the lady could cut the back. It truly was a 3 man operation, and I was wondering why no one tipped us at the end.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at Ryan's parent's house where we all ate too much (but isn't that what you are suppose to do?) and played basketball outside. All Paul ate was pumpkin pie so he was pretty happy. We basically just bombarded him with sugar this weekend.
The next day I turned 31 and for some reason this birthday was a little harder to wrap my head around than 30. 30 was fun and 31 felt like the hits just keep on coming. Oh well. My best pal Diz was in Denver for Thanksgiving so she planned a little birthday dinner celebration. There were 10 of us and we ate tons of sushi, drank wine, and even participated in a sake bomb. It was so nice to have all of us together (even though we were missing an important one) and made me feel so lucky for everyone willing to fit one more thing into their busy holiday weekends. This year has been a little rough due to what we fondly refer to as the situation and I know that I am not the easiest person to navigate through during these types of things. But I am so grateful for my girlfriends. So thankful that they are my people.

The rest of the night I would sum up like this:

I don't think we left the house Saturday and Sunday was back to basics of grocery shopping and laundry.

We have so much to be thankful for and I am now looking forward to my favorite holiday!!! Ryan is out putting up our lights and I am going to start decorating. I love the magic of this season and the way Paul "helped" me open my birthday presents, I think he is going to be a big hit at Christmas!!

Christmas Cards!

I wasn't sure I was going to do a Christmas card this year. I get nervous that everyone just ends up throwing them away. Luckily Maureen assured me that she saves every.single.thing I send to her in the mail, so I decided to re-think my position on the Christmas card.

As I was browsing Tiny Prints, I became a little more excited about the Xmas card situation. We ordered Paul's first birthday cards from there, and in my unbiased opinion they are the cutest things ever made. Here are some cards I am loving for Christmas.
Retro Wishes
Sloping Snowfall
Joyous Dots

There are seriously SO MANY cute ones, it will be a tough decision! Check it out!

This is a sponsored post. Tiny Prints is going to hook me up with some holiday cards!!