Christmas 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Snowman Pancakes

We made snowman pancakes for lunch today. James was SO excited! This is James' snowman.

He really enjoyed it and kept asking for "more stuff" (AKA more candy).

Daddy's snowman

Henson Family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with the Henson side a couple weeks ago since we are going to be out of town over Christmas. First we made a stop at Gran and Papaw's house. James loved his new tractors and Blake loved his new cuddle time with Gran.


Blake was such happy boy the whole evening. He is such an EASY baby!

Abby and David gave James a cozy coupe. It was love at first sight!

He wanted to go for a drive before it was assembled.

Finally done! Vroom Vroommmmmm!

Seth gave James a big wheel which was also a big hit!

James does NOT miss a meal!

Look at this cute cheeseball Abby made for an appetizer.

Helping Mommy open gifts.

Blake couldn't stay awake all night.

Early Party

James has always been an early riser. Most days he usually sleeps until atleast 6-6:30. If he wakes up after 5am we tell him he can play quietly in his room or read books. If it is before 5am we tell him to go back to sleep and sometimes have to shut his door. This morning Todd and I heard him moving around but we are both VERY sound sleepers so I just thought he was playing in his room. This was sometime after 5am we think. At 6 he comes in and says that he needs a kleenex. I get up with him, wipe his nose and escort him back to his room to find that he has been having a party in Blake's room. The lights and fan are both on and Blake greets me with a big smile! James had also thrown a few stuffed animals in Blake's crib to keep him company. He also took a bunch of random things from our laundry room(one of them being my 3 bin laundry sorter which is really quite large) and moved them to Blake's room. There is stuff everywhere!
My first reaction to this is: "James, what are you doing in here? It is bedtime and you should be in your room!"

James: "I working on something." This is James' new response to everything. Then he runs and hides in the closet because he can tell I'm upset.

I think we are going to have to put a child safety device on Blake's door so that James doesn't have anymore early parties! The only nice thing about this early party is that they both went back to sleep and it is 7:25 and they are both still sleeping!!!

Cookie Making

Wednesday night Abby came over to make sugar cookies. It has become an annual tradition since she got married and moved back to town. James loved helping roll out the cookies. We frosted and decorated them after he went to bed. I wish I would have taken a picture of my kitchen table. It was covered with pretty cookies! South Dakota and Minnesota family members; they are headed to a town near you very soon!!!



Then on Thursday morning we headed to Morgan's house for a playdate and to decorate the cookies. James did more cookie eating than cookie decorating. Go figure! These two are such sweet friends and even helped clean up their BIG mess!

New Measurements

We measured Blake from home and got 27 3/4 inches which seems more accurate to me. That would have him growing 1/4 inch the last two months and makes him closer to 80th percentile.

School pictures

"Honey, I shrunk the baby!"

Today was Blake's 6 month well check visit. Poor little guy had to get 4 shots, but he was a trooper. I got home and compared his new stats with his 4 month stats along with comparing them to James at the same age. WELL, Blake was:
27 1/2 inches at 4 months and today was 26 3/4 inches at 6 months. I've never thought the length was very accurate at the dr with a squirming baby and this confirms my theory because I really don't think he got smaller. Atleast, I hope not!

So, his official(as official as possible) 6 months stats were:
Height 26 3/4 inches -59%
Weight 16 lbs 8 oz - 28%
Head 17 1/8 inches - 40%

James at 6 months was 18 lbs 2 oz and 28 inches.

No matter what height Blake is we are happy to have a healthy baby boy!

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday we went to "Breakfast with Santa" at our church. James acted about the same as he did last year. He isn't quite sure what to think about Santa. He continues to talk about him and tell me that he is "scary".

Blake is 6 months old

Where has the time gone? Seriously! Blake, you are 6 months old today. You have been with our family for half of a year now! You are at such a fun age right now and we are enjoying every moment with you. We LOVE you so much! Here are some things that you are up to at 6 months:
-You smile and laugh out loud a lot. Especially, when James shows off in front of you. You laugh at everything he does.
-You are starting to talk more. Some days you won't say a thing and other days you babble constantly. I hear a lot of da da da, but no ma ma ma yet.
-You love to sit in your bumbo seat and exersaucer when we are on the main floor and still sit in your bouncer seat in our bathroom upstairs. We also moved the "giddy up" jumper into your room and you love to jump around while I'm getting things done in your room.
-You can roll from front to back and back to front like it is no big deal now. You also do baby yoga. Cobra is your favorite position! :) You alternate between Cobra and being an airplane with your arms out to the side. You are so entertaining to watch!
-I think you weigh about 16 1/2 lbs, but we will find out your official stats next week. You are still long and thin.
-You wear cloth diapers at home and size 3 diapers when we are out. You wear 6-12 month clothes. It has been fun to pull out all of James' clothes that he wore his first winter, but you also have quite a few new things too.
-You have become a bad napper, but you are mostly happy so that doesn't bother me. I remember James went through the exact same thing at this age. You are usually taking 3 short naps throughout the day that range from 25-45 minutes. ***update*** Since starting this post you took an hour and a half nap this morning!
-You are a great night sleeper lately. You go to sleep around 6:30-7pm each night and you have been sleeping until 5-7am in the morning.
-Your 2 bottom teeth are in.
-You love to listen to your daddy play the guitar and he often puts you to sleep with his music.
-You still drool and spit up a lot! You go through many, many bibs each day!
-We got out your highchair a couple of days ago and let you try your first food. You really enjoyed your broccoli so I guess we have officially started solids. We will be doing the same baby led weaning method(basically self feeding and skipping purees) as we did with James. Let the mess begin!

Abby's Birthday Weekend

Todd and I went out on Friday and Saturday to celebrate Abby's golden birthday(turning 28 on the 28th). Friday afternoon we went to the new movie Burlesque. We loved it! Then we headed downtown to Abby and David's loft before heading out to dinner at Jack Stack BBQ. Todd's favorite!
Me and the birthday girl!

David's sister Kim and her fiance Billy. They are getting married in 2 weeks!

The guys watching football.

Abby and David

We found out Friday night that there were extra tickets to the border showdown against KU/MU. I only like to go to football games when the weather is nice and since it was going to be a great day we decided to go. Thanks David! Too bad KU didn't win.

Thanksgiving

Today I'm extremely thankful for these two sweet little boys. They have blessed our lives more than we ever knew possible. I got to start my day early(as usual) and have breakfast with the 2 little turkeys. When we are in KC we ALWAYS do the Turkey Trot 5K, but it was 20 degrees out with a windchill around 9. I just couldn't take out the boys in that kind of weather so Todd went and represented the family. Surprisingly, he said there were lots of people out with babies and strollers. Were they crazy?

While Daddy was gone James and I made Play dough together for the first time. It was fun and easy! It was actually pumpkin play dough because we colored orange and added pumpkin pie spice to make it smell good. I got the idea from another blog, but I used a different recipe that was no cook. I don't know why some recipes have you cook it and others don't, but I'm not going to dirty a dish and spend time over the stove if I don't have too. Our recipe was:
1 cup water
3 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup oil
pumpkin pie spice and food coloring
I added the food coloring to the water before adding it with the dry ingredients.
Making play dough is hard work! Look at this face!

Look at the final product! James was sure proud of himself!

After naps we headed over to my parents for Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was delicious and it was great to spend time with family.

James spent most of the time there in just a diaper because of a little(BIG) incident in the playroom. Jack came rushing downstairs to tell us that he thought James had gone poop and that it was all over the floor. WHAT? But, yes, that is actually what happened. Usually I have extra clothes I keep in the car, but of course I took them out and forgot to put them back. Oh well!

Seth and Jack playing chess.

Blake with his great Papaw and great Gran. He was such a happy guy all day!

Santa Baby

I know it isn't even Thanksgiving, but YES our tree is up. We won't be home over Christmas so I like to get it up early so we can enjoy it for atleast a month. We don't have room on our main floor for the tree so we have it in a corner of our master bedroom. It is nice to wake up and go to bed with it everyday. Here is our Santa Baby!