A few Christmas pictures

Christmas was a whirlwind of a day. We had 11 over for presents and breakfast and 6 for dinner. I feel like all we did was cook and clean-up all day! Hunter enjoyed tearing the paper on the presents no matter whose they were.



I was really terrible about taking pictures, but here are a few.

Heath's iphone was the biggest surprise. He had no idea he was getting it so the reaction was completely real.

1 Year Pictures (a little late)

I'm finally getting around to posting these. I'm not sure what took me so long.

The following 3 pictures are displayed in one frame, side by side, as a story. He adores his 'dog' as you can tell by the pictures. It goes everywhere with him. I have two of them that go in rotation through the washing machine. I'm considering getting a third just in case.

Outdoors Kind Of Guy

I can't tell you how much Hunter LOVES to be outside. Putting shoes on equals time to go outside in his mind. He runs straight to the laundry room door once his shoes have been put on (and sometimes when his shoes haven't been put on, but he's trying to tell me he wants to go outside). Now, in mommy's mind it doesn't always go that way. We've had a few meltdowns because mommy doesn't want to spend her entire day outside. We're working on that. Hunter never goes far. He walks up and down our driveway, down the sidewalk as far as the next driveway, and up to the neighbors' front door. He loves to walk through the grass, too, but if he falls he doesn't like to put his hands in the grass to get back up so he yells until I come help him. He knows not to go past the sidewalk line and will stop if I say "STOP".

"My yard, my rules!". And check out the adorable Crocs. We're a Crocs family.

Playing in the mulch
Loves sticks
And loves to drag a broom around
Bye guys

Not A Fan

This is as close as we got to Santa and as you can see that wasn't okay. Can you imagine if I had plopped him on Santa's lap!?

Not A Baby Anymore :o(

So, Hunter got a haircut just a month ago and I pretty much chickened out on really cutting it that time. He still looked like the same kid. It didn't take long for it to grow toward the bottom of his ears again and people started calling him a girl again. Daddy said it was time for a 'real' haircut. So, I took him this morning. He had his first DumDum lollipop and was happy as a clam. The lady pulled out the electric trimmer and inches and inches of hair started falling to the ground. I was really trying not to flip out. It's taking some getting used to. It looks cute, but I'm just mourning the loss of my baby boy. We went into the grocery store afterwards and this lady behind us in line said, "He has so much hair!" and complimented on how cute he is. She made my day.

Before

After

IKEA here we come!

On a whim this morning I asked my friend Megan if she'd like to go check out the new IKEA. She picked us up and off we went with both kids. This is Florida's first IKEA store. For those that don't know it's a gigantic housewares store. They have everything! I've heard a lot about it from friends that live further north. They typically spend a day going to IKEA since it can be a bit of a drive to get to one. Luckily, ours is 20 minutes away. We were more curious than anything and really weren't looking for anything special. We strolled through both floors and we were quite impressed with how inexpensive everything was. They have tons of things to help you organize. They even had a restaurant in the store so we stopped for lunch and then headed back home.

Here are the boys having a big time in the back seat.

(Click on it to see the video)

If you can't get it to play, go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Wi8fg1by8

And this was the scene on the way home.... crashed.

Who's the Boss?

....'nuff said.

Hunter's First Trip to Magic Kingdom

My friend, Jennifer was so nice to invite Megan and I and our boys to Magic Kingdom for the day this past Monday since she can get people in at no charge. We excitedly took her up on the offer! We arrived right when it opened at 9am and were able to get right on Peter Pan and It's A Small World. We waited a bit for the Flying Dumbos, we rode the train all around the park, cooled off on the People Mover, and let them run around the playground area. The kids were so good all day. Megan and I made it back to the car at 3pm. Hunter had just fallen asleep in the stroller and Zach was out within 4 minutes in the car. Our success ended there. Hunter woke up the minute we hit the driveway and wouldn't go back to sleep. Zach woke up the minute Megan hit her driveway and did the same. No rest for the tired mommies!

Here are the kiddos ready to hit the park!

We watched a little bit of the stage show as we arrived
Hunter was clapping to the musicOn the Flying Dumbos

Megan and Zach ready to take off

Some shots from our photo shoot

Our awesome neighbor, Paul spent an hour with us outside trying to get a family picture. Many thanks to Marcie and Vivi, too for getting Hunter to smile and look in the right direction!

Overalls

We actually got some cooler weather in Jacksonville and were able to wear some warmer clothes. I just love these overalls (thanks Megan!) on Hunter.

First Haircut

Last week on the day Hunter turned 14 months we took him to get his first real haircut. He's been called a girl quite a bit lately and as I keep trimming his bangs the back just gets longer so it would soon be a mullet if we didn't do something. We took him to this place just for kids where they have little cars for the kids to sit in and TVs in front of them in the hopes that the kids will cooperate. I brought lots of snacks hoping to keep Hunter busy. I've cut his bangs before so I know how much he does not cooperate. He actually did really well. There was no crying or anything. He followed the scissors some, but for the most part it was quick and painless. Daddy doesn't think it's quite short enough on the sides (it still hangs over his ears), but I really just wanted it cleaned up. I really like it. It didn't totally change his look, but he hasn't been called a girl since so I guess my mission was accomplished!

A Walking Machine

Hunter and I left for Jacksonville last Tuesday and at that point he wasn't walking all the time although it could have been any day. He was walking across a room, but as soon as he would fall he'd resort to crawling. We arrived in Jax and visited a friend with a new baby before getting to Grandma & Grandpa's house. Hunter played while I visited with the friend and new baby and after a while I said, "I don't think he's crawled since we got here". And that was it, he was a walker from that point on. He's already trying to run, but his feet can't keep up with his leaning body. Hunter is still so tiny so it's funny to see such a little thing walking around.

Pikelween IV Costumes

** Sorry for the crappy quality of these photos**

Ok, so I was Napolean Dynamite. I don't think my family is going to know who that is. It's from a movie and probably not your kind of movie. It's not about much of anything, but the character is hilarious. At least I think he is. I was in the top 3 for Best Female Costume (even though my costume was a male - confusing), but didn't win.

Heath was a rapper named Lil' John. I was surprised at how many people at the party knew who he was supposed to be. Again, my family won't know who this is. We sprayed Heath with hair highlighting spray and it really worked well. People thought he was a black person in real life and some people that know Heath didn't know it was him. Needless to say, he won for Best Male Costume.
Our good friends were Borat and Pamela Anderson. Tommy was an excellent Borat and had people laughing all night!
P.S. Hunter and I are going on a road trip tomorrow and won't be back til Monday so no more posts this week.

Halloween Festivities

Last Saturday we went on a hayride and trick or treating in our friend's parent's neighborhood. This neighborhood doesn't mess around when it comes to Halloween!

Here we are all loaded up.

Hunter was a fireman

Kaitlyn was a kangaroo

And Zach was a clown

Tonight we went to the Fall Festival at church and met up with Ethan, a Power Ranger and Ashton, a monkey.

Here's Ethan with his full costume on.

Grandma and Aunt Tiff decided to dress up a little bit, too!

Happy Halloween!