Christmas Road Trip '09

This year, we spent Christmas on the road in both Memphis and Little Rock. We left last Thursday for Memphis and got there in time to meet my parents, grandmother, grandparents, and brother and sister for a Christmas eve dinner at IHOP. After that, we crashed so we could get up and be ready for Christmas morning and Santa. Thomas seemed to enjoy his stocking and Christmas as much as any two month old would :)

My parents bought Thomas his stocking, and it is SO CUTE. Here he is enjoying his first stocking.



He wasn't quite sure why Santa put a candy cane in his stocking, though :)



Overall, it was a great time in Memphis. He loved meeting his great grandparents, and the rest of the time seemed very content relaxing and sleeping in Doc's arms.
Here are a few pics from the rest of our time in Memphis...







On Sunday morning, we loaded back into the car and headed to Little Rock to have Christmas with BT's side of the family. He got to meet his other great grandparents there, too. Sunday night, we spent it doing a gift card exchange with the big clan up there, and we also were able to be there to celebrate our nephew Ethan's 2nd birthday, which was Sunday. Yesterday we went to Jacksonville, Arkansas for Christmas lunch with BT's other grandparents and the other side of the family. Then today we had Christmas together at BT's grannie's house and had Christmas lunch there. Overall, in the last week, we have done Christmas three times, and that's included THREE big Christmas lunches. I'll be detoxing my body of ham and sweet potato casserole after the week we've had!

Here are a few pictures from the Little Rock leg of the road trip.

Our nephew Ethan opening up his birthday presents:





Our nephew Blake with the newest cousin:



Thomas and his Great Grandma Mary:







Now we're home and looking forward to a relaxing five days. BT is off until next Monday, and I sadly, am going to have to RELISH the next five days, as it's back to work on Monday.

Until next time!

Happy Holidays!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Update

Here's a little of what we've been up to.

This weekend, T had his first spend the night out with his grammie and gramps. BT's parents were so great to meet us halfway between here and Montgomery on Saturday and let T spend the night with them Saturday night. I have a feeling they were HAPPY to do it! It was hard for me, but I knew it was time for us to have a night 'off.' Plus it made it easier for me knowing the only person that it was hard on was me, not him in any way. They had a great time with him, and the only thing was that he woke up for them at 3:30am, he hasn't done that in a long time. He did it again last night for us. It's probably a little preview of what we have in store in the next week getting out of a routine.

Friday night, we went to grab some Mexican food, then came home and I made these delicious Oreo balls that I found the recipe for on this blog here. They were DELICIOUS, and even though they were messy to make, they were so easy. Great thing to take to a party (which is what we did with them Saturday night, more on that below).



Saturday morning, before we took T to meet the grandparents, I went and got my hair cut a short cut for Christmas, and an eyebrow wax. Made a huge difference in me feeling like a woman again and less a like spit-up target.

Anyway, even though we missed him, we had a FANTASTIC time. This was T on our way to meet the grandparents:



Saturday afternoon, we took a nap, then Saturday night we went out on a dinner date to Smith's Oysters & Burgers, which if you have never been, you should. They make a mean patty melt and wicked good smashed potatoes. Then after that, we went to a friend's Christmas party. It was so nice seeing all of our friends and getting out of the house and socializing with adults! Then the next morning, we definitely slept in until 10am and topped off our weekend with a trip to Waffle House. We picked up T Sunday afternoon feeling refreshed and happy. I missed my boy, though. It was so good to get him back!

This is a picture of a few things this week, and pre-haircut and obviously with no contacts and glasses on, but you can see what he's been working on lately. He loves being like this in my lap and practicing his neck control. He's getting good at it, and I'll be glad when he gets this part completely mastered.





Anyway, this will probably be it for the blogging for me until around New Year's. I'm sure I'll have tons of Christmas pictures at that point. Until then, have a very very Merry Christmas and a Happy Happy New Year!

Is Anyone Else...

Watching 'Sing-Off?' Because I am loving it. It's all so EXTREMELY cheesy and fantastic. To top it off, that got that cheese-meister Nick Lachey to host! The only thing cheesier would have been Donny & Marie or his brother, Drew!

The costumes are awful, the judges are down on their luck "musicians" (I am air-quoting musicians because I can see the case for Ben Folds and the Boyz to Men guy, but the girl from the Pussycat Dolls? Really?), and you even get a group that is basically this decade's Menudo. It's fantastic.

And yet, the music is surprisinly GOOD.

You should tune in, you should.

sleepyhead

They say even at this age, kids exhibit sleeping behaviors that they will have as older children. If so, we have a night owl, just like his daddy. That's okay by me, because I love my mornings to myself. Thomas is normally going to sleep around 11 or midnight, and sleeps consistently through the night, minus the occasional 4 or 5am wakeup. Last night was a midnight to 7am run, and he's been enjoying his morning nap since 8am. I know people don't like people to brag about their kid sleeping so well, but you have no idea how much we dreaded the sleep thing. And he's just so darn cute when he sleeps, too.

I Heart Faces: Pets

Anna, a college and fellow-blogging friend of mine, submits some of her photographs to this great photography blog, and last week placed in the top ten! Way to go, Anna! I have since spent a good amount of time checking out this great website and decided to submit a picture for this week's theme: Pets.

We make it no secret we love our dog and cat to pieces, and when I read that this week's theme would be pets, I just had to submit my all time favorite picture of our Mr. Beau. Like I've said before, he LOVES the snow, so this picture couldn't be a more perfect reflection of his favorite thing...

When you get a chance, check out all the great photographs on their website. You can go to it here. Or below:


Here's the picture I submitted for this week:

Lookalikes...