Lights, Presents, Family & Friends!

Whew, what a whirlwind week it has been! I can't believe all the things going on right now, but I absolutely love all the hustle and bustle. But it's important to take some time for yourself during naps & preschool to sit down and unwind...and devour a freshly glazed donut. I may or may not have also devoured a blueberry cake donut. I'm a sucker for the donut shop in our town, what can I say?!

We picked up big brother from school on Thursday and went home to set up our train around the boys' Christmas tree. They loved it at first, but then Christian couldn't stand it when Gavin would try to knock it over. He decided he would rather not play with it when "bad baby Gavin" was around. 

We started our weekend off with a trip to the underground MegaCavern to see Lights Under Louisville. This is absolutely one of our favorite things to do during the Holiday season. I grabbed the boys from their carseats (no worries, folks...you drive 2.5mph in an assembly line of cars) and let the oohing & aahing being. Despite Gavin's distracted and terrified faces, he loved it. He danced to all of the music and cracked up at some of the lights. Christian had a ball...he got to "drive" the car, which was the most exciting part of all for him. 

After the lights, we went to the roadhouse, where once again he devoured the rolls and begged for more.

On Friday, we went to C's preschool Christmas party. We decorated cookies, made an angel, played a guessing game with his teacher and chased after Gavin as he explored the classroom. He was like a little puppy dog...all of the kids kept following him around and petting his head.

After the party, we finished up our homemade ornaments and hung them on the tree. This is a tradition I started with Christian and can hopefully keep up with until they're mean teenagers who are too busy for their mom. Cue sad, crying face.

We played down in the basement, so I attempted to feed Gavin his lunch in the bumbo. This was a huge fail, as everytime I tried to give him a bite, he would throw his head back and forth and I would get sweet potatoes all over the place. He thought it was a fun game though!

After he was finished bathing in his lunch, he decided stealing brother's lunch would be a good idea. Christian didn't agree.

Mmm, toes!

Saturday morning snuggles with dad are always a big hit around here.

Saturday evening we had our Christmas with my mom's family. We always cook way to much food, open gifts from each other, play a $5 white elephant gift exchange and have one too many inappropriate conversations...AKA we have a great time. ;)

We also discovered Gavin LOVES pickles...FINALLY! Someone else in the house who can share my obsession.

My mom got a selfie stick for her white elephant gift...which was a total blast to play with!

After the Christmas party, we headed to our friend's birthday party where we got to visit with our friend who has been stationed in the army for the past 3 years. He is on leave now for Christmas and the birth of sweet baby Gemma, who is due any day now. We are beyond thrilled to have them both back in the states for a short time, and we're probably going to go into a depression when they leave again. Cue more sad, crying faces.

And we finished our weekend off with my dad's side of the family's Christmas...the Thomas'. I'm not going to lie, the attempt to get all of the great-grandkids in the picture cracked me up. Luckily, they cooperated for all of the other pictures!

And that was our festive weekend! We are so excited about the next couple days...there is so much going on right now, it's crazy! But good crazy, so we are ready! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and gets everything they wished for!

'Tis The Season!

Well, you could definitely say the Wilson family is in the Christmas spirit! We've been holiday-ing it up around here, and we still have so much more to do before the 25th! Just a little recap of our past week...

I took some pictures of the boys for Christmas card photos, and here are just a few of my favorites.

We had lots of pouts, painted ornaments at preschool, watched Rudolph, Mickey's Christmas & Frosty more times than we can count, and are eating almost every meal with reindeer or moose ears.

We visited Santa at Bass Pro Shop...both of the boys did so well! Gavin fussed at first, but then Santa started talking to him and he calmed right now & stared at him like he had 3 heads.

Carousel rides!

We had lunch at Texas Roadhouse, where Gavin has officially been initiated into our roll-loving-family. He probably ate more rolls than all of us combined.

I ordered & mailed out our Christmas cards...the pre-addressed envelopes were free with my order...win!

I finally (after years of wanting to do so) started my snow globe collection. I've always loved them & can't wait to pick out a new one each year!

I took a picture of some of my favorite ornaments...I mean, of course they are of the boys!

We had our first Christmas with the Wilson family. Gavin opened his first ever Christmas present! And yes, of course he cared more about the paper than the actual toy.

We went to Christmas at the Galt House...and we we're pretty disappointed. We went a few years ago and there was a huge Christmas display of lights and blow up figurines that Christian loved. This year, it was based off of A Christmas Carol, so the entire display took maybe 30 seconds to walk through and Christian hid his face from the creepy music and ghosts. It wasn't at all what we expected, but the tickets were free through Dustin's work, so we couldn't complain too much.

They also have a little Christmas town set-up after the lights display which Christian enjoyed, so it wasn't a complete fail. Plus, Santa! Christian's new BFF.

AND Gavin has been in the best mood ever today...which needs to be praised, documented and shouted from the rooftops! I also got a bunch of new Norwex cleaning supplies from my party last week, so I plan on spending the rest of the day cleaning, organizing and getting the house Christmas ready!

And that's been our week o' Christmas fun! Hope you all are enjoying this holiday season! 

Happy 9 Months, Gavin Lee!

Well our awful, terrible, adorable youngest has turned 9 months old. With Christian, 9 months started my absolute favorite age. They are learning so much, doing new things every day, developing their unique personality....however, I would be lying if I said I was loving every minute with my fiesty 9 month old. He is a handful. And that's an understatement. Let me see if I can think of the words to describe our littlest ginger....Cranky. Fussy. Whiney. Hilarious. Hot-tempered. Loving. Stubborn. Stingy. Mommy-attached. Rotten. Freaking adorable. I love him to the moon and back, but he is definitely keeping this family on it's toes!

His milestones this month include: crawling on all 4's (although he still army crawls when he needs to get somewhere quick), pulling up on everything, climbing stairs (oh joy), throwing a tantrum by throwing himself backwards and becoming ridiculously attached to me.

I'm not sure if it's just his personality or because I'm exclusively breastfeeding him for longer than I did with Christian, but he generally will not let anyone else hold him but me. If I'm in eyesight, he's crying for me to pick him up. He tends to spend his days following me around the house crying for me to hold him or literally crawling up my leg. It's definitely a daily struggle because I have another child that needs my attention as well, and every now and then, things like laundry, dishes and bathroom breaks need to occur! 

Sometimes, he doesn't cry. Sometimes. And on those days he plays with his toys, explores the house, puts anything & everything in his mouth (screams when I take it out), LOVES big brother's room, and goes crazy in his bouncer. 

He hates having his picture taken. LOVES food. He will eat table food, two containers of baby food, puffs, crackers and still be asking for more...which he can sign with his hands!
He has 4 teeth, working on 5. Sleeps from 7:30pm-6am, nurses and then goes back to sleep until 8ish. I can't complain about sleep, he's finally a good sleeper! I am still breastfeeding, and although I tossed around the idea of switching to bottles for the sake of possibly breaking his attachment to me just a bit, I decided I really enjoy not buying formula and the extra 500 calories a day I'm burning. Onward we go!

He weighs in at 18 pounds even (21st %ile) and is 28.5 inches long (58th %ile). He only had to have one shot at his check-up, and cried for 5 seconds...he was showing off for the doctor today. ;) He is still in size 3 diapers and wears 12 months clothing.

I know it seems like I'm complaining a lot, but I promise there are still things I love about him! He gives the sweetest snuggles and is so funny. He loves to play peek-a-boo and chase Toby around the house. He LOVES music...turn it on and he immediately starts shaking his little butt. 

Life might be crazy hectic right now, but we're powering through and trying to making the best of everyday. Soon these days of baby tears will be gone, and I'll give anything to have them little again.

Happy 9 Months, little bad ginger baby!

Deck The Halls | 2014

Happy Monday everyone! Today has been a bit rough for me, as I'm dealing with some stomach issues that come about every once in awhile. One of these days I'll make it to a doctor to get checked out, but until then, I'll just whine and spend the day on the couch. But a day on the couch makes for a good time to finally blog about our week. I think I've finally finished obsessing over all of my Christmas decor, so I can finally post this past week's Christmas decorating fun. And I use the term 'fun' loosely, because holy cow...the first weekend was SO not fun.

We always get our Christmas tree on Black Friday, and this year was no different. We had to wait for Dustin to get off work, so during the day we braved some stores to get some last minute Christmas decor (and other fun goodies that were on sale!) and got out all of the Christmas boxes from storage. Gavin had a blast climbing on them all day...who needs a Christmas tree?!

He has also figured out how to climb the baby gate and bang on it when he wants to go downstairs....trouble, this little one is.

When Dustin got home, we went to the tree farm about 3 minutes away from our house. We tromped to the very back of the field before I finally found a tree I liked. Dustin cut it down & Christian "helped" carry it to the car. This is when things went downhill...

On the way home, Gavin screamed & cried & screamed. Luckily it was a short drive home, so we put him right to bed and blamed his screamfest on the 4th tooth that had finally cut through the gum. After the grump-a-saurus went to bed, we put up the trees and got right to decorating. We let Christian help with the downstairs tree...which is the colorful, anything goes tree. He had a blast. Seriously, this kid loves Christmas almost as much as his momma. Thank goodness...I was worried he was going to take after his scrooge daddy, because last year, he was non-impressed.

After we got the basement tree decorated, the boys went to bed and I stayed up to decorate my pretty tree. I did all whites, golds & silvers, just like last year. However, this year's tree was a lot bigger, so I wasn't satisfied with the amount of ornaments. I went to bed with plans to get more ornaments in the AM and finish the tree then. Ha. How wrong I was!

Saturday morning, Gavin woke up in a rotten mood. He was so lethargic and fussy and wouldn't let either of us put him down. He preferred for me to hold him, so that obviously limited my 'getting stuff done' abilities. We had planned on getting the outside lights hung, the house decorated & put back together and then going to my mother-in-law's birthday dinner. Let's just say NONE of that happened...at least for me. Gavin ended up sleeping on and off all day in my arms, had a low grade fever and puked on me 4 times before the day ended. He wouldn't eat or nurse, so he was 2 hours away from a trip to Kosair's to push fluids. Thankfully, about 10pm, he was able to keep a little milk down, so no hospital trip for us.

On Sunday, Dustin managed to get the lights hung all by himself...he was such a trooper! Gavin & I once again hung out on the couch and slept on & off all day. If he was awake, he was either crying or puking. I felt so helpless. Not to mention the house was in complete shambles and Christian was dying for attention, which I couldn't give. The poor kid pretty much hung out in his room all weekend watching movies. I felt like the world's worst mom, but unless I could figure out a way to clone myself, it was the way it had to be.

But hey, at least the outside of the house was finished & looked awesome! You rock, husband! ;)

At one point on Monday, I had to lay him on the floor so I could make Christian lunch and this is what he did. Beyond heartbreaking.

I also attempted to feed him solids on Monday...that was a no-go as well. 

However, finally on Tuesday, he was able to keep milk & solids down and had a little more energy. He still wasn't his smiley self, but I'll take any progress I can get! 

Because I finally had free arms, I was able to start putting the house back together and finish the decorating.

This is Gavin's "the Christmas tree is pokey and I hate it" face.

Come Thursday, we were all back to normal! The house was clean & finished, we were all happy & healthy and we got Christian's school photos back!

HOW do I have a kid old enough to give me school photos?! Seriously though, what a stud.

We had another busy, but actually enjoyable weekend. Friday I got to have my girlfriends over for a Norwex party, wine & snacks. Saturday we celebrated our twin niece & nephew's 3rd birthday, Gavin passed out in his bed sitting up (cue adorable photo op) and finished the evening with wine and a Hoosier victory.

Sunday, we took Christian to my dad's house and did all of the boy's Christmas shopping. Then we headed to my grandparent's house to help them decorate for Christmas, since my grandma has been sick and isn't able to. Christian once again had a blast hanging ornaments, and may or may not have thrown a 3-year-old tantrum when I told him it was time to leave.

But gosh, they are so darned cute!

And that has been our life since Thanksgiving! This week consists Christian's preschool Christmas program (OMG the tears will be flowing), making ornaments with his class, visiting Santa & Lights Under Louisville (an amazing underground cavern with thousands of Christmas lights). Be prepared for an overload of Christmas festivities, because after all, it is the hap-happiest season of all!

Thanks for reading!

Thanksgiving | 2014

Well it's only a week late, but I finally had a spare moment to get my pictures organized! The babies are in bed, the husband is going to grab us dinner (yes, it's 8:30 and we haven't had time for dinner...it's been one of those weeks), so I'm taking a break to share our turkey day! We hosted 2 Thanksgiving dinners this year...one on Wednesday for one side of the family and one on Thursday for the other.

Our Wednesday Thanksgiving consisted of Dustin's immediate family and my dad's family. I did most of the cooking, with the exception of my mother-in-law bringing her famous dumplins. Yum-oh. 

The husband and I tag-teamed the turkey, and along with our fancy-schmancy oven (he sells appliances...of course we have an oven that plugs into the turkey) it was the best turkey we've ever had! We injected Mr. Tom Turkey the night before, stuffed him with lemon & herbs, rubbed him with butter, salt & cajun seasonings & then let our "perfect turkey" oven do the rest. So delish. Gavin tried some turkey and mashed potatoes...not a fan. He'll change his tune later in life...or else. ;)

Considering it was just me cooking, everything went so smoothly. The food all got finished on time, everything turned out great...it was definitely a success! 

Our menu consisted of:

Baked Turkey

Mashed Potatoes & Gravy

Mac-n-cheese

Deviled eggs

Chicken-n-dumplins

Green Beans

Rolls

Desserts...I never eat the desserts, so I can't even remember what people brought! I'm a carbs kinda gal, what can I say!

Day 2...not going to lie, kind of the opposite of day 1! We all woke up feeling super lazy & things were a little chaotic in the kitchen because neither turkey cooked all the way. Actually, when my aunt went to poor the turkey juices into her pan to make gravy, it was straight blood. Mmm, blood gravy anyone?

Dustin thinks he didn't put the temperature gage in correctly, so the oven told us the turkey was done, when it most definitely was not. Not so fancy-schmancy now, is it?! And of course, we had spent all day bragging about our perfect turkey the night before. Sigh. 

No fear though, we always fry a turkey also. But, oh wait, what's this? The fried turkey didn't cook all the way through either. Well, how 'bout that. 

I also made sweet potato casserole, and halfway through realized I was out of vanilla. My cousin had to run to my mom's house, which put our dinner back about 30 minutes, so the mashed potatoes were cold. Sense a theme here? It was kind of chaotic! 

However, everything ended up tasting delicious. We learned a few lessons about turkeys for next year, we had a beautiful table set-up complete with my collection of blue mason jars to drink out of...and most importantly, we were all together! We got a good laugh out of all the mishaps, and enjoyed the wine and company.

In all the chaos though, I forgot to take pictures! Luckily my aunt was on it, so I at least have some pictures to share. What would this blog be without an overload of photos?! ;)

 And that was our Thanksgiving!

I'll share our fun (insert sarcasm) & exhausting Christmas decorating weekend in the next blog. For now, the hubby is back with food and we're off to eat and watch The Santa Claus! 

Happy almost Friday everyone!