The Final Christmases

This weekend surrounding his birthday party we celebrated christmas with Averie and Baylor and then my sister and her kids. The top three pictures were with Averie and the bottom 3 with Teri, Becca, Phillip, Claire and Gabriel. Rece, of course, got lots of great things. Thanks everyone!

Rece and Averie yet again got off to a rocky start. I think it was just too much. He went to bed on Friday night with the normal people in his house and he woke up on Saturday morning with 6 house guests! So needless to say Averie was terrified of him the remainder of the day after he smacked her. Actually Rece was more aggressive than normal this weekend. I believe he got Averie, Baylor, Natasha and Gabriel. He just gets so excited but that is just not OK! It was a good weekend and overall he was great. Sorry for the smacks everyone! Someday he will understand that is not appropriate.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We had a pretty boring New Year's Eve. Rece went to bed at 8 and Tony and I sat and watched the ball drop on TV then went to bed about 10 min. later. And today we had a pretty relaxing day. And of course we had sauerkraut and pork for dinner. Well, Rece didn't really care for the sauerkraut, but he ate plenty of potatoes.

And this was 1 year ago today! Look how big he has gotten!





In less than 1/2 an hour it will be my baby's 2nd birthday! I can't believe it. It doesn't seem possible and it is so bittersweet. Stay tuned for at least a week of birthday posts! We will be going out to dinner tomorrow night and his party is on Saturday.

WildLights

Our zoo does a light display every winter and we went to see them yesterday. It was in the 50s here so it was perfect weather. We got to see some animals also. We let him walk around for a little while and in the second picture he was resisting the hand holding at first but as soon as he realized that the only other option was the stroller he cooperated. And in the 3rd picture there was a peacock walking around, but he wasn't too sure of it. And the last picture showed how the night ended. He was pooped!! We had fun and he loved all the lights!

Christmas Morning, Finally!

These pictures just in time for New Year's Eve! These are a couple pictures my brother got on christmas morning. Rece really enjoyed opening gifts but after about 10 he was a little tired and ready to play. It took a while to open, but I really enjoy that.

Christmas Take 2

My brother has almost all the pictures from christmas morning, so I will just give you a little preview of that. This is the tree and all the gifts. These also include gifts from Grammy, but still a little ridiculous!





These are pictures from Christmas day and evening at Tony's parents house. This is his cousin Gage. Gage is about a month younger than Rece. They had fun playing together and Rece was so good, he didn't even try to smack/scratch him once! His other cousin Wyatt who is 3 1/2 came up and gave Rece a big hug. It was so cute, but Wyatt must have leaned Rece over just a tad, because when Wyatt let go Rece fell over like a wood board right onto the ceramic tile! Right on the back of his head. It scared me to death, but Rece was ok. He cried a little and we iced his head, but he went right on playing after a little cuddle time. At Grandma and Grandpa's he got a play kitchen with food, an electronic drum set, lots of books, and a few other toys.






HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEREMY! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY TO SARAH!

Christmas Take 1

The first christmas that we celebrated was on Saturday, with my family. This is always a big gathering with lots of food and even more gifts. Rece got some clothes and a christmas ornament along with a talking vacuum cleaner and some musical instruments, a few board books, a phone and a hippo. I think that is it, sorry if I missed anything. All of the gifts, he loved. He enjoyed opening the gifts and he pretty much did it himself(if he was interested), but he didn't get excited about seeing the gifts. So, this year was fun and it was kind of nice that he wasn't yet impatient about opening presents. I got a giftcard for a massage! YAY! I will hopefully be enjoying that soon.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDON!

He wants to be like his mommy!

He has discovered my shoes. Yesterday he just stepped right on in and started walking around with them on. It is very slow walking but very cute. However he gets very frustated if something isn't working out right.

I am seeing his terrible twos hitting. He has had a temper since birth but within the last couple of days is has started throwing fits. I still wouldn't call them tantrums YET but I see that happening soon. He throws a fit now when we try to put a coat on him and he throws his head back and starts smacking and scratching.

But in better news, I am really excited about the next couple of weeks with him. I am really looking forward to christmas and his birthday this year. I know he will enjoy it. I, however, am dreading the number of gifts he will get. The boy has too many toys as it is and I know he will get more, even though I didn't tell anyone that asked what he wanted/needed to get him toys. but some people think kids need every toy in the store. Really clothes and books would be sufficient.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE CRAIG!

The Tree

This is one of my favorite traditions. Going to cut down a tree every year and then decorating it! Rece checking out all the trees.
We found the perfect tree. Now time for daddy to cut it down.
And dragging it back to the car.
The finished product. Rece didn't have any interest in helping. He and Grammy watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" while mommy and daddy decorated. He loved all the singing in the Grinch. Next year, I think he will have a better understanding of all of it.

A visit to Santa

I was such a mean mom this year and I made my child sit on Santa's lap twice! On Saturday night our town did a christmas in the village and they said free picture with donation to the food pantry. So, I thought great, cheap and good cause. They did digital pictures and gave everyone a floppy disc. The picture turned out good, but the only size I could print it in to even have it come out decent was wallet sized and my holiday frame is 5x7, so we had to go yesterday and have it done again and pay for it. He SCREAMED the first time and was very mad at us. We even let him have his cookies for the first one, but apparantly that didn't matter. The second time he actually did a little better. Santa was trying to talk to him and calm him, but that wasn't happening. You can barely tell, but he is crying in the second one. As soon as we were done the second time he signed eat, so he must not have been too scarred :)

Trick or Treat!

Well, I was hoping to get better pictures of him while trick or treating, but the weather was really crappy and wet, so we went down about 1 1/2 streets which was plenty. He didn't want to walk at all so daddy carried him the whole time. There were a few things he could eat, but not a lot.
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This was afterwards while eating some candy. He knew exactly what it was and kept coming back for more. It was fun, but I know next year will be more fun!









HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!!!!

My little Elephant!

Yesterday we went to Boo at the Zoo! How fun, they had little treat stations, but we didn't worry about that. He doesn't really need the candy and he would only be able to eat a very few things. But we had fun.
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And today we went to a costume party! Rece played pretty well today with all the kids. He really loves Natasha's play kitchen and her keyboard with microphone.

More Halloween Fun!

*************Last Year at Pigeon Roost Farm**************************



















********************This year at Pigeon Roost Farm**************************

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We carved pumpkins on Wednesday. Rece did not care at all about doing this. He just ran around the garage and picked up rocks while I carved them. And this was the best picture we could get of him with the pumpkins. He appeared to be a little frightened of them. So trick or treat will be interesting.

Fall Fest

Today we went to "Fall Fest" at a local greenhouse. We had fun and Rece loved getting into everything. It was a little muddy but of course Rece didn't care.
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They had a sand area with sand toys and he loved it. He threw a fit when we took him out of it, but a lot of kids came in and he was throwing sand and trying to smash everything that other kids were building.
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He finally loves the swings and they had a swingset so he enjoyed this.
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He loves corn, so what do you think he wanted to do with this?
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The Hayride!
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Sitting on a bail of hay. We got this smile for about 2 seconds so I am surprised I caught it.
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This was probably his favorite part(maybe the sand too). But he just wanted to do this over and over. He also cried when he took him away from this.
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We bought 3 pumpkins and Grandma bought 1 to make pumpkin pie with. But this one almost became pumpkin splat thanks to Rece!

Labor Day

This was at our town's Labor Day parade. Can you tell he liked it? He clapped after pretty much everything and he loved the band going by. He was about the only one that didn't jump out of his seat when the guns went off too! And there is he with the vinegar fries again!

Yummy Fries!!! with vinegar!!!!!!! Mommy's boy.
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Kisses for Grandma T!
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This is how he watched the fireworks. He did great, not once jumping or becoming alarmed. And these are some LOUD fireworks! He got distracted occasionally, but watched the whole show. He is such a people person, he loved being downtown!
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Also over the weekend he turned 18 months!!! He still isn't walking but he definitely is working on it. He takes 5 steps or so and then dives to whoever he is walking to.

We also celebrated our 1 year blogging anniversary. We started blogging a year ago on July 4!!

Mother's Day

Well for Mothers Day Rece was in a wonderful mood!! He must have known. We started off by going to church and he just talked and talked. We have a very small family oriented church so luckily we aren't forced to go into the "cry room" just because he is a little loud. Usually we get lots of smiles and compliments on what a happy boy he is. He was getting a little too loud so we did cover his mouth a couple times. But what does a 16 month old boy do when that happens?? Tries to talk louder or tries to bite! After church we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house (Tony's parents). That is where these pictures are taken. As you can see lots of kids. The little boy in the orange is Kayden and he is one week younger than Rece and the one in the sweatpants is Gage who is 1 month and 5 days younger than Rece. Wyatt is 2 1/2 in the background with the overalls. Yes of the three younger boys, mine is the oldest and the only one not walking!! He had fun playing with them.

The second picture is Kayden and Rece. It is impossible to get 3 one-year olds to face the camera at the same time! And the last pictures is just of his cute outfit! Then later that night we went out with my mom and the rest of my family to Abracci's. It is a VERY nice Italian restaurant. I didn't expect them to have kid's menus but they did. And the server was great, he even filled the milk directly into the sippy cup. We have never had anyone offer to do that before. Rece ate his pasta great and he was still in a good mood. Squealing like usual! I am surprised we didn't get any complaints! But unfortunately he is not quite at the age where he understands inside voices :)