11 Months Old

Our little man is 11 months old...where has the time gone?? He is quite the character these days! He has mastered the army crawl like nothing I have ever seen. We are still working on getting him up on his hands and knees, but that will come. He is trying really hard to pull up on his knees when he is trying to reach stuff, and has actually done it a few times on his own. We are very excited on how much progress he is making! He is loving being able to follow us around the house. Bryton isn't quite as excited as we are because that means Cohen is always trying to get his toys :)

Love that sweet smile!

This afternoon Cohen was playing with the balls from his new popper. He was raising them up over his head and dropping them behind his head. He dropped one and it got stuck in the collar of his shirt and he had no idea what went wrong. It was so funny watching him go in circles looking for it! Of course, I helped him out but I couldn't resist getting a picture of it.

Christmas Day

We have had such a great holiday weekend at our house. It was so much fun experiencing Christmas with the boys this year. Bryton was SO excited about all of the special things happening and it made it so much fun. We had a lazy Christmas Day at home playing with all of the new toys and just enjoyed not having anywhere to be. Christmas evening we went over to a friends house and shared a wonderful meal with their family. We had a wonderful day and realize more than ever how blessed our lives are.

Cohen got a dinosaur popper that plays music

Bryton loved his remote control dump truck construction site.

Santa was really feeling generous and brought Bryton a trampoline! He is loving it!

loving all the toys that our sweet families sent

Cohen even got to take a turn with Bryton.

Holiday Festivities

Our neighbors hosted a fun kids Christmas party last weekend. They had cookie decorating for the kids and it was a blast.

Santa even made an appearance at the end. This is by far the closest Bryton has gotten to him this year...he let him know he would really like some trains for Christmas.

Scott and Cohen were there for a little bit too, but Cohen had to head home to bed before Santa got there. We missed out on a family picture, but Bryton wanted one of the two of us anyway.

See, he was there....right in the middle of all the excitement :)

Last week we made salt dough ornaments. Lots of fun!

Then we painted them...they turned out really cute. I sealed them so hopefully they will last for awhile.

Playing play dough is a daily activity around here. Cohen has started to want in on the action too, so Scott had him sitting at the table like a big boy!

Cohen will pull everything off the shelf any chance he gets!

Making Christmas sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve morning!

Looking cute by the Christmas tree before we left for Christmas Eve service.

Really Bryton?!? That is the best I could get before we headed out to Christmas Eve service on Saturday.

Cohen put out his cookie for Santa before he went to bed on Christmas Eve. Then a few hours later, Bryton filled the plate with more cookies and carrots for the reindeer. He made sure he left extras so that Santa could take some to share with Mrs. Claus. Getting a picture of the two boys together is almost impossible, so I didn't even attempt it this time.

We sprinkled special reindeer food on our front lawn before we headed to bed. I think they liked it :)

Happy Birthday Scott!

Scott's birthday was on Tuesday and so we had to spoil him a little bit :) He got whatever he wanted for dinner, which of course he chose something I never cook...meatloaf and mash potatoes. He has been talking about a mall cookie cake forever, so of couse he got that too!

We had candles and we would have had balloons too, but the store was out of helium. Bryton doesn't think it is a birthday with out candles, cake and balloons :)

He got a ShopVac for the garage. I am not sure who is more excited, him or Bryton :)

Christmas Parties

Miss Barbara is Bryton's teacher at school. She is just so sweet and Bryton adores her. They had milk & cookies with Santa yesterday, but I had to take Cohen to the doctor so I wasn't able to be there for pictures.

Scott and I had a night out to go to his work Christmas party.

Bryton's school had an Advent party last week that was a fun night of pizza and crafts. Lot of glitter and glue!

Our squadron Christmas party for the kids was last weekend. I was in charge of the Ice Cream Cone Christmas tree table, so that is the only pictures I have from it. They all had a great time. Neither one of the boys would tolerate Santa, so it looks like we won't have one of those pictures this year.

Our church did a family day for decorating Gingerbread Houses. Bryton did ours all by himself. It was such a fun day!

A few more pics...

We have really been working on using a sippy cup. Most of the time we have a big mess on our hands, but it makes him smile nonetheless :)

Want to play fort?!? That is the million dollar question around our house...it is all Bryton wants to do when Daddy is home!

Showing off that mouth full of teeth!

Cohen discovered his magnets and is loving them.

Craft time!

Our craft countdown to Christmas is so much fun! Bryton is loving all the crafts, even the super easy ones! Here are a few of the things we have done. The back of our front door is filling up with all of his projects :)

He was so proud of his name!

We decorated the tree by finding the ornament letters.

Bryton was so excited because I let him use all of my supplies to decorate his tree....rhinestones, poms, ribbon, and little wooden beads. Of course, Cohen is right there hanging out wanting in on all the fun.

the Christmas countdown is on...

We are doing an Advent Craft Countdown with Bryton. Each day we are doing a different Christmas craft to celebrate the fun season. We also have the Playmobil Christmas countdown and he loves opening each door every morning.

We went to the Festival of Trees kid's craft day. They had lots of fun activities for the kids, but of course I forgot to take many pictures.

Bryton loves to play fort, and he always wants his brother to play too!

We went to the City of Fairfield tree lighting ceremony last night. The highlight for the boys (all three!) was the burlap sack slide :)

Cohen is such a Daddy's boy!

Bryton loves playing chef in the kitchen. He has come up with some crazy concoctions here lately....pasta, pretzels, and yogurt raisin soup, anyone??

10 months old



I can't believe our little man is already 10 months old...I know I say that every month, but it sure seems like time is flying by. Cohen is doing so well. He is officially on the move! He is becoming quite the expert at army crawling, getting faster everyday. We are still working on getting him up on his hands and knees. He is so happy and smiley these days. He cut another new tooth this week, now he has 4 tops and 2 bottoms. He is sleeping a consistent 11-12 hours a night, now if we can get him out of the habit of starting his day at 5am, we'd be doing great.

On the move...

Getting him to hold still for a picture this month was definitely tricky :)

Since the last time we met...

Cohen has become entralled with the doorstops and the funny noise they make. He will sit forever just flicking it and giggling at it. He is too funny!

Poor Bryton had a crazy reaction to his antibiotics, luckily it was just a rash and nothing else.

Bryton had his Thanksgiving Feast at school. They all performed a few Thanksgiving songs before we ate. It was so cute! He spent most of his time looking at us and making sure we were watching :)

Cohen has taught himself to go from belly to sitting in the last week! It is a huge step for him and he is so proud...can you tell? Now he is able to sit up next to the china cabinet and beat his little cups on there anytime he wants...isn't that great!

Bryton had another soccer practice and he did awesome!

Bryton helped make our pies for Thanksgiving. He is a pro at using the mixer!

We were in charge of frying turkey to take to Thanksgiving at our friend's house. Neither of us have ever cooked a turkey, so it was quite an experience doing all the prep work. We had a lot of fun and luckily it turned out great!

Here are the boys getting the process underway...

We stayed home for Thanksgiving this year and got to go enjoy our day at a friends house. They were so sweet to invite us over to enjoy their family feast. We had great food and wonderful company. It was the next best thing to being with all of our families for the day. This year we have so much to be thankful for!

Today, we decided to head to the Christmas tree farm and pick out a tree. The farm had all kinds of little things for the kids to do. Santa and his sleigh were even roaming around, but Bryton didn't want to have anything to do with that! He says he is scared of Santa's beard :) Not sure we'll attempt Santa pictures this year!

Cohen has a new "squishy nose" face that he is making all the time. It helps show off that new top tooth that showed up the day before Thanksgiving :)

Me and my boys at the tree farm