Weekend of chaos

The weekend of the 11-13 my parents came in town to celebrate Christmas and Tommy's birthday. We started off the weekend with Tommy's Christmas program at his school that I actually hesitated to go to, not knowing how it would actually be. They had been practicing their "song" for weeks but I thought, really it will probably just be a train wreck and will he even perform on stage when people are watching? Well let me just say that we would have MISSED OUT if we hadn't gone. My mom and I were laughing so hard that tears were streaming down our faces. The kids were hilarious and so adorable and Tommy was a star playing his maracas! I included a couple pics of the performance including one with his best bud/girlfriend Annaross from daycare. I have tried a million times to upload some video but to no avail. I have to work on the technical difficulty. Then Saturday morning we woke up and had Christmas. Tommy got all sorts of great things...you can see he got lots of book as always, along with play doh, a remote controlled car, DVDs and more blocks. And finally, Sunday morning we had his party and had a REAL fire truck come to the house for the kids to play in. We also decorated fire truck cookies and had lunch. I'd say it was a success! We thought Tommy was so beat after the party that he would sleep for HOURS and we got precisely a ONE HOUR nap out of him. Lucky for him he's so cute....

2nd Birthday

With Tommy and Catherine's birthdays only 2 days apart, this year we decided to do a family get together to celebrate for both of them, and then do a separate party for each of them. We all went to the club for Breakfast with Santa. Tommy was pumped to see his cousins, but absolutely terrified of poor old Santa. You can see how that went in the pic below...we even had Ryan sit on Santa's lap WITH Tommy to no avail. Hopefully next year will be better! But he got an awesome t-ball set from his godfather, Uncle Dan and a train table from Nana and Pops. This started a full week of complete spoiled rottenness, as the following weekend we did Christmas with Gram and Bampa AND his little friend birthday (will post next). Let's just say that Tommy now thinks everything that is wrapped is his, and that our playroom is completely out of control!

The day before he turned 2, we finally decided that Tommy's mullet/rat tail esque hair was a little out of control, so Ryan took him to "Divas and Dudes" for his first real hair cut. He came home looking like such a big boy!!! But he did great, although he wasn't a big fan of how the scissors felt on his skin. I think big money is in a hair cut place for kids....they "distract" your kids with toys and then of course when you go to leave, they don't want to give the toys back so you walk out paying $18 for a hair cut and $4 for a roaring dinosaur. Oh well...I think it is to Head's Up with Daddy next time for a $10 cut (and no dinosaur)

Photo shoot

During Tommy's first year, we got pictures taken of him at 4, 8 and 12 months. For those of you loyal followers, you have seen the studio "posed" pictures that we took. But I decided to have a photographer take some candids of Tommy in the park a few weeks ago and they turned out beautifully. Here are a few of my favorites (well, probably more than a few...just too many too narrow them down). You can see he is officially a BIG BOY! I just can't believe how big he has gotten. He amazes us every day with his growth and development, and we have officially entered the "watch your mouth at every moment" stage because he will literally repeat everything you say and is able to readily produce words again in the future! Enjoy....

A visit to Jacksonville

With Tommy's second birthday fast approaching, we realized that we'd better get in our traveling while we don't have to pay for Tommy to fly! So we made one more trip down to Jax the first weekend of November. It was the first time we were able to meet "Aunt Juju and Uncle Ricky Ricky's" little guy Trace who was born in August. We connected with lots of old friends and had a great visit. We got to stay with our friends Jim and Julie who have been stationed in Japan and Rhode Island for the last 3 years. They used to be our next door neighbors in Orange Park and really became family for us immediately. Their daughter Reagan (our goddaughter) and Tommy are only 5 days apart and you can see they really love each other when they aren't fighting over toys, which happened a lot. Tommy loved playing with all of his buddies and we had some great time with amazing friends.

Halloween festivities

OK, I am way behind! It is December 13 and I am finally getting up pictures of Halloween! Anyway, the Sunday before Halloween we got to take all the kiddos to the Governor's Club for pumpkin decorating, hayrides and games and we had a blast. Tommy was having a pretty good time, and then he discovered the golf cart and it was all over. All he wanted for the rest of the day was to ride around the course and the parking lots. For Halloween, we went over to Dan and Jessie's and played and then went out trick-or-treating. Tommy went back and forth between chasing after the older cousins going up to doorways and just wanting to hang out in the push car that we used for him. He really got the hang of getting candy and putting it into his Mickey Mouse pumpkin. All in all I'd say it was a successful Halloween! The Bud Light picture is a classic, of course that was for daddy as we were trick or treating but Tommy wanted to hold it before it was open so we had to get a shot of it!