Christmas 2011 (a.k.a., longest post ever!)

On Christmas Eve Eve, we loaded up and headed to Love Field and flew to Midland (and then drove the two hours to Balmorhea). Jameston had to be up and at 'em earlier than usual, but he was in good spirits! And he wanted to "ride" the moving walkways. With our seven bags, we improvised!

He flew when he was 9-months-old for the first time, so this was a different experience---and more fun! He kept saying, "We going to fly in the sky?!"

For any toddler to remain still for over an hour, you must come prepared. I brought a portable DVD player from work, but, in all the hustle and bustle the day before, I forgot to charge it. So, we fell back on the iPad. He has an Elmo ABC game he plays on there. Phew!

Laura Bush was on our flight! We knew something was up when we saw all of the security as we were loading the plane. We thought that was pretty cool she flew Southwest even with her entourage :-)

Once in Midland we loaded up the rental and drove to the Davis Mountains. It was a perfect time (as planned) for Jameston to snooze. Another phew!

Glad he napped, because once we arrived, the family festivities began!

Lots of games with cousins (and aunts :-)

There was card playing,

(mainly Go Fish and Slap Jack)

(of course these two were a little young to understand the rules :-)

domino playing,

(big cousin, Riley, was a great teacher)

reading

(second cousin, Kaelen, was a hit with all the little ones!)

(and Lauren was a favorite, as well :-)

and even a potato peeling contest!

The Turnboughs can make even the most mundane of tasks a fun competition :-)

One thing is for sure, lots of great memories were made!

Here is a picture of Ruby and Jameston taking a piggy-back ride on Papa's back:

Movie ("quiet") time

One of the BEST parts about our stay was that it snowed on the night of the 23rd!

The kiddos had fun outside on Christmas Eve morning,and the views of the Davis Mountains were spectacular!

Of course, it didn't stay long, since it had been in the upper 50's earlier that week. But, hey, we had a (temporarily) White Christmas!

JW had fun (ahem, thanks to Brett) learning how to throw snowballs!Pure joy!King of the Hill (or bottom half of the snowman)!

Me and my little guy!

My two guys

The matriarch of the Turnbough family, GiGi. She will be 93-years-old in March, and has 43 direct descendants, with 2 more on the way in the Spring :-)

And then there are also the 17 people who have married into the family as well...our group at church on Sunday morning!

For this year's festivities, about 55 could make it. And Christmas Eve night was a fun (and loud) gathering. Santa Clause (a.k.a., Uncle Larry) even made a pit stop to see the kids!

Jameston was relieved to find out that Santa thought he was a good boy this year!

And he was sweet enough to go back and give Santa a hug after he received his present :-)

Riley got a new guitar!

The only thing J kept asking for this year...Simba!

Luckily, his Mommy found this back in November (so she was relieved!)

16 of the 19 great-grandkids (#19, Wyatt Winters, was born three days later in Oklahoma! And great-grandbabies #20 and #21, both boys, are due in February and April). These family gatherings are just going to get better and better (and bigger and bigger)!

More presents!

Jameston, who is following in his Daddy's footsteps, loves his tools!

He received a new drill, measuring tape and goggles

and made quick work of them!

Then on to the White Elephant shenanigans! It took probably an hour and a half with 55 people :-)

Action shot!

I think we know what to get JW next year (maybe not in pink :-) The boy is on a music kick as of late!

Christmas Day

Wide open spaces and a ride-along airplane. This boy was in heaven!

We celebrated with the Stewart side of the family on New Year's Day. This is the third year we have done this, and it works out nicely. As in, we are not driving all over creation within a 3-4 day span in order to get from family 1 to family 2, etc.

Dad and Glenda went all out for us this year...I guess we had all been pretty good :-)

Jameston modeling the "Santa's Helper" hat, since he helped pass out presents this year

Lynnlee and Aspen checking out their gifts

What can I say, the boy loves monkeys!

He received a duck caller in his stocking (along with many other fun gadgets). Fun!

Helping Mommy open her gifts (one of them being a Texas Tech necklace)

Playing pool with Pops (while we made sure he did not toss any off the table)!

Giving Aspen a goodbye hug. These two love each other!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season! Until next year's...

First (crush) kiss...

No, no, not mine and Brett's...Jameston's! Never did I think that I would be writing about this when he is 2, but here we are. So, let me preface this by saying that we are a lovey-dovey family (or so I am and the rest of the Stewarts), and JW has come to believe that we hug when we say bye to family and friends, and he thinks that hugs come with kisses. So, he makes sure to give me a big smooch at night when I tuck him in, and even when he's running off to another room of the house. And he gives his Daddy kisses on the cheek. SO cute!

Anywho, I was picking him up from "school"/daycare yesterday afternoon, and he ran to me to give me a hug (like he usually does) and we headed to get his backpack and lunch bag from another room. As we were getting his stuff, he saw his friend, Skye's, backpack and told me, "Mommy, I want to tell Skye 'bye.'" I said okay and we headed back to the classroom (I needed to sign him out anyways). He peered into the classroom and said, "Bye, Skye!" after which she came running to the door. She proceeded to give him a hug, and as he turned around to leave, he went back for another hug and planted a kiss on her cheek! His teacher and I chuckled and both said, "Aw, how sweet!"

But his reaction afterwards is what was most priceless. He then ran to me, wrapped his arms around me as if he wanted me to pick him up, and buried his head on my neck. At that point I realized that it wasn't like a kiss he gives me or other family members because he was being bashful about it. That realization became even more true when he picked his head up from my shoulder and his cheeks were flushed. Oh my, I think my little boy has his first CRUSH! Thank goodness the kiss was only on the cheek :-) Seriously, it was the cutest thing ever (although I did not expect it to happen already)!

"Chis-mas" at Daddy's work

One Friday morning Jameston and I made a trip up to the Galleria to do a little shopping and meet Brett for lunch. JW was mesmerized by all the activity, especially the ice-skaters! It was a quick but festive trip. We've gone every year to see the "big tree" and we plan on continuing those visits as long as we live in the metroplex (it's really one of the only times I can stand to go to the Galleria, despite the traffic and crowds :-)

Twas the night (or three nights) before Christmas...

We headed out of town for Christmas to be with Brett's mom's side of the family on Friday, the 23rd, so we decided to do our little family's Christmas that Thursday night. To kick it off, Jameston watched a video email from none other than Santa Clause himself. It was fun for all of us :-)After that we all opened our gifts from each other. Here is JW thumbing through his new "David and Goliah" book. Love him and his crazy hair!

My helpers, Boomer and Jameston, were sure to help Brett spoil me. Prenatal yoga coming up for me and a new Vera Bradley bag, yippee!

Don't know where or who he learned it from, but the boy knows how to tear through some wrapping paper and move on to the next gift!

His new horse puppet, to go along with his horse-themed big boy room!

Now on to the stocking and one of his favorite finds: the slinky!

Hew as super excited about his M&M candy cane :-)

Big boy underwear for the potty-training that is, hopefully, around the corner!

After it was all said and done, Jameston was too wound up to go to bed quite yet. So, we let him stay up a little later, and he decided to serenade us with his karaoke to his new Bible Songs book. Wish I would have recorded it on video!

The next morning we had to wake him up before his usual time to load up and head to the airport. He came downstairs to this surprise from "Monkey Elf," what he so lovingly named our Elf on the Shelf this holiday season. We received him last Christmas, but I figured JW was a little too young at that time. JW had a to-go bowl of "snow donuts" (and some fruit of course) along with a cold milk for the road. Also, Santa wrote him a letter that we read aloud...it stated that Santa would see Jamseton in two days (in Balmorhea), but Mommy didn't know that there would be a Santa at Dallas Love Field airport that morning (at 7 a.m.!) to take (free) pictures with :-)He did pretty well with the concept of behaving extra well so that Monkey Elf could give a good report to Santa each night, but here's hoping that next year he's a little less attached to the elf (as seen in the picture below...he always wanted to hug him)The tradition started this year, but I am thinking Jameston will be more excited next year about it! What a special celebration we had at home...stay tuned for our adventures with the Turnboughs and Stewarts (more posts to come)!

Christmas fun in the kitchen

So, with Christmas comes lots of baking of course. And baking just isn't the same these days without my lil' helper around! I made Oreo cookie bars for my co-workers. And JW sure had a grand ole time smashing them with a meat tenderizer :-)

I think the treats turned out even better thanks to our little boy's help :-)

Also, one afternoon after work, I had the last-minute thought (so there was not enough forethought involved, as you'll see from the outcome :-) to have JW build a gingerbread/graham cracker house. I do work right around the corner from a grocery store, so I was able to grab some gum drops and such, but little did I know that the graham crackers we already had at home would not be what my "how-to" guide called for. Oh well, our house turned out to be more like a shack!

Anyways, as you can see, Jameston was quite excited to get to play with the food (and eat some of the end result): All in all, he was very focused, and I must say he was pretty determined to make sure the house was standing upright...can we say perfectionist?!

Of course the best part is placing (and eating) the candy coating!

Excited to show off his project!

The website I checked beforehand also mentioned adding snow (powdered sugar) to the lawn. Before we did that, Jameston got his golf flag to make the wind blow. So clever!

Our version of snow:

We had a blast (for about 30 minutes), and Jameston was even so kind to help Mommy clean up our mess. Love that boy!