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!

Baby boy Winters will be named...

Blake Everett Winters!

After much debate (and some indecision on Brett's part :-) we mutually decided on a name for our next little guy about a week ago (we wanted to wait until Christmas to tell our families). Jameston, who has not mastered the consonant cluster combinations such as /bl/, lovingly refers to him as "Baby B-yake." Love it!

Everett is a name I have loved for a looong time, so I knew if we had another boy that I would like to use it as his middle name. Another reason I like the name is that it just so happens to share the last four letters of my handsome hubby's name :-) We didn't want to use it for his first name, since it could be shortened into Rhett, which sounds too much like Brett. So, it will be his middle name. In regards to Blake, we wanted to choose a one-syllable name, since Everett and Winters are fairly long, and we debated for a long time (okay, it felt like a long time, but it was only for a couple of weeks) between three first names. If we have another boy (since we have always said we'd love to have three kids), we've got a named picked out for him already as well!

Now that we've settled on his name, it's time to get the nursery ready! Jameston successfully transitioned to his big boy room the second week of December (which was earlier than we had originally planned on moving him, BUT---a post to come on that!), so the nursery is ready for an overhaul. I'm thinking lots of blues (which I did not do for Jamston's room), greens, browns and whites to go along with the black furniture we already have. I did use a lot of greens and browns in JW's baby room, so I'll be keeping a lot of the accessories (for which my fiscal-minded husband is thankful :-). Right now, I'm debating between going with a transportation or dinosaur theme. Stay tuned...

Merry Christmas from the Winters

We just barely got these out before Christmas, all because I wanted to wait until we found out the gender of our little bambino :-)

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas holiday filled with lots of great memories!

Birthday parties, babies, and baby showers, oh my!

This post goes back a ways, and I'd be lying to say I remember how far back (and would have to search through my calendar to get the dates right) so I'm just going to write about it and get it out of my drafts :-)

Back in mid-November my friend, Lindi, and I drove to Abilene to visit our friend, Wendy, and her family. She had triplet girls in late September, and all of them were home from the hospital after four weeks (praise God)! Maddie, Lily, and Aubrey were ready for visitors, so Lindi and I decided we wanted to help out Wendy and R.J. a bit. This was the only picture we took, as we were pretty busy :-) We took over for one of the night shifts (and they so kindly let us) so they could get an uninterrupted night's sleep. All I have to say is that I was worn out just after 24 hours, but I was amazed how good the babies were (and how calm and collected the parents of four girls 2-years-old and under were)! They go through about 30 bottles a day and who knows how many burp clothes and diapers?! It was great to see them in person, as we have been getting the cutest picture updates through email :-)

I also helped hostess my cousin Allison's baby shower the next day (three of our family members and friends are expecting baby boys during the last week of December-our little guy will have a lot of boys around his age to play with)! It was a lovely gathering, with lots of great company, food and baby talk, but I seemed to have been too busy to take pictures during the actual shower. Oops!

Here is a snapshot of the beautiful mom-to-be at, I believe, 35 weeks! She is due any.minute.now...

Jameston was invited to our sweet neighbor Avanti's 5th birthday party at Jump for Joy.

He had a blast!

It was our first, but definitely not last, trip there. We will be back!

Here Comes Santa Clause

Two Fridays ago, we headed to Jameston's school for "Spaghetti with Santa." They had two different seatings for dinner, andwe chose the later one so we could get some activities in before we ate :-) He loved the bean bag tossing games, as we hung out there more than anywhere else!And his Daddy had fun helping him, too!

And he even switched it up and threw with both hands!Mrs. Clause read "The Polar Express" to a group. Jameston was right at the front and even got up a couple of times to point to the picturesHe "wrote" a letter to Santa that we mailed that nightHe loves Thomas the Train, which was also on display in the Polar Express roomGetting him to sit on Santa's lap took some time this year (he was excited up until we went into that room). But nothing a good ole game of catch with the photographer couldn't fix! We loved it-no long lines, no crazy prices. Easy breezy!This year's picture:And for comparison's-sake, last year'sand the year before, when he was two-months-old and snoozing!