big boy seat...

Boring as it may seem, we got Deacon a big boy seat for Christmas.  It was time to move him into one and since Jeff's parents gave him money to help with it as part of their Christmas to him, it seemed like a good time to do it.

Jeff ordered them online (we actually got 2 at the same time; one for the car and one for the truck), and he did a good job with the quality, as well as the color choice.  They are Safety1st brand, Complete Air 65 model.  They are convertible seats for up to 65 lbs so we should be good for awhile.  :)

They both came at the same time, of course, so they were sitting on our porch -- taking up quite a bit of space -- when we got home one night between Christmas and New Year's.  I'd like to know what the UPS man thought, delivering 2 of those to the same house.  :)

We opened one of them up and set it out on the floor in the living room so Deacon could check it out:

What's that?  Oh.  Yeah, he's pretty expressive sometimes.  :)

This was taken (with my phone, mind you) on his first trip in the seat -- to my mom & dad's house to celebrate Christmas (over New Year's weekend).  He was sooo sleepy.

Guess he didn't mind it too much.  :)

Christmas 2011 in Lexington...

...also known as New Year's.

Since we spent our first Christmas ever at home this year, we decided to celebrate Christmas with my family over New Year's weekend.  It worked out really well, and actually gave us more time together with my brother & sister-in-law, etc., since they didn't need to leave to go spend time with Brandi's family as they usually do on Christmas day.

We celebrated on Saturday, New Year's Eve, and started out the morning with yummy breakfast treats.  I made the bacon & cheese scones again and they were a big hit.  We also had awesome donut holes from Granny's in Thomasville (I think a new tradition was started with those donut holes, seriously), coffee and juice.

We started out with stockings, as always -- one of my fave traditions with my family.  My mom said something about possibly doing away with stockings in the coming years, which makes me pretty sad, though I understand about the idea of cutting back.  At any rate, we enjoyed tearing into those bags all at once and seeing what kind of goodies were waiting for us.  :)

Then we did the regular gifts which always takes awhile because we go around one at a time opening our gifts.  It really does take a LONG time, but I love doing it this way because I love seeing faces as they open gifts just as much as I like getting gifts.  :)

Lots of photos were taken, of course -- observe...

:: Gram & Buppa with their great-grandchildren ::

Bear, 11 mos | Cora Beth, 3 yrs 5 mos | Deacon, 14 mos

I think Jeff would tell you this is probably where I get my, um, animated behavior from.  My mom gets really excited about giving gifts but she also gets excited about HER gifts.  I made this scarf for her so I was personally excited to see her so excited about it.  :)

Christmas 2011 in Holly Ridge...

Well, this was a first.  The first ever Christmas that we were actually home, OUR home, on Christmas day.  We usually spend Christmas with either one of our parents/families, but we knew that with Deacon coming that would probably change, being that we want to create our own family memories and traditions, etc.

It was nice to be home for Christmas.

Jeff's older brother, Scott and his family came down from IL to spend a few days with us so they were here for Christmas.  That was nice, too.  Their kids, Brandon & Brittany, are 15 and 13.

Our church offered the same Christmas service at 3 different times over Christmas Eve and Christmas day: 3pm and 5pm on Christmas Eve, 10am on Christmas day.  We opted to go to the 5pm service on Christmas Eve.  Then we came back to the house for yummy shrimp & corn chowder.  :)

Christmas morning dawned and I made bacon & cheese scones and sausage balls (for Scott :), and we had chocolate donuts, too, with juice and coffee.  Before we opened presents, Jeff read the Christmas story from Luke 2.

It was a really nice day, spent relaxing and enjoying family, walking around the neighborhood enjoying the uncharacteristically mild December weather, eating a homecooked meal of ham, mac & cheese, broccoli/cheese casserole and rolls.

A very nice Christmas at home.  :)

:: roll photo overload ::
:: most of these were taken by my sister-in-law, Jill, bless her ::

[Deacon & Uncle Scott]

[ready for the Christmas service]

[Christmas morning] 

[Deacon & cousin Brandon] 

[Deacon & Aunt Jill]

[Deacon & cousin Brittany]

Christmas 2011 randomness...

Just some randomness related to our holidays this year:

I made pumpkin bread for our neighbors this year -- the ones on either side of us and across the street, and then also our brand new neighbors behind us.  We hadn't had a chance to introduce ourselves to them yet, so it was a perfect opportunity to meet them when we took the bread over.  Super-nice couple.  :)

Ahem.  Yes, this is a year late.  This is Deacon's 1st Christmas ornament.  I really wanted his 1st Christmas ornament to be special so I really looked around to find just the right one.  I never could decide on anything, and I had it in the back of my mind anyway that I kind of wanted to make one for him. 

Well, at long last, I found an idea on Pinterest for an ornament and this is my version.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  So much, in fact, that I've decided to do this every year until he's 5 years old.  But the ornaments will be made with photos from that Christmas so they'll be a year late, but that's okay.  This one has "Deacon Josiah Wenzel . 1st Christmas 2010" on half of the strips, and has his birth stats on the other strips.

Christmas cookie monster!  :)

walking!

Okay, so I'm behind, yeah.  I guess the holidays can do that to you.  And I was barely ready for the holidays in time, so truthfully, I was probably behind before they even got here.

Well, it is what it is.

So here I am, a couple of weeks late, posting that MY BOY IS WALKING.

For a couple of weeks before Christmas, he was taking a few steps here and there -- practicing, I like to call it.  He was still moving pretty fast crawling so he hadn't totally abandoned that mode of transportation yet.

[uh, yeah...he's walking on the Word of God.  oops.]

Then the week of Christmas, he started really taking lots of steps all together to get from one place to another.  He would walk from this stationary object to that one, from mommy to daddy and vice versa.  I'm so proud of him for continuing to practice and keep at it -- he's doing really well now and can make turns and such. Now, he actually seems to prefer walking to crawling because usually if when he falls, he makes a beeline for the nearest object that will help him get back up and he's off again. 

He doesn't know how to stand up on his own, but I'm sure that's the next step.  Ha!  Step...get it?  Step, he's taking ste -- ha, ha!  :)