Caleb at 10 months!

I am having such a hard time believing that this little guy is 10 months already! And really what more can I say other than he is the happiest, smiliest boy around! He is so much fun just to be around and can cheer you up even when he is crying. He is still not really crawling, but he is getting more interested in standing. I think we will just skip real crawling and go straight to walking. He loves to talk and sing and eat! We are currently OBESSED with banana nut cherrios and anything that he can feed himself. We have also learned to spit and give kisses... His love for music is apparent and it is so much fun to see his little personality develop.

Playin the "pinano" with sister

Happy birthday sister!

Smile

His favorite part of jumpstreet

all nice and warm at zoo lights

Playin with cousin Will

Hangin with the big kids

One of his many silly faces... I think he gets it from daddy

and our first encounter with balloons, he went crazy!

serious face...

teachin will to be a big brother

have you been naughty or nice?

Madison was very into santa and christmas this year! We first saw santa at chick fil a with Mrs. clause. She sat on his lap, told him what she wanted, and took a picture. She then later told me that he was just a "helper not the real santa" really this from an almost 3 year old you have to be kidding me! I then had to explain that yes he was a helper and that she still needed to be good because santa had "helpers everywhere watching" I then decided that we wouldn't take her to see santa again until first before christmas.

Then a house in our neighborhood had a great little video of santa in his workshop that took up their entire front window. Every time we past that house we had to stop and wave to santa (who at one time very conviently waved back at her) She was then convienced that santa's workshop was in our neighborhood.

Then one night right before christmas there was a knock at the door.
 "Madi can you see who's at the door."
"yes mom its 3 shepards and...and...santa?!?!?"
"santa?, well you better open the door"
she opens the door without letting him in
"mom you said you won't call santa I promised that I would try better to be good! in a high pitch whiney whisper" (not even an hour before this she had hit her brother with her new barbie car and laughed, I told her that if she wasn't nice I would have to call santa. I forgot that we were having a visitor that night...oops)
"well you better invite santa in don't you think?"

"ok santa you can come in"



They then both sat on santa's lap and she told santa that she promised to be good and asked for a lot of barbies. Santa gave them magic candy canes and left with a hearty 'hohoho'

Madi was in complete and total disbelief. She was so excited that santa came to her house! I was excited that we finally got her to believe that she had met the real santa. And true to my daughters form as they were leaving she asks..."mom where are santa's reindeer and sleigh?" you see santa drives a mini-van until christmas eve I had to explain...

**as a side note the shepards were the bishop and his counslors from our ward. His dad has always had santa visit the chilrden in their past wards and he wanted to start the tradition here. I think it was great and so much fun for our family!**

Gingerbread houses

We had Madi's friend Isabele over to make gingerbread houses. I think they ate more candy then ended up on the houses but it was still a lot of fun!

Even the little guys Mason and Caleb had a good time

The final product

picture a christmas...

Yes I know the holidays are over and these catch up posts are late but we are still worth documenting! We had a few great holiday weeks and I took time off blogging so that I could enjoy the family fun times and get some sleep! :)

The kids both got super cute christmas outfits from Grandma Haynie this year so I thought I would try my hand at getting some good pictures. Not to bad if I do say so myself.

 Madison is obsessed with the nativity this year. She has the entire story down and will tell ANY one who will listen. I love that she is able to get the true meaning of christmas along with the fun santa part.

playing the "pinano"

Christmas card??

Trying to get a good Christmas pic of the kiddos...I think we might have to try again but these are cute! :)

A Madi Christmas to all!

Not a Christmas pic however this just shows my daughters personality to a T. We were at a party where she was one of 2 kiddos. Did that bother her? No not at all. Here she was intently listening to the adult conversation of strangers and commenting on how beautiful the ladies both looked. She sat here for about 20 min engaging in their conversation. It was hilarious!

Ok now for Christmas. I have to start by saying that we had a great Thanksgiving with the Haynies. Caleb wasn't feeling well so he was a bit crabby but Madi loved turkey and had fun with her cousins. Joe got to blow up a pumpkin and we saw a ton of "santa's reindeer" in the driveway. And did I think to get just one pic of the festivities? Nope Sorry but now it is documented at least! Both Joe and I had the weekend after thanksgiving off so we planned a trip to the "north pole" to get our Christmas tree from santa and planned a weekend of decorating and getting ready for christmas. However we spent a rather scary weekend attending to Joe's family has his dad had a stroke that friday. I am happy to report that all is well and he has been recovering nicely but it did chance our weekend and following week drastically!

Poor Madison didn't quite know how to take it all in so she promptly told her preschool teacher the following monday that we were not having Christmas at our house this year... I was quite distraught by this and took action! We went to "santa's workshop" to get a tree from the elves (Walmart) because we didn't have another weekend to go to the north pole and I didn't want to wait any longer to get christmas up as Madi was soooooooo sad. It ended up working great because Caleb is now into everything and with the fake tree only being 6 feet we were able to put it up on the 2 foot table and not only does it look great but he can't get to it! After going to the workshop and getting the tree we spent the next few days decorating and getting into the christmas spirit! (we didn't get our lights up outside this year but oh well!) Madi's favorite part of the christmas decorations is all my nativities or "tepleties" as she calls them. It is quite amazing to watch her play with them and she will spend hours pretending and playing! I also relinquished all control and let her decorate the christmas tree. I have even resisted the urge to move the clumps of ornaments and spread them out around the tree. She is so excited about christmas this year that I figured she could have "her tree"  We has really enjoyed the fun that Madi has brought to this holiday season. She loves Christmas lights and her favorite song is currently I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. We have a house in our neighborhood that has a video projection of Santa in the front window. We love driving by and seeing it at night and Madi is thoroughly convinced that Santa's workshop is just around the corner from us. Needless to say she has been SOOOO good this month. We are now very impatiently waiting for the arrival of aunts, uncles, and cousin Will and look forward to the rest of the month.

If Santa's village was located next to the stable it would look like this...

Daddy untangling ornaments

Admiring her work

putting the star ornament on top

we were so happy to have daddy home to help!

yes ALL the ornaments ended up right in this area of the tree, its beautiful!

so happy that christmas came back to our house

Her tree all finished

my attempt to get a few cute christmas pics...

the christmas ham

it wouldn't be christmas without papa's fireplace...only this year Madi figured out that there is NO way santa can come down our fireplace. We are going to make a "santa key" so he can come through our front door this year.

Santa's little helper

The beautiful tree

Caleb 9 months!

Wow this kid has grow up fast! I can't believe it. He is now eating table foods (he wants more but with only 2 bottom teeth its a little hard), standing assisted, walking in his walker and crawling EVERYWHERE! he was 21 lbs and 29 inches long. I don't remember the exact percentages but I do remember that he was in the 75% overall. He had his 2nd haircut this month and it ready for his 3rd! He has now officially had more haircuts than Madison.

 Here is his 2nd haircut with our favorite stylist Kassandra

 Checkin out the pretty girls at a birthday party

Best buds Papa and Caleb

This was the first moment I realized that Caleb could totally crawl. I had set him on a blanket not near the toys and this is what I can back to!

 Sometimes you just need to be but in a cage (at least according to sister)

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree, Oh how I love to eat you! and the ornaments and the lights...you get the idea

Daddy's Star!

 Our 9 month photo shoot with sister

Santa's little elf

He LOVES this little walker/play table and it is my lifesaver! It keeps him entertained and out of trouble for awhile! :)

We love this happy little guy!