Christmas Eve Eve, at church:
Now, normally, Jones' style is more casual and kind of a "mini-Alan" thing - I tend to dress him the way that Alan dresses - they have a lot of the same shoes, and I put him in button downs layered with sweaters and sweater vests, and lots of vintage-y type t-shirts, and polo shirts and that kind of thing, and at church we do nice khakis and button-downs and all of that, but for special occasions like Christmas and Easter and what-not, I like to go classic "little Tommy Tupper" kinds of clothes. They are so precious. This year was, obviously, the year of the knee sock, but I was totally validated in my choice by the numerous comments on Jones' cuteness that we received from the other parishioners (Alan's comment: "that outfit required a lot of thought"; my dad's comment, "I'm not sure about those short pants." Ha!).
We made the classic mistake of showing him the sippy-cup before we tried to take pictures at the house, and he threw a fit and wouldn't calm down 'til we let him have some milk, and then he refused to take pictures without it. I guess it's a nice change of pace from the paci - ha!
I think this picture is so cute ...
How precious is this baby? Precious. And how cute are those little Toms? Bananas cute.
In his room, checking out his tree ...
Christmas Eve - we started out the day with his new favorite breakfast, silver dollar pancakes.
He's not as annoyed as he looks - ha! He's just not that much of a morning person. He has to eat his breakfast, have some milk, and watch a few toons before he perks up.
Uncle Ricky, Aunt Kim, and Jonah came by to see us, but I neglected to get any pictures, which I hate. We had a nice, quick little visit with them. Jonah was so cute, they had just come from Betty and Richard's house, and he had the Star Wars Lego set they had given him, and he was carrying the box around, so proud and excited about it, showing it off.
After they headed on their way, we took a family trip to the park!
First stop: the swings!
Teeter-totter! Or, what passes as a teeter-totter nowadays ... I don't think they have those anymore ...
Are you enjoying the Ward family decked out in the Carhart? Nice and warm, and darn cute, too!
Next stop, the playground!
Jones loves to climb and slide - he even says, "Wheee!" on the way down the slide.
Nothing like the park to make you feel young!
We came home from the park and snuggled in, had some homemade chicken noodle soup, and prepared for Santa Claus to come visit us (or, at least, visit Jones, since he has been good and Alan and I ... well, we try :o)).
Ready for Santa to come!
Santa Claus came! And he left a tricycle!
Slow to wake up on Christmas morning!
A tricycle! Awesome!
Pancakes again!
Christmas was very, very cold, so we let the Spoiled Labradors stay in our bedroom during the festivities. They get way too excited when we have lots of guests to let them roam loose, especially when the people in question are grandparents. Anyway, I made their little gate festive for Christmas, and we snuck them pieces of ham and turkey.
Not as pitiful as they look ...
We made enough food for an army, which, isn't that always the way at the holidays? We also got to get out our wedding china and crystal, which I always love. Makes me feel so fancy :o).
After lunch, we adjourned to the living room to open presents ... and we had to open pretty quickly since the weather was rapidly taking a turn toward severe. Jones did great last year opening the gifts, and he did the same this year.
Christmas Day brought record snowfall - the first snow on Christmas in Arkansas in over 86 years, and it was a lot of snow! Jones' first snow, actually. Of course, we had to go out and introduce him to it ...
Trekking like a mountain man:
Man tracks:
In truth, he was not that big a fan. He didn't like touching it because it was so cold, so he wasn't that into it. I hope it doesn't wait another 86 years to snow this big again, I know he'll have fun in the snow when he's bigger and can really understand what it is.
On Saturday, December 29, we loaded up and went to see my parents in Broken Arrow, OK. They moved up there in the spring, and into their new house in October, and this was our first trip out to see them since they bought the new house and got settled in. Jones went straight for the vintage rocking horse my mom got him.
He's an old pro at gift-opening, but he appreciates help from everybody!
Pull-toy! He got two of these, the one in this picture is vintage. He loves to drag around leashes and dish towels and stuff like that, so he loves the pull toy!
New shoes! He was so excited - he said, loudly and excitedly, "Shoes! Shoes!"
Opening Tee's gifts (Tee is my aunt, Sydney, so, Jones' great aunt ... she always gets him the best gifts, and this Christmas was no exception. You should have heard the squeals he let out as he was opening these presents ... and check out those red cheeks - he's really getting a workout opening all of these gifts!)
That evening, we headed off to the casino to either win big or feed the little Indian children - how do you think Alan and I did? We managed to find a Star Trek machine ...
And a Star Wars machine ...
... but, alas, we weren't able to win, so the little Indian children went to bed with full stomachs courtesy of the Wards. Oh well ... we had fun!
The next morning, Grammy and Papa headed out - Jones was so upset, he started crying when they left, and then again a few minutes later when Tee left. He didn't want anyone to leave while he was having such a good time with them!
We distracted him with my parents' dogs, Cindy Lou and Susie Q. Cindy Lou is more fascinating to Jones because she's so small and so totally different from the Spoiled Labradors. Jones was all over her all weekend. I joked that she was the only person that was glad to see us go!
Sweet Susie Q ... seriously, one of the sweetest dogs ever ...
On Sunday, we loaded up and went to the Oklahoma Aquarium. It was really nice, and had lots of stuff for Jones to look at and touch and watch ... important things to have when entertaining a 21 month old!
First stop was the tidal pool with the horseshoe crabs, star fish and shrimp!
"Fish! Fish!" He couldn't get enough!
Feeding the turtles!
You put a little piece of carrot on the end of the clothespin and held it out for the turtles, and they swim up and eat it off of the end of the stick. They get after it too - the water is churning and they are climbing all over each other to get the carrot!
"Fish! Fish!"
This frog was hideous. Frogs freak me out ...
Sting ray! We fed the sting rays and the big fish as well. Same deal as the turtles, you put some food on the end of a stick and put it in the water, and they eat it off of the stick.
In the shark exhibit!
We spent the rest of the long weekend relaxing and hanging out, and Alan and I enjoyed getting to sleep in and having a little break from the rigors of daily life. We got to go out on a little date, just the two of us, and we slept in every morning, and just generally took it easy. I was sad, as always, when we had to leave, but it was a good time, and I know we'll all get together again soon!
Here are some of my favorite overall holiday pictures from Christmas, 2012:
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from the Wards, the Spoiled Labradors, and the Bad Cat!
