Mental Note this one..........

Never give my son a fudge pop!

He turns into an insane manic on a sugar high.

Just ask Aunt Mandy!

Happy Holidays!!

*all photos are stolen from my sisters awesome new camera

Can I just saying having a child is so AMAZING?!?! I forgot how much fun it was to believe in Santa so much and be so excited for him to come to your house!

I took off work on Thurs and Friday. We started off Thursday by going over to my sisters house to make cookies. Mandy and I were really lazy about it. We bought pre mixed stuff and got really bored after the first batch. We kept cooking though and ended up making 4 differnt kinds of cookies. Travis was so helpful this time around and I think he really enjoyed himself.

Then we decided to have a little photo shoot with Travis. He is getting so much better at smiling on cue. We found that if we make him say "PICKLE!" we can get a smile out of him. Funny how a picture can make things look so nice. Example the woods behind our house looks awesome when really they are not all that. LOL!

Friday Travis and I ran some errands and got his hair cut. That night I watched my 4 neices for a couple of hours. Is it weird that having 5 kids is easier then having 1? I was able to do the dishes, put away laundry, and talk with Steve for a half an hour. I mean I was constantly getting people drinks and snacks but they entertained each other the entire time. I love having all of them over! They play "family" the whole time they are over. Travis is always the brother. Madison was the "middle school kid." Kiersten was the mom and Dulanie was both the "mean cat" (that would scratch and hiss at you) or Santa Claus. HAHA!!! So funny.

Saturday was Christmas Eve. FINALLY Santa was coming! My aunt from FL was up so my mom and her stopped by my sisters house. That evening we went to visit with Steve's grandmother and his family. When we got home we went to my sisters and exchanged gifts with them. Travis started to get a little weird about Santa coming to his house that night. I think it freaked him out a bit. But he wanted to put out cookies and milk and made sure to tell the dog several times not to eat them. HAHA!

Christmas morning was so exciting. I loved that Travis was into opening the gifts. Thanks to Mandy and Matt for taking pictures for us!

My FAVE!

Happy Holidays!!

Weekend in Review: Santa take 4

We had a pretty laid back weekend. Travis is sick, I am sick but we are still hoping to get better before Santa makes his big arrival.

Friday night my BFF Traci and my sister took Travis and Brennan out for pizza then to see a Christmas train garden. Not just any Christmas train garden but the most jammed packed full of junk Christmas train garden you will ever see. Travis and Brennan were amazed. At one point Traci said "Imagine what this looks like to them!" I bet it was awesome! We managed a trantrum free night. And Traci managed to steal (not on purpose) about $10 worth of free Pepsi.

Saturday Travis slept until 11:30. My poor baby woke up with a cough that sounded like he smoked a whole pack of cigs. Him and I met his little cousins at their elementary school for lunch with Santa. The kids are so into Santa this year. FYI...This is our fourth santa visit. Travis better get his cars for Christmas!!! ;)

Why does school always smell the same?? As soon as I walked into the elementary school it smelled like French Bread Pizza and pencils from the pencil machine! Brought back memories....

Anyway Saturday night I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped and used 10 rolls of Dollar Store wrapping paper!!! Sunday I continued my wrapping at my moms house where I had stashed more presents that I had forgot about. I am DONE! YAY!!

Sunday night my sister and mother in law were over. We decided to make a gingerbread house with Travis. I had bought a kit last weekend. Our house looked so stupid. HA!! And Travis took a huge bite out of the roof. Oh well we tried.

Happy Monday! Taking my little booger nose to the Dr today at 3:45 to see what is wrong and hopefully get him some meds so he is ready for Santa.

30 Months

Dear Travis,

Tommorrow I will have the pleasure of knowing you for 30 months or 2 1/2 years. Hard to believe, so hard to believe.

Since your 2nd Birthday your speech has improved 100million percent. I love that you can talk to me on the phone now. I call you everyday at work just to talk because I feel like the biggest jerk ever for having to work. The other day when I called you, you told me that Daddy had pee-peed in your bed. A BIG ONE! I have no idea what you were talking about but I laughed so hard. Everyday when I get home from work you come running over and ask "Mommy I miss me?" It's kind of backwards but I know what you mean :)

You also say "No thank you" to everything. Me: "Travis help me clean up your toys." You: "No thank you!"  You are so serious and polite when you say it that I usually just smile and say "Ok."

Speaking of toys....holy moly you love your cars. I am talking hours of non stop car playing. Your cars talk to each other. There are good guys and bad guy cars. You love the bad guys. The bad guys go in my purse everywhere we go. Sometimes we will be out and you just want to go home and play your cars. We have acquired a collection of cars from our twice weekly Target trips. A new $1.07 car is used to bribe you into sitting in the cart. It has gotten so bad that we now are starting to get doubles of some cars.

The "Why" stage is here in full force. Everything I say and do gets a "WHY?" from you. And sometimes my answer to the why is not enough and I get a second why. I owe it to you to try to explain "why" because you are asking because you want to know. You love learning new things and once you are taught once you catch on very quickly.

You are so excited about the holidays. Halloween was pure heaven for you!! You now love Reese Peanut Butter cups since you got your first taste from you pumpkin bucket. So that is our leverage for potty training. A poopy in the potty gets a "Peanut butter snack" as you call it. So far you have gotten one :/ it is def a work in progress.

I can't wait to see you on Christmas morning. I think Santa is really going to blow your mind!!!!

You make everyday entertaining and exciting. Your daddy and I love you so much. We have this game we play were we make you snuggle with mommy or daddy and then we call daddy or mommy in the room and ask if they are jealous. And I am always jealous of daddy's snuggle time with you!

Love,
Mama

Christmas Prep!

I have been so busy and pre-occupied with everything moving (my sister) and holiday related that I havent updated this blog for almost a month!!! AHHHH!

So what's been going on?? Well lets see.....

I took off every Friday in November for no particular reason. One Friday Travis and I went to get his haircut, see Santa and go to the movies to see Happy Feet 2. We had so much fun.....

Travis sat on Santa's lap no problem. He told him that he wanted "Presents" and then told Santa "See you later crocidile" (instead of alligator). It was great!!!

The next weekend was Thanksgiving and also the weekend my sister moved in her new house. You can read all about it here! Here is Travis on Thansgiving. looking quite dapper if I do say so...

Thanksgiving night the girls went to Walmart for 5 hours of crazy Black Friday Essex Madness. I have to say this is becoming my favorite Thanksgiving Tradition! So much madness and so much fun.

We also went to the Festival of Trees. Travis loved the train garden there and was able to sit on Santa's lap with all of his cousins.There was also a train and carosel ride.



We had such a gorgeous weekend that we were able to get a ton of yardwork done. And all of the Christmas decorations got up!

Travis has also been my Christmas shopping buddy. His only request has been mac and cheese for lunch and I have been happy to make sure his mac and cheese wishes are fufilled!

Happy Holidays! I hope to be able to keep up with blogging a little more!

Weekend in Review: Painting!

My sister and brother in law got the keys to their new house on Monday (Halloween). We have been caulking,sanding and painting all weekend. I am getting ready to go back up there today. We have gotten so much done and so fast. They are going to be ready to move in so soon!

Eating lunch out front.

I also wanted to write about Travis really quick. He is cracking us up lately with his literal take on words. There is a country song out there that says catfish. Travis can not get over this! I know his little head is thinking CAT AND FISH!? HUH? Then the other night my father in law said something about the restarunt Applebees. HAHA! Travis laughed so hard at that one.

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!!!

Travis had a great time dressed as Buzz Lightyear!! He loved trick or treating with his cousins and the neighbors. He was such a good trick or treater and said thank you to everyone that gave him candy. I was very proud. I also dressed up like a cat. Travis thought it was great! He kept saying "Oh WOW mommy I like you tail! OH WOW!!!" He just could not get over it. He also referred to me as Kitty Cat all night. "Kitty Cat you want some lollipop?" LOL!  We got loads of candy and saw lots of cute costumes.

Thanks to my neighbor Casey for the great pictures.

The Baltimore Zoo

Last weekend we went to the zoo. Travis loved all the animals especially the elephants. He was very interested in seeing everything  there!! We had a blast.

Pumpkins!

Last night we decided to paint our pumpkins instead of carving. It was so much fun and I wish we had more colors to use!! I think I found my true calling in life. HAHA!!

My swan I painted on a gord

Feathers!

My Ravens pumpkin

Pink! We ran out of white so it did not turn out how I wanted. Plus it started dripping

Travis painted his ALL the colors but it kind of turned out brown....he had a blast though

Mandy's painting her hippie pumpkin

Flower power

Happy Halloween!

......hmmmmm...........

My hair has been shedding like crazy!!! Yesterday a piece of my hair ended up on Travis' arm. He very carefully picked it off and looked at me and said: "Oh no Mom your hair BROKE!!"

Imagination

I love Travis' imagination lately. He is always pretending to be an animal. Last night he was a pig named Rissy or Sissy or something I couldn't really understand what he was trying to say. He gets so into his animal characters. When I ask him a question he will say "Yes OINK!" HAHA!! I love it.

We played hide and seek. He was a pig, I was a frog. He would hide in the same spots that I did and had a really hard time keeping his eyes closed while I hid. It was the cutest thing ever.

Can't believe how creative and big he is getting :)

Weber's Farm

Today we took a last minute trip to Weber's Farm after work. We had a great time playing, sliding, hayriding and animal watching....

Hayride!

Giant Pumpkin

Baby maze

His own tractor!

Weeeeeeeeee!!!!

In the BIG maze!

HAHA!! Our attempt at a cute photo op but Travis looks scared!

3 footer!

Ice Cream for dinner :)