Our FIRST CHRISTMAS at our house! (the preparation)

Ever since Dee and I were dating we always went to my parents house on the 23rd, spent the night, celebrated opened all presents at their house with the whole family Christmas Eve, got up Christmas morning headed to Ma's for the best breakfast in the world, opened presents there and then hit the road to Tennessee by noon to drive all day and all night, get to TN in the weee hours on the morning and spend the 26th on celebrating in TN. Well this year was a little different. Dee and I really wanted to start the tradition of Hooper waking up Christmas morning at his own house, not rushed, and get to play with his toys all day, and enjoying the entire day as a family. So that is just what we did this year. The rest of the festivities went as they had in the past with the exception to instead of staying Christmas Eve at my parents and going to Ma's Christmas morning, we left Christmas Eve evening and came back to Plano, spent the entire day Christmas HOME and then flew out to TN the 26th at 8:00 AM! We chose to fly this year because a 14 hour car ride with Hooper just did not sound fun for anyone involved. Thank God for frequent flyer miles from Dee's travels! Anyhow here are pictures from our FIRST CHRISTMAS at home!

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Our living room after Dee cleaned out ALL Hooper's old toys. Getting ready for the new ones.

These are the presents just for us...all others have either been sent or already opened at other celebrations.

After Hooper went to sleep we moved the presents off the TV and back under the tree.

Dee putting together Hooper's "play tent."

The toys and other fun surprises under the tree.

Guess who's stocking this is?

The final product...Hooper's play tent! The largest "dome" in the center is filled with balls.

Me playing in the ball pit
Dee's putting together the "Shake and Go Speedway"

I love this picture of him. He's watching the cars race around the track!

Hooper's surprise he gets to wake up to.

Stay tuned for Christmas morning pic's........

Christmas at Nana and Papa's part 2...Hooper's favorite toy!

My son's favorite toy for Christmas???? A toy Dirt Devil Vacuum cleaner! Thanks again Ma! He is infactuated with it!!! So much that when we were packing to go to TN(below) he put it IN my suitcase as if to say "can I bring it Mom? Looks like a perfect fit to him! Why does Mom need so much room for my clothes?
Here he is just after he opened it at my parents house on Christmas Eve.

He's helping Papa work on it. Notice the screw driver in his hand. He's so mechanical minded. I wonder where he get's this, ha? But I must mention....after changing the batteries several times by both my dad and Dee and they still couldn't get it working...they worked and worked on this thing to get it to run.....well I finally stepped in and flipped the On/Off switch on the back and guess what? It worked! Think in simpler terms boys, ha!

Thanks for a wonderful Christmas Mom and Dad! We had a blast!!!

Christmas at Nana and Papa's part 1

Our first Christmas adventure we headed to my parents house on the 23rd to spend a quick 24 hours of celebrating and we had so much fun! Hooper enjoyed playing Peek-a-Boo with Nana more than he enjoyed unwrapping the presents.
I promise I did NOT pose him here. HeLOVED playing in the presents at their house. But unlike our house, he didn't even try to unwrap any there! Hmmmm

This present just happened to be just right "sitting" height for him.

My little brother gave his girlfriend, Laura, a miniature daschound(?) puppy for Christmas and Hooper of course couldn't get enough of it. His name is Snickers, but Hooper just kept smacking his lips trying to call him.

Back in the presents, this time examining Nana's tree closely.

Again, I promise...not posed by me. Just Hooper being his cute self!

Stay tuned for more pictures from Christmas at Nana and Papa's.

Hooper "caking it" with the girls

A sweet friend of mine from church has two very sweet girls! (actually she has 3, but only 2 came over this day). Anyhow I've done both of their birthday cakes (the Flip Flop and the High School Musical Guitar Cake) and they wanted to learn how to do cakes. So over Christmas break they came over one day and we played cakes. We has so much fun! But of course Hooper had to be right in the middle of it all. Here he is standing behind Brooke while she decorated. He was determined that he HAD to stand here too. He even had to share the step stool as they made icing.
And when we wrapped the cake boards...guess who helped? My tape never looked the same.
The mixer made a really cool sound and mezmorized him.

My little baker! I'm so proud!

Just being cute!

By now you probably already know that we (esp. ME) are pretty over protective with Hooper. I still won't let him sleep with a blanket in the crib. Partly becauase he is such a WILD sleeper that he would not keep it on him and freeze..and well the other part is a little paranoia that he will choke. Anyhow when Hooper was an infant someone gave us a wonderful little "sleepsack" that has changed my life. I now have every size. But my Mom found this one that's really cool that's a little different. It's like a sleep suit thing. Last week when it was really cold we put him in it and he stayed snug as a bug in a rug. And he can walk in this one unlike his other "sacks." Anyhow here's some shots of him in it sitting in the frig. (please don't look at how messy my frig is, it's now cleaned out, I promise!!).

For Christmas Dee made all the grandparents a DVD of all Hooper video's taken beginning with his sonograms. Well one day he had it playing and Hooper could not take his eyes off of it. Look at him watching himself. Also notice ALL my Christmas presents ON TOP of the TV...This is not for fashion I promise. The boys kept unwrapping, unstuffing and climbing on them so this was my solution.

OH they call him the STREAK!

As I've mentioned before..Hooper LOVES to streak before bathtime. Here's some "not too reavealing" shots of him with his cute little bottom!

Yes he'll love me for these some day. But until then...it's just too cute!!!

More pre-Christmas pictures

Our little (growing) family Oga (Papa) with Hooper in front of the tree. Ok let's take a minute here and do so explaining. We know everyone thought my Dad being called Oga was a little different. But when Hooper was just a few months if not weeks old he said a sound that sounded like Oga and my dad swore it was Hooper calling for him so the name "Oga" stuck. Well ever since then Hooper refuses to say the word Oga at all. He knows who he is and says all the other members of the family's name, but he will NOT say Oga. Therefore a search for a new name was on. And the one Hooper said is...."Papa." So from here on out, I guess my Dad's new name will be Papa. Nana and Papa...I like that!
Nana and Hooper..I love her look here.
You can hardly see Hooper since he's wearing his camo! He just blends right into the tree.

We had a RARE beautiful day in the 70's so Nana and Papa took the boys outside to play. Look at Papa being silly with the turtle shell on his head.

Hooper thought he was SO FUNNY!

This is really what Hooper was laughing at....Papa was making funny sounds inside the playhouse and the boys thought it was hilarious!

Trip to the Doctor's Office for Neyland's Sonogram

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and are having a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR! Our holidays were filled with traveling as most of yours were also, but praise God we are back home safe and getting back into our daily routines. So with all the holidays and craziness that went along with it I'm behind on blogging. Therefore the next week or so will be packed with new blogs...hopefully!

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The Friday before Christmas we had our first BIG Sonogram with our Perinatologist. This is the one we found out whether we were having a boy or a girl so my parents and Memaw graciously came to help us with the boys...and I think they kind of wanted to know whether they were going to be getting another grandson or a granddaughter this time. Thanks again Mom, Dad and Memaw! You saved us!!!

Here are some pictures of them "wrangling" the boys in the waiting room. Hooper and William sharing some raisins. These boys will do anything for a snack! Including sit still, ha!
Mom and Dad said that this man came into the waiting room (along with a ton of other people) but this certain man for some reason Hooper was scared of. So he decided he'd better hide under the chairs. This is so unlike Hooper. He NEVER meets a stranger...or hides! Hmmm. The guy looked pretty normal to me.
Evidence of Nana bribing Hooper with Goldfish. Hey, whatever works...right?

Due to having two carseats in the van any other passengers have to sit on the third row. Thank you God again for my van! Anyhow Dad caught this picture of the van full in tow. Notice how excited the boys are.

If you haven't already figured it out from the last blog entry...we are having another BOY!!!! YIPPEE!! I'm so excited too be having two boys growing up so close together in age. God is GOOD!!!!!!

Babysitting an elf!

Mom, Dad and Memaw came over before Christmas to babysit and gave me and Dee a date night. Thanks again!!!! We had so much fun! Dee took me to my all time favorite restaurant, Houstons and then we went to see Four Christmas'. You don't know how special this is. We NEVER spoil ourselves this much, but this night we did and had a blast! And from the looks of things Hooper had a pretty good time while we were gone!

Notice the toothbrush...oral health is very important to elves!
This is how he sits on my sit and spin. I'm not sure but I think he's a little confused on the whole concept of it.

Nana had these cute Christmas socks on and Hooper just HAD to wear them. They said he just kept looking at them and everytime they mentioned the socks he smiled real big and would just look at them on his feet. I'm not telling the story correctly I know....but they said it was hilarious!