Christmas at the Smith's

We try to make it a yearly tradition to view the best Christmas decorations in Atlanta.  Lucky for us, we have an 'in' at the best place in town... The Smith's House!

As always the house was decked out!  We had a great time catching up with the Newlyweds and Mr./Mrs. Smith.  It's a bit of a challenge to carry on a conversation with two babies but we did our best.  Luckily Julie was an expert baby watcher (so is Mr. Smith... good genes!).

It was great to see the Lovett crew.  Merry Christmas to all our High School pals!

Weekly Recap

Parker (1 month)
Parker is growing and working hard on typical baby things.  He is getting on a bit more consistent of a sleeping and feeding schedule.  He has also started smiling while awake (he has done it in his sleep for a few weeks).  He likes to look at people's faces and we have started reading him baby books (Santa brought him some fun ones).  He is still happiest when being held and sleeps much better in our bed than in his bassinet.  On a strange note, sometimes he sleeps with his eyes open or partially open.  It's a bit creepy to watch!   Here are a few pictures from the past week.

"Reading" his baby face book

Looking Surprised

Looking Really Surprised!

It's Peaceful Being a Baby

Carter (19 months)
Carter is growing and learning each week.  This week we started a new game of following Carter at dinner.  It works pretty well for keeping him entertained long enough for mom/dad to eat.  It basically consists on imitating whatever Carter does.  He thinks it's hilarious!

Other than that, we are still working on losing the paci at home.  It isn't going too well but we aren't forcing the issue.  We are also starting to more regularly give Carter whatever we are eating for dinner.  He does a great job eating the typical toddler food but we're trying to make things easier by reducing the amount of cooking we have to do for dinner.

Happy Guy!

Have a Great Week!

Christmas with the Family

After spending the morning at the 'Holden House', we spent the evening celebrating with our local family members.  Since it was Pajama Sunday and Carter looked some cute, we decided to let him stay in his Christmas PJ's all day!  We started with a quick trip to see Pops and Emmie.  Carter had a great time checking out the fish, opening gifts...

eating sugar cookies...

showing off his gymnastics skills (big jump)...

and generally horsing around!

We all got some wonderful gifts and Carter had a great time with his Pops!

Then we packed up and headed to Grandmommy's house to spent time with the extended Jones clan.  Both boys were spoiled with stockings from Santa and more presents from the family.  Carter loved playing with everyone.

And Parker did his best to look cute!

It was a fun evening of catching up, yummy food... 

and dirty Santa. 

Carter was really well behaved and extra smiley!

 

Once the eye rubbing began and the bags had formed under Carter's eyes, we packed up the family and headed home.

We got Carter to bed and then Parker got to open his gifts from Santa.

It was a wonderfully long and busy day so everyone is bound to sleep well tonight!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Guess Who Was Good This Year?

First let me start by saying, the "Christmas Spirit" has been alive in the Holden House throughout 2011.  It has been amazing to watch Carter grow over the past 12 months into a wonderful child with a personality all his own.  Mom and Dad have been so grateful for the gift of being parents and we couldn't imagine out live being without little man.  Then you add Parker and all three Holden's got the best early Christmas gift ever!  

We get to celebrate all that we have been given every day when we look into those two little boys' eyes.  Life is so much more enjoyable when experienced through a child and Christmas is no exception!  With that being said, we were so excited to spend Christmas this year with our new family.  And experience the joy of the holiday through the eyes of our children.  Luckily for us Carter and Parker made Santa's good list this year so there was lots of fun in store for us on Christmas day.

Carter was a bit confused as to why mom had out the video camera when he got up...

Needless to say he quickly realized today was different from a normal Sunday!  After a few trips down the roller coaster...

We started the morning with a yummy Christmas breakfast sent over from Grandmommy.  Carter is still working on his manners.  He doesn't understand why it isn't appropriate to put your feet on the table ;)

After breakfast, it was time to see what Santa brought Carter.  Carter could tell he had a big day ahead so he grabbed some raisin bread for stamina.  We started by checking out Carter's stocking.

He had fun pulling out all his goodies including crayons, snack bowls, books and some snacks.

Madie and Brie had fun checking out all the new stuff.

Then it was on to the presents....

Carter was much better at unwrapping this year.  At times, he seemed more interested in the unwrapping than the gifts.  Notice the concentration!

Here is a video of Carter and dad in action.

He even unwrapped a few things himself.

After all the unwrapping it was time to check out the loot!  This part definitely required dad's assistance.  It's amazing how complicated the packaging on kids toys is!

Carter had a blast playing with his toys.  He loved his new sports equipment (they come with balls), anything with Elmo, books and well just about everything else Santa brought him!

Carter even loved playing with the gift wrap... again.  Where is Carter?

We spent the rest of the morning playing with Carter's new toys before it was nap time.

Needless to say, Carter went down hard which gave mom and dad some time to clean up and see what else Santa brought.  Dad's favorite item... shares of the Green Bay Packers.  One for each Holden man!

What a wonderful Christmas morning.  We can't wait to see spend the rest of the day with the rest of our family!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning, dad decided to start a new holiday tradition by taking the boys to a very special place for breakfast...

 It was the first strip to "Wa Ho" for the boys and Carter was super excited.

He really enjoyed watching all the action, looking at the pictures on the menu and chewing on his straw.  He was also a fan of the waffle and bacon.  But his favorite part of the meal was the orange juice!  As for Parker... well... he spent most of the meal like this.

After breakfast, we ran a few errands and then put the boys down for naps.  When they woke up, it was time to head to Grandmommy's for Christmas Eve dinner and presents.  Parker looked pretty similar to his earlier picture but he made sure to dress us for the occasion.

Carter had a blast opening his presents and checking out his gifts. 

 

He lost interest in the opening though once he got to some new books.  All he wanted to do was sit and read.  It's hard to be upset about that!

Carter got back in the present mood until he got to a new Elmo DVD.  He immediately made Uncle Reid watch it with him while he snacked on Chex Mix.

But soon he and Parker were back in action!

 

There were lots of gifts to open but somehow we managed ;)

We even had a close call where we lost Carter!

Whew... there he is!

Parker wanted to play the game too so Grandmommy helped him out.

It was so nice to spend a relaxing evening with Grandmommy and Uncle Reid.  We are so grateful for all the gifts!  Soon it was time to head home to prepare for the man in red's visit.  Carter didn't want to risk anyone missing his house so he made sure to spread several bags of reindeer food outside.

Let's hope it works!