Warren Family Christmas

We have tried to make this an annual event and so far the past 2 years have been successful! I just love watching the kids grow up each year. It's so awesome that Staci (Chris' cousin) is now living here for good and I get to be a part of her kids life. I swear I could eat those twins up...Ashley is too big to smother, however I will keep trying!

In an effort to help William behave even better we included Buddy the elf. We followed the Elf on a Shelf system and William named his elf Buddy. Each night he would end up in a different spot and William loved to find him each morning. Chris and I tried our hardest to get creative. He got into the Christmas cookies, and another day wrote a note. He would climb the Christmas tree and even play with William's Nerf basketball net. It was a fun treat to do each day with him, I can't wait for Ryder to have fun with this next year!

Santa Jim

This party was the highlight of my December!! A customer of mine hired me to photograph their Santa Jim adventure and I thought what a great idea for our group of friends. We rented Santa and had the best party for all the kids!! He read stories, took pictures and had a little magic show. It was so fun to watch the kids hug and basically burst with excitement that Santa was there to visit! There is no doubt about it, we have a new tradition among our group of friends.

Austin Get-Away

There is one thing Chris and I don't do enough of and that's take a little "us" time. In November we decided it was time. We had a little get-away to Austin and spent 2 nights in a hotel kid free. It was a big deal for me because it was my first time away from Ryder in over 5 months. Chris' mom Becky came to Houston and took awesome care of Ryder and we dropped William off at my parents in Austin. We went to Eddie V's (our favorite restaurant) on Friday night and went to see Joshua Radin play on Saturday night. If you don't know who Joshua Radin is, get to know him. He's awesome and I absolutely LOVE his music!! We also did a couples message and caught up on some much needed R&R. On Sunday we didn't want to get back to reality but what can you do? I can't wait to do it again, Chris and I had a BLAST!! I love that man!!

It's funny, when it's just the two of us, this is how all our pictures look!

William's "Friends"

I just had to mark this memory and create a post for this. William's "friends" as he calls them are a HUGE part of his life. They are a collection of animals he's come across from birth to now. He sleeps with ALL of them. It's so funny that he tucks them all in at night and makes sure each one is accounted for. They don't have special names, what you see is who they are. Momma lamb, baby lamb, ducky, monkey, bear, giraffe, kitty, doggy, and basically anything else he decides to include in his "party". Not only do they sleep with him, they are a captive audience. I've walked in on him preforming for them...and yes I thought it was the cutest thing ever! As a bonus William has this thing he has done since he was a baby. He sucks and chews on the tails of his animals. It's the weirdest thing but as you can see after years of chewing and washing the tails are almost gone. These fellas are so special to him, I will try my hardest to keep them in one piece as long as they are in his life.

Thanksgiving

Ahh the holidays. I'm pretty sure our Thanksgiving next year will be a little different. My parents may be living in Houston and hopefully I will not have to host. Not that I mind, but it's good to take a break once in a while. I did all the cooking, and if I must toot my own horn I did pretty good. At least there were no complaints. My cousin Jane flew in from NY and Diana is local so she came too. Ryder had a fantastic first Thanksgiving and William was a perfect angel. It was a good day with the family.







Yes, I got this and I loved what just happened to Uncle Robert!!!

November in a nutshell

November seemed to have flown by...actually this whole year did. Ryder is growing like crazy and everyday it's something new. He is officially rolling over. Talk about making it easy for mom to remember, November 1st he rolled over from his belly to his back and there is no stopping him. Ryder definitely caught on fast and is a rolling maniac! He has a love of being naked and bath time. It's hilarious, every night before we start our bed time routine no matter how cranky he may be at the moment I take off his outfit and diaper he immediately perks up and once he's in the bathtub he's a completely different child. It's awesome to watch him splash around and have so much fun. William has become Ryder's bath buddy and the two of them are pretty darn cute to watch. Ryder also loves his jumperoo and Baby Einstein videos. I know there are tons of people who say TV is bad...I turned out fine so to each their own. Ryder likes Baby Einstein so he gets Baby Einstein, it's that easy!
William is doing awesome in school. Aside from the constant marks he gets in his folder (mostly from talking too much) he's really learning a lot. I can't believe he's reading...not perfectly but he is making huge improvements with his sight words. He loves to learn and is always trying to spell words. He's also become quite the artist. My fridge is COVERED in drawings and paintings. This little boys imagination is off the charts. With every picture there is a very very long story. What can I say William is a talker. I'm seriously thinking about putting him on a word limit per day, he just doesn't stop!

I did this with a leaf blower....we couldn't stop laughing!!!

Seriously look at that smile!!!

TWINS!!!

My stinker!!

Ryder has a crazy laugh...seriously it's a low tone and sounds so sneaky. I can just tell he's going to be a handful!!

Swinging baby!! This baby loves anything fast and violent. I have to rock him so hard our bounce him so fast...the same goes with swings, the higher the better! Can you believe how light his hair is?

Is that Pablo Picasso?

In celebration of Fall Ryder did his first painting...with his feet!!! He made a beautiful fall tree to hang in the playroom! He had fun at first but that wore off in 2 minutes!!