SNOW!

Just when we thought we had missed out on the best part of winter, we got another down pour of snow.

  

This time, we didn't waste any time finding a real sledding hill at the elementary school just a block away.  Well -- at least it was the perfect size for the wee little ones.    

It was New Years Eve and New Years Day -- so no where to be except for home.

And for two days straight, we sled to our little hearts content!

For Brooke, one time down was enough.  It was FREEZING cold and those snow flakes kept landing on her gorgeous, long lashes.  She was ready to go back where it was warm!

 On Christmas day, Tanner was a little leery of heading down the hill, I mean driveway.  But the second time around, NOTTIN could stop him.  Except for forgetting to bring the sled back UPHILL.  

But by the end, he was a pro!

Some us old folks, on the other hand, ran into a few technical difficulties.  Like trying to sit on the sled and it take off behind us before we could "blop" ourselves down.  

Or having the inner tube run out of air, but try it anyways, with another person on top.  Can we say -- OUCH!!  No padding the entire way down.

Here's some fun videos of us going down this hills with the cousins -- Tanner, Mason, and Brittany.

Kristan and Mason showing us how it's done.  Going over the "bump!"

My only regret was not taking more pics -- like Grandpop going down with a sled full of kids, Nana and Papa hanging out in the fridged weather (especially compared to St George!) or even pics of Avery and Tanner from the previous day.  But it was nearly impossible to snap a picture in the freezing cold weather.  So...we'll have to settle for these.

Now I can't wait until it snows again. And guess what, tomorrow might be our lucky day!!! Who-hoo!!

Christmas Day

December was filled with so much this year – I’m still recuperating.  Between the Christmas parties, hosting Anthony’s work party at our home, baking goodies, visiting Santa, going to Dallas, I was just exhausted.

But the magic of Christmas Day seems to make it all worth it.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve – which started in Dallas and ended in Kansas City.  My sister’s family had an awesome feast at their home and we arrived just in time for the reenactment of the Nativity.  All the kids participated except for Tanner and Brooke.  Tanner gets a little stage fright.  But hey, at least he joined in for the pic :)  And in case you’re wondering, that’s a real baby.  Thanks Scarlett for cooperating.

Before going to bed, we left Santa some yummy cookies and a picture of the First Christmas just for him.

On Christmas morning, the kids actually slept in and we had a blissful morning of filled with Christmas spirit.   Tanners first reaction, as he was hurrying me and my sister to the wonderful scene, “Santa left a THOUSAND presents!”   More like just a few, but who’s counting??


Tanner’s excitement just kept spiraling out of control.  He was the happiest little kid.  His very first present that he opened was an awesome pirate ship.  He was so ecstatic and he wouldn’t take his eyes off of it.  When I tried to get him to open another present, he responded, “No thanks.  I just want to play with my pirate ship!” 

He also was pretty stocked about his Lego monster truck and pirate figures.  What was his favorite present?  According to Tanner – ALL OF THEM!

Brooke had more fun unwrapping and playing with the paper—or shall I say eating it!

She got tons of little things – like her own necklaces!

Scarlett was a little harder to impress, but with Katelynn’s help, opened some pretty cool gear.

But the biggest “hit” of all – was this robot claw – as my brother Brendan is demonstrating. 
After a yummy breakfast of monkey bread and fruit,
We were so happy that there was still SNOW in KC.  We were worried we had missed out on all the fun being in Dallas.   While the snow was still scarce, our driveway proved to be the best sledding hill, thanks to our home for blocking all the sunlight, there was a thick layer of ice.  And dontcha all worry – we made the most of it!
Brendan and Katelynn took the first runs down the “hill”

Even Brooke braved the weather.  She wasn’t a fan of the snow flurries landing on those luscious lashes, but she did enjoy a good run down the driveway – I mean HILL!
Tanner was extremely leery of first.  He just wanted to “loot” around in all his pirate gear.  But – after much coercing – he gave it a shot.  And he’s been converted ever since!!



Yep, we all went down – not so gracefully!
In the afternoon, we headed to Keith & Kristan’s to celebrate with the rest of the extended families.  We had an awesome dinner, followed by gift exchange and games. 
After the kiddos exchanged presents, we didn’t hear from Tanner & Mason the rest of the evening.  They were too busy playing with their Lego Monster trucks.

Then we played some awesome minute-to-win it games with the entire family.   These were hilarious and so much fun!
First up was a Can-you-get-the-cookie-from-your-forehead-into-your-mouth-without-using-your-hands-in-a-minute game.  Jared was the proud winner.

 

We played can-you-get-the-red-pompom-on-a-string-up-on-your-vaseline-covered-nose-in-a-minute game.  It was super hard!

We everyone’s favorite -- see-how-many-marshmallows-you-can-get-through-the-wreath-and-into-the-bucket-in-a-minute game.  A lot harder than it looked. 

Such a fun filled day – and like Tanner has been asking – when will it be Christmas again?  I WISH everyday could be like Christmas.  With so much JOY, LOVE, and HAPPINESS, don’t we all!!!

Brooke Update - 9 Months

My little Rock Star is 9 months today!!!

I'm still waiting to get Brooke's 9 month pics done along with her doctor visit. But don't worry, nothing has changed. She's gotta still be in the 90th + percentile for height/weight. When I weighed her the other day, she was 24 pounds. She's such a little chunker and carries all her weight in her bottom. In the past month, she outgrew the 9 month clothes, then the 12 months, and we're now transitioning to 18 month. She's practically the same size as her cousin Q who's a full year older than her.

Our Little Foodie

Loves to feed herself, anything and everything.  She learned how to use her thumb/forefinger to pick up food at 6 months -- so she's definitely mastered the art of feeding.  Which also means -- she's mastered art of dispensing unwanted items on the floor. 

You know she's a Callison -- cause she loves her some spaghetti. 

Will go CRAZY for water in a sippy cup.  She continues to jump up and down, nearly launching herself out of my arms, if she sees one in sight and means a sip for her. 

Offended by formula -- even if it means going to bed without anything at all. She likes to hold out for the "real' stuff.

But with two little teeth that popped up in October, she's aggressive!!  She loves to bite into anything but gets frustrated she can't eat things as fast as when she's spoon fed -- so luckily -- she still lets us spoon feed her too.  And she quickly devours every bite. 

And when I'm not paying attention, she'll look for little bits of "leftovers" in the crack of her high chair and eat them too.  Yummy!!!

Social Butterfly
She prefers playing with people more than toys, anyday!  Whenever anyone enters the room, she's the first one to notice.  She gets the most excited about seeing Scarlett -- she has a serious crush on her, or maybe just her pacifier.  Either way, she just wants to get her hands on her and those beautiful locks of hair!  We're still waiting for Scarlett to recipricate the "crush" but maybe when Brooke learns to play nice and not be "Bam Bam" all the time, things will change.  These girls are destined to be best friends.

Tanner can make her laugh the most.  We get can her to do "courtesy" laughs all the time, but Tanner can get the pure, authentic, full out belly laughs anytime. 

People just make Brooke get so excited.  Not just a smile, but streams of JOY rock her whole body -- she'll be flapping her hands, leaping out of my lap, clapping her hands, she just gets so excited she can't contain herself.  Until you try to pry her from my arms.  Then fear takes over for a second (she prefer to "crush" on others from afar.  She is getting better by leaps and bounds.  She'll finally let other people love on her and hold her. 

Movin' Around
She loves walking around toys and furniture, but apparently, crawling in beneath her.

Just recently mastered rolling over.  Sure, she did it a few times when she was just a few months old, but then never did it again, and then only did it here and there periodically.  She can do it -- but it's not her favorite thing to do -- and takes some coaxing.

Her preferred method of commute -- sitting up, reaching for whatever she wants, and if that doesn't work, she'll go from sitting to crawling until she gets it.  Or she'll just cry and Tanner will come running over to her aid and hand her the beloved item.  She's a little spoiled. 

She is being to "crawl" but is still in the early stages -- more like moving backwards until she gets stuck and someone comes to her rescure.  And just the other day, full body plank position. 

  I think she was jealous of me going to pilates without her.

  

Look out, here I come!!   

Prefers to empty out anything in site. Changing her, she loves to grab onto her dresser drawers and empty out the clothes. Her box of toys -- she prefers emptying herself. Tanner's Legos -- that's a goldmine. Only happened once -- and we're doing our best to keep it that way.

Yes, Brooke, you've been caught!

Pulling the clothes out of her drawer like its no big deal.

She LOVES to stand up and play with toys or to hold onto your fingers, or grasp on to couch/drawers, anything.  She just starts to smile and laugh and thinks is the best thing in the whole world, second only to her LOVE of food.

She's kept her balance for close to 10-20 seconds when she lets go, can "walk" holding onto our hands.  I have to admit -- seeing her do this has aged her to me.  She looks so much older -- but I still don't want to picture her walking.  Once that starts, my whole world will be tipped upside down and there's going to be NO stopping her.


New Tricks

A few weeks ago, she learned how to clap her hands.  See how cute she is:

And now she does it when ever she gets excited or we start to laugh.  In the morning, there's nothing better than waking up to a sweet baby girl that's eager to please and pulls out all her tricks, just to make us smile.  Like I said -- such a social baby!! 

She is learning how to wave hello and good-bye too.  She does it about half the time, the other half, she just starts clapping.  Anything to get some attention -- and she knows it works!
She also started doing Tanner's notorious super intense smile.  The kind where she stretches every muscle in her face to smile and makes her whole body shake -- until you think she's going to have a hernia.  She did this seriously 100+ times a day.  Grandma Callison was the first one to get her to start around Christmas, and from there, it just didn't stop.  She would have the whole room laughing hysterically and sersiously do it 100+ times a day, until I got so worried about her pulling a muscle or something that I had to stop responding to it.  And sadly, in just the past week, she doesn't do it nearly as often -- so I"m still working on capturing it on camera.  And once I do, I promise it will not disappoint. 

She also says Da-da and Ma-ma.  On purpose too.  In the morning, she's super excited when she wakes up and Anthony is still here.  She just watches from our bed as he gets ready and ddoens't taker her eyes off of him, and just keeps blurting out, "Da-da, Da-da."  And when she's super tired or hungry, guess who she wants? And guess who she asks for?  That's right folks, her "Ma-ma!"  Oh yeah, this little girl loves her momma, maybe to the point of obsession.  But don't worry, it's mutual -- this momma loves her right back!!

What is there not to LOVE about this lil chunk of happiness!  I love the light and enery she brings to the world, one smile at a time. 

Christmas in the Big D–Part 2

Graduation was just the beginning of our trip to Dallas.  The kiddos and I stayed in Dallas for 10+ days.   

Of course I had to leave one day early so I could hit up my old Lake Highlands Book Club.  And with Pier handing out the homemade caramels and ornaments, it did not disappoint.  Even if I had to bring a baby who had refused to sleep the entire day cause she refused to fall asleep after an hour of feeding and rocking and every trick in the book.

We also stayed a few days with our awesome friends, the Georges.  We hung at the Museum, ate at all our favorite places, and just had a good ole time letting the kids run around the house while we caught up on each others lives.  We even visited Tanner’s old preschool and listened  as Santa Claus read Tanner’s favorite Christmas story, “The Polar Express.”   Tanner was as shy as ever, but I admit, I wasn’t expecting an African American Santa either.

By the end, Brynlee and Tanner were calling each other cousins – and by now they mine as well be our family.

All week long we were meeting up and hanging out.  Tanner had a play date with his number one old preschool buddy, Easton. Seriously, these two have man crushes on each other.  We’re still hoping to find the Easton of KC. 

We headed to Ft Worth for some cousin bonding time at the Ft Worth Botanical Gardens.  And to meet Ms. Kadynn for the first time at just 2 months old.  A bit windy, but still a beautiful day for a walk in the park. 

The Gang – minus the babies

Tanner, of course, can’t stay still long enough for a pose.  Whereas the other girls are so adorable and photogenic.

 

Now just use your imagination of what would happen when the wind started to blow…

And since I still technically work for Deloitte, I got to visit with all my old work buddies, and heck, even work half a day.  It’s been nearly 8 months since I’ve worked, so it felt good.  Real good.  Especially considering how I had no real work to do and could just catch up and chat with everyone. 

The rest of the time – we stayed at the parent’s home base and just hung out with everyone.  It wasn’t long until everyone else got into town. 

We spent time with Casey and Crystal, Eliana, and met the newest member of the fam – Christopher Liam.  Tanner did a great job playing and laughing with Eliana…I now have BIG HOPES on how he’ll treat Brooke when she gets a little older.

Then Anthony flew in and I’ve never been more happy to see him.   I don’t think I realized how crazy traveling with 2 kids in tow would be.  Brooke was an obsessed momma’s girl who was sick and miserable.  At home, she never cries.  And on the trip, that’s all she did.  And then at night, she was awake every few hours, topped with Tanner waking up at the crack of dawn at 6am.  Definitely outnumbered.  But it made me realize how much I missed my husband, how much I need and want him everyday. 

Anthony got there…just in time for everyone else to get sick.  We didn’t get to do all the wonderful, grand things we had intended but we enjoyed the downtime and smaller family gatherings.  And he got to do a guys night with the boys, seeing his favorite movie.  Eating at his favorite restaurant. 

Alas! On Christmas Eve--- all the festivities began

Brooke and Grandpa

A less enthusiastic Tanner

But nothing a few classic Christmas Carols couldn’t cure

The Christmas Nativity Story – M&M Style.  Melinda always has the best ideas. ever.

A very Happy Cousin Book Exchange

And sweet kisses from Grandma.  Tanner kept walking around the house that day, “I just love Grandma!”  Yes!  We all feel the same way!!

As much fun as it was, we were ready to come home.  Our home isn’t in Dallas anymore…but here in Kansas City.  And being away made me realize it.