Terrific Two

Despite my denial and crazy "mommy" emotions, Crew turned two a few weeks ago. I've known it was coming, tried to avoid it and then had to rush like crazy to get things in place to celebrate it.

He is truly an amazing boy and such a sweet, calming influence for me and our home.

Things I Want to Remember About This Age:

Transportation
My lil guy is clued into every bike, car, train or plain within a site or earshoot.
He loves to point to planes in the sky and remind me that Mimi and Grandpa come to visit him on planes.
He loves to point to each car and tell me who it belongs to (Mommy's car vs. Daddy's car)
He is insistent on taking his bike outside daily, even if he loses interest almost immediately.

What Crew Wants, Crew Gets
But really, he'll say my name over and over and if I'm not responding immediately, he will come grab my pointer finger and direct me to what he wants to show me.

He's very generous with hugs, kisses, patting both sides of my face and check to check. If in doubt about getting his way, he pulls out the big guns. I am, of course, a softy.

He's so Smart

Ever since we got him in a front facing car seat, this boy is a talkin the entire ride. If we pass Taco Bell, he says "Taco!", if we pass Pizzeria Lemone, he says "Pizza!" and just to convince you we aren't totally food obsessed, he as says "Church" when we pass the ward building and "Temple" when we pass any remotely white building with architecture.

Books

This kid loves books. We start and end our day with several and even throughout the day, he'll try to drag me a handful. Current favorites are anything with Elmo, dogs, planes, mommy or daddy and any scrapbooks with pictures of himself. Farm animals are a big hit too.


Helping
He is still obsessed with all things related to our kitchen. He wants to help me pour, mix and anything involving the buttons on the microwave. Wow. It takes some patience on my part but he is sooo cute about it!

Talking
I've long since given up on trying to keep track of all the words and phrases he's using. Some of my favorite are "Jesus is at the temple," "Mimi and Grandpa on the airplane," "Puppies taking a nap?" and "uh-oh spaghetti-o's."


Big Boy Bed
After a few weeks of finding Crew in all sorts of scary phases of trying to crawl out of bed, we bit the bullet and put on the converter. No complaints, the lil man has been great at staying in his bed. Plus, when he's ready for us to come get him, his little knocks on the door are so sweet.


Growing Boy
Height: 32.52 in.
Weight:25.04 lbs.
Head: 18.9 in.

L-O-V-E

It's amazing how having kids breathes new life into holidays that previously dropped off my radar. Valentines Day has definitely been one of those. For sure, you love your spouse and want them to feel special but helping Crew prepare Valentines and talk about how we love family and friends was a real treat this year.

I'm not sure I will ever be able to live up to the decor, crafts and crazy outfits that mother's-of-the-year seem to whip up for their kids every holiday. But we did enjoy...

Homemade valentines for daycare class...


My very sad attempt at heart shaped pancakes...

And a very special night out with this handsome fellow!

Cole got us tickets to see Lady Antebellum! Such. A. Great. Performance. I love this group and attending a concert again with Cole swept me back to the pre-parent days of late nights out and gloriously, frivolous spending on entertainment. :)

At the Zoo

I should really never under estimate my son's love for animals. The concept is super foreign to me but last week we decided to embrace it with a trip to Hogle Zoo.

Love that the weather was so beautiful and love that admission was free. We waltzed in after his afternoon nap and didn't feel a smidge guilty leaving just an hour or so later.

The elephants were super fun for Crew. There were three animals in varied sizes so Crew immediately labeled the Daddy, Mommy and Baby.

Birds and fish were also a favorite. So much in fact that:

I had to keep pulling him off the ground to keep him from trying to touch them under the partition.

But hands down, I think his favorite part of the zoo was walking around with his favorite "snah."

We have a new love/hate relationship with the fact that Crew has learned the difference between on-the-go snack food and what we really eat at home. Judging by the way he is gripping the cup, can you tell which is his favorite? :)

We've been so spoiled this year. I have no idea what we'll do when winter decides to come.

Med School Bound

No. Not us. Thank goodness.

But my younger brother, Ben, recently was accepted to Midwestern University in AZ for med school. He has spent the last two years filling out applications, flying all over the country for interviews, praying over a handful of offers and is now ready to head off on this new adventure.

We got the family together this month to celebrate his decision plus the fact that we get to keep him around til his program starts this Fall.

Love you brother! We are so proud.

A Dallas Christmas

We're still basking in the afterglow of a wonderful 10-day trip to visit the Lansfords in Dallas. We are blessed to see them often but it's always a blast to return to Cole's hometown and reconnect with the friends and places we love so much.

My pictures don't do the trip justice as I stopped snapping pictures after Christmas morning but lets just say we had more than our fair share of shopping, sports and FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!

We had a Christmas Eve baking day where Rylie led us through making nearly 70 cupcakes, dipped pretzels, cookies and the prime ribb (ok, we just watched that one). But we had a great time.

Crew helps with the icing

Tony and Gail make a salt bath for the prime rib

The Lansford's LDS ward met at 8:30 am on Christmas morning so we postponed breakfast and Santa a few hours. We enjoyed the meeting and took the opportunity to snap this picture afterwards.


Once everyone was back in their new jammies, we commence the gift giving. Crew's reaction to his gift from Santa was exactly what we hoped. I was worried he might not really understand how to play with the bike but as you can see, the only thing better than the bike was a figurine of Jesus on the side table. Thank you, Nursery!



Merry Christmas!