"Merry Christmas!" Love, Sulley

We had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas this year.  Cael excitedly talked about presents, Santa and surprises for the past several weeks.  He enjoyed all of the Christmas music (he sung himself to sleep with "Frosty the Snowman" tonight) and got in the holiday spirit with Christmas books, toys and movies.  He totally fell in love with the '80's era Mickey Mouse "Christmas Carol" ... it looks like that movie will stay in regular rotation well past the holiday season.

The real excitement kicked in last week with Cael's party at school (who doesn't love a chance to eat Cheeto Puffs) and then a trip to the North Pole Express.  Cael loves trains and really enjoyed reading "The Polar Express" so I figured this would be a homerun.  After getting the little guy in some Christmas pajamas for the event, we headed to the Grapevine train station and waited for the train.

Once aboard, Christmas music played and Cael checked out the decorations and dancing elves that wandered through the train.  He loved getting his ticket punched by the conductor and was very excited to receive his silver bell (not that you can tell that in this picture).

We had a great time with Grandma as we rode to the North Pole but the fun didn't end once the train stopped.

We wandered through a "snowy" forest to find Santa ...

... and settled in for a performance by the big guy and some of his musical elves.  Cael stayed fueled with candy canes and "Frosty Chocolate Snow Milk" complete with a little of Santa's magic.

 We wrapped up the evening with a little time spent at a train table ... what more could a 2 year old ask for?

Cael's train experience continued the next day as he called "All Aboard!" for several train rides for his friends around our house including at the fireplace ...

... and on the couch.  Zac quickly realized he picked the wrong spot to rest.

We moved on from train time to deliver some gifts to our neighbors.  I got a little help from Sulley as Christmas wouldn't be complete without an appearance from our favorite blue monster.

We then spent the evening celebrating early Christmas with Zac's family.  Cael loved time with cousins and opening lots of presents ... especially when his beloved Sulley appeared within some tissue paper.

The Christmas fun with Zac's family didn't end there.  We hosted everyone for a BBQ dinner after church on Christmas Eve.  It was great to have everyone together and Zac got a chance to break out his first brisket on his new ceramic grill and smoker (along with a couple of chickens ... quite the multi-tasker).

After a fun, late night with family we finally convinced Cael to get a few hours of sleep before the Christmas morning excitement began.  He had a great time working his way through presents both small ...

... and large.

He enjoyed his toys as he opened them ...

... as did Scrappy once it was her turn.

We capped of our Christmas with dinner at my sister's house.

My sweet dad was under the weather so we did our best to celebrate while he got some rest at home.  Grayson and Cael had a blast together ...

... and baby Devin couldn't have been any more happy and adorable.

They all enjoyed presents ...

... and treats (yes, he stuck his finger in the frosting of the birthday cake that Grayson made for baby Jesus).

Cael is still in recovery mode after all of that excitement but with a few more nights like this ...

... he'll be ready for his next big adventure in no time.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Pre-"Tree Season" Fun

I'm taking advantage of the Arctic weather that settled on DFW this weekend to catch up on blog posts.  Cael reached some major milestones in the past few weeks like moving into his "big boy bed" ...

... and sporting "underwear" as he decided it was time to take on potty training!

But in between all of that "news" has been a lot of extra fall fun.  We took a road trip to see Zac's aunt and uncle in the Hill Country for a weekend.  We also got to visit with Zac's cousin and his family from Austin who came out for the weekend as well.  The kids had a blast taking rides with Uncle James.

OK, you might not guess that from Cael's expression but they all kept lining up for rides!

There was also plenty of time for playing with his uncles' old trucks which he LOVED.

The time with family was awesome (as was a fall weekend back in the Hill Country!) but we came back home and settled into other fall activities like Friday Night Lights.  Cael quickly became a fan of high school football games!

(while I'm at it ... since when do high school teams have inflatable entrance tunnels?  what happened to wrapping PVC pipe frames with painted paper?  am I just old and out of the high school football loop?)

We also fit in one last "half-camping" trip (no overnight in the tent) with time spent skipping rocks (Cael's new favorite activity) ...

... and enjoying a campfire.

All of that fall fun quickly transitioned into "tree season" with time spent looking at trees,

playing with singing and dancing trees,

and decorating trees (he decided to get started on his own!).

We're looking forward to the fun that comes with the rest of "tree season" :)

"Thank you, God, for trick-or-treat!"

I know that we're rounding the corner towards Christmas as I'm getting my Halloween recap posted, however, that late October holiday is still front and center in our lives so I figured I could still get away with a belated post. 

We recently started asking Cael to contribute to his bedtime prayers by telling God what he is thankful for each day.  While he includes a lot of sweet references to friends and family on a varying basis, the ONE constant in his prayers EVERY night is:

"Thank you, God, for trick-or-treat!"

We knew he had fun on Halloween but had no idea that all of that fall excitement would leave such an impression on our child!  We kicked off the Halloween prep with a visit to the pumpkin farm.  He had a very busy morning jumping in a bounce house,

riding in the train,

 

wrestling with big pumpkins,

 



hauling loads of little pumpkins

and checking out anything and everything that was towed by a tractor.

While the pumpkin farm was a lot of fun, the big excitement was building based on Cael's costume.  Last year, weeks were spent trying to negotiate Cael into his costume.  This year, I thought we were headed down the same path until he announced that he knew what he wanted to dress up as for Halloween:  Sulley.

Sulley is the big blue monster from Pixar's "Monsters, Inc." and Cael has loved him since first watching (an edited version of) that movie.  I initially protested this idea for several reasons:

1. I did not want to picture my sweet baby dressed up as a monster (regardless of how appropriate that may be given his 2-year-old tantrums).
2. I might work in marketing but I am not a fan of my child promoting anybody's brand.
3. I was not excited about the blue, furry, highly flammable Sulley costumes that I found at first pass.

Over the course of a week I continued to throw out other costume suggestions but Cael stood firm on his desire to be Sulley.  This culminated in a run to Toys R Us for costumes since there was nothing less "mass produced" to be found on-line.  We brought home two costumes to try on and he was not very happy in the first one.

I hoped this might be my easy way out of the blue monster costumer and back to a cute little chef or firefighter.  That was until he put on the second costume (and my least favorite of the two) ... that little kid just lit up as he caught his image in the mirror and I knew in that moment that he was right all along.

For the next couple of weeks Cael wore parts of his costume at random times and would disappear into our closet only to come back out roaring at us as Sulley.

Finally, the big day arrived and Cael kicked off his Halloween celebration with Trunk or Treat at school.

My sister and her family came over for Halloween dinner and the long-awaited trick-or-treating fun.  Sulley got to hang out with one of his Disney brethren, Buzz Lightyear (also known as Grayson).

These two hit the road in the wagon which they literally got in and out of at every house ... EVERY house.  At least they were having fun :)

Even Scrappy got in on the trick-or-treating fun ... she's always a hit in her little pumpkin costume!

The guys made out like bandits and we're still working through Cael's candy.  We definitely get a kick out of his nightly thankfulness for "trick-or-treat."  I like to think that maybe he's thankful for the quality time with family or the nice long walk we took outside but in reality, he's just his mom's kid and it was all about the candy ;)

(iPhone) Snapshot of Cael's Fall

The fall is a very busy season in our home.  Between the weekday pressures that I have during "media season" and the weekend commitments that Zac has during "fall hunting season," we always transition very quickly from Labor Day to Thanksgiving. 

Cael has been a busy little guy too ... fully enjoying all of the fun that the fall brings is a lot of work!  I'll eventually get around to downloading all of our "real" pictures of his good times but thankfully my phone will allow me to postpone that project for a few days while still getting some recent pictures on the blog.

Cael diligently broke in his costume in the weeks leading up to Halloween.  He chose to be Sulley from Monsters Inc. and he loved sporting parts of his costume whenever he had the chance.

Cael enjoyed all of the fun leading up to Halloween, whether we were wandering through Target,

getting pumpkins prepped with "the girls" (Cael's group reference for our sweet little neighbors),

or practicing trick-or-treating (he appeared to be collecting Rice Krispies treats in his truck).

Each day is a new adventure for this little guy and it's a true blessing to watch him grow.  He has such a sweet heart and is a great helper whether he's making muffins with me ...

... or working on projects in the garage with Zac.

He also has the cutest little nurturing personality at times.  Tonight's object of Cael's attention was given ice after bumping his head and received a thoughtfully planned meal ...

 

 ... that Cael decided to share.

Through the rest of the evening that big white bear was gently carried around the house and was eventually tucked into bed with Cael.  Please note the extra cup of water that he requested for his friend as well as the covers that he gently pulled over his buddy.

 

There were, of course, several tantrums in between all of this sweetness but we dearly love each and every part of him ... we might just save the photographic evidence of the drama for a later point in his life to enjoy :)