Merry Christmas

Here's Tommy's picture with Santa. We went to the mall and used a "fast pass" so we wouldn't have to wait in line. This was our third attempt in the past week, we finally caved to the fast pass and it worked perfectly-cut at least 30 people. They were going to try to get a perfect smiling picture and I knew this was exactly what was going to happen, so we were in & out in less than 5 minutes with a priceless shot!

The boys on Christmas Eve.

Such a handsome little boy!

Tommy opening his one present on Christmas Eve, new pajamas of course!

Proud Dad after completing Tommy's train table/set.

Tommy playing with his favorite toy of Christmas morning-it's in his hand-the Elmo toothbrush!

Relaxing Christmas morning (and showing off his cheesy smile).

Laying and playing.

Michael opening his new iced coffee maker.

Tommy with his new bobblehead, Ellsbury, also holding Dad's mini Miller Lite mints.

My mom sent me an Euberskuberweiss, or something like that, so we made them Christmas morning.

I made the basic vanilla ones with strawberries and whip cream.

T approved!

Here's the video of when he first got up

Trying to get T into his stocking, took a while.

I've been trying to upload the video of when he first sees his train set, but of course it's not happening. Maybe I'll try later in the week. We've had a great weekend, relaxing and getting bits done. Oh, there aren't pictures past early morning because I dropped our camera and broke it...new one on the way with my mom who arrives tomorrow to help get ready for #2!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas tree hunting

Sunday we went to get our tree. We're not sure how many decorations we'll be putting on it, but were determined as always to find the perfect one. Tommy had other activities in mind...

the boys walking in (love these shots I get of them when they are stride for stride-so cute)!

T finding his first (of many) puddles...luckily he was wearing his new pair of leather shoes as opposed to all his others that are canvas.

He found one!

We found one on the other side (he doesn't know we didn't pick his, too busy puddle jumping-see video below). 

T going home in an old family tradition style- mine, I used to get so muddy every year, they made me ride in the back with the tree-T was soaked, so we stripped him.           

Here's what Tommy thinks finding the perfect tree is all about...

Ooops, been trying for 24 hrs to get video up, I give up for now...will try tomorrow!!

Basket Head & 4 wheelin

Tommy woke up this morning and about 10 minutes later we heard a pitter patter as he came running out of the office and through our house with this garbage basket on his head. Such a clever boy, we've never shown him this :)

Uncle Chadd and Aunt Jilly gave Tommy this battery operated 4 wheeler for his birthday. We finally felt he might be able to handle the power, so this is from the day after Thanksgiving-hardcore! I think he spent more time pushing it himself than sitting on it, but he loves it! Sooo cool!

Playing and pooping, take 2.

Luckily this time we weren't in the bathtub! We took a privacy/half time break so he could finish his business...he resumed funny faces so I recorded some more. 

We were hoping we could get a video of him saying "Mimi" in honor of her birthday today, but he's waiting to say it to her in person :)

Bath time fun!

Here's my boys last night...right after I stopped recording we noticed T was laughing so hard he had pooped in the tub. Sick. But it was soo funny. This was the tail end of 5 minutes of serious laughter!

 

Sharing

I came home from the gym and interrupted an important life lesson Michael was trying to teach Tommy...sharing his snacks with his future baby brother, whom I fear is going to be nick-named "Teddy" because that's what Michael calls his baby doll. Such a cute moment, I had to grab the camera. 

Tommy served himself breakfast this morning

He had just finished eating some Cheerios in his chair and I let him down with the box. He snuck around the corner into our bedroom while I was doing some dishes. I could hear how much fun he was having and this image flashed through my mind, so I went to check it out...guess he was still hungry! He was having so much fun! I'm glad our carpets are clean b/c I let him take some handfuls. I love his explanation and his little silly laugh at what he did-he's talking non-stop now! 

Sooo proud of himself!! 

Favorite corner in the world!

How cool is this? It's in Osseo, WI about two minutes from where the Callaghan family business sits. We stopped by on our drive from Eau Claire to Milwaukee, after an amazing Callaghan family reunion in August (trying to catch up some summer posts). Sorry Grandpa Martin, someone must have switched the signs since you last saw them :)

Michael and Tommy in front of the house Marty (Michael's Dad) grew up in along with his 10 other brothers and sisters. It's the most beautiful house off of Lake drive in Milwaukee. It was such a treat to stay there and Michael was thrilled to show Tommy because he was Tommy's age when they lived there for a little while. 

You can almost see the whole house now-they needed every inch with 13 people inside!

Massa & Dadzo, the two responsible for it all-I hadn't seen them since our wedding and we were so happy to introduce them to Tommy.

This is my one photo from Menasha, WI the first half of our trip. That's Mike G's dad, Don, on the right showing off one of his racing pigeons-soo cool, he set them free and they just flew in circles above us until he called them back in...never seen anything like it. Tommy loved the birds. We had a great time meeting all of the Griesbach  clan-great people!

Schools out, bananas.

We decided to take Tommy out of school...too hard on me! I dreaded tuesdays/thursdays and loved the days I kept him home. I know we didn't give it a fair shot (he was only with them one full day and one half day out of the first two weeks), but I'm so happy to have him all to myself! He seems pretty happy too...this video was at dinner last night, bananas.

Tommy's first day of "school" (Mommy's Day Out)

Getting ready to go...sure seems excited!!

This is one of his new smiles-so funny!!

Getting ready to go...check out the back pack-so cute, but doll size (another victory for Pottery Barn)! Unfortunately can't hold the stuff he needs for school, so it stayed home.

He's in the "Bunnies" room-9 one yr olds and two teachers. It's tue/thur 9:30-2:30.

Handed him over to his two teachers...he was ok until she turned and took him inside, then the crying started. Tommy and me. So tough. I've been to the gym, vacuumed our couch, blinds, living room, uploaded some pictures, cleaned the kitchen and it's been three hours...#2 wants his brother back so this mad woman will calm down. Hopefully when I go to get him at 2:30 he'll be ok!

All in about 5 minutes...

Tommy is busy. Tommy is advanced :) Here he is climbing all over his play house and then blowing a whistle and driving his car. I am amazed at his whistle blowing abilities because he was introduced to it this afternoon. Never a dull day here...

#2's debut...

We're moving forward! If there's anything to get me to do a new post it's the first pictures of our second little boy on the way! We found out last friday that Tommy's going to have a little brother! I was finally right :) Michael was convinced it was a girl because I've had a reaction to my wedding rings this time. Tommy never sat with us long enough to cast his vote.  Here he is:

He's weighing in at 14oz, that's in the 5oth percentile and fine with us :) They said everything is looking good!

And here's the proof :

Later that evening  we decided to take the first belly shots, poor #2, Tommy had about 20 at this point. So I put on this shirt that I bought when we found out Tommy was a boy, came around the corner and it was so funny-Tommy just came running and reaching out to touch the little baby-so cute!

First shot for #2's book :) Tommy will fill in for Loki who was in all of his tummy shots.

More posts to come soon, summers over, my favorite time FALL is here...time to be busy!

Bloggers block

I've got it bad...so many big life moments going on and I can't get started, so I'm stuck. We just got back from a weekend trip up to Austin (love Auntie Keeks!) and we leave tuesday for WI. So much to do tomorrow I know I'm not going to be able to update the blog or get pictures up, so I'll leave you with this sweet picture of Tommy on his first birthday. What a great day, what a great trip, surrounded by family celebrating the most fabulous little boy on earth! 

Silly sunday breakfast

 A mellow sunday morning breakfast of blueberry banana pancakes while enjoying nice conversation:

We'll work on not spitting out our food later...we were having too much fun today to worry about it.

Father's Day & Michael's Birffftttthhday

Last weekend was fabulous. We went up to Austin to see Aunt Katie and celebrate Michael's first Father's Day. We even went out on a date Saturday night while Auntie Keeks kicked it with Tommy (thank you!!). I could go on and on about Michael as a Dad, but I'll keep it short...I am the luckiest person to have him as my husband and Tommy is the luckiest boy in the world to have him as his Dad. I thanked Michael for making another one of my dreams come true-for being the type of Dad we all deserve, only better than we could ever imagine.

Here they are at our second choice for brunch (#1 had a line of at least 50 people waiting..no joke)! We were trying to get a cute Father's day shot, but Tommy had other squirmy plans.

Really squirming.

Handsome boy.

Showing off his Father's Day shirt.

Then monday was Michael's birrfffftthhhday! Here's Tommy waiting for him to come home so we can get the party started. Please click on this picture so you can read his cute t-shirt Auntie Sierra gave him-he finally fits into it!

Opening the card from Tommy, "Happy Birffthday to the man...from the little man." 

I didn't torture him with 33 candles, I did 9, 3 x 3 = 9 and it's the best #.

Ending the day with a birthday hug...so sweet. 

Life is good!

New summer toys

Grandpa and Grandma's 1st birthday gift came early for Tommy. He's been enjoying it inside for now. The back patio is full of the pool (see below) and he's not completely walking yet so I'm not ready to have him crawling in the grass jungle that's full of spiders/ants. 

He figured it all out very quickly, crawling under...

opening and closing the door (which is one of his favorite things to do all day long throughout the house)...

and even up the slide ( very scary!).

Here we are blowing up the pool, he's loving it already...

Notice the old, plain pool in the back, I bought 200 plastic balls to fill it with and bring it inside..haven't done it yet b/c I'll be picking up plastic balls all day long.

Love the dolphin spray.

Summer's going well so far...no mosquitoes yet and the temperatures hanging in the 90's :)