early christmas with the hastings/love clan

the week before christmas, we went down to katy/houston to have our christmas with charlie's side of the family.  we had beautiful weather and a lot of fun with the cousins.  smith and london (our niece) played so very well together.  she is just 3 months older than him and they were pretty much inseparable.  it is so fun to watch them and to see how different they act in certain situations, with the boy/girl dichotomy.  the plan was to draw and exchange gifts between all adults so that we could focus on the little ones.  and oh man....everyone did such a good job.  we appreciate all the love and gifts our boys received.



our matching stocking stuffers---headwarmers



one of the gifts i made the girls....a crayon roll, tutorial found here



bode loving the gift opening



the blocks i made for baby ben



tatum wearing the backpack i made for the girls



best buds, checking out brianna the horse



the fun chaos from above


papa and gigi with the babes

**i need to find one of us who took pictures at mema's house.....we had a blast, but i didn't take any pictures.

bode upddate

bode....my little angel.  he is great, as always.  he now has 7, going on 8 teeth and at 7 months was weighing 19 lbs. (75%) and 27 inches tall (50%).  he continually smiles at most everything and very little upsets him.  he is eating lots of solid foods....although we are having some trouble adding more 'textured' food as he seems to have a sensitive gag reflex (so fun).  he is doing great with fine motor, which we practice while eating puffs, tiny bites of fruit and cheese, and yogurt bites.  he is interacting more with smith and gives him a piece of his mind when smith is annoying him.....by yelling...loud!  i really find it so funny when he does this, because finally he is getting a say in play time.  he cuddles, which melts me...loves his pacifier and stuffed giraffe (thor) for nap time.  he is such an easy baby, i feel blessed and cannot wait to see this little, chill guy grow.

"bye bye paci"

one of our goals after smith turned two was to get him off of his pacifier.  he only used it at nap time and bedtime, but we felt like the attachment would only thicken if he continued on using it.  so, i had heard of this idea somewhere...can't remember...that you get the pacifier stuffed into an animal at the build-a-bear workshop. smith was really into it.  we kept telling him that this animal (stuffed one of his choosing) would "eat" his pacifier.  he had done great.  occasionally he will ask for it, but we remind him that ruff-ruff (what he named the stuffed dog) ate it...and he's cool with it.  good job smithy!

my smithy boy is 2!

just so happened that baylor played ttu in dallas on smith's birthday.  my dad bought tickets and we decided we would throw smith a little birthday luncheon with some of our college friends that live in dallas.  it was a 'baylor bear' themed party and i think smith really enjoyed himself.  smith is all about the baylor bears and will go around saying "sic em bears" all the time.  it is so cute.  at his 2 year check up, smith weighed 32 lbs. (92%) and was 37 inches tall (97%).  he is a big and good-looking boy!

love making cakes for my boys!



my mom made these adorable cookies as take home gifts.....delish ginger bread!





a fairly good attempt getting a picture of all the kiddos!



watching baylor win against ttu at cowboy stadium



doc is still happy....even though his team lost

thanksgiving

we got to host thanksgiving this year!  charlie's mom (mema), step-dad (papa), brother cody, sister-in-law sydney, and their daughter london drove up from houston to share a yummy meal and have a good time.

baylor homecoming

this was our first baylor homecoming in a long time.  we went with our good friends, the kohlbachers and enjoyed beautiful weather and a great football game.  smith loved it and bode was a very good (and handsome) boy.

busy season...lots to catch up on...

my excuse this time is the business of my november and december.  we were so, so busy.  i felt like i was constantly preparing for the next thing and had no time to sit down and blog.  i loved it all: homecoming, birthdays, thanksgiving, and christmas, but part of me is ready for this new year....just to have nothing specific on my plate this month.  sprinkled into all of these large events, i hosted 3 'interviewee dinners.'  this means i had all the pediatric interviewees over for dinner the night before their interview at S&W along with their spouses/significant other as well as current residents and their families.  getting ready for 'events' is so different than it used to be.  now that i have 2 small children, i feel i have to begin preparation for things more than a week in advance, but i love it all...so much fun!  i am going to hit the highlights of these past 2 months in pictures......AND, here we go.....