The Stennett Family Christmas

After leaving Tupelo on Christmas Eve, we headed to Rienzi to the Stennett Family Christmas at my Mike and Mammaw's house. We all had such a great time. I have such amazing childhood memories of Christmas Eve nights with my immediate family, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and love that my boys now experience this tradition. They have a few more to play with than I did... there are 7 granchildren and there are 16 great grandchildren in our family now; 12 boys and 4 girls ranging from 3 months to 16 years old. Here are some pictures from the night:

Carter... he has not been around a Christmas tree that he did not love, or TOUCHED for that matter.

Will loves our "baby" Brylin. He always takes time out to go and play with him.

Will was giving his Aunt Sissy a very serious hug.

Carter with his big cousin, Brandon.

Grandmother and all 16 great grands... including one grand - I did my best to keep my boys in the picture without having to stay there. Love all of these beautiful kiddos :). We are very blessed to have such a precious and beautiful grandmother who loves us all so much!

Present time... Carter had to check out all of the bows. He loved them!!!

Some of my sweet cousins opening gifts. They all had such a ball and loved all of their presents from their sweet aunts and grandmother.

Carter opening one of his gifts.

Will opening one of his... daddy was there to assist him.

Cash checked out all of Will and Carter's toys. Notice ALL the paper in the background :).

Again... what a fun time we all had watching such excitement this night~

Sissy and Bran.

Annnnd, after the Stennett and Chittom Christmas gatherings, this is what we came home with for the night. We have some very loved little boys, who have had a ball with each and every toy. Thank you so much for all of the awesome gifts.

What a blessing it is to be a part of this special family! Thank you Mike and Mammaw for everything!

The Chittom Family Christmas

On Friday, we headed to Tupelo to celebrate Christmas in Tupelo at Uncle Heath and Aunt Toni's house. We enjoyed great fellowship, food, and the kiddos loved being the center of attention and receiving presents.

Uncle Mike trying to take Carter's paci upon arrival.
Will fell asleep on the way there and got some love from Papaw.

They even got to swing on the porch with Aunt Toni and Nana.

Uncle Heath got Hayden and Hayes's cowboy hat out from when they were Will's age. What a cute little cowboy, huh?

Will tried to get Carter to put it on, but as you can see, he said no way!

Present time... Will received a vacuum cleaner from his Papaw and Nana. He is obsessed with ours at home, so this was a great gift for him.

This is what he played with the remainder of the time there. I think he loves it, Papaw and Nana :).

Papaw and Nana bought Carter a ukulele. Last year, they bought Will a guitar that is a little bit too big for him to carry around. This one is more his size and he adores it!

Can you tell? He plays it and sings Happy Birthday :)

Sweet angels :)

Uncle Heath also pulled out Santa hats. Will would not put one all the way on, but he still looks pretty cute :)... like a little elf!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

We had such a great time with you all and are so blessed to be part of such a special family. Thank you all so much for all of our gifts and for all of the love you show us!

Ho, Ho, Ho???

Yesterday, we took the boys to meet Santa. Will was one happy little boy. He giggled with excitement the whole time that we were in line. Carter did too, well until, we went to meet Santa. Will gave him high five and Carter melted into a million pieces. He did okay in the picture, considering that he was scared to death. Will still says "ho, ho, ho" and talks about Santa, but Carter has not mentioned him since we left :). Poor baby...


Santa and the Chittom boys... 2010 :)

We were going to ride the train, but it was really cold and the boys have been sick. We plan to take them this week.

Circles

It is hard to believe that our Will will turn 3 years old in 4 months! He is such a handsome and smart little boy. He is finally out of the terrible two stage... :), he loves his little brother, who he now sometimes calls "bubba", he is all boy - loves trucks, 4-wheelers, dirt- you catch my drift. He also loves watching movies lately; Kung Fu Panda, Toy Story and Shrek 2 are his current faves. He has also enjoyed seeing the Christmas trees and lights. I think he is going to be one excited little boy when Santa visits him.

I am also amazed at how much progress he has made the past few months with his speech. He takes occupational therapy for speech delay, and this past week Ms. Dawn taught him about shapes. He was sick Friday night, so I slept with him. When he woke up on Saturday morning, he was holding one of his blankets and said "Momma, look Circle". He was SO proud of himself and of course, his momma was, as well. Tonight, we were looking out our front door and I said look boys, there is the moon. Will said "The moon, circle". When I told him good job, he grinned from ear to ear and said "yay". I am very proud of him for making these associations.

He tries to repeat everything that we say and it is so great to hear his sweet little voice when he catches on to the word or sentence. I taught him to say, Happy birthday, Jesus, and it melts my heart each time I hear him say it. Another cute item is that when he toots, he says "I tickle" (he is normally sitting with his daddy HA :)). I could go on and on, but my point in all of this is that I am very proud of my sweet angel's speech progress, and I thank God for answering my prayers. I know that his speech continue to progress as time passes!!!

Here are a few pictures of our big boy! He looks SO much like his daddy to me lately. Their mannerisms are very similar.
So here is a blast from the past... Will has always loved it when his daddy puts his hat on his head. He was almost 1 in the picture below... (in the old apartment, watching Blues Clues - pretty stinkin cute, huh?)

And here he is about a month ago... Still a little cutie!

18 Months Old

Carter was 18 months old on December 7th. We went for his 18 month checkup this past Wednesday, and we not only were given his stats, but the poor babe had the croupe... MAJOR boo. Will caught it, as well. It was a rough week and weekend, but they are both back to 95 % today :). A special thanks to NANA for driving up and watching our sick boys Thursday and Friday. Work has been crazy busy for me and I appreciate you SO MUCH for helping me!!! Will and Carter love their nana VERY MUCH!

So back to my 18 month old... Here are his stats:

Height: 34 inches tall 95th percentile
Weight: 30 lbs 90th percentile
BIG BOY!

Other than his sickness, the doctor said he is a perfect child. Annnnd, Eddie and I agree :). He has the sweetest personality and is such a loving and precious baby boy. He LOVES everything to do with Christmas this year. To say he is obsessed with our tree is an understatement, and he loves looking at Christmas lights. His vocabulary has continued to expand also... His newest sentence this month is "I turn it on"... and he is referring to lights, the faucet to wash his hands, etc., which he learned from his big brother. He is a little sponge right now and we love him so much! Here are some pictures:

In front of "his" tree :).
Ta-da :)!

We are also very obsessed with his "paci, paci, paci" as he calls it... oh ME. It needs to go soon!

We adore and love our Carter bug!

My First Haircut (x 2)

I took my little Carter bug to get his first hair cut this past Saturday. I have been putting this off for some time now, since he is my baby. The milestones seem to go so much faster and are so much harder with the baby :).

The haircut was a success. He did very well, as long as he was in his momma's lap and he had dum dum suckers in tow. Here are some before and after pictures of our little cutie!

This was taken Thursday night. Since it has been freezing outside his hair loses some curl during the day. This is Friday after his bath...
And Saturday morning at 8:00 am, here we go to Ann's shop. She cut Will's hair for the first time when he was 9 months old (see this post - http://chittoms.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-first-haircut.html). She has cut my hair since I was very young and I would not trust their first hair cuts with any one else. We love Ann very much!!!

Ann packaged up several of his beautiful blonde locks for me.

Sweet angel.

This is the finished product (taken Sunday night). His hair looks adorable. He looks so different now, but I love his haircut! I will post more shots in his upcoming 18 month post :).

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree

Or maybe sometimes almost knocking it down... :). My boys are slightly obsessed with our tree this year. I feel like I am on all fours searching for wire hangers on a daily occasion (due to a certain one year old in my house). It is very sweet how excited they get about Christmas trees, lights and all of the decorations that we have put up this year. We are making lots of sweet memories and I can't wait to see their sweet faces when Santa comes here. When they see pictures of Santa, they say "Santa, Ho Ho Ho" :). Enjoy some pictures of them playing in our tree.


Carter looks really innocent... but oh does he have everyone fooled :)

Will loves to turn the lights on and off... He learned to do it when he and I put the tree up a couple of weekends ago. He was a great helper.

What, Momma? Can't I climb under the tree?!?!

And kiss the glitter off of the balls... What a little stinker. An adorable stinker, I might add.

Will had just told Carter no... he does that a lot lately.

Will said "Momma, MOVE Car-Car". Little boys... sigh :)!

We can't wait to go and visit Santa, see Christmas lights at Shelby Farms and ride the train very soon. Stay tuned!