FINALLY!!!!

Sorry it took so long to post these. I took a BAGILLION pictures over the holiday and was seriously procrastinating going through them all. We had a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Christmas morning was full of laughs as Jace opened his stocking from Santa...

...and hugged everything inside of it!!

Mommy and Jace read "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

..and Daddy got to play with his new Land Rollers...ooooooh!!!

Christmas afternoon was spent playing with Nonna...

opening LOTS of presents...

and playing with all the new toys!!

Uncle Chris made his specialty..Deep Fried Turkey! MMM!!!

And we all went into quite the food coma!

Grandpa Ruben helped in ensuring this was a well documented Christmas...

Friday was a special treat for mommy, who got to hit the After Christmas sales ALONE!! No baby!! It was magical. lol! After the shopping trip came to an end we had friends over for Pizza, beer, and Guitar Hero!!

Jace and Marco had fun playing while the mommys rocked out! lol!

The festivities continued into Saturday, when we drove up to Jackson to have Christmas with my dad's family. It was great to see everyone and especially wonderful to meet our newest little cousin, Baby Ryan (who somehow I didnt get a picture of. Boo)..

Jace had a great time terrorizing his cousin Katie...

I think they even managed to wear eachother out, but only for a minute..

All in all this was a really great Christmas!! Jace truly had so much fun and that made it even more special for mommy and daddy.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Here's just a quick blog to say MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you!! Jace is enjoying his Christmas Morning. Here he is walking around in his Christmas Monkey Jammies!! (Thanks Tami!) He's itching to open his presents, but we are letting Daddy sleep in today....he deserves it! We hope all of you are enjoying your Christmas Mornings as much as we are. I will be sure to post more pictures for you from the day later!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOOGIE!!!!!

It happened...Jace went to sleep last night a baby and this morning he woke up a T-T-T-TODDLER!!! He knew it too! He's been just a bit feistier and a bit testier today. As if somehow he woke up knowing that he is officially a toddler! Of course, upon opening his sweet baby blues Mommy gave him the "One year ago today I was enduring 19 hours of labor to bring you into this world" speech. (It's my right and duty as a mother to give said speech every year on his birthday, the first year is no exception.) Hard to believe it has already been 1 year since this day...

Unfortunately, our little monkey has a doozie of a cold on his very first birthday. How unfair is that!? He's been sick for 3 days now..UGH! Since he can't really take anything to help him I have been plying him with water, mangoes (Lots of Vitamin C and Jace LOVES them!), and homemade chicken noodle soup. Trying to get him to blow his nose has been pretty comical. I show him how to blow his nose and he wipes his ear or forehead. Oh well, I'm pretty sure I was like 7 before I got it right. lol.

Unfortunately we had to cancel Jace's One Year photo session, which has me a little more than upset. So instead of having supercute 1 year pictures to share, I have my little sickie and his tissues.

I have been working on a 1 year slideshow that I planned on posting today along with a proper (mushie) reflection on the last year, but taking care of this little sickie poo and pretty much not sleeping at night has put a serious delay on that. (It literally took me ALL DAY to even get this blog posted) Stay tuned for it's debut next week...I hope!

FIRST Birthday Party!!!!!!!!

I can't even believe that I am already posting a blog about Jace's first birthday. I have been in a deep state of denial that my baby is going to be 1. Yesterday it was impossible to deny. Our little baby has become a little boy. While I am still clinging to the fact that he hasn't OFFICIALLY turned 1 yet, the birthday party made it all too real.
We tried our best to keep the party as small as possible. Jace has SO many sweet people that love him so much that it was a hard decision to keep the guest list so limited, but unfortunately we just don't have the room for everyone. (This is my lame attempt at an apology if you didn't get an invite. We REALLY love you all, we just can't fit you all in our little house at the same time. lol)

Jace in his party shirt. This was the best picture I could get out of this boy on the go. The shirt says "It's This Little Monkey's 1st Birthday."


Jace playing with his BFFs (best friends forever.)


The impossible to get, yet always amusing group shot...


Jace had so much fun opening his presents. He got right in there like he knew exactly what to do.

Look how excited he was!






OF COURSE Mommy had to make Jace some Monkey Cupcakes...


and a Big Boy Monkey Cake (Huge Thanks to Melissa for helping Mommy make these supercute cakes)


Jace also had his own Mini Monkey Cake that I forgot to get a picture of. =0(

He was a little shy about digging in at first...


...but quickly got right in there.


And since you can't have cake without milk, Jace got his very first glass of the good stuff!! He LOVED it! He drank almost his whole sippy cup full without even coming up for air!

Jace had so much fun at his 1st birthday party! He played and laughed and just had a really good time all day. You couldn't even tell that he missed his nap until he passed out cold on Nonna's lap after all the guests went home. He's a trooper I tell ya! This is one ALMOST one year old that knows how to party!!

You better not pout, You better not cry???

Then Jace is in trouble! We had 2, not so jolly, encounters with Ol Saint Nick this year.

His very first meeting with Santa was at Jeremy's AVCRAD Christmas Party. We raced to be first in line to see Santa with delusional hope that Jace would be his usual charming self and give us a big "I love Santa" smile for our Christmas Cards this year. WRONG!! He was completely confused as to why Daddy was handing him over to this big, red, scary man. There was screaming and there was definitely crying....

So Mommy thought, "Maybe a nap and a pep talk will do the trick." A nap, some I love Santa talk, and SEVERAL songs about Santa later we were off to the mall. He was in such a happy mood I was just certain we could get at least one smiley shot....silly, inexperienced, delusional Mommy! The best we could get was the blank stare you see above (and on our Christmas cards this year.)

Oh Well, Jace will just have to leave Santa an extra cookie for all the grief he gave him. ;0)