Look what Santa Brought!

Santa came a little early this year since we'll be in Mobile Christmas morning. Boy was Maddox surprised at what he left for him!

The big hit was of course the wood train table and the remote control choo-choo! He had a blast playing with it...so much so that he refused to open any other presents for a while. I finally bribed him into opening other gifts by giving him bites of cinnamon roll in return. Sometimes you do what you gotta do! :)

Here is Maddox admiring his choo-choo and watching it drive by itself around the tracks. He was pretty mesmerized!

Creating a Mr. Potato Head masterpiece!Yay for Potty Time with Elmo! This book has real flushing sounds and everything so Maddox really liked it. We are hoping it will get him prepared for what's the come this summer (hopefully).
Oh look....a brand new tee ball set!
And a special gift that Daddy picked out and has been wanting to get him...a metal Tonka dump truck (or "big truck" as Maddox likes to call it). Maddox loves pushing it around the house!What a sweet blessing this little man is! Since Maddox is so much bigger this year he has really been able to get in there and show his excitement over everything going on. It has been so much fun to watch! He is such a special boy and we are so blessed to be his parents!

Visit with Santa

We had a rather unsuccessful trip to see Santa this year. I figured it would go that way since it seems like most 1-2 year olds want nothing to do with Santa. Well, Maddox was no different. When we were in line he would point at him and say his name, but he refused to let Blake put him on his lap. I even tried to bribe him with a cookie, but that didn't work either. He had a great time running around the store looking at the model trains and remote control trucks and cars though. He even got to sit on a "big truck" as he calls it. Hopefully next year we can get a real picture with Santa though!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Maddox's class had their Happy Birthday, Jesus Christmas party today at school. Blake and I both went and had so much fun. They ate pizza and decorated cookies with icing and sprinkles. Maddox really enjoyed the sprinkling. Afterwards Maddox had fun showing us everything around the room and we even went to the big playroom with him for a little while where he ran around like a maniac. Ms. Tara even went and got the big ride on Thomas train for him to play with because it's his favorite. He had a such a blast and now we have a wonderful Christmas break to look forward to together!

First Haircut

Well Maddox finally had his first real haircut this evening. I know, I know...it's about time! I just haven't been able to bring myself to cut off his sweet little curls. His hair has gotten a little more than unruly though lately and was just all over the place so we decided to break down and do it. We took him to a place close to home called Hair Force because they have a little airplane they let them sit in and we thought that might help him do okay (to be honest we pretty much thought the whole thing was going to be a disaster). We put him in the airplane and enjoyed it for a minute, but he pretty much went ballistic as soon as the lady touched him. So we had to resort to Plan B, sitting in Daddy's lap. Surprisingly, he did very well. He was extremely somber and serious throughout the whole thing, but he never cried and he stayed very still. All in all, a success. And fortunately, his hair is still trying to curl up again in the back, so we haven't lost those sweet little curls just yet.

Here is a before shot of him checking out the airplane (before the lady touched him).

Before shot of the back of his head with his curls all brushed out. It looks so long without the curls.
Safely sitting on Daddy's lap. Notice his sad little lip in this shot. He never cried but he was visibly saddened by the whole ordeal!

Still a little unsure here.

I gave him a little sucker thinking it would take his mind off things, but he just stared at it the whole time and never would even lick it until we walked out the door. That probably was for the best because it most likely would have ended up with stray hairs all over it if he'd eaten it during the haircut.

Hooray, we all survived! That wasn't so bad after all. Maybe the dentist won't be as bad as I'm envisioning it being...yeah right!

Decorating the Tree

We decided to go ahead and put up our tree this past weekend. Maddox enjoyed helping decorate with "balls", but the only problem was that he liked bouncing them on the floor. We gave him the very inexpensive (and non-glass) ones to put on the tree. He was so funny...he would walk over and set it on the branch and clap. When one bounced to the floor and made a funny sound he liked that so then he started bouncing them on purpose. There were a few casualties over the course of the decorating process, but we only had to run the vacuum a few times so it wasn't too bad. I did have to rearrange the ornaments after he was done helping and I made sure to put the valuable and breakable ones toward the top, but all in all he was a good little helper.

Thanksgiving Feast!

Maddox's Thanksgiving feast was this past Tuesday. They had chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and rolls. Maddox pretty much only ate his roll (he's become quite the picky eater these days) but he seemed to really enjoy it! Blake and I both got to go and hang out with him and he thought that was pretty cool. He enjoyed showing us his toys and other things around the classroom. He was very sad to see us leave when we had to go back to work (Mommy may have been more sad due to the tears), but at least we had a 5 day weekend to look forward too. His teacher said he got over it pretty fast...nothing a few M&Ms couldn't fix.

I am so very thankful for so many things this year, but above all I am thankful for my wonderful family and am so blessed to have this sweet little man in my life. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Off to the Races!

Daddy taught Maddox how to run a proper race, with "On your mark, get set, go!" commands and everything! He loves to race. The only problem is he always makes sure you win. Whenever you slow down to try to let him pass you, he slows down so that he won't pass you up. One day I'm pretty sure he won't be such a good sport about losing!

SEC Champs!

Yeah, Auburn clinched the SEC West tonight after a great (and quite intense) game! Maddox loves to yell, "War Eagle, Hey!" now so I caught a few of his cheers on video. Here is his "War Eagle" minus the eagle. For whatever reason, he leaves the eagle out every time. I'm pretty sure the "hey" is his favorite part though!

Happy Halloween!

Maddox had so much fun dressing up this Halloween. I was unsure if he would wear his tiger head because he refused to wear it at all every time I tried to get him to put it on for the longest time, but the night before Halloween, he put it on and didn't want to take it off. Even when it kept falling in his eyes, he would just push it up out of the way and keep on going. He made such a precious tiger, especially when he would "Roar"!

The Saturday night before Halloween we tried to get Maddox and Jackson to wear their costumes so we could take some pictures of them, but unfortunately Jackson was having none of it. No amount of bribery could make him wear the lion head. He put it on for a split second, but was pretty upset about it the whole time. He was the saddest, but cutest lion you ever did see...

Here is one of the best attempts at a shot of the two of them together--Maddox just looking at Jackson (and not at the camera) while Jackson screamed for the lion head to be taken off. As you'd probably guess, Jackson won that battle...

On Halloween, we went to First Baptist's trick-or-treating event. They had tents set up and you could trick or treat at the tents instead of going door to door. They also had some little games for the kids too. The first thing Maddox got in his pail was a pack of fruit snacks. Of course, he had to eat them right away...
Found a peanut! Look who we ran into...Justin!
Checking out his goodies. He really liked that large spinner thing sticking out of his bucket because it had a pumpkin (his favorite) on it and it spun around and lit up when he pressed the button. I'm pretty sure he played with it the whole way home.
We ran into Mary Lee as a cute little bumblebee and we tried to get a picture of the two of them, but unfortunately bees are scared of tigers. Mary Lee cried as soon as Maddox got anywhere near her so Maddox just looked at her and slowly backed away. It was pretty cute and made for a funny picture too...
Look who FINALLY put on the lion head! After countless bribes and everyone pretty much begging him Jackson still refused to wear the head. They left and headed to the car and much to everyone's surprise at the car, Jackson magically said he'd wear the head and after that he didn't have much of a problem. Slightly earlier timing would have been better, but better late than never! He made a mighty cute lion too!

We finally got that picture of the two of them that we wanted. It's definitely not perfect, but they are both in the frame and facing the camera and that's about all we could ask for! I think we could open a super cute zoo with these little guys!

Taking a picture with RaRa before heading out...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my little tiger...