Traveling to Oregon

We left our house at 4am the day after Christmas to see our family in Oregon. Cody was a trooper being woken up so early and he was excited to ride a bus, a train and an airplane...on top of going to Grandpa and Grandma's house! His new Woody friend traveled with us!

The iPad was great entertainment on the flight! This was the first time he didn't sit in his carseat on a plane ride and got to sit like a "big boy".  He did great and didn't ask to get down too much! He enjoyed snacks and videos!

Our first flight took us to Seattle and then we took a little plane back down to Oregon.  Cody was beyond excited that we were going on a green airplane!

He refuses to look at the camera these days!

Cody is such a good traveler and enjoys all the activity that comes with flying!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

My mom, brother, sister and nephew came and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us.  My mom made a wonderful meal Christmas Eve and Jason made a wonderful meal Christmas Day.  Bubbie enjoyed having all her kids and grandkids under one roof!

Watching videos of santa on the iPad.  Parker is obsessed with santa so it was funny to watch him watch the videos....pure excitement!

"Uncle Clay, will you please play with me?" was the question of the weekend! Both boys love their Uncle!

Christmas morning we all woke up when the boys woke up and started off with stockings! And then while breakfast was cooking we did the big gifts under the tree.  Cody got puzzles, Toy Story themed toys, Mickey Mouse themed toys, cars, musical instruments and lots more! Jason worked really hard to make the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll.  He halfed the recipe and they didn't quite turn out like she makes them but they were still really yummy!

Snuggling with Uncle Clay and watching more santa videos on his iphone.

We celebrated Christmas in Oregon the next week, but Grandpa and Grandma had a bike under our tree for Cody.  He loves it! Rumor has it Grandpa bought this when Cody was 6 months old and saved it until he was big enough to ride it! He is just a few inches too short still but by the spring/summer he will be just right!

Although Christmas started off sad this year grieving the loss of a close friend we were still able to enjoy making new memories as a family. One tradition we started this year was to be at our house together on Christmas day. Our home is always open to anyone who wants to come see us on Christmas day and this year we got to enjoy it with our Texas family.  Christmas is so fun through the eyes of a child.  Cody's favorite song this year was "Jingle Bells" and his favorite Christmas movie was "Polar Express"!

Inside a Snow Globe

Before Christmas Jennie and I took the kids to Willowbend Mall for lunch and to say hi to Santa.  There is a "snow globe" set up to go through right before getting to where Santa was sitting.  "Snow" was falling and everything! I think we could have spent the whole day in there as happy as the kids were!

Here is Cody and David rolling around in the "snow".  They had the best time!

David even taught Cody how to make snow angels. 

Playing in the snow globe was fun even if Santa wasn't a big hit and lunch was a bit crazy!

Christmas 2011

Cody: 2 years 7 months

Northpark Trains

We have made it a Christmas tradition to go see the train exhibit at Northpark mall!  This year was especially fun because Cody is really in to trains...he just couldn't get enough! All of the pictures are from behind because he would not take his eyes off the trains, even for a second.

Merry Christmas

Thanksgiving & Christmas in Seymour

We spent Thanksgiving with our relatives in Seymour, Texas! We enjoyed being in the country for a few days. My Uncle Carl and Aunt Cathy hosted about 40 of us at their house for a big Thanksgiving lunch! They own a tractor shop and the highlight of Cody's Thanksgiving was getting to play on tractors with his 2nd cousins.  Lyndon and Carl are 9 and were really sweet to let Cody tag along and play with them.

They thought this tractor wheel was a great place to sit although I couldn't get Cody to sit long enough for a picture.  Parker smiled for me though!

He spent a lot of time playing in this "cage" that was on the back of the tractor!

We did bring his little "bike" and he had fun riding it up and down the hills. He would put his feet up in the front and just go.  The boy has no fear! It's a little steeper than it appears...he's at the bottom of the hill here.

They also had a big mound of gravel that was very entertaining! He would climb to the top and then roll or slide down!

I love this picture of my sister with the horse!

A little drink after so much dirt and play!

At night Carl and Cody snuggled up to watch videos on the iPad.  Cody wanted to be right in Carl's lap...and I think Carl liked it.

The next day we spent time at my grandparent's ranch.  We decided since we were all together to have our Christmas celebration!  Mimi cooked dinner and then the little kides (great-grandchildren) opened gifts. The girls do a gift exchange and we all had fun celebrating the first Christmas of the season. It didn't take Kristin long to get on the 4 wheeler...and give Parker his first ride!

My cousin Lauren is married to a police officer and she is in police training too.  They had the guns out and shooting lessons going on here. 

Clay, Parker, Cody and Jason! We contained the boys in the truck for a bit while they were shooting the guns!  They were just as happy to play with cars in the truck

Cody showing my Pawpaw his cars!

Jason and Pawpaw

Lyndon and Carl made Cody have this smile all night long! He loved playing with them! Too bad we don't live closer because he talks about them non stop and asks to see them all the time.

Uncle Clay and Cody Cody also loved attention he got from Clay. 

This picture is fuzzy and off the phone but I still like it.  Cody and Parker both wanted Uncle Clay to hold them!

Clay and Parker

Cody's first gifts of the season! 

Mimi and two of her great grandsons!  This was the best pic I got of the three of them together.

Cody and Mimi!

Me and my brother and sister!