Recap of all 5 of our Christmas Celebrations!

Christmas #1-My parent's house on the 23rd! Dylan got a new bike and helmet!! This is all he really wanted! It took him now] time at all to get a hang of it!

Helping daddy open up his tool box and tools Aunt Ashley and Uncle Brad got him! Dylan loves to help out with his tools!

Opening up his little people school bus from Grandma and Grandpa!

Dylan and daddy hanging out after dinner!

Christmas #2-my grandma's on Christmas Eve! When we were young my grandma made us pajamas every year and we would always wear them home on Christmas Eve! This year the tradition continued and Dylan got his first pair of handmade pjs! They were so cute and it was fun to continue the tradition and have him wear his home!

We got there early and made some cookies with great grandma (my grandma, Dylan's great grandma). My grandma is such a good cake and makes the best homemade cookies!

Christmas #3-our house Christmas morning! Dylan had to get his scissors so he could open up his boxes! This year he had such a great reaction with every present, it was so much fun!

Santa even hid some things in the tree! He had no problem spotting them.

Christmas #4-at the Drane's!! We go to my aunt and uncle's for Christmas morning! We walked in to some singing! My cousins Courtney, Whitney, and Brady were singing and a good family friend, John was helping out! Dylan was hanging out on Uncle Mike's lap, he thought he was on my dad's lap-it was pretty funny when he realized where he really was!

Our last one-Seth's parents house, the day after Christmas. By the time we got there Dylan had the present opening down pat!

Maggie's cookies won for being the most creative! Here is Whitney wearing Dylan's apron! She has a million poses for the camera! Every song that came on she would say, I love this song, then she would sing it for us!!

Courtney enjoyed decorating her cookies, hers looked very yummy!

Here they are making the homemade peanut butter cups!

Last night my cousins, Courtney and Whitney, my friend Maggie, and I went to my sister's to make Christmas goodies! It was a very fun night!

Happy Holidays!

Wouldn't you love a helper in your kitchen as cute as this one!! I just love having Dylan in the kitchen with me!! It takes longer, the mess is bigger when we are done, and things don't always turn out just right, but I wouldn't have it any other way!! Sometimes we bake things for no reason at all, just to do something together! Last Saturday morning we had breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Clause! Dylan liked the pancakes, but not Santa! He was very surprised when they showed up at his table, I think he was wanting to escape!!

You have heard me say a million times, Dylan is obsessed with sports! He has very good role models that show him it is OK to play sports in the house (that would be daddy, uncle Brad, and grandpa!!). One day Dylan and Seth were playing football and Dylan put on this stocking cap. He was pretending it was his football helmet! He would say, I have to put on my football helmet! How creative!!

Do you notice the football in his hand?? Do you all see what I live through everyday, two boys playing ball in the house!!

Finger Painting!! Sunday we went to a pottery place and Dylan painted a plate so when we got home we had to get out the paint!

What a lucky little boy!

Dylan is so lucky to have such fabulous grandparents!! My parents started a tradition with Dylan...every Christmas they let him make his own ornaments and he gets to hang them on his own tree that is in his room at my parent's house! This was actually the first year they have done it, but they have been talking about it for a while. He went up there Friday and they did some art Saturday! When I got there he was very proud of what he had done! Here he is with grandma working on an ornament!

This is the tree in his room. He actually calls it grandpa's room-it is my dad's office, but he shares nicely with Dylan!

After his ornaments are on the tree. he kept touching the lights to tell me they were hot! They actually weren't all that hot though!

Dylan and grandpa were going to make Christmas cookies, but they ran out of time. They are going to wait until the 19th to make them! So they decided to do some more art!

I hope everyone is having a good week and enjoying the first snowfall of the season! Dylan and I are getting some alone time this week, Seth is in Oklahoma all week working! Last night Dylan climbed in my bed with me (he was supposed to be going to bed) he just hugged me so tight and gave me kisses, it was almost like he knew I was sad and that I needed hugs a kisses! He is truly a sweet sweet boy! Yesterday on our way to Grandma Packard's we called Seth and Dylan said, "good morning daddy, we are going to grandmas so mommy can go to school!"

no pictures...just new happenings

I can't believe how bad of a wife I am...Seth started a new job Monday and I forgot to post about it! I also forgot to have him eat on our blue plate! Seth was content with his job but we always worried about the long run and stability with the job...so when a chance came at this new job he jumped for it!! One of our good friends has worked for EMC (Energy Management Control) for the past 10 years and really likes it, they needed a new guy and he asked Seth if he would be interested, and he was! Basically they test heating and cooling systems in large commercial buildings, a lot of math stuff and I don't really get it! He will have to travel throughout Kansas and may be gone for a few days every once in a while, but we will manage! In the long run this is going to be the best thing for our family! I am very proud of Seth for doing this. He has worked for his dad since he graduated high school, so almost 11 years-he misses working with his dad and brother, but Seth knew that the best thing for us was for him to start this new job!


Dylan has been saying so many funny things lately, I kept meaning to post them but it slips my mind! I will try to remember the good ones...

The other night Dylan and I were in the car-this was our short conversation:
mommy-"look out mommy's side to see a house with a lot of lights
dylan-"OK"
mommy-"i don't know were the house is"
dylan-"I'll find it mommy"
mommy-"Ok Dylan"
Dylan-"I found it"-he is also pointing
mommy-"were?"
dylan-"right there" --he was pointing at the light of Wanamaker (the main street-so it is very lit up from the street lights and store signs!!)


last night-my sister had to watch Dylan, when she was leaving he said..."thank you for babysitting me Aunt Ashley"-so cute, we didn't even say that, so not sure were he got it from!!

Dylan is always telling Seth and I..."you are so funny mommy/daddy" or "you are silly"

the other night he was watching TV and he started laughing at something, turned to me and said..."that's so funny!"

there are more, but I have no more time!!

Lot of updates!

I guess we have been pretty busy around here, so I have a lot of updates!

We have decorated our house for Christmas! My favorite time of year (well to decorate at least!). Here is our new armour! Actually it was my parents but it didn't fit in their new house so we got it! I love it and it goes great with our new floors and furniture! The snowman on the top was a gift from Seth last year, he gets me a snowman every year and that was the one he got me last year! On the shelf is my Willow Tree Nativity Scene, my mom gets me a piece every year for it!

Dylan is hanging out in daddy's new chair! It is so comfy!
We got up Saturday morning and decorated the tree, it is so much more fun when Dylan gets to help!
This is our snowman family! The little one is half K-State and half KU! Dylan calls them mommy snowman, daddy snowman, and Dylan snowman!

Dylan's table is decorated for Christmas too!

We have a VERY loud train that goes around the tree, a lot of fun but noisy!
Dylan found our snowman kit, so he decided to dress himself as the snowman! He has on the hat, scarf, carrot nose, and the pipe!
Dylan has been wanting to wear his cowboy lately! Here he is at Lowes when we picked out our Christmas tree. He wore it to Wal-Mart today and we saw another boy wearing one, but he was in cowboy gear head to toe!!
Shop til You Drop!!
Friday morning my mom, sister, and I met in Lawrence at 4 AM to shop! It was a blast! We said we would only do it once, but we already have plans for next year! We shopped from 4 in the morning until 1:00 in the afternoon! I haven't laughed that hard in so long! I am so lucky to have such a great relationship with my sister and my mom! We get along so well and have a lot of fun together! As you can see in the picture, we seem to have similar shirts on, that is because we do!! My mom and I bought the 3 of us Christmas shirts about a month ago. We told my sister that we all had different ones and that we are all going to wear them shopping! My sister thought it was a great idea but we had a surprise for her...when we saw my mom Friday morning (at 3:45) Ashley looked at me and said I think mom has on the same shirt as me then I unzipped my jacket to reveal that I also had it on!! Ash had some choice words for us but we all laughed so hard and she was a good sport!!

Go Wildcats!

What an adventure Dylan and I had Saturday!! The two of us headed west and went to the K-State game! We met my aunt, uncle, and cousins there and tailgated with them and sat at the game with them. On the way there Dylan and I stopped to get him a K-State stocking cap--as we were leaving the store I said, Go Wildcats and my fabulous son said...no Go Jayhawks!! He would only say go wildcats a couple times, every other time it was go jayhawks!! Seth swears he didn't teach him that, I had a talk with our nephews and they take the blame, but they are very proud!! Dylan loved hanging out in the parking lot before the game and during half time. He played football with his cousin Brady and his friend Connor. He has so much fun playing with the big boys. At one point Dylan stopped playing and some college boys were playing with his football, Dylan came and got me, took me to were they were playing, literally pushed me in the middle of the game and said, "go get my football mommy". I asked for it back and that boy was not going to give it up to anyone! It was so much fun and I can't wait to take him to a game every year so he can understand what his mommy loves so much! I know he may like KU more, but I will make sure he is always respectful towards K-State and is a good sport.

Leaves, Leaves, and more Leaves!

What a week! Monday morning we left our house thinking we wouldn't return until Friday and we would have beautiful original hardwood floors...not quite!! By 10:30 Monday morning the flooring guy had already called Seth with problems. The previous owners had painted the floors white because they must have had very naughty pets, there are stains everywhere. They are black and basically won't go away even with sanding and staining! So, we stopped the work and we are going to have the guy lay new floors. This won't happen for a week or 2 though.

While our floors were going to be getting done, we were going to stay at my sister's house. We stayed Monday night and Dylan and I went over there for a while Tuesday while Seth bowled. This is what Ashley and I found Dylan and Uncle Brad doing---looking at pictures of tractors on the computer!

Last weekend we spent the morning raking the leaves in our front yard! It was a lot of work, but Dylan loved helping and jumping in the big piles!

Seth would probably kill me if he knew I was posting this for everyone to see, but oh well!! I was in my bedroom after work and here comes Dylan down the hall, only a diaper, "big socks" (that is what Dylan calls them), and my high heels!! I thought it was too cute!!

Another cute one, this is how Dylan feel asleep the other night-hugging his Elmo!

Happy Halloween!

Dylan and his cousins getting ready to go trick or treating! Dylan is the scary skeleton!

Here is my very scary skeleton! He kept telling everyone he was a scary skeleton for Halloween! He didn't like the mask too much though! This morning (Monday) when we were getting dressed he told me he wanted to wear his costume!!

Daddy and Dylan in the parade at my school!

We (the other 2 3rd grade teachers-Tiffany and Erin)dressed up as Cat in that Hat. The students got a kick out of our outfits!

This is Daddy and Dylan at the beginning of the KSU-KU game. All decked out in KU. I had no choice, I came home from an errand and this is what Seth had picked out for Dylan.
Dylan and mommy after KU scored twice in the first 10 minutes! I didn't want to make cupcakes, but Dylan got out the cupcake liners, sprinkles and the box-so we made cupcakes!
Dylan and mommy by the 2nd quarter! I got up and went into work for a while, there was no use staying home and hoping for a comeback at that point!

Saturday we went to my parents to help them in their new house. We had to go to Lowes to buy some new things, and this is how Grandpa and Dylan left the store! Dylan got his own tools to help out with!