Christmas Day

My sisters and I always had a Christmas morning tradition of taking a picture at the top of our stairs before we went down to see what Santa had brought us.

Well, I wanted to keep the Christmas morning picture tradition, but try to make it our own.

Most weekday mornings Luke wakes up before I'm ready to get up, so I go get him, put him in my bed with me and turn on Mickey Mouse, so I can get a few more minutes of rest, and sometimes Aubrey will join us too.

Since the kids are usually in our bed for a little while every morning, I thought we'd take our Christmas morning picture in our bed every year.

Aubrey had already had her morning bottle before the Christmas morning photo shoot, so she was in a great mood...Luke on the other hand was not
in the picture taking mood.

A Merry Christmas Scowl

Well, that's better than the scrooge face
A Grinchly grin

This is probably the best one
Christmas hugs

After the photoshoot we went downstairs
to see what Santa brought.

Luke got a slide and some nerf golf clubs
Much to our surprise, Luke was very cautious around the slide, for a while he wouldn't even
go up the stairs without our help
But he loved the sliding down part
He even tried a few tricks on the slide

The golf clubs were a big hit

Luke already has pretty good form


Santa brought Aubrey a Jumperoo!
It took her a few days to figure out that she could actually jump in it, but now she's a jumping machine

Luke's new obsession is the Cars movie, so he was thrilled to get a Cars coloring book in his stocking.

Luke was all into unwrapping presents this year, he'd unwrap, not even look at the actual present then move on to unwrapping something else whether
it was actually his present or not

In all the unwrapping excitement, he somehow managed to get a piece of wrapping paper stuck to his backside


Christmas afternoon we headed to Atlanta
to celebrate with my family

As soon as we arrived, more unwrapping commenced

This time Aubrey decided to get in on the unwrapping action

She wasn't quite coordinated enough
to rip the paper off the present,

So she settled for tasting it
Guess wrapping paper is just as tasty as it is pretty

Aubrey received her first baby doll

And Luke got a Cozy Cruiser

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating Christ's birth
and spending time with family

Happy Birthday Luke!

My precious baby boy is TWO today!

In some ways these past two years have flown by and in others it's hard to remember what life was like
before Luke was born!

We feel so blessed to have such a happy, healthy, and
very active 2-year-old!

Luke is not, by any means, a perfect child, he has quite a temper and can be very whinny at times, but the joy he has brought to us far outweighs the times
when we want to ring his neck. :)

Luke has recently become a sponge to any and everything that we say.

Some of the things that come out of his mouth we have no idea where they come from.

He was riding in the car with Ryan's parents last weekend and when they went over a speed bump,
Luke exclaimed, "Oh My Goodness".

Neither Ryan nor I say that, so I have no idea
where he learned it.

Luke really grown into his "big brother duties"
over the last few weeks...

Luke received a new booster seat for Christmas, so Aubrey could move into his high chair. Although Aubrey's not really eating at every meal with us, I still strap her in her seat so she can get used to being at the table with us.

I usually have to leave the table a couple times at each meal to retrieve a drink, utensil, etc and each time I do I make sure to tell Luke what I'm going to get.

As soon as I leave the room Luke turns to Aubrey and tells her what I'm doing, "Mommy get milk, be right back".

It's so cute that he thinks Aubrey needs to be aware of what mommy's doing.

The other day I was cleaning up the kitchen while Luke and Aubrey were playing in the den, I heard Luke talking some nonsense gimberish and then I could make out some real words every now and then.

I got curious and walked in the den to see Aubrey sitting in her exersaucer staring at Luke who was seated on the floor next to her with a book opened in his lap.
He was reading to her!

Luke has really started to put whole phrases and sentences together, but many times when he tries to say the phrase he runs the words together, so it can be difficult to figure out what he's saying.

One morning he wanted something on the kitchen counter; he was pointing to the counter and kept saying some phrase over and over and I couldn't make out one word of it.

After about the 10th time that he said this phrase, I finally just picked up the bag of pretzels on the counter, held it out to him and this was our conversation that followed.

Me: "is this what you want?".

Luke: "Yes, That's Whats Sayin'! ".

Me: "Did you just say, "that's what I was saying"?

Luke: "YES!".

He was obviously asking for the prezels (which he knows how to say) and was annoyed that I couldn't figure out what he wanted, so he responds with a slightly sarcastic
"that's what I was sayin'.

And my favorite new phrase: " Wuv You Mommy!" (Love You)

We love Luke more than we could ever have imagined and thank the Lord everyday for blessing us with him!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas festivities started Christmas Eve with lunch at our house with my mom's side of the family.

We had the traditional ham and turkey (from Honey Baked Ham) along with a plethora of casseroles and muscadine pie for dessert (my aunt's specialty).

After lunch we all gathered in the den to open presents

Aubrey opening her first present with her
signature wide-eyed expression
Intently studying her new toy

Luke opening his tool box

Ryan and I received this cup and Starbucks gift card
from my aunt and uncle

At first glance this little 'ole cup doesn't seem like much, but it quickly became our MOST FAVORITE Christmas present!

What makes this cup so amazing you ask?

Well, it has 3 very unique characteristics:

1) No Sweat
the cup is made of double-wall plastic which means it will NEVER sweat...no more wet hands after picking up your cold drink and no more puddles of water left on the surface your cup was placed on!

2) Keeps cold drinks ICE COLD
Ryan took his cup to work Monday morning and called me Monday afternoon to tell me that not only was his coke still cold, but every ice cube was still in tact!

3) Dishwasher safe
You would think that with a cup so technologically advanced that it would require "hand washing only", but nope, all parts are dishwasher safe!

However, if your wife hasn't run the dishwasher yet and you NEED your cup, you just might have to hand wash it...this may or may not have happened to Ryan this morning :)

For those of you who don't know Ryan that well, it takes a lot to really get him excited, so when he came home from work Monday and told me that we didn't ever need another kind of cup besides these, I knew they MUST be something fantastic!

After some internet research I found out that this Starbucks cup is very similar to a Tervis Tumbler.

By the way, I was not paid by anyone to advertise for their product, we really do love the cups!

Now, back to Christmas...

Christmas Eve night we went to my aunt and uncle's house to celebrate with my dad's side of the family.

My dad is Italian, so we have a very nontraditional Christmas meal: Lasagna, Italian salad, rolls, and you can't forget the black olives (you can't be an Alfano
if you don't love black olives)!

When our bellies were full, we anxiously awaited a visit from Santa and the adult's dirty santa game.

Aubrey with my Nana, her great grandmother

I was prepared for Luke to react the same way he did about a month ago when he saw Santa for the first time this year.

Much to our surprise, when Santa entered the room,
Luke smiled, pointed and exclaimed, "Santa!".
He even let Santa give him a hug!
Aubrey wasn't too sure about Santa this time,
she really had to check him out...

She grabbed his beard to make sure it was real
And checked to make sure Santa didn't have
anything "up his sleeve"

When Santa left it was time for the big kids to have some fun with the dirty santa present exchange.

Ty, my sister Kathleen's boyfriend, (he also lives at
Santa's Workshop) received the "dirtiest" santa gift
In case you can't tell from the picture, that's red jello sprinkled with cat food. At least there was $20 buried in the bottom (sealed in a plastic bag), if he was brave enough to dig into the cat food jello.

Kathleen didn't do much better
She received pink bunny, footed pajamas
(like on A Christmas Story).

Ryan and I didn't do too bad, he got an Auburn Snuggie and originally I opened a gift with $20 inside.

My sister, Anna, got a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts along with a Krispy Kreme gift card and since there isn't a Kripy Kreme in Auburn (where she lives), and she knows how much we LOVE our Krispy Kreme, she was gracious enough to
trade gifts with me!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve...
stay tuned for our Christmas Day post!

Wordless Wednesday

Some one found their shoes....

but couldn't quite figure out how to get them in her mouth

At least she knows how to smile for the camera

Santa's Workshop

Haven't you always wondered exactly what
Santa's workshop looked like?

Well, Luke and I headed to Trussville last Tuesday night to go on a hay ride with some friends, little did we know that the hayride would begin at Santa's workshop!

Now, of course we know that Santa's real workshop is located at the North Pole, but Santa must need to have several workshops located across the world in order
to make all those toys!

Santa's Workshop, Trussville Location
So, what all would you find at Santa's Workshop?

To start things off, a Toy Shop, of course

A snowman and snowwoman

A Gingerbread House

Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

A Latham Express Train (play on polar express)

These pictures only captured a few of the displays at Santa's workshop, we saw everything from elves and carolers
to a Christmas countdown calendar and
Santa sliding down the chimney!

After we explored the workshop, Santa's helper, Mr. Bill,
took us on a hayride through some neighborhoods
to see Christmas lights.

Eventhough it was freezing, we had a great time and
can't wait to go again next year!

6 Months

Aubrey is 6 months old today!

At her check up on Tuesday, she weighed 16 lbs 13 oz (80th percentile) and was 26 inches long (60th).

She had to get 4 shots again, but did much better this time; she only cried for about 10 seconds and it didn't seem to bother her a bit after that.

Aubrey is rolling over all the time now, and is getting more used to being on her tummy, she doesn't scream in frustration every time she on her stomach now.

She's working on sitting up, but can only sit for a few seconds before she tumbles forwards or sideways.

Aubrey had her first taste of rice cereal and applesauce yesterday, she wasn't a big fan of the cereal,
but was able to tolerate the applesauce.


Luke is still her favorite person, she loves to watch him play and just smiles at him all the time...
except when he does this to her.

This is how Luke was "playing" with Aubrey while I was baking some Christmas goodies.

When I uncovered her, she was quite unhappy

I told Luke that we don't cover our sister with sheets,
and that he should apologize to her

Don't think she was too convinced
that his apology was sincere