A Very Merry Christmas Indeed

We hope you had a great Christmas this year. We sure did!


Our stockings were hung by the chimney with care. Now we just needed some family to celebrate with. No worries! Mimi, Papaw, and Uncle Taylor would be on their way to celebrate their first Christmas with us since I (Cooper) was in Mommy's belly. After last year's "He listened to me! Santa Claus listened to me!" excitement, they could hardly wait to see me on Christmas morning.


Papaw sure loves his boys! I spent lots of time in Papaw's lap and asking "Papaw can you play with me?" Papaw is good at lining up my cars and making parades, parking garages, and tunnels. Mimi and Papaw had shipped so many presents before their arrival, that we had to start opening them on the 23rd. Uncle Taylor got me my "shirt thats for our white team that I like." He actually got me two Kentucky shirts and had "Cooper" and "6" put on the back so it's like a real jersey. I was number 6 on my soccer team. It's a little big, but I wore it anyways. The boys went to the movies - Dad and Taylor to see Tron and me and Papaw to see Yogi Bear.


Reid is at a very smiley age. He smiles so big and with his whole face. He must've thought Uncle Taylor was funny looking because he always smiled at him.

Posing under the tree.

See what I mean? Either Reid is really happy or he really loves presents, or both.

I love presents!

We got dressed all fancy to go to church on Christmas Eve. We went to the children's service at St Theresa's. They were doing a Christmas pageant which I'd never seen before. I stood all the way out in the aisle to watch. It was really cool. Baby Jesus cried the whole time. We always open one present on Christmas Eve. Reid and I opened our presents from Nana and Papaw and Daddy opened a present from Mommy. He got a new lens for his camera, so we were able to take some cool pictures of our family.

Smiley Reid.

Our family - I am almost 4 and Reid is 4 months.

Grandmother sent me this dry-erase board. I took it to church with me, so when the pageant was over, Mimi and I did lots of drawing. This is a picture I drew of Mimi.

Our Christmas tree. I went to bed well on Christmas Eve - I skipped my nap since I went to the movies, so I was super tired.

When I woke up at 7am, Santa left a giant pile of presents for me and Reid! I got a cool helicopter.

My Buzz Lightyear that "do's" stuff.

A Lego set, a puzzle, remote control car, magnifying glass, binoculars, lots of books - and much, much, much more. It was a bit overwhelming.

Mimi and Papaw got me this awesome rocket ship.

Mom and Dad got me a new "caperon" so I can help cook.

Mom and Dad got tons of new presents too. Mom got new shoes, clothes, and tickets to see Mary Poppins so she and I can have a date. Daddy got new clothes and stuff for his camera - a flash, tripod, and yet another lens.

Not to be forgotten, Santa was good to Reid too. He got some bath toys, a Sing a Ma Jig (which apparently he likes), books, rattles and teethers, and clothes.

Yay presents! Reid took a nap in the middle of opening the presents. There were so many, it took us 94 minutes from start to finish. It was insane. We are lucky.

After Reid's catnap, he played with some of his new toys.

I love Christmas!

I love my family too!

Helping Mimi cook yummy food in my caperon and chef's hat.

Papaw read me some new books.

When Mimi, Papaw, and Taylor arrived, we only had about an inch of snow on the ground, and that was the first snowfall all year. Gigi and Bubba brought up Dad's old sled last year, but we didn't get a chance to use it then. We took it for a spin this year. It was awesome!

Me and Dad sledding. My favorite part was sliding off at the end.

The day before Uncle Taylor was to leave Boston, we got a real blizzard. Mommy's work was closed for the day. We got about 12 inches of snow and had heavy wind, but believe it or not, Taylor was able to fly home. Mimi and Papaw left the next day without any problems.

Climbing high on the snow banks

Weeeee!

Daddy does not like shoveling. Oh well.

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year. The next post will be coming from a four year old!!!

A Couple of Turkeys

Fall is here and it is time to rake the leaves, or jump in them! We didn't do a lot this month, but we did manage to take a few pictures here and there.

Most of them were just us posing and being cute, but we're pretty cute, so why not share?

While Daddy was at work, Mom and I raked the leaves up and then we posed in the piles. I loved to jump in them and throw them. Even Reid thought the crunchy sound of the leaves was pretty cool.

Peak a boo.

Reid was just barely 3 months in this picture.

November means Thanksgiving. This year I was thankful for "food that's fresh, my family, and healthy." We had Turkey Day at our house this year and actually got to celebrate it on the correct day. It was just the four of us but Mom made dressing, corn pudding, potato casserole, green beans, mac n cheese with butternut squash, and banana pudding. I helped too!

While the cooking was going on, we all had time to be hams - I mean turkeys.

Check out the Blues Brothers!

Then we all sat down for a yummy feast. Reid hung out in his swing. Maybe next year he'll join us at the table.

The weather has cooled down and it's now perfect for us boys to watch football and basketball with Daddy.

We also had to fire up the fireplace for the first time.

Poor little Reid. He spent the first half of the month making this face a lot. After initially being a super sweet baby boy, he turned into a crankster. First, he just started crying from 5-7pm nonstop, but then it progressed to all the time. The poor little guy didn't want to eat, didn't want to sleep, didn't want anything. Turns out he had some pretty bad reflux, and once he got some medicine for his tummy, he's perked right back up into the baby we used to know.

He makes all sorts of other faces now. Check out the many faces of Reid from 3-4 months old...

He doesn't hate his tummy time as much now that he can prop himself up. He also rolled over 3 times from tummy to back.

He enjoys his toys and he enjoys his hands. Everything goes straight to his mouth.

We still get lots of smiles and he's started doing some big belly giggles if you tickle him just right.

He loves to wiggle and he loves to "talk."

He loves his bath time!

My bestest buddy Kaya celebrated her fourth birthday this month. She usually has a big celebration for her half birthday, but this year for her real birthday, we decorated cupcakes together. My friends Kaya and Lulu plus me and sugar makes for a fun combination.

Yummy - eating cupcakes plus eating all the toppings!

Daddy and Reid just watched. Neither of them ate any cupcakes.

Christmastime is approaching. We put up the tree right after Thanksgiving. I helped Mommy decorate it and this year the ornaments weren't so concentrated on the bottom 2 feet. It looks nice. I've helped wrap a lot of the presents too. Mimi sent me this stocking that she made. She has been working on it for the past 3 years. It's so big! Do I get that many presents?

Speaking of presents, here's my Santa Claus list in my own words:

1. A Buzz Lightyear that "do's stuff"

2. A garbage truck that talks (aka Stinky the Garbage Truck)

3. A white shirt like for our team (aka a UK shirt- Mommy's brainwashing has paid off)

4. A sippy cup with no top and no straw

5. Vinoculars (binoculars)

6. A boat for the bathtub that has a button you can push on and off and it goes by itself

7. A glass for looking at stuff like Grandmother (aka magnifying glass)

8. Remote control car

This was taken on Reid's four month birthday. He's up to 16lbs 3oz and is 25.5inces tall, putting him in the 75+ percentile for both. He's in 6-12 month clothes already, chunky monkey. Not to be outdone, Mimi had to make him a stocking too. Given that he was just born in August and the stocking had to be done by December, he got this little teeny tiny one. He likes it though.

Like everything, it goes straight to his mouth. Yum.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. Mine is big. Reid's is small.

We hope you all have a great holiday season. Stay tuned for the Evans family's trip to Boston for Christmas.

Oh yeah, and who doesn't like to compare? This is me Cooper at 3.5 months.

This is me Cooper at 4 months. What do you think? Do Reid and I look alike or different?