Merry Christmas!

Around 8:30am we heard some talking over the baby monitors. Instead of mild crying like he normally does, Vaughn was talking happily in his crib. Dave and I slowly woke up, grabbed the video camera (of course), and went into Vaughn's room on his second Christmas morning. He was so excited even though he had no idea what was going on. He must have felt our excitement.

As soon as we brought him out into the tree room, his eyes lit up when he saw the roller coaster and new tricycle. He was very intrigued as to what it was. There were many presents under the tree thanks to his grandparents and us.

Instead of it just being us opening gifts in the morning, we were joined by the Caleffie's thanks to Skype. Nunny and Aunt CC were the first to see Vaughn as Pappy was at the store buying milk. Later he and Uncle Grayson joined in the call. They basically sat in their office in Pennsylvania and watched us have our Christmas morning. It lasted for some time. Vaughn would open a gift then instead of moving on to the next thing, he'd want to keep it and play with it. The moving onto the next gift was a very hard concept for little fourteen month old Vaughn to understand. He got the whole "tearing the paper to find something cool inside" though.

After all the presents were opened, we had Christmas breakfast together then took a nap before going to our Pastor's house for dinner.

The day ended wonderfully with an amazing dinner and great fellowship with friends and church family. Since we didn't have any family in Arizona with us this year, Pastor Lee and Sandy had us over along with their family and our new Youth Pastor and his wife. Vaughn even got a new train and played with it for quite some time in between eating an entire plate of corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole and rolls. The guys watched football and talked about guy stuff and the girls played with Vaughn and talked about girl stuff. We all enjoyed each others' company and embraced what Christmas is all about.

"Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:13-14

Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Eve was full of excitement. Vaughn was in the best mood. After Christmas Eve services, we got together in our "tree room" and talked about what we were thankful for this Christmas season. Vaughn kept looking out the window as he was looking for something or someone.

Then it was pajama time. We all get to open one present which has our new Christmas jammies to be worn Christmas Eve and morning. Vaughn loved opening all three of our presents.

 Vaughn got cool new monkey Christmas jammies, Dave got plaid, and mommy got pink sock monkey Christmas theme jammies. Christmas Eve was the best this year. Vaughn went right down for the night awaiting for an exciting morning.

Early Christmas

Last year, we had three Christmases, one with the Caleffie's, one with the Edward's and Thompson's (Uncle Dusty and Aunt Jamie), and one with our family, the Thompson's. This year, we are going to have two. Our first was held last night at our house. We had a Christmas sleepover with Grammy, Uncle Dusty, Aunt Jamie and Molly! It was such a special night. Before opening presents, we had a ham dinner. Our centerpiece was the beautiful, Molly! We ate so much, we could barely move.

Then, we went into the "tree room" (I think it's supposed to be a dining room, but for now, it has a couch, coffee table and our Christmas tree), to open presents. The babies sat in the middle. Vaughn opened presents while Molly rolled over and cooed and smiled in the bumbo. The adults all sat around on the outside of the room enjoying each other. 

Vaughn got lots of new clothes for his next stages in life, 18 months and 24 months. His big presents from grammy were a car garage thing, a big Thomas the Train fleece blanket (he's as obsessed with fleece as I am as he couldn't stop laying on it) and a big super soft cheetah and baby. He loved all of his gifts, especially the cheetah. It was so priceless when he gave it a big hug then kiss on the face. Molly got lots of fun clothes and toys, too. Grammy must have had a great time shopping for the babies this year.

Once Vaughn and Molly went to sleep, we all stayed up and talked and watched Dave absolute favorite movie of all time, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Even though it wasn't quite December 25, it sure felt like it. Laughter, family, presents, celebration of Jesus, babies and lots of love.

Picture Perfect

Grammy flew to Arizona a little before Christmas since we couldn't fly back to Pennsylvania this year. We had such an amazing time with her. Vaughn and Molly are so lucky to have such an amazing person to be their Grammy!

Merry Christmas

This year, we set up the good ol' tripod to take some family pictures. With the help of Vaughn's jingle bell we got from Santa, we are able to wish you a very merry Christmas, from our family to yours!

 

 

Addi turns TWO!

Vaughn loves birthday parties. He was invited to his friend, Addi's, second birthday party at a cool little place called Imagination Avenue. It was full of little playhouses, cars, dress up clothes, and fun things to do for toddlers. All the kids had a great time riding around the town and dressing up. The party ended with pizza and Dora cupcakes. Vaughn just got over  being sick where he didn't eat much, so he ate two and a half peices of pizza. The boy can eat!

Vaughn had such a great time celebrating Addi's second birthday with her family and friends.

Baby Steps *13 Months*

Thirteen months OR one year and one month. Vaughn is growing up and outward. He's getting so chubby, we love it! After he starts running around, I'm sure he may start slimming back down. I predict the running will start at the end of the month, as Vaughn often says, "woah..."


11/19/10: First (multiple) steps! Vaughn was taking six to nine steps at a time.
11/19/10: Learned how to move his walker toy all by himself.
11/15/10: First visit to an aquarium. We met up with one of my friends from middle school and high school! We had a great time with her whole family. Vaughn LOVED all the fish and big fish tanks.
11/28/10: Went to the North Pole on the Polar Express!
12/6/10: Stood up without pulling up on anything. Vaughn put his hands on the floor, lifted his butt and stood up! Such a big boy :)

confusing dialect

Yesterday, Vaughn was babbling a ton as he does every day, but it sounded just a little different than usual. Instead of his typical sounds and words of da, ma, ba, aaah, ooh, hi, and whatever else his mouth creates, he started to sound a little Asian. Well, that's what Dave thinks it sounds like. I almost feel like it sounds Swedish. Whatever it is, it is not a Pittsburgh nor Arizona dialect. It's Jap-chine-edish, or something like that. I need to try to record his new language because it is quite difficult to spell out. It involves a lot of oy, oy, yoy, doy, oyoyoy. He does something weird with his tongue though to create the sounds that just makes us giggle.

When I picked him up from daycare today, as soon as I walked in, I could hear Vaughn before seeing him sitting on the floor. The two teachers were laughing at him. Miss Joyce looked up at me from behind the little girl she was holding, and said, "Ummm, what are you teaching him at home?" I gave her a puzzled look when she continued, "because Vaughn sounds like he's speaking a whole other language. He hasn't stopped talking all day."

Hopefully, I can record and remember this new language of his because it makes Dave and I (and his teachers) laugh every time we hear him open his mouth.


oy oi doy woy... (until next time)

All Aboard the Polar Express

Taking Vaughn up to Williams, AZ for the Polar Express helped us create so many great memories this Christmas season. We went with two other families, the Gibbs' and the Rayburn's. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. On Sunday on our drive up, it started to snow and didnt stop until later that night. They got 6-8 inches within just a few hours. It really made it feel like winter and Christmas.

We got to Flagstaff late afternoon and went to lunch/dinner before going back to the hotel to get ready for our fun train ride. After we ate, we met up with Michelle, Mark and Christine, then drove to Williams.

The snow was really coming down so hard on I-40 that we didn't know if we would need to turn around or not. Even with all the snow, we made it to Williams early. It was FREEZING outside. Vaughn didn't seem to mind the cold, but he was a little irritated with his puffy coat.

 While we waited to board, we played in the gift shop/train station and in a room with Mrs. Claus, crafts and a toy train. The excitement was buzzing with all the kids and parents running around with their pajamas on. We boarded the train around 6:20pm and went to the North Pole. Vaughn didn't really know what was going on, but we could tell he was very excited from his screaming and laughter. When we got to the North Pole, we saw Santa and an elf waiving. Then, when we started heading back to Williams, Santa was gone because he got on the train. The best part was when Santa gave Vaughn his very own jingle bell. He couldn't stop shaking it after Santa left.

After the train ride, we were exhausted and hungry. We went to a pizza place with the Gibbs family then drove back to Flagstaff. Vaughn fell asleep before we got to the hotel.

In the morning we had a huge yummy breakfast with the Rayburn's at our hotel.

The entire trip was so much fun. We had one more stop at a beautiful rest stop off the highway on the way home. By the time we got home, we were filled with the Christmas spirit and enjoyed spending every minute with each other.

Vaughn meets Mrs. Claus

Vaughn met the Mrs. when we went on the Polar Express this weekend! More to come about the Polar Express, but I had to post this picture!

What is going through his head? Priceless!

Precious. Moment on our way to daycare

This morning, I was carrying Vaughn to school. As we were turning the corner, I whispered to him, "Hey Vaughn..." His face got really close to mine, he looked right into my eyes, and whispered back, "What?" At least it sounded like he said, what. Regardless of what he said, he whispered a response to me. It was a moment.