Kansas Christmas 2010

We spent the last half of the first week of December in Kansas...we go the same time every year so the boys can hunt and we celebrate Christmas early while we're there.  We always have a great time visiting with everyone in Kansas and Landon enjoys being center stage!  Jim got* 3 deer this year and one was a ginormous 8 point buck (*got sounds so much nicer than killed...especially since I prefer to pretend the deer meat comes from the store :) )

Landon has sort of caught on to the present part of Christmas this year and had so much fun unwrapping all of his!  He's at such a fun age and we are enjoying each and every minute we have with him.  I can't believe our baby will be two in less than a month!  Here are a few pictures from our fun trip!

Mr Bed Head with the cute grin!

Molly the dog.

Great Papa and Landon warming their hands.

Gotta warm those ears up!

Landon thought Great Papa's ears needed warming.

Next, Great Papa needed a kiss!  This melts my heart! :) 

Going to see how the boys did on their hunt!

How'd you do boys? 

Wow Dad!  That's a good one!

High Five!

Blow em up!

Vrrroooom!

Dada and Momma

The trains a coming!  Landon loved the train!

They even "chooo chooo'ed" for him!

Dada and Uncle Chris - Dada is silly and can't take a normal picture!

Great Papa, this vrooom vrooom is so much fun.  I hope Santa brings me one that's my size!

Hi Mama!  Whatchu cookin' in there?

Aunt Lindy brought me some popsicles!  She's my new fave.

Me and my favorite Mama making divinity...it's a tradition and she makes the BEST there is!

I like our matching hats Great Papa!

YAY!  A present for me!

I love my Great Mama!

We had so much fun and can't wait to go back in May!

First Christmas in our new home.

We love our new home and we've had so much fun decorating for Christmas this year...especially because Landon understands what's going on more this year and he's having so much fun!  I want to share a few pictures of our decorations this year...mainly because this is sort of like my journal and photo album all in one and I want to remember our first Christmas in our new home.

Our new nativity advent calendar.  I think you're technically supposed to add the pieces to the tree each day...it didn't come with instructions so I decided to do it this way.

Landon's nativity scene.  His Nana and Papa give him a new piece every year.

Landon made this ornament at school and we think it's the perfect addition to our tree!

Awesome picture frame our friend Amy made us...we love it!

Boy bathroom decor.

Landon also made this at school and we love it!

Hank the Elf on a Shelf.

Frosty the Snow Man sings and Landon thinks he's pretty cool!

Olympic Games...Holiday Style

Landon has a new favorite pastime...jumping up on chairs, spinning and landing on his hiney.
He's pretty good too and I'll be if there were ever an Olympic sport as such he'd stomp the competition!  Sunday night as I was working on obsessing over our late Christmas card Jim gave Landon his bubble bath.  Right as I was finishing up (using pictures I had taken just a few hours before) Landon came running into the front room in his cute Christmas pjs, jumped up on a chair and started practicing for his Olympic debut...so, since I had my camera handy I snapped a few pictures.  Wouldn't you know it one of those turned out to be the main picture on our card - and he's not really smiling in the picture.  He's telling me how a bird goes and as it turns out"tweet tweet" produces our guy's cute crooked grin...and we love the crooked grin!

Okay mom, I'm about to go!

Mid-jump post turn!

and the landing!

This is so fun mommy!  (note...it scares me to death every time he does it -  so this Olympic game will be short lived!)

Nailed the dismount!  

Yep, this grin gets me outta trouble on a daily basis.

Tweet Tweet!

Merry Christmas from the Battreals!

Here is the Battreal Christmas Card for 2010!!  I'm VERY late in getting these printed this year and I hope those that go out in the mail will make it by Christmas!  I didn't order as many this year as I usually do - next year I'll look at my list before I place my order...and I might actually get it done on time next year...maybe.

Landon was NOT a fan of Santa this year!  He cried and cried when his mean ol' momma made him sit on his lap.  The only time he stopped crying was when Santa had this book - but you can tell he's still not too sure about the big guy!  Since this picture was taken Landon has at least learned to point out Santa and he even says "Ho Ho Ho!" when we ask him how Santa goes!

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Potty Update

Here is a picture I found online of the potty we bought. The same one from my previous potty post. I bet you would have never guessed that this picture didn't come from my camera...right?  

So, as it turns out not reading the training potty instructions and shoving the weird piece of plastic for which I couldn't find a purpose into the wipes section of the potty was not a great move towards potty training our guy. That weird piece of plastic is actually meant to turn ordinary potties into directionally unchallenged pottties for little boys. To quote Lily's mom..."hmmpf"  (Hope I didn't screw up the spelling Lily's mommy :)  )

I have now placed the weird piece of plastic where it belongs and we might be able to use the potty afterall...even though Landon still says "no" when I ask him if he actually wants to "go" in the potty. To him it's still much cooler as a toy and he'd much rather carry it around than sit on it!  He's learning though...I just know he is. I have a feeling we will skip to the second stage of the potty by using the seat on the big people potty and the base as a stool...and even though potty training our guy is bittersweet cause it means our baby's growing up we are convinced that he won't be going to college wearing diapers.

Keyboards are not toys...or are they?

Landon has decided that playing with the keyboard on the computer is loads of fun! Especially when he can pull all they keys off the new one I bought!  No wonder this one was a "bargain"!  Today, he got away from us for a few seconds and when we figured out where he was, this is what we found!

It's kind of blurry but I think you get the idea and can imagine how hard it was for me to type this blog! I'd almost prefer that he'd written on every wall with a crayon because at least Mr. Clean can fix that with his magic eraser easier than I can put all these keys back on!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for our family, friends and especially for our little guy who has brought so much joy into our lives!  Today, we spent Thanksgiving with Nana, Papa, Aunt Meredith, Uncle Vaughan and cousins Mary Haven, Hannah and Asher.  It was so much fun and the food was all fantastic!  My favorite was the stuffing and the cream cheese celery, dada's favorite was...well, everything and Landon's favorite was the carrots!  He kinda liked the "sicole" too!  The kid loves popsicles!  I made my very first sweet potato pie using Landon's Nana's recipe and it was yum-o!  I used Pioneer Woman's pie crust recipe and even though it wasn't as good as my Mama's it was pretty good!  My Mama makes the best pie crust and even though I've watched her do it a gazillion times I just can't make it taste as good as she does!

We are looking forward to a visit from Mimi, Papa, Aunt Judy, Uncle Chris and Uncle Chris' girlfriend tomorrow!  We're going to spend lots of time playing, tailgating, watching the Hogs and just enjoying each others company.  Then, next week we are packing up and heading to Kansas for our annual hunting trip and Christmas visit!  Landon's dada is SO excited for the hunting part and Landon and I are excited for the visiting part!  We just can't wait to see everyone!!

We hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Landon made this fun hat at school!

Fun front stoop picture!

We kinda like this kid...kinda like him a whole lot! 

Mr. Bubble!

As a kid I LOVED Mr. Bubble and my Mama and Papa always had some waiting for us when we'd come to visit.  I knew Landon would love bubbles too but I kept forgetting to buy some for him.  Last weekend I remembered and I was right!  The kid loves bubbles!

Mr Bubble is my new BFF!  Thanks mom!

They feel funny on my face!

They don't taste half bad either!

You want some?

Thanksgiving Feast at Second Presbyterian Preschool

Landon's preschool had their Thanksgiving Feasts yesterday and today.  He usually doesn't go on Monday but this week he did so he got to have have Thanksgiving Feast twice!  Today I went to help out...and you know what, the kid couldn't have cared less that I was there! Ha!  I don't know if it was because he's not used to seeing me there since Nana drops him off and picks him up or if it's not "cool" for your mommy to come to school and he didn't want to look "uncool" in front of his toddler friends.  Maybe he's prepping me for when he's a teenager and won't want me to give him a big ole kiss when I drop  him off at his first day of high school.  Oh well, his friend Ava loved me and didn't want me to leave!  She kept pulling on my arm and telling me to sit down every time I tried to leave.  She is adorable!  Here are some fun pictures from our day.

Woohoo!  More cheese!  Cheese is my favorite!

Landon and friend with strawberry shortcake Little Debbie faces!

Wheee!  The slide at school is fun!

Landon and Liam!  BFFs!  (Do boys have bff's?)

Liam, Landon and The Precious Ava!

There's a "potty" goin' on!

So, a few days ago Landon squatted down in the tub and said "I pee!" and he did just that!  So, I decided it was time to buy the kid a training potty to see if he was ready.  Turns out he's not quite ready...and, the potties you buy at Target are not (in my opinion) boy friendly...I won't elaborate here but let's just say boys and training potties are not directionally synced up.  Landon loved playing with it and he loves the idea and we're grateful for that...at least he knows what a potty is and we'll get there.

Here are a few pictures of our "potty" party!

So, the potty was in the bathroom but Landon decided it should be in his room...and his room is a mess these days!

The cushion seat and "catcher of my duty" are so overrated!

How do these things go back in here?

Okay, let's take this thing back to Target...or at least to the bathroom!  Grody...I'm not ready momma and dadda!

Our home!

Jim and his parents have worked really hard on our landscaping and we think it looks fantastic!!

Landon likes it too!