Christmas Decorations

Decorating the house for Christmas this year, and keeping it decorated, has been kind of challenge for me.  Barron is at the age that anything new is interesting to him and nothing is off limits.  The ornaments never stay on the tree nor do the presents stay under the tree!
This was before the tree was decorated, but this has now become a good spot for him to go to annoy his Mother...

This reindeer has also become an object of his obsession.  This is where I put it to stay...

Well it doesn't stay there.  It has now rotated into one of Barron's favorite toys.

Here is Barron last Christmas while Bryan decorated the tree...

And here he was this Christmas.  It's weird how similar Bryan is in both pictures.

Our Little Star

Last Monday Barron was in his first production.  Everyone his age was a star in the Church Christmas program.  Bryan and I were one of those parents that not only brought the camera, but also the video recorder.  He did nothing but stand there, but we were soooo proud!
Barron's group was the youngest so they were the very last to come out, keeping them out there the shortest amount of time.

Here are the older kids.  Everyone was in place and it was going so well.

Then Barron's group came out.  It became a little chaotic.  The lady in red held on to Barron the entire time.  I guess she was scared he would make a run for it.  I was shocked but he never cried.  Just stood there with this blank stare.

I of course had to race the other Mom's to the aisle to take pictures.  Never thought that I would be doing that!

It was so much fun, I can't wait for the next one!

Thankful for Family

Every Thanksgiving we head to Jackson to spend time with the Krutz family.  With it being so busy at the beach we never can go for very long.  It was a short trip but a lot of fun.  Not only did we get to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family but we also got to be there for Patrick's first birthday.
Barron and Patrick had a lot of fun playing with each other.

I think their favorite toy ended up being a phone (even pretend ones).

On Wednesday Patrick turned one.  Cherry made a Cookie Monster cake and then we opened presents.

It was a little hard for Barron to realize the presents were not all for him!

Thanksgiving day the men helped out with entertaining the boys while the women cooked.  They decided to play videos for them on Cole's computer.

Then Bryan and Patrick got a little side-tracked and shooted out to the hot tub.  Must be nice!

Like always we had great wine with great food!

Before we left I decided we had to get the boys in the tub together.

But I think Rebecca and I had more fun watching them than they did playing.

Sorry for the long post, just a lot to cover.  Happy Holidays!!!

Football and Popcorn...A perfect match.

Bryan loves to make popcorn when he is watching football.  So when we are home that usually means he will have it both Saturday and Sunday.  Now Bryan is having to share that popcorn.

Popcorn has now become one of Barron's favorite snacks.  It is amazing how much can fit in that little body.

We are traveling to Bryan's parents house on Tuesday for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully Barron will be sweet and not pick on any of them like he did Papa last weekend.  Here we are trying to gauge his eyes...

And here we are pulling the hair...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2009

Halloween is such a fun time around here.  Friday night the adults went to Alys Beach for what is becoming the "party of the year" here on 30A.  Bryan's Aunt Emily and cousin Anne Elizabeth were sweet enough to stay with Barron so we could have a big night out.
Here are Bryan and I as Betty and Barney Rubble...

On Saturday we let Barron do the dressing up.  It was hard for us to decide what Barron was going to be for Halloween.  Bryan helped me and we thought it was the perfect outfit.  We decided on an elephant!

Unfortunately, when we were picking it out we were not thinking about it being the Alabama mascot!  Bryan got a lot of slack for it.  Barron was even called Big Al...yuck!  We will definitely keep in mind other school's mascots from here on out.  For most of the night Barron was trying to take off the head piece...

We got to see a lot of Barron's friends but he would not be still long enough to take pictures with them.  He did enjoy seeing his older buddy, Fordham, as Spider Man.

What a fun weekend.  We already can't wait until next year!

18 Month Update

Last week Barron turned 18 months old.  It is crazy how fast a year and a half can go!  I decided to give you a complete update on him.  At his check-up he weighed 29 pounds, 8 ounces making him in the 90%.  He is 34 3/4" tall putting him in 97%, and of course his head size is 97%!  He is a big boy.

Our favorite toy to play with is a ball.  We have 6 of them in the house, so you can imagine how annoying they can be to a Mother wanting a neat house!

Barron's favorite past time is brushing his teeth...

Barron never took to a passy or a blanket, but he does love his Teddy Bear.  Grandmother Krutz gave it to him at my baby shower (and it was a re-gift I might add).  I really didn't know what to do with him.  I decided to make my Mother-in-law happy and place him in Barron's room.  Well I am glad I did.  He has loved that Bear from the start, as you can see from this pic when he was 7 months.

Not to long ago Barron decided he wanted to be rocked to sleep with the Teddy Bear.  He drug the bear over and threw a temper tantrum until I picked up the bear with him.  We really don't have to rock Barron to sleep at night but we do for his nap.  And this is usually how we are doing it...

The things you will do for your children.  The hard part is getting him from that position to his crib!

Barron now thinks he is too big for his highchair and refuses to eat in it.  So I got him a booster seat so  he can eat from the table with us.  He is not the best eater anymore but he will take a few bites here and there.

Barron is a little delayed with his speech.  He can say a few words like Mama, Dada, bye bye and of course No.  He loves to make animal noises for dogs, cows, and sheep.  Barron may not be able to speak much but he definitely knows just about everything we are saying.  He can pretty much point to all of the parts on his body.  Here he is pointing to his teeth (and probably wanting them brushed).

Ole Miss/Alabama game

The last several weeks have been really busy.  We have been to Oxford twice, I have been to New York and Birmingham for work, and Bryan went to California to help his brother's make wine.  All of this said, it has been a lot of fun too!  We got back today from our trip to Oxford to see the Ole Miss/Alabama game.  

Here is Bryan working hard...

While in Oxford, Barron got to see his friend Grace.  We did get a few hugs out of them, but there were also some definite swatting as well!
We have been trying to get Celia to come with us to Oxford for a while.  She decided to come watch her Alabama team play Ole Miss.  She was a huge help and fun to hang out with! Hopefully she will come again.

Barron is quite the handful these days.  My laid back child is not so laid back anymore.  He has to be constantly going.  Here he decided to stop and dance.

And here is the best family photo we could get.  It is not as easy these days!

Big Feet

As Barron's Mother I feel required to think everything on him is just precious and that is almost entirely true.  Except his feet!  I joke with Bryan that they look like Hobbit feet (from "Lord of the Rings").  Barron's feet are really big and fat.  They are not so much wide as they are high.  Because of this we have had a hard time finding shoes.  He did not wear shoes at all until he turned one.  I decided since he was walking that I had to find something.

Since he was one, he has lived in his Salt Water Sandals.  They did not cover the top of his feet so they worked.  (Barron was nice enough to model all of his shoes for this blog)

His only other option was Crocs.  I was told they were perfect for fat feet.  They may be perfect for most fat feet, but not Barron's.  Every time he wore them he had deep imprints on the top of his feet.  We had to buy such a big size he would trip easily.

So now that fall has officially arrived I had to find him something that would work for cooler temps.  Last weekend we went up to Oxford for the Ole Miss game.  We flew through Memphis and went to Jackson's Shoes, the same store my Mother bought our shoes when we were young.  They had a big selection and showed us which ones wouldn't hurt his arch.  We found two pair (yay).

First are the Extra Wide New Balance...

Barron got a little preoccupied while modeling and started dancing with Bryan.

Hopefully he will get his Mother's moves!

And then a more dressy pair...

I'm just thankful his feet will be covered this winter.  Hopefully his sweet, precious feet will thin out as he does!