Blankenship Family!: 2013

Monday, December 30, 2013

Dylan is Four Months Old!

Happy Four Month Birthday Dylan!

Of course Owen has to help me take pictures. He is giving Dylan's foot a kiss.

Sleep: Dylan goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 and wakes up around 5:00. He is sleeping a little longer now... sometimes he will wake up at 6:00 and a few times he has even slept until 8:00. We are still working on sleeping longer. He usually has this early morning bottle and goes right back to sleep and sleeps until 8:00 to 8:30.

He is really good about going to bed. After his bed time feeding he goes right down and never cries! Sometimes he is asleep when I put him down for bed, sometimes he is awake. If he is awake, he just coo's and puts himself to sleep.

Size: He is now wearing all 6 month clothes. His 3 month outfits are definitely too small now, but I haven't had to heart (or the time) to pack them away just yet... Gosh they outgrow these small clothes so fast!

Special Visits: We had a busy December and had Jimmy's family up to celebrate Christmas one weekend. We also went to visit Santa one Sunday. It's been a busy and stressful month... I'm ready to start this new year off at a slower pace.

My Mom's friend Deb stopped by to see Dylan for the first time. Here is a cute picture!

Firsts: Dylan is now making the squealing noises! He will sit and play with himself and squeal away! It's so cute! He is rolling all over the place now too! He is now reaching for objects and grasping them, especially toys and people's faces.

Dylan's first Christmas ornament!

My best friend, Molly, and her husband came up for a visit and gave Dylan this ornament.

First Christmas dinner at Mimi and Pop's house!

He is wearing the hat from his popper. :)

Likes: We brought out the excer-saucer a few weeks ago and Dylan LOVES it! He jumps up and down in it and loves to play with the toys. He spins them, grabs them, and smacks them around and then squeals!

Jumping around!

Here are some more sweet moments from the past month...

Daddy time while mommy bakes Christmas treats with some friends.

Looooves to be thrown in the air!

Owen loves to rub his head.

And give him kisses!

After visiting Santa.

Passed out from playing, what a tough life!

Owen tries to feed Dylan with his play bottle.

My Grandma gave me a picture of my Dad when he was 4 weeks old. I thought it was the spitting image of Dylan... here is the photo.

I tried to do a side-by-side picture, but this is the best picture I could find that shows the resemblance.

Dylan is about the same age as my Dad in this picture.

I also got a picture of Dylan where I think he looks a lot like Owen.

Dylan is 4 months and Owen is about 9 months.

That's all for now!
Happy New Year everyone!

Love,

Judi

Repeat the sounding JOY

Owen kept pointing to this ornament and saying "baby." This is a picture of him from last Christmas!

My, how you have grown my sweet baby boy!

Repeat the sounding joy... this line and song comes to mind when I think of this past Christmas. To see the joy and wonder in my children's eyes on Christmas morning was the most magical thing. I absolutely loved making Christmas so sweet and special for them. I'm overwhelmed with joy when I think of all the blessings our Lord has bestowed upon us this year. Not only our personal gifts, but the blessing of the birth of his son.

On Christmas Eve the boys get to open one present. (This is a tradition my family had that I wanted to continue.) Each year they get special Christmas pajamas that they wear to bed that night.

Owen and Dylan opening their pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Look at your new PJs D!

Then, after the boys went to bed, we set up all their Santa gifts. Jimmy put everything together while we watched The Sound of Music (another family tradition).

Here are a few pictures of what it looked like the night before.

The next morning Owen came downstairs and we told him Santa had some. He kept saying "Ho! Ho! Ho!" the whole morning. I think he understood Santa a little more than we had expected!

Reading Where The Wild Things Are from Mama and Dada.

(One of my favorite books ever.)

Dylan is reading a book about animals that Mama and Dada gave him.

Playing with his par 3 mini golf set that Santa brought him!

Riding his John Deer tractor from the Dykes family!

Each time he opened a present he would hand the piece of paper to one of us to throw away.

After we were finished opening gifts and there was still some wrapping paper on the ground he went around picking it all up and putting it in the trash. He likes things to be neat! Hmm, wonder where he gets that from?!?

Dylan is just chillin in Dad's lap on Christmas morning.

He is all dressed up and ready to go, just waiting on us!

Hanging out on Mimi's lap Christmas day!

I hope everyone's Christmas was as magical as ours was!

Happy New Year!

Love,

Judi

Owen is 18 Months Old!

My little man!

I can't believe he is a year and a half old already!

Size: Owen is still wearing size 18 month clothes. Some of his pants were a bit long for awhile, so I just rolled them up, but now I don't have to roll them anymore. He must have gone through a growth spurt this month!

Special Trips/Visits: We had a VERY busy December. We went to visit Santa a couple weeks ago (see my previous post) and then had Jimmy's family in town to celebrate Christmas. Then, of course, celebrated Christmas with my side of the family. It was a whirlwind, and I'm not going to lie, stressful, month! I'm looking forward to our lives settling down for awhile in the new year.

Favorites: Owen loves reading in his new faux leather recliner! My Oma bought him this adorable recliner for Christmas and he is hopping in and out of it all the time with a book to read.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of all time.

He is reading Good Night, Gorilla (thanks Hall family!).

He loves cookies! He said his first two word string of words: "Mama, cookie!!!" Since he said it once he is saying it all the time! Of course I have to give him a piece of my cookie. :)

Owen loves to sit in his big boy chair with us at the table. He no longer sits and eats in his high chair. We have graduated him to the booster seat at the table with us. Dylan will be starting solids soon, and I didn't want any possession issues over the high chair, so we moved him up a month or two before Dylan would be needing the high chair. Owen gets a kick out of sitting up there with us!

Owen LOVES music! We have started a little family tradition of playing music while we eat dinner instead of the T.V. running. Owen sits at the table and dances away! He has his favorite songs that he likes to jam to a little more than others. Don't we all?

We have had a few warm days this winter where Jimmy will take Owen and Dylan to the park. Owen can now climb the jungle gym from one end and walk to the other end and go down the slide by himself! I can't believe he is getting so big and can do this on his own! I have several video clips of this, but they are so hard to upload...

We had our first snow of the winter a few weeks ago. I bundled Owen all up and we headed outside for some fun! He absolutely loved the snow. He kept tripping and falling all over the place, but cracked up when he fell. It was adorable!

"Seriously, Ma?!?"

He was so bundled up that he could barely move!

Snow butt!

A rare picture of me actually in the picture with Owen.

I caught him mid-word saying BALL!

We were playing with snow balls.

After the snow fun we came inside for some warm clothes and cozy slippers. If only he was old enough for some hot chocolate! :)

Here are some other cute moments from the past month...

He loves to put on my high heels and walk around. :)

I'm trying to actually be IN the picture more with the boys! This might be the first picture of me with both of them.

Helping Daddy tighten the gate!

That's all for now... I hope everyone has a happy New Year!

Love,

Judi

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Breakfast with Santa!

We went to visit Santa this morning at Bristow Manor. Last year we went to Fair Oaks mall and waited for two hours to see Santa... Owen was great, but there is no way we were going to wait in that line this year with a 17 month old and a 3 month old. So, I saw online that Bristow Manor hosts a breakfast with Santa and I jumped on buying the tickets! I also love the fact that we got married at the same place almost exactly 4 years ago... who would have thought we would be back there four years later with two little boys!

Jimmy and I have been looking forward to this for quite some time. I even bought them matching Christmas outfits before Thanksgiving! We got them all dressed up this morning and headed out the door!

My little men with Santa!

Owen was so excited to see Santa! As soon as we walked into the manor house and saw Santa he kept saying "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

Family picture!

After sitting on Santa's lap and taking a few pictures we headed to the pavilion for some yummy breakfast. About half way through breakfast Santa came and wished us all a Merry Christmas!

Again, Owen kept saying "Ho, ho ho!"

Waiting for Daddy to bring back some grub.

Passed out in the car on the way home. I think it's safe to say he had a blast!

It brings Jimmy and I so much joy to make Christmas so magical for Owen and Dylan. We love this time of year!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Love,

Judi

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Thanksgiving!

Jimmy and I hosted our families for Thanksgiving this year. We had my Mom and a few people from Jimmy's family come over for dinner. I spent the week before cleaning and cooking a little bit each day during the little down time I have. I had to start way in advance so that I would get everything done! My mom made the turkey and the desserts while I did all the appetizers and sides. Cindy brought a fruit salad and some delicious wine. It was so much fun and we all had such a great time just hanging out together! Here are a few pictures...

Table all set and ready to go!

Got to use our wedding china.

Nana with Dylan.

Stephen holding Dylan.

D Rob doing some tummy time

Everyone sitting down to eat!

Every year my Dad and Tari celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday. It's always nice that we don't have to go two places on Thanksgiving day. My dad's family and Tari's family all joins together and everyone brings something delicious to eat (I brought the cornbread stuffing and chocolate peanut butter balls). I love being surrounded by 25 (sometimes more) family members laughing, eating, and enjoying some wine together. It is so wonderful! My favorite part about getting together with all of these family members is that everyone jumps in and takes care of the boys. My amazing dad fed Dylan while Jimmy and I (and everyone else) ate Thanksgiving dinner. Stewart and Savannah played with Owen almost the entire time! They wore him out and kept him entertained. Savannah and Aunt Alicia took Owen outside to watch the annual family football game. It warms my heart to see everyone loving on the boys so much! I was not good at taking pictures, so I stole all these pictures from Lauren! Thanks Lulu!!!