Christmas is Coming......

Aunt Kelly bought this very cute Monkey pillow for Ivan for his birthday. He loves it!
Playing with another one of his favorite toys. He LOVES to play with the hammer-we are not so sure of it on the other hand. It is extremely noisy!

Loving the Christmas Tree and that cat that likes to hide under it.

Just because he is cute in his new hat!

I thought it looked like he was modeling his new outfit.

I love it when I can capture his blue eyes!

Goofy!

We took Ivan to meet Santa at a holiday party for work. He seemed to like Santa, but did not have a whole lot to say. However, we say Santa again at a restaurant and he ran up to him and jumped into his lap! He then yelled at him from across the restaurant as we ate. He asked Santa for his hat, glasses, belt and boots. Santa was very kind and gave him his hat and glasses, but insisted that he needed his boots and belt.

Santa was good, but Stinger seemed to have a hold on Ivan. I swear Ivan stalked him while we were at the holiday party. He had a very hard time waiting his turn to see him!

Ivan is a very busy child, so it is very rare that I am able to actually catch him looking at the camera.

Building at The Preston's Christmas. These blocks were an early Christmas present and he LOVED them. He loved stacking them and immediately knocking them down.

Grandma and Ivan playing.

Ivan loved this rocking chair as it was just his size. We always attempt to get a photo of him in this chair and were much more successful this year.

Kelly needed to drag the chair across the room so he could sit with Aunt Kelly. I think he really wanted to share the chair with Kelly, but it did not quite work out that well.

Daddy and Ivan discussing the blocks.

I have been informed that I am VERY behind, so I decided to post a few of our favorite photos from the past month. We have been very busy recently, but I will do my best to update a little more regularly :) We are hoping to start up a new blog page that will replace this one-in order to include Ivan and his baby brother when he arrives.

Little Man is 2!!!

The new tool bench that was constructed during nap time. He absolutely LOVED it and pretty much ignored everyone for a good half hour while he played!
Will the balloons fit in the tunnel?

The loot!

Presents, for me????

I LOVE it!!!

Brutus! Ivan insisted that Brutus was broken when he discovered nothing happened when he pushed his stomach!

Ivan loved it when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" He looked around at every person in amazement. Then he blew out the candle, with a little assistance.

Yummy cake, courtesy of Stacey

Posing before clean up

I love my new riding toy, I mean boat.

On Sunday we celebrated Ivan's 2nd birthday! It is so hard for us to believe that our baby is now 2 years old! We have had so much fun over the past 2 years watching him grow into this amazing little person. From day one, he has been a very active and entertaining little guy. He always keeps us on our toes and usually keeps us laughing as well. We both feel so blessed to have Ivan in our lives and feel that we could not have hand picked a child more perfect for us! Ivan defiantly has his moments that try us as parents, but we still love everything about him and wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything! We love you Ivan and cannot wait to watch you grow up over the next several years.

Thank you to all of our family and friends for helping us celebrate Ivan's birthday. You truly did make it a very special day for him and us as well. We also feel very blessed to have every one of you in our lives.

Halloween 2009

Ivan the Lion
Mason as Elvis

And our little giraffe, Mallory

On Saturday, we headed out with Cousin Mallory and Ivan's friend Mason to Trick or Treat in the neighborhood. It was quite a change from last year when Ivan just didn't know what to do. This year he knew exactly what to do. He was not the fastest kid out there, but he had fun doing it. We had so much fun watching him run up and down the sidewalk and up random driveways for a piece of candy. He managed to open several pieces of candy while we weren't looking and often ate the candy with the wrapper still on if he couldn't open it. He was a complete wild man when we got home from the sugar rush he had!

I am so glad Ivan agreed to keep his costume on as he was not a happy camper when he tried it on a few weeks ago. However, after a little convincing, he seemed very happy to leave it on and even agreed to put it back on this morning for a few additional photos. We really did have a great time trick or treating this year and can't wait for next year! Thanks to grandma and papaw for staying at the house and handing out candy while we braved the cold night!

Lazy Sunday Morning

Ivan has become very fond of sitting on Mommy and Daddy's bed and watching cartoons. As much as I don't really want him to watch TV that often, this can be a wonderful thing for us. It gives us that extra time we need to get ready in the morning or to get a few things done upstairs. A few weeks ago, we had Ivan in our room so that we could get ready to meet my mom and her side of the family out for breakfast. Ivan had lots of fun playing with the packs of hangers I had just bought for maternity clothes! He also had lots of fun at breakfast, which could have turned out ugly as we waited an hour for our food-toddlers just do not have a lot of patience when they are in a highchair for an hour. He did have lots of entertainment and was apparently very tired when we left. He fell asleep in the car while eating M&M's-you can see the wrapper in his hand and the colors of the M&M's on his face.