#263 - Santa Baby

I love the picture games of comparing our two boys.  Here they both are in the same Santa outfit that Aunt Rory sent Owen three years ago from China.  What do you think?

I think the hair definitely gives it away this time!

Owen on the far left and right in 2009.  Benjamin in the middle, taken last week (2012).

And, a few more pictures of both boys.  Our Santa babies!

#262 - Making Christmas Ornaments

A few weekends ago, Lou and Owen decided to make homemade Christmas ornaments.  Lou had found a "recipe" and cut it out of a magazine to try.  It was an early Saturday morning, and there are few things that Owen loves more than an arts and crafts project!

Poor Benjamin just wanted to help!

They pulled out the paint pens and glitter!

And eventally took the project outside to finish the painting.

And, here are some of the finished ornaments.  Just beautiful!

#261 - A Southern Santa

Check out the southern accent and yogurt beard.  It makes me smile.

#260 - Owen's Rendition of a Christmas Classic

Here's Owen singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  He gets a little funky towards the end.

#259 - Oh Christmas tree oh Christmas tree....

The Christmas tree is up in the Saez house!  We decorated it the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend and couldn't be happier with how easy it was to put up and decorate.  Last year, in an after-Christmas sale at Home Depot, we purchased an artificial tree thinking that it would be a good idea to use a fake tree the years that we went to Michigan.  This is a huge thing for me - in 34 years, I've never had an artificial tree, always fresh!  But, we were tired of coming home to a dead tree, with sharp needles littering the living room floor and jamming up the vacuum cleaner.   So, we opened up the huge box that had been sitting in our garage for the past 11 months, and started assembling the tree.  After a few minutes of trying to figure out the instructions, it came together fast.  We kept adding branches, until finally we had to pull out a ladder.  We had no idea how big a 9-ft tree really is!  But, it is beautiful!  And big enough that we actually went through all of the Christmas ornaments we've accumulated throughout the years - through us together as a couple, and those that have been given to us from family and passed down through the years.  Truly, one of the best parts to decorating the tree is the unwrapping of the ornaments and reminiscing about the origin of the ornament... a gift.... a memento from vacation.... a Hallmark puppy.....one of the many Baby's First Christmas keepsakes.  All special and perfect.

The boys really enjoyed the decorating too.  I thought Benjamin would be into everything, but for the most part, he occupied himself with one Florida Gator candy cane - hanging it onto a limb, taking it off, hanging it onto a different limb, taking it off again.  Over and over.  Owen was most interested in being able to hang ornaments as high as possible on the tree, hoisted up by his daddy.

Putting an ornament on the tree

A little higher up

Hanging the candy cane

"I did it!  Yay!!"

The finished tree!

#258 - Thanksgiving 2012

We spent Thanksgiving in Jacksonville this year, and we had a wonderful time celebrating the holiday at Aunt Kay and Uncle Joe's house.  They have such a beautiful home on the St. John's river, and events there are always a blast.  We drove down to Jacksonville Thursday morning (timed it perfectly so that Benjamin would nap in the car).  We dropped off Cocoa, then headed to the Worth home.  It was a good sized group, but we sure did miss my dad being there.  He and Catherine were in Atlanta for the holiday.  Owen and Benjamin were good and had a lot of fun.  It certainly helps when Nana is around to help with Benjamin.  He just adores her.  Uncle Joe, Lou and Leighton took Owen fishing while the food was cooking.  And, I got to spend quality time with my sister and cousin Joe.

My little sister just looks awesome.  She's doing so well, and I couldn't be prouder of her!

Jenifer and Katie

Jenifer and cousin Heidi

My cousin, Joe, his wife, Maria and little Joey

Heidi and Kaylin

Jen and our 93-year old grandfather

Aunt Bunny in the kitchen cooking

Joe, Aunt Heidi, little Joey and Nana (Aunt Kay)

Papa, Uncle Tommy, Uncle Bobby and Uncle Joe

Lou, Maria, Joe and Aunt Bunny

Worth Family Thanksgiving, 2012

And getting a little crazy!

The day after Thanksgiving, instead of joining the madness of Black Friday, we took the boys to Metropolitan Park and the Jacksonville Museum of Science and History.  I had not been to MOSH in over 20 years.  However, I have wonderful memories of the planetarium there.  Let me just say, this museum is awesome.  It's been fully renovated, it's very modern and updated, and had a ton of great exhibits.  I knew Owen would enjoy it, but was a little worried that Benjamin would get bored.  Not at all!  Both of them had a blast.  Because we were one of the few families there that day (I suppose most folks braved the malls and shopping centers), they could run around and get up close to everything.  I highly recommend checking it out!

Aunt Kay and Uncle Joe joined us too, which made the trip all the more fun.  After a few hours at the museum, we went over the The Landing and joined them on their boat for a leisurely lunch.  We even got Benjamin to nap on the boat!  

In front of Friendship Fountain

One of the few pictures of the four of us from the weekend

Nana with the boys in a treehouse

It was nice to let him run around and get some energy out!

Benjamin saw Aunt Kay walk up and ran to give her a kiss

Nana and Benjamin playing blocks

On Saturday, we visited with Mimi (in her nursing home) and Paw Paw who is now at home.  They both are doing well, and it was nice to see them.  When we were at Paw Paw's house, it was time for his morning shave, and when Owen saw Mom using the eletric razor on his face, he climbed up on Paw Paw's lap to watch.  After a few minutes, he asked if he could do it, and there he was, my four year old son shaving the face of his 83 year old great-grandfather.  It was a truly special memory.  My mom has a picture of it, and I'll be sure to share it.

We missed the rest of our family that weekend, but we know we'll see you soon!  

#257 - Future Football Player

Here's one more video from us playing ball in Owen's room.  I need to upload the pictures from Thanksgiving and then I'll post those!

#256 - Lots of Videos

#255 - Random Updates

• Benjamin is FINALLY off the bottle.  We went cold-turkey last weekend, and it was actually pretty easy.  And, now that he's not drinking 30+ ounces of whole milk a day, he has a big appetite and will eat pretty much anything you give him.

• Benjamin needs to have tubes put back in his ears.  This time, they are going to remove his adenoids too.  Hoping and praying this will help him get through the winter cold and flu season without any of those bad ear infections (he's already had three ear infections since August).  Surgery is scheduled for early December.

• We went to Jacksonville for the Florida/Georgia football game.  The game was pretty craptastic, but we had a ton of fun hanging out on Jose's Hideaway!

• While in Jacksonville, we got to visit Paw Paw.  He looks really good after his stroke this spring. Owen had a blast playing with him.  Great memories!

• We had a little impact from the winds/storms of Hurricane Sandy.  A large dead tree fell down in our back yard.  Fortunately, no one was hurt, and our playset only got a little bit of damage.  Lou worked for days to cut up all the limbs and break apart the trunk to move it from the grass.  Thanks honey!

• I bought the boys a bunch of winter/cold weather clothes last weekend.  I bought mostly 18 month stuff for Benjamin.  Got it all home and washed, and when I dressed him this week, they all fit perfectly.  Too perfectly in fact, which means that in about a month, they will be too small on him.....  oh well.  At least Carter's clothing is only about $4 a piece!  Owen is wearing a size 4T pretty well.  

• We booked our plane tickets to Michigan for Christmas!  Woo hoo!

• We booked our plane tickets to St. Thomas!  Woo hoo!

• That's all for now.  

#254 - Halloween Pictures

We had an adorable little bumblebee and a cute little pumpkin in our house for Halloween, as evidenced by the pictures below.  A fun night was had by all..... We gathered at a neighbor's house for some pre-Trick-or-Treeting beverages, then Lou and Owen and the rest of the gang walked around the neighborhood in search of candy, while Benjamin and I hung out at the house passing out chocolate-covered pumpkin pretzels. 

Guess that Pumpkin.....

Benjamin, 17 months, 2012

Owen, 15 months, 2009