Christmas and more holiday fun!

This Christmas break has been awesome! Ben is a barrel of fun these days and handles large family gatherings much better (thank God!). We spent Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family at Aunt Darla's house. It's a tradition we look forward to every year. Mom seems to be recuperating very well after surgery on the 15th. Aunt Darla just finished her American Sign Language course at SFCC with a 98% (brains run in the family). Aunt Lisa and Uncle Rick are doing well, too. They stay very busy working and taking care of Rick's parents (who are both in their 90's). Aunt Cindy is as bubbly as ever! She got a new camera for Christmas and showed me some cool pictures she has taken with it. Kacie got off for an entire week and Katie was glad to be home after a grueling semester at UF (Go Gators!). All of my second cousins are getting so big. Mara turned 14 that night (yikes! I'm getting old).

Jeremy, Ben and I had a wonderful Christmas morning together. Ben slept in until 8:30! We got Ben a little rocking chair and he knocked presents out of the way to sit in it. It was so funny! Jeremy kept the tradition going by making breakfast burritos that morning. Uncle Chuckie stopped by to eat with us and check out Ben's loot. Nana and Joey stopped by later that morning and gave Ben the cutest little choo-choo train. We had lunch and opened more presents at Jeremy's parents' house that afternoon. Papa Stone came down from Bartow and enjoyed watching Ben play with his toys. The three of us headed home for a nap and went back over that night for dinner. We spent the next few days resting and playing at home with all of our new goodies.

Today, we took Ben to Common Ground (the coolest park ever!) in Lakeland. Ben had so much fun sliding and swinging. I've posted the cutest pictures of him playing below. We have a little less than one week of Christmas break left and I'm going to soak up every minute of it! It took forever to upload all of these pictures so I hope you all enjoy them :D

I gave Jeremy a copy of one of my favorite books

Daddy already trying to get him to bat as a lefty

I think he was saying "bye-bye" in this picture

in his cute new outfit from Mom & Dad with his sippy cup from Aunt Steph

Ben loves his new mode of transportation from G-ma & G-pa Byrd

My little drummer boy

Can you say "static electricity?"

Ben is thinking...."Mom, this is the best day ever!"

Momma's new 'do & Ben not wanting his picture taken

Wheeee!!!!!

Ben's 1st Haircut!

Grandpa Byrd just got a new camera, so here are some random shots taken with his Nikon. I can't get over how good the quality of the pictures are with this camera. I think I need to save and buy one for myself!

Here are the pictures from Ben's first haircut yesterday. We took Ben to Park Avenue Hair Place where Amy Robillard works. Jeremy coached her son, Austin, his first and second years coaching at FMSHS. The Robillards are the sweetest little family. I have Amy's youngest daughter, Amanda, in class this year. Ben did much better than I expected. He cried, but never tried to squirm out of the chair. I did give in and give him a sucker in hopes of cheering him up. I hardly ever give him sugar like that, so it worked! I'm still a little sad that his hair is gone, but he really does look handsome. Jeremy is very happy we finally got it cut!

*Before Picture* Checking out Mrs. Amy's scissors Momma trying to comfort Ben with a sucker

All done and oh so handsome!

Some more random shots.....

Oops! I forgot to post these with my last blog. Here are some December randoms of Ben. Enjoy!

December!

Holy cow! Is it really December already? I can't believe 2009 is almost over. We went down to Sebring the weekend after Thanksgiving and picked out our first tree together as a family of three. Ben was so happy walking up to the trees and touching them. He likes to pull the ornaments off, so for this year, only the top half of our tree is decorated! We'll try the full tree again next year, haha! Jeremy and I will celebrate our second wedding anniversary next week! I can't believe we've been married for two years! I remember that day like it was yesterday. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this month.....our anniversary, winter break, and spending the holidays with our family and friends.