We woke up Saturday morning to a very goopie eyed little boy. All 3 kids got gross eye infections with this eternal virus they’ve been passing around for 2 months…we’re talking buggars coming out of their tear ducts and red swollen eyes…yuck! This was our poor little man Saturday morning (unfortunately from this angle you can’t get a detailed view of the true “grossness” of his right eye…you’re welcome)…

Thankfully we were able to get an appointment and got some “miracle drops” for him. I call them miracle drops because 24 hours later he looked like this…

Still a little swollen (same crazy hair), but so much better!! And no, putting drops in a 7 month old’s eyes 3 times a day for 7 days isn’t nearly as horrible as I expected! He’s a trooper!!

The 2nd picture was also Logan’s 1st peas. Ever since Macy gagged when we gave her peas as a baby, I always have my camera ready for a similar response. The boys have both loved peas from the first bite, so, unfortunately, they haven’t given me the same Kodak moment as their sister.

I’m so thankful to have Steven in our lives.  He is a very sweet and affectionate little boy who loves cars, trains, and planes.  He has a very short temper and can throw a tantrum with the best of ‘em…I think he will live his “terrible 2′s” to the fullest!  Steven started talking later than most, but he’s caught up very quickly and is speaking in full sentences as much as possible.  He will climb on anything that doesn’t move…chairs, the couch, the coffee table, his father…and is in constant motion.  He’s the poster child of 2 year old boys.

Our family was running through the 2nd round of a respiratory virus around Steven’s birthday, so we kept things simple and had grandparents over for pizza and cake.

I saw a version of this cake on pinterest and knew I had to try it for my little truck lover.

The inside was supposed to have one more stripe, but I was nervous about pulling it off so I decided to go with 3.  Next time I’ll try 4 so the stripes will be more even.

Steven loved it when we sang “Happy Birthday”.

He even eats cake like a boy (I don’t think Macy’s ever gotten that messy eating cake).  In this picture he was actually licking the cake off his fingers.

Ready to open presents!

Macy was more than willing to help.

Now Steven can work with his tools like Daddy.

Doug gave both kids their first t-ball lesson.

Logan had bronchitis and a double ear infection, but he still had fun at the party.

Happy birthday Steven!  I can’t wait to see how much you grow over the next year.  I am truly blessed to be your mommy!!

Steven got into a fight with our coffee table a couple days ago…the table won.

Logan is almost ready to give up his morning nap, but he still usually wants a 20 minute power nap. It’s the perfect excuse for me to sit down for 20 minutes and snuggle.

Today was monumental…my world has been rocked. Did you know that a kitchenaid mixer will shred chicken…in seconds?? I had seen it on pinterest and heard rumors that it was true, but today I saw it firsthand. I boiled 9 chicken breasts for a freezer cooking day. It would usually have taken me hours to shred all of that chicken (I have to cut into impossibly small pieces or Steven can’t chew it), but I put 3 pieces at a time in my mixer and had it all shredded in less than 5 minutes! It was awesome! It would take even less time if you weren’t trying to turn it into chicken powder like I was (which it did by the way!). I’ll never dread shredding chicken again!!

I think Steven was impressed too.

The story of the chew cane isn’t monumental…or even very entertaining to those who aren’t me, but because I can launch anything I want out into cyberspace, I’ve decided that it’s something I want to remember and force my kids to remember.

When I was a baby someone made me a fabric candy cane (it was probably my mom or her mom…I’ll have to ask later) to chew on…hence “chew cane”.  I was 7 months old on my first Christmas, so it was the perfect drooly age for me to hold something soft and chew on it.  My mom held on to the chew cane and got it out (and washed it) for when we went to Mississippi for Macy’s first Christmas.  Since Macy and my birthday are only 1 day apart, she was also at the perfect age for the chew cane.  It completely grossed Doug out that our daughter was chewing on the same chew cane that had I had chewed on as a baby, but she loved it.

While we were there my brother commented about Macy chewing on “his” chew cane…he had to be corrected.  My parents had moved into their new house for Steven’s first Christmas and the chew cane was packed in a box that was still at their old house, so it didn’t make another appearance until this Christmas.  Logan got a chance to try the chew cane…and he was a fan.

The moral of this story is that, in our family, we don’t pass down jewels or china…we pass down chew canes.

Christmas in Mississippi started with the traditional “box”.  Every year my grandmother puts a small Christmasy item in a box with $50.  She writes extremely helpful clues (like “loved by young and old”, “very Christmasy”, and “can be light or dark”…and oddly enough the clues sound exactly the same every year). Then we all write our guesses down…

and she sorts through them and announces the winner.  The winner gets unwrap the box and keep whatever’s inside…and the $50.  This year there were actually 3 winners (obviously the clues were a little more helpful this year than they usually are)…StephAnie, Uncle John, and Doug!

Doug did a great job snapping pictures while I helped the kids open gifts.  Logan loves his sweet Aunt Steph!

Our usual family photographer.

Steven tries to turn everything into a vehicle.

Grams is definitely a gift to our family!

It was great to celebrate Christmas with our Mississippi family!!!

We had a great time celebrating Christmas.  We were in SC on Christmas day and then went to MS on the 26th.  It was so much fun for the kids to wake up and see the gifts under the tree (Steven kept any gifts from being put out earlier…I could see me leaving the room for 10 seconds and coming back to him playing with every toy we had gotten for all 3 kids).

We had a delicious birthday cake for breakfast (and note to self: if you put candles in monkey bread when it comes out of the oven, your candles will melt.  Letting it cool usually helps.)

After breakfast, Omie and Pop Pop came over for the kids to open their gifts.

Steven got an airplane to ride on…thus beginning his obsession with airplanes.

After the kids opened their gifts, we all went to Brian and Louisa’s house for lunch and more gift opening.

Macy got ALL of the Strawberry Shortcake dolls…a 3 year old girl’s version of diamonds.

Beau showed off his cool new bike.

It was a great day with family celebrating the birth of our Lord!!

(Since we’ll be celebrating Steven’s birthday this weekend, I figured I might want to finish up posting about Christmas…you know, before I too many more holidays stack up.)

I’m not sure what got a hold of me, but I had an overwhelming desire to make homemade sugar cookies this year for Christmas.  Maybe it was that I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do my usual bakefest of neighbor/teacher goodies and there’s something that runs deep in my veins that forces me to bake at least once at Christmas…maybe it’s that (while I’m getting better…the 12 step program is helping) I still feel an overwhelming desire to recreate the Donna Reid show with my family…whatever it is, I HAD to make homemade sugar cookies this year…so I did.  And to my surprise, they were incredibly easy (I was expecting cookie cutter nightmares) and pretty darn tasty!  Adios Pillsbury!

(I have no idea why Macy and Steven wore matching shirts that day.  I promise they usually don’t!)

These are the cookies that Macy decorated.

Steven is talking a lot these days and it’s so much fun to be able to communicate with him. Most of what he’s saying is still in “Stevenese”, so unless you’re around him a lot (or happen to have taken a class in Stevenese) he can still be hard to understand. For example, if he comes up to you and asks for “Woanick and Mayonaise” he’s not telling someone named Nick to stop or hungry for a sandwich. He’s asking for Logan (Woanick) and Macy (Mayonaise…and, yes, if you ask him to say “mayonaise” it’s pronounced the exact same way). Stevenese might just be the cutest language ever.