MERRY MERRY!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas season!! We have had a busy & exciting last few days with lots of family! Our first celebration was on Saturday with Chris' family. Warner had a big time with all his cousins!!

JoJo & Pops with all 7 grandchildren!!

On Sunday we traveled to my grandmothers house - Warner is the only great grandchild, so you can imagine how spoiled he gets! So spoiled that Warner & I had to ride back home with Buddy & Kissy cause we couldn't fit in the car with daddy!!

sweet tradition - daddy & Warner sprinkling reindeer food in the front yard on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning was so much fun - a little different than last year when Warner was only 7 months old! He walked right down the hall and immediately started digging in to what Santa had left for him.

On Christmas Day we headed over to Chris' grandparents house for lunch with more family.

And last, here are some pictures of Warner enjoying his new toys!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas - remembering that more importantly we are celebrating the birth of Jesus! We are so blessed!!

Welcome to the world Sophie!!

Sophia Ruth (Sophie) Ritzmann was born today at 7:12pm, weighing 8lbs 1oz and 21 inches long. Congratulations Josh & Krista!! She's beautiful!!

Dirty Santa Party!

What a fun night - great food, great friends, and a great game of dirty santa!

Megan, Julie B., Mary Evelyn, Julie F., Jennie, Rachel, Lesley, & me.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

We celebrated 4 years of marriage yesterday!! What an awesome & exciting last 4 years it has been - I wouldn't change a thing!

We celebrated by taking a quick trip to Memphis for the night. We took our little man with us, and we had so much fun just being together as a family. Here we are this morning on the roof top of our hotel.

"CHEESE"

Sometimes Warner does things that I am just like "where did that come from?", or "you are so smart!". Today was one of the those days. He has said "cheese" several times when we've been taking pictures, but today I was holding him and went to get my camera out of my purse - I said nothing about taking pictures - and he said "CHEESE!". It was the cutest thing!! Just by seeing the camera he knew I was about to take his picture! Then tonight we were leaving the house to go eat and I said to Chris - "are you going to leave the TV on?" Without even skipping a beat Warner walked from the kitchen into the living room and turned off the TV. We just died laughing. He really IS listening to everything we say - kinda scary!!

19 MONTHS!

Happy 19 months baby boy!! This month you have managed to amaze us once again. You are so funny - and it is very hard to keep a straight face when you poke your bottom lip out after getting a spanking! You have learned mommy's real name - you assist whoever is yelling for me, by putting in your own version of "Ginger, Ginger!" I guess I knew the day would come when you would call me by my real name, just didn't know it would be so soon. You are still hooked on "mu mu" when you want more of anything and recently it has turned into "mut mut" and you use it ALL THE TIME!! You have had another cold this month and you have amazed us at how well you can blow your nose - I mean, it's amazing!! You are so smart and understand everything we are saying - this was very apparent when during Thanksgiving Buddy said he was going to get Pat & Gibson from the airport and you went and got your coat & hat and started putting them on!! Mommy has been trying to trick you by putting vegetables in your food, but you haven't let us forget that you will not eat something you don't want (or even open your mouth to try it). You did amaze me yesterday when you wanted a carrot and took it and ate the whole thing. Everyone loves you where ever we go and think you are so cute! Just last week we were in the bank and when we left I said "tell them bye" and you said just as loud as you could "BYE" and everybody laughed so hard. We have had to stay inside more than you would like this month since the weather has finally decided to stay cold - you don't like that one bit! You love to read books and you will go get one at a time and back up to me and sit in my lap - you just can't quite make it through the whole book yet because you are too busy! You have started counting your fingers (thanks JoJo) and it is the cutest thing. You hold out one hand and use the other hand to point as you go along - "one, two, three". You have really gotten into saying your prayers and love to put your sweet little hands together when we say our prayers at night. You are watching everything mommy & daddy do - mommy was doing a lot of cooking last week, so you started "cooking" in the bath tub using your cup as the bowl and one of your bath toys as the spoon to stir. You are very good at your body parts and animal sounds, but when you are feeling lazy you have a little short cut with your animal sounds and every animal says the same thing!! You have your own little language and some days I wish I knew what you were saying so bad - you think you make perfect sense, but we're not so sure! You LOVE Christmas, well everything about it except Santa Claus - you don't like him at all. I have been really impressed at how well you have handled the Christmas tree - you've only broken one ornament. Some days I may get a little frustrated with you, but most days I am so thankful to be your mommy. I realized this week just how much I need you when I almost let you leave town with Kissy & Buddy for 2 nights - I just couldn't do it!! Mommy & daddy love you more and more everyday and can't wait to see what you have in store for us next month.

"Deceptively Delicious"

Like I have said before, Warner is a VERY picky eater!! He likes chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, turkey, bread, crackers, chips, french fries, any kind of fruit, oatmeal, and cheese - and that is it! So, a while back my mom bought me this great book, "Deceptively Delicious" written by Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica. It's a great book about getting your kids to eat healthy and eat their vegetables. It uses pureed vegetables in all the recipes, but you aren't able to taste them. I have been wanting to try it since I got it, but just never found the time to make all the purees. Well, with my mom in town this week to help me, I got busy! It is so easy!! I have made sweet potatoe, butternut squash, peas, carrots, broccoli, and red pepper purees so far. It takes no time at all and now that I have the purees ready I can just pull them out of the freezer for my recipes. Tonight I made the first recipe - chicken tenders that include the broccoli puree, and he actually ate them!!! YAY!!! They were actually very tasty. This is so exciting because now I don't have to worry that he's not getting his veggies. This week I'm going to try the pancakes (made with sweet potatoe puree), applesauce muffins (made with butternut squash), blueberry lemon muffins (made with yellow squash), and the grilled cheese sandwich (made with sweet potatoe or squash). I'll let you know how they turn out.

center of attention

Since my parents are still in town, I decided to have my in-laws over for dinner tonight to get the whole family together. Warner was in HEAVEN!!

2 grandmothers in one room - can't get any better than this!

one of Warner's favorite things to do - get in Pops pockets!

so dramatic! He's telling us "HOT" talking about the fire.

Gibson's Baby Shower!

me and the mommy-to-be

I wish we knew what was in that belly!!

the hostesses (sister-in-laws) - me, Barbara, guest of honor, & Carley
We had so much fun in Tupelo on Saturday for the shower. Gibson got some great things- now all they need is the baby!!

YAY DADDY!!!

Chris has been hunting this deer for at least 2 years, and he finally got him this afternoon. His first deer with his bow!! YAY Chris!

LOVE this little boy!!

this little boy brings so much joy to our lives!!

OBSESSED!!

Last week I went to the dentist for a cleaning, and I was asking our dentist when I needed to start bringing Warner. He said they usually don't start seeing kids until 3 years old just to make sure I clean his teeth everyday. I told him no worries here!!! Warner is obsessed with brushing his teeth - he would brush them 5 times a day if we let him. He runs back to the bathroom and reaches for the toothbrush several times a day. He has even gotten pretty good at brushing them on his own. I just hope this little obsession will last!!

Who needs blocks??!!

when you can stack coke cans!!

It's beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!

Every year growing up my mom always made pound cakes for our neighbors and friends for their Christmas gift. So, this year I decided to carry on the tradition and start making these cakes myself. With my mom here this week it was a great time to get started. WELL....yesterday and today combined we have made 18 pound cakes and delivered all 18 to our neighbors and friends!! It has been so much fun being in the kitchen with my mom - a little difficult sometimes with a toddler around, but so much fun!! I do have a few stories to tell - Warner is grabbing everything off the counters - even kitchen counters! He managed to get a hold of the Crisco shortening while we weren't looking and made a mess with it! He also grabbed a cake that was sitting on the counter - I caught it just in time from falling on the floor. While we were baking yesterday we looked up and he had the scissors in his hand and he was running through the house! This little boy is ALL BOY!!! I can not turn my back for one minute!!

He found a coke in the pantry and was carrying it around like a big boy!

The finished product! I am so tired of baking cakes, but so glad we did it!

KISSY!!!

Warner & I went to the airport today to pick up Kissy!! YAY!!! Warner is VERY familiar with airports and LOVES the conveyer belt that the luggage comes out on - we had to pry him away from it!!

Here he is waiting on Kissy - yes, he has on a leash - and yes, it makes my life a little easier!

Kissy had a special prize in her bag - a candy cane - this was Warner's first taste of candy and he LOVED it - it was ALL over him by the time he finished. I had to brush his teeth extra long tonight!!

Warner's 1st church program!

We had our children's program at church tonight - "Away in a Manger." At the end of the program they had the nursery babies (Warner) come up and sing the last song with the rest of the preschool. Warner LOVED the attention and even waved to daddy who had the video camera rolling - such a special memory! It was such a cute program and fun to think that Warner will be an even bigger part of the program in a couple of years!

on the way home with his paci and Mr. Snuggles!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

FINALLY people are starting to say that Warner looks like his mommy!! What do you think??