Happy Holidays!

The holidays are flying by so I'm here to get a new entry in before the new year! Since my last post, we celebrated our first Thanksgiving in our new home. It was soooooo nice! We had family and friends over for tons and tons of yummy food. It was an awesome day, but it flew by too quickly. We even forgot to take our family Thanksgiving pic that we take every year! Well, Christmas is only 4 days away and I know we won't forget to take pics for that!

This last month has been all about Christmas! I just can't believe how fast time is these days. It feels like just yesterday we were trick or treating. I'm so excited for Santa to come though, and I know Beckham is too. It so much fun having him understand what's going on this year. He sings "Santa Claus is coming to town" all the time, and talks about how Santa is going to come out of the fireplace. When you ask him what Santa is bringing him for Christmas, he says "Tools!". He is going to be so excited Christmas morning!

On December 4th, we took the boys to a Christmas fair in Lafitte. Santa Claus rode in on a firetruck and Beckham got to touch him as he walked off. Beckham is so into Santa Claus this year!

On December 11th, we threw a Christmas party for our Marine Corps family. The boys had such a great time as did Mommy and Daddy! The boys had so many friends to play with and we were even able to sit all of the kiddies down together to take a pic! Unbelievable!

On December 15th, we all went to Joshua's work for a Christmas party. Beckham enjoyed wondering around and eating up their mint chocolate cookies. The boys got to open gifts, but they really enjoyed one of the other boy's gifts, toy cars!

On December 17th, I took the boys to sit on Santa's lap at my mom's daycare. Beckham was soooo much better than last year! He went right to Santa and sat on his lap, and even smiled a little bit. Everett wasn't even scared at all! He was very interested in Santa's beard. LOL

That same day we decided to say Bye Bye to Binky. The night before, Beckham grabbed Everett's face with his fingernails while in the backseat of the car because he wanted Everett's binky. Everett screamed like I had never heard before and was left with a terrible cut under his eye (You can see it well in the photos above). If binkies are going to cause violence then it's time to get rid of them! I was planning to take them away from both of the boys the day after their birthday party in March, but now is better than later. We took the boys to a canal in Westwego where we stood on a little bridge and let Beckham throw some rocks in the water. Then we gave Everett a binky to throw into the water. Beckham was next. We gave him the binky and he immediately threw it over the bridge. We sang the "Bye Bye Binky" song and left them for the alligator. Well, that's what Beckham thinks. Whenever he asks for it, we remind him that he threw it in the water and now the baby alligator has it. It's been 5 days so far and that is still working. He continues to ask for it every once in a while, but he is satisfied with our response. Now I can focus just on potty training after his birthday and leave the binkies in the past!

On December 18th, Joshua and I took the boys to City Park to see snow for the first time! It was soooooo cold but Beckham didn't mind at all and still threw snowballs. He even threw one at me! When he first held the snow in his hand, he said "WET!".

That same day we dropped Everett off with Nonna and took a trip to Baton Rouge with Beckham. We spent the afternoon walking around the Mall of Louisiana where Beckham got to see Santa... over and over again! Then we took him to go ice skating for the first time! He couldn't wait to get on the ice. While we were putting on our skates, he kept saying "I-kating! I-kating!" And he did so well! None of us fell and Beckham got to skate so fast thanks to his Daddy.

Here are some cute things that Beckham says/does. He says a million cute things a day, but these are just the few that I remember off hand:

1.) He says "Hold you" instead of "Hold me". I just love that!

2.) He says "more" for everything. When he sees Santa Claus on a commercial, he says "Moa Santa Cause". (He leaves out the "r" in more and the "l" in clause.) When Donna comes over she brings money for him to put in his piggy banks then he asks for "mo money". When I sing to him and stop, he says "moa singing", etc. Except for this one time when....

3.) One time I was singing to him and he plugged his ears! That boogerbutt! Now where did he learn that??

4.) One day Donna was showing Becham how to put cd's in the Wii, but he kept calling them "dd's" so she corrected him and said "CD... CD..". Beckham then turned to her and said, "E..H". LOL

5.) Our neighbors across the street put up a big, blowup snowman in their front yard and whenever he sees it, he yells "Halloween snowmaaaaan!". I guess he hasn't forgotten about their Halloween decorations.

6.) Beckham walks around the house saying "Hey" to everything. He goes up to our little snowman that stands on our table and says, "Hey snowman". He goes up to the fireplace and says "Hey fia-pace". He goes in his room and says "Hey bay-uh" to his big teddy bear. And he even goes to the wall and says "Hey wall"!

7.) Beckham misses Everett when he's napping or just not around. When Everett is napping, Beckham says "I want Everett" and sometimes in the the morning it's the first thing he says when he wakes up. A couple of weeks ago, I took Beckham to Walmart and on the way their he was saying "I want Everett." The on the way home, he was in the backseat saying, "Oh Everett" and then laughing and shaking his head as though he thought of something funny that Everett did. And I just love how sometimes he calls Everett "Brother". Today he was talking to him and saying "Here Brother... Oh Brother." It sounds kind of like "Bruv-uh". He'll point to Everett in pictures and say "Everett" sometimes and "Brother" other times.

8.) One day Everett was crying in the playroom and I couldn't get to him because I couldn't leave the stove so I told Beckham to go show him a toy. The next thing I heard was Beckham in the playroom telling Everett, "Everett... Rocking horse... Everett... rocking horse". And sure enough, he was rocking on his rocking horse.

9.) One day Gene and Donna were leaving our house and Donna said, "We have to roll." Once they drove off, "Beckham turned to us and said "They rolled." How precious!

10.) Tonight as Joshie was putting Beckham to bed, I was just getting out of the shower so I didn't give Beckham his usual kiss goodnight; and I heard him saying "Mommy... Mommy... I want kiss." Awwwww!!!

11.) A few days ago, I heard Beckham calling for me... "Momma.... Momma". His voice was so soft and sweet. I followed it to his bedroom and found him sitting on his bed reading a book with other books scattered about on the floor. I happened to have the camera in my hand because I was just taking a pic of Everett in the other room. :)

12.) Whenever Beckham sees a cow on TV or in a book, he says "Cow jump over moon!".

On to Everett, my very, VERY tough little boy!

Everett just cut his first tooth last night! FINALLY! Poor baby has been teething so bad this last week. You can see his two top teeth getting close too. He needs to get his baby teeth fast too because he is ready for table foods. That baby is not at all into eating baby food. It is a huge chore just to get him to eat. I believe it's because I started giving him table food too early. I listened to my instincts with Beckham and he ate up his baby food more than any other baby I know. His nose was even orange for months because he ate so many veggies! I didn't give him any other foods until he was 10 months old, and I never had a problem with his eating. I gave into Everett at a very early age and now he will eat up anything I give him that is NOT baby food! Trust your instincts, Mommas!

Another FINALLY - Everett is now pulling himself up to a standing position. I really don't like this though. I remember hating when Beckham started doing it and now I have to go through it again. It's so scary when they are just starting that! You just never know when they will fall, and they will.

Everett makes a barking sound when you ask him "what does the puppy say?" Aw he is so cute!

As cute as he is, Everett can also be a big pain in the booty! This little boy refuses to keep socks or shoes on his feet. I don't know how he does it but he gets every pair of shoes off on his own, so most of the time he stays in his socks, even when we're out and about. And still, I have to constantly put his socks back on him! He uses one foot to pull the sock on the other foot off. Another boogerbutt!

Everett is getting so big. At the boys' last doctor visit, Beckham was only 3lbs bigger than Everett! I am now having to go straight into Beckham's closet to get clothes for Everett. Beckham wears such a variety of sizes so there is always something in his closet that Everett can fit in. I just know that one day I will be buying new clothes for Everett and passing them down to Beckham!

Everett is so rough and tough! He puts up with a lot from Beckham, but he is also giving a lot to everyone else. When you hold him, he beats on you! He beats on everything! When I sat him next to his new baby cousin, Daniel who is 5 months younger than him, I had to keep pulling his arms away because he was aggrivating the poor baby. Then when I took him to see Santa at my mom's daycare, as soon as I sat him down he made another baby cry. Beckham better watch out because he sure has it coming to him!

Well I'm off to bed now. Need to get some sleep because the rest of this week will be nonstop fun! Tomorrow we are taking the boys to take a picture on Santa's lap at the mall, Thursday we are taking them to Christmas in the Oaks at City Park, Friday is Christmas Eve and we'll be taking them to a couple of parties and a Christmas Festival, and then Saturday is Christmas Day! I seriously cannot wait to see Beckham's face when he wakes up Saturday morning! And we are so excited to be having family over again for another holiday. :) Lots and lots of pictures coming soon!