Christmas in Williamsburg

For Christmas 2013, we decided to stay in Virginia and do our own thing. Chris only had the 24th and 25th off of work, so we took a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. In my family, we have a tradition of making homemade pizza on Christmas Eve for dinner. This tradition started in 1985 when my family lived in North Carolina. My parents had planned a trip to Williamsburg over Christmas that year, but a snowstorm closed the highway, and they weren't able to go. With nothing in the house for dinner and all of the stores closed for Christmas, my dad made a pizza with a Hickory Farms box of sausages and cheeses. My mom tells me they still never rescheduled that trip to Williamsburg, so naturally, that was my first thought when Chris and I were deciding on someplace close to go for his couple of days off.

We thought we were going just for Christmas Eve, and then found out they were open on Christmas Day as well! We ended up staying overnight and seeing the town both days. It was really cute and a lot of fun.

It is a working farming town set in 1774, and it's not only a tourist attraction, these people are actually working hard still on Christmas Eve!

Logan was the most excited when he got to get out of the stroller and walk around, and when he saw animals. He really loves horses and dogs!

We did finally tucker him out though...

       This is the Governor's Palace, and pictures from the tours inside of the Palace, so beautiful!
                                  

                  The Courthouse and the famous "fake smile" from Logan.

The best part about being there on Christmas Eve was the tree lighting ceremony. There was a parade of fifes and drums playing Christmas songs and cannons going off. Then, all 2,000 people attending gathered around the courthouse while someone read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. A woman led us all in singing Christmas carols together and lighting candles, and then the tree was lit. It was perfect for getting us in the Christmas spirit.

My favorite part of being there on Christmas, was seeing an actor portray Patrick Henry and take questions from the audience. He was very authentic, and it was so interesting to hear him speak about decisions that were made back then that completely effect how this country is run today.

A nice surprise ending to our trip was finding out that we weren't very far from our friends Ben and Nicole who live in Virginia Beach. They were very gracious and let us join them for Christmas dinner. Logan had a lot of fun playing with their son Joe and their dog Chloe. Thanks again guys!
 
All in all, we had a great Christmas. We really enjoyed doing something different and starting our own family traditions this year. We did finally open presents when we got home, thank you to our wonderful family's! Logan is already enjoying his presents especially. We hope everyone had a great Christmas as well!!

Party Time

We had Logan's party today, and it was so fun! We had about 25 people show up, some families from preschool, some that we met through my mom going to church here, and some I knew from Arizona! We also had Chris's mom, sister and nephew here from New York. I'm so glad some of our family was able to make it.

It was of course a Winnie the Pooh themed birthday party, and people have been telling me to blog about how frugal I was with this party. I made all the signs myself, borrowed the games and tables, and couponed for the food. All in all, I spent around $80 on EVERYTHING, including food and decorations. I was pretty proud of that.

We made a section of the party for each of the Pooh characters.

(This one says Tigger's Bouncy Games somewhere, just not in a picture)

We had a lot of fun mingling with friends and family, and I was so happy to see the kids enjoying the little sections we set up for everyone.

                         Having some Grandma time.

  Mia and Cooper getting him to play with the big Pooh Bear.

                          He loved this balloon on his highchair.

                                  Hanging out with Aunt Sherry.

   Logan's with our friend Karen, and his friend Caleb and her mom Tammy. I have to say that I'm grateful my mom has met these women when she's come out to visit us. Karen and her husband Ed have really helped us a lot since we've known them. Tammy has set up play dates with us for Logan and Caleb and I love feeling like he has a friend. All those relationships are because of my awesome mommy!

Of course, Logan had his cupcake after we sang to him, and he did enjoy it.

  After the party, we opened presents with/for him. He mostly thought it was funny when we tried to get him to rip the paper, and he would just shake it.

It felt like it was over so fast, but it was so fun at the same time! Thanks to everyone that came and celebrated with us, I think he had a great time, and at the very least, we had a great time celebrating for him. Love to our friends and family and our sweet sweet little man!
 
 

Let's try this again, Logan is ONE!

My sister told me I didn't put enough pictures in the last post about him turning one. So here's pictures through the whole last year. Hope you enjoy!

                           First picture ever!!

                              First day at home.

                             Favorite picture of them together still!

                                What a funny face!!!

                                     He LOVES eating still!

                            So precious, right after a bath.

                                   Such a sweetheart.

                      12 months (can't see the sign)

So there you have it, Logan through the year. I hope that was enough pictures Jamie. I'll post party pictures later tonight hopefully!

LOGAN IS ONE!

My baby turned ONE yesterday!! I cannot describe the feelings I felt yesterday realizing I've actually been a mom for a whole year. It's one of those things where I felt like I just barely became a mom and I felt like I've been a mom forever all at the same time. When I think about how hard it is to be at work for most of the day and only see him for  a couple hours a night each weekday, it feels like it hasn't been a whole year. Maybe because I haven't spent a year of time with him. But when I think about how much he means to me, and how our lives changed when he came, it seems like that's been going on forever. Maybe that's because I've wanted a baby for a long time!

This year has been so awesome. I love being a mom. Something I didn't expect was a whole new insight into my job. If you didn't already know, I teach 2 1/2 year olds. They are the youngest class in our school, sometimes considered the "babies" of the school, but when I look at them and think "Logan will be there in another year and a half!" I'm amazed at the things he's going to learn in this next year of his life! Having my own child has helped me step into the parents in my class's shoes even better. Not to toot my own horn, but I think parent relations is one of my strong points and a part of my job I enjoy. I know I've always tried to put myself in their shoes and help them any way I can, but having Logan has helped me with that in ways I could've never imagined. I see these kids for a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of their lives. I know the things they "should" be able to do when they get to my class, I can tell who is behind in which areas, and who is ahead. I know how to teach, I know how to potty train (usually, they're no sure fire way to do it, but I usually potty train about 8 or 9 of them a year, depending on if they came in already trained). I know about this age, but the difference now is, I'm starting to know more about where they come from before they get to me. One of my biggest things in our classroom is promoting independence. It takes longer in the  beginning to get things done, but each kid tries to do everything from pulling up their pants, to opening things in their lunchbox, to cleaning up messes on their own before asking me for help. In the past I've been a little irritated with parents that don't try to cultivate the same independence at home, and I now realize that's very hard when this little boy/girl NEEDED you to do everything for them just 2 short years ago. It's hard to make all these transitions when you have to make a conscious decision that today is the day I'm going to let him dress himself. Or today is the day he's going to feed himself, regardless of the mess. Those are hard things, and I often just expect them to happen!! Obviously, Logan is no where near these points right now, but I'm so grateful for this one of many lessons he's taught me already. I can't wait to see what else I get to learn from him.

I was really going to write about my sweet boy more, I'm not sure how this post turned into a lesson in preschool teaching. Either way, I can't put into words how I feel about having a 1 year old, and how awesome and enriched my life has been in the last year because of him. I'm so lucky and so blessed.

(I don't really have 12 month pictures yet, so this will have to do!)

This weekend is his birthday party, and then a photo shoot with a smash cake on Sunday, so I'm excited to be posting about those things soon. Yay!