The End of 2011 ... A Month Late!

Well, I'm finally finishing up all the posts from our trip to Kansas. So, now I can start getting caught up to January ... it's about time! We rung in the New Year with our Neighborhood family with a little party at our house.

Shelby was dressed to impress and went to bed shortly after the party began!

Me and Shelby girl ... pink is our favorite color! lol

We played dominos (as per tradition) and then decided to venture down to the basement and get our rock band on. It was comical and amusing, as expected. Dave and Kate redid their now infamous rap and we got the whole thing on video!

We all toasted in the New Year with pretend bubbly and Seth wanted to make sure he did "cheers" with everyone! He was the only one awake and still ready to go by the time the party ended!

awkward "kids" photo ...

obligatory parents photo!

We had fun and love any chance we get to hang out with our neighborhood family. We're counting down the days until the 4th of July!


New Years Day we were all up and ready to go for church. Shelby was the only one with a full night's sleep (as usual) and she was as happy as could be!

Seth was slap happy! Munching on his snack before church and cracking up!

I just can't get over those beautiful Blue eyes!

I guess staying up all night eventually catches up with the kid ....

Happy New 2012

More from our Trip To Kansas

Well, ever since we've been home from Kansas we've all been sick. Therefore, I have not been able to blog because I've been taking care of sick kids, husband and myself. Seth had "Walking Pneumonia" for a LONG time and it was awful. This poor kid was just a bump on a log with temperatures of 103, 104 for over a week and a half. We finally got it under control and he's back to normal. It took a while for his little body to heal and feel better again, but I think we're back to normal. Anyway, I'm kind of thinking January hates us and I'm hoping we're getting rid of all our sickness now, and we'll be sick free the rest of the winter! (Seriously, what is it about Toledo? We are ALWAYS sick here?)

Anyway, one fun part about our trip in Kansas was that we had so many visitors. Everyone kept coming over to see the Tay-man home from his mission. One of our most favorite visitors was the Tuttle Family! They came down to visit from St. Louis for the day and it was so much fun. Taylor and Austin hadn't seen each other for somewhere around 2 1/2 years so they had fun catching up. Aren't they studs? Ladies .... they're single!!!!

Shelby was the life of the party as usual!

We had fun with Uncle Al before he headed back to Utah. He had a near-death expirience during the break (my mom literally had to give him the Heimlich to keep him from chocking on an M&M ... a whole new meaning to "dangerous eating" over the holidays!) He is now forever in debt to my mom for saving his life!!! lol

He and Shelby was best buddies during Christmas!

Seth had a blast building train tracks with Taylor and my Dad during the holiday too! By the looks of this one it seems like Seth may have taken some liberties during the playing with the track process. But Taylor helped him build the coolest track ever, I need to get a picture of it from someone, it was SWEET!

Seth had fun learning about the planets and the world with his leap frog tag and uncle Al!

One day I was on the phone and everyone else was gone. I heard some moving around in the kitchen and didn't think much of it until I realized I was the only one around. I walked in to find this ... yes, Seth was making something by himself in the kitchen. I'm not sure what he was making with cracked eggs, oreos, salt and pepper .... mmmmmm!

Another night we had a hot dog party with Seth. My parents have this little hot dog maker and finally decided to put it to good use and let Seth make dinner. (since he was dying to make something).

He got a kick out of making the hot dogs and serving them up to everyone!

Whenever we're in Kansas we HAVE to stop by Krispy Kreme one morning. Seth won't let us forget! He LOVES going there and checking out the donuts being made and eating as many as we'll let him!

There's the whole crew! Shelby was pretty mad she couldn't have any.

Another delightful part of our trip was the fact that our CRV died in my parents drive way when we pulled in. Seriously. It was stressful, but we ended up finding a good deal on one of the missionary cars and are so grateful that it all worked out.

One the day we bought the car we drove up by the new Kansas City Temple. It's going to be opening soon and It's going to be so exciting to have one close to home!

If you're interested on any of the details of the temple check it out here

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was quite a blast for us all ... but especially for Seth! He was SOOOOO excited he couldn't wait to run downstairs and see if Santa came. However, it came to a surprise to him when he went downstairs and Santa wasn't actually there. I guess in all the talk about Santa coming Seth was actually expecting to fin him sitting in the living room. So that took a minute to explain. But, it does explain why he was so upset in the middle of the night and wouldn't sleep that well. I guess he was worried about some stranger (aka Santa) being in the house.

Shelby was excited watching Seth bouncing off the walls, but she didn't know what she was getting herself into.

bouncing off the walls ...

Here are the kiddos ... waiting to see what Santa brought them.

Again, we are just so lovely in the morning!

Shelby was way more fascinated by the bows and wrapping than anything inside ... but so is any other child around this age. She was hilarious though. She usually would have gone down for a morning nap in the middle of present opening, but she was so interesting in everyone opening gifts and wrapping paper all over the place she just sat there all morning staring and observing. (maybe this is a sign that she will be my milder child!) Here she is with her baby doll Santa brought her.

... and with her cute owl hat Santa also brought.

After getting through a few Santa gifts Seth opened a Leapfrog Tag learning system from me and Nick. This ended up being his favorite gift and the rest of us enjoyed it as well ... the songs were getting stuck in our heads. Our favorite were the ones about the solar system.

Miss Shelby in her little kitchen.

Like I said, the bags and wrapping were about as much fun as her actual toys!

Seth was excited to open his stocking too ... he may have been snitching chocolate before this picture, hence, the lovely chocolate face!

We were all cracking up because Nick's stocking was HUGE! It was like 4 times the size of Shelby! (she may or may not have given us an extra Christmas morning surprise and therefore was no longer in her pjs)

After a lovely breakfast we all had to scramble to get ready for church. I got the kids ready and snapped a few pictures before church.

He loves his little sister.

Isn't she so fancy with her earrings and bracelet?

What a little stud.

Uncle Al with Shelby looking like quite the festive babysitter.

Fancy grandma and Shelby girl.

We tried to get a group photo when we got home from church and this was about as good as we could get. I set up the timer on my camera and this was the only place we could all fit because there was wrapping paper all over the house!

Christmas was a blast and we had to much fun seeing it all through Seth's eyes this year. Being with kids makes it all magical again so much more fun!

I just took down our Christmas decorations last night (we just got home a few days ago and Seth has been sick .... give me a break) Anyway, as I was taking the lights off the tree Seth said, "It's so sad when Christmas is all over." It is ... but the great thing is it'll be back again next year!

Christmas Eve

For seth it seemed like Christmas was never actually going to come. I remember thinking this too as a little girl. Finally, it was Christmas Eve and the festivities were bumpin' at the Wofford house. Shelby was so excited for her first Christmas!

She was sporting her "Sycamore Sisters" outfit for most of the day. I have to admit, she is a major cutie!
Look at those big blue eyes!

Since Shelby was going to have to go to bed a little earlier than the rest of us, she got to open her Christmas Eve gift first! She was so excited to finally be able to play with the wrapping paper!

Don't you wish you could get that excited to easily?

She got some cute Christmas Jammies from Grandma and Grandpa Wofford.

But, the box and paper seemed to be way more exciting!

I tried to get a picture of the two of them before Shelby headed to bed for the night ...

but it didn't work out too well ... PIRATE SHELBY! (poor girl, always getting picked on by her big brother)

Eventually, It was time for Seth to get to open his present too! He was so excited!

Christmas Mickey Jammies ... no WAY!!!

He immediately put them on and was getting to anxious for it to be Christmas.

He got way into everything this year so it was a lot of fun for the rest of us too. He was really excited to put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.

He was so excited he could hardly think straight ... it was pretty funny.

He put the goodies out for Santa and decided to make up a cookies and milk dance ... lol!

Next up: time to put up his stocking by the chimney!

At preschool they made a special reindeer mix of oats and glitter to sprinkle in the yard so Rudolf would find their house. Nick helped Seth get all the reindeer mix out there so Rudolf wouldn't forget us!

He was so hyped up and tired at the same time so it was hard to get him to go to bed and stay there. Finally we got him down for the night!

Santa came a few hours later and I have to say, he must have gotten the memo that Seth and Shelby (along with the rest of us) were on the nice list ...

There were gifts everywhere ... they wouldn't all fit under the tree!

Check it out ... wouldn't you have DIED as a kid waking up to see all that! (I did help that there were 10 of us there to add to the gift pile!)

We all got at least a few hours of sleep before Seth was up on Christmas morning. Christmas post to come soon ...