Christmas in Wisconsin Part 1

This year for Christmas we were able to go up to Wisconsin to be with Ryan's family and we had a blast! We've been meaning to go there for Christmas for a while now but things kept coming up. Kelly got married a few days after Christmas 2 years ago and last year I was 39 weeks pregnant, so for obvious reasons we had to skip out, but this year the stars aligned and we made it! Ryan got a week and a half off from work and we were there pretty much the whole time. It only took 15 hours to drive and really wasn't that bad. Vince was a trooper and made the trip much more enjoyable!

Pretty much whenever we'd stop we get Vince out and have him "drive" since it was too cold or wet to crawl around and he LOVED it! A lot of times we'd have to pry him from the steering wheel when it was time to go again. 

Had to stop at Culvers

Vince's fortress in the back seat

It was really fun in Wisconsin because Ryan still has 3 younger siblings that live at home and his oldest brother and his family were there for Christmas as well. They have 2 kids close to Vinces age and they all had fun!

Jenna and Jared

I thought this was the cutest! Andrew is about 2 1/2 and Vince is 1 and wanted to be a big kid too! It was so cute when they would play together and he would watch Andrew walk around with this popper toy and laugh and laugh. So cute!

Best buds, besides when they would fight over the same toy! haha

Vince and Jared

Look at that cutie, Jared is 8 months old

Vince loved Tanner and would smile big and get excited when he's walk by. Tanner was kinda partial to the kids, I think he's been around the block with getting his fur pulled and preferred to avoid it. :)

Wisconsin is by far the coldest place Vince has ever been and luckily our friend let Vince borrow her sons old jacket because lets be honest, I truly don't even need a big coat down here in Georgia. There was snow the whole time and definitely a white Christmas which was fun! Especially for Vince's first Christmas! When we left it was -17!!!

Vince had a blast being with his cousins and it was so fun being with family!

1st Birthday Party

Today we had a birthday party with all Vince's friends and it was so fun! We had 11 kids in our living room playing with toys and having a ball! I loved it and so did Vince! :) 

Elmo is Vince's favorite since my mom gave him an Elmo toy for Christmas so we decided to make him an Elmo cake! It was fun being able to use my cake decorating things too.

This was our inspiration! haha

So Vince can't have wheat or he gets bad eczema so we made him his own gluten free cake. The nose is a little messed up because the frosting piper kept getting clogged then shoot out a ton! haha Ryan and I had fun decorating the cakes.

I thought Vince would absolutely LOVE the cake and be eating nonstop since I've never given him any sweets but I was wrong. He had a mix of emotions as you can see from the pictures. He seemed to like the frosting at first but really didn't eat much. You can see in the videos, but he had fun! :)

Happy Birthday Mr Vince!

Happy Birthday Vince

Happy Birthday Vince!!! I cannot believe that Vince is 1! He has changed our lives for the better and brings us so much joy!  He is such a happy camper and I literally need to squeeze him daily! haha 

He is crawling like a champ and is pretty fast, especially when he wants something he's not supposed to have. He's been standing a lot on his own for a few second and kinda took his first little step today! He can walk really good holding our hands but none on his own yet, but I'm sure that will come soon. He is a really good eater and LOVES fruit and vegetables! He loves meat too! I would say his favorite foods right now are bananas, apples, carrots, ground beef, chicken, cheese, green beans and milk. He still has some allergy problems and can't have wheat, eggs or peanuts but his eczema is much better since we've figured out what's he's allergic to. He sleeps good at night and takes about 2 one hour naps. My mom gave him an Elmo for Christmas and he absolutely LOVES him! It's so cute!!! He just gets a huge smile and squeezes him so tight! He loves his new walker from Ryans parents for Christmas and loves moving around. He's becoming more of a cuddler and loves his mama and daddy. He's learned to wave and still loves pointing at everything. His favorite word is "WOW" and he says it all the time! Darling! He loves the books "Where's Spot" and "Good night Seattle" which we always read before naps and he loves things that open and close.

We have so much love for Vince I can't describe it in words. He makes us so happy and has taught me so much! Having Vince has really brought me true happiness and brought me closer to Christ! He is a precious gift and we are so grateful that we've been given the opportunity to be his parents!

We love you Vince!

Birthday boy

I made his favorite dinner, spaghetti

Birthday presents

Waving Away

We've been working on waving "hi" and "bye" for a couple months it seems especially when Ryan leaves for work. Usually Vince just smiles and watches Ryan drive away. He's occasionally surprised us at random times with a little wave but nothing consistent until recently. We drove up to Wisconsin to be with Ryans family for Christmas and stopped at Wendys on the way up. There was an older couple looking and smiling at Vince and waving and all the sudden Vince just starts waving like crazy!! I was so excited and other people started looking and smiling because it was so cute!!! It's not just a little flick of the wrist it's the whole arm movement and is darling!! He was doing it all the time in Wisconsin and still does it at home. We love it!

WOW!

Vince learned a new word! Sorry the videos a little long but I think he definitely knows the word now! haha

Brown Bear

Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? 

I see Mr Vince looking at me!

Painting Extravaganza

OK, so I've always wanted a red kitchen. I grew up with one and it was awesome. So cute and I just loved it. So of coarse when we decided to paint our kitchen I wanted to go with red. I love our kitchen because it's huge and has all this awesome cabinets. I thought the red would really make the cabinets pop and look great. Well it sure made them "pop" actually a little too much! haha

Here's the before

So when you paint red, you need to do a gray primer first so you don't have to paint 4 coats. So we started painting and we both really liked the gray. It really looked good with the white and was starting to grow on me!

Here's a little cuteness

But I really wanted that red, so we went ahead with it.

And I hated it!! Actually as we were painting I started to realize it. I really didnt want to tell Ryan because it had taken days to do all this and with the details and everything. But I did tell him and we decided we might as well finish and see how it looks in the morning all dried. So we did and it just didn't work. I don't know if it was just too much with all the white, or the kitchen being more inclosed but it didn;t work. So we decided to go BACK to the gray! haha

So after 5 days of painting we finished and went with the gray and LOVE IT!! I really never thought I was a "gray" person but it really works and I (and Ryan) really are happy with it! We plan on doing wainscoting below the chair rail but maybe we'll tackle that project in the new year!