Best Dad ever!

Backyard adventures

Just a few cute ones of Austin!

Our Christmas Day

We had a really good Christmas this year and I am finally sitting down to write about it. This year was especially fun because of the boys ages. Kaden really understood the concept of Christmas and I loved that. They both enjoyed decorating the house for Christmas and squealed with delight each and every time they saw Christmas lights up on a house. You could just see the pure happiness all over their faces. Kaden and I made cookies for Santa on the 23rd. After much thought, we decided on oatmeal chocolate chip. Kaden got to eat one after we were finished and he was happier than I have ever seen him. Christmas Eve, the boys and I delivered cookies to our neighbors. I had to get those dang cookies out of the house!!! Plus I wanted the boys to experience giving to our neighbors. After we did that, we headed over to my Dad's house for a Christmas Eve celebration. For my Dad's side of the family, Christmas Eve was always the big day to celebrate. They made a prime rib roast for dinner. It was really good. We got home early that night. We tried the whole "Santa won't come unless your asleep" routine with Kaden and it didn't work. He was up till 10!! Mike and I got a late start on getting everything ready for the morning. Mike and I had decided before that we were just going to do stockings for each other, because we are buying a treadmill together. Mike and I both put the shopping off till last minute and he was going to go Christmas Eve when he got off work. Well, he mysteriously got off work an hour after he was supposed to and then told me he was too tired to go get the stuff for my stocking. Little trickster, he of course had already shopped and surprised me with a special gift and a whole stocking too. He is so sneaky. Little did he know, I was onto him the whole time! :) Austin decided that night that he wanted to wake up at 12am and not go back to sleep till 4am... It was a really long night and Christmas morning we all woke up miserably tired. My Mom and Brother came over to open gift with us. I made a blueberry cream french toast casserole that was amazing! After several cups of coffee and several toddler meltdowns, we went back over to my Dad's for the Christmas Day celebration brunch. We all ate eggs benedict, opened stockings, gifts, and played till we couldn't play anymore. The boys got ridiculous amounts of toys and were extremely blessed this year with not only "stuff" but lots of love! I got a camera (Canon Powershot) which I'm totally stoked about and Mike got his infinite golf membership from my Dad. The boys were beat down tired by the end of all this and so were Mike and I. We headed home for a relaxing evening. All in all, Christmas this year was amazing. We had so much fun this year just being together and doing all the "christmasy" stuff. Next year, I'm sure will be even better.
Kaden on his new tricycle and Austin on his tractor

Austin on his tractor

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! We wish you a happy New Year 2009!!!

A new camera for Christmas = Lots of new pictures!!!

I got a new camera for Christmas!!!!! I love it! Beware...there will be LOTS of pictures on my blog now due to this...

xoxo

Merry Christmas everyone!

Just wanted to take a minute to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Hope we all, in the midst of the craziness, can relax and enjoy the holidays. We are super excited this year to be home on Christmas morning. I will leave with a few cute pictures taken this week.

xoxo
The Byrums

Christmas Newletter from us!

Make a Smilebox greeting

A visit to see Santa...

We had a pretty full day today. I decided i would take the boys down to the village in Arroyo Grande and see Santa. I've been asking Kaden for weeks what he was going to tell Santa when he saw him. He jumped right up on his lap with no hesitation. I don't even think Santa had a chance to ask him what he wanted and Kaden was telling him he wanted a "big huge airplane, with buttons, that flys"! He was so cute. Then I tried putting Austin on his lap and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it! I did manage to snap a picture of them up there. Austin was literally trying to get away from him. I was so impressed with Kaden though, he just looked so comfortable up there. I think I'm gonna take them back again tomorrow with Mike. That way maybe I can get a better picture of the two of them with Santa.
We came home and had lunch. I have been trying to convince Kaden to let me cut his hair for weeks now. This was our first conversation...

Me: "When are you gonna let me cut your hair?"
Kaden: "No, it's too "cutty!"
Me:"It's ok, we'll use the clippers and we'll get it done quick!"
Kaden: "NO, it's too clippy"

Ok, guess that was a no go...

Fast foward to today-

Me: Kaden, let's cut your hair today! You can have your candy cane, and Daddy will cut your hair while you have it!!!"
Kaden: "No Mommy, I want you to do it. Your a nice Mommy"
Me: "Daddy is nice too, but if you really want me to do it, then I will..."

When Kaden was done with lunch I decided to go ahead and just do it. I learned that if I don't just do it while he is willing, it just may never get done. I decided to go for it. He did great. He got a little antsy towards the end, but overall he did awesome. I gave him a bath. Got him dressed. Gave him his paci.... That is when the trauma set in.

**side note** Ever since Kaden was a little baby he comforts and soothes himself by playing with his hair and sucking on his beloved paci. As soon as the paci goes in the mouth, the hands go up in the hair. Everytime!

Give me my "Mom of the year" award now, I didn't even think about this when I was cutting his hair with clippers on a #4 guard which is pretty short. I figured why not just do it short and that way it will be awhile before it's in his face again. Didn't think one bit about the fact that he can't run his little fingers through and swirl his hair. So, I give him the paci and he just starts sobbing! He said "I don't want my hair like Daddy's. I want my hair like Kaden's"...I knew instantly it was because of the hair. He cried for over an hour. He finally fell asleep watching 101 dalmations. It was the only thing that would make him stop crying. So, anyway...He looks adorable, but he is completely traumatized. So sad! It makes me realize that he is still kinda a baby...

Then, there is Austin who is just as cute as ever....

Waffle thief...

Pretty much every morning the boys request waffles...This morning, Austin was ready right away and ate all his waffle in less than 2 minutes...The boy can eat. He spied Kaden's uneaten waffles across the table and started pointing and whimpering...I got him down figuring he had eaten enough. A few seconds later, I look over and he had climbed up on the chair and was eating Kaden's waffle. Obviously he was hungry still, so I let him eat it. When Kaden came in and realized there wasn't a waffle on his plate, I made him another. I look over as Kaden starts to yell, and Austin is up on the chair next to him trying to sneak another bite of his waffle. This all after he had eaten 2 of his own! Kaden ate two also! I have some hungry boys on my hands!

Backyard Adventures...

Since the boys have been "under the weather" for almost a month, we haven't been out and about much. It has been a little hard trying to keep them happy and busy with things to do. We have been watching movies, coloring, playing with blocks, etc...You can only do so much of this for so long before they get bored. Today we decided to go out in the back yard and play. It was kinda cold, but I made sure that I dresses them warm and just let them out. It was really fun watching them play and taking pictures. Here are some pictures of them playing.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Sweet little Austin

Austin and I, obviously a few months ago...

Glancing over our blog, I've realized that I haven't really spent too much time talking about Austin!! Austin is a full on bruiser! He is now climbing on furniture and running all over the place. His all time favorite activity right now is turning off the TV!!! It drives us all insane, but I think he is finally learning that it's not ok to touch the TV. Ok, maybe he hasn't...but were getting there! He also has been saying "Christmas tree" which is super cute. You have to speak fluent baby to understand it, but trust me, he's saying it!! He is such a sweet little guy though and is still very cuddly. He will come up and rest his little head on your shoulder or your leg and just sit there for a few minutes. The next minute, he is wacking you on the head. Look out, he's a bit unpredictable! He, like is big brother, is really loving Christmas and all the decorations. He squeals with delight when he sees christmas lights or anything slightly resembling Christmas. He is fascinated with the Christmas tree. We decided to put the tree up on hidden milk crates to keep the ornaments out of his reach. He can still reach the bottom row of lights and garland, but he is learning that the tree is for looking at only. He is just sweetest little guy and so happy. He is always laughing and his personality comes out more and more. He will also be 15 months in 3 days...It's weird to think that Kaden was 17 months when Austin was born. Oh, how fast the time has gone. I wish things could slow down just a little bit! I will leave you with a few pictures of Austin...

Hey guys! If you read our blog, leave us a note and let us know... Otherwise I think that nobody reads it...SO LEAVE SOME COMMENTS PEEPS!

You do this by clicking on the "tell us what you think" link at the bottom of the post. It's really quite easy and it makes me smile when I get them!

Thanks!
Alyssa

Kaden, Our Christmas elf...

Our little elf...

Some cute/toddlerish things Kaden has said lately...

We stopped by Mike's work yesterday on the way to the park to say "hi" to Dad...Mike knew that I was having a rough time with the boys and tree. He decided to go out to the car and have a little chat with Kaden about the tree...

Mike: "So I hear you guys have been messing with the Christmas tree all morning...you know that Santa is watching you when you do this. We may have to get rid of the tree if you guys don't leave it alone, and Santa may not come if we don't have a tree." (I know, kinda mean huh?! :))

Kaden: "NO! YES HE WILL!"

Mike: "You need to be nice and listen to Mama or I'm going to "handle" you when I get home"

Kaden: "NO! I'll handle YOU!"

Really?, It's starting already?!!

The boys were being really good in the car on the way to the park so I told them that I was going to call Santa and make sure he knew how good they were being.

Kaden: "NO!"

Me: "Don't you want Santa to know that your being good?"

Kaden: "No, he might make loud noises"

NO more pictures please!

We had to miss the Christmas parade this year, which i was kinda sad about. We haven't ever missed it since Kaden has been born. It has become a tradition of ours to go. Since the boys have been so sick the last month we just decided not to bring them out in the cold for that long. Instead, we decided to go get our tree!!! So, off we went to the Christmas tree place. Kaden was the most excited of us all and wondered through the place saying things like "WOW, look at that one!" He was very enthusiastic and totally in awe of all the trees. After looking around the whole place, we settled on one. We roped it to the top of our little car and off we went.
We quickly realized once we got home that it may be too much to decorate the tree with lights and garland with Austin around. He was totally in awe of it all. We decided he would have to go to bed. I felt bad, but after all it was his bedtime and it just wasn't worth the headache of trying to keep him away from it. Kaden did stay up and he was a really big help and oh so cute. At one point he exclaimed "This is going to be the best Christmas EVER!" I couldn't help but smile just seeing the joy and happiness he was feeling at the moment. He is in love with Christmas! This is really the first year that he is beginning to truly understand the concept of Christmas. It's adorable. When the boys woke up the next morning, I knew that it was going to be a challenge to keep them away from the tree and to get the point across that the tree wasn't a toy, that it could fall over and hurt them. All morning was spend telling them "no!" and taking their little fingers off the ornaments. After 2 hours of this, I had had it!!! I took the Christmas tree and put in the back yard!!! I couldn't take it anymore. I called Mike and told him that I didn't want a Christmas tree this year.I know, I know...bad attitude! After about an hour, as I sat on the couch looking out into the backyard, I started to feel really bad and moved it back in. I have to say, it taught the boys a lesson and they really haven't messed with it much since. :) I decided that I just needed to get the boys out of the house so they weren't tempted to mess with the tree and also to get out some of their energy...

Here are some pictures of their cuteness at the park.

Christmas Christmas Christmas!!!

We are getting our Christmas tree tonight!!!! Yay!!! Pictures to follow....

One year ago...

I thought it would be fun to post some pictures of the boys from this time last year. It reminds me how much they have grown and also to cherish every day because they are only little for a small amount of time...Enjoy! Austin was about 3 months and Kaden almost 2!

Gosh they have grown so much!!!