Winter Wonderland!

We experienced our first white Christmas this year!  Granted it wasn't much, but it was still a cool experience!  

Nicholas helping me make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning, Nicholas was greeted with lots of Mickey, books, puzzles, etc

Testing out his new Mickey rocking chair.

Over at Beth and Brad's for Christmas breakfast, Nicholas is in awe of Meagan's new laptop.

Uncle Mumbles got Nicholas this great riding fire truck with working water tank and sprayer!  Can't wait until it's warm enough for him to test it out on the sidewalk!

Here is our Christmas Winter Wonderland! 

Early Davenport and Thompson Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with the Davenports last Friday.  We had good food and good times!  Nicholas received lots of cute clothes and toys that he has already broken in (including a sports set, a train set, etc).

This is my best consignment find yet!!  So cute!

Are we ready to open presents yet?

Beautiful tree and plenty of gifts to pass around

Uncle Brad found his tickle spot!

Nicholas in the middle of Meagan and Abby.  He enjoyed ripping the paper this year.

His new multi-sports center - fun!

 

The next morning we headed to Mobile to visit Gigi and Pawpaw.  Gabe and I gave each other a mini-vacation over to Biloxi for Christmas.  Well, unfortunately I forgot my license at home and the Imperial Palace (where we were staying) stops everyone that looks under 30.  So even though I'm almost 9 years over the legal limit, I was not allowed in the casino at the IP.  We even spoke with the casino head of security (who had the biggest attitude and was not helpful at all) to see if there was anything we could do to prove my age, but they did not allow us to do anything.  After that and a Barney Fife reference, we were probably on everyone's list.  I didn't have any problems what-so-ever getting in the Hard Rock or Boomtown, but you can imagine that Gabe and I were quite mad at how we were treated at the IP.  In the end I was able to play my favorite game (Penny Slot - Super Jackpot Party) and I have learned my lesson to have my license on me at all times (no matter how old I am).  The good thing was Nicholas did well with Gigi and Pawpaw the night we were away.

We were able to visit with my dad's brother Brian and his family and my mom's sister Catherine and my cousin Jane.  Nicholas had a blast with Jane's kid's Carter and Emma.  Unfortunately Ryan and all his girls were not able to join us as a 7 hour drive from Houston would be a bit much for a three week old little girl.  Gigi and Pawpaw gave Nicholas a great backpack, some PJ's and also contributed to Nicholas' college fund, which we are eternally grateful for!

Everyone loved Pawpaw's tennis balls

Carter and Nicholas enjoyed wrestling me - I think they won

Playing with the t-ball set Ryan and his girls gave him

Helping Gigi open her gifts

 Nicholas enjoyed riding around in a box top

We are looking forward to Santa visiting tonight.  Soon we will be making Santa cookies!

One and a half!!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone and Happy 1 1/2 years to Nicholas!  Today is exciting as Nicholas' fifth girl cousin Makenzie arrived at 8:13 this morning.  She weighs 7 lbs 3 oz  and was 18 3/4 inches long.  This is an awesome thing as this was also my Mamaw's birthday.  I just know she is looking down on the latest great-grandchild and smiling. 

Here is the latest on Nicholas...
Activity:  Nicholas is bound and determined to sit, stand or climb on anything.  This includes the furniture, his toys, you name it.  This definitely keeps us on our toes.  He loves playing with his blocks and trying to stack or line up everything.  We can really see the boy tendencies coming out now.  Nicholas really loves Mickey Mouse clubhouse and (for those of you who know the show) he tries to say "Oh Toodles", which sounds more like "Oh Too!"    

Speech/Development: Nicholas continues to talk non-stop, with his favorite words being uh-oh and ok. Newer vocabulary includes: water, Roll Tide, juice, blankie, cookie, cracker and please.  Believe it or not the Roll Tide did not stem from daddy teaching him, one day we just discovered that he was saying it.  For Nicholas, every color is blue and every number is three.  When he sees daddy's Homer slippers, Nicholas will say "Doh!" (That one daddy did teach him.)  He still does his many animal noises.  Nicholas really enjoyed visiting with his Uncle Ryan in Mobile recently.  After Nicholas would make his elephant noise, Ryan would laugh really loud.  So now whenever Nicholas does the elephant noise, he will laugh immediately after (to the point where he barely even does the elephant noise).  It is the funniest thing to see him crack himself up like that.  Everyone got a kick out of that at Thanksgiving.   

Sleep: Nicholas sleeps great.  Bed time is still between 7:30 - 8pm and he pretty consistently sleeps until 7am.  It always cracks us up when occasionally we put him in bed at night and after several minutes of silence hear "Hey" and then a bunch of baby talk, which of course means he is "talking" on the phone.  Love it!  He still mainly takes two naps during the day for an average of 2.5 hours total.  Just recently he has been putting his toys to sleep by either covering them with something or turning them over and says "Nigh-Nigh" - So sweet!!

Nutrition: It seems like Nicholas has too much to see and explore to want to eat anything.  He is ok with eating with a fork as long as we stab the food because he has a tendency to turn the fork over before sticking it in his mouth.  He mainly likes eating with his hands, which makes feeding him healthy food with slippery textures hard to pass the toddler test.  We do have hope for the potty training future as Nicholas knows when he has made a dirty diaper and will tell us after he has created this dirty diaper.

On a completely unrelated note, I thought I would explain the box on the right labeled Swagbucks.  This is basically a search engine like Google where you get points for searches, polls, etc.  It is awesome and we have only been using it about a month and already collected enough points for $50 in Amazon gift cards.  I highly recommend signing up and using this free website.  If you click on my link I will get referral points too!  Happy Swagging!

You can't tell, but Nicholas' Thanksgiving shirt says:  "I'm thankful for:

1. Mom and Dad
2. Yummy Turkey
3. Football

Nicholas enjoyed playing with Abby and Ava at Thanksgiving

My little homeboy!

I can only imagine...

This post is dedicated to my Mamaw - Annette Thompson who is surrounded by God's Glory today and finally reunited with my grandfather after 36 years.  She was an amazing and strong woman.

I can only imagine what it was like to raise 5 kids, 12 grandkids and 16 great-grands and counting. 

I can only imagine what it was like for her to lose her husband out of the blue and at such a young age.

I am filled with both sorrow and relief as I know she is no longer in pain and is walking beside God.  I love you Mamaw and would give anything to have the strength you showed throughout your life.

Happy Halloween!!

We had a great Halloween weekend.  Gigi and Pawpaw visited from Mobile and we had to check out the fabulous new outlet mall that is literally 5 minutes from our house.  Love it!  Got some great deals and will definitely go back to work on more Christmas shopping. 

We also had Meagan and Abby visit Saturday night, so we quickly dressed  Nicholas up in his costume.  Cutest elephant, lady bug and punk rocker I've ever seen!!  

Nicholas wasn't too sure about this massive thing on his head...

Precious!!!

Daddy had to add a little something to his costume. 

He was a hit at First Baptist Leeds Trunk or Treat and even showed everyone what an elephant says while grabbing his trunk at the same time.

Even with his Alabama gear on, Mimi couldn't keep her hands off him!

Update...

I haven't been the best about updating the blog, so here are several pics and updates on what has been going on at the Davenport house...

Daddy's birthday was Tuesday.  We celebrated by eating out at El Cazador with Mimi, Pop, Meagan and Abby and then came back to the house for some birthday brownie cheesecake - shout out to Debbie Allenbach for the delicious recipe!!



I think Nicholas thought we were singing to him.  He loved it!

Gabe wouldn't let me put 32 candles on the cake.

Nicholas has a personality all his own.  He cracks us up with all of his animal noises (which covers anything from a elephant to a snake to a cow - his favorite).  The funniest episode lately was after we put him to bed.  He will usually roll around and try to get himself and his blankie in the right position.  Well after about 10 minutes of quiet, we hear him shout "HEY!" with his hand up to his ear pretending like he was talking on the phone.  He went to sleep after that, but I guess he just had to make that late night phone call...  Love it!!

Here is the little man with his Mickey ears the Moseley's gave him after their trip to Disney World (last summer I believe).  They finally fit his head!

You can probably see the trend of Alabama clothes that he has.  Lets just say that when the weekend comes, he is dressed in all crimson. 

The preppy look is so cute on him!

Yes he still sucks on those two fingers upside down.  That and his blankie and he is golden!

This one is my favorite

Giant Roll of Bubble Wrap

When babies are little we can't wait to see them become mobile - crawling, cruising, then walking.  And of course once they accomplish these milestones, we wish we could wrap either them or our whole house in bubble wrap.  Nicholas has unfortunately had two run-ins with furniture that resulted in scratches on his forehead.  I just wish he would slow down, but he is a toddler and you know their mentality - Things to see and bumps and bruises to acquire...  All I can say to those who have little ones that have yet to start going - enjoy it while it lasts!!