Merry Christmas!!!

We hope that everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday, I know we did. Wow what a couple of days! The holidays are tiring, but its that really good kind of tired. Unfortunately Brian got sick the day before Christmas Eve so by the time the big day hit he was totally wiped out! He was a trooper and it didn't stop him from enjoying all of the excitement with Everett. The festivities started when we got together with Brian's grandma for lunch on Christmas Eve. Its always so nice to see her and she loves her two boys so much! Then later that evening it was on to my aunt and uncle's house for the Bruner family Christmas.

Everett with Auntie/Fairy Godmother Em

Em got Everett a singing Elmo! He loves him.

Everett also loves him some Hannah or OG as we refer to her in our house!

Everett opening his gift from Sara for the gift exchange!

Just a snippet of what is the chaos of Bruner family Christmas!

Chasing the remote control car around the garage with the big boys, DeShawn and Andrew.

Back at home after all the excitement of Christmas Eve.
Someone was wound up, can you tell??

Posing with Mommy by the tree

The three of us!

Posing in his Christmas jammies before bedtime Christmas Eve.

Santa was very generous this year! Everett got a ton of goodies! Lots of Little People play sets and clothes, tadoodles, and of course, musical gifts including a little piano, xylophone and from Santa, a MP3 Baby Boombox! This way he can dance whenever, wherever to all his favorite songs. :-) Growing up my family would always do Santa presents and then our grandparents would come over for breakfast and do their gifts with us so this year we passed the tradition down a generation! My parents and brother headed over to our house Christmas morning for breakfast and presents. Its kind of funny, considering its the same house passed down a generation too!

Christmas Morning! He headed straight for his table and chairs and sit n' spin!



The boys had a ton of stuff to open, spoiled! Not to mention that Daddy's big gift, a rolling tool chest, went straight to the garage!

Snacktime!!

Everett and Daddy at my parents house for our third Christmas!

Posing in front of my parents' tree.

Charlotte tried her best to get a good one with Ev.

He loves the xylophone from Mamaw and Papaw.

Aunt Suzie got Ev these nesting blocks. He and Charlotte loved playing with them!

What a crew! The little man was not so thrilled about leaving his toys for a group photo!

And lastly, before bed on Christmas Day we opened up Everett's Alvin and the Chipmunks DVD to watch. Let me explain. The child loves Alvin. Maybe its the voices or the songs or the dancing. But he will run in from the other room when the Alvin Squeakquel trailor comes on and god forbid its the one with the 'all the single ladies' song on it, he'll be dancing all over the place. So anyway, we got him the first one, we threw it in and this is what we got:

Dancing along with Alvin!!
And yes, Brian and I have agreed the Nickolaus family with be seeing 'the Squeakquel' in theaters. Too funny!

Happy New Year everyone! Have a safe and happy holiday. Stay tuned for my best of '09 post!!
Love to all, Stephanie, Brian and most importantly, Everett

Busy busy bees!!

Things have been just a little crazy here at our house! Grama Nickolaus came to visit all the way from Texas as well as Aunt Susan and Uncle David who came all the way from L.A. and finally got to meet the Everett man! We have been busy getting our Christmas decorations out and shopping and planning for the BIG day next week. All during mommy's busiest time at work. People love to drink Starbucks and Christmas shop! I ended up having to working all day on Thanksgiving so Brian made Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night for my family and his grandma to celebrate. We had a really nice time and man can my husband cook a great dinner!
Here's Everett patiently waiting for his turkey!

I missed most of the festivities Thanksgiving Day but I did meet the boys at my grandparents house where they had saved me some yummy leftovers. So don't worry I still got Thanksgiving dinner and got to hang out with the family.


Aunt Suzie is such a spoiler! She had found some really cute Christmas jammies for Everett & Charlotte, that she just loved. So since we were celebrating her birthday on Thanksgiving too my mom got her pajamas to match the kids. So it was a Thanksgiving/Pajama party. Don't they look adorable?


In my dad's family we have a tradition that the day after Thanksgiving all the guys go to my parents house for pizza and a Texas Hold 'Em tournament and all the kids and moms go to Grandma's for cookie making, gingerbread house building and ornament making. Then they get the tree out and decorate it with the new ornaments. How fun huh? It was funny to have Everett there this year because its kid filled chaos. He loved it of course!



Everett really enjoyed playing with DeShawn and Charlee.


This is the best photo I could get of Everett putting ornaments on the tree. He is a man on the move!

All done decorating the tree! Man is he distracted or what?

Because my Great Grandma Willis was German we have always celebrated St. Nickolas day on Dec. 5th. Basically the German Santa, he comes on the night of the 4th after the kids put their shoes by the door and fills them with goodies.

The next day Ev got to check out the goods! A new pair of jammies, a snowman sippy cup, a Cookie Monster ornament and shortbread cookies. Spoiled much?

Sorry about the photos my camera was left in the car overnight and it was a little foggy!

Grama took this photo of the boys while she was here and it is one of my new favorites! Aren't they the cutest? We had a wonderful time visiting with Grama and I know she loved being around her boys for 6 whole days!!

And of course we went to the mall to visit Santa! Everett was NOT sure about this hairy guy and actually screamed and started crying at first but was then distracted by the photographers tambourine at the last minute. Whew!



Quite a change from last year isn't it?


I can't believe how quickly time passes! Look at that beautiful little baby boy. Oh well my big boy is going to be a ton of fun a week from today. We have so many surprises in store for the little man I can barely wait. Makes me want to jump up and down and clap giddily. No wonder my mom was so sad when I found out that little secret about Santa because I think its more fun being Santa than believing in him. But then again I still believe.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Let the wild rumpus start!

Happy Halloween!!

We really enjoyed celebrating Halloween with Everett yesterday. We started the day by attending the State Marching Band Finals to cheer Uncle Dylan on! The Marching Woodmen took 2nd place in the State and we were really happy we could be there to see it! Yet another moment that made mommy so happy to be home. I love my little brother so much!

After that it was on to Halloween fun...

After searching the south side for the perfect pirate costume we discovered that there were none. Apparently kids dont start dressing up as pirates until a little later. So I decided I could settle for something a little more age appropriate. He's only a 'baby' for a couple of years, you know? We found a really cute Pooh Bear costume at the Disney store, which thrilled Daddy because I'm not one for branded stuff. Everett melted my heart in it though, and I'm so glad we picked it! Adorable. We made the rounds to see Mamaw & Papaw, Aunt Suzie, The Rothkopfs and Grandma & Grandpa. We even got home in time to pass out some candy and relax. Gotta love that!


Getting ready to make the trick or treating rounds!!

Cheesing in his costume. The leaves looked so pretty that day!

Aunt Suzie gave Everett a special Halloween treat bag, fun!

Everett & Auntie Em were both ready to party!

Everett & Mommy handing out candy

Daddy and his buddy

Also Daddy and Ev carved our pumpkin together at the beginning of the week. Everett wasnt quite sure what to think. He certainly didn't like touching the gooey insides!


We are trying to spend as much time outside with Everett as we can before the cold weather hits! This week he and I headed to the park to swing and play in the leaves. He's such a great running around buddy.


That's just a bit of what's been going on around here. The house is getting a face lift in the next couple of weeks. We just got new gutters and the new windows should be in hopefully by this time next week. Exciting! That way we'll be all warm when we cuddle up on the couch together when the snow comes. Can you tell we're actually anxious for winter at our house? Its been too long since Brian and I have had a real winter. And we cant wait to share it with our little man.
Love you all

Fall Time Fun

We took a trip out to Apple Works this past Saturday! It had rained for two days straight and then luckily the sun came out and made a beautiful crisp fall day, perfect for the pumpkin patch! Everett had a blast, of course, because he has a blast everywhere he goes. There were bails of hay and pony rides and slides and a petting zoo and apple cider slushies and a wagon ride and PUMPKINS! We went with Grandma, Grandpa, Dylan and Great Aunt Suzie.
It was a great day!

what a big guy! Posing in the pumpkin patch while waiting for the wagon ride.



Looking for the perfect one

He's up to no good, look at that face!!! :-)
Daddy said about this one, "yep that's Everett!"
Gotta pat the punkins to find the best one!
A bunch of crazy people on a bus...

Mommy loved this little garden seat with her little guy in it!


Daddy, Everett and Aunt Suzie!
I was laughing so hard at them I almost cut Ev out of the photo!

Checking out the donkey.
Daddy would not let us touch the animals however because they are gross.

hanging out the lake patio with Dylan

The three of us (right after the pony ride hence the face!)

You probably cant tell from the photo but this is Daddy and Everett coming down the big slide from the barn!

Everett's first pony ride, he didn't like it as much as we thought he would.
Check out the look of terror!


Posing with mommy at the 'Pumpkin House'