Our Christmas(es) Part 1

We had such a great Christmas this year!  It was busy, but we were definitely reminded of how blessed we are and how loved we are by our family.  This year, Greyson is at such a fun age so it was such a great time opening gifts, baking cookies, and just enjoying one another.  This year we headed up to CA to visit my family for actual Christmas, so we faked Christmas morning down here in AZ a couple of days early.  Here are some shots of our Christmas and then I will post another one of our trip to CA.

One of my favorite memories of Christmas growing up was baking treats with my sister and mom.  We always made so much yummy stuff to take to neighbors and parties.  I wanted to continue that tradition with our family, even though Greyson is still young.  Here are some shots of that fun few minutes that his attention held.  We did make an entire batch of Magic Cookies together and he LOVED eating the chocolate chips (duh!)

 Helping me wrap gifts....Well, maybe not really HELPING...

 We worked it out with Santa that he would come on the night of Tuesday the 21st so we could have Christmas morning on the 22nd at our house.  He was happy to check one house off his list early, and Greyson was not disappointed!  Here he is with his stocking...

 And the amazing photo that he actually let me pose him for.  I couldn't believe it!

 Playing with his new cars:

I am so proud of this, I might just make another post all about the car play mat so you can see it better :)  I sewed this for Greyson's cars and it has a house for each of our family members so he can drive to Grandma's house, etc.  I have since put pictures in all of the houses so he can see everyone's faces.  It was a ton of work, but I love it.  And most importantly, so does Greyson!

Greyson also loves his cute rocking moose!  Thanks "super elf" for putting it together!

All in all, we had a great time as just our little family.  It was so much fun this year.  The next day we piled in the car and made the 12-hour trek to Modesto.  More to come...

A Glimpse

Just thought I'd give you a stinkin' hilarious glimpse into Greyson's usual MO.  Pajamas, as many of my necklaces as he can find, and Dan's xbox head set.  Such a silly boy!

15 Month Update

...Even though he's already older than 16 months.  Oh well.  I have tried to keep this blog as a baby book of sorts so that I can go back and remember what he was doing at certain points.  Lately I've been kind of sucking at that.  It has nothing to do with the fact that he hasn't been doing anything cool...because he's doing tons of awesome stuff.  It's just that life with a toddler gets BEYOND busy.   Anyway, enough with the excuses.
Okiedokie, so we went to the doctor a few weeks ago and here's what he said:
Weight: 26 lbs (75th percentile)
Height: 33.5 inches (90th percentile)
Head circumference was 75th as well, not sure on the measurement.
Has 12 teeth (4 top front, 4 bottom front, and all 4 1st molars)

We counted and Greyson knows 20+ words, which the Dr. said was developmentally in the 18-24 month range, so we were happy.  Same thing with his gross and fine motor (can walk backwards and sideways, stacks 5 blocks, screws and unscrews lids, throws balls, etc.)  He also knows how to kick, hit, scream, spit, and arch his back in a fierce tantrum.  We are so proud!

I haven't yet actually written down all the words he says, so I'm going to do that here.  Please don't feel like you have to read through them, I just want to have them to look back on.  :)  As of today (16 months old) he can appropriately say
1. mama
2. dada
3. java
4. ball
5. dog
6. baba (drink)
7. snack
8. nana (banana or Nana)
9. night-night
10. duck
11. bath
12. milk
13. uh-oh
14. "side" (outside)
15. papa
16. hi
17. bye-bye
18. "pu"  (computer)
19. yeah
20. wow
21. thank you
22. welcome (you're welcome)
23. please
24. book
25. baby
26. cat (sometimes)
27. car (sometimes)
28. shoe
29. sock
30. down
31. up
32. door
33. off
34. on
35. hot
36. hat

We both have been so overwhelmed lately with how much he is looking like a little boy and less and less like our baby.  Moving into toddler-dom has (so far) been chock full of fun, energy, exhaustion, learning, frustration, fears, and so much more.  He is changing every day and every day we fall more and more in love with his growing personality.  We are so blessed and so thankful!

Phew, November Was Crazy!

I realize I haven't posted on here since Halloween, and now November is already over.  Not sure when that happened.  It's been a crazy month for us here at the DeZago house, but we made it through.  We had visits from Dan's mom and my parents, within a week of each other, so that pretty much took most of the month. In between those, we had his 15 month check-up, lots of trips to the park, some decorating projects going on and probably a ton of other stuff.  Here's November in photos:

This is a dresser we found on someone's curb just waiting for someone to come and give it new life.  Major Ugly...

And, here is its new life!  The color is bad because I took the pic at night with just the flash, but the dark is a medium gray and the yellow is a mustard color.  All distressed and pretty :)  Amazing what a little TLC can do.  Is there a life lesson in this??  

Dan's mom came for a week and even let us get away to Flagstaff for a night without the boy!  It was so great.  We stayed at the Hilton and literally did almost NOTHING the entire time.  We ate food, hung out in the hot tub, and sat at Barnes & Noble.  We felt so old, but we were so happy to have nothing on the agenda!  We took no pictures, mostly because we did nothing.  :)  Here are some cute shots of Mari's visit.

First bites of Nana's pumpkin pie 

Not too much later, my parents came down for Thanksgiving.  It was a great weekend.  Greyson is getting to where he knows people in his life, so he loved hanging out with Nana and loved spending time with Grandma and "Papa" too.  Its so cute.  Here are some shots of us at the zoo...

And just being silly

We are so blessed to have family that will travel hundreds and hundreds of miles and give up vacation time just to be a part of Greyson's life.  These moments are so priceless!  Thank you!

Have A Happy Halloween, You Must!

Well, Dan won out this year on the Halloween costume debate!  Actually, it was more of a compromise, because he wanted Greyson to be something from Halo.  But, I draw the line when I don't know what the heck it is.  :)  I do think Greyson makes a pretty stinkin' cute Yoda.  :)  I realized that I made the ears like 2 or 3 times bigger than they really should have been, and I was going to change them, but then I just kinda fell in love with how amazingly cartoon-y they look on him.  

On Friday we went out to a pumpkin patch after the Halloween parade at my school.  Here are some shots we took like 30 seconds to get before Greyson was too annoyed by the straw.  We will be carving our pumpkin this afternoon, so stay tuned for some funny shots of that.  :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

California

The week of fall break was emotionally draining and fairly stressful for me due to a tragedy at work, but I got through it and took Greyson home to visit the family!  We were there for 5 days and had a great time.  Greyson wasn't shy at all and just jumped right in to being at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  He slept great, although Aunt Amy (his roomie for the week) didn't!  :)  We spent a lot of time visiting family in the area and hanging out at home.  On Saturday we went to the coast and visited Uncle Jim and Aunt Wilda while they were camping.  Although a bit on the chilly side, the day was beautiful and it was so nice to see the ocean again!  This was Greyson's first real trip to the beach.  He loved the sand and the seaweed, but wasn't to excited about the cold waves.  We will have to try again when the weather is warmer.  :)  As usual, I wasn't too great at taking a lot of photos of us just hanging out.  I really need to get better at that!  Here are some shots that I did get, mostly of the beach day.

This is Greyson at my Grandma & Grandpa Hartman's house (mom's side) riding the same tractor we used to play on as kids.  :)

Hanging out with Uncle Jim by the campfire

 I love being up on Grandpa's shoulders!

 NO WAY am I touching that water!!

Thanks for such a great week, we had a wonderful time!

Buddies

We just got back from a whirlwind trip to CA for a fun family visit, but until I upload and sift through those photos, I am posting this sweet girl's mug instead!

Since before birth, Greyson and Brielle have had a special relationship:  their parents have arranged (and have been planning) their inevitable marriage!  But, our hopes aside, these two are great buddies.  One day, a couple of weeks ago, we took advantage of a cool afternoon and played at the park!  We love you, Elle!

This is their Abercrombie-"I'm-way-too-awesome-to-smile" shot (hence the b/w)

Silly girl!

Also, just a brief update on The Boy.  He has been learning and growing so much lately!  He is talking almost constantly, and we are always trying to figure out what he's saying.  He can appropriately say mama, dada, dog, milk, duck, bath, ball, uh-oh and probably a couple others I'm forgetting right now.  He also says "na" for food, "ba" for drink, "da" for outside, and stands at the glass door calling "daaa da, daaaa da" which we interpret to mean "Java."  We are so proud of all the new things he is learning!