Wilder's First Snow

Well, of course, like a typical Tennessee winter we didn't have a white Christmas -- we had a white day-after-Christmas haha :) We woke up that morning to the prettiest little snowflakes steadily coming down and actually sticking! We had a fire going and were so warm and cozy inside that I soooo did not want to go out in the freezing cold. But Wilder had never experienced snow before so I knew staying in wasn't an option. And I'm so glad I made the effort to bundle us up and venture out because this boy had the time of his life discovering the wonder that is SNOW. I will never forget that morning and his pure joy!

Wilder with a silly face and his first snowball, 

which he promptly threw at me ;)

 First taste of snow

 Laughing at Rider eating snow off the gator

 Brain freeze!

 Loving it

 "I can't feelz ma mouf!"

What a fun morning with my sweet boy!

Christmas 2012

It's finally Christmas!

Christmas Eve we made and decorated sugar cookies to leave for Santa. Wilder had previously told me he wanted to leave Santa a "sammich" but I think he gave it some more thought and realized that if he helped me make cookies the odds were favorable that he would get to eat one so cookies it was.

 So excited to get some SUGAR in his system!

 Checking out our spread for Santa... and likely

considering snagging himself another cookie.

Really eyeing those cookies

But as you can tell he definitely didn't need

any more sugar or excitement that night

 After Wilder went to bed I had so much fun 

putting out all the gifts I had carefully 

wrapped and hidden for weeks.

 Stockings are my favorite! I love collecting all

the fun little things to stuff them with.

 On the back of our note to Santa, I had "Santa" write

a note back to Wilder: "Dear Wilder, You have been a 

very good boy this year! Keep up the good work!

Love you! Santa P.S. The cookies were delicious!"

This was his first reaction Christmas morning. He walked

out of his room, glanced at the tree, and then did a 

double-take when he saw all of the presents. It made my day!

Sweet sleepy happy Christmas morning face :)

He was so excited about each little thing 

he pulled out of his stocking.

Then we moved on to the big presents

Wilder got some new tennis shoes and was so 

proud of them that he had to immediately 

put them on over his pj's and wore

them the rest of the morning.

The aftermath

After presents, we had a delicious breakfast

and then got dressed and headed to Jackson 

for a full day of family and food. Wilder

thankfully took a nap on the way.

With his "Cuncle" and "Yarn"

Obligatory family Christmas photo 2012

There's a hole back there where my dad

should be. Missing him won't ever get

any easier, especially around the holidays.

Sweet boy

Watching Uncle Ed carve the turkey

Dabney feast

Wilder had such a big time playing with cousin 

Tad this year and Tad was so so sweet to him!

After spending a few hours with my side we went over

to Paul's grandparents' for the Taylor family Christmas.

Wilder is the baby of that side of the family and 

is therefore the center of attention at all 

times, plus he's just so entertaining! ;)

Paul and his dad had an impromptu little jam session

Wilder didn't know his Dada and 

Daddy G could rock out like that!

So sweet! Playing the piano with his cousins :)

We had a wonderful Christmas this year being close to family. It was exhausting and busy but so worth it for all the memories we made.

Pre-Christmas Activities 2012

We made so many good memories over the holidays this year! What follows are the pre-Christmas events of 2012...

We went to a Christmas Parade here in Collierville. When we told Wilder where we were going he asked if there would be tubas there...? (There were.) We thought it started at 5:00 but after driving there, parking, walking like a mile and finally asking an event staff dude we discovered the parade wouldn't be in our neck of the woods until 7:00 so we drove back home, finished making a delicious beef stew (recipe to follow, because it is so good it deserves to be preserved for posterity), packed up dinner and returned to the parade route at the appropriate time. Really at just the perfect time to get a good little picnic spot in the median. The weather wasn't too cold, the food was yum, and we had so much fun watching Wilder watch his first Christmas parade. I knew even then that was a memory I'll be holding onto for a long time.

 I just love a good marching band...

 There go Wilder's tubas...

 Had to snap a picture of the Civil War 

reenactors in memory of my dad :)

 Sweet boy waving to the paraders

Honestly by this time I don't even remember what this is... I'm going to guess making pancakes? At any rate, it illustrates one thing about Wilder right now, which is that he loves to pull a chair up to the counter and "help" cook.

I didn't do a ton of decorating for Christmas this year. Oh who am I kidding, I never do a ton of decorating for any holiday in any year. I love admiring all the themed and well-thought out Christmas trees, etc. on Facebook but that is just not in my wheelhouse and I accept that about myself haha ;)

I had Norman Rockwellian visions of taking Wilder to a Christmas tree farm to pick out and chop down our own Christmas tree. But for a variety of reasons that did not happen and so we ended up at Home Depot. Which was actually totally fine. Wilder loved helping maneuver the cart.

Checking out the lights

(This is him checking out the lights two years ago...)

 Wilder has had more fun than I ever thought possible with the leaves this fall/winter...

 Jumping off his truck into a pile of leaves. 

Doesn't get much more "boy" than that!

Where's Wilder??

 Beautiful girl

A couple of weeks after Wilder's birthday we went to dinner at Lisa's house she and Daddy G could give him a belated birthday gift. He was so excited to unwrap the giant box, which contained a giant dump truck!

Trying to ride said giant dump truck

Reading with Lisa

Love this sweet picture of Wilder and my mom

One afternoon we made handprint Christmas ornaments. 

Painting ornaments... with both hands at the same time.

I'm telling you this boy is completely ambidextrous!

I made Wilder some ornaments of his own

using cookie cutters from his birthday party.

He loved them!

We took Wilder to the mall one Saturday to see Santa. He was SO excited to get the chance to have a little tête-à-tête with the big man. 

 My handsome boy

Santa asked Wilder what he wanted for Christmas and he told him trucks. Then we got ready to leave and were saying goodbye when Wilder got off Santa's lap, planted himself right in front of him, looked him hard in the eyes, and reiterated in his most serious voice, "Trucks." It cracked everyone up! He was not going to let his request be taken lightly.

The next day we went to my mom's mom's in Covington to have an early Christmas with her. It was such a nice, relaxed afternoon. Wilder is in a ridiculously bossy phase right now and at one point told his 80-year-old great-grandmother to "sit" so she could watch what he was doing. If he wasn't so cute he would have been in big trouble ;)

 So proud of his personalized coloring book

my cousin, Katie, gave him. :)

He went through a helmet obsession for a couple weeks and would wear his bike helmet for most of the day every day no matter what he was doing.

The weekend before Christmas we went to Jackson and had Christmas with my mom so we wouldn't have to go to so many houses on Christmas day. We woke up, ate breakfast, and opened presents just like it was Christmas morning so that was kind of fun. 

Wilder claimed this one as his right away.

Luckily it actually was.

That afternoon we all worked together to build a 

fence in my mom's backyard, since between us 

we have SEVEN dogs and when we come to visit it'd

be nice to have somewhere to contain them ;)

 That night, Paul and I were invited to a birthday

party/tacky Christmas party at a friend's apartment

downtown. We had so much fun picking out our 

outfits. You can't tell here but my hat had antlers!

Wilder saying/singing, "Ho Ho Merry Christmas!"