Christmas Fun

We had a super-duper Christmas this year. It was our first Christmas with Mark which made it very special and also I was off work for almost 10 days straght! We are so fortunate to have almost all of our family living right here in town so although we have a lot of people to see for the holidays, we are all here together(minus a special few who are far far away =)). We were able to space out our Christmas celebrations and had one a day for 4 days so we weren't even tired. And everyone was gracious enough to plan the activities for after nap time so the star of the show would be well rested for all of the presents he needed to open! And boy howdy did he rack in the gifts! I'm still not sure who got him what..I was just continuously opening gifts! But no complaining here, I love that Mark is so loved by all of the family. Speaking of all of Mark's gifts...we're moving. There is absolutely NO room in our house. As John likes to say, each of Mark's toys takes up at least a two foot by two foot square! (And in a 1700 square foot house there just isn't enough room) Well we aren't actually moving yet, but our house is on the market. I think that John and I have some sort of neurotic, insomniac split personalities that got wind of the idea that we might have a little free time with me being off work and the holidays and all and NOOOOO....we couldn't have that! I mean the world might stop spinning on its axis if we didn't have anything to do. So somehow we decided that now would be a great time to try to clean out and pack up our completely overflowing home of 7 years while entertaining an increasingly mobile and inquisitive 11 month old!! Whew...I'm tired just typing it! But it was actually worth it! My closet and under my bathroom sink has never been more organized. We actually kind of like our house again! (But its still too small!) Anyway, if your looking for a house, look no further! The Rosemont (thats the model home name of our house) is waiting for you!
Anyway enough about that! Mark had a great time at MiMi and HoHo's on Christmas Eve. He loved playing with the bows, but he hated his first gift from Aunt Ninny and Uncle CaCa(they requested these names). They got him an African American Barbie named Nikki. Mark really surprised us when we got home because he has never uttered a word before but he just blurted out, "Throw that doll thing in the trash Mommy." OMG! But I told him I'm sure Aunt Ninny and Uncle CaCa will have a sweet little girl someday who will love to play with Nikki so we might just keep her around. Here is Mark in the midst of all of the wrapping paper and boxes on Christmas Eve. I'll have to add a picture of Nikki later.

Well you know how much Rocky loves Mark and likes to do everything he does. Here's Star with a bow on his head too! Actually the dogs LOVE christmas because they enjoy the tissue paper too. So they are in almost every shot we tried to take on Christmas morning of Mark and his gifts.
Also on Christmas morning Mark got this monkey jungle thing he requested from Grammy and PaPa. He LOVED it. He had played with it at a friends 1st birthday party several months ago and we knew he would love it. The look on his face was pure excitement!

So the little guy won't walk because he doesn't realize how stable he is on his feet. But he can do stuff like this without a problem. I also had to share this pic because I love his little red christmas outift.
Last but not least for this post - introducing the pointer finger! Mark is all about pointing to things and saying, "Da!" or "Ba!" We being the completely smitten parents just think it is the cutest thing ever!
I got a new camera/video camera for Christmas and when I learn how to upload those pics and movies I will add some from our other christmas celebrations at Opa and Anns and my grandparents!

Friends

Mark's frind Addison came over for a little bit last night and played with us. They had a great time and it was funny to see how much Mark LOVED having her at his house. He hasn't had a friend over for a long time and I think he is now at the age where he notices them and plays with them. No wonder he loves Sunday School and all of his frinds there. Anyway, we had a few issues with Mark always trying to steal whatever toy Addison was playing with but for the most part they seemed to have a great time.

Here's Addison busy hammering away and Mark looking at the red ball like he's never seen it before! (He plays with that thing like 10 times a day!)


A posed pic of John and the little ones.

John thought Addison looked sad for a second so he just had to put her on his lap. We all know the truth here though..he is just a sucker for girls! I like this pic because she is just studying him like, "who are you again?"

Hi folks! John here again. Kristy is moonlighting tonight and I decided we needed to update the blog...


We've got a lot of recent pics from the holiday season. We started by unpacking our Christmas decorations a week or two ago. Mark is really interested in the dancing/singing snowmen we have on the fireplace...

Once the decorations were unpacked we had to go get our live tree. (That's a tradition of mine from Colorado that I wont budge on!) Here's some of us picking out our tree. He wasn't sure what to think about all these new kind of trees around...









But then he got used to the idea after I told him we'd both get lots of presents!





Here's the final product back at home. He's completely enamored with the tree and points to it every time we walk into the room.

10 Months!

Hello fellow bloggers. This is John not super-mom Kristy. She's only worked about 854 hours over the past few weeks so I thought I'd help out and update the blog. Mark was 10 months old on Nov 26 and is now officially awesomer than he was at 9 months old. He can't go anywhere without getting hit on by the ladies and he's already told me in secret that he plans to go pro in football or baseball...official announcement to come in about 18 years. He truly has become a handful and requires your full attention at all times. I can't imagine what it'll be like when he starts walking...

Here's a pic of his 10 month growth on our bear rug growth chart. (Please note the Champ Bailey Bronco jersey.)

Here's a pic with his new favorite finger food the Gerber Pin-wheel...carrot flavor...

Finally, here's a pic of Mark and Grandma Jan from Thanksgiving. She was a life-saver while Mimi cooked and Rick and I watched entirely too much football. (Notice the bruse on his forehead. There has been a bruse of some form on his forehead for the last 2 months...)

Surprise Birthday Trip

John surprised me with a birthday trip last weekend. My parents watched Mark and the boys and we spent two nights at Big Cedar Lodge just outside of Branson, Missouri. We had a great time and surprisingly I did just fine leaving Mark for the first time. Maybe because he did so great. I called several times a day and only had good reports. I don't know, maybe I should be sad that he didn't miss me more! I guess he's used to me being gone since I seem to always be at work. Anyway, John and I first drove up to Branson Landing, a new outdoor shopping area and boardwalk, and then we went on to Big Cedar Lodge. It is really pretty and has a neat waterfall that runs through the campus..you even drive through it several times...its pretty cool. When we left Big Cedar we stopped back through Branson and did some serious shopping at the Tanger Outlet mall there! Whooo-hoo! Here's a pic of me at the entrance to Big Cedar.


This is me at the spa about to have a massage on my birthday...I was one happy camper!

I have never seen more animal furs, deer heads, and stuffed animals in my life! Big Cedar is owned by the same people that own Bass Pro Shops so it is pretty rustic and outdoors-y. We stayed in the "Falls" lodge which was huge and beautiful...this bear was in the main lobby of our lodge.

On Friday morning, we slept in, ate at the little deli on campus where I had hot apple cider(yummy), and then we had some time to kill before we went horseback riding, so we went canoeing! We didn't realize that the 20 mile/hr wind was behind us when we started out...but needless to say we got our work-out in as we headed back towards the marina!

Then here is one of me in front of the stable. Not the best pic but the ones we took of each other actually on our horses (Scout and Snickers) just look silly. Funnily enough we just don't look normal sitting on horseback. I guess we are more city-slickers than we thought!

So here is a pic looking up the hill to our lodge. you can see the waterfall that runs through the property. At night everything is lit up with white christmas lights.


We had two nice dinners at Big Cedar. On Friday we ate ate the Worman House which was actually the home of Mr. and Mrs. Worman built in 1921. He was a railroad man I think. Anyway it really was a great dinner.

And last but not least when I got back in town I ran in the Route 66 Marathon Relay with Lisa, Courtney, Kizzy, and Rachel. We had fun AND we got third place in our division! We are gearing up to win next year!

"Nothing Really"

People always ask whats been going on at the Wingerter house or what I've been up to and my typical response is, "nothing really" or "working". When really, I work and then spend every waking moment enthralled in this little guy we have to hang out with now. We happen to think he is just the cutest thing in the world of course and are sure glad we got a new camera before he was born because we are burning it up! Here are a few pics from the last week.

Mark loves his daddy. I'm not sure who is funnier. John is always laughing at Mark and vice versa. They crack each other up

The other day I tried to put Mark down for a nap when he wasn't quite ready and this is what I saw on the monitor a few minutes later. Cracked me up!

We like to call Mark's cousin Lexi, "Miss Independant." Well I would like to introduce, "Mr. Independant!" Mark loves to stand up. And not just stand up, but stand up and let go. He has been doing this ever since he learned to pull up which was WAY before he even approached any type of stability. But since he does it about 100 times a day he is actually getting a little more stable. He can hold it about 5-6seconds before plopping down on his bum or grabbing on to something again or smacking his forehead into something. Like Lisa said about Britton...I think Mark will be bruised on his forehead for a solid 6 months!

Mark loves to go outside. And I really would let him more often if he could at least walk. But I'm not too keen on him being trampled by the dogs or putting his little hands on every single dirty thing outside. He is always looking out the front door (day or night) and I thought this pic was so pitiful because he is watching the boys accross the street play. Poor baby being left out!

Yes! Mark is finally eating solid food! We had quite a time trying new things...he seems to have an enormous gag reflex! But at the suggestion of a friend, we attempted jellied cranberries. You can see for yourself it was a hit and if I leave the pieces big enough he can feed himself pretty well. We've also moved on to potatoes, cottage cheese, sliced peaches, rice casserole, etc. He seems to like everything so far!

We I just couldn't leave these out. Mark sure loves Rocky. And Rocky sure is patient with Mark. Mark loves to use Rocky to pull on to stand up. and Rocky just doles out the kisses which sometimes makes Mark laugh and sometimes makes him scream. He can be pretty moody!

"I'm a little Peanut"

Yes, thats right folks, Mark was a peanut for his very first Halloween. I saw this costume and thought it was hysterical and had to buy it! Our Halloween was a little crazy as we drove all over town visiting family and friends. But Mark was a trooper getting in and out of the car and in and out of his costume. And every time we put him back in his costume we cracked up laughing all over again. We tried to get pics with all of the family we visited, but the pics with Grammy and Papa, Aunt Lindsay, and Britton are on their cameras..and yes we would like copies please!




Here is the best head-to-toe shot we have. He was chewing on a butterfinger wrapper at Mimi's house!



Opa and Ann got him a HUGE Hershey's bar!


And I just had to throw this one in. Mobley really does love Mark Thomas and now I have the proof! (notice Mobley's tongue perfectly contoured to Mark's face!)