19 Months!

Timmy turned 19 Months last week and he had a cold at the time so he was not feeling (or looking) very photogenic. Since I am behind in this post I will just let Timmy speak for himself about what is new with him. :)

Congratulations to Jenny, Brett, and Brayden!

Last week was a very exciting one as our family welcomed Baby Brayden to the World! Brayden was born around 2:15 on Wednesday afternoon, weighing 6 lbs 14 oz and measuring 20" long. Jenny had a planned c-section and is recovering amazingly well! We were very dissapointed not to be able to meet Brayden at the hospital, but becuase of flu season only grandparents were allowed to visit. We were among the first to welcome Brayden home on Saturday though! He is so sweet and tiny and he slept and cuddled almost the whole time we were there.

We brought Timmy with us to meet his first, first cousin and he wasn't too sure about him to start. He wasn't thrilled with either of his parents holding the new baby, and he didn't even want us to take pictures of Brayden! I guess he's a little too used to being the center of our attention! After being there a while Timmy found some fun things to do and got comfortable and then he was happy to check out his cousin. He even gave him a couple kisses on his nose and patted his head gently.

I can't wait to go visit next weekend! I need another baby fix! Congratulations again Jenny and Brett!!!

Christmas in Virginia

Christmas morning we got Timmy up to open a few gifts at our house before heading out to spend the day with Tim's family. The first gift Timmy opened was a wooden train puzzle and he was so excited about it that we couldn't get him to open anything else! Tim and I opened our gifts while he played and then we headed out to his mom's house.

Elena and Al had a nice breakfast for everyone and we visited for a while. Timmy was more interested in helping Becky open her presents then opening his own! Chris is infamous for believing that whatever is shown on the box his present is in, is his gift. We definitely had him believing that we got him a snuggie this year. He was much happier when he saw the custom redskins jersey inside!

Our next stop was Tim's dad's house and another round of gifts. Everyone got us such nice presents and seemed to like the gifts we passed out as well. We sat around relaxing the rest of the day and had a delicious Christmas dinner with everyone.

When we finally got home Timmy had a chance to open some more of his gifts and actually get to play with them. His geotrax are awesome! He actually figured out how to work them before we did!

The morning of the 26th we went out to Tim's Uncle's house and got to see the extended Jones family for a while and Timmy got to play with his cousin Brandi. 

Then it was back to Elena's for the Shillingburg family Christmas party. We played another round of White Elephant Gift Exchange and then the kids all enjoyed one of Timmy's Christmas presents, a moonbounce! They had so much fun in it, it was so cute!

Christmas in Ohio

We had a whirlwind Christmas this year! We drove to Ohio the afternoon of the 22nd and spent the 23rd with my mom's family and the 24th with my dad's family before driving home that evening. On the 23rd we met my cousins for a photo-op and then had a nice lunch with all of them. We then tried unsuccessfully for a few hours to get Timmy to take a nap before meeting up with everyone at my Uncle Ron's church to help with a dinner for the homeless people in his community. Timmy's mood kept us from participating, but we got to see the church and then went back to Ron's to let Timmy settle down and go to sleep before my cousins, mom, and aunt met us to play a few rounds of Apples to Apples, a great game we just discovered!

On the 24th we took an unintentional tour of Akron while running some errands and then visited at my Grandma's for a while before going to Dale and Paula's to open the first round of presents! Timmy was very meticulous about getting every piece of wrapping paper off of the boxes before really taking a look at the toys inside. Tim got me an amazing new camera, a Canon Digital SLR, so I have over 200 pictures to choose from to go with this post!

My favorite part of Christmas every year is the Machak Family Reunion on Christmas Eve and this year was especially nice because our family has a new generation growing up and it was fun to see the kids playing together. Connor and Chloe are 4 year old twins and Jayce is a few weeks older then Timmy. I always enjoy getting to visit with all of my distant cousins as well.

Another highlight was when some of my Dad's cousins decided to give the new father's some useful gifts, so Tim and Chris were decked out with and displayed a tool belt full of diapers, trash bags, face masks, and a custom designed paper plate shield to use while changing their little boys.

Timmy was still unwilling to sit on Santa's lap, even though he was a bit more familiar looking... but he had no problem accepting presents from him and even gave him a kiss!

And that was just the first half of our Christmas!