look back on 2009...

so i wanted to look back at what an AMAZING 2009 we had, so I put together some fun pictures that captured some of our highlights of our year starting from January all the way up to New Years!

we have been so blessed and we are so lucky to of had such a great year! it's been unforgettable and I am sure 2010 is going to be even better!

a christmas to remember...

holidays are just so much fun with a baby! brody looked so cute in his christmas pjs and was more excited about the wrapping paper than anything else. we spent a wonderful christmas with my side of the family this year and we had so much fun. on christmas eve we had our traditional christmas eve dinner at the Olive Garden then we came home and hungout and contiuned with a few more family traditions, by opening up 'one' christmas present and followed by eating yummy treats and watching a 'christmas carol'. i love being with my family. i am so grateful for my knowledge of what christmas is all about.

christmas morning we had our tradional family breakfast and then opened presents. we spent the day hanging out, playing and watching movies and enjoying our family christmas dinner. we had such a great christmas. is it really over? when we got back to columbus we were a little sad to take down our christmas decorations, but no worries, we will still enjoy snuggling up, drinking hot cocoa and watching the snow fall for the next few months. :D

7 Months...

7 months. I am still looking for that pause button! we are soaking up every lovely moment with our AMAZING little guy. My heart is so full of love for him it's exponential.

Brody,

i love your zest and spunky personality. you are adventerous and i love your curiousity for the world around you. you are fearless and i admire that! your laugh is priceless, i wish we could bottle it up and ship it off to all our friends and family who don't get to hear it - it brings joy to our hearts and smiles to our faces. you are crawling all about and you are fast. you almost have 5 teeth and you are a champ about it. thank you for not being drooly thus far. i am sure the drool phase is just upon us. you still sleep 11-12 hours every night. you love it when we share a 'dum-dum' with you. you love peek-ah-boo, your toys, books and PAPER and Anything you can put in your mouth. i love how you love to play with your papa bear, you are all boy and you are one HAPPY boy at that. And on top of everything else you are adorable. i am so happy you are mine!

i love u.

tis the season...

Do you need your own Christmas Card?

So I've been asked by quite a few friends to make them a Christmas Card this year and I figure while I am at it I will do the same thing for YOU.

So if you would like a Christmas Card done...

Here's the deal: I'm only going to do it THIS WEEK.

You can choose from the 4 Templates I have posted here.

card #1:

card #2

card #3

card #4

*So...Pick a card.

*Then email me your picture (as a jpeg) that you want on the card along with Your LAST Name and the other NAMES you want to be included on your card.

*I will make your card. You will get it within 24 hrs. of You emailing me.

*I will send you TWO jpeg files. One card will have your picture in Color and the other card will have your picture in Black and White and then it's up to you to pick which one you want.

*And it's up to you to PRINT them yourself.

*The jpeg size I will send you will be 4x6.

*I will ONLY make your card 5x7 if you Request 5x7.

*Email me @ ... jenniferknicholes@yahoo.com

and that's it! cool, huh?

*You can print Your Card at Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Target, Sams Club, Costco...you get the point.

*Thanks to my amazing friend Kally for letting me use her pictures!

!!HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

6 Month Check Up

Brody's Stats at 6 months

weight: 20 lbs. 7 ounces 97%

height: 28.5 inches 97%

Brody was a champ once again! He did great going to the doctors for his check up and getting his shots. He's seriously such a brave little guy. He loved the paper on the table and he was IN LOVE with checking himself out in the mirror. can you blame him? We love him so much. We are so grateful that he is so healthy and happy.

Mmmmm Carrots...

A Very Merry HALF Unbirthday...

Like you didn't think we'd party?? So as you know (or now know), Brody's 6 month Birthday was on Monday and most of you also know we like to Party! If you didn't know that....well you just learned something new about us! So you know that we totally had to celebrate 6 months and had to have a Party! Not just any party - but an... Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter HALF UnBirthday party for the Brody Bear. We stuck true to the date and celebrated on the 30th. So most likely to everyone else it was a random Monday night to have a party - but that didn't stop us or some of our friends from celebrating!

Not gonna lie...I debated back and forth a million times on whether we would have a "party-party" or just a "family of 3 party". So less than a week before the "Big Day"...I asked Tyson..."To party" or "not to party"? His response... "TO PARTY". And Party we did! So knowing that it was less than a week away, I hurried and came up with an idea for invites and made them super fast - got them printed so Tyson could take them to school to give to his classmates. Oh my gosh we sound like we are 10. hi, here ya go...go take your invitations to your friends. Tell them to come to our party. haha. And yes we stuck to "school friends". Next time we will invite everyone...the more the merrier, right?

Alright moving along...so a little party was to be planned...I whooped together some decorations (lots of fun pom-poms and I place playing cards all around)and also made some yummy treats. we enjoyed our friends company and we loved celebrating Brody! Can't get any better than that!

the invite

the birthday boy himself. so cute.

some sweet treats.

boston cream pie cupcakes. mini cheesecakes. chocolate covered brownie pops.

the cheshire cat

the white rabbit

the queen of hearts

Alice

and of course...

the Mad Hatter

And some of our wonderful friends!

{Thanks everyone for celebrating with us!}

It was A Very Merry HALF UnBirthday...indeed!

Let's eat cake...lots of cake...

So a little over a month ago - one of Tyson's classmates also known as my friend Alissa asked me if I wanted to take a cake decorating class with her and some other girls from the statistics department. I of course said Yes, but the girls had to promise that they wouldn't talk about Statistics. They were more than thrilled to not have to talk about school. So we were good to go and super excited! We all got signed up and started our 4 week class at the beginning of November. We learned all sorts of fun techniques from baking a cake from scratch, frosting the cake so it's nice and smooth, piping techniques and decorating ideas.

So without further a'do (this is for you mommers)...here are pictures from all of our classes...

we learned how to pipe with different frosting tips and we had to follow a 'rainbow' pattern on our cakes.

Danielle, Me, Alice and Alissa with our very first and probably last decorated Rainbow cakes

cake cake cake...yummy!

the best part of the class was learning how to make 'roses'. So fun!

And...Ta'da! Cakes with roses!

Honestly... I would have never taken this class alone. So I was so happy these girls ask me to join them. It was really only fun because of them! Love you girls!

Thanks Alissa, Danielle and Alice!