Maverick's First Christmas!

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year!  It was literally my favorite day of 2010....an entire day fully devoted to family, no chores, no errands, we didn't even leave the house - just fun.

My Dad and Sherri stayed the night Christmas Eve so they could be there for the morning festivities!

Maverick was up first (8ish).

He is hilarious these days.  When I pull out my camera and tell him to smile, this is what I get.  A full-toothed, scruchy eyed grin!  I LOVE it!

Mitchell finally stirred around 9am.  He has been a night owl these days, so he's been sleeping in a bit!

Opening stockings with Daddy

He is so excited for the weather to warm up so that he can use his golf clubs from Gran and Pops!

He LOVES his cowboy boots from Aunt Kel & Uncle Mark (so do I!)

We set up their train in the basement, they both had a ball going round and round the tracks!

Santa brought them an air hockey table in their new play room....sure to be the instigator of many future arguments!

We honestly think Maverick enjoyed riding the little train more than any other single thing we've ever seen him do.  He bounced his little body up and down as he rounded the tracks and when it was Mitchell's turn, he chased after him!

The Christmas Boys

Smile!

Mitchell and Mommy...not sure how many more years I'll be able to hold him on my shoulders!

Laughing with "Grampy" (Yes, Mitchell still calls him that...or Gramps)

All in all, it was a very relaxing day!

Mitchell is THREE!

Hey, hey, hey.....did you hear that today was my 3rd birthday?  I had such a fun day with my family.  Follow me...I'll show you what we did!

I stumbled into Mommy & Daddy's room around 8:30am.  I must've gotten hot during the night because when I walked into Mom & Dad's room, I wasn't wearing any clothes.  Daddy said "Look at that, he's wearing his birthday suit.  Just how he arrived to us 3 years ago today!" 

As usual, I crawled into bed with Mommy & Daddy to cuddle for a bit.

9:30am

I have been begging to make a Gingerbread house, so Mommy & Daddy decided why not start off this birthday with a bang (and a sugar high).  

"Really, Daddy?  Can I?"

Didn't it turn out good?

10:20am

The gingerbread home moved to its hidden home in the laundry room so that I wouldn't be too distracted to eat breakfast.  Mommy made me some special birthday pancakes.

Mitchell Folks is THREE!!!

10:30am

I can't resist any longer....MUST open presents!

My very own remote control T-Rex!  Have I mentioned that I LOVE dinosaurs?

Oh, and super heros!  Daddy read me my new pop up super hero book....twice.  I had to make sure that Mommy knew that villians don't wear capes.

11:40am

Mom said I was long overdue for a bath.  It is much more fun with my bath crayons.

1pm

Mommy, Daddy and Maverick took me to lunch at the T-Rex restaurant!  I had so much fun seeing all of the dinosaurs.  They even got me this erupting volcano ice cream cake.  The servers sang me a little birthday song and then Mommy & Daddy sang me happy birthday as I blew out a candle.  I ate a few bites and then said "Will you sing me Happy Birthday again?"

I barely escaped from the jaws of a Triceratops.  I know more types of dinosaurs than my Mommy & Daddy (put together).

We acted like paleantologists and dug up some fossils.

I think my little brother was less interested in fossils and more interested in the sand.

3pm

When we got home, it was nap time.....for some of  us.  Daddy was supposed to be helping me take a nap, but I helped him instead.

3:15pm

All of that practice searching for dinosaur bones paid off....I found my gingerbread house!  I quickly drug over a kitchen chair so that I could reach it.  What an inconvenient place for Mommy to keep it!  I'll just have one little bite of this here wall.

Yummmmmm....

5pm

Off to the basement to play to my toys.  I am a big fan of my new toy room.  Despite all of my new toys, my baseball "stuff" is still some of my favorite.  I wore this helmet for quite awhile, before taking it off of my head and yelling up the stairs "Mommy, hats off to you!"

Hmmm...what shall I play with next?

7pm

Before Daddy and I headed out to the movie theatre to see the new Disney film "Tangled", Mommy snapped a shot of me in my little rocking chair. I really thought this would only last for my first year of life, but no matter how uncooperative I try to be, my Mommy still likes to get a picture of me in my little rocking chair each month on my birthday.

Did you see these new cowboy boots that Aunt Kel got me for Christmas?

I posed coincidentally similar to my 1st birthday chair picture...think I've grown any?

9:30pm

I am a night owl these days and bedtime isn't my favorite time of day...but tonight I was pooped!  I was watching a some videos of Maverick and me that my Mommy taped on Christmas, and I said "I'm too tired for this." and headed upstairs to brush my teeth, potty and head straight for my new Lightening McQueen pillow in bed. 

And that's it....a day in the life of my ordinary world...blissfully ordinary.  What a wonderful birthday!

Love - a three year-old Mitchell

MeRrY ChRiStMaS! :)

Merry Christmas to everyone. Here is was this year's Christmas card for your viewing pleasure!



Maverick had a WONDERFUL 1st Christmas, and we all enjoyed a nice family day! More pictures to follow.....

Here is the letter that we sent along with this year's card.


·     Although less than 5% of babies are born on their due date, our little Maverick came very timely on his due date of January 31st.  He has been equally agreeable ever since!

·     Mandi's career at Ernst & Young came to a close, but she's now the campus recruiter at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC); working 2ish days. It has been a great move professionally and personally, as it allows her more time with the boys! 

·     Mitchell started pre-school this year and is constantly amazing us with the things he is learning.  We were shocked when he requested his toast cut like a trapezoid, but he also thinks the man pictured on the face of a quarter is Johnny Appleseed, so I think we'll stay enrolled. :)

·     Mandi is the newest Accounting Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas; teaching Financial Reporting for MBA students one night a week.  Answering to "Professor Folks" still seems odd! 

·     Our yellow lab, Tex, will celebrate his 10th birthday in January.  He is the most well -mannered man in our house.  The boys absolutely love him. 

·     If we're not at home, you can likely find us at one of four places...the gym, church, Costco or Home Depot.  When asked what he would like for lunch, Mitchell has even been known to request "Costco samples."

·     For Thanksgiving Mitchell said he was thankful for God, his parents and our little neighbor girl, Lily.  Let this be a word of warning to Lily's parents :)  He is also completely obsessed with dinosaurs, Star Wars, and super heros.  To his Daddy's approval, he seems less enthralled with Dora.

·     Jacob earned a promotion to Senior Manager at Ernst & Young and has been working in Minneapolis on Ameriprise in addition to working in Omaha on TD Ameritrade.  He enjoys the new challenge!  Once in a while he works in a town called Kansas City, heard of it? 

·     Although it was completely unplanned, the names Mitchell and Maverick both relate to Tom Cruise's character on Top Gun whose name was Pete Mitchell and nickname was Maverick.  That fact is about the only commonality between our two sons.  They are very different; we appreciate their uniqueness!

·     We are FINALLY almost finished with our basement, a project we've slowly been working on for 3 years!  You can tell how much our priorities have changed since construction began...the space Jacob originally planned for a theater room is now a playroom for the boys.

·     On a more sorrowful note, we've lost our fair share of loved ones this year. This is the first year on record that we've attended more funerals than weddings, a trend we hope to end in 2011.

·     We wrongfully predicted that Maverick would be walking by Thanksgiving....our revised guess is Christmas.  We'll see!  His most common words are "momma" and "dog" and his favorite toy right now is Tex's water bowl....ick!

·     With parents and siblings in 8 different states, we continue to travel near and far to visit.  We also had a magical trip to Disney World in December!

·     When Mitchell was born, we purchased our first nice camera....and have been snapping away ever since.  I've decided to start offering my novice skills to other families, thus the launch of a fun little photography business.  Check out mandifolksphotography.blogspot.com

·     We celebrated the engagements of TWO of our sisters in 2010....looking forward to fun 2011 weddings!

Season's greeting to you all and best wishes for a blessed 2011!

Y - The Folks Family

Whodunit?

We love our neighbors....we do a lot of things with them these days!  We recently had a progressive dinner party with 3 other couples...and to make things more interesting, it was a murder mystery party.  We each had characters (and dressed the part!)  In case you're curious, Jacob was the first victim!

We had the Soup/Salad course at our house...and everyone survived!

We even had an FBI agent on the scene (doesn't he fit the part?)

We hired two babysitters to watch all 8 kiddos.  They had a blast playing together and this is how we found them at the end of the night.  How CUTE!?!??!

Each of the families has a kiddo that will be in the same grade as Mitchell!

Little Lilli (Sept 2007)

Sadie (Jan 2008)

Bet you recognize this one....

Luke (Dec 2007)

And although she's an older woman, Mitchell talks about Big Lily ALL of the time!  She'll be 2 grades older, so the odds are against him (hey, it worked for Jacob).



Oh, and yes, I was the KILLER!  Jacob didn't even guess that it was me and I killed him!  :)