Happy Birthday Aunt Shelley

Teddy wants to say "cheers" and wish his beautiful Aunt Shelley a very Happy Birthday!

Teddy understands how Shelley feels having her birthday so close to Christmas. He wants her to know that he thought of her today and he hopes she had a very special day!

Teddy also wants to thank Aunt Shelley along with Uncle Matt, and cousins Finley and Harper for the awesome chair they sent him. He loves it:

Teddy also says, "GO HAWKEYES!" He loves that they have won EVERY bowl game they have ever played during his entire life!

Here's a quick video to show you just how much Teddy likes his new trampoline... I mean chair:

Teddy is ONE!

Teddy is ONE YEARS OLD! The year has flown by and it is amazing to think how much he has changed and grown. Shae and I are thankful every day for the wonderful blessing that he is.

For his birthday (or maybe it was for Christmas) Teddy got his first ear infection. We had no idea his ear was bothering him, but he had a lingering cough that wouldn't go away, so I took him in on Monday to the doctor. One look in his ears and she said he needed an antibiotic, so our birthday boy is on meds. Hopefully he will feel better soon. A more exciting "first" happened today, on his birthday. Teddy took his first steps! He did it several times, though no more than two steps at a time. I guess he decided now that he is one, he needs to start walking.

Although we are having Teddy's birthday party this coming weekend, we celebrated tonight with local family. Here is my attempt at a teddy bear cake:

Teddy is wearing the adorable outfit his Aunt Miriam made for him. He is riding on his new Thomas the Train:

Proud mom and dad with their ONE YEAR OLD:

Although I made carrot cup cakes from scratch for Teddy... he was not very interested in eating them.

The pictures are deceiving. After this shot, he refused to touch the cupcake at all. Hmm.... maybe he is not Shae's son after all....

Teddy was happy though when he was set free from his high chair:

Present time:

What a lucky little boy. We can't wait to hear the music he will make from the instruments we gave him:

Happy Happy Birthday little Teddy!

Teddy's First Christmas

Not only did Teddy have a great first Christmas, but it was supposedly the first "white Christmas" in Atlanta since 1882. What a lucky little boy. Here he is excited to go see if Santa came to visit him:

Teddy must have been a very good little boy! Check out the awesome stocking his Great Aunt Judy made for him:
Teddy got this cool toy from Machelle. He loves it and "walks" all over with it:

After a nice lazy morning at home, we went to a neighbor's house for brunch. Here are the Hoscheks on Christmas:

Of course we decided to go for a walk in the white snow. I'm not sure why the pictures came out so dark... it was not dark outside yet.

Here's a short video of Teddy with his new walking toy:

December is for parties and celebrations!

I've probably mentioned how hectic/full December is for us. Between celebrating Chanukah and Christmas, we also had our wedding anniversary. And of course, Teddy's birthday is right around the corner. That means December is full of lots of parties and celebrations. Right before we went to the beach, Teddy and I had fun at the Moms Club Holiday party. Here Teddy hangs out with his buddy Daniel:

There is a little boy we met at the Halloween party who is a few months younger than Teddy. At the Halloween party he and Teddy had on the same costume except Teddy was a bear and Ryan was a dog. I had to snap this picture when we saw Ryan again at the Holiday party. Do you think they called each other to plan what to wear?

At the end of the party I was helping clean up. I glanced away, and when I looked back at Teddy, guess where I found him?

By the enormous try of left over chicken nuggets... of course!

The day we got back from the beach we had about two hours to shower/rest before we headed to my friend Wendy's annual Christmas Dessert party. Even though we were exhausted from the travel, we had tons of fun visiting with everyone... and eating dessert of course. Here are Teddy and Shae before we headed to the party:

(Yes, in case you did notice, Teddy has ONE "dress up" out fit. Same one he wore to the last party. Same one he'll wear to the next party too. You'll probably see it again if we take pictures at the Christmas Eve Party).

On Sunday we went to our friend Luke's 3rd birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. I was thinking we would just go for a little while and Teddy would look around at all the stuff. I didn't realize how much fun he would have with all of the little rides and games! In this first picture Teddy rides with Bob the Builder:

He also enjoyed driving:

And of course he liked the pizza:

But he REALLY liked his first taste of birthday cake:

YUMMY!

Now that Chanukah is over and we are home from the beach, we finally had a moment to put up our Christmas tree:

It didn't take long. But at least it is small enough to put out of Teddy's reach!

On Monday night Shae and I went out for our 2nd anniversary. My mom took a picture of us before we left:

We hope everyone is doing well and has a wonderful holiday!

Teddy's First Trip to the Beach

We were SO excited to go to Florida to visit with Shae's side of the family and to show Teddy the ocean and beach for the first time. Teddy loves his Grandma Susie:

But of course, to get to the beach, we had to drive in the car. It was a long drive, but Teddy did fabulous... even though we woke him up really really early....

and he had to travel with two crazy parents!

We brought lots of toys to entertain him. But I have a question about this next picture....

which is rounder? The ball... or the cheeks? When we finally got to Florida we were so excited to show Teddy the beach. He was not very impressed...

Maybe it was because the sand was extremely cold, but Teddy did NOT want to touch it the first day! He did want to touch something else though:

not the beer Teddy!

On Sunday we were able to go visit Shae's friends Jim and Christina. We were excited to see their 3 year old Olivia, and also to meet their new twins Noah and Caroline. Olivia showed Teddy all of her toys:

while Shae played with the twins!

We had a great visit with them, but then we headed back to North Redington Beach to play with COUSINS!!!!

Teddy had a GREAT time with all of his cousins. We had a lot of time to play since it was pretty cold out for the first part of the week. Here Amy shows him the stairs (later she convinced him to crawl up them all!)

Grandma Susie had so much fun with all of her grandbabies:

The adults got to play as well. Did someone say, "Yahtzee?"

We went out to lunch one of the days to celebrate Christmas. All of the children did really well... although I am glad I didn't have to clean up after them!

Even though it was cold, that did not stop us from hanging out on the beach:

Finley showed Teddy how to dig in the sand (with the beloved pink shovel):

Although we were on vacation and completely off of our routine, we stuck to one very important ritual:

Hhhhmmm...... Father and son really do seem to like to take naps. I wonder where they may have gotten that from....

Can you say, "copy copy?"

We did attempt to get some group photos of Grandma Susie with all of her Grandchildren. After a trial run, we decided to add the moms to the picture. That worked MUCH better!

Then we got a shot of Grandpa Steve with all of his children and grandchildren:

Shae sported some of his new Chanukah gifts. (Thanks Miriam for them!)

(as if there was a doubt!)

It gradually got warmer over the next few days and luckily we were able to spend more time on the beach. Also thank goodness Teddy warmed up to the sand (as the sand warmed up).

Beach Babies!

Grandma Susie offered to babysit so that we could go out one evening. We had so much fun at Friendly's Tavern! Here are the girls with our rendition of Mountain Music (WITH a dancer):

Shae also took the microphone. Here he sings a dedication to Teddy:

"Won't you be... my teddy bear!"

(above) Grandma Susie, Teddy, and Shae enjoying a beautiful day on the beach.

It finally got warm enough to not only stick our feet in the water...

but to get in it too!

(above) Shae took a kayak out and enjoyed the water. And on the last day, we were all crazy enough to get in the ocean:

When it finally warmed up and he was comfortable, Teddy seemed to really enjoy playing in the sand:

Like all of our visits with family, the week flew by and before we knew it, it was time to pack up the car and drive home. We had a wonderful time with everyone and were sad to see the week was over so fast! On the way home, we stopped at Chick-fil-A and let Teddy stretch his legs in the play center:

It's a long drive, but at least if you can sleep in the car, it goes by faster:

It was really nice to get home and sleep... or nap... in our own bed!

Of course the best part about our vacation was getting to spend time with family. I got a quick video during one of my favorite moments from the entire week. (Sorry I forgot not to turn the camera again).

Finley is an AWESOME dancer!!! We had so much fun with you!