Dylan's big adventure.....cutting down a Christmas tree!

'Hey this one is just my size!'

This one was the winner! Dylan's trip down the hill, holding on to daddy for dear life!

Say Cheese!

The weekend after Thanksgiving we decided to take advantage of the nice warm weather and continue our family tradition......cutting down a Christmas Tree. We got a sitter for Danielle and took Dylan out to Wickiup Hill Tree Farm for a journey amongst hundreds of tree's. This is a place that Brad and I have gone the past 5 years and we have been very pleased at what they offer.

It was pretty funny this year because last year Dylan was not walking when we took him. This year was a whole another story! This place is very hilly and is a little bit rough terrain. Dylan immediately took off up the hill, and then across the hill, and then he decided he wanted to run down the hill......'not so fast little one'. A tumbling he went, he stopped, got up and laughed, he was having a great time. They do have John Deere Gators there, they will take you up to the top of the hill if you want so it is easier on little feet, but we declined and walked, the little man loved it, about 15 minutes in we found the perfect tree!

So daddy got out the saw and cut it down and slid it down the hill while I held a tight grip on to Dylan's hand trying to avoid another tumble down the hill. Brad and I talked and this year because of all of the toys and baby gear in the living room we were going to get a smaller tree that was slim and not as round and not as tall. Well Brad stood the tree up to see how tall it was and......so much for our nice thoughts we had, we wound up with a 8.5 ft tall tree and when we got it home it was as plump as ever! We looked at each other and laughed considering our ceilings are only 8 ft tall! So we had them place it on the shaker, good thing because there was a birds nest hiding in there, had it netted and we were off on our way back home! It was a wonderful experience carrying on with our family tradition and we can't wait until next year when we will have 2 toddlers to chase up and down the hill trying to find the perfect tree!

Dylan has been picking up new words it seems like every 4-5 days now. It is pretty funny listening to him spit out a new word that we have not heard him say or worked with him on. Last week it was 'Hawkeye' and 'Uh oh, who's that' and 'why', everything now is we ask him to do something or better yet to NOT do something and we get, 'why'. It is very hard not to laugh when we are trying to discipline him and he is asking us 'why'. It is pretty cute and very rewarding listening to your children learn new things! Dylan also last week has started to get a little jealous of his little sister. We started noticing him wanting picked up every time we are in her room. So I started putting him in the crib with her in the mornings when I give her breathing treatments. He loves to sit in there and watch her as she lays in her boppy and he plays with her stuffed animals in her crib. This weekend daddy was deer hunting and mommy had the kids, I noticed him being envious a little more. During nap time he wanted me to hold him while I was holding her, it was a little challenging but it worked and eventually I was able to put them both down after they fell asleep. So Brad and I are just going to continue on working on giving him some extra attention and snuggles and play time in the evenings before he goes to bed and hopefully this will make him feel special! Our sitter has not noticed this at daycare so that is good, but he also has his little friends to play with there to keep him content.

Our little man is just getting so big. We look at Danielle and it is crazy thinking that just a short time ago Dylan was her size and now look how big he is and what a little man he has become! He is such a little character and he keeps our lives busy and keeps us on the move every day. We pray for continued health, happiness and safety now and throughout the New Year.~