For Christmas this year we went back to Kansas to see my family.  I was nervous for weeks before the trip since this would be the first time flying with both kids.  This was Kyan's first flight experience and Taedon's first time having is own seat.  Taedon had a small (large) panic attack on the first flight but after about 15 minutes, he calmed down and went to sleep.  I think being in a big seat without his car seat scared him.  Hindsight, we should have taken his car seat on instead of checking it for the seat belt security and the seat being his size.  Kyan, however, did perfect on the flights.  He is such a calm kid most of the time, I should have known he would do alright.

We were there for a week and had a great time hanging out with everyone.  The boys had their cousin, Rylan, to play with.  She is exactly in the middle of their ages so we had an 11 month old, an 18 month old and a 2 1/2 year old.  It was chaotic fun!  Surprisingly having both boys sleep in the same room went smoothly.  

About two days before we left to come home, I started to get sick. I got a little better before our trip home but it wasn't a fun adventure.  Everyone else followed suit once we got home and it took about two weeks for us all to get better.  Needless to say, that overshadowed our fun and we are glad it is all over.

Since Kyan was born in January, it was hard for me to remember that this was his first Christmas.  He loved opening gifts and it was fun to see him experience it all for the first time.

It snowed shortly after we arrived. My mom had told me it was supposed to so we had brought along Taedon's snow boots and pants.  He had a great time playing in the snow.  It hadn't snowed at home yet so this was the first of the season.

Kyan opening gifts.  He loved it!

I had told Taedon that grandpa had a tractor and he talked about it for weeks before our trip.  He loved it but was scared when it was turned on because of how loud it was so he didn't go for a ride.  He enjoyed sitting on it and standing in the front bucket though.

Cousins.  This was the best picture we could get.  At least they are all in the picture.

Santa came!  He was guarding his new treasures.

Kyan either is very happy or very upset.  No middle for him.  He was teething also which has been very unpleasant for him.

Christmas breakfast.  He eats anything and everything.

He turned 11 mos on Christmas Eve.  He's eating his baby's first Christmas ornament.

Just like the tractor, he would only go near it when it was turned off.  He enjoyed watching everyone else take a turn though, including dad.  It was fun to watch the city boy play out in the country.

Cuddling with cousin Rylan.  They had so much fun together.  

We had a great Christmas this year and it was great to see all of my family and have them meet Kyan.

Kyan LOVES the trampoline.  He has actually gotten to where he can climb up on it, jump and get himself down now.  I moved it to the basement, though, so that in case he slips and falls, he has soft carpet to fall onto.

He is getting so tall and good at pulling himself up.  Still not walking but gaining his balance more and more.

He loves to watch the dryer.  If he knows I'm headed to do laundry, he comes crawling quickly behind me.

We had a very warm day in November and went out to collect leaves.

He decided to be a daredevil and jump off the back of the couch onto the trampoline.  It worked until he then flew into the baby gate that is set up around the elliptical.  Thankfully it missed his eye but he has a nice small scar.  His first of many I'm sure.

Trying out his brothers bike.  He enjoyed sitting on it but wasn't able to make it move yet.

Whatcha eating brother?  Can I have some?

Reading a book together on the ipad before bed.

We used Niko as a train track one day.  Niko got a great massage and actually enjoyed the attention.

For Thanksgiving this year it was relatively small.  We had eight adults so I was able to use my china that we received for our wedding so I couldn't wait to set up the table.

Kyan loved all of the food.  He couldn't get enough to eat it seemed like.  He has eight teeth now thanks to getting six at once over the past few weeks(that was fun) so he was able to try just about everything.

As usual, we put up the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Taedon really enjoyed helping.  He has since tried to rearrange the ornaments a million times.  Thankfully he now understands that you look and point, but don't touch.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year.  We went back to the same pumpkin patch as last year but Taedon really got into the activities this year since he is a bit older.

He LOVED the corn room.  

Feeding the goats.  We almost had to go buy more food because when he had fed the llamas earlier, he poured the entire bag of food on the ground.  We were able to salvage enough to make it to the goats, though.

The fun race track.  I was told that it was a lot more work to drive this than it looked.  All of the dads looked pretty tired when they finished with their lap but the kids were all cheering for more.

Lets go pick out our pumpkins!

The hay rack ride.  Taedon was in love with the tractor that was pulling the wagon.

Kyan posing with his pumpkin.  He didn't get to participate much this year but he had fun as well.

Back at home, the process of getting the pumpkins ready for Halloween began.  We decided to carve one and let Taedon paint the other one.

Kyan supervised the process.

Later that night, once dad was home from work, the fun began.

The great final products

Baby's first Halloween!  Sometimes I forget that this years holidays are all Kyan's firsts.  Being born in January he seems older than he is.  Doesn't help that he is big for his age either.

So for costumes this year, Taedon was a train engineer since he is obsessed with Thomas the Train.  Kyan, well he was supposed to be a candy corn, my favorite candy.  Apparently I have never really looked at a candy corn as I shove them in my mouth because when I made his costume, I did the colors in the wrong order.  You get the general idea though.  And in case anyone now feels the need to google the image of a candy corn, it goes white, orange, yellow.

Taedon's outfit had a hat that he refused to wear but you get the idea.

For the evening we had Dontae's cousin, wife and son over for dinner.  We handed out candy and planned to take Taedon trick or treating just down our street.  We wanted him to have the experience, but he didn't need an entire bag of candy.  After dinner and handing out some candy, we headed out to visit a few houses with everyone in tow.  We don't know a lot of our neighbors except for the occasional wave as they drive by.  The one neighbor we have talked with the most had their light on so we stopped there first and boy am I glad we made that decision.  Taedon had been practicing saying trick or treat so he was very excited to finally get to go try it out.  Dontae took him up the stairs and rang the bell.  When our neighbor opened the door, Taedon yelled trick or treat, got his candy, walked into the house, kicked off his shoes and went to make himself at home in the kitchen!  We were horrified and yet couldn't stop laughing.  Dontae finally had to go inside and get him because he was planning on staying awhile apparently.  It was funny and our neighbor agreed thankfully.  Needless to say we decided one house was enough and went back home to hand out candy the rest of the night.  Oh the memories.