I Think Will Likes His Books!

Some Random Updates

--For those of you who read about our donation to Operation Christmas Child, our box was delivered to a little boy in the Republic of Mali--which, if you are geographically challenged like me, is in Western Africa.

--Will's vocabulary is blossoming, and we can hardly keep up with all his new words and signs. He can now name and point to his nose, ears, eyes, mouth and hair. He says please and thank you, help and home. He can name Elmo, Big Bird and Grover from Sesame Street and Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. He can also say his name now, which is ridiculously cute.

--Picture this scene: Will picks up a set of car keys, turns to look at us and says "bye." He walks to the door and tries to put the key in. Will, where are you going? "Store." What are you going to buy? "Milk."

--For Christmas, he learned how to say "ho-ho-ho" and do the laughing and "hey" parts in Jingle Bells.

--He likes to do Auburn cheers a LOT. In fact, we laid him down for bed the other night and after a few minutes of silence, we heard over the monitor "waaaaa...HEY!" --which, of course, is "War Eagle, Hey!"

Christmas Snow

We had a true White Christmas here at Team Rios headquarters, and we had some more flurries today. After donning many layers, we took Will out for some fun.

The White Christmas I've Always Dreamed Of...

Santa Was Here!!

On Christmas Eve, we had a nice dinner and then opened some stocking gifts. Will was thrilled, and oohhed and ahhed over everything he opened...which was almost all new books!

Once we were done with stockings and reading some of the new books, Will left out milk and a special cookie for Santa.

And, when we woke up this morning, Will saw that Santa had been here!

Will ran right over to the gifts left by Santa, but he was very, very patient!


Here's Will with his new pal, Woody, sitting in his new reading chair.

Kisses for Woody!

Reading in the reading chair!


Playing with Elmo and Grover in their new bus.

Will spent time playing with every toy or book before opening a new one, and he said thank you each and every time he opened something new! He cheered for familiar things like Momo (Elmo) and Woody. He truly had a most fantastic time, making it the best Christmas ever for Mommy and Daddy.

Here's the setup Will created for himself at one point during the day.

Getting Ready For Santa and His Reindeer

The three of us made cookies for Santa today. Its very important to make sure Santa has yummy cookies!

Will liked making the snowman shape the best.

He did a great job decorating the cookies.

And, of course, he tested to make sure they were yummy cookies. Only the best for Santa.

Later in the afternoon, we went outside to put out the reindeer food. Will and his teachers made it this week in school.

We wouldn't want the reindeer to get hungry while they are waiting on Santa!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Will and Santa

Gus and I took Will to see Santa today. We were worried that he might be scared of Santa, but Will and I have been reading Twas the Night Before Christmas a LOT. So, we knew he would at least know who Santa was. Well, once we got to the mall, and Will saw Santa from a distance, he wanted to go right to him. He was miffed that he had to wait in a line, albeit it a short one.

Will laughed, smiled and pointed to Santa as soon as we were next in line. Then, he went right to Santa and sat in his lap! Unfortunately, the guy behind the camera left a bit to be desired, so Will doesn't look like he's having as much fun as he was!

Its been a great day for Team Rios!

Christmas in the Rios House

We got our tree two days after Thanksgiving, and we had a great time decorating with Will. This year, he picked out his very own ornament, a flying Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. He's been super excited about it. We're so looking forward to Will's second Christmas!

Thanksgiving on the Eastern Shore

We spent the entire week of Thanksgiving with our families in Alabama. Gram had a great time taking pictures of Will.

Our Ferrill family picture, with Gram, soon to be Uncle John, Aunt Lydia, but no Aunt Ellen, who wasn't able to make it back from Texas this year.

Photos by Candy

The aforementioned Candy is one of several fabulous photographer friends of ours. Candy and her family were sweet enough to have us over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, and she got some great shots of all of us.

Here are a few of Will...

New Words II

New words this week:

Big Bird, button, bubbles, buckle, ear

Shoe Boxes

A few years ago, near the end of my time at Marist, my good friend Candy and I volunteered for a program called Operation Christmas Child. I was moved by the organization's goal to share God's love and to bring the joy of Christmas to children around the world.

Its very important to us that Will understands how blessed we are. Even though he's still too little to understand, this year he is big enough to participate. So, here are some photos of us getting together a box for a 2-4 yr old little boy somewhere across the world. Once we know were it ended up, I'll let you know.


















Decorating the box.

School Pictures

Right before we switched schools, Will had these taken. We love them!

New Words

Will is developing his vocabulary and even starting to put a couple of words together.

His favorite words are more, milk, and book. New words this week include thank you and banana. He can also sign the words more, book and please. He is starting to communicate so well!

Homecoming

This weekend we headed down to Auburn for Homecoming. We called the Tailgate Guys and met up with our good friends, the Rigas family. Aside from the weather being a bit colder than the kids would have liked, it was a beautiful day on the Plains. Will took right to the idea of the tailgate, and we had a great spot for Will to run around.





The game started during Will's naptime, so Will slept on Daddy's shoulder as we walked ALL the way to the top of the upper deck. Right as we neared our seats, Nova was ready to fly, so we walked out into the tunnel to see her circle the stadium. Our little tiger, who had been so sound asleep immediately popped up and started waving his arm in a circle. Just like 87,000 other fans. A priceless moment. We're already looking forward to his next Homecoming!