Baby's first Christmas!

Baby's First Christmas!!!!

Yay! Seriously it was so  much fun. Grandma and grandpa hadn't seen him in a few months and we were all very excited. And it had been 4 years since I had been back east! I'm excited to write this blog and tell you all about it so we'll start from the beginning...!

First.. The dreaded first plane ride! I was SO nervous about this! I have heard horror stories about children on planes and it only made sense that Ty would freak out about this. But we were SO lucky! Isn't he so cute?! haha. The first plane ride he slept on the way up for about an hour, chilled for about an hour in btwn and then slept the last hour. YAY!! That was so great! We also had an awesome lady empty the seat between us so Ty had his own space! This is him playing with his quiet book. (Another blog on that!) 

So.. a little side note.. Because I was so nervous about the flight, I did a LOT of research on tips and tricks with flying with a baby. One of the ones I found was to make these little treats for the people you fly with! So we made these little goodie bags and handed them out on the planes. They were a HIT! The people got a good chuckle and it totally broke the ice for him. And luckily it didn't even matter! Yay!

This is the note from baby Ty. ha. In case you can't see it...  it says 

Hi Friend!

My name is Tyler and I am 5 months old! This is my very first flight and I'm a little nervous. I will try to be on my best behavior, but I'd like to apologize in advance if I lose my cool, get scared, or my ears hurt. My mom and dad packed you this goodies bag with a few treats. There are also ear plugs in case my first public serenade isn't as enjoyable to you as is it to my mom and dad. 

Have a great flight!

Inside the bad is the little note, some little christmas chocolate, those awesome dinner mint thingys, some gum and of course, the ear plugs. ha. We bought a box of 100 pairs for like 10 bucks. Super worth it even though I didn't think anyone actually used them. 

This is Carter helping me put it all together. It was so fun! He's so wonderful. 

Anyway, back to the trip...

Umm.. can you say L.O.V.E??

This was in the Detroit airport! We had a 3 hour layover and baby was awesome. He hung out on the blankey and made all the other passengers fall in love with him. Surprise!

This is one of my new favorite outfits btw. And he's almost grown out of it. :(

On the little plane from Detroit to Erie! It was a little tiny plane with 2 seats on one side and 1 on the other and the cute flight attendant gave him his first set of wings!! yay! Is this not the cutest little face ever?? ha. 

(heart eyes is my new favorite emoji btw)

So we got to Erie at 9 ish and almost didn't make it home. We had SO much luggage and they brought the little malibu. It was actually a little embarrassing. Justin had to hold a suitcase on his lap. In the front seat. A huge one. There was a guy sitting there watching the whole time and he laughed a lot. :D 

The next day we just hung out and got to watch baby O!! It was so fun to get to meet him. He's the greatest little kid ever. And the pic above is the first moment they spent together. haha. So adorable. They had a hard time sharing at the beginning but by the end they were best buds.

Two cousins sitting on grandpa's four wheeler!

Nap time on grandma's couch! It was a great couch. :)

Hangin out in grandma's stroller! We went on a couple good walks cuz it was 70 degrees almost the whole time! We usually don't love Erie in the winter cuz it's miserably, humidly cold to your bones with heavy wet snow everywhere! But not this time!! Woohoo!

Grandma loved taking pics of baby Ty and she got some good ones!

We opened all our gifts on Christmas Eve and it was so much fun to do that with Ty! Justin was so excited to do that with him. :)

Ty got a few good books from all his aunts and uncles and he loves them!

Grandpa got him this adorable onsie that says "Dirt makes me cuter"

Owen also got a shirt that says "I make dirt look good" so of course they had to get a picture together!

This was one of my favorite gifts that he got cuz.. hello?! So cute. He wore that a bunch that night and Justin kept getting upset cuz it covered his whole face. haha

Baby Ty with mom and dad on the 4-wheeler! We got to take it to the nursery a couple blocks away and drive it around. It's very fast and very loud and very fun!

This grandma loves her babies!! That sweet pup is Paxton. He's a bulldog Australian Shepherd mix and he's as sweet as they come! Doesn't know his own strength, but so so sweet. (He will knock you over if he jumps on you!!)

Gigi Hank loves baby Ty. It's actually really really sweet. I love it. 

Sorry! Back to Christmas eve! Gigi Joe wanted some pictures for her wall so we got the families together and took some pictures! 

All the Smith boys!! Justin and his two brother's in the back row and then Dad and Grandpa Hank in front. :)

All the Smith Ladies! Actually they're not all smith's but close enough. All in the fam! The top row is Jordan, Genie, Me, Chrissy (in the back!) Ali, Tammy and Jared's cute girlfriend (whose name eludes me but her mom made some seriously amazing cookies that Justin ate 17 of. If you're reading this, please forgive me and please send me that recipe!!!!) 

The next morning, Christmas day, we got up and drove to York, PA where Justin's Aunt Leslie lives! It was a nice long 6 hour drive. Woohoo! It wasn't all that bad and baby Ty slept through the whole thing, so yay! When we got there Leslie was making spaetzls (YUMMY!! those little white things on the wax paper.. they're basically egg noodles and they're delicious. :) )

The boys got to hang out and watch! Baby Ty loved the little hanging seat thingy that they had. He was perfect for it. :)

Mommy and baby!!

Family pictures!!!

Thanks for the photobomb Zac!!! ;)

Haven't taken a pic with just Justin in so long! I love baby Ty but I have to say I loved Justin first. He is such an amazing man and I am so lucky and so blessed to have him in my life. 

Leslie had a lazy susan in the middle of her table and we used it way too much! haha. Baby Ty loved to sit in his seat and get spun around the table. Don't worry, we didn't do it too fast. We didn't want any one to get a chunk of throw up in the face. :)

Uncle Ralph gave baby Ty some carrots. haha. So funny to watch!

This might be one of my favorite pictures ever. Look at that face!!!

His first time in an unbrella stroller! We went to Gettysburg on Monday after Christmas and walked around in this. It was perfect! He did so so great. My little guy all grown up!

The next day we went to Chocolate world in Hershey PA! The actual location of the Hershey's chocolate factory. I've never had fresher chocolate in my entire life. OMG it was delicious. Ya' know how Reeses are always better on Christmas and Easter and stuff cuz they have to make fresh ones for the holiday? Well it's just like that except better. Yummy!

This was from the tour that we took of the factory. That's a running count (kept going up as we passed it) of TODAY'S Production. Do you see that's over 8 MILLION hershey kisses?! And that was only 1 in the afternoon!! 

That's a single hershey kiss that weighs a whole pound!!!! Holy Camole!

Please and Thank you. :)

I can't tell if that's a happy face or about the be a sad face. haha. 

I love watching Justin play with Ty. It's my favorite thing ever. (I know I say that a lot but if you notice it's always about Ty and Justin so it's ok.) 

Zac and Ty and they're mooses!! I guess when they went to pick out a present for Ty they got him the book "If you give a moose a muffin" and got the cute stuffed animal to go with it. But then Zac decided he wanted to keep the moose so they had to go back and get another one. So now they are moose buddies for life. Love you Zacy!!!

Hangin out at Josh and Genie's house! Baby Ty loves to give hugs!!

Justin ran a 5 mile race on New Years Day! It was down on Presque Isle right on Erie Lake. He did it in the crazy snow that didn't start until that day! Good job baby!! I'm so proud of you!

Ali is so awesomely amazing and she took Genie and I to get pedi's for Christmas! But they took forever to even start so by the time I was done we had to go and meet the rest of the gang for lunch. So instead of ruining my brand new pedi by putting on my boots, I wore my little flip flops out to the car! 

Oh the things you'll do for beauty! #shesnotfromhere

Another pic from Grandma Cathy! 

Paxton and Brody!

Kisses from the puppy!!

Families are forever. :)

This might have been taken the last day we were there. He's such a stinker and so darn cute. 

My last pic with Baby O! (his real name is Owen but I'm not sure I called him that the whole time. To me he will always be Baby O. :) 

We were getting ready to go to the airport and we looked down and saw that Baby Ty had wiggled himself out of the carseat! haha. Silly baby!

Well.. I think that's it. I'm so glad we got to go and will hopefully get to go back more often than every 4 years! We already have plans for the Erie gang to come out to Utah for Ty's first birthday and I couldn't be more excited!!!!! We sure do love them and are so happy we got to spend Ty's first Christmas with them!!!