Thanksgiving

We headed to the Morrow's in the afternoon on Thanksgiving for some football watching, picture taking, and dinner. It is great to spend holidays with a full house of people (and dogs).

We spent the morning at home hanging out in our pj's and watching the parade. Well trying to watch the parade, Jake had other plans for most of it.

Jake fortunately took a good nap because he didn't go to bed until after 9 that night. We headed home late and then Josh headed back out for some shopping. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart was a mad house and they only stocked four (!) of the toy he went there for.

Friday we headed to Grammy's house for some Christmas decorating, yard work, and more (much more calm and organized) shopping. Jake still refuses to nap when we aren't home, so he was exhausted. But we got Grammy's house done and she headed to our house Saturday morning to help us decorate and entertain Jake.

I think we finally got our final outdoor decoration figured out this year. It is our third Christmas and third different way of decorating outside. And we got to decorate a real mantel this year! I am pretty sure I never thought a mantel would make me so excited!

Jake refusing to smile

Uh, what I am supposed to do with this?

Jake plus 4 out of the 5 dogs waiting for Pam to drop something

Thanksgiving Crafts

I have been trying to do more crafty/art stuff with Jake during the week. So this week we made some turkeys. It wasn't originally supposed to take as long as it did, but it worked out so that we did something with them every day. That was also nice since we spent most of the week at home because Jake was sick. Apparently Jake does not like to get too messy and doesn't love painting. I think it has more to do with him not wanting to stay in one spot for more than a minute!

Taking a break from painting for bubbles

Why we like to paint outside. He doesn't like getting messy on purpose, but he usually ends up painting part of himself

But sometimes it is too cold to paint outside, so we improvise

Jake's turkey family

Birthday Parties

We've had a couple of birthday parties in the last few weeks. Jake gets what is going on a lot more now and has fun being around other kids so they are more fun for all of us now.
The first party we had was for Madison and Mallory, who turned 2. We have been hanging out with them since before they were all born! Their party was at a dance studio where they had activities for the kids for the first 30 minutes and real, lifesize fairies (who of course loved Jake so he flirted with them). His time with the fairies was short lived though because he found a girlfriend in one of the other kid guests. They sat next to each other to eat and Jake was trying to feed her and hugging her. It was cute and they even had the same energy level so while all the other kids sat and watched the girls open their presents, these two ran around the room. And when it was time to leave, they hugged and said bye. I didn't get a picture but wish I had.

Before he found his girlfriend

The twins with their fairies

Here, eat this!

Last weekend we went to Dax's first birthday party. Jake wore himself (and us) out running around the gym playing basketball. He also loved playing with all of Dax's cool new toys. And we loved getting a chance to catch up with the Parkers!

Check out Dax's tattoo!

Twinkle, Twinkle and some bedtime exercise

Halloween Festivities

We had a whole weekend of festivities, mostly Halloween related. We carved our pumpkin Saturday morning, inside because it was a little chilly. Now, last year, Jake had a blast with the pumpkin and loved getting slimy. This year, complete opposite reaction. Didn't want to get close to the pumpkin (once it was open, no problems with it before it was open), and he certainly wasn't going to stick a hand in to pull out pumpkin guts.

Hmmm...

Thinking about trying with the scoop

Cosmo on the other hand, LOVED the pumpkin and tried to eat it the whole time we were carving

EWWW...no more pumpkin

So he fed Lightning McQueen to the skull

Sunday we headed to Grammy's to trick or treat there and at the Morrow's. And I forgot to take pictures with my camera there. But Jake had a blast running around with 4 dogs at the Morrow's and got to practice knocking and saying Trick or Treat. On the way to Grammy's he decided to show off some and about a block away informed us that we were going to Grammy's house. Impressive, kid.

On Halloween, we had plans with our neighbors who have a little girl a few months younger than Jake. Jake and I have hung out with Carrie and Savanah a few times over the past month or so. It is nice having kids so close in age. Our original plans fell through, but we still went to their house and had dinner then took the kids trick or treating together.



Happy Halloween!

Arg! Our little pirate getting ready to trick or treat

Daddy and baby pirate!

Pirate Family

TRICK OR TREAT!

Trick or treating with daddy

We were really impressed with Jake's Trick or Treating skills. He did great with saying Trick or Treat and knocking on doors and made it much longer than we planned! We originally planned on hitting just a few houses right around ours, but instead Jake and Savanah made it a good block down the street. By the end Jake was asking me to pick him up once we got to the end of each driveway, but always walked to the doors to get his candy.

It was so fun to have him really "get" a holiday and made me so much more anxious for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

The Great State Fair of Texas

Yesterday Josh took a day off of work and we headed to the State Fair. We took the DART train down to the fair, which was great since Jake's new obssession is trains. It was packed, with a lot of people going to the fair, and a lot of people heading to where ever they go on a daily basis. It would be great if we could take advantage of it more often because it is great. Anyways, it was a little chilly and windy so we were all bundled up at the beginning of the day. Fortunately it warmed up a tad bit so we weren't in our jackets all day.

We stopped to see the animals first, which Jake loved once he adjusted to the amount of people there. It was packed. He loved seeing the little goats and attempted to kiss a few of them and had his jacket licked/chewed on by one! He also got a kick out of Elsie the cow and tried playing peek a boo with her. (He tried to his kiss her too, that's his new thing, kissing like Cosmo kisses.) We headed to the dog show where I think he hit on his first girl. He petted her head and hand, said baby, the hugged her hand. Adorable.

We met up with Grammy and her co-workers for lunch before moving on to the rides. I took Jake on a ride, then Josh took him on one, then we let him go on the swings by himself. He LOVED the swings. So much so that he cried when it was over. It was so cute! We headed to the ferris wheel, since I figured Jake couldn't go to the fair for the first time and not go on the most famous ride there. He was kind of ambivilent about it, but liked to look out and see everything. After a walk through the car show, we headed home, on a full train again. We had a blast and hopefully we can make this a yearly trip.

Goat trying to eat Jake's jacket

Peek a boo with the goats is funny

With Big Tex

On Jake's first amusement ride

Daddy and Jake on the flying elephant

Yea swings!

Not sure what this face was

Pumpkin Patch...take 2

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch today after a rained out attempt last weekend. Jake loved the pumpkins, then he loved the bounce house, then the pumpkins, then the truck for the hayride (for a long time), then the bounce house again, and finally the pumpkins again. After wadering around for a while we found a good carving pumpkin and Jake got two little pumpkins. We also got some pictures, but normal Mr. Smiles and Giggles was distracted by the "cuck" (truck) pulling the hay ride. I think he would have stayed on the hay ride all afternoon.

We haven't had too much going on recently. Josh's rugby season officially kicked off last weekend with a picnic that Josh did a great job planning. And yesterday they spent the day driving and playing rugby. Most of our weekends now will have at least one day of rugby.

Jake is still all over the place and talking up a storm and singing! He sings along with a bunch of songs, and knows bits and pieces of his ABC's. Smart boy! It is so cute to see him singing along with the TV, radio and his toys. He also loves "helping" in the kitchen. This is such a great age and I am so looking forward to the holidays this year!

So proud of himself for building with his blocks

"Hi baba!" Watching me in the kitchen

Showing off his glasses (he learned this at storytime)

What happens when you try to fold clothes with a toddler

Yea pumpkins!

On the hayride

With "gammy"

Bounce house!

Sweet, sweet smiles