Friday, December 4, 2009

Giving Thanks

Hello Darlin'. Nice to see you. It's been a looooong tiiiiiiiime! (For those of you not familiar with American country music from the dark ages, please ignore that comment, and "Welcome back!")

I know you would probably like to see pictures of our trip to Prague and Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, they're still sitting on the memory card in the backpack beside me on the couch. Instead, how about a few shots of Thanksgiving and Jeff's birthday?... Okay! Okay! We had a GREAT trip, and I do promise to get the photos up at some point. Considering there are nearly 1,000 of them, I'm assuming you'd prefer it if I paired them down a bit, though.

We spent Thanksgiving in Michigan (where it is currently cold and snowy - proper Michigan in December weather), with Jeff's family. It was great to have Drew in for a few days from New York.



It was also great to have three (yes THREE) turkeys. Mmmmmmmm......





And how great is it that Jack gets to play with his cousins?! Here he is with Bryson, planning future world domination by virtue of cuteness!



Jeff's birthday couldn't go by without a cake (although he also got free fried ice cream at the Mexican restaurant at lunch - not fair, but at least he shared).



And, of course, no birthday of Jeff's would be complete without me saying that he is the person I'm most thankful for in the whole world (but it's a close one, with Jack)!



Finally, in spite of the lack of sleep the night before, and the fact that we'd all eaten waaaaaay too much, Vince insisted on snapping a family photo. Here we all are! (L-R: Vince, Kendra, Drew, Doug, Jeff, Paula, Me, Jack - Front Row L-R: Bailey and Bryson)



Finally, here's one from this morning. Jack came home from Nana and Doodah's house with a much bigger vocabulary, and a much better grasp of farming. Here, he tells us what sounds the farm animals make, and also gives a repeat performance of his tractor imitation.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween I and II (And a Bit of Wrestling)

Ahh, Halloween with a 15 month old. You know what that means? It means we get to eat all his candy! YES! Oh, wait. I probably shouldn't publicize that...

Jack had 2 days of Halloween this year. Our friend Lori works at a company that hosts trick-or-treating in their cubicles (and there are a LOT of cubicles, let me tell you!). So we took Jack on Friday, and he had a blast! Here he is as a giraffe (thanks to Nana!).

Wink!



What IS this on my head?



On a mission for CANDY!!!!!



Here he is getting candy from Lori. She took us all around the office and laughed with us as Jackson repeatedly grabbed two handfuls of candy, carried them to the next cubicle, dropped them in the floor, and grabbed two more. He also had trouble with the concept of the trick-or-treat bag. Every time I offered him his bag to put candy into, he tried to reach in and take candy out. Oh well! At least he had fun!!!





"So they make you do this, too?"



And how to burn off sugar? Wrestling!



Jack and his O'Lantern



Friends from church found out we are Star Wars fans, and passed along a Yoda costume. Jack donned it last night - just in case we had any trick-or-treaters. We didn't, but he still used the Force of Cuteness to mesmerize us!







Happy Halloween!