Leaves

A few more shots from Thanksgiving. After all that food, we went for a leaf collecting walk. We found ALOT of enormous leaves!

LT had so many leaves that he could have flown away.


DT enjoyed watching from the stroller!


Then we started raking up our yard and LT came up with a genuis way to clean up the sidewalk!

Thanksgiving Day Recap

The Turkey Chefs


The finished products ... turkey, stuffing and sweet potato praline casserole.

There was cranberry sauce, too, but I forgot about it until we took this picture and we had to quick make it. Luckily it only takes 10 minutes!

The baby Thanksgiving spread - plain sweet potato.


3 boys in their "handsome" shirts


The wishbone winner!

I wonder what his wish was?

And here is the pumpkin pie!

There is still one "girl" piece left and LT says it is for me. He only eats boy pieces.

For the cooking enthusiasts, the chefs chose the high heat method for the turkey and used covection. You roast it on it's side and then flip to the other side after about an hour. If you want more details, you'll have to ask TT! I was in charge of sides and pie.

Diaper Booty

I'll add some comments later! This is the best I can do for now. :)

Okay, here are my comments!

The diaper cover is a Disana wool cover from Germany. I did not make it. I bought it. :D It works really well! Under it is a Happy Hempy hemp pocket fitted diaper stuffed with a cotton prefold diaper (the rectangle kind). It seems to holding up to the side sleeper! Huggies Overnight were no match for him!

The oh-so-cute hats were made by my friend Ruth. I did not make them. (A common theme?) I just love them! They will be perfect for our Seattle trip!

One Week

Our GrannyNanny helper had to leave us a week ago. We've missed her! Here are the boys saying goodbye. They were actually sad to see her go, but happy to be in a picture with Grandma.

We've managed to make it one week so far.


This morning, the boys and I stumbled onto a classic car gathering. It was very neat!

"This looks like a transformer car!"

Got a chance to "drive" this one...

This Model T lives just around the corner from us on the way to the park.

But perhaps this not-so-classic was actually LT's favorite.


PS - He said he didn't have to go to the bathroom!

Random Shots

The famous banana chocolate chip cookies, sugar & spice pumpkin seeds and our bug eating plant


The trick-or-treaters head out (yes, we made grandma wear the disguise!)

An action shot


Mmmmm... peas are yummy


My first political sign. I'm still holding out hope on this one.


This was a historic evening!

6 months old

It's hard to believe but Tuesday marked 6 months in DT's life already.

To celebrate, I tried to give him a little photo shoot in the backyard. It wasn't the most sucessful.

I call this series: Grandma's Camera




Look, I have two teeth!


Autum Nap


DT is a sweet little guy. He could sleep more at night, but that's the only improvement I can think of. Hahahaha.

He just got his 2 bottom front teeth
He can hold his own sippy cup and sucessfully drink, most of the time
He can scoot on his botom on the floor to get something he wants
He can sit up without falling down, most of the time
He can take all the rings off his ring tower by himself
He can babble
He can laugh, a lot
He loves his big brother
He always leaks out of his diaper at night, darn side sleeper!
He can roll both ways easily now
He still doesn't like being on his stomach too much
He drinks about 12oz of EBM while mom is at work
He is just starting solids, and none to soon for his liking!
His thighs are so big the NP had to get the bigger needles for his vaccinations at his 6mo appointment
He's sweet!

We love him!

Oh, and his stats from his 6 month appointment.
Weight 19.7 lbs 81%
Height 26 3/4" 62%
Head circumference 45cm 82%

Never Roam Alone

We installed some new garden decor.


And every garden gnome needs a Pedro. Right ?!?!?


I decided I needed a costume, too. Why should kids get all the fun? So since DT had me up at 5am this morning, I had time to scour the internet and find this idea. Then DT and I hit the stores to get some supplies and got this done in time for a 3pm party. TT just had to get makeup ... since he was in need of a haircut and already had a "Vote for Pedro" t-shirt languishing in the closet, he was set. :D

Still Funny

Does this video seem familar?


From the way back machine, in 2005

Pumpkin Patch

Immediately after LT's brithday madness comes the insanity known as "Sew-Your-Kids-Costumes" in time for Halloween. I started last Sat night and finished this Sat night. Not bad! About 5 hours for LTs and 2 hours for DTs, not including the shopping for the supplies. I'm especially proud of LT's shirt as I had to construct the pattern. I'm glad I finished them because we're pretty busy the next few weekends and we definitely wanted to go to the pumpkin patch! It's our 3rd year at this pumpkin farm.

The pirate and his parrot






Don't you just love cutouts?



The Whole Family (for once!)


The parrot flies!


LT took Grandma on the train and on the "Bootsie the Bee" path through the cornstalks. As he reasoned, she hadn't seen it before and Mom & Dad have. It was such a beautiful day!

I was hoping to see the pumpkin weigh-off, but it's next Saturday and we have our street block party. Can't miss that!

Present Surprise

After everyone left, we gave LT his present.
Eyes closed

What?

Wow!

Inspecting the present

Yes!

And finally testing it out


Meanwhile, DT was learning how to float in the hot tub thanks to Great Auntie J!

The big "4"!

LT had his birthday on Saturday. It's hard to believe how grown up he is already ... sniff, sniff. He had a big party - 11 kids came - and they all had fun going down the water slide, playing water balloon toss, water squirters, bubbles, coloring and sidewalk chalk. The weather could not have been better for a water party - mid 80's! It was a success!

The favors - towels with initial appliques and goggles (the goggles were LT's request!):

Water squirter targets on the left and the water balloon toss on the right - LT drew the whale shark on the right. I was pretty impressed! I did the painting, though. ;)

The water slide!

Action shots - the kids really enjoyed squirting the targets and especially liked tossing the water balloons into the mouths. I should have done even more balloons! I think we had about 75-80. The kids were good about not doing them all at once and letting others get a chance.


Cupcake time! I ordered these from a woman who bakes out of her home and I think they came out awesome. I love how the letters stand up on the cupcakes! They were delicious.

Enjoying the cupcakes at the coloring table!


It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Gma and Great Auntie J for helping out - watching DT and actings as "lifeguards" by the climbing wall to the slide. It was getting a bit crazy at times.

It was a big hit. On Sunday LT asked when his next birthday was. I told him it was in 364 days and he said, well, this is the 1st day. Yeah!

First Food

Not only did Damon try his first swing this weekend, he has his first solid food! He tried a little bit of banana smashed up with milk (mommymilk).



It seems like he really liked it! We were trying it because he hasn't been drinking much from a bottle while Mommy is at work. It seems like this week he's "turned the corner" and is now drinking about 10oz over the day, so we'll probably wait longer to really start solids. 6 months is the current recommended age.