i'm thankful for...

okay, i almost missed the boat on getting this thanksgiving post done, but i really wanted to share!

to celebrate thanksgiving and focus on what we're thankful for as a family, we each wrote down one thing we were thankful for each day in november. we did this at dinner time, and actually momma did all the writing down. and technically, she spoke on luke's behalf, but i did think of my "thankfuls" (which is what i called them) each night, all on my own. the very first day, mom and dad explained what being thankful is all about and what kind of things we might be thankful for, and then i took it from there.

here are my thankfuls from each day in november leading up to the 25th, in my very own words...

1. school buses

2. daddy's coin (a special coin daddy gave to me that i had played with all day)

3. beamee

4. nutella, peanut butter, condiments

5. yummy nests momma made

6. trip to pumpkin patch, especially ice cream there

7. ice cream (we went to baskin robbins as a family)

8. new car (toy version)

9. the little jelly beans that we got

10. mint chocolate chip ice cream

11. black crayon

12. grampee

13. getting to make beer bread (which i did in my pretend play, not even in real life that day!)

14. me being good in church (this was also daddy's thankful that day!)

15. eating this soup and grapes and bread - all of those things

16. looking at the moon and looking for ozzie (the neighbor's dog - i like to see him outside playing in their yard)

17. me having a turnover... and the mustard and honey... and you (momma) putting some salad in my bowl... and doing the airplane at the el salido park

18. for making T's (i wrote a bunch of letter T's all on my own this day)

19. for you (momma) making those cookies

20. those sweet potatoes and steak

21. playing on the playground at church in the playroom... and having a cookie

22. these steak sandwiches... pushing that black thing over the yellow ones (in the backyard)

23. that chocolate that i had... and zebra... and monkey... (two animals we learned about that week) and daddy painting (the back deck)

24. momma playing with me while i was in the bathtub

25. maggie dog playing with me

i would write down luke's too, but they pretty much boiled down to: momma holding me, daddy holding me, ben making me laugh, pacifier.

if i didn't specifically mention your name in my thankfuls, please know that i am still very thankful for you, of course. beamee and grampee have just really been on my mind a lot lately because momma tipped me off that we're riding on an airplane to their house for Christmas, and so i pretty much think about that and look forward to that every single day now. we'll be starting our advent calendar tomorrow so hopefully that will help me understand that we still have a little ways to go before Christmas, so i can't exactly start packing my bags yet. but it will be here soon!!!

Thanksgiving was great because of all the good food and all the nice and fun relatives i got to see (on mimsie's side and grandpa's side - yahoo!) and Christmas will be great too. we have our tree up already with lots of sparkling lights, which i love. we will be making ornaments this week, so i will report back soon on how that goes and other things that we have been up to.

hope your Thanksgiving was good. and a special (although late on here) happy birthday message to both Gabrielle and Lauren!! see you soon!!!!!!!!

and oh man the biggest P.S. ever - check out our walls in the picture above - that is our kitchen!!! without the flowered wallpaper!!! that is definitely what momma is thankful for. :)

november...

november is going by quickly! here are random pictures from various things throughout this month...


we went to the pumpkin patch the first weekend in november - i was really excited about this because i remembered going there last year (and loving it) and it's the same place that has the strawberry picking where we went in april. momma took a bajillion pictures with her nice camera. when she loaded the memory card into our computer, she found out it was corrupt and none of our pictures turned out. she wanted to scream and stomp and pout but actually handled it really well. thankfully, she took four pictures with the other camera. this was the best one...




clearly not one we'll be enlarging for the mantle, but a picture nonetheless. we'll remember the beautiful fall day, awesome ice cream, oodles of pumpkins, hungry goats, and other fun moments with the pictures we took in our heads.

our theme of the week and word/letter of the day is still going strong. momma is amazed i'm still so into it and it continues to influence every week day. a couple weeks ago we did N for Nest day and made chocolate/cereal nests with a yellow starburst egg inside - yum! momma is the bomb because she almost always finds a way to relate an edible treat to our word of the day - score.




luke and i get to take baths together now - fun! he sure does like me. i like to dump water on him. good times...

he also has taken up baby yoga in his spare time - note his crossed feet. this is how he sits on a regular basis, which momma finds hilarious...

besides baby yoga, he's also into screeching, shouting, growing his first tooth, laughing at almost anything i do, looking forward to the moment during the day when daddy comes home from work, waking up early from his afternoon nap, refusing all vegetables that momma offers, riding in shopping carts, and eating tiny alligators...

he's cute, folks...

couldn't you just eat this little face?

as for me, i really like doing puzzles...

and i have been having the best time with daddy home this week. he's been doing little projects around the house, and i have been very helpful. the weather is so warm, so we've been outside most of the day. while daddy was staining the deck, he set up two yellow ones for me to drive his golf bag carrier over - totally cool! this kept me busy for most of monday and tuesday...

and back inside i got to help momma with the mopping! for those of you who were familiar with the blue floral wallpaper formerly in my bathroom, please note the new walls - whoa!!

we had both our kitchen and upstairs bathroom painted - yes!!! i promise to share more pictures of this excitement on momma's behalf at my next post. but for now, just a peek during my mopping...

we've been doing some fall crafts, still baking a lot, and doing plenty of manly-dude things too. and i don't know if you can tell in the pictures or not, but i appear to have my first, real scar from that incident a while ago with the table corner at the mall. momma may never get over this, since she despises the mall to begin with. however, i do look pretty rough and tough with a face scar, so she's considering just getting me a leather jacket and rolling with that look for awhile... we'll see...

i'm very excited about thanksgiving and then especially the Christmas season. i will have a post over the weekend about how we've celebrated thanksgiving this whole month. and i hope you all have a wonderful turkey day and if we don't get to see you, know that we miss you bunches and look forward to seeing you soon. bye! :)

really boring post...

hi. it's ben. sorry it's been a little while since our last post but i'm going to do this one and then another one again soon to catch us up (we're a little behind)! this one mostly has pictures of our faces. it just worked out that way, but hopefully we'll have a little more excitement the next time.

here's luke at nearly seven months old! sometimes when we're out and about, people think he's a girl because he really is in a bit of a pretty phase with those eyes... sorry bro!


he's sitting up in the bathtub all by himself now - exciting!

he actually - finally - has his first tooth popping out right now as i post this!! so lately he has been chewing even more on whatever he can get a hold of - toys, his hands, momma's collarbone, whatever...

sometimes i like to periodically give a little elvis lip...

and i still very much enjoy trying on women's sunglasses, particularly at target...

it was cold here for a few days but now has gotten warm again, so momma is still drinking frappuccinos - yum! luke has a weird obsession with chewing and licking the bottom of her cold cup. this started a long time ago when he would ride in the sling, and as she would have a drink, the cup would be right in the perfect spot for him to chew on the bottom. i guess he likes it because it's cold and the right "texture." anyway, he almost never cries in general, but he does cry for "bites" of momma's frappuccino cups - honestly! we may have created a monster...

okay, sorry that this might be the lamest post in the history of this blog. we really have been doing fun things lately, but momma needs to get the newest pictures edited for me. daddy is actually home from work all week doing projects around the house, and i have been helping him a lot already! i'm having a blast with him and all of his tools, so that will be keeping me busy this week, but i will pop in again soon, so check back!! bye!

special treats...

hello! we are still posting pictures from october, so no time for chit chat - we'll just get right to it! luke is riding in carts now - so fun! here we are together in one at the grocery store. momma almost cried...

luke got to use the protective cover one time before second-child syndrome set in with momma and now he's already chewing on the buckles and even the metal with no worries. it's fun to have him riding along with me now.

speaking of fun, beamee came to visit last month and we sure do LOVE her. she is loads of fun. and having beamee around means a constant supply of special treats and special outings. i went to krispy kreme for the first time and experienced my first (of many, many, many, i hope!) hot/now donut - wowzers, yum! here's me and beamee in our hats...

watching the donuts on the line...

chomping down on my first bites...

i approve!! where have these been all my life?!?!

even luke enjoyed himself...

he's sitting up in highchairs now too. here he is at our favorite local mexican restaurant, contentedly chewing on some wood and not even noticing the chip in front of him... are we related?

another special treat last month was a visit to mimsie and grandpa's house! we had SO much fun there. the swing is one of my favorite things there, and luke really liked it too...

and of course i hung out with maggie dog most of the time. i sure do like her...

and i spent the rest of the time pushing the "dark blue lawn mower" over the yellow ones on their deck. good times...

the weather is still awesome here, as you can tell. daddy grilled some meat, of course. grandpa has a pit that uses real fire to grill, and we roasted marshmallows afterwards. i'm playing it cool in the pictures but if i had one word to describe these it would be - holla (in the words of brent, to see if he's keeping up with our blog)...

so that should finish up our october. november has been great so far though, as we're really looking forward to thanksgiving and christmas here already. the weather is awesome, luke and i are both doing great, life is good. luke still has no teeth but is "talking" more and loves to watch me and laugh along with me all day. he's eating more solids but is still not a huge fan of veggies. i am up to my usual stuff and really enjoying our learning plan at home with the different themes of the week and letters/words of the day. i am already looking forward to flying on an airplane at christmas and talk about it almost every day. i'll go ahead and start my pleas for snow in indiana while we're there, please, and thank you. and i guess that's all for now. we still have lots of pictures to post from november already, so check back again soon! :) bye.