This Christmas Season.

Reflecting back on the past couple of months....

Thanksgiving was great. CeLes flew out to spend a few days with us, we cooked Thanksgiving dinner and it was delicious! Our turkey looked picture perfect! I was so proud of it. Henry enjoyed lots of turkey and dressing, but not the mashed potatoes (surprisingly).

Jared and I have been doing well, he did recover from a cold around Thanksgiving - other than that nothing has really happened. Jared is now leading our small group at church, and writing curriculum for the SOS school at work. He is no longer teaching the Captains that come to the school.

This Christmas we are planning on spending it here at home. There is a possibility that we will travel up to see my family in northern AL. It is hard to believe that this is going to be our last Christmas here in AL. If you would have asked me 3 years ago if I thought this time would ever come I would have said it seemed unfathomable. But here we are 3 Christmases later and I cant believe how quickly it has approached. I wonder what the next Christmas has in store for us...

Well enough of this typing and now what you all really look at my blog for... the pictures!

Our "living Christmas tree" - we plan on planting it after the holidays.

playing with Play-Doh for the first time

Thanksgiving turkey- sorry it is so blurry

Thanksgiving Day walk- CeLes is "wearing" Henry

All full of turkey!

{Dream Field Farms}

We had such a wonderful day. Today we went to Dream Field Farms in Union Springs, AL. It had farm animals, pig races, tractors, pumpkin patch, cow train, hayride, corn box, and slides. Henry was in heaven! He wasn't too sure about the farm animals eating out of his hands at first, but with a little coaxing and time he was having the best time interacting with them. He and I rode the cow train through a corn field and then we all rode the hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins. The pig race was a bit anti-climactic but still fun to watch. There are so many pictures but here are a few of my favorites.

 

Puddles.

Early this morning around 4am we had a huge storm full of lightening, thunder, and lots and lots of rain... so needless to say we had puddles to splash in this morning. I picked up these froggy rain boots for Henry at a local consignment sale last week and they came in handy for a morning such as this. His feet are a little bit small for them, so walking around in them was a bit wobbly at times. That didnt stop this kiddo from exploring.

I will post pictures from our trip to Las Vegas soon.... need to upload them.

see what we've been up to....

The weather is finally cooling off which means play time outside is on! I am so excited about that... this has been such a long summer full of hot sticky humid days. Last night we got out a bunch of fun outside toys and Henry went nuts! Sandbox, tricycle, wagon, bouncy balls, and the dogs made for a fun time outdoors. Last week Henry fingerpainted for the first time. And like any momma I was so proud of his painting! He had such a good time, and wanted more and more paint-- that is a boy after my own heart!

He is learning how to pull the chair out and climb up... oh boy!

He has the best smile - look at all those teeth!

My daily little visitors outside our back window.

{body paint}

As a mom of a toddler I am trying to find new and fun ways to spend our days together. I came across this homemade "fingerpaint." I dont think one could quite call it paint when it is more of a "goo." But needless to say it entertained Henry for a long time yesterday morning.

It is a combo of cornstarch, water, sugar, food coloring and a drop of dishsoap. Good thing it was somewhat edible because like everything else it went into the mouth for the ultimate taste testing. Based on the look on his face I dont think it got too many stars. Ha! Yuck!

the latest...

Wow. I cant believe that a whole month has gone by since my last posting. Yikes! Sorry. But we have been a tad busy. The three of us packed our bags and took off for a few days to sunny California to spend some time with Jared's family. We were busy busy everyday doing all sorts of fun things: going to the local zoo followed by a picnic in the park, Fairytale Town in Sacramento, going out to dinner and walking the local farmers market, playing in the backyard kiddie pool and an open house for all family from near and far to come and say "Hi" and meet our darling Henry. It was action packed and full of fun. Henry did so great on the plane rides to and from. The return flight was a bit more difficult due to the high volume of people on the plane (no seats left empty) which literally cramped our style. Jared was such a good dad and husband taking the middle seat. Thanks babe! We took the red eye home hoping that would work best with Henry's sleep schedule, and he slept some but left Jared and I suffering for the next week trying to catch up on our sleep.

So long story summed up.... we are home and rested and back to the same summer routine.

We celebrated Jared's 30th birthday on Tuesday. I baked a homemade carrot cake and made him his favorite Mexican enchiladas. I sang Happy Birthday and he opened gifts. Meanwhile Henry was off creating his own little party in the bathroom by creating toilet paper confetti! He was so quiet and having such a great time that Jared and I just laughed and took pictures of him.