Christmas

This year we were so excited to get out our Christmas tree.  It sounds so bad because this season is more about Christ than a Christmas tree but... you see... our little boy is FASCINATED with lights.  He walks over to lights switches and points and says "ah" (translated: on)... when they go on, he says "ooh, wat dat?" pointing to every light.  It is soooo cute.  So when we lit the Christmas tree this year, he loved it.  Every morning we turn it on and watch his face fill with amazement.

He walks up to the tree (see first picture) with his belly sticking out, leaning back.  Usually his hands are on his belly.  He says oooooooohhhh.  Proceeds to walk backwards staring at the tree and then repeats the process.  I almost died laughing. 

 We are working on using one finger to touch the tree.

 (I wish my shutter speed was faster...) He was flapping his hands... something he does when he is excited.

 The next morning I invited the grandmas over to open up Jed's new manger (thanks Oma).  And talk about all of the wooden characters.  What a special tradition!

Thanksgiving #2

Janice, Lilly and Charity

 Arris, Margie, Austin, Christy and Aaron

 The crew...

 Chelsey, Becca, Margie and Christy making Zwibach.

 We decided to go to the park... such a great idea!  The kids had a great time!

Jadon on the swing

 Aubrey going down the slide

 Jed and Arrielle... discovering each other... "ooh, wat dat?" (multiple times, they would just walk up to each other and look at one another)

 Aubrey Rose getting ready to throw some leaves into the air!

 And... 1...2...3... leaves everywhere!

 A few extra for Jed...

 What a sweet cousin Aubrey Rose is!!!

 Going up the play structure... Jed was loving it!

 Only one time out... :(

 (notice the black eye and bruise in the middle of his head... he has taken some falls over the last few days... today, he scraped all the way down his nose... hopefully this is a stage!)

 Arrielle

 Christopher

 Aubrey and Arrielle

 If you ask Jed where is ____'s nose, he sometimes points to the nose.  This time, he was right on!  

 Arrielle wondering what is going on.

 Aubrey Rose swinging away

 Feeding Jed after fun at the park with Auntie Becca

Happy Thanksgiving #1

So much to be thankful for.  Family, friends, health, our jobs, our beautiful boy, blessings and most of all, a loving Savior.  

We spent Thanksgiving day with the Hanson side of our family.  We decided to try something new and cook the turkey in our pizza oven!  Yummy!  It took about 4 hours and was really tasty... slightly stressful because I wasn't exactly sure how long it would take!

 I started the bird upside down for the first 45 minutes.   I flipped it breast side up after that.  

 I want food now!!!

 The top was slightly charred but it didn't really matter.  It was very flavorful and moist.

 We did two different types of stuffing.  A traditional stuffing with bread, celery, cream of mushroom soup and thyme.  I tried a new kind with corn bread, apple sausage, cranberries, caramelized onions, parsley, sage and apples.  The last dish was a sweet potato casserole with pecans.

 Hong, a family friend and his family brought some delicious desserts!

 Margie cooked some zwiebach...translated double buns... SOOOO GOOD!!!

 It was great grandpa Harold's birthday so we celebrated with a candle in one of great grandma's home made pumpkin pies!

 Some how, great grandpa couldn't blow out the candle :) so he had Jed help him.

 It was also James (Hong's youngest') birthday next week so he got to blow out another candle!

 HP and Margie celebrating completion of radiation.

 Grandpa and Jed

 Jed and his grandma and oma.  

 Doug, his friend El and sister.

 Hong and his entire family.

 Hong gave Jed some shoes for his birthday (which was a few weeks ago) they 4 sizes too big but they lit up so we put them on Jed and he loved them!