Pre-Christmas Fun/AJ Being Silly

AJ is VERY excited about all the things that come with Christmas (except for Santa as you'll see below). He followed Brian around the tree the whole time he was putting on the lights. AJ watched and learned how to put the ornaments on, and then gave it his best shot by throwing them into the tree. Maybe next year!

Always a helper! I love Nuge's face in the background.

Medflight (Grandma Rose's employer) always hosts a big, family Christmas party. This was the first year we attended (AJ was in the hospital last year), and I'm sure it won't be the last. AJ had a blast! Here he is going down the big slide by himself.

Who says Santa needs a sleigh? The helicopter actaully circled around a couple of times as Santa waved out the window before dropping him off. AJ was giving him the hairy eyeball from the start as he walked by us.

Oh yes, the screaming child. AJ didn't want to be within a 10-foot radius of the man. But hey, he still got his gift.

Back to having fun in the bounce house.

More fun with the balloon dog.

So this year, we did quite a bit of Christmas shopping online and had quite the parade of packages on our porch for a couple of weeks. AJ found all the boxes, peanuts and paper quite entertaining.

Like I said, AJ is very into all things Christmas. The nativity gets rearranged several times a day.

AJ made this tree in Sunday school. At home, he then picked off all of the foam stickers and stuck them to the floor. Here he is peeling the stickers back off the floor and putting them back onto the tree.

Today I braved the mess and made cut-out cookies with AJ. He was very good about pressing down on the cookie cutters. While the first batch was cooking, AJ then pretended to make his own by rolling the rolling pin on the cutting board and then pressing the cookies cutters on it. He had so much fun! Needless to say, we had flour everywhere!

AJ resting his head on his hand like mommy does when she's tired.

New trick - making fishy lips.

So the laundry basket has always been fun to play in, but I've never seen AJ quite like this before in it. Do you suppose this was how it was in the womb?

AJ says, "Mom it's my turn to take the pictures now!" I actually think I heard him say "my turn" today.

AJ's pure excitement!

Thanksgiving 2008

We truly have so much to be thankful for this year (I'm just too tired to go into detail). Thanks Aunt Beth for having us - We had a GREAT time. LOVE TO ALL!

The fesitivites began with a cooking lesson for how to make Grandma Ruby's stuffing.

The main event - Thanksgiving Dinner!

So after dinner and dessert, and after the games had begun, AJ decided to help himself to a little more pumpkin pie (he's a fool for it). Too bad we don't have a picture of him caught in the act, but this is what was left.

Even Aunt Beth had something for AJ to push around - who cares if it's pink?!

But it was even more fun to be pushed in it! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Okay so this was taken before Thanksgiving, but I just couldn't resist my two guys all cozied up on the couch together. Too sweet!

Early Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving may still be four days away, but we have already celebrated twice!

The top picture shows the second generation at the Engle (Brian's mom's side) Thanksgiving, and the bottom picture shows the third generation (you know - all the second cousins)! This isn't even close to showing all of them!

My sister and niece came to visit this week from D.C., so we also celebrated with them. Here's AJ learning a new trick from Grandma.

Angie and Megan. We miss you!

No visit would be complete without some fun in the tub!

Mom and Dad treated us to a day at Fort Rapids as an early Christmas present. Here's AJ with Daddy in the big fort/water play area. AJ went down the kiddy tube slide all by himself!

This was a big hit the whole day. I cannot tell you how many times these two went down this slide. WHAT GREAT FUN! Thanks Mom and Dad/Grandma and Grandpa!

The next day, we tailgated at Uncle Mark's for the OSU/Michigan game. The tables were occupied with games, so Megan and AJ had a picnic on the kitchen floor for dinner.

The "Sorry" crew - Ruth, Tommy, Emma's friend, Emma and Connie.

The Euchre crew - Bonnie, Barbie, Beth and Joe. There was also a Wii crew down in the basement!

AJ on the phone the day Aunt Angie and Cousin Megan left.

AJ's 1st phone call - "Hey Grandma, let's go back to the waterpark!"

AJ's 2nd phone call - "Aunt Angie and Megan, I hope you got home safe. I miss you!"

Leaves!!!

A big pile of leaves... need I say more!

AJ was very cute running through the leaves, and voicing his squeals of delight. He even helped Daddy get all of the leaves to the curb by carrying huge armloads of them, and when the pile was all gone, he was all done without a single complaint. Man, I love this kid!

Trick-or-Treat

Well Halloween was much more eventful and exciting this year for AJ. We dressed him up as a little vampire, which he absolutely loved (mostly because of the awesome cape his Grandma Rose made for him). He even let me paint little blood droplets around his mouth. He trick-or-treated for an hour and pretty much walked the whole time. Of course I couldn't get him to say trick-or-treat or thank you, but he knew exactly how to take the candy and put it in his bag. By the end of the night he was dragging his bag along the sidewalk, so now it has holes in it. He was really only scared when he saw someone with a mask on from the movie Scream, but otherwise he loved looking at all the jack-o-lanterns which he does say "jaaahhh" for. All in all, it was a great night!

Here's AJ inspecting his loot with Daddy at the end of the night, while we finished passing out candy.

Pumpkin Patch/HS Reunion/Random

Making it tradition, we went to the pumpkin patch again this year (although a different one from last year). This year, AJ had a "fun barn" to play in which he LOVED! This was the best we could do to get AJ and Heidi together in the barn. This is pretty typical, Heidi with the cheesy smile, and AJ not willing to sit still for 1 second!

Ah, donuts and cider. AJ's helping himself to Heidi's.

"I FOUND IT! THE GREAT PUMPKIN!"

Also new this year - a hayride!

A little comparison with last year. I CANNOT believe how BIG my little boy is now! Last year Dad had to be in it to help AJ stand, this year Dad had to be in it to make sure AJ was in it (again, the 1 second rule).

So, my 10 year high school reunion was a couple weeks ago. My girlfriends (who are still some of my best friends) and I decided to make it a girls night out since our lovely class decided to have it at a bar downtown (at least it was in the nice Arena Distrist and we did have a private party room). Below from left to right is Gabby, Megan, Denise, Jessie, Amanda, Natalie, AJ and me. If you notice in the above picture, Megan is missing because she had to leave early to tend to her little one. Ah, life with kids, but would we have it any other way?! Love you girls!

Here are just some random pictures I've taken recently. Why does every kid LOVE to help clean, and how do I bottle this for when he's a teenager? The vacuum was actually running.

I know, GROSS, but I had to take this because AJ was laughing at me and doing it on purpose when I trying to get him to stop and telling him it was yucky. Oh well!

This has become a new favorite activity for AJ. Not just reading, but reading at the table. I am amazed at how long he will look at a book. He will go through each page and tell you all about it (not that I can understand a word of it).

First trip to Chuck E. Cheese's.