It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Inspired by my sister's blog, I thought I'd post some pictures of us in the process of decorating our house for the holidays.  I had been very worried about Ledger messing with the Christmas tree this year, but we've had the tree up for a couple of weeks now and he hasn't messed with it at all!  Yipee!!  He really enjoyed when we had the ladder out to put the angel on top of our tree and wanted to "help".

As it turned out, our angel didn't fit on the top of our tree.  She was too top heavy.  So we decided to put a Santa hat on top of the tree instead.  Ledger thought he should test it out first... just to make sure it would work.

Ledger the Entertainer

Our little man LOVES to perform and make us laugh.  I definitely want to share some of that with you -- his family! :)

First, Ledger can identify his NOSE and MOUTH -- but when he points to his nose, he puts his finger right up into his nostril.  And when he shows you his mouth, he bites his own finger.  This always keeps Mommy and Daddy laughing!

Second, Ledger is now infatuated with pets.  Whenever he sees a cat, he loudly says "MEOW".  And everytime he hears Jacye barking outside, he says "SAYSCEEE".  And if you ask him what noise Jayce makes, he says "Woof, Woof".  If you ask him what noise Barkley makes he says "Rooo Roo Roo". 

I know I've already posted photos of Ledger wearing Daddy's shoes around the house.  Well, today he put on Mommy's dress heels and walked around the living room in those.  I think that he walks better in heels than I do!! :)  I sure do love this kid!

Parade of Lights

This weekend, we met up with Shawn and the Simpsons for some fun.  The holidays are always so busy, so it's nice when we can get together before things get crazy.  We decided to meet for dinner and then head to the Parade of Lights in downtown Salina.  We tried this last year, but we were pretty unprepared.  This year, we met for dinner at Martinelli's and had great seats for some of the street performances prior to the parade.  We had a great time at the parade this year -- we were prepared with lots of warm clothes and had much better seats.  Oh, and Ledger was able to actually enjoy the parade -- every time he saw a truck or Christmas lights he clapped and smiled and made his excited, OH! face.  It was so fun to watch him be excited.

After the festivities, we all met up back at home to play some games.  For some reason, Jarod and Briana don't think they can come to our house without being put to work on a project!  While I was putting Ledger to sleep, they tackled the lights that are out on our pre-lit Christmas tree... which made for a funny picture.

The Practice Bird

This year I have volunteered myself to make the Thanksgiving turkey.  I've been pretty nervous about screwing up the main entree at our turkey day feast, so I elected to make a "practice" turkey.  Some friends of ours had an extra turkey laying around, so they graciously supplied it for us.  As it turns out, our little practice run weighed TWENTY-TWO POUNDS.  :)  I took advice from my Mom, Pam, and this website.  Amazingly, the bird turned out great.  I learned a lot!

1. When you clean out a turkey, look twice -- they frequently pack those things into any hole they can find.
2. Figure out how long you'll need to cook your turkey and then count backwards to your start time.  I made the mistake of just putting it in the oven when it was convenient for me, which resulted in me waking up at 4 a.m., 5 a.m., and 6 a.m. to check the turkey breast temperature.  Whoops.
3. The more butter, the mo' better.
4. It takes longer than you think to carve the meat off of the bird.  And it pretty much can't be done with an 18-month-old begging to be in your lap.

For fun, we had a trial Thanksgiving dinner tonight.  I made gravy from the turkey drippings and it turned out pretty good.  Ledger ate his weight in mashed potatoes.  Chris pretty much paid me the best compliment I've ever gotten on my cooking -- he said that it tastes like his usual Thanksgiving dinner.  WOOHOO!!  That's exactly what I was going for.

As I was prepping my first turkey dinner, it started snowing HUGE, beautiful, wet flakes.  The first snow of the season.  It didn't stick, but it was pretty.

If you've made it this far through the post, I'll reward you with a few photos of my favorite kid.

Ding Dong!

Yesterday we went to the doctor's office for Ledger's 18 month vaccinations.  He came in at 24.5 pounds and 32 inches tall.  That puts him in the 50th percentile for height and 30th percentile for weight -- which means he's holding steady over the last few months.  It may not seem like a lot of growth, but he has definitely outgrown most of this 12-month clothes, so we've moved up into 18-month clothes.  We also had to call our allergist and found out that Ledger cannot have his flu shot due to his egg allergy.  BOOO!!!  In order to keep him safe, Chris and I got our shots on Wednesday and we encourage all of our friends and family to get their vaccines too!

This year, Mommy is really getting in the holiday spirit.  I'm actually thinking about putting up our Christmas tree THIS weekend!  And I really would like to do some holiday cooking, but I didn't budget for ingredients... maybe next weekend.

Alright, here's a little reward for you.  You'll have to excuse the poor quality of this video.  Since a certain baby broke our FLIP camera a few months ago, we've been making due with our webcam.  He thinks that watching himself on the screen of my laptop is the funniest thing ever.  :)

18 Months and ALL Boy

Friday was Ledger's 18 month birthday.  We had a busy weekend and didn't have a chance to have a "photo session", but hopefully we'll be able to do it soon.  This weekend we visited the Vanderbecks in Pittsburg.  Ledger hadn't seen his Uncle Chris V. since June when we went to Colorado!  We didn't do a very good job of taking pictures while we were there.  On Saturday we went to a Pitt State football game.  The football team isn't having a very good year, but it's a neat atmosphere.  Ledger enjoyed getting to watch "Gus" the gorilla mascot and even had his 15 seconds of fame on the jumbo-tron!

The rest of the weekend, we just enjoyed spending time together.  On Sunday morning, we all woke up and lounged around the house for the morning.  We were able to discover the truly destructive nature of an 18-month-old BOY when he is set loose in a non-baby-proofed house.  He also managed to scrape his face on a drawer that he pulled open in the kitchen -- Go figure.  Notice the havoc in the kitchen behind him and the garage sale sticker on his forehead.

When we got home, Chris had received a large package from UPS.  Ledger was very excited about the box.  So was the cat.

Oh... and I took this next picture just before he bit me hard enough to leave a mark in my leg.

Yup, it's official.  He's a BOY!

Yummy In My Tummy

 As I wrote in a previous post, I WON a blog drawing!  This week, a HUGE package arrived with this amazing gift basket full of Dr. Lucy's cookies -- which are made without diary, eggs, nuts and other allergens!  I was really excited for Ledger to try the cookies, so today for a snack, we had "milk" and chocolate chip cookies.  He LOVED them, and I loved being able to "treat" him to a fun, sweet snack.

Trick-or-Treat

Chris and I had previously decided that we weren't going to drag Ledger out for trick-or-treating.  But we had a few requests to visit aunt Lynnda and the Simpsons, so we put ledger back into his lion costume and went out on the town.  He quickly became the "cowardly" lion because he was acting very bashful for some reason.  We decided to stop at the Daily's house on Santa Fe street because they usually go ALL OUT for Halloween and pop popcorn to give away.  (You know me, I couldn't turn down popcorn!)  They had a full graveyard and some awesome inflatables -- Ledger loved it and it helped bring him out of his bashful shell.  Since he was finally having fun, we decided to go door-to-door on Santa Fe street.  There were hundreds of costumed kids out with their families.  It was so fun for us to see that traditional trick-or-treating is still alive and well.  Ledger had a great time, and so did we! :)  Happy Halloween!!