Gobble Gobble

We spent Thanksgiving in the Valley of the Sun. I never thought I'd be posing in front of palm trees on Thanksgiving Day.

The grandparents soaked up major grandson time.

Blake experienced his very first Thanksgiving feast complete with his own turkey bone. Ok, we didn't really let him gnaw on the meat. Troy, however, threw bits of corn, roll, and turkey across the table onto Blake's highchair tray as if he were a dog. My dad also started barking during the process. Poor naive Blake didn't know what was going on.

Blake was mesmerized with the ceiling fans in my parents' house. He pointed at them all day long. Then, he looked around for our facial expressions to make sure we thought the fans were funny too.

I got caught taking a little snoozer after the feast.

We haven't had great weather so far but it cleared up enough for us to take a walk around the Fountain Hills lake. The fountain goes off every hour and shoots 562 feet straight up in the air.

Blake plotted his revenge.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We hope you have many blessings to be grateful for.

Expression

I don't really know how to explain this one, just that it's so cute and so Blake.

Double Feature

Troy was rewarded with a half day off work this month because his team was doing so well. We were debating about what to do with such a luxury, until I remembered that Twilight came out today. He didn't really have a desire to see Twilight (mostly because of all the hype), but really wanted to see the new James Bond movie. He got really excited when he suggested, "You can go to Twilight and I'll go to James Bond on my half day!" Then, after thinking about it for awhile, he wondered, what has our marriage come to if we go to the movie theater and see different movies? So then, he came up with what he thought was an even more brilliant idea. He said, "Let's go to BOTH!"

So, thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law for watching our son, we saw back-to-back matinee movies. I have never done that before. It was a lot of sitting, but well worth the sacrifice to get my sweet hubby to go to Twilight (which he liked, for the record). I really liked Twilight too. I thought it portrayed the book very well for the most part, but a lot was spoiled in the trailer. As for James Bond, the first one was a lot better. I tend to lose interest during all the action scenes they throw in. All in all, it was a fun day and it marks our second date in the month of November.

Busybody

Our little eleven month old is such a busybody. His new thing is he loved being chased. He crawls away from us as fast as he can and usually ends up faceplanting it a few times in all the excitement. His activities keep us on our toes.

Project Scrapway

I noticed that I haven't been posting very much this month (at least not as much as usual) and I realized that it is because my memory card is empty. Instead of taking pictures, I have been working like crazy to get Blake's scrapbook up to date so that I can display it on his first birthday. I'm happy to say that as of Saturday, November 15, at 3:24pm, Blake's scrapbook is completely updated with photos and journaling.

It really feels like a masterpiece. I mean, look at thickness of pages in this album! I really like the style that I chose to do. Some pages are the full 12x12 size, but many pages just simply hold six 4x6 pictures and have a journaling card in one of the slots. I was hoping to simplify the book in this regard, but of course, no project of mine can ever be simple.

I realize that I may not have the time to make something as elaborate for my other children. I hope I can at least keep up with documenting moments during the first year. Even though a lot of the journaling and pictures are redundant of what I document on our blog, I really enjoy this hobby. Hopefully Blake will enjoy looking back through his completed baby book as well someday.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

The countdown to Blake's first birthday has begun. He is eleven months old today which means that we only have 30 more days until Blake is ONE! I read a quote the other day that said:

"It may not seem like it when it's three in morning and you're trying to soothe a crying child, but believe it or not, a baby's first year goes by pretty quickly. After that, it's just a memory."

Just a memory, I thought. Only one more month of Blake's first year and then it will be just a memory. All of a sudden I feel incredible pressure to cherish every moment of his short baby days. Of course there is so much to look forward to once Blake becomes a toddler and a preschooler and on and on, and I know that down the road there will be more babies in our family, but for now, my first baby is growing up way too fast!

Here are some of Blake's favorite things at eleven months:

He loves our ipod headphones. He finds them in bags, purses, and on shelves. It's his daily mission to locate the headphones and put the earpiece in his mouth.

His other daily mission is to pull the register out of the floor. He thinks it is so funny when the heat blows from the vent onto his face.

Blake's dad let him chew on an apple. Blake spent a half hour using his two little bottom teeth to gnaw tiny bites. This mostly resulted in tons of drool and stained pants, but he had a great time figuring out how to use his teeth. Now I know how to keep him occupied while I am trying to make dinner.

He figured out how to unplug things. And by things, I mean everything. He is fascinated with plugs and cords, and unfortunately, electrical outlets. We've had to step up the baby proofing in our home.

Blake enjoys playing with all of our leftover Halloween candy. He bangs pieces together, puts the ends of the wrappers in his mouth, and spreads them around the house. Troy was home with him last night and called me after I left to inform me that Blake had chewed through a nerds box and had started to eat the candy!

He loves to look at books. The teacher in me has high hopes for his early literacy. However, when I read to him, he is a little more interested in turning the pages as fast as he can than actually listening to the story. Oh well, at least he has instilled in himself the love of books.

One of Blake's favorite treats is crushed ice! I gave it to him on an airplane once and now he can't get enough. He doesn't even mind the cold feeling on his hands as he stuffs his mouth with ice chips. It's a great teething soother and also helps him when he occasionally wakes up during the night. What a funny baby!

Picture Tag

I usually don't like to participate in blog "tags" but this one was kind of interesting. My friend Golda tagged me to post the fourth picture from the fourth folder where my pictures are saved on our computer. Amazingly enough, it wasn't a picture of Blake! That is because I organize my photos into folders by year, and since I went digital, I have folders for 2004, 2005, 2006, and fourth, 2007. Since the year 2007 was mostly pre-baby days, my fourth photo was actually a picture of my hubby and me!

This made me realize something. I do not have any pictures of the just two of us since Blake has been born. And I really do value our wonderful marriage. Troy is my best bud and we do everything together. We got to go out on a date on Saturday night, which we haven't done in months. We need to be better at getting over the awkwardness of finding a sitter every once and awhile because those dates are so refreshing and much needed. So here's to more date nights, more pictures of just us, and always keeping each other a priority.