Belated Thanksgiving

We helped GiGi cook.

We got together for a photo.

The ladies escaped for a kid-free tea. It was AWESOME!

The kiddos had a blast.

Our Wii little gamer

Yes, that was a pun. Yes, there will be more Thanksgiving to come. Yes, we had a fantastic weekend! I'm very behind but I will try to catch up!

Happy Monday

Have a great day!

Whew!

Matt and I had a productive Saturday. This pile of materials for Jack's play kitchen have been staring us in the face making us feel guilty for not working on it. Today was the day.Jack observed the work site, but he took a break for lunch.

In the evening he did a little reading about his age demographic. (Yes, he selected this book himself and asked Matt to read it to him.)

Then we suggested getting dressed for bed and he ran and for the hills. It occurs to us that if he ever actually decides not to come out of there we're going to be in trouble. Hmm...

No.2's Name

Please be sure to vote! K Thanks Bye. :-)

Also, you can leave your name comments here.

EDITED:
So here's the thing with naming kids. I have rules.
The name cannot also start with a J, because we're not the Duggars.
The name cannon start with or end with an N sound, so no Noah, Nathan, Aiden, Jason... they're all out.
It has to "go" with Jack.
It cannot be the same as a name that a close friend has used for a child.

I make this harder on myself than it needs to be....

Philosophical Question

If you saw a parent who was struggling with or trying to discipline their child what would you do? What situations would lead you to help or intercede? What situations would you ignore? Or would you gawk (don't lie)?

Here is where this question comes from:
Today we had a 'discipline incident' which involved Jack basically loosing his bananas in the front yard (while strapped in the stroller) and it continued as we went inside. He wanted to get down and play, but we had other things to do. As I turn to go put the stroller back in the car (at this point Jack is still inconsolable) I see my next door neighbor who I don't know very well at all opening my front door holding a toy for Jack.
Two things go through my mind simultaneously 1. is she really opening my front door? and 2. I don't want him to get a 'present' right now because the last thing I want is to reinforce this behavior. So as I meet her on my threshold I say "Now is not a good time." and she tries to insists and I repeat "Seriously, now is NOT a good time!"

So what do you think?

Love!

The word of the day is: Love. I love my tech-savvy husband.

Seriously, it's probably among the top 5 reasons why I married him, Ok, maybe top 10...

Tragedy Strikes

Today I attempted to download the latest funny Jack images including: Jack imitating Daddy by 'lifting weights', Jack's photo shoot for the cover of Cutiepie Monthly, and maybe a funny video or two.

My computer does not acknowledge the existence of my memory card. I tried: the internal card-reader, the external USB card reader and direct-connecting the camera to the laptop using a different USB port. Nothing. My photos don't exist. ::sigh::

So instead here's one from my parents camera. They took Jack to the B&O Railroad Museum while Matt and I were on vay-cay.

'Tis the Season

With the holiday season fast approaching (or already here, if you count Halloween as the kick-off) I'm psyched. I love all of it! But I have some favorite things about the season. Yummy naughty food and playing games with family (board games, card games and now since my parents have a Wii... video games!)

So tell me, what's your favorite thing?

Weekend Getaway

This weekend my parents took Jack off our hands and Matt and I drove to Blackwater Falls, WV for a weekend getaway. We stayed in a cabin with no TV, no internet and no phone. And we had FUN! We left at noon on Thursday and got home at 2:30 on Sunday. The weather was pretty great which allowed is to go on several fun nature hikes. We saw about a billion deer (all does except we saw one buck on Saturday night). We saw a black bear cub on Friday night. Luckily we were in the car because I'm not trying to get between a mother and her cub! Rawr! We got a pic (because brave Matt hung my camera out the window of the car, but he might have to clean up the image to see if we can actually see anything.)

The view from the lodge.

Like I said, great weather!

And we saw a bunch of super cool wind turbines!

We came home to this. Apparently the weight limit on the table is high enough for two grown men and a toddler (in case anyone was wondering.)

It's a

Boy!!!

So Big!

Jack prefers to use the big-boy swing. And he prefers to do so without a spot. Brave or crazy it's difficult to tell sometimes!

Vaccinated

After my mother's incessant requests I have vaccinated myself and my son (my husband took care of himself last week) against H1N1. I'm not one for media hype, and it's really just the flu, but since it seems people are having a hard time getting their hands on both the seasonal flu shot and the H1N1 I figured I would help make the family a little safer from those germ-y masses with some good old fashioned western medicine.

Mom, you can now stop nagging me. At least I know you do it out of love.

Can I go next time?

Daddy, please take me camping, I promise I'll be good. See, I already know how to use a sleeping bag!

Try not to faint but Mommy was in playgroup too! That's me sitting between the boys.

Incoming!

Nothing like a good Punkin' Chunkin'.

Recap

Yesterday morning we went apple pickin'.

The kids burned off some energy.

Matt came home with flowers.

We went to Victoria for dinner.

It was delicious.

Happy Anniversary!

I love you, Matt.

Blank

So I'm drawing a blank because we have nothing particularly noteworthy to report. Instead I offer you a flashback photo. Please enjoy.

What do you get

when you put a bunch of MDF, some hard board, a piece of polycarbonate, 10 feet of wiring, some LED lights, 2 cabinet handles and some light switches together?

Well, we're hoping to get a play kitchen out of it. ::gulp:: Wish us luck!