Thanksgiving and Other Randomness

Thanksgiving for us this year was pretty quiet. We spent the evening at Cameron's parent's house. Cam and his mom prepared a very yummy meal while I cuddled on the couch with our feverish boy. :( It was just the 5 of us for dinner and Cam said that he enjoyed cooking on a much smaller scale and I have to say I was happy to have made nothing for the dinner except the napkins!

In other completely unrelated news...

This picture is from the weekend before Thanksgiving. We got to watch my nephew, Sam, for a couple of days. They were playing together so well that I had to take a picture.

The best part? Jake's Wii mote is off! Haha. He is focusing very hard.

And, as part of Jake's birthday I asked each of his grandma's to do something special with him as his gift. Cameron's mom did some fun Thanksgiving sticker pages which Jake loves and asks to hold all the time. "Ball! Ball!" Because there are basketball and footballs on them. I wish I had a picture of them together. I bet seeing Jake sit still long enough to peel a sticker was a sight!

Anyway, for Louise's activity, Louise met us at Build a Bear to let Jake get his bear some Christmas Pajamas. We picked out these Abominable Snowman ones. I think he liked them. :)

Easy Breezy Cover Girl...

... or boy.

I was going through some old pics today and this one escaped my blog postings.

Mascara+2 year old =

priceless.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Our little family had such a fun weekend together. We did some Christmas shopping and then some really fun stuff! We heard that every night at San Tan Village there is snow and horse-drawn carriage rides. Sure enough. Jake loved the "snow" which ended up really being like bubbles. And we all enjoyed the carriage ride.

Jake and Daddy in the "snow".

Don't you love his dragon hat?

If I look tired, it is probably because I really, really am. :)

On Saturday after I got home from work, we decided to decorate Jake's tree.

(We got him his own tree since ours will be unreachable when we do get around to putting it up...)

He was such a pill while decorating, but we got it done.

We tried really hard to let him lead the whole thing. He wanted to put all of the ornaments in his toy shopping cart instead of on the tree. It took a while, but eventually we got it done.

As for the star, he knew just what to do and was very proud... You can tell in this picture.

After Jake was in bed, Cam and I caught up on our Lego Advent Calendar.

We are so excited about this silly little thing.

Each day has a gift to build. It is pretty much awesome.

Jake is Two!

This little baby is two today.

And, he isn't that much of a baby anymore...

He is a big boy.

At two, Jake is tall and skinny. His pants fall off of his waist if they are long enough, but if they fit at the waist, they are way too short!

He has spent the last year of his life OBSESSED with Elmo. Anything red, or resembling a screen (computer or tv) is "Melmo! Melmo! However in the last week he has discovered Toy Story and now asks for "Oys?" He also makes a "bzzz" sound for Buzz.

Some of Jake's favorite foods are cheese and tomatoes. The kid will eat tomato in any form. It is pretty cute.

As for words, they were slow coming, but he now says a few things:

Mama: for me or Cam...

da da: once or twice I have actually gotten him to say da da instead or mama for Cam.

Melmo: Elmo

Was at?: What's that?

oys: Toy Story (not toys.. he hasn't made the connection)

Nice: when he tell him to say Sorry... he pats us and says "nice" I think it stems from us asking him to be nice to the dogs.

Buh Bye!

Eese!: Cheese... he love is

Yes: The yes is very clear.

Yeah

No, no, no: in threes. It is funny.

That is all I can think of right now, but I might add more later. :)

A Late Halloween Post

Halloween snuck up on me...

and in a last minute scramble, this is what we came up with.

Jake was so cute, and got a ton of compliments at the ward party.

He also proved to me that he is a true boy and innately knows what a gun is and how to shoot it.

Leading up to Halloween, we enjoyed the cooler weather here and took in not one, but two, pumpkin patches!

The three little pumpkins are from Vertuccio Farms in QC. Jake loved reaching in the box to pull them out... he wouldn't stop! haha. So we let him have three, and I let him paint one every now and again.

The bigger one is the pumpkin that came with our entrance fee at Mother Nature's Farm.

It has stickers on it.

Here is the little monkey riding in style at Vertuccio's

but he really spent most of his time walking.

This picture pretty much sums up the entire corn maze from my perspective.

For journaling purposes: Our costume choice was a pain in the booty! Jake loves Elmo. He is completely obsessed. I can't even describe fully the level of obsession, but I can try. Everything red is Elmo. Every TV or computer screen is also Elmo. At home, or Walmart, or whatever. A month ago when he still wasn't talking much there were two constants: mamamamama (that's me, or Cam, he doesn't care) or Mo Mo (that's Elmo). So, (getting back to the point here) naturally, the first costume choice I can think of that suits Jake is... Elmo. WRONG. The kid refused to wear anything on his head and certainly not a large mouth and eyes. And after going through several other options: a monkey (hood thing) a pirate (save for later) super hero (no concept of..) a robot (too late in the game) a devil (fitting, yet not as easily located at one would think!) After several stops at several party/halloween stores and Goodwills, we decided on the cops and criminals theme. Only to find out it would take us two more stops to locate the police costume that the first store was out of and then 2 more stops at toy stores to fully stock his belt. Next year, I think Jake will be going as an almost 3 year old. That should be easy.

One more: Trick or treating for the first time. This year our ward did "blanket trick or treating" in the gym. At first Jake was so confused. When we started and someone gave him candy he wanted it opened so he could eat it. I tried to show him how to put the candy in his police car (it's an Easter Basket), but he clinched on to those first few pieces very tightly. After about a quarter of the room he caught on to the concept. Everyone was going to give him candy! He picked up his pace and very boldly walked up to each person with his hand extended. It was a very cute first trick or treating experience.

A Normal Day

Truth be told, there are no normal days in our household, but it sounded like a good way to share these picture of Jake. :)

Sometimes when it is really early, Jake and Daddy get to cuddle on the couch for a bit before really starting the day.

And after cuddle time, it is time to catch up on some current events.

We are really interested in seeing if Cookie Monster can stick to his new diet or not.

And, if we are lucky, we get to go outside and play!

(yay for cooler weather!)

Or, we lounge around in our toy baskets.

And, on a good day, Jake eats something.

Typically that something consists of something with cheese and a tomato.

ah... and sleep.

Every good day includes sleep. Either at nap time or at night. I'm not picky. Preferably both. :)

Tales of a Little Stinker, Part 2

We let Jake play with our cell phones. He loves it, and I love that it entertains him. However, we have had to curb the obsession lately... since Jake seems to know how to get a reaction out of us.

I am sitting on the couch catching up on my life online and I am sure Jake has some kind of cartoon on (probably Elmo) when he takes my phone off of the end table.

Apparently, Jake was not getting the attention he requires so he quickly made off with the phone and ran to the tile where he stopped, met my gaze, and chucked my phone at the floor.

The phone survived. My patience did not. Jake spent two minutes in time out.

I love my wild child.