Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving Season was especially exciting because my Grandparents were here from Ohio. Daniel has also started enjoying the wonderful new world of drinking water from a cup and eating "bananas ala smoosh." Daniel and his new sippy cup, he mostly thinks it's fun to play with but when he gets water, it makes him so excited!
Grandpa teaching Daniel how to play with the Thanksgiving centerpiece.
Great- Grandpa Levi visiting from Ohio. Daniel thought it was great fun to watch his Great- Grandpa working on our house while he was here. He worked on stripping fifty year old walpaper from our front entrance so we can get it painted! Thanks Grandpa for all your hard work!
Four generations, Daniel and his Grandpa, Mom, and Great Grandparents.

Oh, Thanksgiving weekend was also a special time for us. We celebrated Daniel's baby dedication. It was so nice to have family and friends able to join us as we dedicated Daniel to the Lord. We were just reminded about how thankful we are for our family and friends!

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving as well!

Top Ten Things to do with a neck squash/pumpkin!

After Halloween the Orchard has a hard time getting rid of neck pumpkins so Justin brought some home for me. The one I cooked was longer and fatter than Daniel! This abundance of neck squash got me thinking about all the possibilities... so here are my top ten favorite suggestions of things to do with neck squash:

1. Make Baby food (I pureed a whole bunch in the blender and then froze it in ice cube trays, then dumped it in baggies for Daniels enjoyment later:-)
2. Take a large neck squash camping you can, keep it in your tent and then use it as a seat when all other surfaces are wet:-)
3. Make Pumpkin Cookies (make sure you have lots of milk on hand to go with these!)
4. Make Pumpkin Soup (add some ham and veggies and it's a complete meal!)
5. Decorate your front porch.
6. For a baby shower game--- put a 17plus pound neck pumpkin in an infant car seat and have the mother to be carry it up and down a flight of stairs five times... I'd call this motherhood boot camp!
7. Use your ten plus pound squash to lift weights!
8. Tie a bonnet on it and call it a "goose."
9. Stand them up on end and use a cantaloupe for a nutritious twist on bowling!
10. This is the best suggestion ever--- Make Pumpkin Pie!!! (I'm sure I read somewhere that it is the healthiest pie;-)

Okay so I'm squashed out right now, time to get my day started and cook up the rest of my squash!

Our Weekend!

Here is an update on what our family has been up to:
This weekend for my birthday celebration I spent the day at the orchard festival and then we went for a walk at a local state park. Daniel loved being outside and experiencing new things . It was fun to get away as a family and enjoy the beautiful weather God sent us! It was also nice break during a very busy time for us as a family. However, we are not complaining because the Orchard is having an excellent fall-- even though I am not a farmer I can tell the apples are simply beautiful this year, I've been decorating my kitchen with them. (There is nothing better than being able to eat your centerpieces:-)

Grandma introducing Daniel to pumpkins.

Daniel helping Grandma to sell tickets at the festival.

Our family.Trying to get Daniel to smile for a picture:-)

A classic Daniel smile:-) He absolutely enjoys being outside. We have taught him the sign for come and sometimes when he is fussy he will reach for a window or our door, telling us he wants to go outside. When we step outside we immediately have a happy child, step back in-- he screams. I don't know what we'll do once it's too cold to take him out:-)

Justin and Daniel sunbathing. It has been amazing to see how even though Daniel is so little he knows who his daddy is. One of his favorite times of the day is when daddy comes home and holds him. We've already noticed he gets grouchier if Justin is away several evenings in a row.

Daniel trying to "taste" grass for the first time.

Daniel's first encounter with a leaf. I got a really cute video of this moment also... Daniel was very seriously "talking" to this leaf. If anyone knows how to put videos on a blog please let me know!

I'm Three Months Old!!!

This picture was taken on Daniel's three month birthday (Sept 28), as you can see, his fingers are still a big hit!

Reaching more milestones...

Here are some pictures of the new things that are happening at our house:Daniel has really started enjoying his walker, he can only stand on his tip-toes but he loves it anyway. (I think the colorful toys attached to it have something to do with his interest in it:-)
Daniel has also begun his literary adventures-- he loves his cloth "Things that Go" book and he enjoys "tasting" the pages... we'll have to work on that before he goes to preschool:-) jk (Mom and dad are also impressed that he "turns" the pages and screams when he gets to the end and can't turn anymore... we aren't sure if he does this accidentally or if it's purposeful yet:-)
His latest trick involves getting both feet onto his highchair tray and trying to arch his back to stand up... mom's afraid he will go sky-diving one of these days so I usually strap him in really well and stay close by...

We are also starting to get a taste of his sense of humor... this morning I tickled him and he giggled... I'm sure of it. He also likes to smile a lot at his dad when he gets home from work:-)

Our Vacation by Daniel

Last week my mommy and daddy put lots of things in our car and told me we were going on "vacation" I didn't know what that meant... but since then I've decided I like it pretty much:-)My favorite part of vacation was sleeping at Blackwater Falls. I decided sleeping was so much fun that I slept 8-9 hours every night while we were away. ( But I know that I shouldn't spoil my parents too much-- so I've been waking them up at least once every night now that we're home...)

Mommy and me on the train. I liked the train but the whistle kept making my hair stand on end!!! I couldn't sleep on the train...

"Do you call this fun?" Daddy and Grandpa were trying to keep me out of the sun. I thought it was downright annoying...

Yup, this vacation thing definitely wears a baby out...

Daniel and Mommy

I just realized the other day that we had only one picture of me and Daniel so Justin promptly took these...