Blueberry Ever After

Fall is for taking walks...or riding in wagons:

Playing with Nana in the leaves:

And eating Thanksgiving dinner:

Well, Luke didn't eat it so much as look at it, but at least he had fun!

Apparently Luke has become obsessed with the bubble machine at daycare. As in, dunk your head in it obsessed. He came home looking like this yesterday:

Little man is starting to look like a big boy, now that he has all these teeth. He made me quite nervous during this photo shoot as he kept attempting to display his newfound walking skills on the extremely hard cement floor! Luckily we got a few decent shots in between all the toddling arround:

Here are some scans from Luke's school pictures a few weeks ago. Can you tell he just woke up? What gave it away first, the bedhead or red eyes? These were taken the day he turned 10 months old. And because I am biased and think he is gorgeous even if he did just roll out of bed and have these taken, I am posting them here!

Note to self: babyproof the house!

Yesterday morning we woke up to this:

And then this (Yes, we will be dropping his crib today!):

Luckily, by 3pm or so the backyard looked like this:

Now that is my kind of snow! And hopefully the last we'll see of it this season. :)

I am working on catching up on holiday posts. Here is a quick preview of Luke's first Christmas. As you can see, he really loved tearing up all the paper more than seeing what was inside it!

Luke has recently been upgraded to a big boy tub and just discovered he can splash his hands and toys in the water, making bathtime his new favorite activity. Check it out in the video below.

I don't know what is up with me but I am feeling extra-Christmasy this year. Maybe motherhood has truly gotten to me, but I am just filled with holiday spirit and joy and I am doing my best to spread it everywhere. I have bought toys for tots, donated to the food bank, contributed to St. Jude's, pretty much done everything shy of sitting on Santa's lap myself to thank him for such a great year. Not that I don't normally enjoy Christmas, I do, it's just that I typically don't want to hear Christmas music until I go to mass on Christmas Eve, so being exposed to it for hours on end while running errands usually makes me want to poke my eyes out with a stick.

However, yesterday I found myself humming along in the middle of Walgreens and anyone who knows me can tell you how un-Heather-like that type of behavior is. I was shocked myself when I realized what was happening. I suppose I just feel so lucky to have a happy, healthy baby and a husband who puts gas in my car so I don't have to stand out in the cold and do it myself. Really lucky. So if you catch me humming some Bing Crosby in the next couple of weeks, no I haven't lost my mind. I am just so disgustingly happy it slips out before I even realize it. I will try and contain myself but this year I can't make any promises.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

This weekend we are hosting my sister Becky, my brother Matt and his wife Caroline and Caroline's brother Wally for Thanksgiving. We have already told Wally that from now on he'll be referred to as brother-in-law because otherwise it gets too complex to explain and he kind of is one anyway right?

Becky and I started the day out with a 5 mile race that Kathleen and Amy also ran. It was pretty hilly so we definitely earned our dinner! Unfortunately the fried turkey didn't fry all the way through so we had to finish it off in the oven and it wasn't ready to eat until about 5pm. So dinner came later than expected but it was good, which probably has more to do with the beer and sangria we used to entertain ourselves while it was cooking than the actual quality of the food.

Luke is enjoying all of the extra attention he's getting this weekend from our guests and had a great first Thanksgiving Day. We gave him a bite of mashed potatoes that to Jay's great dismay he wholeheartedly rejected. He made the most disgusted of faces, an expression that said: What is this flavorless mush you are trying to force feed me? As if!

Jay, Matt and Luke just went out to brave the Walmart black Friday sales. I am happily resting at home in my warm bed with my coffee, trying to avoid the holiday crazies. Caroline and I may venture out later in the day when those 3amers are safely out of the way though.

Happy Black Friday everyone! :)

Luke modeling his indian headdress project from daycare:

Hanging with Mommy while waiting for the turkey to finish cooking:

Luke finally let Uncle Wally hold him--he was scared of the beard at first but now seems to be enthralled by it:

Uncle Matt didn't even make it as long as Luke did last night. He promptly fell asleep after dinner on the floor around 6pm. Roux took total advantage of having a new cuddle buddy!