Thanksgiving roadtrip

We celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving in Chicago with much to be thankful for this year. It was our first trip back since our move in September. Kevin was great in the car:

Kevin LOVES his new Elmo pajamas:

Grandmom & Grandpop took Kevin for a Breakfast with Santa. We had no idea how he would react to Santa. He loved Santa from afar. Upclose, Santa is kind of scary. Kevin, I have to agree with you.

There was some nasty weather for our drive home today, but we were so glad not to be stuck in an airport.

Help us pick a paint color, please.

We're making progress with the new house, but have not picked a color yet. You can see some samples in the background. We hope to get the painting done this winter.

Sound effects

Someday he won't speak with such an adorable lisp. There are his favorite sayings:

"Heesey" = horsey
(*** side note*** Kevin's stuffed blue "heesey" is a total part of our family. He goes EVERYWHERE with us. We have BL&D with horsey, he comes to the store. Everywhere Kevin goes, horsey is there. About a month ago horsey escaped in the frozen foods aisle of the grocery store, I had to call the store manager when we got home and go back for him! Thankgoodness he was safe! Kevin gets very upset when horsey is missing for a few hours while he takes a spin in the washer & dryer. I told him the horsey needs a bath too. Kevin found horsey in the dryer and was very, very upset!)

"Wa Wa" = water
"fock" = fork
"fock" = sock
"shuz" = shoes
"baf" = bath
"mote" = remote
"babies" = photos of himself on the computer screen
"melmo" = Elmo
"teef" = teeth
"carttt" = truck
"towa" = leggo tower he builds each night with Nate
"mic" = milk
"tukie" = cookie

If you would have asked us a year ago to decode baby language, there would have been no way we could do it. This proves, on the job training is the best kind.

Sunday at home

Kevin loves to play with his footballs. He has one in just about every color. Today he took some passes with his dad. Check him out:

Too much excitement, he has to stop for a milk break. We let him know the clock was still running, better get back to it!

We put up the Christmas lights today, we'll be busy the next few weekends and wanted to get out there before it's too cold. Before dinner we took Kevin out to see the lights. He was very confused and kept asking me for his "pupkin" (that would be pumpkin).

No more "pupkins" at our houseHe sports the puffycoat look better than I ever could!

We are coloring all.the.time.

Kevin loves to color! He gets super excited when I get the basket of crayons & his coloring book from the closet. For the most part, he has passed the "eat the crayon" phase and doodles in his notebook. Sometimes he prefers his Elmo Aquadoodle book instead.

Yeah for us... he is also at the age where he can color for a few minutes in his highchair if we are out for dinner. No surprise, most of the restaurants we go to nowadays have kiddie menus and a tiny pack of crayons :) I never thought that would be such a big deal (nearly as important as snagging the race car shopping cart at the grocery store)!

Friday Night is pizza night

You might wonder, why do I have so many recent photos of Kevin while he is eating... well it's usually the only time he is still. Plus, he always happy when it's time to eat. This pic was taken tonight during our Friday Night Pizza Night ritual. I said "Keep your hands where I can see them" because they were very saucy & dirty.

Happy weekend!

Happy Halloween, one day early

Happy Halloween, or as they say in Iowa, Happy Beggar's Night. They trick-or-treat the night before Halloween here and call it Beggar's Night. Tonight we took Kevin trick-or-treating. At first he was very shy, but quickly got the hang of reaching his hand into the big bowls of candy. It was a perfect night, nearly 70 degrees. What a lucky duck, Nate & I remember many Halloween's where we went trick-or-treating in our winter coats & gloves!

Grandmom & Grandpop come for a visit tomorrow. We are excited!!!