O Christmas Tree

December 1st and our Christmas Bucket List item is to pick out our Christmas tree. I think I was more excited than anyone. I haven't had a real Christmas tree in two years and I am so ready to have one for my family in our little house. Something about them makes the house seem so much more magical during the Christmas season. Plus, the smell is amazing! We haven't decorate it yet, but that will come soon. Since Blake has the attention span of a fly, we have so space these things out! :)

Blake loved the trip to the tree lot. I think he just liked running in between all of the trees. I don't think the actual trees interested him that much. He did look the part though... cute as a button!

Thanksgiving 2013

We have so much to be thankful for this year, but I think it all boils down to FAMILY! This has been an interesting year with family. We have had ups and downs in our immediate family and in our extended family. However, I think the natural ebb and flow has made us more appreciate the idea of family and what our family needs. We have learned a lot about each other and a lot about what our family treasures (and in some cases needs to avoid).

In the end we are grateful that we have family. As I was reflecting at our family gatherings this week, I immediately knew that I wouldn't be able to survive without some people. My parents help us out with Blake on a daily basis. I seriously can't think about what we would do without them. They selflessly give up their time for their grandchild, who the adore by the way. :) I was also very grateful for family that we don't get to see often. I am touched by the efforts of some of our long distance family members. I talk with some of them on a weekly basis! Keeping in touch like that closes the gap of distance and in fact brings us closer together. I am closest with some of my family who lives far away. That is so awesome!

And most importantly, we are so grateful for our little family. We are still a novice family as we are learning how to conquer small challenges. Ryan and I are still trying to figure out how to parent Blake as he is constantly changing phases. In the process we are also learning a lot about nurturing our marriage. Blake is always learning new things, words, and skills. It's incredible how fast he is changing. I can't express how grateful we are that he is healthy and developing as he should. There are so many families that are not as fortunate.

I probably could go on forever with how much I have learned about family relationships this year. I am so thankful for all of them and the lessons they have taught me.

I guess now you would like to hear about the Turkey... ;) We had Thanksgiving with both sides of my family. We sent our well wishes to Utah and expressed how grateful we were for those family members. We miss them dearly. Hopefully we will have a family vacation out there coming up in 2014. Whoop!

 On my moms side....

On my dads side...

One for You, One for Me

Ryan and I are complete opposites. Complete. But that's why they say opposites attract right?! So recently we have embraced each other's interest. We didn't really do this on purpose, but it just kind of fell into place. And it has been a blast!

One for You....

Ryan plays Xbox. So I tried, too. No, I did not try any of the war shooting games. I can't figure out how to move the little avatar. When I try, it looks like my avatar is chasing his own tail and shooting at the sky. I don't get it. Anyway... instead, I like to play Monopoly on Xbox!! LOL! It's really fun because it's an actual little animated board. Love it.

One for Me...

My passion is reading. It's part of my job, and part of my hobby. Ryan and I have decided to read a book together. No, he isn't reading Nicholas Sparks., but we are reading a true story called Lone Survivor. It's about a Navy SEAL who was part of a mission in which he was the only one to survive. It's pretty amazing. The movie comes out in January and we get to see that together, too.

 

I have loved combining and sharing out interests. Super fun. I hope things like this can "fall into place" more often. :)

Selfies

Blake loves taking pictures of himself. He gets very playful and almost a little arrogant. And I love it!!! HAHA! He is so funny. Here are a few from his little photo shoot today. He was feeling gangster..

Family Weekend in the Mountains

I am a little late on posting this from our past weekend in the mountains. At the end of the summer Blake and I went to Pilot Mountain to visit my grandparents. We had such a great time that we HAD to go back and take Ryan with us!

We went during the Fall purposely so that we could see the pretty leaves. Ryan jokes and calls the NC Mountains "hills" because they are so much smaller than the Utah Mountains. I cant argue with him on that one, BUT NC does have the prettiest leaves! :)

Our Country Boy

This weekend we were ALL able to go back to Pilot Mountain to visit Granny and Papa. I was so excited because it is Fall and the leaves are beautiful! We took some family pictures and we will show those in the next post.

But as of right now, I am just so excited about our "outing" for today. We took Blake to go see the horses! My moms side of the family owns LOTS of farm land. My great grandmother and my great uncle shared about 60 acres of farm land. My great Granny Stone passed away several years ago, but my great uncle still has the farm. They have lots of horses that they train and ride. We were lucky enough to go play with them today!

Blake was fascinated with them. He had his eyes closely on them and watched their ever move. I personally thought that when we went into the pasture that we wouldn't be able to get that close to them. Boy was I wrong! They quickly came running to us! They are obviously used to getting lots of attention because they all wanted to be rubbed. Blake got VERY still when they came up to us. I thought he would be scared, but he wasn't! He rubbed the noses of a couple of them. :)

I guess the horses are also used to getting treats and we didn't bring any. We figured that out when one of them tried to nibble Blake's pants. HAHA! Blake looked at that horse like he was crazy! Then Blake quickly whined and wanted to get away from that horse. I couldn't stop laughing. I started to walk away and the horse just followed us.

Ahem... If you ask Ryan about this story he will also tell you that I got a little nervous when the horse was following us. I may or may not have been a little scared. Those things are HUGE and I am usually paranoid in my thoughts. I was pretty sure we were going to get trampled. HAHA! But again... that's just if you ask Ryan about this story ;)

Lastly, we got to see the tractors and rides. Blake is 100% boy and he LOVES trucks, trains, and cars. He had a blast pretending to drive Great Uncle Mikes "toys". :)

We had a great FALL weekend in the Mountains!

Trick or Treat

Ok, I think we are rested enough to be able to write this post now...

Last night we went Trick-or-Treating!!! This was special because this was Ryan's first time with Blake. He was in Louisiana for Army stuff last year.

Blake went as The Hulk this year. And yes... there is a story behind that costume choice. Ever since Blake was little, when he would get really excited about something he would hold his little hands out and shake. It was hilarious. At a very young age we nicknamed that "excitement" The Hulk! After a few times, Blake understood that command. Now we can simply say "Blake, do The Hulk" and he will start shaking. Are we bad parents for that?! I have to admit, he loves it and thinks it is pretty funny too. Blake is still young enough that he cant say "trick or treat" and he doesn't really understand the whole concept, so we figured he could at least be in character! Hence.... The Hulk!

 

 

We just went around to the grandparents houses for our trick or treat adventure. It all started at G-Daddy's house. Talk about holy candy and treats!! I think we scored enough candy in this one stop to last us for a year! Blake wanted to candy because it had a shiny wrapper. We decided to let him have some chocolate - which is totally not normal around our house. HE LOVED IT! At one point he was walking around the house with two candy bars in his hand and a mouth covered in chocolate. Classic. 

 

We also stopped at Memommy's house. It was a quick stop but very fun. Memommy has some cool car toys, so Blake ended up being more interested in the toys than the candy. I think he got a little side tracked on the whole trick or treat thing.

 

Last but not least we went to Granny and Papa's. I think we taught him well, because he grabbed all of their treats and put them in his bucket. Good boy! :) He had round two of food and ate the Halloween pretzels and goldfish. Yummy! He even played with the toys there for awhile too.

 

 

 

I would say The Hulk had a great night. He was a little tired and actually was running a slight fever. We weren't sure at the time if it was a fever or if he was just hot from running around. Indeed it was a fever...he woke up this morning not feeling well. The Hulk crashed hard after Halloween. Either way, he had a great time and we are so grateful for our family who simply adores the time they have with him. We are so blessed!!

 

Our next adventure will be to the Mountains this weekend. We are headed back up to see MY Granny and Papa in Pilot Mountain. Should be beautiful this time of year.