I am thankful for....

...my boys!

Well, there is a lot to cover from the past couple weeks.
Where shall I begin......?

Lets back track to November 19th-- Steve's 28th birthday.
Steve decided that he wanted to have some friends from school over on his birthday. They had just finished their big final for their Immunology and Infection course earlier in the week. So, no body had much objection to leaving behind the books for the evening and coming over to our house for an ICE CREAM PARTY! Steve is not a huge fan of cake. So, we had ice cream with different toppings and brownies.

(If you look closely you can see the one candle glowing in the pan of brownies. We were singing to Steve in this picture).
Thats right folks.... there were 10 of us there.... and 7 different flavors of ice cream!
Quite the spread.
It was fun to get to know some of Steve's classmates a bit better.  I think Steve enjoyed having them over and showing off his little boy as well.


Speaking of the little boy...
Robby got his first bout of sickness shortly after Steve's birthday. That Saturday, he started coughing a little bit and Sunday he seemed like he just wanted to be held most of the time. Then, Sunday night, when he was already awake for the second time and it was only 3 am.... I knew I was in for a long night. I took his temperature and found that he had a slight fever around 101. Robby and I spent the next couple nights sleeping on the couch.  I wanted to be close to him, so I could keep tabs on him. Anyway, he only had the slight fever for 2 nights (only at night). Other than that, he's just had a sad little cough.  He was such a trooper through it all. Even on the days when I could tell he didn't feel well, I still got little smiles from him.

....such a little sweetie....

On Wednesday I woke up feeling that Robby had likely passed on his sickness to me... I delayed my Thanksgiving preparations that I had planned for the day and took a nap for a few hours. Luckily, Robby was still not feeling top notch either so he slept the whole time I did! Good boy.

I spent the remainder of Wednesday preparing for Thanksgiving. This was my first year hosting Thanksgiving. And so, it was my first attempt at making a turkey! I was a bit nervous...what if it didn't turn out?!?! I would ruin Thanksgiving for everyone...hahaha.

But, of course, being ME... I have to make everything more complicated than it needs to be. So, did I just rub the turkey with oil and pop it in the oven? Of course not! I decided I was going to brine my turkey for a day before roasting it! It actually turned out to be a really good thing that I decided to do this.
Not only did the turkey turn out wonderful and moist... but, had I not decided on this method then we might not have had a turkey at all! 
Why?
Well.... you see, when I pulled the turkey out of the fridge on Wednesday to put it in the brine, I found that it was still ROCK SOLID FROZEN!!! It had been in the fridge for a few days.... I really thought it would have thawed by then! Can you imagine if I had pulled the turkey out on Thanksgiving and it was still frozen solid? I would have freaked out! Luckily, since it was only Wednesday, I had time to thaw the turkey in cold water in the sink. Due to this, I wasn't able to brine it as long as I'd hoped, but it still turned out great!
I was so happy.

THANKSGIVING:
TO BE CONTINUED.....

A Trip to DC

Looks like a new tradition might be in the making. Remember when I went to Nashville last year and saw my parents (my dad had a work conference there)? Well, this year they headed to Washington DC and I was able to join them again!

We stayed at the Gaylord National hotel. Not nearly as awesome as the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville last year. But, we did enjoy plenty of good times together and even saw a few sights.

I had planned on driving, but my parents said they'd feel better if I flew since I'd have Robby with me.

And so, Robby got to experience his first plane ride! Luckily, it was only a one and a half hour flight. And he did a lot better than I had feared.

It was fun for my parents to be able to see Little Robby! They came out to Toledo when he was born, but of course he has changed A TON since then!!!

He had fun chilling with Grandpa at the hotel...

(notice he is very interested in his hands and feet lately...)

....spending Grandpa's Birthday at Mt Vernon (George Washington's estate)....

(...how the heck did my finger get in that picture.... whoops... it was my dad's phone...I didn't know what I was doing...)

...spending Sunday visiting the Temple with Grandma...

...seeing a giant man sinking into the sand in National Harbor (near the hotel)...

...riding the metro...

...which was apparently a bit frightening....

...but worth it when we went to the zoo and saw the Giant Pandas!...

(These pandas have this HUGE outdoor habitat that is amazing. We walked all around the zoo looking for the pandas in their habitat. Finally, in the end, we found them indoors.... sitting on concrete.... crazy bears...)

It was sad to say goodbye to my parents, but, at least we know we'll see them again next month! We fly out to Utah on December 19th. I can't believe we are already heading into the holiday season! Robby's first holidays... Where has the time gone?

Hooray!

So, Robby's tummy time used to look something like this.

(yeah... he gets really red and sweaty when he cries)

He would make no attempt to lift his head. He'd just lay there and cry most of the time.

Ever since we got the rug, I have been trying to do tummy time more.

And on Monday, October 26th, Little Robby finally lifted his large noggin off of the ground.

It was funny to watch. I think he had been strong enough before, he just didn't think about trying to lift his head. So, when he finally did, it was like "Oh... hey.... this is much better than laying here with my face planted into the ground!" And then he just kept doing it over and over.

"Hey, Ma! Look what I can do!"

We sure love our jolly little guy. It is so fun to watch him develop and grow and gain a little personality.

Robby did a full out laugh for the first time on Wednesday, October 14th. And ever since then, it has become easier and easier to get him to laugh. The first times he burst into laughter I wasn't even sure what was so funny! But, he sure found something humorous! Now it is easier to trigger the laughter. It seems a lot of the times he laughs is when he's on his changing table and we are talking to him.

Here is a laughing outburst from yesterday.

Enjoy.

Rug

We purchased a rug last week.

We decided that since our home has no carpet in it, we should probably get a rug. I wanted to be able to put Robby on the ground so he can learn to roll over and crawl when it's time. The hardwood floors make it hard to do that, because even with a blanket on the ground, he would just slide all over when he'd move.

Anyway, here is our early Christmas present.

I think Robby likes it, too.

Oh, and on that collage, check out that hilarious smile he does sometimes.

You know which picture I'm talking about....

It's so funny because he pulls his chin back to his neck and puts his tongue up to the roof of his mouth. Hahaha.... Funny kid.

So, last Thursday night Robby slept 7 hours straight! I was so excited, but tried not to get my hopes up too high. Up until then he had been waking up usually just once a night to eat. There was the occasional night when he'd wake up twice, but most nights just once. So, that wasn't bad. But, hey, who wouldn't want a full night of uninterrupted sleep? So, of course, I was hopeful..

Anyway... he slept 7 hours straight Thursday night....

Unfortunately, since then, he has been waking 3 or 4 times a night!!!

Ahhh..... hopefully he's just going through another little growth spurt (haha... this kid is going to be a giant!) and he'll get over it soon.

But, until then... I'll probably be getting up several times a night...

Good thing he's so stinkin' cute.

How can you get upset at a face like this?

What? He hasn't grown a bit....

Okay, so that first picture isn't a very cute picture of him... but it's all I've got.

And it illustrates my point perfectly:

IT APPEARS I MAY BE MALNOURISHING MY CHILD...

HE JUST DOESN'T SEEM TO BE GROWING!

But, he sure is cute, nonetheless.

It's official....

We're going to keep him.

Gettin' Cozy

Ya know, I am not looking forward to the cold mornings that come with winter.

It makes it so hard to get out of bed....I just want to stay in there where it's nice and warm...Of course, with a baby, thats just not as doable anymore.

So, after Robby's first feeding the other morning, we cuddled up on the couch and bid farewell to poor dad who had to head out to school.

I am so grateful for a wonderful husband that works so hard to prepare a good future for our little family.

And, I am so blessed to have a little snuggle partner to keep me company every day.