Thanksgiving '09

I've been hoping to get some good Christmas pictures of the kids this year but I didn't get around to it fast enough before the weather turned a little bit cold. I like to take them outside since I can get the best lighting. I don't know how long the cold is going to last, but I was fiddling around and snapped this one cute picture for the time being.

Like I said, the winter weather has arrived here in Texas. Each year we get a few weeks of cold weather, and it usually hits us by Thanksgiving. It started this year with the thunderstorms rolling in for a few days.

This is what we do during thunderstorms around here. Brayden acts scared and needs to go into her tent to be safe from the thunder.

But of course she couldn't camp out in there without her food. She always brings her fake food with her.

She let Kaleb join her. We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Having Brandon home was nice. He let me get out and do some shopping while he and Brayden made this fun turkey. For Thanksgiving dinner we went up to Austin to visit with some good family friends of ours but I didn't pull out my camera until after the mayhem of dinner was over. Between me and Brandon trying to eat while keeping Kaleb happy and not grabbing and pulling our plates of food off the table, as well as keeping Brayden at the table trying to get her to eat her food or at least be patient and let us eat ours before she ran free to ransack the place... Thanksgiving just isn't what it used to be. We need to bring a babysitter with us next time just so we can enjoy some conversation. jk. We got the kids out after dinner and had a good time.

Brayden joined the boys and learned how to skateboard.

While Kaleb watched.

It didn't take long before we moved on to the Christmas crafts.

We put up our tree...

...and Brayden decorated it.

Can you tell?

We still haven't gotten around to fixing it and spread around the ornaments.

And Brandon's been wanting to do this for years now but this year he finally put up some lights outside. Our street needed it. This little big guy started waving over the holiday weekend. It just melts my heart. Brandon randomly waved at him one afternoon and Kaleb out of nowhere picks up his hand and waves back for the first time. It was so nonchalantly as if he's always known how to do it. I didn't see it and quickly jumped up and waved at him right after that. Once again he picks up his hand and waves back. We made such a big deal about it that now he is a waving machine. So much so that he randomly waves at us every time we look at him to try to get us to wave back at him. It's a fun game we play. Now all I have to do is say "hi" and he waves. It's really cute.

He's really starting to communicate a lot with me these days. He tries to sign "please" by hitting his face. For some reason that has become his interpretation for the time being. He signs "eat" by sticking his finger in his mouth and I swear he said "more" the other day. When I tell him "no" I guess I lift my finger up and shake it back and forth a lot because I noticed that every time I say it now he lifts his finger up as if that's the "sign" for no. I still don't think he knows what it means though. He's such a fun boy.

Brayden and I have been playing a lot with her toy Nativity set. She's at a stage where everything talks to each other. Like when we play with her food the banana and the apple have to talk and they go to each other's houses to play. I, of course, have to be the voice of one of the two. Anyways, while playing with the Nativity I was the angel. After the many years of playing the angel in church and family nativity plays I actually somewhat remembered what the angel says and have been reciting it to Brayden while we play.

One day out of the blue she started rambling something that started with "Fear not..." and then kept going on, getting a few words right here and there. It was really funny. I tried to get it on video but she didn't quite do it again. (Is it ever as good the second time?) She has a friend named Gavin and kept saying "in the city of Gavin" instead of "in the city of David." Maybe by the end of the Christmas season she'll have it down.

And the final video just shows my little problem solver. Kaleb has been standing up holding on to things and climbing for the last few months ever since he started crawling. Not once did he ever just stand there and cry for help or fall to get down. He's so strong. He's figured out how to get down as if he's always known how to do it.

It just amazes me watching these kids learn and grow. I love it.