Dapper, dontcha think?

Little boys look so grown up in sweater vests, don't they?

We had a very nice time at Andy's family gathering - great food, great company, great hosts (thanks Charlie and Debbie!)

Fun with grandma!

We took a few of the 3 of us together. I couldn't find one where we all look good, so I picked this one to share, because at least my boys look great.

We are getting geared up for the visit back to MN - just 4 days left of school... Let the list making begin... Just to show you how obsessively "planner" I can be - here is a list of the separate lists that I will be probably be making (or already have):

1. Things to pack for Ben

2. Things to pack for A/J (remember gloves and hats this time - Hello!)

3. Gifts to bring

4. Things to do before leaving - garbage, bills, water the plants, stop the mail, etc.

5. Things to bring in carry on

6. Locations of all of the lists... :)

Look, daddy - this is THE one!

We did a bunch of shopping this weekend, and picked out the most perfect little tree and got it up and decorated.

Right here daddy - this is the THE one!

Doesn't he look so tiny next to the 12 footers?

Ben loves looking and pointing at all of the ornaments (so far, anyway, none have turned into toys). We got some of the new LED lights for the tree - finally getting rid of the old college room Christmas lights that I've had since pre-1994... Ahhh, the memories.

Oh, and yes, we've been elfed again - country-style this year.

Oh, and Ben had his 18 month appt on Thursday - right on about 50th% again for head, weight and length - I don't have the numbers in front of me. We have one happy, healthy baby (er, toddler??) boy, that's for sure!

Fun times at the p-a-r-k

A clip of Ben practicing to sell foul calls (aka falling on purpose).

An another of fun times with daddy - trying to unstick their fingers from the sticky octopus tentacles in Matthew Van Fleet's Alphabet book.

We're starting to get into that cute mispronounciation stage. He seems to have forgotten some of his old favs, like bubble and purple and is working on other words latley. Right now it's:

Baby: Baaa-bee

Uh-oh: Uhh-ooo or sometimes Ahhh-oooo

Beep-beep: Bop-bop

Hi: Haaaaaeeeee (best said on the phone)

We had a great low-key Thanksgiving with Andy's family. Ben mostly ate green beans and pumpkin pie. We had a nice long weekend at home, finishing up some Christmas lights, doing some cleaning and the standard grocery and Target runs. We're gearing up for the trip back to MN in just 3 weeks... Can't wait!

Question for ya...

How cute am I?

I'll even help with the yard work: A little raking and...
watering the bushes...

and adding some "flair" (aka rocks) to the avocado pot.

Like my rain boots?

Jump, jump!

No pictures this week, but here is a clip of Ben "jumping" - arm motions and all... Wonder if he gets this from daddy's porch jumping escapades...

We had a nice weekend at home... We did venture out of the house on Saturday night to attend a play at a children's theater in Oregon City (Krayon Kids) - it was a fun variety show - musical numbers, some dialouge, dancing, and lots of activity. Ben did very well sitting still, watching and pointing at all of the neat things going on. After 1 1/2 hours of the show (starting at 7PM), there was an intermission which was already well past Ben's bedtime, so we opted to head out and miss the last part of the show... I think our little guy could have handled a bit more show, but we thought we'd better head out while we were ahead!

2 little videos

Singing "Twinkle, Twinkle..."

And trying to say "cock-a-doodle-doo"

Really, it's November already??

For Ben's second Halloween, he actually got to try his hand at the door-to-door trick or treating! He picked up on the idea pretty quickly. Well, his version anyway: OK - so you climb up the steps (on your hands and knees), then you knock on the door (or hope they have a doorbell, so you get to push the button), then you say say trick or treat (or some gibberish that sounds really cute), then you get to take some loot (or see how much you can get away with taking because you are so darn cute), and put it in your pumpkin bucket (that mommy and daddy will carry for you) then you move on to the next house and repeat. It only took him about 2 houses to catch on to the pattern.


Here is Ben "helping" to rake and haul leaves on Halloween.
Sunday, we went on an awesome hike for kids in the Columbia River Gorge to Wahclella Falls with Andy's bud, Riad and kids Alex and Dylan. It was a beautiful autumn day in Oregon - It certainly didn't seem like November...