december, according to my iPhone

Posts have been sparse lately, my apologies. We are having lots of fun around here and are enjoying the holiday season as parents of an almost-one-year-old. The fact that he is almost one is astounding to me. When your life is measured by the growth and development of a child, it seems to fly by. Except for the first months, when no one is sleeping, but after that it is incredibly fast. Here is a peek of the past few weeks.

We can't wait for Christmas around here. I hope your holiday plans are all coming together! 

tongue

Enjoy your weekend!

the view from my front door

Two things: beautiful fall colors, and... yard work. Uggh!

on the brain lately

I can't stop thinking about Christmas. I can't wait for it this year. I keep thinking about how I'll decorate the house, what crafts to make, what presents to buy, goodies to bake. I also can't stop planning Oliver's first birthday party. My brain is a jumble of good ideas. We'll see how many of them come to fruition. Every time I start to talk about Oliver's party, Tony's eyes begin to glaze over. I think for his sake, I need more friends out here.

I've been running lately, training for a 5K to run on Thanksgiving. I have come to the conclusion that I hate running and it makes me miserable. Tony says I will probably come to enjoy it at some point. But when??

And lastly, a snippet from a lunch conversation recently.

Preface: I generally use my bicuspids to take bites out of food.

Tony: I hope you don't teach Oliver that weird habit.
Me: It is perfectly normal to eat like this.
Tony: No, you are not normal. You are weird.
Me: I think it is worse to be married to someone that is weird than to be weird. The joke's on you.

Am I right?

Love, weird old me and our (probably destined-to-be weird) baby

just to give you an idea...

The voter's choice (or something) awards came out recently for our area. Olive Garden was voted number 1 for the Italian Restaurant category. I miss living in places with lots of good restaurants to choose from.

what oliver is up to these days

Standing! And trying to climb on everything! 

Waiting for daddy to come home...

There he is! 

thanks valpak

... for the thirty minutes of free entertainment

halloween review

Halloween 2011

Doesn't Oliver look absolutely thrilled to be Harry Potter??

Tony was festive and wore his tie to work and then brought his other costume props to put on for his kid clients. Much to my dismay, it wasn't very well received. One of his clients said she didn't like those kind of "boy stories" and another said he didn't look like Harry because he wasn't wearing a cloak. Tough crowd, those kids. 

Oliver's costume. I just used felt and iron-on fusible bond type stuff. Easy for a non-crafter like me. Glasses made out of pipe cleaner.

Expelliarmus!

We hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

a trio of jack-o-lanterns

daddy's jack-o-lantern (splat)

baby's jack-o-lantern (two teef! just like Ollie!)

mama's jack-o-lantern (boo!)

snippets from our family walk

It's no secret that fall is my favorite time of year. Pumpkins, apples, vibrant colors, spiced cider... is there anything better? I didn't think so either. 

one of our three apple trees

time to pick them!

Oliver loving the hiking carrier

trees leading to our driveway

pumpkin patching it up

    We used to live in Portland. In Portland, there are REAL pumpkin patches, with pumpkins actually growing on vines, and when you go to get your pumpkins, you take them from the spot where they actually grew. The pumpkin patch here in Silverdale doesn't believe in that sort of garbage. Lay some pumpkins out on a grassy area and call it good. That was our experience anyway. I guess Oliver didn't know any better. And you know what? We still had fun. Horribly watered-down hot chocolate included. 

farmer ollie

standing on the prize pumpkin

a successful first trip to the pumpkin patch