Thanksgiving and Iron Bowl 2011

Thanksgiving is definitely up there with one of my favorite holidays! Christmas still trumps it, but I still love it and love all the family time and food!

This year Thanksgiving started for us on Tuesday at Mama Becky and Daddy Mer's house. We even had my cousin and his wife here from Connecticut, so that was great to see them and reminisce! Mama Becky had prepared a delicious feast, so we all had a great time eating and visiting!

Wednesday night we had dinner at Papa and Sherbo's house. We got over there a little before dark, so we enjoyed a little playtime before supper. Sherbo had cooked a feast over there, too, so we ate well again!

Fun in the wagon!

We headed on down to Auburn after dinner Wednesday since we had 2 gatherings there on Thursday. The first was lunch at Granny and Granddaddy's house. Lots of food there, too, but Jack mostly played outside with his cousin Matthew. They played golf, football, and even rode on the golf cart together!

Thursday night was dinner at Mimi's. By now you'd think we'd had enough to eat and couldn't possibly eat another bite, but somehow we managed to get full plates again and it was all delicious!

We didn't do much on Friday since we'd been so busy the few days before, plus we didn't want to get out much with all the Black Friday shoppers!

Saturday was Iron Bowl day! It was hard to believe it was already the end of the regular season, but we had a fun day of tailgating planned, plus going to the game, so we were ready.

We had lots of fun tailgating, but we really just wanted the game to start so we could take Jack to his first Iron Bowl. Yes, he's just 2 years old, but he is the biggest Auburn fan I know (after his Daddy of course), and thanks to his Mama Becky and Daddy Mer, he was able to have a ticket and go!

He loves going to the game so much and especially loves the pre-game festivities. He loves watching the band play, seeing the eagle fly, plus watching the team run out and get ready to play! We had so much fun with him at the game, and even though Auburn lost, I loved experiencing the game with him and seeing his excited expressions the whole time! I'm not sure how we can explain to him that we won't be able to go to another football game for a very long time! :-(

Tired boy asleep with Granna after the game.

Jack and his cousin Sydney at the "after party" after the game. He loved playing with her so much over the holiday!

Here are some video clips from Thanksgiving and the game:

Thanks so much to all of our mothers and grandmothers for all the food they provided for Thanksgiving. We are so blessed to have so much family and so many people we love and who love us! God is so good and we have so much to be thankful for!

Thanks also to Daddy Mer and Mama Becky for the football tickets they gave us to every home game! We had so much fun and appreciate y'all letting us use them!

First Dentist Appointment!

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, November 22nd, Jack had his first dentist appointment! We went to see Dr. Mike Anglin in Hoover since he was highly recommended by Jack's Aunt Amy and Uncle Jeff, and Jack did so well!

The hygienist Rochelle was amazing and made sure Jack felt comfortable with everything before she got started. She gave everything a fun name, like the "spit catcher" was called "Mr. Thirsty", and the tooth cleaner was "The Tooth Tickler", and she let him try out everything before the actual procedure! He got to pick out his new toothbrush (Cars), plus toothpaste (he picked cake of course), and she explained everything to him before actually doing it! I was right there the whole time in case he needed me, but he loved her and did so well! I was so proud of him!

Dr. Mike came in after the cleaning and said his teeth look great, so he was impressed! He said he could tell Jack uses a paci, but as long as we can get rid of it by 3, that is fine. I told him we are trying everyday to talk about getting rid of it, so we just hope one day soon it works! We've talked about wrapping them up in a gift for his new cousin Brooks (who is coming this month!), so maybe that will end up working! We will see!

He was such a big boy and everyone there loved him! We were in and out in 20 minutes with no problems! I definitely recommend them, too! We had such a great experience!

Everyday Life

Everyday life for Jack is very fun and busy! He is either at home with Mommy or at Mama Becky's house playing while Mommy and Daddy are at work. Wherever he is, he is constantly singing, playing, learning, and being silly! He has the cutest personality and is constantly making us laugh.

Since I recently did a post about his new phrases and sayings, and some of his favorite things, here is a video of his new favorite songs, plus a couple of activities he loves to do these days...

Jake and Brooke's Birthday Party

Jack's cousins Jake and Brooke had a combined birthday party this last Saturday at Pump It Up in Pelham. Brooke turned 4 on October 19th, and Jake will turn 9 on December 24th, and they celebrated together with friends and family! Jack had only been in one "jump jump" thing last year at Blakely's 2nd birthday party, so this was his first real experience with multiple ones! He had a blast!

Just getting warmed up...

Playing ball with Jake!

Sliding down the big slide with Daddy!

The birthday boy and girl

Guess he's starting to get tired here!

Delicious cake!

Waiting patiently for cake! He looks so big here!

"Um, do I get cake, too?"

Halloween 2011

Halloween was so much fun this year! It took us a few weeks to figure out what we wanted Jack to be for Halloween, but it was decided when we were in Walmart a week before. He walked down the Halloween decoration and costume aisle, picked up a pirate hat, and said, "Argh!!" It was so cute, so we found the costume to match, and that was that!

The festivities started Thursday, October 27 at Boo at the Zoo. They had so many festivities there for everyone and we all had a blast. Jack got to play ring toss, ride a roller racer, dance, trick or treat for candy, and of course ride the train!

Captain Jack Sparrow

"Trick or Treat, please!"

Watching the "Scooby Doo" show with Daddy

Big scary black cat!

"Oh, how I love Aubie!"

"Roar!"

Silly gorilla

Riding the "Eerie Express"

Halloween night! As soon as Mommy and Daddy could get home from work, we got Jack changed, fixed up our house a little bit to make it scarier, then headed around the neighborhood in search for candy!! He was so cute walking door to door and knocking asking for candy! He made sure to say, "Trick or Treat, please!" and "Thank you!" to everyone! Such a sweet and smart boy! We had so much fun this Halloween and made so many memories! We love our sweet little pirate!

Auburn vs. Ole Miss

Last weekend we headed back down to Auburn for the Ole Miss game. It was a 6:00 game, so we knew that meant a very long, but fun-filled day of tailgating!

We got out to the tailgate around 10:00 and Jack started playing that minute and didn't stop until we headed to the stadium at 5:00! He played golf and football all day, and barely stopped to eat lunch! A lady who tailgates with us has a 5 year old boy who came to this tailgate and Jack loved him and begged to play with him all day! We had a great time watching how well he interacted with another boy he just met.

Jack loved all the pre-game activities as normal, but was sleepy from no nap all day, so he wasn't as into everything as he was for the Florida game. He's even learned "God Bless America" over the last few weeks (thanks to Mama Becky), so we were hoping he'd sing it when the band played it, but he only sang a few words.

After the game started, he fell asleep in my lap for the entire 1st quarter! He woke up from all the crowd noise (of course), but was fully energized and stayed until the third quarter (a new record), then went back to the tailgate with Granna and Poppy.

Thanks so much to Mama Becky and Daddy Mer for the tickets, also thanks to Granna and Poppy for keeping Jack during the second half for us! We were very proud of Auburn's big win over Ole Miss and can't wait to go back down there for Homecoming when we play Samford! War Eagle!

Old Baker Farm

Sunday, October 23rd we all went to Old Baker Farm in Harpersville, AL. We'd heard about it from a co-worker of mine and she said it was lots of fun! We got there around 12:30 and stayed until after 4:30! There was so much to do and we probably could've stayed even longer than that!

When we first got there we stopped by the barn and petting zoo first. Jack loved seeing all the goats, geese, pigs, sheep, and horses! He even fed the horse several times and loved it! He wasn't scared at all!

After playing with the animals, we went on the hayride to the pumpkin patch! This was the biggest pumpkin patch I've ever seen! It had pumpkins as far as you could see! Orange ones, green ones, white ones, and even multi-colored ones! We searched around for a while to find the perfect ones, and we eventually found a small white one for Jack, a large white one for Kurt, and a white one with orange and green squigglies for me! Kurt actually found mine, but I wanted it as my own so he kept the big white one for him. Once we had our pumpkins, we got back on the hayride, and while heading back, we got stopped by a Civil War reinactment! It was cool to see, plus Jack liked all the "fireworks" (smoke from the guns and cannons)!

Once we dropped our pumpkins off, we walked over to the food area to get a snack. I got boiled peanuts and Jack and Daddy got a bag of popcorn. We listened to some banjo music, while sitting on a bail of hay eating our snacks.

After eating, we walked back over to the barn to see the animals one more time, feed the horse one more time, and finally play in the hay stacks since all the big kids weren't there anymore.

Old Baker Farm was a lot of fun and we made some great memories! Can't wait to go back next year!