O' Christmas Tree

Last Saturday we stopped by Fred Meyer to get a few things. Since Austin started walking, he's been pretty cranky about riding in shopping carts, so it was this day that we discovered the RACE CAR shopping cart! The kid loved it! It has a steering wheel and he was occupied the entire time, didn't even want to get out when it was time to go. We totally laughed at ourselves pushing the huge thing, but it was worth it. I guess you get used to these things as a parent.

While we were there we browsed through the Christmas trees, but ran out of time to buy one. So, we bundled up and headed back out to Fred Meyer the next morning to find our perfect tree in 18 degree weather (a warm spell compared to today's -10 degrees).

Brett and I have a deal. We flip-flop Christmas every year, Idaho Falls one year, Boise the next. This is our Idaho Falls year. So, when we stay home for Christmas we buy a real tree! If we head to Boise, we throw up our fake one. Yuck! So, you can imagine how happy I was to go find our "real" tree this year!

Well, this is what I got the minute we put Austin in the regular shopping cart...

But alas, no fear...we found an empty RACE CAR shopping cart and the kid had visions of sugar plums!


So, here she is folks! Our short and sassy Douglas fir! She currently has ornaments on the top 1/3 of her branches. Austin quickly removed the others.

Oh, so happy I am!

A Thankful Thanksgiving

My brother Patrick's accident gave us more to be thankful for this year than in years past. His back surgery to repair his L1 went well and he's now home recovering. We're hopeful that he'll be able to move around more normally in about 6 weeks. He seems to be keeping his spirits up even though he's dealing with some really severe pain. He catches you off guard with a quick joke or some unexpected funny comment. That's really what I love about him...constant comedian!

We all visited him in the hospital on Thanksgiving day not expecting to do a big dinner. But when my parents got home they decided, "What the heck." Our turkey was still frozen so they headed over to Fred Meyer and picked up a fresh turkey, popped it in the oven and we we're feasting on it by 6:00pm, plus all the fixins'! It wasn't the same without Patrick but he was in our thoughts and our conversations. We were lucky to bring him home the following day.

I made him smile for this picture...told him he'd appreciate the pic someday!

This is Austin's 2nd Thanksgiving feast. A bit more choices this go around. He loves to put olives on his fingers like every kid I'm sure. Oh wait, the bro-in-law, Erik, hates olives so perhaps he bypassed this trick as a kid!

Jakob and Austin had fun on the kiddie couches after dinner. Wish I could have lounged around but dishes had to be done. I swear, that's the only bummer part of Thanksgiving.

This is Austin's version of a hug! He's loves babies, especially Aaron!