Teague's 2nd Thanksgiving

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone. As I told my family last night, I have a lot to be thankful for. Sometimes I just need to stop to remember how much I have in my life...a wonderful husband, a beautiful child, an outstanding family, a job (which is big in today's economy), and so on.

We have really enjoyed these few days off from work and spending it with family. On Thursday afternoon we had lunch with the Dusha's and then Thursday evening we spent dinner with the Mohr's. Like my uncle Bola has said, every Mohr get together is like a hearing aid convention. Everyone is trying to "out-talk" the next person and yelling, so it gets a bit chaotic. Teague loved running around with the bigger kids. On Friday Ryan returned home for bball practice and to get ready for the scrimmage on Saturday and my mom and I did some pre-Christmas shopping. Another chaotic event. Yikes. Friday afternoon I had coffee with my high school friend Amber - always so good to catch up with her - and then we had a wedding reception for a family friend. Today before we came home we did some swimming at the fitness center in Morris and Teague was in heaven. He wanted to swim OUT of my arms. He has no fear of swimming and could care less how much water he ingests. He loves to jump from the ledge into your arms. I haven't seen him that squealey and excited before! Anyway, Teague had so much fun playing with his cousins and it was a nice reprieve from reading books every free minute with monkey boy! We came home tonight and I think Teague was happy to see his own bed! All in all, a great weekend. Here are some pictures and a video clip of our weekend.

Handsome little Monkey before the wedding reception (please note that his hair is actually getting long enough/thick enough for a little spikey do - though it's so blonde you can barely see it). How do you like the forehead bruise from his monkey antics of jumping from one chair to another -and lack of success at making it to the next chair - at daycare?!

This is either "so big" or "who's crazy" at the wedding reception dinner. The true reason for the picture is to show his new found love for ranch dressing!

Mommy and Monkey at the reception. Getting a "good" picture these days is really trying!

Oh man, look at that excited face! He was just dancing around the changing room so excited so go swimming!

Finally he just sat in the locker so patiently waiting for everyone!

I think he thinks the wait was well worth it, he loved swimming!

Melrose Holiday Tour of Homes

This year we agreed to have our home one of the five homes that is showcased on the Melrose Holiday Tour of Homes. The proceeds of this fundraiser go to the Ronald McDonald House and Hope Lodge. You can read more about the tour at http://melroseholidaytour.blogspot.com/. It's a lot of work, but well worth it. The local floral shop came into decorate our house (marketing and advertising tool for them) so I had to take some pictures of their work. Of course pictures can't do it all justice, but hopefully you can get a sense of the Christmas Cheer! I think we estimated that between the two days there were around 350-400 people to tour our home. Wow-zer. Hope you all had a nice weekend.

FRONT OF HOUSE AT NIGHT

DINING ROOM


LOOKING INTO THE KITCHEN FROM DINING AREA

LIVING ROOM

THE BASEMENT

I've Been Tagged.

I guess I have been tagged, at least that is what Kelly told me on her blog. So here it goes.

I am: glad tomorrow is Friday.
I know: what an amazing life I have.
I want: Teague to always have such a happy go lucky personality.
I have: great friends and an awesome family.
I dislike: dishonesty.
I miss: the long sunny days!
I feel: content.
I hear: Ryan watching the T-Wolves game.
I smell: Cinnamon Spice (wallflower).
I crave: sweets. ALL. THE. TIME.
I cry: when frustrated.
I search: for all the things I have misplaced - it's this mom forgetfulness thing.
I wonder: what Teague will be like as a teenager/adult!
I regret: not just laying around more before Teague. Man I run a lot now.
I love: my family.
I worry: about everything.
I remember: what a great childhood I had.
I dance: when I eat sweets. Just ask my sister, it really annoyed her growing up.
I don't: like the cold weather. (If I didn't love my parents/sister, etc. so much I would move ASAP to warm weather).
I argue: as little as possible, but I am not afraid to speak up!
I write: college letters of recommendation for my students ALL DAY.
I win: some of my own personal goals.
I lose: some of my own personal goals.
I wish: to keep my family safe.
I listen: to Teague babble and say new words daily.
I can usually be found: reading books to Teague.
I am scared: of things I cannot control.
I need: a vacation, with my boys.
I forget: what it feels like to have free time.

Tag to Amy VB, Anita H, Sapphire, and Jaime

Teague Stories

I remember when Teague was just a couple of months old I told my friend Kelly that I loved that particular age. She was talking about all the different stages of her son, Devin's, life at that point and how she loved 18 months the most because that's when they really seem like they start to converse with you. She's so right. 18 months is not quite here yet, but I see that same thing coming about. Teague's newest favorite word is "Happy!". So all the way to daycare this morning as he is looking at a book he is saying "Happy!, Happy!, HHHHHHAAAAAPPPPPYYYYY!". I think he is actually just learning self-descriptive adjectives!

Another cute story... Last night I was on my way home from a short post-work shopping excursion. I had just talked to Ryan so I knew they were home. I forgot to tell him something so I called back right away and nobody answered, except the answering machine. So I am blabbing on the machine and all of the sudden I hear this sweet little "ah, ba ba.........Hiiiiiiiiiiii!........." and I was so confused and so I said "Monkey, is that you?", and he says "Hiiiiiiiiiiiii. Hi." And just kept blabbing. Of course Ryan had left him alone to use the, ahem - facilities and Teague actually answered the phone! It's all caught on the answering machine, so whenever I need a good laugh/smile I can listen to that!

I was trying to update some privacy stuff on this blog earlier this week. I feel fairly comfortable using blogger, but apparently in my attempts to block users from being able to find this blog online by googling us, I blocked people from viewing the blog, so I think it's fixed now! Whew.

Christmas Shopping for a 16 month old

What do you get a 16 month old for Christmas? In all reality (like a majority of kids), Teague needs nothing. But it wouldn't be Christmas if you didn't buy them some type of gift. It's sort of like last year. I knew he could have cared less if we bought him something. Same thing this year. But I really want to get him something he will love - but what? More books?? Honestly this kid can sit for hours and hours looking at books and sometimes the same book. He loves books (hence, his 16 month picture to the right). As an educator of course I think it's great, but sometimes I wonder if he just thinks that all the toys we have for him are just boring? So I asked Tina, "What does Teague play with while he is here?" and she replied - "Well, mostly books." Well that didn't help. So I have just resorted to buying him and suggesting to others the obvious - books and necessities like shoes. B-O-R-I-N-G, but not to him so that's all that matters, right?

I did some shopping yesterday, but I wasn't impressed with selection. Maybe what it really was, I don't know what to buy a majority of people on our list. And then there's always the worry that I will forget someone, so what should I buy "just in case" for that "emergency" situation. Yuck. I really love shopping, but not when I have to buy ambiguous items for people!

Have a good week!