Christmas Continued...

 And the goodtimes and pictures continue..

Grandpa's place has all kinds of fun toys, fish, and loooooooong hallways for Abram to run down.

Of course our Christmas wouldn't be complete without putting Uncle Chris in a headlock.

This was actually taken Christmas morning, it was Abram's first peak at the stockings filled with goodies.

It's our family tradition that our stockings are actual socks - so here Abram is showing off his Christmas socks.

And what would to do next?  Put your socks on your hands and try to keep your blinking antlers in place.

Baby #2 received their first official gift.

Showing off all our Christmas socks.

Abram was pretty sure that Nana's new coffee maker would work better with his assistance.

Abram was pretty tired of pictures by the end of Christmas day so this is the best shot we could get with Aunt Vicki and Uncle Chris.

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas - Part I

We had a great Christmas - the best part was spending 4 days with Abram (and the rest of the family).  Since I had four days to take pictures there are quite a few.  I might not put captions on all of them.

Our holiday started out great by seeing Peter and Liz on their way from Denver to Marshalltown.

We got to meet their new puppy Max and had some fun too!

 We also got to spend lots of quality time with Great Grandpa Clayton.  He and Abram get along really well, Abram likes to push his chair around, sit in grandpa's lap and especially take rides in grandpa's chair.

While we mostly had fun - sometimes too much fun leads to serious meltdowns.  Fortunately we didn't have too many as there was always someone around to do whatever Abram was interested in.

My favorite part of Christmas vacation was getting to spend 4 days with my little guy.  With #2 expected in April I cherish any one-on-one time we get these days.

Family Pic!

Aunt Vicki helped Abram practice being a good big brother to his baby doll.

to be continued...

19 Months

Abram turned 19 months old yesterday.  Time is flying by and we are 21 weeks along with baby #2.  Abram knows to say baby when he sees my stomach but he also thinks there is a baby in his tummy - so we're not quite sure how much he grasps but he does love babies.

Other things Abram loves:

-Brushing his teeth.   Abram calls this 'breeshing.'  It is his absolute favorite thing to do.  This activity even trumps going outside.  I found this out today when he had half of his outdoor gear on and then started yelling breesh, so we had to stop getting ready so he could brush his teeth.  On an average morning Abram will ask to brush at least three times before he goes to school.


-Tacos.  Well at least he likes to say the word tacos which makes Josh so proud.  Abram even requested tacos for breakfast yesterday and pointed to the stove so we knew he meant business, Josh had no choice but to whip up some breakfast tacos for his favorite little guy using his favorite word.

-Shoes. This is an ongoing love affair but Abram still can not get enough of shoes, boots, basically anything we put on our feet.  He loves them in all forms.

-Adel.  Our neighbor who is also 19 months old.  He's started saying her name when we're driving home in the evenings and turn onto our street.  He'll say it lovingly, adoringly and then with such sadness that we have to go see if she's home to play.   Lord help us when they're not home and he feels betrayed when we have to turn back around, all the while Abram is screaming 'Adeh, Adeh, Aaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.  It is unfortunate that his second best friend our neighbor dog Max, is usually not home on these nights either.  It's unfortunate because usually the only thing that will get him to stop crying is his sudden interest in seeing if Max is home.
-Books.  I am so happy that Abram loves books.  He will let you read to him all day long if you're willing.  He's also learned to say 'one more' which comes out, 'one mo' at night before bed.

In his spare time he likes to wrestle his new alligator.

Evidently, the gator must have had it coming. 

But then he can be very loving.  It's hard to tell in this picture but Josh is hanging onto the cat pretty solidly, as the cat is trying to run for it's life.

Once we started saying how cute Abram was being with the kitty he definately hammed it up.

The rest of these are just fun pictures from our time outside today. I didn't get pictures of Abram on the 'big' hill we went to but he loved sledding!  He kept saying 'again, again.'  Fortunately he has a papa that has a hard time saying no to that little face.

Happy Weekend!

Time with Grandpa Terry

Grandpa Terry came into town this week for an early Christmas - just in case the weather doesn't allow for travel from the great north later this month.  It took all of about 2 seconds for Abram to remember Grandpa Terry.  I think he is starting to get confused about knowing two guys named Grandpa.

Abram got a few fun presents including a soft, cuddly bear outfit and a giant alligator pillow.  The pillow came in handy right away (see story below).

 

We also had to get a couple of pictures of Abram and Grandpa in their matching Carhartt overalls.   These were actually a present from last year but they fit perfectly this year.

 

How cute!

 

Even though Abram loved his presents he loved time with Grandpa even better.

While my dad was here with the truck we decided to get a Christmas tree.  This is the first time we had ever gotten a real tree - Josh and I had always used a 2 1/2 foot fiber optic tree.  After dinner we stopped by a tree lot and picked out a tree in the dark - maybe that was our first mistake.  The tree looked on the small side compared to the others that were there.  So once we set it up in the tree stand we were a bit surprised to see that it took up 1/4 of our living room.

That night we had it decorated and lights up, everything seemed to be going well.  The next morning Abram woke up at about 5 am.  Abram, Grandpa and I were in the kitchen and Abram was in his high chair, I went to move something from his tray and he lounged after it.  Since I hadn't secured his tray yet he fell face first onto the floor.  I thought for sure I was going to be picking up the pieces of my baby off the floor.  While he clearly had a rough fall - in the end his crying was the worst of the whole fall.  We think that his screams scared the cats who then knocked over our larger than life Christmas tree.  Poor Josh who was still in bed when all this happened came running out into the living room to find our Christmas tree crashed to the floor and Abram screaming bloody murder.  Fortunately the Christmas tree falling over was enough to distract Abram from his pain and he soon stopped crying.  I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the scene but at the time we were just trying to pick up all the broken pieces of ornaments before Abram could grab them.  This is also when the alligator came in handy as it was laying under the tree and absorbed most of the water from the tree stand.  Luckily he dried out quickly.

All this before 6 a.m.  

One last story - Josh had just changed Abram's diaper and had gone to find some pajamas when Abram decided he could put his own pants back on.  He did really well and got both legs in.  It was too bad that he got them in the same pant leg.  He didn't seem to mind too much.

Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful this year.  Good jobs/school, wonderful family and friends and most importantly a joyful little boy.  We had a great Thanksgiving and were able to spend time with Josh's family and my mom.  

Abram's favorite part of our visit was spending time with Jill the puppy. Jill is actually the opposite of a puppy but Abram couldn't tell the difference.  He was happy to find a puppy that couldn't run away from him and that enjoyed his multiple hugs and 'gentle' pats.  Abram even learned Jill's name within  24 hours.  This will come as a disappointment to our many friends and family who have been trying to get him to learn their names to no avail.

He really couldn't get enough Jill hugs.

 Of course he also enjoyed lots of time in Grandpa's lap as well.

In this picture Abram has on a sweater that is a mini version of one of Josh's.  They looked just like twins.

 We had serious thoughts about all the delicious Thanksgiving food we were about to eat.

While dinner was cooking we took some family pictures.

 He did so well for several minutes but...

 By the time we got to Grandma and Grandpa Livermore Abram had had ENOUGH and nothing that I could do would make him laugh or smile.  We'll have to try again at Christmas.

 Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without tacking Papa.

 Finally, Abram's first real Thanksgiving.  Last year he was still mostly on milk.  He was really into corn and sweet potatoes, he's a mama's boy.

If you look closely you can see Abram has combined his love of puppy's and hats.