Best Of: Thanksgiving Weekend

This year has been a big year for dragging on holiday goodness as long as possible. Thanksgiving was Thursday to Sunday. I plan on trying to make Christmas last an entire week. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the best of the best of Thanksgiving Weekend.

1. Thanksgiving

Pictured: Action shot of the meal we wait all year for & post holiday "crafting."

Not Pictured: My kid getting spoiled rotten with attention & making the rounds to scam in on dessert at as many families houses as possible.

2. Decorating The Tree

Pictured: Holden examining the decorating goods

Not Pictured: Holden getting downright fed up with the fact that he wasn't getting enough attention, and throwing a massive temper tantrum.

3. One of Santa's Elves visiting and leaving some holiday prizes

Pictured: Holden examining the goods (once again)

Not Pictured: Explaining to Holden that there is more where that came from as long as he agrees to keep his grubby paws off of the Christmas tree. So far so good.

4. Post Thanksgiving rendezvous at my Grandma's house

Pictured: Lonely Utes fan Reo during the big game, my kid getting spoiled rotten with attention (again), and a close to complete cousin photo op.

Not Pictured: Practically fruitless trip to Ikea, lunch with some of my favorite Utah County peeps, and 2 missing cousins from our cousin photo op (one missing thanks to Afghanistan, the other thanks to an unfortunate kitchen mishap.)

There you have it! Our Thanksgiving in a (kinda gigantic) nutshell. Clearly I have much to be thankful for.

Favorite Things...Oprah Style

Yesterday was the Oprah's Favorite Things episode. Watching that episode inspired me to blog about some of my favorite things, which you surely care about, or you wouldn't be reading my blog, right? Also, just to be clear, I am not giving you any of things. I'M not Oprah. But feel free to check them out yourselves!

Modern Family: Clearly I am not the only person who watches this show, it's a pretty big deal. But it is probably my very favorite sitcom since the dearly departed Friends, so I have been waiting a long time for this!

Crazy 8: Affordable children's clothing where the boy clothes are often as cute, if not cuter, than the girl clothes. Because of this, you will often see Holden looking like a walking advertisement for this store.

Steel Cut Oats: Holden and I eat this for breakfast probably like 3 times a week, and Holden probably eats more of it than I do. It is delightful stuff. Now, truthfully, I am an oatmeal lover in general, so I may be biased, but trust me on this. And put maple syrup on it. You won't be sorry.

Redken All Soft Line: Reo has been super busy with school and work these days, which means that I didn't exactly have tons of afternoons free to get my haircut sans child. As a result of this, my hair got unreasonable long and slightly out of control. Switching to this conditioner made it so I could actually comb through my hair again and made me one happy camper. And now that my hair is a little less Big Love-esque, the good conditioner is a just a really nice bonus.

McDonalds Drive Through: I feel like it may be fate that McDonalds made all their drinks $1.00 right around the time I had a baby and it would be super inconvenient to get out of the car to get my Diet Coke fix. Kharma and I must be on pretty good terms right now.

The Girl Who Ate Everything Blog: I have now tried a bunch of recipes from her blog, and not one has disappointed me yet. Click on the button below if you want to go to there.

Pumpkin Bars: These delightful little treats are waiting to be shoved in my mouth right now, making my house smell like pumpkiny goodness...Well, not THESE exact pumpkin bars. Mine are still cooling and therefore are lacking frosting, but I fully intend for mine to look like this in a few short hours. Minus the super cute cake stand, because, well, I don't have one of those.

So there you have it, my very favorites as of November 2010. All rights to mind changing reserved. Anything to add?

What I Like About Two

Holden has been two for a month now. Although I definitely can see why these are called the Terrible Twos, for the most part I am really enjoying my kid these days. Here's why:

The giantness of his babyhood has balanced out. As of now he is 34.5 inches (60th percentile) and 30 lbs (75th percentile). Still not a shrimp by any means, but my arms are thankful he is no longer a 99th percentile kind of kid. Especially because he has realized that walking is the pits and has reverted to wanting to be carried everywhere.

Seeing Holden learn new things is remarkable. Seeing him learn new things incorrectly is just funny. For instance, this is how he counts. 1-10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 17 and then 19 and 17 repeat themselves until you tell him he can stop counting.

He talks. A lot. And he and I have some pretty interesting conversations.
Example-
Holden: I play in cupboards?
Me: No, we aren't playing in cupboards right now.
Holden: I'm so excigeg to play in cupboards. Good choice!

Other favorites: "How's your day, mama?" and "It's okay to poop."

He does not understand the concept of playing independently. Sometimes I don't find this so endearing, particularly when I want to drink a Diet Coke or go to the bathroom, but him forcing me to play with him at all times forces me to stop and enjoy him while he still wants me around.

And now for what I DON'T like about two. I searched through every single picture I have taken of Holden since his birthday and I found these three that were acceptable. And by acceptable I mean he was A) looking at the camera, and B) not crying. My standards are not high. You may or may not be getting Christmas cards this year if this keeps up. Or maybe you'll get one with a photo of just me and Reo on it.

Welcome Home...

Back in the day, (you know, three months ago) I would come home from work or studying to a warm welcome from Holden. Okay, maybe not warm, but cute. I would open the door and hear little footsteps approaching from somewhere in the house, accompanied by a little boy going, "aaaarrrrrggghhhh". Usually, he would then see me, smile, and turn around and run off. Good times.

Lately, something has changed. Now, I walk through the door and still hear the footsteps. However, instead of the "charming" scream, I get this: "I play Rock Band, Daddy? Play Rock Band?" With this request comes him grabbing my hand and leading me to the living room and the Playstation. I usually have to decline, or at least tell him that we'll play later. It can be tough though, because who can say no to this:

Next time you see Holden, maybe he can sing you a favorite from his playlist:
"The Yeah Yeah Song," AKA Uncontrollable Urge by Devo
Roxanne by the Police
Next To You by the Police
Pump it Up by Elvis Costello

Photography Fail

Today was a nice day.

I decided to take Holden out and try to take some Fall pictures in his super cute (in real life...I promise) hat.

Instead, I got some pictures of Holden in what appears to be a really bad mullet wig.

Advice to self: Leave everything to the professionals...Always...

The Best Part of November

Fact #1: Reo is a planner, especially when it comes to gifts.

Fact #2: Despite being such a planner, Reo also is a big fan of instant gratification.

Result: He buys my Christmas presents insanely early, and I always manage to con at least one out of him before the holidays even arrive.

This year it was this super awesome apron (pay no mind to the frazzled looking girl wearing the apron..it had been a long day.)

The best part is he made it himself!! Okay, not really, I picked it out at Ross a few weeks ago, but I had you going for a minute, didn't I?

Let the Christmas Season begin!