Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend! The meal was great (I included a lovely picture of the fixings, the 24# turkey is carved under the towel, and table settings, Barry did the napkins)! While Steve and Cindy were here they helped Barry finish our basement flooring. It is so great to have gone from cheap stained carpet to pergo-type flooring! After this weekend (as I'm sure Steve and Cindy would agree and my mom has probably been thinking for months) I have realized just how busy Brody is....he's just exhausting to watch. He stands up then sits down, then back up again, walk along the wall a bit, back down again, crawl some, turn to make sure we're watching him, crawl some more. Exhausting!

After some clever thinking, we determined that we could put up a tree this year even with Mr. Trouble Finder around. At the end of the weekend we put up our Christmas tree that came fresh cut from Ely. Brody digs the lights. Barry got him the Santa hat! I'm excited for him to have his first Christmas.

Milestones for this week include Brody investigating and finding just which cupboards do not have child latches on them, discovering how fun it is to open the toilet seat, figuring out how to pull out all of the safety things from the outlets, pushing all of the equipment out of the TV stand, etc. Oh yeah, the real milestones include saying "buh-bye" "ball" and "up." He also stands for a few seconds on his own and my dad is convinced he'll be walking by December 9th (seriously, he made me mark it on the calendar).

Happy Thanksgiving

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. Guests included Grandpa Steve, Grandma Cindy, GG Marian, Papa Jeff, Oma Annie, Uncle Sean, Auntie Heather, Uncle Josh, Auntie Whitney, Cousin Claire, and Cousin Max. We had all of the traditional foods and it turned out great! Thanks for all that had a hand in helping make the meal turn out so great and thanks for the great company! Brody enjoyed most of the food for his first Thanksgiving.

Photo Shoot and Last Week

We tried to do a photo shoot of the whole Docken family...who were we kidding? A photo shoot with 3 infants/toddlers and a camera timer? Pictures to come on that one!

Brody's Winter Wonderland

Brody got to see his first big snowfall (he was mostly sleeping all of last winter). He was a little uncertain if he was digging it or not!

Day Off

It's only 9:15am on my day off for Veterans Day and I think I'm ready to head back to work. Work is way easier than constantly diverting Brody from the cupboards and drawers while trying to install safety latches with a drill, plus squeezing in some studying, paper writing, and laundry. I'm not cut out for that! One would think a glorious day off would be the perfect opportunity to catch up on studying, boy was I foolish!

Thank you mom for all of your hard work every day with Brody. How you accomplish so many other tasks (crafts, shopping, laundry, cooking/baking, tidying, etc) and are still standing when I get home from work is beyond me! You are one amazing person!

Study break over...back to work while the bambino is napping!

Some random pictures from the weekend, including Barry's first visit to our new nephew, Max. Brody's new duck lips, which he loves to do with each bite. Barry and Brody wrestling, which they did a lot of this weekend!

Brody discovered the wonderful world of cupboards and drawers this week. If he didn't get caught dangling in the air after the drawer opens or pinched fingers after a cupboard shuts, this would provide great entertainment. Unfortunately, both happen. Time to get to cupboard baby-proofing.

Happy 9 Months Broden Riley!

Today Brody is 9 months old and on his 9 month birthday his new cousin, Maxwell, was born. Congrats to Josh and Whitney on their super cute addition to their family!

This weekend we did a little photo shoot with Heather's help at the farm to get some 9 month photos of Brody. Brody at 9 months is moving around like crazy. He crawls around non-stop, pulls himself up by the furniture and walks along it, and babbles on and on. He's got 8 teeth and barely any hair. At his 9 month check-up he weighed 20 pounds, 10 oz and was 28 1/2 inches tall.

I plan to do some editing of these photos in hopes of making them really great!