Ramsey's First Christmas -

Christmas... what a special time of year!   Ramsey and Riggs both had their first Christmases with us.  It was priceless!

As usual, the house was decked out in gold and red, garland strands, and flickering lights.

Since Ramsey has been crawling everywhere, we decided not to push the fires this year, except on TV.
Notice the lettering on the stockings.  We joked that we should have named Ramsey "William" or something that started with a W.

Before Christmas, Ramsey was busy poking around in the presents.  He was Mr. Curios.

Here are my boys on Christmas Eve day, before we started opening gifts.

And Mom and I with the kiddos too....

Big Brubby Connor with Little Baby Bro...

Missing from the festivities: Uncle Lance.  He was sick with the flu.  :-(
Dear Auntie Peggy was there with us in spirit.

And, of course, our beloved family members that live far away.

Here's Connor with his gigantic candy cane and stack of presents.

Ramsey enjoyed the bows, wrapping paper, and boxes that his presents came in.

He enjoyed his nice presents from all of us too!

Connor got some fun stuff too; more Mega Bloks and a Kindle Fire HD to name a few.

Eric opening a present from the boys...

And Riggs got lots of presents as well.  He was so excited, he would barely sit still.... and he wouldn't stop licking me.  I guess that means "thank you"?!?!?!  Actually, that's kind of normal behavior when there's a lot going on.  ha!

Here's Connor checking out all of the cool new features on his Kindle Fire....

And here's Eric sarcastically showing how he games with a hand-held, playing around on my old smart phone...  He says he got gipped!

Ramsey was enamored with The Nutcracker musical statue that Auntie Nancy, Cooper, and Kahti sent.

 Here he is donning his "big boy" pajamas that he got from Nana Karen.

After a late breakfast, everyone cleared out their stockings and Connor helped Ramsey open his presents from Santa.

What a very Merry Christmas we had!

Food & Wine Connoisseur

Ramsey is usually my little sidekick in the kitchen.   These pictures reflect a little different aspect of his repertoire.  
These were taken at Mom's house.  We stayed for a few days, painting china and helping while hunters stayed.

A good read.   HA!  Health-conscious already.

Or maybe he was just hungry....

Um....

Eh?  Aye yi yi!

Ramsey's First Thanksgiving...

Though our Thanksgiving this year was very low-key (Connor was at his Mom's, Nana Vicki was recuperating from her foot surgery at home with Bumpa and Uncle Cory, and Lance was with friends), I still decided that it was imperative that we (Eric, Nana Karen, Ramsey, Riggs, and me) had the typical (aka "large") spread of food (a mammoth turkey and an "Apple of My Eye" cheesecake were the best, I thought.)

Ramsey was up with me in the morning, acting as my little sous chef/companion while I cooked.  He was in his high chair for nearly two hours before Mom and Eric stirred out of bed.  He was content with a few toys, watching me prep food, and singing silly songs while dancing around with spatulas.   We had a good time! 

The house was full of the Fall décor even though it was C-C-C-COLD outside with snow on the ground. 

Here's Ramsey and me in the kitchen, cooking.  ...such a trooper!  I had to sport the ol' apron for the day.

Dinner was ready at 1:30 (the usual time for our Thanksgiving meal), but Ramsey wasn't so ready.  We had to postpone chow time until the little scrapper woke up!  He....was...OUT!

After lunch, the rest of the day was all about relaxing and watching football!

The dishes waited a little while.

Riggsy got a few tiny bites of turkey, but he had a special treat of his own; a humungous rawhide.   He had it gone by the next day.  Oye!

And... speaking of dog bones....!!

When Ramsey hangs out in his Pack N Plays, he loves to chuck his toys out the side, onto the floor (this usually gets Riggs into trouble for snagging them... unless he can contain himself which is only about half of the time).   When I put the toys back in the pen, apparently I wasn't paying complete attention.  A new experience for Ramsey; the taste and texture of a new small rawhide.  Whoops.

So, all in all, it was quite an uneventful day, but we enjoyed ourselves.  We had leftovers for a week.  The rest of the weekend was spent putting up all of the Christmas decorations... and more football, of course.  :-)

A Remembrance to Peggy

I am blogging a sad post today, not to be morbid, but to pay homage to my dear sister-in-law Peggy who passed on All Soul's Day; Sunday, November 2, 2014.  After 12 years of fighting hard and valiantly, she finally lost her battle with ovarian cancer. 
When I print this blog at the end of the year for the boys, I want them to be able to look at it and remember what a doll she was and how she much loved them. 
We'll miss you Peggy.  You had a heart of gold, dear sister.

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Art

Master carver?  Hmmmm.....

Here it is lit up:

 

I wish!!
With all of the goings-on here lately and constantly on the run, we're a little bit late on carving our nice big pumpkins that Nana Vicki and Bumpa gave us.  (We're going to play around with that this weekend!!)  They're going to be more like Thanksgiving pumpkins!

While taking a few minutes out of my hectic day, I thought I'd goof around with my new version of Photoshop to make some pumpkin art.  Technology.... so cool! 

(Later that day...  I HAD TO DO SOME MORE!!  I'm an addict.)

 

A Very Riggsy Birthday

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY RIGGSY!

Riggs turned ONE on November 8th.   To celebrate this milestone (and honestly, more for something fun for the kids to experience), we had a "dog party" for him, complete with tons of treats, toys, presents, balloons, and play time. 

By the way, no, I did not bake him cake (though the crazy notion did cross my mind).  But, while the rest of us enjoyed burgers and malts, he got Eric's trimmings from his big juicy New York Strip steak.  (I think he'd rather have that than cake any day.)

We did sing Happy Birthday to him.  Connor sang it a plethora of times over the weekend... again... and again... and again.... and again.  lol

Below is a typical snapshot of our crazy little family.  We just can't seem to get a picture with everyone looking in the same direction at the same time.  Chaos!  Ha!

Riggs was a happy puppy that day.  He had an "excuse" to be naughty; he was so excited!

Connor was the honorary present-opener.

Riggsy's presents included a horde of new dog bones, raw hides in various shapes and sizes (to include a 12" dinosaur-sized bone), a new special Frisbee, and a new choke collar. 

In case you're wondering, it took less than a day for the gigantic bone to be eaten.

 Ramsey seemed more interested in testing out the new choke collar.

Earlier that day, we took Riggs outside to play Frisbee with his new one and Connor's super-far-flying-Frisbee (which only got stuck in the tree once, incidentally).  It was chilly, but it didn't snow until that evening.  Whew!  Just made it.

 

"HOOO HOOO" Is That? Happy Halloween!

Hootie Hootie Hoo!  Happy Halloween!!!

Unfortunately, this year we were "Connorless" for Halloween.  Ramsey, however, was on board and ready to get out and about, collecting candy on this fun holiday for the first time. 

Mom and I dressed him up in his new owl costume (we also tried out a lion - but he HATED the headpiece, as it was huge and wonky - and also a bee outfit, but it wasn't as cute) and headed to town in the afternoon.  We first visited Daddy at the police department (he got LOTS of candy and attention there!) and then we went to see Auntie Peggy in the hospital.  She kept calling him "the little green owl".  :-) 

(I didn't know owls had big orange feet like ducks!  ha)

Eric found a fun lion costume for Riggsy as well, but he didn't like wearing it; he kept biting at the big fluffy mane, shaking his head feverishly, trying to get it off.  He wouldn't sit or stand still to get a good picture!  His coloring is perfect for the guise.  Maybe next year he'll be able to contain himself and keep it on!

When we returned home on Halloween night, Eric had set up little "tricks" to try to scare us with.  The lights in the house were off and he had a werewolf mask hanging in a dark corner.  It didn't startle me the first time, but we left it up and it spooked me later.

He also hung a huge hairy spider in the shower!  Gross!  ha!