Giving thanks for firsts

This is a first for us. Tim and I are celebrating Thanksgiving in Texas for the first time, also I'm doing all the cooking  for the first time. We chose to keep it simple with a turkey roast along with stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes and crescent rolls. Ideally I would have liked to do things a little more extravagant,  but where  as it was just the two of us enjoying the feast it was just simple.
Everything turned out great, and we enjoyed the food. There were just the small things that we miss from years past like Tim's mothers homemade rolls, and my momma's pumpkin pie....mmmmmm, yummy yummy!
We did have pie, but we only did one. Again just the two of us to eat it all up.... we bought a Marie Calendars banana cream pie. One of our favorites.
We did get to enjoy conversation with our families via video chat later in the evening. It sure was great to see everyone.
After today's experiences I definitely have learned, and have ideas for next year but now we get ready for Christmas.  I'm getting the tree up and decorated by the weekends end.

Eight is great

I'm amazed each month at the growth and development of my sweet boy. This month marks 8 months for Kohl. He's starting to pull himself up and with that we had to lower his crib. I caught him standing in his crib one morning, and that made me nervous so down the crib went.
He always seems to be friendly and real happy. He only gets real fussy when he's tired.
Bath time for me is getting wetter as his splashes seem to grow bigger with excitement. I'm so relieved that he enjoys it.
Kohl also enjoys going for walks in the stroller. He just sits there and looks around at everything. He's a curious little monkey.
We also have a crawler. Sunday night he started crawling, and I thought to myself "Oh Boy!" I'm glad that he's able to crawl, but I worry about the things that he will get himself into.
With his growth I've started him with a few self feeding foods like puff cereals, and yogurt bites which he evens very much. I've added meats to his eating repertoire along with mango, raspberries, and corn. I also tried giving him mashed mandarin oranges, but I he didn't seem to enjoy them much.
Each day I spend time playing with Kohl, and I am just amazed at the miracle that is him. I am really blessed to have my boy, and unbelievably thankful for this blessing.

First Halloween

This was Kohl's first Halloween. We didn't do the traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating, however I did dress him up in his awesome skeleton costume. We spent a nice evening at home playing with toys and answering the door for those who were trick-or-treating. Kohl's friend PJ came and showed off his adorable monkey costume.
Tim and I had pizza. Which is a family tradition, and we enjoyed lots of sweets and some halloween candy.

7 Month Mark

Just a quick bit about Kohl turning 7 months old. I really can't believe where time has gone, but we are having fun growing. Kohl is healthy and happy. He's on the verge of crawling. He's able to got on his hand ands knees and just rocks back and rock. He tries so very hard to move forward, and mostly gets upset, but I know he'll be crawling real soon.

Texas State Fair

Tim and I took Kohl to the State Fair of Texas. That is the official title of the event. It's a pretty big deal here. The fair goes for 3 weeks, and there is SOOOOO much to do, and see. We barely scraped the surface of fun to be had at the fair.

Traffic into the fair was crazy, but once you get in it's really amazing. Their rides are bigger then I've ever seen at a fair. There are games galore. They of course had live stock which we did not see, but wish we had.

 

When we first walked in there was a sunscreen station there for everyone and anyone to use. I was very grateful since I had forgotten our sunscreen at home. Once we had our protection on we played a game with balloons and water guns, and we were able to win this cute stuffed giraffe for Kohl. Kohl didn't like the sound of the balloons popping, but we had fun.


Next we both got a corny dog, which was tasty and then we were off. They had a pumpkin carving exhibit in this greenhouse type place. We walked around, and it was so beautiful. 

Farmer Mike carves pumpkins for a hobby, and does some pretty amazing things. I wish I had the skills to carve pumpkins like he does.

We saw the state fair icon "Big Tex." He's this giant animatronic statute that is well over 50 feet. He talks, and his mouth moves as well as his hand and arm. It's pretty cool.

We walked through this amazing Chinese Lantern festival with these huge sculpted laterns. We were there in the early day so of course we didn't see them lit up, but just the colors from the fabrics sewn together was bright and colorful. 

Also while at the fair we enjoyed funnel cake, cotton candy, and fried chicken on a stick. They had LOTS of amazing foods. You can get pretty much anything fried there.

We had a great time and want to go next year.