Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! Brent and I have so much to be thankful for this year, most importantly a healthy little boy! Brock had a wonderful first Thanksgiving - he ate everything that we did! (Although the food on the plate was short-lived as he was more interested in playing with the plate than the food; so we had to dump all the food back on the tray)

My mother (to Brock it will be "Grandma Debbie") was in from North Carolina, so it was even more special to have family here to spend the holiday with! Grandma Debbie brought all of the Christmas presents here to Seattle so we wouldn't have to cart them back with us next month when we visit NC..... so after Thanksgiving dinner, we had Christmas! :)

 

This is only a sampling of how Christmas will go for us this year and we couldn't be more excited. Yes, I think he is learning what to do with the little bits of paper from Oscar, but that's okay. ;) Below is a little video of Brock playing with the Christmas paper. :)

 

The following day, Brent and I decided to drive out to Leavenworth with Brock while my mother stayed home to watch the puppies. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive one way, so driving out there for one day is a bit much. Leavenworth is a cute little town set up like a Bavarian village.

It was cold there (like high of 32), so Brock was dressed appropriately in his new one-piece snowsuit! :) Unfortunately no snow today. The drive is really quite beautiful - here is one shot I snapped while Brent was driving home. We were in the shadow of some really large mountains, but you can see the mountains in the background lit up by the sun. And I love the little church just to the left of center in this picture - standing on its own little hill surrounded by family farms. Just amazing.

Ducks!

Brent decided he needed to kill something this year and if he wasn't going to kill an elk, then it had to be ducks! If you cried during the movie Bambi, I would suggest stopping reading now. :)

Brent left the house at two in the morning to drive two and a half hours away to Ellensburg and hunt along the Columbia River.

Brent said it was beautiful, but cold. 14 degrees when they set up the duck blinds only to reach 34 at noon. Even the duck retriever, Lab/Golden mix named Maverick, was wearing a vest to stay warm.

Brent did well, as the last time he hunted ducks was nineteen years ago - he shot four ducks. 

Unfortunately when he returned home, he still had the tiring duty to defeather and clean them! Diesel was so excited, he wanted to help too!

Brock was excited to hear about Brent's adventure today because I'm sure one day he'll be out there with his daddy!

Quick East Coast Visit

Brent went to Costa Rica last week for work, so Brock and I decided to leave too. Although we didn't have this view....

View from Amazon Costa Rica

...we were still ready for our trip!

We had so much fun playing with family and friends!

Yay Uncle Brian is fun!

Andrew & Will Eberle and Brock

And we played HARD!

New toys at Grandma's house

New drawers at Grandma's

Swinging

But of course we had time to relax.

But we missed Diesel and Oscar, so it was time to go home.

Off on another American Airlines flight

We came home on Friday afternoon, picked up the dogs and had a day to settle in before Brent came home the next day. On Saturday night, I had volunteered to help out for the MOPS Mom's night out. We had a fun time - Brock came too. He loves playing with the "big kids" (those walkers!).... aka watching what they do!

The best part was Brock even had time to make a little Thanksgiving picture! The kids got to do a little craft - a nice placemat for Thanksgiving dinner! I love it!!

Back to Zulily with Daddy!

While Brent was home on vacation last week (elk hunting did not go exactly as planned), we received a last minute email from Zulily - they needed our help! An outfit could only be worn by the cutest Zulily baby boy model... and so they had to have Brock! :) Brent knows where Brock got half of his good looks from.... so the moment the stylist saw Brent, they knew they had to include him in the shoot!!

Brent was immediately sent to makeup and wardrobe so he could be in the photo shoot with Brock! I think he enjoyed his time there - seemed like such a natural.

Unfortunately the website has to focus on Brock's clothing, so Brent's face is slightly cut from the shot, but it still makes such a cute photo! You can totally tell who it is!

They'll send us extra photos in a few weeks and it will make for such wonderful shots of Daddy and son! :)

Brock also modeled another outfit - the "Nannette" collection that debuted last Friday. He's such a good model - showing the sleeve patch!

Nine Months!

Baby Brock is nine months old now! He's so big and oh so mobile! He has perfected his crawling and is starting to lift himself up on his knees.... pulling up is right around the corner, so for precaution, the crib is lowered all the way! Three top teeth all broke through this past weekend and he just managed to fall while crawling last night and have his very first bloody lip due to his new dental work.

His new-found skill is starting to get him into some trouble. He has forgotten all about his own toys now and only wants to play with either the dog's toys in their basket, the dog's food in their bowls, the cable box, the books on the bookshelf, or the cord for the lamp. I guess it's time to truly baby-proof the house. 

Brock's nine month well-check appointment went great! Very healthy boy - and big! He's weighing 23 pounds (75th percentile) and measures 30 inches (95th percentile). Next well-check visit is for his 12 months! Wow!