Gobble Gobble

Jeff had Wednesday off work so after Eli's nap we took advantage of the bearable weather for an afternoon at the park.

Eli loves slides. Especially the big ones. He goes down feet first on his belly and I'm fairly certain his face scrapes the whole way down. But he doesn't seem to mind.

First time on a swing. He only fell off once.

Our Thanksgiving was spent at my Grandparents' house with my extended family. Everyone drools over my Grandma's delicious gravy and stuffing.

Excuse my face in all these pictures. I've had a sore throat for the past three weeks and of course it flared up the worst on Thanksgiving. I was super tired all day long and didn't have much of an appetite. It was an annoying day to not want food. Also excuse Eli's rosy cheeks. Maybe he's teething again? Or maybe he is Santa in disguise?

Despite my lack of appetite, my stomach still grew and grew. My Grandma's stuffing is so good it even tastes good when you don't feel like eating.

Our company.

And the other side.

My cousins adore anyone they can tote around and dress up. Sorry #2, but I fear you'll be facing the same dolled-up fate.

The Ward women.

Jeff burned off his Thanksgiving meal by chasing Eli around.

Full and happy.

Full and happy.

Now onto dessert. I love me some pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

Eli plopped right on my Grandpa's lap in an attempt to get closer to the fire. See. When you take off the hair bow and necklace he really is a boy.

Celebrating November birthdays.

Here's the thing -- we never light candles or sing to the family members who aren't at the party. Sure, we'll mention their birthday, but that's the extent of our efforts for people who don't make their birthday celebration.

Unless of course you're the favorite grandson I guess. Jacob has this long-running joke with my Grandma that he's the favorite grandson. And when she brought out a pie with candles on it just for him, I started to wonder if this special treatment meant he really was the favorite grandson after all!

My Grandma tried to explain that we were singing and candle-lighting for him because his birthday was that day. But I'm still left wondering, and I'm not the only one.

After we sang to the absent Jacob, Ben went up to my Grandma with one arm tightly around her and said, "Now, he's not really your favorite grandson...is he?" It was cute.

After our Thanksgiving meal we went to my parents' house and happened to run into the Golden family! Eli kept trying to talk to Spencer which was the most darling thing ever. When Spencer didn't respond, Eli hopped on a chair for closer communication and found some tasty bananas on his tray to steal.

And lookie here. After a horrible night of Eli being up from 12:00-2:30, we were forced to pull out our emergency binky. Worked like a charm.

Jeff was a doll and took Eli on Friday afternoon so I could go see "The Help" with my Mom. And you better believe we conveniently picked the theater closest to Schlotzky's so we had an excuse to stop by for dinner afterwards.

Today I met up with my dearest Kenzer for some frozen yogurt. Don't judge her because she puts kiwi on her ice-cream. She served her mission in New Zealand and kiwis take her back to her days of skirts and a name tag.

You can however judge her for having an embarrassing stain on her shirt.

After ice-cream I got the urge to decorate for Christmas. I got out the tinsel and lights, put on some Christmas music and gathered the boys to spread Christmas cheer on our house.

Due to budgeting, it's pretty likely we will not have a Christmas tree this year because we're hoping to get one for cheap after Christmas. So we were forced to get creative in our decorating.

Eli loved the lights so much. He especially loved unplugging them and plugging them back in. We quickly realized we couldn't put the lights anywhere out of Eli's reach so we threw those back in the Christmas bag.

After an hour of decorating, this was the extent of our work:

Then Eli spent the next hour doing this...

We're not sure what made him pull this face, but we thought it was hilarious.

Especially when he did it while smiling.

Such a goofball.