our thanksgiving

living so close to both of our families means we often get to celebrate holidays with both sides of the family and the celebration extends over multiple days, something we are so grateful. Thanksgiving day was spent with the Ryttings. Mairin was home from New York so we were all together, something we didn’t think was going to happen this year, since injured Chris should have been in Chile and we were supposed to be in Grad School out of state. So being all together this year was a pleasant surprise. We went for a little fallish walk, watched Greenbay continue to be undefeated and ate some seriously delicious food.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, like every year, we went and picked out our Christmas Tree. It was so fun to start celebrating the Henry’s first Christmas season.

Thanksgiving round two took place at the Jacobs home, where I was too lazy to take any pictures. this also included yummy food including one of our newer favorites: upside down caramel pecan apple pie. sounds complicated but it couldn’t be more simple. even I can make it and I am no baker. we had a great time with family once again and if I could just toot my own horn for a second, I did happen to beat the boys at Settlers. twice. in a row. (I got lucky.) it was such a pleasant break, it’s always such a treat to spend time with mckay. so many things to be grateful for. our wonderful, supportive families, friends, the gospel and the knowledge of eternal families, our health, and our sweet little babe who is the biggest joy. I could go on forever. we are incredibly blessed and I’m grateful for this time of year to reflect on all our blessings. I should really do it more often. we hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, looking forward to Christmas and all its fun!

weekend projects

 

henry is tending to be a little high maintenance lately. he’s fed up with his immobility and trying with all his might to become a crawler, it just hasn’t happened yet. He gets on his hands and knees and bounces back and forth trying so hard to propel himself forward. when we set him on the ground to play with toys he instantly goes from sitting to his stomach and then screams in frustration because he cant move anywhere. so most of my time is occupied with the effort to get this babe moving. despite all this we managed to squeeze in a few crafty crafts over the weekend. we decided to spruce up Henry’s room a little bit.

Project #1 was inspired from an idea I have seen all over the internet. and I’m sure I’m not the only one. I couldn’t even guess what the original source is but I remember seeing this done when I was just barely pregnant, so it’s definitely been around awhile, and on our “to do” list for quite some time. we bought wooden spice racks from Ikea and spray painted them white, attached them to the wall and they became little bookshelves.

project #2 came from the always inspiring Pinterest. I downloaded these free alphabet printables, printed them onto white cardstock and hung them clothesline style. only thing purchased for this project was the clothespins from hobby lobby.

 

these pictures don’t do justice to how cute these printables are. ( no windows = poor lighting. but I love them. a lot. such a fun way to add visual interest in a room. I’ve already caught henry looking at them every once in awhile. we also gathered up some things for our next project. also for Henry. Mckay will be helping with this one which is wonderful. projects with the husband are one of my absolute favorite things.

weekend

complete picture overload coming up. this weekend was amazing. all the Jacobs under one roof again, total heaven. we had so.much.fun! Henry was an instant fan of Marty. We played non stop, ate way too much, and started Monday wishing the weekend had been just a little bit longer.

big week.

big things happening this week. Last night we welcomed brother Chris home from the MTC. foot surgery. he’ll be home for about 2 months. bittersweet. such a bummer to leave the spiritual high of a mission to come home, instead of heading to Chile with his district, but we’re a little excited that he’ll be home for the holidays. I guess if you had to come home for surgery, now would be the ideal time. So with one brother home we have another one on the way! Marty is coming home from his mission in Australia on Saturday. and boy are we excited. It’s been almost 4 years since my entire family was all together so it’s going to be loads of fun. Aaaand, this little gentleman turns 9 months on Friday. I can’t even believe it.

still no teeth (so cute), still no crawling (although he sways back and forth on his hands and knees building momentum, so we’re close. just need to move that hand forward… he is excellent at scooting backwards.

new skills: clapping, which is super recent, and giving kisses, which just melt my heart. A henry kiss entails him leaning forward, mouth open until he reaches your cheek where he then drools all over you. I love it. he’s such a happy easy baby, and loud… always talking and cooing to himself which is cute, but makes things like church a little rough. For some reason he is the most high maintenance at church, doesn’t want you to put him down, but doesn’t want you to hold him either. he gets fussy and loud and by the end of sacrament I am exhausted and my arms feel like they’re about to fall off. I have yet to make it to a full 3 hours of church.

 

lots of firsts coming up especially with the Holidays. like his first experience with snow the other night. he was intrigued.

and first wearing of a tie. we are so blessed and love our sweet babe more than we ever thought possible.

we carved pumpkins

or I guess I should say Mckay carved a pumpkin, whilst the babe supervised.

I, for the second year in a row gave up after about 20 minutes. One day I’ll actually complete one. But a fussy babe, picture taking and the roasting of the pumpkin seeds kept me too occupied. The carving got a little competitive this year when we learned there were prizes. Had I known the winner would get a gift card to Café Rio I probably would have tried a little harder, although I did benefit from Mckay’s second place prize. also a gift card. I on the other hand was cheated out of my last place prize (apple pie caramel apple) when brother Adam ate it.  the night was complete with delicious steak sandwiches and corn chowder and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Mckay replicated the mom tattoo, pure brown-nosing skills at their finest (my mom was the judge).

Monday we continued the Halloween celebration with some epic chili courtesy of Mrs. Klappoth, Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake (thank you Paula Deen) and my first Zombie movie ever. ew.  I love celebrating a holiday over an entire weekend. Next up, Thanksgiving which means a visit from auntie Mairin. hooray!