Christmas Tree hunting

On Sunday we went to the Chugach National Forest to cut down our Christmas Tree. Specifically we went to the trailhead of Johnson Trail. This is the same place where we went snow camping with Kari, Jared, and Rachel last year, and picked up our 20 footer. This year we had a more modest tree in mind, since our ceilings are only 8 feet high. The weather was overcast, but it was in the low 20's, so it was nice and warm for little Abe. He hung out in the Baby bjorn facing outward, so he could take in all of the sights and sounds.
Abe, Emily and Scott in the parking lot of Johnson Trail. This is where we set out for our tree-finding adventure.
We went a little different route this time around. Not far from the parking lot was this wide-open snowfield. The 'Dood had a field day running around. We headed into the thick of the woods to find our tree.
Here is Scott in the snow covered forrest. He had a blast snowshoeing the trail.
It was nice and warm out. Abe did a great job of haning out in the bjorn. It helped that he had a little snack righrt before we left the car.
Here we are infront of our tree! We didn't cut the whole thing down. We made our cut about 5 feet off the ground. And by 'we' I really mean 'Scott'. He tore through that thing in a jiffy!
The little guy was tuckered out from his first snow adventure.
After we cut down the tree, we noticed it was a little taller than we needed. Once again Scott showcased his sawing prowess by sawing off another 4 feet or so.
The hardworking brothers posing with the tree.
Emily, Abe, Banjo and Neil - the happy fam infront of their 2009 Christmas Tree.

Abe on your shoulders

Abe and Scott
Abe and Emily
Abe and Neil

Who's shoulders does Abe like sitting on the most? It's hard to tell, but we all got a turn to try and find out. I think the little guy was more shocked than anything. Look at those big eyes!!!
It snowed a bunch on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Here is Emily cleaning off the car on Friday morning so we can hit up the sales at Target and Best Buy. One of the crappy things about not having a garage in Alaska is that even when you do clean all of the snow off of your car, you have to do it again because it keeps snowing! Look at the snow that is already piling up on the driver side window, even though Emily just cleaned it off!
Here's a cute picture of the little guy having some sleeps. Truth be told, he's not so little anymore. He has some beefy legs!

A happy thanksgiving indeed!

The finished product.


Carving the bird.
Waiting for scraps.

After the marathon of cooking that started Wednesday, our thanksgiving dinner was quite tasty. We had a great meal, and so much to be thankful for: Little Abe turned 3 months, Scott came up to visit us, Uncle Stuart got to go home from the hospital, and 5 new inches of snow! It really was an all day cooking event. In the morning I got up to go to swimming (exercising to maximize thanksgiving enjoyment later in the day is a must!) while Neil got the rolls ready (I had made the dough earlier in the week), and whipped up the pumpkin pie filling. When I got back it was go time! First pies, then rolls, followed by gravy, turkey, sticky rice, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, cranberry sauce (mmmm...I'm never going back to the canned stuff. Making it with fresh berries was so easy and quite tasty.), and beats. Everything was really tasty, although I didn't think the gravy was worth all of the effort, and the turkey turned out a bit dry. But, not bad for a first attempt. And the best part of it all: Leftovers! This morning I had a nice piece of pumpkin pie (good job Neil) and some sticky rice (good job me).

Grub.
Even a card table can make a nice thanksgiving table.
Now that's a plate!
Uncle Scott and Abe. (Abe with a look of "oh no! please don't eat me!")
The happy family sit down for their first thanksgiving meal together!

Going Julie and Julia

Two little turkeys.

This will be the first thanksgiving dinner I have ever cooked to date. I'm trying not to stress out too much about the giganticness of a turkey (which weighs the same as Abe, by the way--15 lbs). Other similarities: both turkey and Abie are butterballs, turkey is apparently a "young bird" and Abe is a young mammal, both turkey and Abe require dressing (although I'm still not sure what that means for the turkey), and both turkey and Abe will be guests of honor at dinner.

Abe & Daddy

Video Test

12 weeks

Today Abe turns 12 weeks old. Where did the time go? He's been a little fussy these past few days, because he caught another cold, but other than that he's good as usual. His latest thing has been to hold his hands together. He's also been a lot more interested in his toys and people and things around him. Here are a few pics of him playing on his little mat and looking at himself in the mirror.

The Progression of Abram

In case you weren't convinced that Abe has been growing, here are a few shots taken over the last few months. Banjo has grown more fur and changed in size only slightly (thanks ruth).

Little Abe and the Dood, 2 1/2 weeks.
Medium Abe and the Dood, 7 weeks.
Big Abe and the Dood, 12 weeks.

Vaccines and shots do not equal a happy baby

This last Saturday we took Abe in to get his first series of shots. Three in all, with another vaccine given orally. Two nurses gave him the shots at the same time, in each leg. He did remarkably well, barely making a sour face when they poked them. Five minutes later it seemed he hardly remembered what had happened.
Later Saturday we Emily, Abe and I were off to a DNA party at my co-workers house. We were just going to eat some good food, hang out, and play some games. But right before we were about to leave Emily started to not feel well (I was violently ill on Wednesday, and it seemed like Emily was starting to come down with what I had). So she and Abe stayed home while I went to party.
I called during the party to see how Emily was doing, and she said something to the effect like "Abe remembered that he had his shots today. He's been fussy since he left." So I came home a little while later with some infant Tylenol. Long story shot, Abe's temp got as high as 102.8 during the night. We called a nurse, and she said that the high temp was normal (b/c of his shots) but that we could keep it under control with the Tylenol.
But Abe didn't like to sleep in his crib that night. And since Emily wasn't feeling well and didn't want to get Abe sick, that meant I had Abe duty all night. And Abe didn't even like to sleep in my arms when I sat down. Which mean I had to talk around a lot. Which I did from from 2:45 AM until 5. Then I could lay down. So I watch some Netflix (I am Legand) and some LOST.
Sunday and Monday were pretty low-key. I took care of Abe while Emily got better. We did have our first substantial snow Sunday night. Which means I really need to get the studs on the car.
Here is Abe sporting two of this Crayola band-aids on this leg. He was such a trooper.
Abe received a little present from his friend Oliver - a plant pot! No, it's actually a little tub for a baby, but shaped so they can kind of sit up. He seemed to enjoy it a bunch.
While Abe liked the new tub, it doesn't have the best design for actually cleaning the boy. Oh well.

caveman and the little dino

Caveman and the unhappy dinosaur
The caveman feeding her little dino friend.
I'm cute!
Little pumpkin's first hallow's eve.

Yesterday was a busy one for little Abram.  We celebrated his first halloween by having some friends over after swimming for breakfast to meet him.  I made chili egg puff, and Becky from fruit and Laura made some really tasty scones.  After breakfast Becky decided to show us some of her pilates poses, which was rather entertaining for us, and rathe perplexing for Banjo.

Following breakfast we took the little pumpkin to the doctors.  He still has his cold and we just wanted to have him checked out, because he was starting to have a spell of diarrhea.  (Good thing Abe can't read yet, otherwise this might embarrass him).  The doctor checked him out and said that his lungs, ears, etc. were just fine.  And that he should be over his cold pretty soon.

In the afternoon I raked many many piles of leaves in the front of our house.  Today (hint hint) Neil can bag them all up.  Have to get them up before the snow buries them.

In the evening we went to Margaret and Ryan's Halloween party.  Since Abe had his cute little dinosaur outfit to wear, I went as a caveman.  I wore my giraffe pajama's (I'm pretty sure cavement didn't wear giraffe fur, but oh well), banjo's nyla bone (which meant that he was following me all around the house before we left), and Abe's sheep skin.