Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. We're spending the day together, enjoying delights such as the 'Best Weekend Kale Salad' (my favorite salad in the entire world!), vegetarian lasagna, pumpkin shiitake risotto with pine nuts  homemade rolls, fake chick'n, mashed potatoes (sweet and regular), Worthington vegetarian dinner roast, stuffing with gravy and pear apple tartlet. We may very well be those Americans that eat so many calories today that it takes 45 miles to run it off (!!).

 

 I'm thankful for many things this year and though I reflect on them daily, it's still good to declare it publicly. I'm thankful for the dedicated, fun, service-oriented team at Bramble Berry, I'm thankful for a healthy baby boy, a baby in my tummy and a happy marriage to a kind, thoughtful man, I'm thankful for my close and extended family, our health, the place we live (Bellingham really is incredible) and the opportunity to spend a couple days with family, laughing, loving and reflecting. I hope you are able to do the same.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jamisen on Twitter

Did you know that Jamisen has been on Twitter since he was born? You can go look at 19 months of photos (it's easy - just click "View Photo" by every tweet). Memory lane is sure fun.

He's here: https://twitter.com/bramblebump 

We also have a poll over at the Soap Queen blog to guess the sex of the baby. You can vote easily here (top right on the toolbar).

Fall Hiking

We had a great weekend hike with our family last weekend. Jamisen has quite the independent streak and wanted to walk over all the logs by himself. Demonstrating quite the balance skills, he did a fantastic job.  

 Our niece and nephew, Samantha and Toby, also joined us. Jamisen loved them, squealing with peals of laughter every time they came around. He was truly delighted with their company.  

 Another log conquered!

   

 You can't see him because he's taking the photo but Grandpa Faiola is on the hike with us too. What a happy family! And perfectly posed dogs (so well behaved!). 

 I love our family time and really appreciate our family unit. Everyone has such fun with eachother, laughs all the time and is so encouraging. We are blessed.

Really Likes His Truck

First thing Jamisen did after his shower? Ran right out to play with his new favorite toy:

 

 Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Renoud!

New Truck

Our baby Jamisen is getting quite the sweet little attitude. It's hilarious. I can't stop laughing when he does this stuff which makes it hard to discipline. Also, notice at the end when he whispered 'Mama.'  

 We had a great weekend visit with Grandma and Grandpa Renoud and other family members (brother Weston, sister in law Anna, sister in law Anamarie).  

 We dined on delicious cottage cheese loaf, yummy pastries, cheese and the most decadent cream-cheese based Southwest dip (ever!).  

 They brought Jamisen the cutest, most adorable, quality wooden truck (ever). It was such a thoughtful gift:  

 Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Renoud!

Kumquats and Pumpkins

Baby Number Two is officially a Kumquat. And obviously, from how much I am showing, my uterus in the size of a watermelon. Thank goodness Kumquat isn't crowded in there!

We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend.  

Jamisen picked out our family pumpkin. He made a valiant attempt to carry it himself.  

He seemed plenty fine with the horses but amazingly, I learned something knew about his Daddy. Chris is scared of horses (?!). Who knew?! Not I!  

This little Shetland Pony is more like it.

  

 Jamisen also 'forehead bumped' (his baby way of kissing) the bunny rabbit.  

And, the sheep

.  

 He tried to 'forehead bump' the turkey but Chris was not having any of that! Jamisen loved the tractor too!

  

This farm has an animal petty zoo in a trailer that can come to birthday parties. Here is their number for me to remember when Jamisen is 6 years old and we hire a petting zoo trailer for his birthday party.

Cuteasaurux Rex

Jamisen's second Halloween celebration kept with the animal theme (last year, he was a cow). Only, this time, it wasn't an actual living animal. He went as a Cuteasarux Rex! And, while I would never be one to be competitive, I'm pretty sure he was the cutest Cuteasaurus Rex at the Harvest Festival celebration we went to (with, or without, the headgear).  

 It's raining cats, dogs, and an occasional frog around here so we opted for an indoor party. Plus, Jamisen has never eaten an actual bar of candy so we figured he didn't care much about the actual trick'or'treating part of the night.  

This was the perfect place for him, complete with kids, slides, cookie decorating (oh yes, there was sugar cookies and orange frosting) and a bean bag toss (which, he cleverly won by walking up to the bucket and dropping the bean bag in. Obviously, he's an out-of-the-box thinker).  

 There was a Fruit Loop necklace station. Jamisen was extremely delighted with the concept of Fruit Loops and spent most of the rest of the evening eating his necklace.  

 Unfortunately, he was not a fan of the awesome Cuteasaurus Rex headwear (clearly, this child would not last at a wedding in Britain) so we have this photo series to prove that the costume was a complete cute overload.  

 I hope you had a fantastic Halloween or Harvest Festival tonight. To all of our friends on the East Coast, you're in our thoughts and prayers.