Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving to everyone! I am so thankful for my family, and this holiday has been really a great time to reflect on how lucky I am. I have a wonderful, loving husband who is very involved with his family. I have a beautiful, happy baby girl who is a joy to care for everyday. And I have a great support system of my family and friends. Sometimes I forget those things, and that is why I was so glad to be able to spend this holiday with my family. We started up at my father's house... My mom and dad & step-mom were there, as well as my brother & his girlfriend, step-brother, step-sister & her fiance. We had some fun hanging out with them and playing around with Piper. Then we went down to my father-in-law's house for dinner... Jason's brother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew, and niece were all there. Also my father-in-law's girlfriend and her mother were there, her daughter and grandson also showed up later that day. It was really nice to be surrounded by family. And of course everyone was happy to see Piper. This is her in her Thanksgiving dress.

The biggest news this week is that she has started crawling. Last weekend was when she started, but it was very messy. She kept trying to straighten her legs, but she was successfully moving forward. Now she has gotten a bit better. She is able to move one knee and then the next, but she still isn't too fast. It is very exciting. She loves crawling around and then sitting up to play with her toys. This was a picture that I took at my dad's house when she was crawling around and I thought it was just precious.
So Happy Thanksgiving! Now bring on Christmas!! :)

Pass The Cheer

Last Wednesday Piper and I went over to Claudia's house for a playdate. Becca and I took the girls out for a walk, and then we stopped at Starbucks for a coffee. I absolutely love this time of year because Starbucks gets so into the Christmas holiday, and I love their Christmas flavorings. (My favorite holiday drink is a Gingerbread Chai Tea Latte, YUM!) We sat in the store for a little while and chatted, Piper slept and Claudia ate. Then before we were about to leave Piper woke up and wanted to play with my Starbucks cup (apperently she loves their Christmas cups almost as much as her mother). So because I didn't want her to get any last drops of coffee on her clothes or in her mouth I asked the barista for an empty short cup for her to play with. Since Piper loves to chew on anything you give her, she started chewing on the cup, and that made for a GREAT photo op! So here she is, my little caffine addict in the making. You gotta start them early, mama is so proud! :)

Lions, Tigers, and Bears

Oh MY! Piper had her first trip to the Zoo last week. And even though there are no lions and the Oregon Zoo, there are still tigers and bears, both were viewed by little Miss Piper. We also saw some monkeys and the giraffe and zebras, and some other animals. We went up last Tuesday, I think it was the 6th, with Becca & Claudia, and Kasey & Isaiah. We thought that it was $2 Tuesdays, which meant that it should only have been two dollars to get in to the Zoo, but it turns out that it only happens on the SECOND Tuesday of the month, so no discount. Jason and I ended up buying a membership pass for the whole year, since I will most likely be taking Piper up next summer frequently. Plus the membership includes the fare for Zoo Lights this December, so we can go and see all the Christmas lights they put up along the train rails. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly, but very sunny. It was fun to get out with my girlfriends and the kids. We had a pretty fun time. Here are a couple of pictures of the trip!

Monkey Business

Piper's first Halloween was a success! We decided that instead of going around the neighborhood (most of our neighbors don't celebrate Halloween) we would go to the mall and trick or treat at the stores... especially since it wasn't going to be Piper eating the candy anyway! That was great for the whole family. Piper got to see all kinds of people and children, she is such a people watcher, and Jason and I got to see all sorts of awesome costumes. I had three favorites of all the cute costumes I saw. The gold metal went to a family of four kids (three girls and one boy) their parents dressed them up as a chain-gang! They all wore orange shirts and gray sweats, and they had actual chains tying them together at the waist and ankles. It was awesome!! The silver metal went to another family of four (two boys and two girls) and their mother. The kids were dressed as the four kids from Chronicles of Narnia and the mother was dresses as the Ice Queen! She even did all their hair, she really went all out! And finally the bronze went to an old co-worker of mine, she dressed her 1 year old son up as Chewbacca from Star Wars. He was so adorable. Of course my little monkey was the cutest kid I saw all night, but she was disqualified from the competition being that she is related to the judge - kind of a conflict of interest issue! :) So all in all it was a good night. I have quite a few pictures so I decided to be lazy and just post the rest below. Hope you enjoy!!! And yes, I do realize that I look like a huge dork in my picture with Piper, I was dressed as a Zoo Keeper, but I look a little more like Howdy Doody in that picture. It was cute in person, I promise. Happy Halloween!!