Tool Time!

Bryce has been fully entrenched in his second Hanukkah. Wait...can that be right? Hanukkah doesn't start for another week? Well...thanks to the unpredictability in internet shipping, the eight nights of Hanukkah kind of start when the first gift arrives and end when they stop coming. All told it's probably more like the 17 1/2 nights of Hanukkah, but it would be really hard to make a menorah that big. I guess in theory we could stock the presents until the right time, but when a 16 month old sees a carboard box...LOOK OUT.

Anyway...tonight, Bryce got a tool bench from Nana. He played with it for a solid 30 minutes until it was bed time. I was able to capture him putting his tools away, but he was hammering and working on the gears long before I got the brilliant idea to film some of this.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thanksgiving week in our family starts Wednesday night...although now that Bryce eats his dinner at 5 and goes to bed by 7, Wednesday night turned in to Wednesday late afternoon. Our whole crew gathered at Mimi and Papa's lake house (you may remember this as Paige's living quarters while we were between houses). Wednesday dinner is Chili, Queso, Guacamole, Tamales, and Bunuelos (a mexican pastry which we think is a fried tortilla with cinnamon and sugar...sound good?...it is). Bryce got to play with our cousin Pam's youngest son Cooper. Cooper was a big hit with Bryce...somehow we think Bryce knew that Cooper was his age (ish...Cooper's 8...I guess that's closer to Bryce's age than we are)...Bryce kept crawling over to him and trying to hug him...very cute...sorry no pictures...you'll just have to imagine.

Thanksgiving day started off at our house. The beauty of our new house is that it's close enough to the lake that we can drive there and back pretty easily. So this year...we get our own beds. As you can see, Byce got to play in our bed before thinking maybe a mid-morning nap might be a good idea.

Once we got out to the lake, Bryce got right to work cooking...right after he fixed his car

While Bryce worked hard in the kitchen, the rest of us had time to pose for pictures...clearly we weren't much help

Finally...time to eat...Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, green bean casserole, jello mold (Peggy can explain since I don't eat it...but Bryce loved the stuff), & sweet potatoes...delicious. I carved the turkey because Papa was busy doing quadricept stretches (I'm not making this up...that's what he said). I did such a good job...I'm now the official turkey carver (that means I get to keep the good pieces for me).

After lunch...Bryce enjoyed some quiet time by the fire while the rest of us napped. After that some dessert and then back home. Tomorrow we'll have everyone over to watch the Texas game...Hook 'Em Horns!!!!

Sandbox

My grandfather gave Bryce a sandbox over the summer. We were slow to set it up because we were working on the yard, didn't think Bryce was ready, too lazy...Anyway, about a month ago I decided to Bryce's shoveling skills were coming along and he was ready. I take the thing out of the box, line up the parts and discover that there is no hardware in the box. After multiple phone calls to the company I received a few random screws that really didn't seem to go with the instructions. I sweetly asked my crafty husband to see what he could do. With a quick trip to Home Depot, Russell had put the whole thing together. Bryce loves it!!!

Austin Zoo

We went to check out the Austin zoo with the Taylors today. The zoo is a non-profit rescue zoo, very different from the zoos we are used to. I went once in college and remember seeing some dogs and chickens. Not very exciting...Well, the chickens are still there but they have a lot of animals now. We saw everything from peacocks to lions and tigers. The kids had fun watching my mom who made animals sounds at all the animals. Bryce who has not been napping well lately was so worn out from this event that he slept for 2 hours today. It was a miracle.Bryce is looking at the giant turtles here.

Below is a bad picture of the tigers but at least you get the idea.

Children's Museum

Bryce and I went to the Austin Children's Mueseum today. We went with our neighbor Kelly and her son Tristan. The museum is only open on Mondays to kids under 3 so we thought it would be a good time to check it out. I can't believe how many people were there. Bryce was fairly overwhelmed but enjoyed the exhibits that had water. No big surprise there!