Chopped

The day after Thanksgiving my mom, sister, and I took a knife skills class - something I have always wanted to do.

My station

My mom and sister getting ready to chop

My sister, Angie, and I

Some of my work during class

Practicing at home with my new knife!

Thankful

We enjoyed a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving.  The day before Thanksgiving me, Linny (M's mom), and Zach (M's brother) spent the day cooking and preparing everything.  After cooking, Linny treated the 3 of us to mani's and pedi's while Roger (M's dad) watched Graham.  So relaxing! 
Our actual Thanksgiving was such a great time!  My family joined Michael's family (including a cousin from out-of-town) for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  The food was delicious and the company was even better.  With Graham starting to understand more about holidays, it was so much fun to see his sweet face sitting at the dinner table with us and enjoying the food while contributing to the conversation in his own way.  Roger even brought out his door trick, something I've been hearing about for years but have never seen.  So much fun!
I have a very limited number of pictures from Thanksgiving...I think everyone was having such a great time that we all forgot to snap some pictures.

Graham enjoying some videos with Zach before bedtime

The mamas

Relaxing with my sister after our meal

Thomas Takes Over

We are creating our very own Island of Sodor (this is the island where Thomas and his friends live for those of you who aren't familiar) one track set and train at a time!

Thomas Take-n-Play track sets and trains

Thomas pj's

Top Chef

A little chef in the making! Graham likes to help me cook. On this particular day we made pizza dough. Yum!



Mommy's Day Off

Yesterday, Graham spent the day with Cookie and Bompa.  They took him to the zoo for the very first time.  I'm told that he had a wonderful time and liked identifying the animals.  What a great day!

Checking out the bears

Elephants (a favorite of G's in his books)

Riding the train with Bompa

Getting a closer look at the train

Lunchtime!  Deciding on a bagel

Yummy!

What a busy day!

Choo Choo, look who's 2!

Our little man is 2!  My, how time flies!  We celebrated up at my parents house in Evergreen with a small party of close family and friends.

A very cool balloon wreath made by me (thanks Internet, for all of your wonderful ideas)!



Train-themed table



Party favors - cake pops made by Angie

The birthday boy in his "2" shirt (sewn by Grandma)

Blowing out his candles

Sampling the birthday cupcakes

Delicious!

Present time!

Checking out some birthday loot with Daddy

Thomas card from Mommy and Daddy

Look at all those trains!

Trying out e fire station (thanks Uncle Zach!)

Birthday boy and Bompa

With Uncle Zach

With our good friend Terry

With Cookie

Checking out the toys with one of our good friend's daughters

With Grandma

With Abey

With Daddy

The Pretekin men

Happy Birthday sweet boy!  We love you more than you could ever know.  Cheers to another healthy, happy, and fun year!

Trick or Treat

This was Graham's first time really celebrating Halloween.  My original plan was to bring him to just a couple houses, but he was having such a great time we went all the way down our street and came back up the other side.  Graham didn't seem to care one way or the other about the candy, but he was VERY interested in the dogs and cats he saw in other people's houses.  We also couldn't quite get him to say "trick or treat;" he came out with a very friendly "hi" instead.  My sister, Angie (or Abe to our family and Abey to G) came with us.  We dressed up as dueling insurance mascots.  I was Flo for Progressive, Angie was the Geicko Gecko, and Graham was Mayhem from Allstate.