Gingerbread Houses

I wanted to post some pictures of my gingerbread house! Grandma Beth had me, Matt's cousin Megan, and his Aunt Kay over yesterday to make gingebread houses! I've never made a house before, but it was a lot of fun. I was very nervous it was going to turn out funny looking. If you haven't ever done this before I suggest you try! It was a fun festive project similar to carving pumpkins on Halloween (and possibly just as messy). It was a good girls afternoon activity, it would be fun for older children.... but the boys and men, well Matt proved to us they just want to eat the candy. One suggestion -- you can get them premade with the house part already put together, this is the way to go, it can save you a lot of frustration later when you're deocrating, you don't have to worry about the walls or roof caving.

There are so many different ways you ca decorate them. Even between the 4 of us we had a lot of differences, but also gave each other great ideas!

Books

Brode's table and bookshelf are officially finished! Now that they're all dry and ready to go we got all of his books out. Brode has a LOT of books already. Right when Brode was born Grandma Beth brought some of Matt's old books over, and we saved all of mine in a box in the basement. We pulled them all out today and got it all arranged in his room. It was funny looking back through all of them and remembering which ones I loved the most. I can't wait until Brode wants to sit down and read them all. He pretty much likes only turning the pages right now so you don't have time to get through all of the words.

December

Wow! December! It came quickly, I'm not too sure where November went, but I am VERY excited for this month! We have a LOT going on! School is coming to an end, I'm taking one final today, turning one in tomorrow, and then battling through the next 2 weeks before 4 more finals! I am extremely ready to be done with this semester because the next will be a lot more interesting. I'm finally into all of my Kinesiology classes and have teachers that I know well. Our booked December weekends are starting tomorrow!

Matt's mom and I have always wanted to make Gingerbread houses, and since he never does we've tried to arrange doing it together. Last year when it got to the day we were meeting Brode (3 months old) spiked a dangerously high fever, was diagnosed with pneumonia, and hospitalized so we were unable to do them. Tomorrow we're going to try again with his aunt and his cousin! It should be fun! Sunday we're having our whole family over so we can all visit with our aunt and cousins that are here from Houston. This will be the first time all of the great grandchildren will be in one spot, they're all pretty young, so it will be very wild!

Next weekend is the only weekend we're pretty calm, but I'm sure I'll be spending it studying while my parents are enjoying the warm Dallas weather. The following though, after my last final, is hectic with a friends family christmas parties, neighborhood caroling, and seeing Manheim Steamroller at the PAC for some good christmas music!

The month is going to seem to fly by because it's already Christmas by then! I am very excited for this whole Christmas with Brode. He is going to be so much fun! We finally got our first snow fall so hopefully (not by my liking, but i'll do it for little guy) it piles up soon and we can get his snowsuit out to play!

Everybody stay warm!

Oh yeah, Brode had another first last night: First Power Outage! Our power was out for 4 hours, and Brode enjoyed it very much. It was difficult to feed him in the dark without a stove, oven or microwave, but he made it through. He was very interested in the flashlights, this made it easy for us to tell where he was as he carried them around. Brode also found it very funny that Libby chases the light coming out of the flashlight! We were lucky it came on before we went to bed or it would have been a chilly night, luckily we had the gas fireplace to keep us warm when we were playing with toys!

Little Boy

Brode has been becoming so much more of a little boy, playing with his toys, making new sounds, and exploring more. He is usually pretty good about playing by himself, but once and while just wants to be held. Brode has also been "reading" his books by himself a lot more lately.

Where's the baby?!?

We're getting into holiday season and it should be interesting! We put up the tree so Brode has been checking that out, but it's also going to be an interesting gift season. Brode is outrageously spoiled already and I'm not anticipating this holiday to be any better!

Wonderful Break

We have all been enjoying this Thanksgiving break very much! Thanksgiving was good with our family and lots of food! Brode did enjoy the meal as well and ate some turkey! We aren't Black Friday shoppers usually, but yesterday we did some afternoon shopping and battled the crowds. My dad and I went out to the mall area around lunch time while Grams stayed home with Brode (no I was not on of those people that woke their child up at 4AM so they could shop). We figured most of the early birds were going to be napping but it was still pretty crazy! The wildest store -- Toys R Us, I'm glad we got Brode's presents already. We walked the entire mall and went to several stores outside the mall, but I can confidently say we're WAY ahead of schedule on Christmas shopping. Father and I are usually the ones there on Christmas Eve. Maybe thats a sign our Christmas card will get done before Dec 22nd? Maybe not. There was no swimming class for Brode this morning with the holiday so his Grandma Beth picked him up and went to play for a while. We're not too sure what else is going on the rest of the weekend but it has been fun so far seeing everyone! Brode sure is loving being home as well, he is such a happy boy!

Silly Boy

We had a little fun last night, playing in the "fort" and looking in the mirror. The boys built a "Boys Only" club and Brode loves sitting in it, except when Libby visits and takes up the whole thing. He also had a lot of fun looking in the new mirror!

We are very excited for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tomorrow and a big dinner. I am a little nervous about Brode eating the food. They served "Thanksgiving Dinner" for lunch at day care yesterday, and Brode did not like it... we have 24 hours to break him in to this wonderful holiday! This eventful year of multiple pneumonias, craniosynostosis surgery, school, work, and day care we have a lot to be thankful for this holiday!

Project and Update

This may be a long post, mostly filled with pictures! I haven't updated in a while and we've had a lot of random things going on!

Last weekend Brode spent some time with Grandma Beth playing and shopping in the morning, then came home and insisted on playing outside. This shouldn't surprise many of you, but outside time was another chance to get the club and ball out! Brode has really been catching on to throwing the baseball and hitting it with the bat, or kicking the soccer ball, or standing up and getting a good grip on the club to hit the ball. His gramps helped him out a bit.....

Brode's reaction to actually hitting the ball....

Sunday Gramps left for Atlanta and Daddy watched football with some friends so Brode, Grams and I went shopping. It was a nice quiet day.... except for the huge rivalry that was present in our house on this particular Sunday. The Cowboys played the Packers. We each wore our gear, but unfortunetaly Brode's was better luck.

In my last post I mentioned we were going to get latches on the cuboards that weekend.... we didn't. Brode found the pantry this week, and the Cheerios box immediately came out, not surprisingly upside down. We decided a little cup full would be better but if we aren't willing to refill it he finds the box himself. Needless to say the latches actually DID go on this weekend.

Lastly, I mentioned a few weekends ago that we got started on a little project. Matt had this table, chair, and bookshelf that his mom painted for him when he was little and it has gotten passed down to Brode. We had a hard time deciding if we wanted to leave it at Matt's so Brode knew it was his Daddy's, or personalize it for Brode. We finally decided to change it, but knew it was going to take a while and it's finally (somewhat) finished! Here are a few pictures of the before when it was Matt's....

We needed to sand the paint down so the new layers would stick, but Brode really wanted to help!

Prepare yourself, here is the after! It has become a quite bright little boy blue! The letters and pictures still need 2nd coats and touch ups but it pretty much shows the basics. The hardest part was trying to decide what words to write on each... desk, table, workbench, etc.... who knew?!

We haven't quite decided what to do on the front of the bookshelf, but each side has a word (Read, Words, or Letters) along with a picture and the letter it begins with. Now that it is fixed I will admit my major mistake.... I may or may not have possibly kind of spelled LTETERS wrong. The stencils had to be moved and they were taped together, and long story short the paint wiped right off and all is well! (So much for that college education, eh pops?)

I am more than ready for Thanksgiving break. Many of my classes are ahead of schedule and we're finishing a few weeks early so they have been cancelled, but Thanksgiving break means the semester is almost over! Matt, Brode and I plan on having a very busy holiday with each our families and friends that are home from school!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mischievous

While we were eating dinner last night Brode sat quietly, exploring.... ALL the cabinets. His curiosity was getting the best of him and everything need to come out! We've got some work to do putting latches on this weekend!

He started in the plastic bags... moved on to the tuperware.... then to the dog food and zip lock cabinet.

Warm Weekend

This weekend was beautiful! We had a chance to get a lot of outside time! Friday night Matt and I put Brode to bed then headed to the Ice Dogs game while Gramps and Grams were home with Brode.

Saturday we packed up the car (VERY full) and headed to the cottage for raking weekend. It was a great day to be outside. Brode actually liked the leaves this time around, they must be more fun now that they crunch.

Sunday we spent the day running errands and hanging out around the house and outside. Brode also helped with chores all morning. He was so active running around, I couldn't catch him to put his pants on! We also started working on Brode's table, chair, and bookshelf. Matt's mom saved a table she painted him when he was young and gave it to Brode. We were not sure what we wanted to do, leave with Matt's name so Brode knows it was his daddy's, or repaint it for Brode and keep it going. Well almost 2 years later and we've decided to make it personal to Brode so we got started on sanding and painting!

RAWR

Happy November!

Halloween was a little different this year than last:

I'm happy to say Trick-o-Treating was a success in the Rivet household. We loaded up Brode in the wagon with some blankets to keep him warm and Gramps, Daddy and I went around the neighborhood. He was a huge hit, got some good snacks, but wasn't happy when we weren't home in time for dinner! After Brode got some dinner we went to the neighbors for a little Halloween get together. They have a dog much smaller than Libby so Brode was quite entertained with a dog his size.