Christmas festivities

This week, we participated in a few fun Christmas activities. First, we put up (Eric, I should say) our Christmas tree. We own a pre-lit tree that we (again, Eric) got up at 4am a couple Black Friday's ago & bought. We are definitely more of the fake tree type as it is SO much cleaner. Burn a pine scented candle and it's just like having a real one ;)

Eli loved helping grandpa decorate their tree but not too long after we got ours up, he decided that running around the tree & unplugging the lights was fun. So, ornaments did not go on for a couple of days.

Eli sported his reindeer antlers again this year:

Eli wearing them last year:

Starting to decorate the tree. The whole lower half are plastic or fabric ornaments that he can play with:

The finished product. We made a stocking (with glue & glitter) for baby but because we don't know the sex yet, it simply says "2009 Baby":

Grandpa Bidney bought mommy a fun pair of Uggs boots for an early Christmas. Eli with his current boot obsession had to try them on:

Saturday, Aunt Stephanie & Aunt Sarah spent the day with us. We went to the Mayor's Christmas Carnival & ran into Eli's girlfriend, Callie, who was jumping in the inflatable. Eli tried to jump, too, but was too intimidated by all the kids jumping. In his defense, he was in the inflatable house with all big kids:

The carnival was packed & had games, a balloon making clown, & Santa!

Eli getting a tattoo:

Rudolph!:

Eli enjoyed punching the inflatable snowman prior to this picture:

Eli didn't want to sit on Santa's lap by himself so we joined him. We do plan to take Eli to see the Bass Pro Santa again this year so hopefully he'll sit on that Santa's lap:

The balloon clown made Eli a Rudolph hat! Too bad he already popped it:

We also attended a yummy dessert playdate with all our buddies. Imagine a table full of homemade treats!!

I hope to have Eli make our family Christmas cards & some other fun Christmas crafts. We'll attempt to make cookies some time (maybe for Santa!), too! Any fun craft ideas? I plan to search online for some ideas, too. I'll try to post about our creations!

Clarkson baby #2 is 16 weeks in utero tomorrow....all is well!!

Have a great (maybe snowy??) week!

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving this year was spent up in Iowa with the Bidney side of the family. We stayed at Grandpa & Lola's house & in Eli's usual fashion, he barely ate or napped. He gets so excited by everything that I swear he runs off of fumes! Anyway, a good time was had by all & here are pics to prove it!

Lola bought Eli a pair of learning chopsticks and he loved them! Helped get a few bites of Thanksgiving dinner in him at least:

Lola's mother had a cart and also in Eli fashion, he enjoyed pushing it around:

Playing piano with Aunt Sarah:

Checking out the Black Friday ads with Grandpa:

Grandpa & Lola have this fun bell that Eli loved to ring over & over:

Friday morning we helped Grandpa & Lola pick out a Christmas tree. We have a fake one, so this is new to Eli:

Eli helped put the lights on the tree and found the step extension cord to be very fun: lights on, lights off:

The next morning, Eli helped decorate the tree....and only broke one ball which he enjoyed helping clean up:

Eli currently has a boot obsession. He quickly found Lola's boots:

Our little reindeer:

Hangin' with boys at Aunt Holly & Uncle Chris's:

Saturday we spent a good part of the day at the Science Center. While growing up in Iowa, many school field trips were taken to the Science Center. Since then, they have relocated and completely remodeled the center & it is really awesome. We were only going to stay for a couple of hours but were there for about 4! Eli didn't even flinch skipping his nap! I highly recommend going when in Des Moines.

An exhibit about roller coasters:

One of those cool electricity ball things:

And the fun marble toss thing (yes, I know all the scientific names):

Laying down getting ready to watch the planetarium show....Eli loved it and was yelling out the names and clapping for the planets at the end of the show:

Water table:

Really cool wall of tubes, pullies, etc. that the kids could throw balls in:

The kids could make rockets & then launch them....see Eli's flying?:

Ooooo.....tornado!:

One of the local news stations has a weather station set up at the center & kids can pretend they are weathercasters...complete with green screen!:

I remember as a kid attending the center & seeing this cool pendulum. They transferred it to the new location & Eli thought it was pretty cool, too!:

A HUGE pin wall!:

Oh boy, Toddler Town!:

Fun tunnels:

Sadly, the center did not think the "Bubble Bay" through well as Eli ran in there and totally wiped out on his bottom. Too bad, too, as Eli loves bubbles!:

Putting Aunt Sarah in block jail:

Eli's aunts tried to do a puppet show for Eli & he IMMEDIATELY went behind the curtain....can't put anything past this little man!:

Golf ball slide:

Pullies & levers:

They had soft blocks that were numbered & if you did it right, you could build an arch. Pretty cool!:

And in Eli fashion.....knock it all down!:

And one those cool atom balls:

Next holiday: Christmas!!

15 weeks

Our little one turned 15 weeks yesterday. My food aversions are almost 100% gone, I even ate a salad today! I've several people tell me I look bigger in just a week....so I guess there's some growin' going on in there!! I feel our babe every so often but it is still so quick & sporadic that I'm still not 100% convinced it's him/her. Oh well, soon I'll be videotaping my belly like I did here with Eli because of so much movement-wow!

Interesting 15 week fact: scalp patterns begin to develop!

Look for a growing belly pic next week!

P.S. Thanksgiving post coming soon!