Happy 28th Birthday Stephen!

During our great Thanksgiving weekend Stephen celebrated his 28th birthday. We wondered for a while if his annual cake was going to get made, but we enjoyed it around 10:30 pm the night of his birthday. It's amazing how different (but wonderful) our life is with Greyson.
Here are a couple more pictures too from our time with Lance and Charolette.

The Annual Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

A couple of years ago our friends decided to start the tradition of an ugly sweater party. This year Stephen and I kept it going. We had a great time with many of our good friends in Kodiak. We set up a place for portraits to be taken and there were so many great ones. Stephen really loves things like this and yes, those are tight (woman) red pants. He always steals the show!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Lance and Charolette, (Lance is my first cousin on my mom's side) came down from Kotzebue and enjoyed some warm weather and longer days. Thankgiving morning they ran in the Turkey trot, then we all went for a nice walk at Ft. Abercrombie and then off to Thanksgiving with the Davidson family. It was a great day with lots of food fun and laughter. We have so much to be thankful for!

A Great Heitman Hike!

We had an incredible time with my cousin Lance and his wife Charolette! They are wonderful people that we just don't get to see enough. On Saturday we had a great time hiking together. Of course Lance spotted some bears and we enjoyed watching them throughout our day. We hiked up to the peak, stopped for some lunch, came back down did a little fishing and then headed home. It was a perfect day! The picture with Greyson sideways is him sleeping. He's a great little hiker:)

Family Fun

We had a nice cold spell of weather which means ICE! I had no idea how we were going to go ice skating with Greyson and then a friend told me to just use our stroller. So we loaded up and headed straight down from our house to Mission Lake. It was a great way to spend our morning.
Greyson doesn't have a lot of down time and as of November 21st he has been crawling all over the place. He's quite the little mover. He is also so much fun and while he keeps Stephen and me moving we sure do love it.

Huge Rope Swing!

So while fall has been extremely busy for our family we of course have found some time to have fun. One of the construction workers from this past summer at the Mission decided to build a huge rope swing behind our house. It is so incredible I cannot even begin to explain it. Stephen has had a great time swinging on it again and again. He got so into it he even made a video. So enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfYiyWofQ98

Flying through the Air

Greyson isn't a delicate child. He likes to play and play rough. Two of his favorite things to do it throw himself backward and fly through the air and laugh. He's quite the little man.

Greyson at 8 Months!

So this is very late coming, but Greyson is 8 months! He loves to show us touchdown all the time! He also is my right hand man when I'm working out in the morning. Things sure have changed quite a bit.
The video is also just a look at our view. It sure is beautiful!

A Nice Walk

Here are a few pictures from a recent walk. Greyson is really starting to enjoy being out and about!

Study Study and Study some More!

Well Stephen's classes are slowly coming to an end. Two weekends ago he took his comprehensive examine. It was a very long weekend for him. There were 9 questions that had to be answered in 2 to 3 pages and he had from Friday evening until Sunday evening to complete it. On top of that the previous week he had class on Monday and Wednesday and taught a class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The week following his exam he had the same schedule.
All three of us will be very happy when December comes and he graduates!

Greyson is 8 Months!

There is never a dull moment with Greyson, well maybe when he's sleeping. It's been getting much colder up here so getting all bundled up to go to the office is quite the undertaking. I'm trying to put him in the stroller and that seems to be working well. One day on our short walk to work Greyson fell asleep, so I carried the big stroller up all the stairs and let him sleep in my office.

He also voted for the first time last week. He was very interested in the voting process and while I was voting insisted on looking out from the booth sheet that covered us. So the first view everyone got when they walked into the voting area was my son's little smiling face.

Eating is always an interesting event. I have quit trying to keep things clean. I just let him go for it and between the dogs and clorox wipes we take care of the mess pretty fast.

Greyson's First Halloween

Well it was Greyson's first Halloween and of course dressing him up was so much fun! Also one of my after school program teacher's surprised me and dressed up like me and I found her sitting on my ball in the office. She had a makeshift wrap that was holding a teddy bear.
The Friday before Halloween we enjoyed going to a Harvest Party at church. Greyson wore a Tigger outfit that had been given to him. He bounces a lot so we thought, hey why not make him a Tigger. For Halloween actually he wore a one of a kind pumpkin. It was fun to set him up in front of the house, he's the best looking pumpkin I've ever seen.

October

October has been a bit of a blur for us. Stephen has been extremely busy with work, but also his college classes have been very consuming as well. He has been working on his research proposal and next weekend he will be taking his comprehensive exam. This is a three day test with a great deal of research and writing involved. We are both extremely excited for December and Stephen having his masters completed.

The first two weeks of October I also facilitated two Love & Logic classes. It was a lot of work, but extremely encouraging. The team at KBM got together, prepared supper, provided childcare and made a great evening for our preschool and after school parents. I have realized that trying to do my job with Greyson everyday is extremely challenging, but am amazed at how great he does.

Greyson is growing up way to fast too. He loves trying to walk and crawl and we have a great time playing with him. He's a very happy little guy!