1/2 Foodie, 1/2 Monkey, and Double Babies!!!

Baby Reagan was born today!  Jonathan's brother Matthew and his wife Kelly got to meet their baby boy this afternoon.  I am finally an aunt!  We can't wait to see him, hopefully we will get back up to VA soon!  Here is a little sneak peek that Aunt Sarahann sent me!!!

ALSO our good friends Shelley and Casey welcomed THEIR baby boy, Tanner, to the world today!  Congrats guys!!!

Last Tuesday night, I started some Thanksgiving cooking and baking that lasted, well...til the wee hours of Wednesday morning.  Whoops!  Of course, I did some documenting...

Kneading the "all-butter" pie crusts. 

Mmmm...apples!

Mixing in strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries!

Filling up the crusts.

After battling with rolling out the crusts, may I add...

I will not be making pie crust dough again for a while!

My first attempt at a lattice top.  No judging, please. :)

Pumpkin cheesecake swirl pies with homemade graham cracker crusts...

coming out of the oven!

My first ever pan of cornbread coming out of the oven...

...only to be crumbled to pieces for cornbread dressing croquettes.

Paula Dean's Sweet Potato Biscuits - yummy and moist!

Sauteeing the onion, celery, and sage for the dressing...

didn't take a "finished" pic, but they were delightful balls of stuffing goodness!

Apple Mixed Berry Pie out of the oven...all done!

Wednesday morning we had a playdate at Monkey Joe's.  Connor and I had never been and he was clinging and crying as we walked into the massive room full of kids bouncing around.  We tried out the biggest one first...where I would fit too!

The Bopp girls boppin'.

Curious...

Excited, maybe?

Getting adventurous...

Bounce, bounce!

(Do you think baby liked the bouncing too?)

Levi wanted Connor to get up and jump!

Who needs mom?  We went to an "under 3" bouncer and he took off.

"You should have brought me here before, Momma!"

Wooooo!  Ran from one end to the other on those wobbly legs!

Face plant.

Walking is hard enough without a bouncy floor and slippery socks!

Incoming!

Towards the end, he was LOVING climbing these little stairs and sliding down the slide on the other side...head first, of course.  He would lay at the bottom and laugh and I would have to reach in and slide him out of the way so he didn't get clocked by the next kid coming!

I don't have any pics of him coming down the slide because right about at this point...we went to take a break and get a drink of water, and I dropped my camera.  Someone picked it up for me and the front cover was popped out a little bit, so I snapped it back together and turned it on, even reviewed my pics, it was working great!  I let Connor start bouncing again and went to take a picture again, and there was no button to press (the shutter control) to actually take a picture.  Ohhhhhhh sad day.  Everyone helped me look for it, but to no avail.  Trying to decide whether to invest in a new one, find a replacement button (so far I have found a whole front cover with the button attached, but really I just need the button!), or go without.  Jonathan does have a camera that we quickly switched the memory card and batteries into before we headed up to VA for Thanksgiving. That post is coming soon!!!  Oh, and I can't want to take Con to Monkey Joe's again...he LOVED it, and I can probably skip the picture taking next time. :)

Thankful Turkeys

I am thankful for our active little boy...

who tears apart his diaper bag to have a little snack...

"Back off Mom, this is MY snack!"

I am thankful for Christmas flavors and scents...

like Bath and Body Works antibac soaps and 

BLUE BELL Peppermint Ice Cream!!!

 Heavenly.  They also have a Christmas Cookie flavor I would like to try!

Problem is...it is not so good for me to keep ice cream in the house!

I got a little crafty for my Moppets lesson this week.  Definitely put me into teacher mode.  Though my fingers ached from cutting and gluing, cutting and gluing, I am thankful for a job that I can make fun AND have Connor with me!

Demo turkey.  Complete the next morning with googly eyes!

Thankful for Connor climber.

Thankful for the town nearby us (we know the MAYOR!) that had

a fun Christmas festival with wonderful lights, a message from Preacher Mike,

free hot cider and donuts, and pictures with Santa!

Little old man with Momma's gloves...they lasted about

5 minutes on his little ice cube hands!

Thankful for our family (of almost 4!)

Connor was not to sure about Santa this year...but the photographer snapped a pic at just the right moment and we can't WAIT for it to arrive in the mail!  So fun to see the difference between last year at 2 1/2 months and this year at exactly 14 months...hopefully next year he will want to sit with Santa a little more. :)

On another note...tonight I was in childcare at our church and threw my hair into a ponytail before changing a tiny baby's diaper.  When I came out from the changing area, a 5 year old boy said, "Your hair looks MUCH better now."  Yikes.  I had been wearing it down all day long.  Nothing like a 5 year old for a little confidence booster...ha!

Cruisin' and Groovin'

20 weeks today - half way!  People have been asking if we know the gender...they were able to see during an ultrasound last week, but Jonathan and I looked the other way during that part.  The technician was really great and printed a labeled photo ("male" or "female") and sealed it in an envelope for us.  We plan to reveal the gender just after Christmas!

Using a kitchen chair as a walker and jungle gym in one...

Oh...and a teether, judging by the nice wet mark!

Had a great night out with some of the wives of the pastors at our church.  

Brenda and I picked out similar rings!  Thankful for all of those ladies.

Didn't think these 18 month pj's would fit him..so handsome and big!

Trying to catch him walking!

Please continue to pray for our dear friend Phil.  This week he has had some more pain and had a procedure to remove some blockage in his abdomen, which turned out to be more cancer.  He is recovering from the procedure and "keepin' on"...please pray for God's healing!

Squeak Squawk!

Good morning!  A little backward-driving, rocking 

djembe playing, half-dressed wake-up time!

Sorry to be such a foodie blogger this week.  BUT - this is what I've been doing during some of Connor's naps!  I love to try new recipes and wasn't doing it as much after Connor was born...but I figure I'd better get some in before I have more than one child and who knows what kind of nap schedules!

Celery Root.  Have you ever used one?  Tasty, but 

not easy to find...even now when it is in season!

Chopped!

Immersion blender, not pureeing baby food for once!

Red lentil celery root soup...mmmm!

Jonathan surprised me by bringing home Panera bread to go with it...

it was tomato basil bread...SO delicious!

I tried two different times to get Connor to eat some of the soup for his lunch.  Since he doesn't eat dairy and isn't too keen on meat, I am trying to find a bunch of other proteins (hence the lentils).  We battled for a while, Connor screaming and flailing and Mommy trying to stay patient and do every goofy thing I could think of to get him to try it.  Finally, I resorted to mixing some applesauce in (the soup already included apples!) and he ate almost every bite.  If the addition of applesauce is the worst of our problems, I am GREAT with that. :)

AWESOME shoes!

We have some great friends who just adopted a sweet little boy from China...their 6th child in all.  With ALL that they were doing getting acclimated with one another, they also brought Connor this sweet pair of squeaky shoes (for new walkers!).  Thank you guys SO much!

I should mention that about 2 weeks ago (10/24/11), Con started taking 2-3 steps on his own.  He does NOT like to let go of a table/couch/chair/walker/your finger for anything, but we are encouraging him to now and then.  It is the best when Jonathan and I are both home and he will walk between us!

A little wobbly ballet...

Walking is VERY exciting!!!

Heehee.  I counted 9 steps tonight.  Fun family time!