Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday. Seriously, what could be better, it's centered around food (lots of it), family, and the beginning of the Christmas season. Every year we have plenty of things to be thankful for, but once Anderson showed up they seem more obvious. Besides the more traditional things I'm thankful for (health, great husband, patience, family), there are smaller things I'm thankful for this past year. Goldfish, $5 pizzas, DVRs and morning coffee, gotta love it!

Here's a look at last Thanksgiving compared to this Thanksgiving -- what a difference a year makes!!

We enjoyed dinner at Gram's house and at Grandma and Grandpa Bateman's house. Anderson tried all sorts of new foods, but I think pumpkin pie was his favorite!!

Happy Birthday Anderson!!

He made it -- he crossed the finish line of his first year! Wow. Anderson celebrated yesterday with tons of his family and friends. You can tell he doesn't have any stranger anxiety because he moved from one person to the next just jabbering away. Everyone was his best friend!

He had an awesome crown and birthday shirt so everyone knew who the guest of honor was. Amazingly enough, he wore the crown most of the day. It was kinda like he didn't realize it was there until someone pointed it out, then he would pull it off.

his first present of the day with just mom and dad

showing off his sweet shirt

The main event was really fun to watch. Anderson was more interested in demolishing his cake than actually eating it. The frosting was so sticky that when he opened and closed his hand he looked like Cookie Monster. Ha!

he didn't wear the bib for the cake-eating constest

mmmm...me love cookies, i mean cake!

We want to thank everyone for their birthday wishes and generous gifts to Anderson. He's very blessed to have so many wonderful people in his life!!

PS - all the pictures are in the slideshow on the side.

Final countdown

Anderson has a really big milestone coming up this next weekend, but I need to catch up on what we've been doing over the past week or so. We spent most of last week outside to enjoy the last bits of fall. We took walks, played down on Mass street and had many parties on the deck.

He also had his first experience with Sesame Street. The TV is right at Anderson's level and he is really terrible at standing directly in front of it. Normally he's trying to follow where the scrolling news is going at the bottom of the screen. Well, I turned on Sesame Street and told Anderson he could watch it but we'd have to move back. So I sat him down by the couch and he didn't move. He just stared and the TV and was infatuated with Big Bird. It was pretty comical!


This past weekend mom and dad (and Ali and Brett) hosted the 8th annual Turkeyfest. Although Anderson wanted to join in the festivities, he spent the evening over at Gram's house. He always enjoys reading books with Clancy and had a wonderful evening.


Our friends the Maloys and the McElroys were also in town for the weekend. Anderson and Simon had a great time together. They single-handedly destroyed the living room and the kitchen!

More leaves

Anderson just can't get enough playtime in the leaves these days. Tim raked up all the leaves in the back yard for Anderson -- he seemed a little confused at the beginning and then decided it was great!

One toy is never enough :)

Glücklichen Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! We had a great time taking Anderson around to see his grandparents and Josh. Here's my cute little German boy!!