Thanksgiving 2014 Family Photo Shoot

I had a blast this Thanksgiving. I love it when the Mackelprang clan gets together! Here are some of the highlights from our ridiculous family photo shoot. What a fun time. Honestly, I'm absolutely amazed that we got three fairly decent shots with the entire gang, given the extreme chaos at the time. Ezra and Ito are both zoning out, but that's to be expected ;)

And here is the link for photos from the entire trip:

https://plus.google.com/photos/105474728171064629943/albums/6092835232460551153?authkey=CPeV9eGFpYy8iQE

Some Recent Fun Videos

Thanksgiving 2014 in GIFs

I hope these GIF animations don't cause any seizures, but I can't resist sharing them. These are all compiled from our delightful family photo shoot, along with Ito's first encounter with solid food. So much fun! Love you guys. More pictures to come.

 

 

Bouncing the baby to sleep

Ito woke up a bit early this morning and after playing with him for a while, I decided to clean the kitchen before heading to work.  So, into his jumper Ito went and he was really having a nice time filled with chirping, flapping and other signs of happiness and excitement. You see, over the past few days he has really gotten the hang of "jumping" in his jumper and thinks that is great fun!

While cleaning I would talk to him about I was doing and interact with him every few minutes to keep him company.  After a while, I noticed that he was no longer "talking" and turned to check him out and this is what I saw:

I was amazed because it has taken Herculean efforts to get him to go to sleep over the past few days and there he sat having fallen sleep all on his own.

I snuck by him to fetch my camera and upon returning took the following video.  My passing woke him slightly and, as you'll see below, my voice stirred him as well; laughter ensued.

So, 0-60 in a time that puts Ferrari to shame.  That was actually Take 2.  In my opinion Take 1 was cuter but I cut the video short because I felt guilty for waking him.  Obviously, that guilt didn't last long.

Another Nickname

Nora has been talking a lot about Thanksgiving in Seattle. In particular about all of the people who love her (including the hippo we saw at the zoo). However, she is a little confused by the multiple names that we used for Romel. The most common names we used were Uncle Mel and Bub. Nora has subsequently consolidated the names and calls him Uncle Mub.

Scooter Time

Bike

Is anyone else having a hard time wrapping their minds around the fact that Nora is now riding a bike?

Skates

Becky & Ryan sent Nora some skates for her birthday.

Grandkids are Great!

We have had some recent fun times with 2 of our grandchildren. It was really fun to have bub, Ash, Ito, and grandparents Mackelprang visit us. Ashley planned a celebration for Ito's first 100 days. She will explain it on the video. Ito loves Bub's guitar playing and singing.





             I have to include a couple of very cute Ito Halloween pictures. This little beret hat was adorable.

                  

He was very good natured about the photo shoot, but his patience started to wear thin.

The spider and the witch.

I love this picture of grandpa with Ito

Ito had a festive Halloween balloon on a string. It was very entertaining. Notice his "4" on his shirt. He has a special shirt to mark each month of age.

We were also lucky to go visit Ezra. so hard to come home to the deep freeze Spokane is in.

Grandpa is too fun and silly to play games with. Ezra's laugh is infectious!

One last picture, We were sitting on an adult swing with Ezra facing toward me. I took a selfie of us, it could have a funny caption, but you needn't post any captions :-)

I hope you enjoyed this post. It took me quite a while because my technology skills are lacking.

Ito's new skillz...

Though I'd share some videos of Romelito's latest developments:

First, with some positioning he can now sit-up for a few minutes on his own:

He has also found his feet this week and has even started to suck his own toes (although I haven't caught that on video yet.).  His fascination with his feet is cool but I think I keeps him awake at night because I'll look over and see his feet sticking straight up in the air and eyes wide open.

Finally, over the past month he has really started to enjoy us helping him stand up.

Halloween!

We had such a blast seeing Nora and Ezra together on Halloween.  Rachel and Scott were nice enough to drive down from Santa Monica to San Diego, where I was at a conference.  We drove up to the neighborhood we stayed in last April, and fun times ensued!  (Sorry for so many pics--I had a hard time choosing out of so many cute ones!)

First, some pre-San Diego costume pics:

Ezra's Halloween costume--Dragon Baby!

Scary dragon!

At a Halloween party last weekend--I was the princess, Cameron was the prince, and Ezra was the dragon.

At the hotel in San Diego.  Yum yum banana.

Trick-or-treat time!  Ezra decided he was not going to wear his dragon hood.

Each time we left one house, Nora would say "Let's get MORE trick-or-treats!"

Take a cheese, Nora!

Both kiddos got lots of compliments on their costumes, especially Nora, whose Mommy made it for her!

When people asked her what her costume was, Nora told them, "I'm a cowboy girl!"

Ezra was sometimes a little behind.

But people adored him.  He was able to reach into the buckets and take a piece of candy, which was great for Cam and me, since we were the ones who would ultimately be eating it :)

 Soooo cute

Waiting for brunch.

Can't always get the perfect picture of everyone.....

At least, not at the same time.

I like Uncle Cam!

I want that necklace, Emily!

Fun with Daddy.

So I let her wear my necklace.

Which promptly became a pirate eye patch.

Beautiful girl

Nora helped me "take a cheese".

After trick-or-treating, we got sushi at the same restaurant as last time.  Ezra retained the chopsticks from this experience.

Smile, Nora!

No more pictures, Auntie Em, I'm getting cranky waiting out here!

Seriously, Auntie Em, no more pictures.

Baby bottoms!

Nora was very sweet with Ezra (most of the time).  She gave him "gentle tickles" on the head.  She didn't like it when he leaned his head out of the stroller to look back at us while we were walking--a few times, she decided she would push his head back where it belonged.  Ezra took it in stride :)

Brunch!  Nora was nice enough to share some of her blueberry muffin with baby Ez.

Beautiful family!