We couldn't wait- Henry.

Well, the Christmas spirit got the best of us and we got our tree out and started decorating. We feel justified in decorating early, since we'll be gone at Thanksgiving and will leave again around Christmas. We need to enjoy it while we can. Plus, mama loves hearing me say "That tree is so beautiful."

She and Papa set up the tree last night, but we waited for papa to get home from work to decorate. I cold hardly stand the wait. I hung a few ornaments that I painted before supper. But then mama made me eat (like that's ever going to happen) before we could hang the rest.

Mama has saved every ornament tat she's ever made or been given since she was born. She's also started saving other various mementos- wrist bands from the Dells, bell favors from weddings, and even weird elves inside green mushrooms that she and Miss Leah bought with a box of Christmas decorations at a garage sale when they were in college (your guess is as good as mine). But we had a great time going through all the ornaments and talking about them. Mama only got upset once when she pulled out a styrofoam lollipop and I took a bite of it. I guess it really wasn't candy.

Even Junerks (new nickname) had a good time and didn't cry like she's been doing most of the time lately (it's a combination of "I'm hungry", "Why aren't we touching?" and "Can't you get this kid to stop pushing me over?"). She tried to hang up her M&M ornament, but then gave up and just chewed on it for the rest of the night.

Side note- you'll see that the T-Rex helped set up the tree tonight. I've been spending a lot of time talking about birthday parties lately (for some reason, tree lights remind me of my birthday). When mama asked who was coming to my party, I told her that Lightning McQueen couldn't come, becuase he was already at his own birthday party. And T-Rex can't come because he just a toy (does this show how much I like my cars?). In the end, I decided that Oliver could come to my party, even though he lives far, far away.

Here's the finished product. I have a feeling that mama is holding out on us and saved a few boxes of ornaments to put up without us. She said that if they come packaged individually, I'm not allowed to touch them.

Decorating the tree left me with a serious case of "hyper." Mama had to lay down some serious threats to get us to bed tonight. This was after I pleaded with her not to turn off the tree lights and please, please don't take off the ornaments.

We had a great time decorating and while listening to Kenny and Dolly for the first time this season (it feels good), we had our first Christmas miracle. We found mama's hand mixer and hand chopper packed away in the Christmas decorations along with Papa's stir fry pan. She sure was glad to see them again!

But we do have one sad thing to report. This week, we had to throw away the last of mama's pumped milk. It was very painful for her, but we suspected it was going bad and making Juner's tummy hurt when we fed it to her in her oatmeal. It was especially painful, because we out significant effort into hauling it down from Wisconsin when we moved. We those that those of you who have ahd to throw away this much hard work can feel our pain tonight.

And to cap off the evening, here's a video of June's new trick. June is increasingly always in my stuff. Tonight, she kept getting in the way while I sat in my rocking chair gazing at the splender of 600 red and white tree lights. So I requested that she be put in her jumper. Mama readily agreed because June has also lately become quite fond of trying to stand up and open drawers or doors. Unfortuanately for June, this also involves a lot of falling on her head and face. Mama was glad to get her somewhere where she couldn't hurt herself for a few minutes. And June was pleased to show off her new fancy footwork.

Here's the right video.

As it turns out, mama was on her second Old Fashioned when she was uploading videos on Saturday night and she uploaded the wrong video. We've gotten a couple calls questioning the significance of a one second video.

So here's the real video that showcases two goofballs unwilling to quiet down and go to bed already. And you wonder why mama is driven to drinking? (Listen carefully and you can hear Elmo talking to baby David about sitting on the potty. Henry loves those books, but still refuses any part of potty training.)

Some videos-Juner.

Aunt Jenni must be taking the Minnesota loss to the Badgers (2 safeties in the 4th quarter? Really?). So true to our bet (win- you get Juner, lose-you get Juner), here's a sneak peak to what you've got coming.

All I want to do is stand up- all the time. And scream. You'll notice that I also have a new sound. Now I can also say "Bababa" in addition to my pterodactyl screech.

When mama put us to bed tonight, we were not interested in sleeping. And the worst thing possible has happened- we've become really good friends. Which means we spend a good half hour yelling at each other before bed. Well, I stand up and scream while Henry lays in bed talking to me, but hoping mama won't come in and take away his flashlight.

Quote of the day: Tonight while mama ws helping Henry brush his teeth and washed his face becuase it was covered in the chocolate chips that papa snuck him. He asked what she was doing, to which she replied "I'm washing your face off." Henry exclaimed "Leave my face on!"

Make-up post- June.

Now that mama is only engaged with her domestic pursuits, she has overextended herself in the Christmas craft department, so she's been slacking on the blog updates. We apologize and we won't let it happen again.

It's been a pretty calm week, but lots of fun things have happened!

We went to Target and saw that the dollar spot had sheets of Car Movie tattoos, so we bought a ton and mama intends to use them as bribes to get Henry potty trained. He did give it a fair shot the other night when he sat on the potty for about 10 minutes. Nothing happened, but he did get a new Lightning McQueen tat for the effort. If this actually works, Henry could be the most decorated little boy this side of the Mason Dixon line.

Also, we'd like to send a big thank you out to Miss Leah for these awesome overalls. We were very glad to see they finally fit Henry and he insisted on wearing them no less than 4 times this week.

I discovered that mama has a stash of water bottles on the bottle shelf of the refrigerator. So my newstrategy is to crawl over there and wedge myself in the door before anyone can shut it and pull as many bottles down as i can.

Unfortuantely, mama is energy conscious so I never get to play very long. I can't wait until i can stand up and pull down a couple of those MGD 64's. I hear they are the Lite Champagne of Beers.

Mama felt pretty smug this week when she brought home a Sharon fruit from the grocery store. I guess it is from Israel.

It looks like a tomato, is firm like a crisp apple and taste like a mix between a peach and a honeydew. Henry liked his dipped in yogurt.

Henry got his birthday present early- a new car seat. Now I can get out of that infant seat and into the luxurious big kid seat Henry uses.

There's a funny story behind the car seat. And now that it's over, mama said I can tell it to you. Mama ordered the seat off Amazon.com (good price and free shipping), but in her haste, had it shipped to our old house in Wisconsin. She didn't catch this until she checked the tracking and saw that it had already been delivered. She called up Amazon.com to see if there was anyway they could give her a break on the shipping because it would cost almost as much as the car seat itself to ship down here (why couldn't she have made this mistake with something small- like a book?). Well, the good people at Amazon.com were gracious enough to ship the Wisconsin car seat back for free and sent out a new one for us the same day. Now that is service. Consider this out official endorsement of Amazon.com.
I'm continuing to work on my standing skills, although it's nothing compared to the 9 steps my cousin Sadie took on her birthday (you had better post a video of that!)

My favorite place to practice is still the bathtub ledge. Today I crawled in and gave papa a little surprise!

Finally, here's a video of Henry playing with his car launcher. We especially like that the cars beep when they back up. That was probably one of Henry's first tricks when he was just one. And he still refuses to refer to anything as "backing up." To him they are all "beep beeping."

On Wisconsin-Henry.

We were informed that we are putting our Wisconsin roots to shame, because we didn't remember that the battle for Paul Bunyan's Axe was today. So in honor of the birthplace of the two better members of our family, here's the lyrics to the fight song (we usually just sang "On Wisconsin, on wisconsin" over and over until the song was over.)

On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!

Plunge right through that line!
* Run the ball clear down the field,
* A touchdown sure this time. (U rah rah)
On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!
Fight on for her fame
Fight! Fellows! - fight, fight, fight!
We'll win this game.

On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!
Stand up, Badgers, sing!
"Forward" is our driving spirit,
Loyal voices ring.
On, Wisconsin! On, Wisconsin!
Raise her glowing flame
Stand, Fellows, let us now
Salute her name!

And here's our own YouTube tributes. This kid isn't even a Wisconsin fan, but he knows a great team when he sees one.

Next, is a particularly rousing montage. It's makes up miss Madison is little more when we see these fun loving people raise their voices in song.

In honor of the big game, mama has decided to go out and get the fixings for our favorite Wisconsin drink- the Old Fashioned. We'll be living it up tonight. Special thanks to Mr. Kyle for his guidance on the proper way to make an Old Fashioned and to Miss Sara for always making the Old Fashioned fun.

Happy Birthday Sadie!- Henry and June.

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Our favorite Sades turns 1 year old today. We can't believe it's already been a year! It looks like we're running through the Jibab stock videos pretty quickly, so we're putting up two pictures for Sadie instead. Sades, we give you 5 stars.

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We can guess what Sadie would do. She would give us one of those disapproving looks she saves especially for her Aunt Becky and Uncle Bran, then she's look at her parents and ask if she really is related to them. Don't worry, we think the same thing every day.

Family pictures.

We went to get family pictures taken tonight. Which turned into June's 9 month pictures and Henry's 3 year pictures. We were pretty pleased with how they turned out. Not only did we get great pictures, but we also got a CD of all the shots.

Ren Faire Part II- Henry.

This weekend, we were lucky enough to go to our second Renaissance Faire of the season. And this time it wasn't 95 degrees.

There was a great hand powered ride.

It really went fast!

Hold on Papa!

Juner and I shared a moment during the lewd skeleton ventriloquist act.
Then we saw the greatest "acrobatic comedy" act we've ever seen!

Papa got some corn for us. I ate it, but Juner preferred the bread bowl and spinach artichoke dip that mama got.

And it wouldn't be a RenFaire without a giant turkey leg!

There was jousting.

And elephants too. But they weren't part of the petting zoo.

To round out our day, we all gave the bow and arrow a try.

Mama looks just like Kevin Costner in Robin Hood.