so thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving! We had such a fun day, and I feel so thankful for all of the blessings in our lives. Truly, holidays are so much more fun and meaningful this year with Will, and I am already getting excited for Christmas! {ok, so that part isn't necessarily a new development, but I think I'm even MORE excited this year!} The last two days have been busy, fun, and full of celebrations.

Last night, we went to Matt's dad's house for Thanksgiving #1. Will had a great time eating and playing with everyone. I can already tell that he is going to love visiting his grandpa {official name TBD} and playing in the huge outdoor space. It will be a great place for him to run around and release some of that little boy energy!

Now on to Thanksgiving day...we started our day bright and early at the Turkey Trot. {actually not so bright - cloudy, windy, and cold would be more accurate} This year, Matt ran the 8 mile race, and Will and I walked the 3 mile course with Holly, Jonathan, and Nolan Whalen. Out of our little group, 2 finished the race, and 4 bailed out at mile 2. Can you guess which 4 didn't cross the finish line? When we realized how close we were to our parking lot at the 2 mile marker, Holly and I decided to take the babes to the warm car in order to avoid any complete meltdowns. They were both pretty skeptical of the entire experience {mostly due to the cold weather}, and after the first 5 minutes of the race, at no point were both boys riding peacefully in their strollers. I'd say that the second half of the trot {the part where Holly and I danced and sang with the boys in the car} was definitely more successful than the first half. ;)

Here's our pre-race pic. Don't the boys look excited?

After the trot, we came home, did a little cooking, and then headed over to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. YUM. It was so much fun, and the food was delicious as always. We had a big group - the Hawkins fam, the Goodman fam, Mema, and Aunt Christa. Will was so excited to get to spend some time with his Aunt Christa!

One thing that has definitely changed with the addition of William to our family is that holidays are much more documented. I probably took a hundred pictures of Thanksgiving this year, compared to...zero? last year. Here are the highlights:

our family of 3

I love Will!

Will spending time with Mema

playing with Aunt Christa

{and wearing a pumpkin hat & turkey shirt. you know, just because he can.}

Mimi, Will, Duke & me

Will with Mimi and Duke

getting love from Nana

and then some love from Mimi

{can you tell this boy is loved?}

The Early ladies

Will loves his Mema!

Will had such a blast playing with Aunt Christa.

{I think she had fun too!}

Chillin' with Aunt Ryan. He kept covering his face completely whenever I'd try to take a picture. Maybe he was trying to tell me something??

Thanks for the pumpkin hat, Aunt Ryan!

Clearly something hilarious was happening behind me...

Will and Uncle Jonathan

{notice Will has 2 outfits for the day - these fancy little man clothes were abandoned for nap and playtime}

Will had some "man time" on the couch watching football with Uncle Alex. Not even sure what's going on here...

but I do know that Will loved it:

little man, big chair.

Will's first Thanksgiving was a blast. He had a great time playing with the whole family {a vast improvement over his normal days of just playing with me all day!}, and he even enjoyed trying some new foods like turkey and mashed potatoes.

So now that Thanksgiving Day is coming to a close, do you know what that means?

It means that it is now entirely appropriate that I dress my baby in Christmas pajamas!! So of course, here's Will, ready for bed!

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I hope you ate lots of turkey, had seconds on pie, and enjoyed spending time with your families.

I am thankful!

most definitely, it was time.

If you have ridden anywhere with Matt lately, I'm sure you would back me up when I say that the time had come {probably a couple of years ago} for Matt to get a new car. Well...after much research on Matt's part, several months of indecision on what to get, and a few test drives, we have a new car!! Last night, we got a Toyota 4 Runner that, although not planned, is almost the same color as the 1997 Blazer that Matt has been driving. I will admit, it was a little sad to say goodbye to the Blazer, since it has been with us since I graduated from high school, But considering that it didn't pass inspection this month, it was probably for the best. The environment will thank us. I'm so excited for Matt to have a nice new car to drive! I also feel better knowing that he's now driving a car with both side mirrors. Ah, the little things.

Here is Matt with both cars. Goodbye Blaze. Hello 4Runner!

Still haven't taken a full length shot of the new car, but here's the stock photo from Toyota's website:

Matt and Will with the new car.

{Will is a little bit overdressed because we were taking Christmas card pics}

New car day is a big one in the Hawkins house, as clearly we drive our cars for a very long time. So fun!

busy boy!

We had Will's 9 month check-up yesterday, and he got a great report! The doctor always gives us a little worksheet with his stats, info on this stage of development, and notes from the visit. This time, he wrote on the paper, "Looks great --> busy boy!" {underlining and exclamation points are not my doing...copied straight from the page!} Dr. D could not be more right! Will wiggled, babbled, and moved throughout the entire appointment. :) All in all, it was a great visit, and Will's development is right on track. And the best part? There are no 9 month vaccinations! Unfortunately, Will did have to get his flu shot booster, so there was still one needle involved. But after the standard "extreme red faced, can't get enough breath to scream as loud as he wants" crying, he was just fine.

Here are Will's 9 month stats:

Weight: 19 lbs, 13 oz (40%)

Length: 29 inches (75%)

Head: 18 inches (60%)

Busy boy! Playing with letters...

Closing the animal pop-ups...

Standing and chewing on part of his play-mat...

Cruising around the living room...

Whew! Even busy boys get tired sometimes!

9 months!

Well hello there, November 11th. You kind of snuck up on us, and all of the sudden our baby is 9 months old! Of course, we celebrated with not one, but two photo shoots today. Will was not really feeling the first one, although he was dressed up like a spiffy little man, so we took some more pictures after his afternoon nap, with much more success. Here he is, Mr. 9 months!

Possibly the reason photo shoot #1 didn't go well was that I took this hanger away. He was pretty darn happy when he was chewing on it.

And here's the best shot with the bear.

Dapper? Check.

Startled? Perhaps.

Protective of the bear? Yes.

Cute? Always.

Standing is much better than sitting, mom. Geez!

Post-nap and much happier!

Cutie Patootie.

{and looking very much too grown up for his mama}

happy!

talking to his bear about how many photos they would have to endure

And now it's time for my monthly discussion of William, his likes, dislikes, and milestones. Feel free to check out now if you wish, although I will entice you with the hint that a couple of cute videos are coming up. :)

• Probably the biggest milestone of this month has been pulling up. And just as he did with rolling, sitting, and crawling, as soon as Will figured out how to pull up, that's ALL he wants to do. He will pull up on anything, even me. I love it, although it does make me nervous because he has already taken a few tumbles. He's completely fearless!

Standing up instead of sitting with his bear:

And here's his newest trick - moving from the couch to the coffee table!

{almost gave me a heart attack when he did it!}

• Another favorite is still his rock band toy. But he finally discovered that the microphone actually works, so we've added an entirely new dimension of fun. I had to video this from behind him because he gets so distracted by the camera!

• Also this month, although I've seen signs of this before, Will has developed a dislike of being in his stroller. :( He still enjoys going for walks or jogs in the BOB, but he seems not to like being confined in his regular stroller for things like shopping, or, as Jennie and Harper got to witness today, enjoying the arboretum. Don't worry, he still loves the baby bjorn. And so do I, even though he's probably about 20 pounds now {official 9 month stats will come next Thursday after his checkup}. So hopefully this is just a phase, and he will start to enjoy strolling again soon!
• He loves getting into mischief. My favorite part of Will's love for getting into things he shouldn't is that he is sooo obvious about it. As soon as he sees something he wants, but usually shouldn't have, he starts panting and makes a beeline for it. It's hilarious, and the sound effects usually give me enough warning to keep him away from things like the cat food bowl, the silver kitchen trash can {which he LICKS, ew!}, and the various off-limits electronic items in the house. He also just recently discovered the cabinet in his room and loves to open and shut it. There's nothing dangerous in here, so he just THINKS he's getting into trouble:

Check out Mr. Independent reaching all the way to the back of his shelves to get Elmo.

• Will is still eating very well. He enjoys pretty much anything. One new item this month was yogurt, which I despise. It's almost more than I can handle to feed it to him {ugh - it smells!} and he LOVES it. He can eat the entire container, which seems like a lot for a tiny belly. He also started eating chicken this month, although I have to mix it in with pureed veggies or he looks at me like I'm crazy.
• In general, still a great sleeper. Unfortunately Will had his first cold this month and the runny nose just won't go away! So that's been waking him up a lot, plus I think he's working on his top teeth. But ignoring those disturbances, he's sleeping 11-12 hours at night and taking 2 naps. Naps are hit or miss...sometimes great and sometimes very short!
• His favorite things to say are "dada," "baba," and "mama" although he sometimes throws out a "gaga" or "nana." He definitely doesn't connect these words with anything yet, but just hearing his sweet little voice saying "mama" and "dada" makes me smile. It also makes me realize how much he's going to have me wrapped around his little finger when he starts talking!

{Ok, let's be honest. He's already got me wrapped around his little finger!}

what? too soon?

So maybe it's a little early for Santa pajamas, even for me. But they fit now, and this dude grows fast! {full disclosure - after I went to Chi O Christmas last week, I've kind of been in the Christmas mood!}

a few more holiday preview shots:

Matt says something is "off." Maybe I wasn't supposed to tuck his ears into the hat that is already sort of too small? Sorry, Will!

and my favorite:

{happy early holidays!}

love x 10

So today was Monday. But instead of a blah Monday, it was a great one! Here's a list of the top 10 things I loved about this Monday:

10. It's fall. So even though it was pretty warm today, I made a GIANT pot of chicken soup for dinner. And I got to use my new dutch oven pot, purchased because it was recommended on the PBS cooking show that Matt and I watch. Probably not the best picture, but it was delicious and spicy. Mmmmm.

9. Will is still getting over his cold, so he sort of rocks the constant snotty nose right now. AND he's got to be teething, because he is drooling a ton. While I don't love either of those things, I do think it's pretty funny that I have to put bibs on him not just for eating, but for general life right now. Otherwise we have to change his clothes at least 3 times a day. (As you can see, Will is constantly pulling up on things. Today he took a couple of steps while holding on to the couch, and grabbed the coffee table. He might just be growing up too fast for me.)

8. We've been teaching Will what "Give it to me" means, and now he gets sooo excited to give us his toys. Very cute, and actually quite an entertaining game for all involved.

7. I took Will out in the jogging stroller this evening. Weather was great, and although clearly taking 1.5 years off from working out makes jogging a little tougher, I really enjoyed our run.

6. We were out running errands today and stopped by to visit Matt for a few minutes. I love that we get to do that.

5. My baby can entertain himself with a bag of bagels. And it cracks me up. (This happened yesterday, but still makes the list. Oh, and he is wearing the pumpkin hat inside because we were about to go for a walk. I promise.)

4. Still love the arboretum. We went yesterday, and I got this cute picture. We also found a section that we had not yet walked through. AND found out that they have a holiday festival starting in December. How could I not love THAT?!

3. My dad stopped by for a surprise visit on his way home from work today. It was so much fun and such an unexpected treat. We got to hang out and Will got to see his Duke. Good times!

2. Oh, and did I mention, when I opened the door to find my dad on the front porch, he was holding THESE: (seriously! for no reason!)

****insert drumroll for number one****

1. I am (un)officially Aunt Lisa today!! My cousin Brent and his wife Tilly welcomed their first son, Carter Steven Gambill, this afternoon. Since technically I am Carter's first-cousin-once-removed, or some such nonsense, we decided to go with Aunt. I am also beyond excited about having another baby boy in the family, and only 9 months younger than Will. Although we don't live very close, I know these guys are going to be the best of friends as they grow up. I could not be happier for Brent and Tilly, and look at this handsome baby (and very proud dad!):
My Aunt Christa, Uncle Steve, and cousin Stephenie are all in DC today for Carter's arrival. Here's Brent with Aunt Christa and baby Carter:

Happy Monday to all!!