Christmas tradition

Looking back at my childhood there was one Christmas tradition that I remember as my favorite, cutting our own Christmas tree. We would load up as a family and drive to a near by Christmas tree farm. There we would walk up and down the rows of trees looking for the perfect tree. I can remember how all the really pretty trees always had red ribbons tied around a branch, this meant that the were already chosen and paid for by some over achieving family who came to the farm early in the season and marked their tree- planning to come back by closer to Christmas to cut it down :). Once we found the tree we wanted we Dad would cut the tree down and some of the farm helpers would come and drag the tree back out of the field using a 4-wheeler. While we were waiting for the tree to be shook and bagged we would enjoy some hot chocolate inside the gift shop.
  I was sharing this story with Mahlon earlier this week and we decided that cutting a real Christmas tree would be a great tradition to start with our little family! So, this afternoon we decided to take a trip to the family farm to get a real tree.

This was the tree that we decided on.

Chainsaw Randy! 

Supervise Mahlon!

 Mahlon packing the tree back out of the field to the truck.

And out of the truck onto the top of the Equinox :)

Insert Griswold jokes here!

Here is the tree after we got it home, and cut a few feet off of the bottom :)

It is not decorated yet because we wanted to wait for the branches to fall back into place after being tied down to the top of the Equinox before we started placing ornaments. However, I did go ahead and put the presents out :)

I know it's not the best looking tree, but it't the tradition that counts!

Pictures of the finished product to come soon! 

Lights!

 

Harrison LOVED playing with the Christmas lights! And have no fear, Dad was standing close by making sure that he never actually got the lights in his mouth while I took the opportunity to snap a few quick pictures!

What I'm learning

Over the past few weeks Harrison has discovered a lot of new things! 

He has learned to roll 

from his back

 to his side!

He has discovered that if he swings his arm toward Scout he can knock him over :)

He can grip his toys

          And sit up in the Bumbo, only for about 30 seconds, but its a start!

He has learned to reach toward things that are in front of him

and that the baby in the mirror will make the same faces that he makes :)

And he has not forgot that Mommy loves to take lots of pictures!

"If you don't stop with that camera, I'm gonna punch ya!"

A Fall Full of Firsts

I am ready to admit that I am slacking in the blogging area! I feel like I haven't blogged anything that we have been up to this Fall! Soooo, it's time to catch up!
Let's see, there have been a lot of firsts this Fall.
This year was the first year I have celebrated my birthday with Harrison!

Handy Husband made us a wonderful chocolate cake!

Harrison took his first trip to Glendale Days- we didn't get any pictures, but he was there!

Cousin Maddie and Harrison met for the first time! They will be great pals!

Harrison took his first trip to the family farm!

We took our first trip to Jackson's Orchard.

Harrison was a Tiger for his first Halloween :)

Here he is with his first pumpkin.

 All that, and we still have a month to go before Winter!

The Many Faces of a Sleepy Harrison

Watch Me Grow! 2 Months!

I am a little behind posting this, but the picture was taken the day he turned 2 months old :)

He wasn't really in the mood for a photo shoot, but I insisted :)