52 : 38

Christmas preparations are in full swing! The boys found the perfect tree and chopped it down. Ewan and I watched Home Alone for the first of hundreds of times, we really were enjoying ourselves. Ewan hung his first ornament, a special 1st Christmas ornament from his Grammie McD.

We also hung all the decorations outside, which included Kevin talking to us from the roof and Ewan laughing hysterically from his carrier on my hip!

Some of our indoor decorations did not make the cut because of the crawling/cruising baby of the house, but we are more merry than ever before and can't wait to create these memories and traditions with our son.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and this year it was all the sweeter because it was EP's first and it was our 4th wedding anniversary. We wanted a quaint celebration at home and we had just that. The day started with a pancake breakfast to celebrate our anniversary, then the Macy's Parade, and lots of cooking.

Kevin's Mom (Grammie McD) flew up from Camarillo and my Dad (Grampy) drove up from San Juan Bautista. We ate, we drank, we chatted, we rested, we read, we played, and we were thankful. The pictures can say the rest!

The appetizers

Ewan opening his first wrapped present from Grammie

3 Generations of Welton + 2 Dogs

Our table

Our reading material

Dessert

TURKEY!

Centerpieces

K's Bird

Nap Time

52 : 37

9 years ago I met a guy, 8 years ago I kissed him, and 4 years ago today I married him. This year he gave me the best gift ever, so grateful this Thanksgiving!

This week's picture is that guy and that gift watching the ducks in a pond on Granville Island in Vancouver.

52 : 36

It has been a week of firsts! Ewan's first flight, passport stamp, and boat ride --- all part of his first real vacation to Victoria and Vancouver. More to come on the trip when we are back, but in honor of project 52 a quick snapshot of our week, the 3 of us enjoying coffee and donuts at an awesome coffee shop in Vancouver, 1 of many coffee stops. Thus far the week has been amazing, no work or Facebook or email or phone calls (just this quick post from the Royal British Columbia Museum). Just our family of 3 on an adventure --- oh yeah us and the 3 new teeth Ewan sprouted - 1 for Monday, 1 for Tuesday, and 1 for Wednesday, but through it all he has been an amazing explorer.

52 : 35

Today Ewan is 35 weeks old, which is also his 8 month birthday! I am calling it his Golden Baby Birthday, but Kevin seems skeptical... he is turning 8 months on the 8th, of course we need to celebrate that!

I sound like a broken record, but Ewan gets more fun every single day. In the last week he has started scooting around on his butt, crawling even more quickly, and turning on a dime when something new interests him. His pulling up is increasing at a scary fast rate, and the coffee table is currently his everest. He is more and more verbal all of the time and his latest addiction is grunting, you ask him a question he grunts, you tickle him he grunts, you grunt at him and he laughs hysterically. I need to be sure to get a video of all this grunting. This boy of ours is such a love bug and I often wish I could pause time, but I am sure next week will be even better!

EP's official 8 month photo - taken November 8th, 2012

34 weeks 1 day (inside/out)

At this point in my pregnancy we had an unexpected ultrasound to measure McNugget because he was seeming a little big. The ultrasound showed he was a bit big, but nothing of too much concern --- we were all surprised when Ewan emerged 22 inches and 9 pounds 13 ounces. I still can't decide if he resembles that 3D ultrasound or not. Beefcake is measuring 22+ pounds and 29+ inches today!

52 : 34

This last weekend the score was - Flu 3 McDonald Family 0! Ewan brought us home a treat from school and while he was only minimally effected (flu shot maybe?) K and I crashed and burned. I was done in about 20 hours but the war waged on in poor K for a couple days.

While having the flu is never fun it was a lot easier when we were just a couple, adding Ewan in to the mix we couldn't just feel sorry for ourselves because he had to be fed and played with. Luckily we have an amazing son who is awesome at independent play and he seemed to forgive our less enthusiastic play. We used the excersaucer more than usual to contain the beefcake, but he did start pulling up on furniture Sunday, you know just to keep us on our toes.