Holiday Festivities

The Bunch family has had a lot of fun these past few weeks with holiday festivities. I didn't realize how many traditions and activities there are in December until we were able to share them all with Hayden.

At the beginning of the month Hayden turned 5 months old. I can't tell you how unbelievably fast time is passing and how my little boy is growing up in front of my eyes. I have been taking pictures of Hayden with Tucker every month so that you can see how big he is getting compared to his 80 lb best friend. This month's picture made me realize that we have gotten out of he infant stage and that Hayden is finally growing up (in all aspects, he is a totally different happy baby...yea!!!)

Chris was excited that he can finally fit into his Carharts...what Alaskan kid doesn't have a set!!! Hayden loves to mock you, so we were sticking our tongues out at each other in this picture!

Chris took Hayden skating for the first time at the outdoor rink down the road from our house while it was really warm outside. Hayden had a blast skating around with his dad and I can foresee skating in his future!

My parents have always taken my sister and I Christmas tree shopping at the local Kiwanis club, and this year wasn't any different. I love stepping into the building and smelling the fresh pine, and then bringing home the tree and having it smell up the house. We all had fun picking out trees for our houses and my parents loved toting Hayden around to have him "pick out" their tree!

Hayden tried to help us decorate the tree when we brought it home. He had a lot more fun eating the ornaments and the tree rather than hanging them!

And the holiday festivities would not be complete without seeing Santa Claus! Chris had his union Christmas party (one that I went to from Hayden's age until I was 10), and luckily Hayden got to catch Santa! He did great sitting on his lap, and even smiled really big for his picture :)

THANKSgiving

Chris and I have a lot to be thankful these days and I would like to share a few things important to us. We are very thankful that we were blessed with a healthy baby this year and we are also thankful for our health and our families as well. Speaking of family, we are thankful for our families, we have wonderful supportive families full of love. I am thankful that I am able to stay at home with Hayden, but also thankful that I can work a little from home! I am thankful for my husband and everything that he does. Oh the list can go on and on but I just wanted to touch on the big items, health and family!

We had a wonderful thanksgiving day full of activities. I got up early and spent half the day cooking bread, pies, and Hayden's first solids! It was really nice to be able to work away in the kitchen while Chris played with the boys. If you know me then you know that I am by far a cook, but hey I keep trying!! Every single Thanksgiving that I have cooked for, I have undercooked something. Our very good family friends, the Landermans, share Thanksgiving with us and can attest to my cooking. I have undercooked a turkey twice, and this year I didn't cook the white bread all the way through. Thank goodness I made wheat bread as a back-up!

We normally eat an early Thanksgiving at the Bunch's, but they went down to Anchorage for Tyler's hockey tournament, so we just headed over to my parents. They did an amazing job of cooking a huge beautiful spread of really good food. Before dinner I tried to give Hayden his sweet potatoes, but there was too much going on and he was way too distracted. So during dinner he felt a little left out in his activity center, so of course his dad held him in his lap (he is a big sucker), and Hayden was very interested in everything on the table. So, Chris fed him his sweet potatoes and he ate them right up! Chris also managed to sneak in a few bites of my mom's scrumptious cranberry salad that Hayden of course loved. We had a great dinner with wonderful company! After a big day of playing with dad and eating a TON of food, Hayden literally just passed out in Skip's arms. It was the cutest thing, Skip held him for a good hour and he was out cold :)

In addition to the sweet potatoes, Hayden has been getting some oatmeal for breakfast as well. He does a good job of eating, that is when he isn't occupied looking at something else more interesting. He gets distracted very easily, so it is a bit challenging!!

We are having a major heat wave up here, it is 35 degrees out today! So the other night Chris took Hayden out on his first snowmachine ride. Chris was on cloud nine, snowmachining with his son and dog, his favorite things in the world (I think I am a distant 4th!) Hayden did great, but got a little tired of the wind in his face, so I hopped on back and held him between Chris and I and he loved it! I think Chris is going to take him skating tonight, we will see how he likes that!