Thanksgiving at the Fire Station

We got to spend a very blessed Thanksgiving Day at the Fire Station. My father-in-law had to work so we brought the food to him and celebrated with him at the station. I knew Tobey was going to have a blast. He got to sit in a fire truck and hold the fire hose and spray water. He also got to see his Paw Paw leave in the fire truck three different times while we were there. The last time we had Thanksgiving at the station Tobey had just turned one a couple of months before. He actually took his first solo steps at the fire station that year. It is amazing how much he has changed in just two short years. He is such a little man and he loves his family. He was so excited that we were all together yesterday.  I worked the night of Thanksgiving Eve so I slept in on Thanksgiving day while Rodney made homemade macaroni-n-cheese and cookie dough brownies to take to the station. We headed over around lunchtime and feasted. The guys made it through lunch before they got a call for a dumpster fire. When they got back they parked the fire truck outside the station and let Tobey and another little girl who was there spray the hoses. Tobey was in awe. He is already mesmerized by his Paw Paw and now even more. Then we hung around outside and snapped lots of pictures. This is actually Phil's last Thanksgiving as a fireman as he will be retiring soon so I walked around and took pictures of him next to the firetruck. Then we headed inside and ate dessert and watched the game (of course). Tobey found a stash of suckers and handed them out to everyone. We stayed until almost 7pm and then came home and decorated our tree. I love this time of year and I am excited that we will be done decorating today. Rodney is about finished with the outside lights and we will have over a month to enjoy it all. I am off this friday night since I worked the Eve so we are taking Tobey to see the new movie Bolt this afternoon. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a very blessed time with family!

Sitting in the fire truck

Posing with Aunt Biz

Posing with Paw Paw

Posing with Daddy

After Paw Paw returned from putting out fires

Getting ready to spray the fire hose

family pics

Cuddling with Mimi

Stocking up on suckers (I especially enjoyed his little buddha belly in this picture)

The Tool Man

The day before Thanksgiving Tobey and I went outside to help Rodney with the Christmas lights. I made a bargain with the hubs that I would help him outside if he would set the tree up inside. We have to do a fake tree because we are a house full of allergy and I hate setting that thing up. I love putting the ornaments on but I hate setting the tree up. So he set the tree up so it would be ready for decorating later and then we headed outside. We only got around to the ground stuff but Rodney was satisfied with getting half the work done. He is actually outside right now putting the rest of the lights up on the house. His cousin showed up to help and of course Tobey has to be outside with them so I am enjoying some alone time in the house and very happy about it. Anyway back to the day before Thanksgiving Tobey decided he needed his tools outside because he wanted to build something. He played for a good 45 minutes. I don't know what he had in mind to build but he was very intent on it and very cute.

Arrgh...Matey!

Last month when my sister-in-law and her husband were in town for a conference Jeff played pirates with Tobey and taught him how to say Arrgh...Matey. He went around for days saying it and it was really cute. I had been leaning toward dressing Tobey up as Curious George for our Fallapalooza at church. I decided to give him a choice in the matter so I asked him if he wanted to be Curious George or a pirate. Well of course he said a pirate because a pirate is cool like Uncle Jeff.

He was a great looking pirate although he refused to wear the eye patch. He did let me take one picture with it on.

I didn't realize how menacing the skull on his hat looked when I bought it. I hope he didn't frighten anyone at Fallapalooza.

Tobey got to hang out with Aunt Biz. This was in line waiting for the costume contest and he is asking her to go on the stage with him.

And she did like the loving Aunt she is

Then she went through the obstacle course with him.

After Tobey played games at church we drove over to the Fire Station to see Paw Paw who was working. Tobey was so excited and he practiced saying trick or treat in the car. We walked up and rang the doorbell but no one answered. Then we walked around to the back and saw that the fire truck was gone. Tobey was so sad. He cried on the way back to the car.

Then we met some friends for ice cream and I let Tobey eat as much candy as he wanted. He was so candied out that the next day he didn't even ask for any. Now for some reminiscing.

2007-Cowboy

2006-Tigger

2005-Cute Baby

A Day at the Zoo with Tobey & George

Last Wednesday, Tobey and I made a random trip to the Ft Worth zoo just to get out of the house. He was in need of a change of scenery and we hadn't been in a while (over a year i think). I found out that admission is half-off on Wednesdays so it was less than $10 for both of us to get in. I packed our lunches too so it was an overall cheap date. He was so much fun this time and so excited by all the animals. He was so cute be because he kept asking for animals specifically. "I want to see the little monkeys now" or "I want to see the giraffes" or elephants or tiger. His new obsessions are Curious George and Clifford. We brought George along with us and he would hold George up so he could see the animals too. I teased him all day and called him George and he would reply back every time so innocently "I not George mommy, I Tobey". Our favorite stops along the day were the monkeys, the white tiger, the penguins, and the lioness and her cubs. The spider monkeys were especially active when we arrived and Tobey laughed at how they swung around on their playhouse. The white tiger was on the prowl as it paced back and forth in front of the viewing window. Tobey was in awe. The penguins are a fairly new exhibit that we had not seen. I love the penguins at the Dallas zoo so I was excited to see that the Ft Worth zoo had them now too. We had alot of fun watching them splash around under the water. The best part though was watching the lioness and her cubs. We stayed quite awhile at this exhibit. The cubs were in a playful mood attacking their mom and each other. The poor lioness just wanted to lay down and rest. She would reach back and nudge them with her nose and then shake them off and move to a new location to lie down. She kept her eyes on them though. One of the cubs wandered off by himself and she watched him for a few minutes before going over to check out what he was doing. It was amazing to watch their interactions. And of course we rode the train. Tobey's favorite part. After the ride and the train stopped for us to get off he said "no mommy I want to ride more". It took a little convincing to get him off the train. It was a really fun day for us. The weather was beautiful and the zoo wasn't crowded at all. It was definitely worth my 10 bucks.