I'm SO Thankful!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Turkey Day!

I have so much to be thankful for!

Great family, friends, daycare provider, food, and my newfound mobility!

I had already started on a small variety of foods, but now I eat pretty much any and all grown-up foods...I had lots of opportunities to explore foods during my two Thanksgiving meals. I LOVE cheesy potatoes and ham too! The leftovers are now gone and I'm not sure what else mom and dad are going to find to compare to those yummy 'tatoes!

On Thanksgiving morning I went to spend some early morning time with grandma and grandpa Dummer while mom and dad went to run the 'Turkey Trot'. Mom did the 5 mile and dad did the 2 mile. Neither of them would compromise and pick one to do together so they ran seperately...it was pretty impressive that dad was willing to run at all, but it was for a good cause and it made them feel a little less guilty about indulging in the yummy food later that day:)

Here they are post-race...Still smiling:)

After the race, mom and dad went home to get cleaned up and then they came back to the farm to have Thanksgiving with my Dummer/Spielman family at lunch time. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, salads, cranberries, rolls, and of course pie:)

Then we were headed home in the afternoon to get ready to host Thanksgiving at our house for Granny, Auntie Heidi and all my cousins. We had more good food (This is when I discovered my love for ham and cheesy potatoes!) It was fun to visit with those 5 wild boys!

Trying to get all of us to smile was pretty comical...Someone else should have been taking a picture of mom, Granny, and Heidi!

After our bodies and bellies took a day to recover from the Thanksgiving festivities, we kept ourselves busy this weekend getting into the Christmas spirit! On Saturday we went to the tree farm and kept the tradition going by cutting down our own tree. I was awake for the wagon ride to the field and back, but I was so tuckered out, I took a little snooze during the fun stuff, while dad cut the tree down! Grandma and Grandpa Dummer came with too to get their tree and cousin Connor helped them cut theirs down!

It was fun that night to watch dad bring it in and put it up and all the lights on it. Mom and I took the honors of putting the first ornament on:)

I enjoyed spending a little bit of time with my cousins Connor and Madeline who came up for the weekend from Iowa. When it was time for them to leave on Sunday Connor leaned over to give me a hug and he told mom "I love Danika...I don't want to leave her...I wish I could stay and play with her forever!" So sweet:)

Madeline is 9 months older than me, but one of these days I'm going to catch right up to her, and then we'll be double trouble!!

On Sunday we celebrated Grandma Lynn's retirement by throwing her a party with all her friends and family. Today was her last day of work...YEAH! I'm looking forward to more Grandma time!

As I mentioned at the beginning of my post, I have become quite mobile these days. I am sort of crawling forward...I take 2 or 3 crawls and then I decide I'd rather sit up and I find something to pull myself up on. All I want to do these days is stand up! I can stand on my own for about 2-3 seconds. It's coming in handy for many things, like playing on my own, but it has it's downfalls for mom and dad.... (See below!)

I used to fall right asleep on my own, but that's becoming a bit more of a challenge now that I've discovered I can stand up!!!! Mom and dad had to get a picture of me babbling away before they intervened!!!

More trouble ahead I'm sure... Have a great week!

Love, Danika