Raleigh's Basket

Enjoy this funny Video of Raleigh playing with a laundry basket.

I also put some giggling footage in at the end.

Finally...Raleigh with a gun

Doesn't that title just scare you when you first read it.

Back when Luke and Karla were visiting, Karla took some pictures on her camera of the fun times they had while I was at work.

Josh and Raleigh holding a BB Gun.

Raleigh wearing his coonskin hat and playing on his catfish.

Gary the cat, Raleigh, and Luke.

Harmonica...Baby!

 

Unfortunately, Deb visited this weekend. And before you get mad at me...I say "unfortunately" because Deb was only visiting because she had a funeral to attend. Her dear friend past away recently after having been through a very long struggle with cancer. She was also the mother of one of Josh's high school buddies. So we all went to visit with her family and friends on Saturday at the church. It made for long day. Raleigh missed his morning nap and was somewhat hard to handle at Applebee's that afternoon.

As usual, Deb came bearing gifts. One of which was a harmonica for Raleigh. He caught on quickly, and his music was beautiful.

He also got to eat some of Deb's oatmeal.

Our little gladiator

Yesterday, Josh sent me an e-mail with the following pictures attached. The subject of the e-mail was "Our little gladiator".

 

Video Gamers

It seems that Raleigh might be a born gamer like his dad. Raleigh is playing the gameboy advance in the pictures below. He basically listens to the music and pushes buttons.

And the picture below is the scene that I encountered when I got home from work today. Don't worry, Raleigh was napping.  Josh was testing out his magnifying lens on our flat screen LCD tv. According to Josh, it allows him to spot the snipers a lot easier now in the game "Call of Duty 4". He says he was dominating.

2 New Videos! No Way!

The first one (above) is of Grandpa Steve playing the banjo and Raleigh dancing/reacting.  The bottom video is of Raleigh and I goofing around this morning.

The Big Catch

I hadn't yet posted a picture of the stuffed catfish that Luke and Karla got for Raleigh so I thought I'd do that tonight. See photo above and see Raleigh picking up the catfish below.

Jenna (my sister-in-law) just got a new job not too far away from our house. That means that she can come visit Josh and Raleigh over her lunch hour. When I got home from work today and took some pictures of Raleigh, I found the following two photos on my camera. It seems that they had fun over lunch today.

Here's a picture of Raleigh standing in his closet wearing a hand-knit apple hat that a coworker of mine made for him when he was just tiny. It fits better now.

Mechanic/Musician

Raleigh was checking the pressure in his tricycle tires.

And then he was tuning his dad's bass guitar.

Furnace woes

Josh, Raleigh and I did some winter camping last night...well that's what it felt like. Last night, after our trip to the YMCA, we realized that our furnace wasn't working. So, first I called my dad, who told me to open up the door on the furnace...after seeing the warnings about natural gas and possible death, I decided to call a service technician and not fool around in there myself.

I called a furnace repair company at around 8:30 last night. They said they would put us on the waiting list; there were already 5 people on the list.

I decided to go to sleep at 11 pm and Josh agreed to wait for the furnace repair guy. At this point, our house was about 60 degrees (F). We bundled Raleigh up in extra clothes and wrapped him in plenty of blankets.

I woke up at 3 am. Josh was still awake and waiting for the repair man. Raleigh was still sleeping and warm. Our house was now 55 degrees (F). I called the same company again and the person on the phone said they'd page the on-call technician again. I went back to bed.

I woke up at 6 am. Still no repair man. Our house was now 50 degrees (F). I whipped out the phone book and called all of the furnace repair companies and said whoever gets here first gets the job.

We still waited until 8:15 for a repair man to show up. It took him 1 hour and 15 minutes to fix the furnace. It took a few hours to warm up the house again.

Now, I'm tired and cranky but warm. Raleigh didn't seem to notice the cold environment around him. I think he enjoyed waddling around the house in his snowsuit and hat. I, however, hated wearing my jacket, hat and mittens in my own house.

I can't wait to get the service bill in the mail.

Spaghetti

Raleigh had spinach and wheat spaghetti with parmesan cheese for dinner tonight. He loved eating and flinging the spaghetti. 

Raleigh's new hat

 

After taking the picture, I realized just how much of his lunch he had on his clothes. Josh put the box on his head. He walked around like that for a while.

A Woman's Perspective on Compassion

Chelsea and I will be attending the artists reception for our Shoe Art on Sunday. Come join us and see all of the fabulous art!

Props where props are due

I forgot to mention in the post about the outfit that Deb knitted for Raleigh that Chelsea sewed it together and added the zipper.

Thanks Chelsea, you did a great job!

I showed the outfit off at work today, all the knitters/cross stitchers/crocheters  that I get together with every Thursday at noon thought it was a fabulous piece of wearable art.

Raleigh's headband

 

I put one of Josh's headbands on Raleigh tonight. He didn't really mind that it was there. He just went about his normal business. Oh, you're wondering why Raleigh doesn't have any pants on? This was his outfit when I came home from work today.

Raleigh is also sprouting his first molar! He opened his mouth wide tonight when I was hanging him upside down, and I saw a glimmer of white among his top left gums.

Fargo Runner

I've created a new blog to keep track of my running adventures during the time that I train to run the Fargo half marathon. If you're interested, here's the link:

Fargo Runner

Snow day

Ok, so Raleigh's not in school yet, and it was a Sunday...but yesterday was a real snow filled day. It was like 30 degrees (F) out and it was perfect snowman/shovel your sidewalks kind of weather.

We took the opportunity to get Raleigh outside to play in the snow.

Raleigh holds a piece of snow.

Raleigh drops piece of snow.

Raleigh realizes he dropped the piece of snow

Raleigh tries to pick it up...

...but falls on his butt

Then he tries to pick it up again

 

Then falls on his head...ok...just kidding, he didn't fall on his head, but he is doing a pretty darn good impression of an ostrich right here.

Raleigh put on a hat

Sunday morning, Raleigh found his dad's hat and he put it on all by himself. And of course, his newest favorite toy is his dad's broken x-box controller.

Hand Knit by Deb: Raleigh's outfit

My mother-in-law has been working on a beautiful baby outfit for Raleigh since before he was born. For you knitters out there, she was making a Dale of Norway pattern using needles as small as sizes 0, 1, and 2.

This outfit will be an heirloom and is truly beautiful. In some of the pictures below, my hair got in the way of the flash, so for example, one of the arms of the sweater looks darker than the other. And the pants look like they have darker areas on them, which is not the case. The picture of Raleigh wearing the outfit is the best rendition of the true colors of the outfit.

And here are some more photos of Raleigh in his outfit.

Catch-up Video #2

Back to work today

My week and a half holiday vacation is now over, and I'm headed back to work.

I'll leave you with this adorable picture of Raleigh enjoying some Chili.

1st day in 2008

Check out what I was doing today. Compassion Shoes.

And here's what we did last night.

We played a few rounds of "Mexican" Dominos.

And here are a few pictures of Raleigh playing in the hall way.