November_2011

November a very busy month for the Jewell's indeed.

This splendid month started with Taylor's 23rd birthday. Which was celebrated with one of Taylor's favorite dinners as well as homemade red velvet cake. His big gift for this year was ticket to a Raven football game on the 20th of November. He was so excited about it, it was the best gift ever for him. He is doing well with the beginign of his new year. His reenlistment package finally went through, so now he is just waiting to be swarn in again. Rachel is thrilled about that. She is doing well and loving being a mommy of two. Although Thanksgiving was stressful she managed to make it through. Both Taylor and Rachel are looking forward to Christmas with the kids. It should be very exciting for them all.

L has developed a new love for Scooby Doo which, if Cars is not on, she watches constantly. She is also making remarkable progress in school. She has learned how to properly hold a writing utensil and scissors. She is also working on coloring in the lines. She is growing rapidly, almost to the point that Taylor and Rachel can't keep up. Rachel had said you can tell she is about to turn three because everything is 'mommy whats that?', 'mommy look at this!' or 'daddy a C.O.W!" With Christmas approaching she is growing more and more excited, especially when a trip to the mall or seeing Christmas lights/trees are involved. Taylor is loving that Christmas morning will finally be exciting. Like every two year old L loves getting into mischief and she has to push every button she sees. With that she bought her first lottery ticket, by herself! Wile Taylor was getting one for his Dad's birthday present L decided that she was going to push a button and get one for herself as well. She had a ton of fun scratching it off!

But the question on every one's mind is how's the baby. Well C is doing fantastic. He is growing at a rapid rate and is keeping everyone busy. He experienced his first Thanksgiving and loved it. He is not crawling yet, but he can hold up his head by himself for short periods of time. He hates being on his tummy like any newborn does but he seems to be making progress as far as crawling goes. C loves to laugh and the giggles, smile, laughs and all kinds of sounds are becoming more and more permanent. He just loves to laugh, L just cracks him up. Taylor gets a kick out of L playing with him. Taylor and Rachel are so excited to see him grow.

So the tale of Thanksgiving. Originally the plan was that Rachel was going to cook the dinner with the supervision of Maya. However things never go as planed. As most of you know Rachel's Nanna has been in and out of the hospital since C has been born. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving she was put into ICU and transferred to Washington hospital to have stents put in. Therefore Rachel's mom and two Aunts were not present for the festivities. It was all up to Rachel, Taylor and Glenn. So Glenn stuck to the plan and made the dressing the night before as Rachel, Taylor and the kids were out for Taylor's father's birthday dinner at Famous Dave's. On Thanksgiving day Rachel stuffed the turkey and Glenn put it into the oven and cooked it. Then they started on everything else. Luckily the aid of Madison (Rachel's cousin) and Kara (Taylor and Rachel's soon to be sister in law) the kids were taken care of and Nanna's famous gravy was made ( I love you forever for that Maddie!) The dinner went off without a hitch and everyone had a blast. Rachel's other cousin Candace helped with the clean up and everything was cleaned up within an hour of dinner.

After mostly everyone had gone home the Ravens game came on. So with Rachel's brother Bryan and Taylor it was a very exciting time. Luckily they won! So things ended up being OK and Thanksgiving was a success even without Rachel's mom and Aunts. So the torch has been passed. But Rachel's last thought of the night was, "I wish my mom's were here."

So Christmas is up next. Stay tuned.