First Haircut

It is hard to believe that the little man who was completely bald for the first eight months of his life is finally ready for a haircut.  We have been holding off because we didn't want to lose any of those precious little curls.  Lucky for Will the lady who cut his hair just took a little off and it actually helped it curl even more in the back.  He wasn't so sure of the haircut...no tears, but was not enjoying it either!  

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After:

Early visit from Santa

On Sunday morning, we woke to find that Santa had visited Will early.  He received a kitchen set that he loves!  It has been nonstop play for the past two days.  I'm sure he will be just as excited to see what Santa brings him on Christmas morning!

Breakfast with Santa

We had a wonderful time at the ND Alumni Club mass and breakfast with Santa.  The Dillons and Gunsoreks went with us.  The first picture is Will just sitting on the ground and watching Santa.  From a distance he is a huge fan...even says "ho, ho, ho", but up close, well that's a different story.  After everyone had a chance to visit with Santa, we tried to get all four kids to pose for a picture.  That did not go over so well! :)  Wyatt and Will stuck around though, and played with their fire truck and police car from Santa.

Happy St. Nick's Day

One of my favorite traditions from growing up happens the night of December 5th.  We put out our stockings (handmade by grandma) and St. Nick comes and fills them.  Will had some great surprises in his stocking this year!

Decorating for Christmas

We visited Mr. Tree Christmas Tree Farm on Sunday and chose our tree.  We also pulled out all of our decorations and started to put them up this past weekend.  Will loved when mommy found her Rudolph stuffed animal from when she was a little girl.  We will add more pictures of the decorated tree soon.

Christmas Parade

We came back from Cincinnati on Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, and were able to attend the Gahanna Christmas Parade that night.  The weather was great, and the town looked wonderful all decorated for the holidays.  Will even waved to Santa as he passed by in the parade.  We are hoping to make the parade an annual Blake family tradition.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun in Cincinnati!  We were able to expose Will to his first Driehaus Thanksgiving.  There were over a hundred relatives in attendance (a typical year :)) and Will had so much fun running after all of his cousins (first, second, and third).  He really enjoyed the meal too!

Firefighter Will

Will loves his new fire truck from the Dillon family.  He runs in and out of it and begs us to set it up everyday so he can play.  

Touchdown

Yes, Will has learned how to signal touchdown.  As you can see from the picture, he is a huge Irish fan...even if the season hasn't been the greatest.  We love to see him every Saturday in his #7 jersey from Papa Fritz. We are hoping we can even squeeze him into it again next year.

3 Dogs

We had a great time posing Will with his favorite dog friends, Touchdown and Sophie.  Even though it was nearly impossible to get all three to stay still at once, we still managed to snap a few cute moments.

Carving Pumpkins

We had so much fun carving our pumpkin the night before trick-or-treat.  We stripped Will down to his diaper and let him dig in.  He had so much fun using the shovel to put all the pumpkin guts in his bowl.  We were pretty proud of how our family pumpkin turned out!

Halloween

We had a great time this year on Halloween.  We were very thankful to be able to celebrate so many times.  Will also loved putting on his puppy costumes and still gets very excited when he sees it.  It is hard to believe that this is the same little boy that dressed as the sweet pea last year and slept through most of the festivities.

Fall festivities

We had a great time visiting Lynd's Fruit Farm this past weekend.  First we went to the apple orchards and let Will pick some apples.  He was even working on saying the word apple as he picked.  He was very proud of himself when Pete would lift him up to pull the apples off of the tree branches.  After apple picking, we went over the to the fall shop and picked out our pumpkin and some yummy treats.  It was a great way to spend a fall morning!

Happy Halloween

It is hard to believe that only one year ago, Will was all bundled up as a little green sweet pea on his first trip to Gahanna's Halloween celebration.  This year he was able to enjoy the sights and sounds a little more!  After walking around to see all the other kids in their costumes, we let Will get out of the stroller and check it all out.  Of course the first thing he wanted to do was run up to the stage where a band was playing and start dancing.  Needless to say, his cute little puppy tail swinging to the tunes was quite the memory.

Walking Wild man

Soon after his first birthday, Will progressed from taking one or two steps to a full time walker. Recently, he has also tried running!  He is becoming very independent and even insists on walking the long hallway from his classroom to the front door at school every afternoon.  It is very important that he stops at every window and waves goodbye to all the babies and toddlers as he passes by.  Getting pictures of Will has also become increasingly more difficult since he is always on the move!

Lets go Tigers

Yes, this post is a bit delayed.  Will had a great time wearing his special Tigers' jersey and hat as he cheered on daddy's team.  Too bad they couldn't pull out the win and make it to the playoffs.  We are hoping to take Will to his first game next season and  have him wear his adorable attire.

Irish Weekend

There is a lot to catch up on!  Pete and I had a great time at Notre Dame for the Michigan St. game in September.  It was our first weekend away from Will and he had a great time in Cincinnati staying with his grandma and grandpa.  The weather was fabulous, the campus looked beautiful, and it was quite an exciting game.  Here are a few of our favorite pics from the weekend.

Fun pictures

Over the past few weeks I have become a much better walker.  This past weekend at grandma and grandpa's house...while mommy and daddy were in South Bend cheering on the Irish...I thought it was fun to walk all over and chase my big cousin Leo.  I'm also a huge fan of bubbles...as you can tell from the picture!

Race car driver

Or stunt man if you see these pictures!  Will loves his new car from the Sanders family.  Within two days he learned to climb on himself and move it backwards and forwards on his own.  He has even tried standing a few times and also loves to sit on the car with the seat open.  Silly goose!