Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 was at my parent's home with Aaron and Leigh Anne, my parents, my brother and our clan.... sooo thankful for my family! My sister and Christopher alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas between Arizona and Georgia with Christopher's family... so they will be joining us for Christmas this year!

"Daniel, Smile for mommy!"

"Okay, not a silly smile... "

The Princess...

So, my mom is an an amazing Grandma... so much so that Katelyn prefers her over me any day or any time.... ALWAYS! Katelyn screams, cries and everything else when my mom leaves, etc. As soon as she sees my mom she twists herself out of my arms and runs to Grandma and throws herself at her... it is very funny! She loves my dad but just to give a hug to and say Hi then she wants Grandma and she will get really mad at whoever is trying to hold her back!

My mom has lots of picture frames on her fireplace and this is one of Katelyn's favorite places in their whole house... she pulls herself on to one of these ottomons and she names every person in the picture... some people really puzzle her because she has no idea who they are or she sees some family pictures that are before her time here on earth and she wants to know where she is:) She is also confused by Daniel's baby pictures:) Daniel just now understands why he is not in our wedding pictures... that has bothered him FOREVER!

Above is her "posing" again:)

When this girl is tired... it is sippy cup, silky and thumb!

The next day... BLACK FRIDAY... has to be one of my favorite days of the entire year! It is the day we decorate for Christmas... this has been a tradition in my house forever and I love it! If you know me, I LOVE traditions so "Black Friday" shopping sounds fun because I love a bargain but it would totally cramp my tradition! I totally wouldn't have enough time or energy to work on getting our house festive! A few years ago, Brendon read me a blog about someone whose wife has a storage unit for their Christmas decorations alone and hires a team of decorators the weekend after Thanksgiving to help her decorate for Christmas... at the time he read it to me, it sounded excessive and crazy.... for some reason, I thought about that blog post a lot this year and kept thinking that doesn't sounds so crazy after all! I kind of think I like that idea... LOL!
So, these were my two precious kiddos in their Santa hats helping me decorate... although it looks like they were taking a lunch break:)

Sometimes we have special nights with Daniel where we put Katelyn to bed and let him stay up with us and do something special... this night he wanted me to make him Hot Chocolate in his special cup (the mug Brendon had growing up as a child) and play Candyland... in his Christmas jammies!

Parent's 35th Wedding Anniversary and Park

We hosted a very small dinner at our home for my parent's 35th wedding anniversary...

Very informal (Chili Dinner), quaint (just the staff), intimate... fun...

Katelyn had her booster flu shot:( The girl hates shots... meaning she cries. Daniel doesn't cry... he hasn't cried in a very long time for a shot... thankfully they love THE amazing Dr. Jones! Come to think of it... he doesn't give the shots so maybe that is why they love him so much:)

Then we played with bubbles... I found these bubble wands in the Target Dollar Bin and thought that would be a fun Fall afternoon activity!

This is Katelyn's smile/ pose when you tell her to smile and look at you so you can take her picture... LOL!

Wednesday we had a park play date with my friends Kattia and Leah and their kiddos!
I know I have said it before, but this girl is FEARLESS! She has completely mastered the playground... until yesterday when she decided that she would climb to the top of the largest slide at the entire, HUGE playground we were at and go head first down... smash her face into the wood chips and get a huge bloody nose... ughhh:( Again, my two kiddos are completely opposite... Daniel has never had a bloody nose to date... you can barely bump Katelyn's nose and she gets a bloody nose... totally freaked me out at first!

Partay!

The weekend after I got back from South Florida was full of parties! Saturday was Sasha's 1st Birthday at Little Gym. We actually let Daniel spend the evening with my parents so we could take Katelyn alone to this birthday party. With a second child, there is always older brother around so we thought this would be a great opportunity to just spend with her:)

So, Sasha's parents and I went to the same college although we never knew each other there... probably because I was getting my undergrad degree and they were getting their Masters... now her daddy is finishing up his doctorate! We think she has some really awesome parents:)

Jumping fun!

I love Katelyn's outfit and she gets so many compliments on it... my sister got it in Ireland when she was there! My sister and her husband are going to Italy for 3 weeks in April so I wonder what goodies we will get from there... hehehe!

Please notice that Katelyn picked out a Big Bird hat because at this time, she was obsessed with him... she had a book that had Big Bird in it and she would take the book and kiss the book over and over because she loved Big Bird SO much... NOW, it is the one and only Elmo! How does this red monster win the heart of almost every toddler in America!

Check out this fabulous cake!

Don't worry about Daniel because he had one to go to on Sunday! It was at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park for his friend Kai!

Daniel and Kai have known each other since newborns... we met at a breastfeeding support group! LOL! I am sure these boys will love hearing that story when they are older!

Sunday was also my parents 35th wedding anniversary... we had a party at our house on Monday night... pics coming soon!

SOUTH FLORIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had so been looking forward to this trip forever! Every year we make it a point to see each other... ideally more than once a year! Sara Grace's in-laws have a beautiful place in South Florida and we decided that this would be a GREAT place to meet this year! So, for 6 days and 5 nights it was JUST me and her and it was perfect!!!!

We went to the beach... I think almost every day that we were there!

We worked out together... long walks... just like our college days!

We also did SHOPPING... woot! woot!

Of course, we hit up all the fabulous lunch and dinner spots that South Florida has to offer!

We read, laid by the pool, watched movies together, laughed, talked, and tried not to shed too many tears for the "Good Bye!" We both turned 30 this year and we celebrated 11 years of friendship.... deep, rich friendship!

November

So, the day after Halloween, these two were pooped!!! They had an early night with a short movie and popcorn... have I mentioned how obsessed these two are with each other? One of our friends said to us the other day that they don't think Daniel will ever let Katelyn get married and I couldn't agree more:)

Reality hit me this week that Christmas was right around the corner because there is a group of us girls that attend a Holiday Boutique every year and it was this week! I couldn't believe it... time to start thinking about Christmas!

Saturday was a special day to celebrate Tanya's precious angel that was about to be born and Susan was also sneaking in some cuddles from Michella's brand new baby boy!

That evening we went over to the Douglas' house for dinner... after a long week and weekend, this was Katelyn for Sunday afternoon lunch:)
I also had a very busy week because I was preparing to go on a 6 day trip to West Palm Beach to visit my bestie from college!

Halloween 2011

Well, we have celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and about to celebrate Valentine's Day but I am just now blogging about Halloween:) LOL!!!!

So, we have started a little tradition on Halloween that I LOVE a few years ago. We invite our neighbors over for a potluck dinner and we set it up on our front drive way... the most amazing food ever! I make chili, Gretchen makes the most delicious pulled pork ever, Andi makes a chili and we all do a desert too... then everyone else brings other sides, etc! It is almost better than Thanksgiving Dinner:) Also, it is kind of a huge party because everyone is allowed to invite anyone... so we invited our friends from another neighborhood that we hardly ever see anymore, Gretchen invited some neighbors that live a few streets over and they had met at the school bus stop... you get the picture... it is just a total blast!

We block off the street and the kids just go crazy... ride their bikes, run around and enjoy hanging out with each other...

Our Friends... The Santner Family

Mike, Gretchen, Rianne, and...

their brand new baby DYLAN!

My family

I didn't get pictures of everyone because it is kind of hectic with all of the kids running around... then when it gets dark, we go trick or treating! It is more like the army brigade goes trick or treating because we totally show up like the SWAT team... all 10,000 kids at one time demanding candy! It was CRAZY.... completely crazy fun! I am so bummed because I didn't take my camera with me when we went walking:( I am not sure if the economy is in a state of recovery or if our neighborhood was just in the spirit but Halloween this year was crazy amazing... there were multiple homes that had complete haunted houses set up, one had hired actors for this whole shin dig, several had complete light shows and music timed to the lights... it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

But when the clock strikes 7, we have a little one that demands her crib! So, we put her down and the party continued...

After trick or treating, we come back and set up fire pits in the front driveway... roast marshmallows, talk until late and let the kids dig into their candy treasure... it is a completely magical night!