11.25.2011

I used to tell people that Thanksgiving was my favorite Holiday because as soon as it was over we had a whole month of Christmas ahead of us. I love Christmas. Love it, love it, love it. Always have. Always will. I love the lights and the decorations, the music, the magic. (WOAH cheesy) Anyway, I love everything about it. Today, we had so much fun setting up our Christmas decorations and this year we had a few new additions:
Addition #1 the train around the tree.

T didn't stop playing with it from the time it came out of the box to the time he went to bed. I don't think I've ever seen him this into a toy before. wowza he loves it. (and miraculously Maizie hasn't tried to grab it off the track? She waves at it and blows it kisses as it dives by her. It's pretty darn cute)

Addition #2 the garland up the staircase.


I got it back in October and I've been so excited with the anticipation of putting it up. This is the first home we've lived in with stairs, and I'm loving the garland.

This is the first year in a long time (our whole marriage?!) that we're planning on staying "home" for Christmas. And although we will for sure miss our families, I'm excited for Christmas morning, for T to come out of his room and down the stairs to see that Santa came to his house.
I'm excited to start our own traditions, does anyone have a favorite tradition? I'm looking to pick a few up. haha. Really though. I'd love some fun ideas.
Yay for the official start of the Christmas season, let the magic begin!

11.24.2011

I'm thankful for him...


..for many many reasons, but especially today because he did almost all the cooking for our big Thanksgiving meal. This was the 1st year we volunteered to make the turkey, so Sam did a bunch of research and made a super delicious & perfect turkey. (Our friends didn't buy it that he'd never made one before) He also made some stuffing from scratch, I loved it. I was totally impressed.

I was in charge of the pie and the table decorations. (I picked a pumpkin pie up at Costco haha) I put a little more effort into the table settings. This kids places turned out cute.



The adults (am I really an adult? I always feel weird calling myself one...) were nothing to write home about, but I took a picture anyway (and look at that, I am writing home about it haha).


the spread.


I'm not only thankful that Sam did the cooking, he also did all the dishes and clean up. I know, I know, I'm so lucky! Even though we don't live by our families in Utah, I'm thankful that Sam has such a great job. I'm thankful that we have such good friends who want to come over and celebrate Thanksgiving with us. And most of all, I'm thankful for my husband and my healthy, beautiful children. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

11.23.2011

I've been wanting to make this tree treat (wow how's that for a tongue twister?! haha) with T since I saw it on pinterest a few weeks ago and I thought since we were watching some friends this morning it'd be the perfect time to bust it out. They turned out super cute and they were so easy to make! Here's T, making his tree.
I love T's cheesy grin.


Sweet Sadie with her finished tree.
We love Sadie. T cried & cried when her mom picked her back up today.


All you do is cover a sugar cone with green frosting and stick some Christmas m&m's on. easy!! Thank you pinterest!

11.22.2011

missing them...



Sunday morning after my mom and dad left T went in their room, sat on the bed and said, "I'm just going to wait here until baba gets back." seriously broke my heart :(

Thanks for coming to visit us mom & dad. We are really missing you so much now!! Come back.

11.18.2011

she walks! here's a video to prove it.
(Don't mind my mom in her PJ's, it was like 6am. And don't mind my baby talk. In fact, go ahead and just mute it.)

11.14.2011

Grandma & Grandpa are here visiting! We're having so much fun, and I'm sure the kids are happy to have someone here to play with besides me. haha. T was so happy that baba played doggies with him all day long, and took him (leash & all) on many doggie walks around the house. haha.




Tonight after dinner we decorated a gingerbread train.


All done!




so happy to have them here!

11.11.2011

She's a drama queen.
(My favorite video of Maize so far hahaha)



Seriously, if she's this dramatic at 1 can you imagine teenage drama? ahhhhh. I'm scared to have teenagers (especially a girl).

11.9.2011

We love meeting Sam for lunch at his office. They have a chef who prepares the best food, and everyone treats us so nicely. We'd go everyday if we could. Thanks for the fun lunch dad! We love seeing you in the middle of the day!

11.8.2011

She won't let me feed her from a spoon anymore. I guess she thinks it's baby-ish and now that she's a big one year old & she wants to feed herself. (she gets real mad when I wont let her grab the spoon) So this morning I thought what the heck and I gave her some yogurt with a spoon. It started out okay, she made contact with the spoon to the yogurt.

But it quickly turned into more of a sensory activity then eating. ha. I figured it would. Oh well, she loved it.

11.7.2011

Ever since we moved to Ohio, every Saturday morning we head down to Sam's office (they have a ton of property, and a mile long path that loops around a huge grass field) to let our dogs run around and we'll walk the loop a few times. It's my favorite time of the week, and I wish it wasn't starting to get so cold because I have a feeling our fun Saturday morning's outside are getting numbered.
Maizie girl is getting pretty close to walking...


T likes to pretend that the stroller is a train (like the Polar Express) and I'm the conductor. We go through the whole spiel of "why the polar express of course!" and "suit yourself!" "Wait the little boy wants to get on the train! I must stop the train! Maizie stop the train!" ha ha ha. He loves it. (he likes to do this at the grocery store too) Here he is sitting in his seat, waiting to give me (the conductor) his ticket. It's his favorite game. He makes train tickets all day long while we're at home. Tickets for everyone. (every time he hands Maizie her tickets, he says "don't eat them Maizie, you need them to get on the train!") ha.


my pretty baby.


Saturday night Sam & I went to a fancy Wine Gala. ha ha. Yes you read right. Pretty positive we were in the only ones in the room with empty wine glasses, but we still had a ton of fun. His work needed some representatives to go and we're always up for going on dates with no kids, especially ones with free dinners. haha. It was fun to dress up, and yes I'm wearing heels, a very rare occasion (first occasion?!) Sam was wearing pretend heels. haha. Sorry babe. Thanks to our babysitter who took a picture of us on our way out the door and said it was like Prom. haha


Cheers!!


It was actually pretty cool. There was a silent auction with all kinds of great stuff from vacation packages to kids books and autographed things. We bid on some things (a sweet rug, some steak knifes and a inside grill, a pretty necklace, a beach bag stuffed with beach trip stuff, and 5 large pizzas to our favorite delivery pizza here) We got outbid everything (we went up on a few things but still got outbid) except for the pizza!! Now we have 5 large pizzas to use so if you come visit us, we'll have a pizza party! After dinner and during the silent auction there was a live wine auction. It was so funny! I'd never been to an auction before, the auctioneer had the crazy fast voice going and everything. It was great. Oh and these wines were going for thousands of dollars, it was unbelievable. haha. It was a fun fun night, we had a lot of good laughs.

On a totally different note, on Sunday the Primary met in the Chapel to practice for our primary program coming up. After church, I swung by nursery to pick T up and took him back to the chapel to gather my things. Apparently I didn't pass down my fear of speaking to this kid. He ran right up to the mic, stayed there talking for a while and had a major, major meltdown when I told him it was time to head out (he's usually running out to the car..ha) I snapped a picture of him with my phone because he did look pretty darn cute up there. (is that okay? to take pictures in the chapel? I'm not sure...) anyway, he's a real natural.


T loves it when the dogs hang out in his room. He was pretty stoked that Ollie was letting him be his foot stool this morning. haha. Cute huh? Ollie's a good sport.

11.4.2011

T starts soccer next week, yesterday we went to pick up his uniform and get him a ball to practice. The guys at the front desk told him to go check out the field where he'll be playing since it wasn't being used. He had so much fun and has been asking to go back to "the cool soccer place" ever since. He does have some pretty sweet moves... I love the spin he does at the beginning of the movie, ha ha.




And my little Maizie just discovered the slide, and now she's obsessed. She loves it and would slide down all day long if she had the chance to.

11.2.2011

This morning T was crawling around barking and wearing his dog ears. (what else is new? haha) I stuck some on Maizie too-fully expecting her to pull them right off. But she loved them! She crawled around, chasing T and barking like a dog. He loved it. It was the cutest thing, she kept reaching up making sure her ears were still on and getting a huge smile when she felt them. She loved it. Seeing my 2 babies playing together is my new favorite thing in the world. I love it.






haha!