holly jolly christmas

i haven't enjoyed christmas this much in a long time.  and this is coming from someone who LOVES christmas.  i love christmas music (even before thanksgiving), and lights, and snow, and christmas movies. but having a three year old is a serious christmas game changer!  he had his presents memorized for santa, and has been repeating them to everyone who's asked for the past month.  he also thinks that every kid was asking for the same thing!  it was freaking amazing to watch him open his presents.  he actually said "this is just what i wanted!"  i mean he's only three!  he's a good kid, he deserved it!

first, a little birthday photos

merry christmas!

santa parade

in honor of the post-thanksgiving/official-christmas-season/long-weekend-together-as-a-family i researched fun holiday activities and found the santa parade!  its actually a 20 minute holiday parade that is every night between now and new years but the first night is santa night!!!  20 minutes is the perfect amount of time for a parade on a chilly november night!  plus, one of the drummers took his place right next to us - squirt-tot couldn't stop staring!  we had a great time.  the kids loved it.  we'd do it again.

this is fake snow.  its actually bubbles, pretty clever.  it looked nice!

squirt was so obsessed with the horses that i think he missed the fact that they were pulling santa!

thanksgiving

another thanksgiving...another delicious meal.  george is the cook around here and as always he made an amazing dinner.  i never really cared for traditional thanksgiving foods until my husband started making thanksgiving dinner for me.  in fact, i don't think i had ever had gravy or stuffing until i trusted george to make the holiday feasts!

on thursday a friend came over for dinner.  tonight, we went to their house for a belated thanksgiving dinner, which was also amazing.  but tonight we went around and said what we were thankful for.  while i felt a little on the spot, since i didn't know half the people at the table, it's easy to say what i'm thankful for.  i'm blessed with a wonderful family.  my husband and sons are so beautiful and loving and amazing and i'm lucky to have them.  our extended family is so great as well, and so (good at pretending to be) understanding about us being so far away!  i'm thankful for my new job i'll be starting soon.  i'm thankful for my health, my friends, and all the opportunities that life has afforded us!

post thanksgiving nap snack

after naptime we took the opportunity to get a jump on our holiday decorating.  such good helpers!

then there was some brother bonding time on the batmobile!

"just practicing standing, no big deal"

trick-or-treat

well, the 2013 trick-or-treating adventure was a success.  after many conversations with neighbors about trick-or-treating with little kids, we came up with a plan.  many of the neighborhoods do trick-or-treating in their downtown/business areas.  personally, i'm fine with that.  it's easy, it's safe, and it's not like a two year old needs a ton of candy.  george is not so hot on this idea, he prefers to trick-or-treat door-to-door.  when i looked into this there were maps you could add your address to so people knew they could trick-or-treat at your house.  it was all very strange.  and way more stressful than trick-or-treating with a 2 year old and a 5 month old should ever be.

the plan:
1. pick george up from work
2. stop at a busy neighborhood on the way home
3. start by trick-or-treating at the shops
4. see where our night took us from there

it was the perfect plan, that led to the perfect night.  the neighborhood was packed! so many shops were giving out candy.  there were a ton of kids squirt's age.  he had a great time!  he did a really good job saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you"!  i think the kids were hitting up the houses in that neighborhood too, but there was no need.  we were out a little more than an hour and his candy bucket was full!

our big dinosaur

our little skeleton - or "dinosaur bones" if you ask squirt

counting candy with daddy

the great pumpkin

i generally loathe halloween.  it's stupid.  and it's totally outside my comfort zone to dress up.  oh, and...it's stupid.  but as squirt has gotten older it's become much more fun.  

for weeks he told everyone and their brother and sister that he wanted to be thomas the train.  george was prepared to make a costume and everything (i say george because i love my kids but that is seriously too much work!).  anyway, target had a thomas the train candy bucket i was going to get to match the homemade to-do.  when we got to the aisle though, he changed his mind hard and decided he wanted to be a dinosaur.  good thing, because they were out of the thomas bucket.  

when george got home i told squirt to tell daddy what he was going to be for halloween - he said "a carnivore"!  Smarty-pants.

tonight we carved pumpkins in anticipation of our new found fondness for halloween.

the innocent bystander

ta-da

phases

we're all going through some phases right now.  its just dumb, these phases.  a week ago my baby was perfect, now he's crying every afternoon and evening for no reason.  its terrible.  my toddler is going though this wonderful phase where he is only good when i'm home.  great for me!  but bad for daddy, and any and all attempts at family time.  this last weekend was the worst.  he got about 3 timeouts before we could get out the door...kicking, not putting his shoes on, hitting, all that nonsense.  its the worst!

at least once we left the house we had fun!

george and i are going through our own phases too.  george is still adjusting to his new job.  its going fine but its just a transition period.  comparisons are still being made to the old job, etc.  i'm in a weird phase right now because i'm so happy to have a job and so happy to be home with my boys - its strange, i know.  right now i'm just trying to get through the stacks of paperwork i need to complete in order to work.  that's a phase unto itself!  

at least we have a good family phase going on.  every weekend we are doing fun things (although the boys apparently don't love football sunday!).  there is so much to do here, which is such a change from where we used to live!  its so great to get out and doing stuff together.  weekdays are actually pretty fun, since pinterest has been providing me with some exciting toddler activities lately!

here is a picture of our fort, with everyone enjoying it.

(headphones!)

(homemade play dough, i finally took the plunge)

(football last sunday!)

at least the rest of the our visit with my parents was fun.

squirt was obsessed with going on an airplane to see grandma and pop-mom the second they left.  since he was having a hard time putting into perspective when we would actually get to go on an airplane, we made a calendar as an art project (thank you pinterest!).

And...we out!