Thanksgiving Day and an Early Christmas

We started off the day of Thanksgiving at my parent's house playing outside. It was beautiful out so we wanted the kids to run off their energy for a while.

We took pictures up by the pond. I realized when looking through pictures from other holidays that I have hardly any pictures of the kids together, so we made sure to do it this year.

Me and Jackson

Our family. It's a little far away so I think I'll have to do a little cropping :)

After all the photo shoots we had a wonderful dinner. Thanks, mom, it was wonderful and we were all VERY full!
My aunt got the kids these adorable turkey cupcakes for dessert. (her kids were sleeping so we didn't get any pictures with them)

Here's Ben....

and this is why he's screaming. It was so top heavy with frosting it flipped right out of his hands. Twice! We got it all scraped up and he finished it anyways :)

Next we headed to Tom's parent's house to visit. I forgot my camera on the counter at my parent's house, so unfortunately no pictures of that part of the day. It was fun though!

In the evening we went back to my parents for an early Christmas The kids all got toys from the aunts and uncles. Evan got this truck from my parents, which he loved. Emma was asleep for all this excitement so again, no pictures :(

This toy that Elizabeth got was so cute! It is a wooden cupcake set with a pot holder, real cupcake holders, and the icing comes off so you can mix and match. See the thing in her hand? It's an icing tube but it's really a marker so Elizabeth can really decorate her own cupcake. She loves it and plays with it all the time.

My Aunt Amy, her husband Jim, and all the kids minus Cooper and Emma (Emma was asleep and Cooper didn't want his picture taken right then)

Can you tell it's getting a little late? Meltdown!!! They went to bed right after this.

To finish off our night we played some dice games with the presents we brought for the exchange. It was a good way to end the evening. We had such a great time with all our family that we only see 2 times a year. We're glad we got to have that time with each other. See you all this summer!

(Not that any of my uncles read my blog or even know what one is...but my Aunt will see this! See you soon, Amy! :)

Playing with our Cousins

My mom's side of the family drove down from MN for the Thanksgiving holidays. Emma and Evan, my cousins, are 1 and 4 so they are the perfect age to play with my kids. These tunnels were a present for my kids at Christmas a year or two ago and we were never able to get out the whole thing because we didn't have enough room. We were able to put it up at my moms so the kids had a great time playing and crawling around.
We tried to get the kids to sleep while watching a movie (Emma was already in bed by now). No such luck on the sleep thing :)

My uncles, dad, and Tom watching a movie.

The kids had a lot of fun playing outside together. We ate lunch outside,

and took a walk to the park. Evan and Ben were so cute holding hands!

We had to go feed the ducks like always. It's a favorite activity at Grandmas!

We also spent a lot of time riding bikes and playing outside.

Cute Emma!

We only get to see our family about 2 times a year so we are taking advantage of them being here. We have big plans for a great dinner at my mom's tomorrow. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Swimming in November

We decided to finally take advantage of the hot tub in our apartment. The kids loved it. Then mommy had to be a party pooper and make the kids get out because it was too hot and we couldn't figure out how to turn it down.
Look at that skinny boy with the farmers tan! :)

We didn't bring swim suits with us because we didn't think we'd have an opportunity to do any swimming, but luckily Janet gave us some old suits of her boys so we were able to make it work! My girl who always takes her hair bows out kept it in while swimming - weird!

Loving it!

It was a fun time! They haven't stopped begging to go back so I think we'll have to ask our grandparents if we can take a dip in their hot tubs (ones that won't get so hot!)

Thanksgiving Feast

At Elizabeth's school this week the kids participated in a Thanksgiving Feast. Each class made their own costumes. Elizabeth was very proud to show off all her hard work.

Waiting to take the class picture.
Here is the 4 year old class before heading into the feast.

The school did a family style meal with all the 3, 4, and 5 year old classes. Each child made their own placemat and some type of art project. Elizabeth's was the turkey in front of her. They asked the parents who could help to walk around and serve the kids their meal. I think they thought it was a fun change from their normal way of eating their lunch.

We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I'll try to be better about posting this week with all of our family in town.

Fun Weekend

Since I haven't been posting too frequently I have a few random things to post. I saw how to make this wreath on a blog - check it out here if you are interested - and I thought it was so beautiful and I needed a Christmas wreath so I decided to try it. Just for information sake if you want to make it - I got all the ornaments at the Dollar Tree (5 for a 1$) and I did end up getting a pack of bigger ornaments (8 for $5) at Target because I wanted some different sizes, but in the end I don't think I needed them. I just need to do the ribbon at the top and I'm all done!

I thought the ornaments were really pretty at the dollar store!
We had playgroup yesterday at a neighbor's house (from my old neighborhood). The kids, of course, all had a great time. Elizabeth has been in the playgroup since she was 4 months old so we grew up with a lot of these kids.
Saturday we had dinner at Tom's parent's house. It's hard to believe the cousins are all big enough to eat dinner together at their own table - and do a relatively good job!

We have stairs at our new house so we went over the weekend to check out the upstairs. I was a little scared with the kids upstairs and no railings - and since we have never had a 2 story house I realize I have to figure out what to do with windows upstairs and little kids. I'm nervous about them falling out! Anybody with a 2 story house have any suggestions? Do you just not open them?! I'll have to think about that...


Jessica and I went to Ikea over the weekend and I got this blow up frog prince chair for Elizabeth's new room. She wants a princess room so I thought this would be something a little different.


Jessica displaying all our "loot". We didn't go too crazy!

I had to put this picture of Ben up because he looks so cute in it! I love his smile :) I took it because that is watercolor paint all over his face. I don't know how this kid gets so messy! Then, of course, he does a really good natural smile in his messy face. Why won't he smile like that when we are posing for pictures ??!



Elizabeth saw me taking pictures of Ben, so she wanted one too. See the cute shirt and jumper she has on? That night I stuck them in the washer with a black cardigan I had never washed before (why I put them in together I don't know!) and promptly turned that outfit and everything else in the wash a dingy dark blue. Good job, huh?

Playing

Today was the first day in a long time that we had nothing to do, which was very nice! Jessica invited us to come play today with Cooper and Jackson. The kids loved playing the backyard, it was gorgeous out today!
We did some swinging,

and baby gazing. I love this picture - he's just gazing so lovingly at his bouncy seat.

Elizabeth took this picture of Jackson and I so I had to add it here. He's wearing his "All I Want for Christmas is my Auntie" shirt that I got him. I got it originally for him for Christmas, but since this not even 3 month boy is already in his 6 months clothes (and almost outgrowing them) I decided to give it to him a little bit early.

I had a lot of pictures of Elizabeth and Jackson and none of Ben and Cooper because the boys were running around playing the whole time and Elizabeth was with me, holding Jackson. She's a baby lover!

This is how she spent most of her morning, trying to make this cutie laugh!

What a fun day!