Happy Thanksgiving!

Goodness there is so much to be thankful for this year. Our health, our faith, our jobs, our family, and plenty of love to go around.  Yes, we have much to be thankful for!  Wishing all of you in cyber land a safe and happy Thanksgiving. 

Abby's Birthday Part II, III, IV

She was kind enough to remind me that she had FOUR birthday parties this year since she was turning four.  Yes, four.  Her friends, our little family party on 11/21 - her actual birthday, party at daycare, and our bigger family party with her local aunts and uncles.  Oh boy, yes, four parties!

She had a blast and was a little sad to take down the decorations today.  Thank you to all who helped make her birthday so special!

Sam is 11 Months Old!

Eleven months.  The countdown to ONE is well on its way. 

Sam is loving cruising around furniture and I'm positive he is going to take his first steps soon.  He is eating like a champ. We've given him loads of veggies, fruits, proteins, and grains. He still loves his oatmeal with applesauce in the morning and his yogurt in the afternoon.  He is still partial to his chicken and squash.  He's got plenty of chompers to chew it up - he even has one of this one year molars!  It seems like his teeth are skipping around a bit coming in.  Sam really enjoys feeding himself and picking up cheerios and small bits of food.  He is often eating what we're having for dinner, which is nice when we're going out. 

He has a couple of words - mama and dada and ba for bottle.  I suppose the word explosion will be happening soon!

The best part is that he is still sleeping all.night.long!  It's crazy!  I know I'm going to jinx myself, but I am just so darn proud of this little guy.  And so thankful he is taking after his Dada. 

 He new favorite little trick is this:

He LOVES it!  Tim and I were commenting on how his personality is really shining through.  He's so proud of himself, laughs at everything, get's cranky when teething (who wouldn't??!), sleeps through anything, and loves his big sister.   Abby dotes on him and is extremely helpful - she even offered to get my slippers from downstairs tonight.  Oh how I remember when I was asked to do the same thing....

Abby's Birthday (Month!)

Last weekend we celebrated Abby's fourth birthday with several of her friends (an adult friends!).  We reserved a space at our church and and it worked out really well to have the kitchen nearby and the gym for the kids to run around in.  We found a cool basketball hoop for practicing pre-schoolers and lots of toys from the Children's Closet. 

Abby's theme was Princess and Pirates (pink and gray) and she loved every single second of playing her part.  She was welcoming to her friends and mostly had good manners.  We started to get really cranky toward the end of the party - I think the sugar was wearing off. 

We have a few more opportunities to celebrate her birthday - her actual birthday on 11/21 and a small family gathering on 11/23.  I'm sure she'll eat this up for as long as we let her.  :-)

Sam the Man had a blast crawling around

Place settings for the princesses and pirates

We got Crafty!

Cinderella CAME!!!  (It's really Susie, our day care provider)

 

Gifts for the Animal Refuge League

 The big kids and little kids had so much fun!  I was a very proud mama that Abby agreed to collect goodies for the Animal Shelter in lieu of receiving traditional birthday gifts.  We stopped over on Sunday to drop off the box of toys, litter, food, and treats.  They loved it!  We brought Mimi with us and showed her the dogs, bunnies, and our favorite room - the kittens!  It was a busy Sunday for the ARL.