Christmas Cards

Okay, I am a little behind for my preference, but I finally got all the Christmas cards sealed and stamped this morning. They will be heading out into the mail this afternoon. I put the photos in at about 5:30 AM, so if you normally receive a photo from us and it's not in there, please forgive me.

I recently participated in a swap, which was a lot of fun. You sign up online through people's personal blogs. Then you get assigned a partner and you swap an item(s) that are with in the swaps criteria. Very fun like I said. I sent my box off to Louisiana and it got me thinking, where do I send all my mail. This is where all my Christmas cards went: Washington, Idaho, Wisconsin, Arizona, Utah, Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota, New York and Japan.

Where did your cards go to?

Emeric at 2 Months

I know they say as a parent you should not compare your children as they are each their own person. But, this past Monday I couldn't help it. Emeric had his 2 month appointment and all is well with him. Once they weighed and measured him I thought, "your dad is right, you are a chunk." He was 12 pounds 8 ounces and 23 1/2 inches long. This is where I started comparing. I wanted to see where he was in comparison to Connor. He didn't come close to those numbers until 4 months (12 pounds 6 ounces and 25.8 inches). It will be interesting to see how they both keep growing.

November - Photos of Kids

Here is the next installment of the monthly photos of kids.

Angela:

Showing off on the bar at her school's playground.

A very common photo for Angela, her reading a book.Enjoying a little time at the pool.Connor:

Clowning around in the bathtub.

He wanted to hold Emeric and get a picture taken.1-2-3 JUMP!Emeric:

Cool Dude getting ready to go pick up Angela from school (they did not last very long).

In his handsome Thanksgiving outfit.

Just before he fell asleep.

Thanksgiving Week

Brian's work shuts down for the week of Thanksgiving. Last year that was a big bummer as the kids and I were in WA during that time. This year it wasn't too bad as we got to spend a lot of family time together. He and I each came up with a list of things we wanted to get accomplished and it was a real blessing to see things getting crossed off the list. One really fun thing for Brian was to be able to walk Angela to and from school.

We had a really enjoyable Thanksgiving. I was not very excited for Thanksgiving to come as I knew I would really be missing the family/friends back home. But to my surprise it was a really great day. We celebrated with two other families that do not have any extended family in the area. There were the six adults plus six kids ranging from age 8 to 7 weeks. We spent about eight hours there and had our fill of a yummy dinner and lots of pie. I definitely couldn't have planned a better day.

My big project for the week was painting the accents in the kitchen. The previous owner must have painted all the other rooms first and then decided she did not want to take the time to paint accents as the whole room was one color. Now it looks much prettier and it matches everywhere else.

We finished off his week of by spending the afternoon at the pool yesterday. It was Emeric's first time in the pool. He really seemed to enjoy it. I have a sling that is made to wear in the water. He was snuggled in so nicely that the movement of the water put him to sleep. Angela is really getting good at swimming and she loves jumping off the diving board. Connor also loves the water and it won't be long until he is swimming by himself. (see next posting for some pool pictures)

Today was a difficult day for everyone as Brian had to go back to work. After having ten days off going back seems like such a chore and we all really miss him.

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/handmade-dress-patterns-guest-giveaway.html

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/aunty-ollie-100-guest-giveaway.html
Angela is always talking about wanting to have fun, cute dresses to wear. I never liked spending all the money for a dress that was less than perfect in her eyes. This would be so much fun to pick out material with her and help design her the "perfect" dress(es)!

Connor Turns 3

What an amazing weekend to turn three! Saturday our high was 73 degrees F and today's high was 71 degrees F. Not bad for early November!
Connor's third birthday got off to a late start; we all slept in. I think it was 7:30 or 8:00 when Connor got up. He enjoyed a pancake breakfast with strawberries and whipped cream.

Brian and I bought him a bike and he spent quite a bit of time running around and playing out side, with and without the bike. He does not quite have the pedaling concept down, but he is getting pretty good at steering.

After a quick lunch we went to Cold Stone Creamery where he got to have a special birthday ice cream creation (mint ice cream with Reese’s peanut butter cups) all to himself. Then we went to a local park for a nature walk through the wood and an hour swinging on the swings and playing on the playground. Connor loves to be outside, so this made for a very fun day for him. When we got home we made a pizza that was covered with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms and olives - YUM! He ate through it as fast as he could so that he could get to his birthday cake.

This year's cake is a dump truck. He was picking between a bulldozer, a backhoe and this dump truck. He enjoyed eating the pieces off of it, but did not really have time for the actual cake as there were presents to open.

He received three boxes in the mail from the different grandparents. Each time Brian helped him open one Brian would tell him who it was from. Then Connor would turn his face towards the window and yell, "Thank you....." (.... meaning whomever it was from). It was super cute.

He received some wonderful gifts including a football, some matchbox cars, two large tractors, a snow hat and gloves, a dump truck and a front loader, two puzzles, some clothes, the old cartoon Transformers movie and two Autobot Transformers (Optimus Prime and Bumblebee).

By the end of all of that it was really hard to calm him down and wrestle him into bed, but we got it done. He really had a good time Sunday playing with all of his new toys.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was touch and go this year. Angela started running a fever yesterday and we were uncertain if it would come down enough for her to go outdoors. Fortunately for her it did. She was a ghost and she told me she wanted her hair white and her face painted white with black eyes. As soon as we put it all on she decided she did not like it at all. We told her she looked great!

Connor loved being a leopard. He kept telling everyone we passed that he was a leopard. He also had a very good roar.

They both did really good walking around although it did take them some time to warm up to it. Angela seemed to not remember how you trick-or-treated and we had to keep reminding her that she needed to say "Trick-or-Treat". Once Connor realized that you got candy at each house he would say "Thank you" and as soon as he got to the sidewalk he would run to the next house saying, "This one, this one." Emeric was a cute banana, but he stayed all bundled in the stroller and slept the whole time.

A Ghost, A Leopard and A Banana - Oh My!