We're still around...

We are still here...we've just been super busy and super tired! We haven't even done much with friends since the camp. It's been all about D and I lately. We've gotten a whole lot of Christmas shopping done and that's really kept us pretty busy.

Thanksgiving was a BLAST! We had the BIG family year this time and it was so wonderful to see D playing with the big kids. I still can't believe he is getting so big!! As soon as I get our family photo, I'll be sure to post it here. It's so much fun to see how we've grown as a family. Next year there will be 4 of us!

This morning we went to visit Santa. Dominic did wonderful!!! This photo just makes me smile b/c they look deep in conversation. Dominic has always been such a curious child and he really seems to be giving Santa the once-over, don't you agree?

8 days and 4 stitches later...

I'm so sorry I haven't updated in a while! I have just been falling in to bed lately and haven't really had any down time during the day to sit and post.

Last Wednesday we did one of the best playdates I've ever participated in (Halloween costume parade being #1). We met three other moms and kids at a local pottery place and got to choose an item to paint! I have always wanted to get D a personalized birthday plate for him to use for his birthday breakfast so we chose a birthday plate.

We painted it light blue and then D put his handprints on the plate with dark blue paint. Then I filled in the letters and added his name to the bottom. It should be ready for pick-up this Friday!! Here's the boy in action:










Unfortunately, the next day was not so good for us. D was running in the living room and ran RIGHT into the corner of the coffee table!! We had to rush to the ER and he ended up getting 4 stitches. Poor baby...
Look how gnarly this boo-boo is:




Please forgive the MESSY face, he had lasagna for dinner and we were bribing him with ice cream so that I could get his band-aid off.

This week we started our fall camp. I'll post separately about that later. I've got some great crafts for the little ones to do.

Only 52 more sleeps...

until Christmas, according to Santa's Official Christmas Clock!!!

I feel bad for Thanksgiving. It gets smooshed in between two kids holidays and it really deserves it's own time to shine. We went to the bookstore today to look for our camping titles and the stores are already all dolled up for Christmas! What happened to Thanksgiving?

My husband's family has a BIG family Thanksgiving every year and I just love it! He has such a great family (and I'm not just saying that b/c my MIL reads this blog every once in a while). The first Thanksgiving that I was a part of their festivities they just welcomed me in and chatted me up as if they'd known me all along. I LOVE that Dominic gets to experience the family Thanksgiving. They've been doing it for YEARS!!

So....I am going to let November do it's own thing this year. No more rushing it to hurry by so that Santa can be on his merry way. Each day in November I will mentally take the time to be thankful for the blessings in my life-and I have many. Lucky me!!

When I taught school I would have my middle schoolers keep a daily journal for the month of November. Every night they would list 3 things that they were thankful for that day. Think it sounds easy? The twist: they couldn't list the same things more than twice in the journal. That really made them focus on the little mundane things in their life. Try it out...you may find it helps refocus you, too!

So, enough about that. You're really checking in to see pics of our Halloween, aren't you?? We don't have much, I'm afraid. The hubster was in charge of the pics and he's not as nostalgic as I am, so we'll have to make do with what we've got.

On Wednesday, the 27th we participated in a costume parade at a local senior center and boy, was it fun!!! The olds just loved seeing all the kiddo's dressed up for Halloween. Of course D strutted his stuff like a pro.






Thursday we had a 12pm ultrasound. Baby #2 is looking good!! Heartrate of 176 (which means girl, for those wondering) and measuring right on track! We are 9 weeks preggo today.

This past weekend we went out of town to visit Aunt Suge and her crazy bunch. D loved playing in the boy's room!! We had a wonderful visit and a few hours after pulling in the driveway here at home we were off to the neighborhood block party.

D got to trick-or-treat for the FIRST time Sunday night. Our street is pretty quiet so there were only 5 houses to go to but he had a ball blurting out, "trick or treat!"





Yesterday we invited L and A over for some afternoon sandbox play. We haven't seen them in a while so D was excited to get some A-time in. As usual, the boys had a great time together.

I was going to post about the camp coming up but I think I'll wait until next time. The little man is napping and mommy needs to try and get in some z's too, if possible.

We also have a recipe club tonight and David made his SCRUMPTIOUS spinach. We should definitely win tonight!!! I'll post the recipe in the next post and let you know if we won or not.