J wasn't able to get home in time for pictures, so here is my lovely selfie bump picture from Nov 23. :)
By this point, I've decided that I hate most of my skirts and pants options because I need to use the Belly Band to keep them up. That thing doesn't keep things in place, I tell you!!! Maybe when you're tiny, but not at the end! I'm constantly pulling up my pants! Ugh. It'll probably be the maxi skirts and stretchy skirts the rest of the weeks. :)
Baby's gettin' big and I'm feeling it!
I probably post pictures of this kid in here every week. It's just so cute!
I think his best smiles are for Daddy.
Based on some of the other pictures, this is from Target. We got a birthday present for Daddy along with a noise maker for the boys. Yay!
Ooh and Dreft detergent. Oh my goodness, that stuff smells so heavenly!!! I LOVE dreft!!
For Thanksgiving, we needed to take our table to J's parents' place.
Breakfast Wednesdsay and Thursday looked like this. I love it.
Wednesday, I went to hang out with J's family while he worked. Poor guy… :)
They invited us to the Festival of Trees!
Here's C snuggling with a very happy to oblige Nana. :)
The trees were fascinating. So many ideas and so many creative ways to do it! One tree was upside down. Impressive.
We called this the Brazil tree
Wizard of Oz tree. The tornado actually spun.
C has been talking about giving this snowman a high five for days.
"sofan high five"
Here's a Star Wars tree. You can't see the figures all over for ornaments, but you can see the death star topper!
C enjoyed the whole thing. He loved seeing any snowman or santa.
We then decided we wanted to go to a fish restaurant for lunch, so we let him run around a little first.
He got out of his stroller and ran in circles for a good 5 minutes.
My darling boy at the restaurant.
We walked over to Papa's work to get a few things for him and next to his office is a cute baby/maternity shop with tiny benches out front. C instantly knew they were meant for him.
Kristin and I made Apple Pies!
She doesn't really like cinnamon, so she found a recipe a few years back that has no cinnamon in it.
The glaze that goes in it is kind of like a caramel. It's very yummy.
Thursday, I made Macaroni and Cheese from scratch (look on Pinterest in my recipes board. I love it. C loves it. J loves it. All around win!)
After prepping that, we drove out to Eagle for Thanksgiving festivities!
One of my favorite things to help with at home with big holidays is setting the table.
My mom has beautiful china sets and lovely table cloths with matching napkins, silver silverware, and crystal glasses.
Linda has noticed my slight obsession with setting the table all fancy, so she let me (and Kristin) do what we wanted for setting the two tables.
This is Kristin's table.
And this one's mine.
C noticed his booster seat, so he sat down for my pictures. When I didn't include him in the last photo, I noticed his cheesy grin for the picture, so I made sure to get one of him.
Thanksgiving dinner was yummy. J's uncle and his family live about 10 minutes away, so they came and brought yummy rolls, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and pies.
At my table, we had J and me with C, Chantel and Drew with their 8 month old, Van, Kristin, and Mason.
It felt like a kids' table. The poor girls at the adult table, though… :)
The other table had the parents with Camille and Mariah.
After dinner/lunch, we played Heads Up -Ellen's charades app
Then Chantel wanted to go to the park and take pictures.
So we went on a walk. It was a nice, 50's degree day, so it was nice to get out of the house and walk around for a while.
J and Mason brought a football and tossed that around. C was fascinated and wanted to join in.
And others took pictures on the very very wet grass at the golf course.
The following ones are some that Chantel took with her fancy camera and gave to us!
Some great shots!
First is my sweet little family.
C learned how to hold the football for someone to kick...
The faith in his eyes. Yikes.
High fives
He was so happy!!
Back to my fancy iPhone pictures.
The pies!
I had the apple, razzleberry, and pumpkin. I am not a fan of cream pies, so I skipped the chocolate satin and banana cream pies. (but my mom's mousse cake? I'll take that one! :) )
After we came back, the boys went out to play football.
The girls pulled out some nail polish and painted.
C saw the polish and chose the colors he wanted on his toes. So, giggling, I painted his toes.
I love it.
Best part? he loved it.
After nails, we played Cranium and hung out. It was a great Thanksgiving. We all had fun, ate way too much, and were able to sit back and think about all of our many blessings. The most apparent on Thanksgiving for me is always family. I love family. Mine is awesome and irreplaceable. And J's is awesome and so great for taking me in as one of their own.
Families are forever and I'm so thankful for that!!
Not sure what he's doing here, but he's sitting on his stool looking cute, so we'll go with that!
Friday morning, we put up Christmas lights outside!
Then we met up with J's parents to get lunch. Our initial plan was to do a donation thing where you buy the pretty, homemade bowl and then you get soup for it. It goes to charity and is a great cause. But the line was forever long and it was cold and they had a time crunch, so we went towards PF Chang's instead. :)
On our way there, J's parents pulled him into a Jos. A Banks store to get him a sport coat. He had asked for one for his birthday and they didn't know his size or color or anything and wanted the sale, so we got a beautiful sport coat! (picture to follow when he wears it the first time!)
When we had just gotten into the store, C was running to Nana and full out clotheslined himself on the counter. Smacked his forehead on the edge of the counter and then fell back and smacked the back of his head on the floor.
SCREAMING then commenced. The lady working there found a cold soda can to hold to his forehead while he calmed down. From what I could tell, he didn't break skin, but had a terrible bruise-type thing or blood blister. (shown below a day later)
His cheeks got really white, so we fed him some veggie straws and snuggled for a while. I was worried, but not too bad because his lips stayed the same color the whole time.
Poor boy!!!
Later that day, while J's family went to a movie, we went home for nap time and decorating.
To me, Black Friday is for decorating. :)
We did stop at Walmart for milk and electrical tape and then found some Christmas presents, but we didn't go during a rush. I liked it. Calm shopping. You don't ever see that on Black Friday.
Anyway, I got all of my decorations up that afternoon/evening.
Here's C playing with his favorite decoration. A Little People nativity.
Once it was dark, we went outside to check out the lights.
They are so pretty!
Funny boy Saturday morning.
Saturday, we went to see Mocking Jay (Oh man, good movie)
Then the boys went home for nap and John went to his home to work on shelves he's making.
The girls went to McDonald's and to fabric stores. Kristin is in her final semester in college and she's doing sewing classes (minor cluster thing I think?) so she has a huge final in which she makes a pattern, sews, and models the outfit.
It's going to be really pretty.
Then we came to my house to finish nap time and played games while J worked on his lesson for the next day.
After nap time, we went to Eagle for dinner and hanging out.
C loves doing yoga with Nana, so here are some of his poses (sorry, Kristin, you're in the pictures. We'll say you're doing crunches, yes?)
It was a great week.
We loved hanging out with Kristin the whole time and enjoyed so many blessings in our lives.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
