It's always fun when Grandma comes

Thank goodness my mom is here or Jack would be doing nothing fun. With Addy throwing up for a week, I've had less energy to do fun things. So glad that my mom was able to step in.

Notice anything special about our Christmas Cookie Selection?
We add the Christmas Dinosaur, the Christmas Rocket Ship and the Christmas Airplane to our holiday repertoire. Jack loved his airplane and rocket ship cookies.(Thanks Grandma Shirlene for the cutters)

Our friend Juliet came to help too and really enjoyed sharing in Jack's enthusiasm.

Covered in flour but oh so happy.

Seasonal Confusion Disorder

Jack is a little confused as to what tool helps remove snow the best. However, he did have fun with his mower.

This post's for you, Heather R.

No chickening out next year. You must cut your own Christmas tree before you leave NY and return to the desert.

I love cutting down fresh Christmas tress and I think the best local place is Stokoe Christmas Tree Farm. We've only been to two places so my experience is limited. However, with that being said, I had a great experience last year. We wanted to go there again this year but they are only open on weekends and we could not fit it into our busy weekend schedules.

This is why I think Stokoe Farm is the best:

First, they drive you out in a wagon to the best trees. Second, they give you a saw to cut down the tree. Third, they pick you and the tree up and put it on the wagon to return to where you pay. Fourth, they give you free hot chocolate and a cookie. Fifth, they have a cute little country store to shop in and a place to order food. Sixth, there are little animated singing puppet shows for the kids to watch and a play area. Seventh, they give you a fresh cut on your tree, shake it and bail it for you and provide the twine to tie it to your car. So basically, the tree cuts itself:)

The place we went to this year came with high recommendations. But I was disappointed after last year's experience and did not feel their selection of self-cut trees was the best. The did have a life size nativity with animals that had displaced baby Jesus from the manger and they do give you a fresh cut, shake it and bail it for you and give you the twine.

But there was no tractor to drive me to my perfect tree. And really, if I am going to go to the trouble of cutting down my own tree , I don't want to have to carry it back myself:) And I should at least be rewarded with a free hot chocolate and cookie.

The tractor is worth the $5 more you pay for your tree.

"Hello, Christmas"

It finally feels like Christmas at our house.

Once I started putting lights on the tree, Jack repeatedly said, "Hello, Christmas." I feel the same way. Even though I've been doing Christmasy things all month, it did not feel like Christmas until the tree was put up Monday night.

Monday morning, Jack, Adeline, Grandma and Grandpa and I all made the trek to a tree farm about 30 minutes away. It was warm at almost 60 degrees so it was muddy. (Far cry from last year's experience cutting a tree in the cold cold cold) Jack loved the mud but after starting to walk out into the trees, the pre-cut trees were looking better and better. We took the obligatory tree picture and then walked back to the display of trees and picked the first one we saw.

A meeting of the minds

Adeline was so happy to have her younger cousin, Caleb, to play with during our visit to Atlanta.

Future Rock Stars

Jack and his cousin, Mariam, rocking out in Atlanta .

(Jack's 1st layer of pajamas, peeking out from underneath his footie pajamas, says, "Mummy's little Monster." Perfect for a toddler rock concert.)

Between sets, Addy likes to chew on the microphone.

We're hoping that if her future includes fronting a band, that she will at least wear pants while singing on stage.

Family picture take 112

We've been trying to get a decent, current family picture of the four of us for some time now. Do you know how hard it is to try to get an infant, a toddler, a mommy and a daddy to all look at the camera and smile at the same time?
Near impossible.

But today, with the help of our friend Joannannannna (as Jack calls her), we finally have a picture that captures the everyday beauty of our family.

It makes me smile every time I look at it.


We have so many great pictures from this morning's photo shoot that I am having a hard time choosing which one I want to use. So glad to have options and now I can get started on planning and making my Christmas Cards. With any luck, I will get them done this weekend.

Any one else up for a cardmaking party Friday night?

For a good time

Go watch this. You will never look at Mr. Darcy the same again.

Big Brother

Jack loves to make Adeline giggle. He works very hard for her smiles.

We hope that he will always prefer to make her smile over making her cry.

Fall leaves

Adeline Louise


She tried to eat her weight in leaves.

Let's pretend it is still Halloween

We went trick or treating with our friend, Bea, who carved this pumpkin with her Dad.

She was really patient and walked with Jack. Here she's holding his hand as he goes up the step.

Then she would ring the doorbell for him and help him say trick or treat.

Then it was off to the next house. Doesn't Jack look so focused on his task?

"Oh by gosh! Look at the Moon!"
"More Trick or treats?"

His other favorite phrase of the evening?

"More suckers?"


Addy came too as a cute little pink skeleton.

Boo!

Our little gobblin!

Halloween Week

We started the week with pumpkin carving Sunday night. Jack loved Bea's pumpkin.

Here are the Jack-o-lanterns.

Ryan did a great job carving our pumpkin. I thought Jack would enjoy pumpkin guts but he would not touch it. Our pumpkin is the the right of the pumpkin with the larger than life stem.

My sister is a rock star

I have to take a minute to brag about my sister, Susan.

Monday she turned in her doctoral dissertation to the University of Minnesota.
She defends it on Friday and then I will start calling her Dr. Susan. (She said I had to wait until it posted to her transcripts but I can't wait.)

She completed her dissertation in time to give birth to baby Oscar in the middle of November while parenting cute Willa and always remembering Wilson.


Yeah, she's a rock star.

Look what we found in the pumpkin patch

The best way to eat an apple

Take large bites

After picking it yourself
and after driving a tractor
and playing with ghosts
and while riding in a wagon

before running through the pumpkins with your friend W1. Thanks to brown's Berry Patch for for a great Saturday adventure with friends.

Happy Birthday Cake

It is birthday season at our house and Jack could not be happier.

Birthday season started with my birthday on the 29th of September.

Both of the kids got handfuls of frosting from my Wegmans, yummy pumpkin shaped happy birthday cake.

Then we move on to my brother-in-law Mike's birthday on the 2nd of October and then to our nephew Joshua's birthday on the 5th.

Ryan's birthday is next. We were the same age all of last week but now he is back to being old:)

Jack loved his Dad's happy birthday cake the best. The morning after Ryan's birthday, I found Jack in the kitchen jumping up and down in front of the cake on the counter chanting, "happy birthday cake. happy birthday cake. happy birthday cake." He loves a good cake just like his mom.

Princess Adeline's first trip to NYC

If you have to take a baby with you on a getaway trip with friends, may I suggest taking Adeline.

Here she is riding the subway after making eyes at Matt Dillon. She is on her way to visit the Museum of Modern Art. (Note to self: when they say they have a mother's nursing lounge it really means they have a bench near the sinks in the woman's bathroom on the 5th floor.)

She fell asleep at the Museum and slept through most of her trip to Times Square. When she was finally awakened by the loud music/people, she just looked around with her big eyes and took it all in. Didn't make a sound even though she really wanted to just go to sleep in her bed.


She was carried up and down the stairs to the subway and never fussed. Not even when we repeatedly set off the emergency exit alarms or when the mean subway worker yelled at her mom for not wanting to set off the emergency exit alarms. She (we) survived evacuating a broken down train too.

She saw the Statue of Liberty while waiting patiently with Seleta and April while I ran the race. She even fell asleep and stayed asleep with all the noise and chaos at the finish line.
She cheered me on at the end of the race. It made me happy to see Addy smiling at me as I rounded the corner.

Seriously, she travels so easily that you almost forget that she is with you.

The only problem is that she didn't find the Coach bag she wanted. (or at least her mom didn't find the bag she wanted. Fortunately, there will be a next time.)

way better than church

I'm kidding, mom.

Sunday morning was an awesome experience. I finally got to run in the Tunnel to Towers run.
Here we are towards the end of the race. Mrs Finkle, Nicole and I are in this picture but Joanna was ten paces ahead. (Mrs. Finkle is in the gray shirt in the middle, Nicole in the blue shirt next to the lady in the hat, me in the white shirt on the other side of the lady in the hat.)

I don't even know how to begin to describe this event.

As a girl who cannot make it through singing the national anthem without crying, this event was overwhelming to my patriotic senses.


First, we line up with 15, 000 other people for this run. Some of them are firefighters in full gear, some of them are military men and women, people who lost loved ones
on 9/11 and they are blasting Neil Diamond's Coming to America over the speakers. I am a sucker for Neil Diamond anyways and this song always gets me. (In the above picture is a squad of men and women in their full battle fatigues with their packs. Wow.)

Then we sang God Bless America and the Start Spangled Banner.

Did I mention that I cry during the national anthem?

It took us 10 minutes to get to the starting line after the race started.

These men and women chanted their way through the tunnel. It was an amazing sound and sight. Again, I got teary.

You exit the tunnel to see a line of firemen holding American Flags and pictures of all 343 firefighters who died that day. That first picture is of Stephen Siller whose family started this race in his honor and to honor all of the rescue personnel. Again, I got teary.

As you run past these men, they are cheering, smiling and giving high-fives.

The men wearing their firefighting gear were amazing. The tunnel was so hot and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I cannot imagine running with all that extra weight. One man that ran by me was in shorts and t-shirt but wearing his helmet. He was dripping with sweat.

We did it and we're going to do it again!

(well at least I am and anyone who wants to join me.)

Thanks to Seleta and April who watched Addy for me so that I could run.

Check out all of the links for more pictures and stories.

http://wcbstv.com/local/tunnel.to.towers.2.827550.html