Gratitude Turkey

I'm thankful for football. ~Caden

Spoken like a true boy.

Get out there if you haven't already. Reesey and I went first thing and she almost got us thrown out for campaigning for her candidate. She's ready for a "change" like her mom and dad, and just think she's only been a citizen for 11 months. Yesterday a blog I like to read had this posted about the impending election. She's Canadian so don't go leaving her some nasty comment if you disagree -- she already got enough of them but I thought it was interesting and quite funny but true in many ways!

Now go vote!

Gratitude Turkey

I am thankful for my ball. ~ Addison

Counting Down to Turkey Time

Yesterday one of my favorite kid/family craft blogs, Make and Take, posted about making a paper turkey as a way of counting down to Thanksgiving. I thought it was a cute idea. I loved doing our Halloween countdown tree. However, I was more than happy that I only did 8 days since I was giving "treat/gift" type things, it's a lot of work to be organized, hide stuff, write little notes, make time to do it, etc. We will be doing a Christmas Advent Calendar similar to the Halloween one so this turkey is a great alternative: no gifts/treats. Each day one member of our family is going to tell one thing they are thankful for and I'll write it on a feather. When all the feathers are filled, it will be turkey time! Addison and I made our turkey together. We used some of my scraps of scrapbook paper. She loves "projects". She even cut the big turkey body out all by herself! Here's the directions from Make and Take if you want to join in. I'll be posting our gratitudes everyday (hopefully) to let you know all the stuff our family is thankful for!

I am thankful for my wonderful family. ~ Mommy

Reesey 11 months

With all the hoopla of Halloween and birthday plans in full swing . . . I never got around to posting about Reese at 11 months which was last Monday. I tried so hard to take her photo that day with the $#^%&%& flower headband I bought several months ago. She would not leave it on for more than 2 seconds which is not enough time to try to get a semi-cute photo. She left a parrot hat on for a few hours -- but a cute headband that I bought -- oh no, she's not having it!

She’s a dancing machine – she’s got lots of moves. A wiggly worm full body twist thing, shimming her shoulders. Bouncing on her knees, clapping, shaking her booty if she’s standing. She’s a music lover!

She’s eating a little bit of table food: bread, some canned/frozen veggies, pancakes, mashed potatoes, yogurt, She loves plain pancakes the best along with bread -- she's into carbs -- aren't we all!
I got out the snack trap cups and she loves using them and knows after her second nap she should have one and will tell me so if I forget!

Some how she knows when she is being left out. The kids needed new Halloween candy buckets so I took them to Target to pick them out. I didn’t get Reese one because I already had gotten her a cute little felt one a while back. She was screaming in the checkout line when the cashier handed them each bucket and she didn’t get one!

She loves to get in bed with Aaron and I at night when we go to bed at 12 or 1. She doesn’t even want to eat; she wants to play and love on us. It’s cute – her hugs are laying her head down on us and patting us and saying aaaaahhhhhhh.

She’s been standing more and more without holding on to stuff. I hope she can at least stand alone by the time I go get her one year old photos – I bought her the cutest dress! Did I mention she hates dresses (crawling and dresses don’t work well together).

She has 5 teeth.

She had another ear infection and pink eye. When they weighed her at the doctor she was 16.2. I thought that it seemed like she hasn’t gained much weight so I looked up her last check up at 9 months she weighed 16.2. She needs to get eating, I guess!

She’s still a great napper and sleeping better at night maybe only getting up 2 times now but I have a hard time remembering in my haze in the middle of the night so it really could be 4 times I just don’t know it. She goes to sleep completely on her own and when she wakes up from nap, she never cries, she plays in bed until I come get her which is very nice that she's not demanding.

She’s very outgoing and very smiley.

She loves the scary stuff – the scarier the better! She loves our carved pumpkins, our skeleton, and notices creepy stuff in stores.

She’s big on being a copy cat with movements and sounds.

She eats a ton of cat food – needs the protein I guess.

The Countdown Begins

Halloween out of the way . . . make way for birthday stuff! The party is in a week but I really don't feel as stressed as normal. I think it's a combo of having my house cleaned on Wednesday so I'm not too about that part as I usually am scrambling BIG TIME to get that done, the party is after their actual birthday so that makes a little more time for us, and that we have gotten a lot of stuff already done. Really all I have to do is buy and make the food, make the cake, and do a little decorating and oh yeah . . . I always make a slide show to play at the party . . . haven't started that yet and that's a big time sucker as it ends up being 20 minutes long cause I'm an overachiever but I really feel like I have a handle on it all for once. I have even started to think about Reese's party a little and may make her invites this weekend. But then again maybe I'm in denial about the whole thing and really have no clue what and how much I REALLY need to do. It'll come together in the end as it always does . . .but it would be nice if their wasn't a ton of stress, yelling, and divorce threats (you all know you do the exact same thing before a big event, admit it!)

Happy Halloween!

Here's our Pirate Clan with our little parrot!

Trick or treating was fun but Caden's tummy still not feeling well and Reesey was hungry and eating candy bars through the wrapper so we three came home and passed out candy (which Caden loved) and Daddy took the other two pirates out and about for a while.

Hope your Halloween was fun too!