Thanksgiving!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year, especially now with this one off and running!

Let's go!

We started our Thanksgiving off with what we hope will be a new family tradition, participating in the annual Run Through the Woods!  Little Buddy and Daddy ran the kids' race, followed by doing the 3 mile walk with Aunt S, while I ran the five mile run with Uncle M, Ms. A, and Mr. A.

     

Someone is ready to run his first race!

"Can we start yet, Daddy?"

     

And there he goes!

His first medal!  We are so proud of him!

Proudly strolling with Ms. B and Ms. P during the walk!

Great time as a family!

Little Sweetie can't wait to join in on the running fun!

We spent the rest of Thanksgiving enjoying food, friends, and family.  We were so busy enjoying ourselves, I didn't have time to get a picture!  We spent the rest of the weekend getting into the Christmas spirit, seeing a movie (Big Hero 6--Little Buddy loved it!) and even got some bonus Uncle C and A time!

     

Time to decorate for Christmas!

     

Bike riding time with Uncle C and A.  Safety first, get your helmets!

     

Lots of fun in the leaves!

It was a great long weekend, and especially fun being together as a family because, as of tomorrow, Little Buddy will be a full-time student!  I am going to miss him so much, but I know he's going to love it.  And I am looking forward to some special momma-daughter time with Little Sweetie. So thankful for so many things, one of which is that Little Buddy gets the opportunity to go to school and get his needs met.  Great things are coming!

Good night, 

LSM

Litte Sweetie's Momma

November 19

And now we're 13 months old and walking all over the place as if we own it.  This is girl is ready to leave her mark on the world.  Just not sure if Momma is ready to let her grow up quite yet.  

"Hi world!  Let's have some fun!"

Lots of dress-up fun this month.  Unlike her brother, Little Sweetie is always pretty excited to get dressed and accessorized.  She wants to be a big kid like brother!

     

My cute little skeletons hanging out with me while Daddy had a doctor's appointment, followed by Little Sweetie being an adorable skeleton nurse and taking good care of Daddy.  

     

Loving her new Chi O legacy bib and it's ability to help her play peek-a-boo!

Decked out in patriotic gear as she and brother accompany me to cast my vote (in the rain, no less.  They are troopers).

Rocking her Cleveland Browns gear because, somehow, Believeland has a winning record?!?!

     

Modeling her new super hero underpants, which we had to get because she wouldn't stop stealing Brother's!

Every day is also an adventure as she is constantly on the lookout for new things to explore and discover.  A simple trip to the park can quickly turn into a proud naturalist displaying her new acorn collection!

     

"Where are we going, Momma?  The park?  Great!  I love the park!"

     

"We can go on the slides and the swings and...wait, what's this, Momma?  That thing right there!"

     

"See, it's right here!  It's an...an...an...an acorn!  Amazing!  Let's collect 20 more!"

Height and Weight 

Gained a bit of weight and height and is now 22 lbs. and 30 inches.

Personality

Little Sweetie is definitely coming into her own.  She's so happy, but she's also mischievous and she know's how to play our heartstrings.  We catch her doing something she should be doing (like emptying a baby wipes container) and she breaks into tears like her world has ended and suddenly we're the ones rushing to apologize.  Yes, we are wrapped around her little finger.  We admit it.  

Developmental Milestones

She's got this walking thing down and she's starting to get fast.  The cutest part of it is when she walks over to us to give us hugs, just because she wants to.  We love it!  Well, Daddy and I do.  Big Brother sometimes reciprocates and sometimes is too busy playing.  Chesney's tolerating her love, even when she's teasing him with an apple (which I think she also stole from Brother when he wasn't looking).

"My puppy!"

She's still sleeping well, both at naps and at night, although sometimes she tells me I'm just too fun and that she doesn't want to nap because it should be playtime!

     

Two instances of when someone should be sleeping, but she prefers to hang out and stick out her tongue at me.  She's lucky she's cute!

She also LOVES food and is completely on table food and rarely displays pickiness.  She nods enthusiastically when offered some of her favorites and she's now eating kid meals at restaurants because she's always so hungry.  I think "hot dog" will be her next word!

     

"FOOD!!!!"

Her pretend play has also started and, while she does really enjoy playing with brother's cars and the kitchen, she's also beginning to play with dolls too.  She'll be a great Momma someday, as long as she remembers to feed her baby's mouth and not her baby's nose.

"Why won't baby eat, Momma?  Does it go in her eye, maybe?"

Fun Tidbits

The bathroom is her favorite room in the whole house because that is where she can go use her potty and clap for herself and where she can get her favorite thing...a bath!  Seriously, if you say "bath" in any part of the house, she immediately stops what she is going, stands up, vigorously nods her head yes, and runs to bathroom, trying to pull off her shirt the entire way.  

     

Proud of her potty success and her mohawk!

Until the next adventure, 

LSM

Little Sweetie's Momma

A Great Time in Grapevine!

Last month, we had planned on taking a trip to Grapevine, Texas, which is right outside of the Dallas area.  Our plan had been to knock another ballpark off of our list with a Rangers game, go to Legoland Discovery Center, and ride the Grapevine Vintage Railroad.  Unfortunately, Daddy had to work, so we rescheduled our trip to this month.  We didn't get to do the baseball game, but I have to say that the weekend ended up being pretty fun.

The first amazing part of our trip was the fact that we found a rest stop...with. a. playground.  For real!  I think Little Buddy and Little Sweetie were so enamored with that, they could have been happy just stayed at the rest stop instead of taking the rest of the trip!  Especially once Little Buddy found the statue of the buffalo!

    

Playgrounds at rest stops should be mandatory.

He literally told us to go on without him.  He was just going to live with the buffalo statue on the white rocks.  

Our hotel was the next big adventure.  Someone should really start offering hotels with kid-friendly room options.  You know, like rooms WITHOUT working fireplaces or ways to keep your kids from coming out of their room and walking out in the middle of the night (Little Buddy is totally tall enough to unlock everything).  Luckily, we like to make creative solutions.

Thank God neither kid showed interest in the fireplace.  And seriously, a fireplace in a hotel room in Texas?  Necessary?  I think not.

    

 

Some of our creative room arrangements.  Little Buddy's bed is pushed against the closet in his room (with a desk and dresser pushed up on the other side to keep him from rolling out in the middle of the night), the couch is pushed in front of his door to prevent late night escapes while leaving the door open so we could hear him if he needed us, and a chair blocking the door out of the room just in case he made it over the couch.  Stuff you don't think about until you have kids!

Also, the kids' favorite thing about the hotel?  The corded phones.  We just unplugged all the phones and let them have at it.  Why do we even bother to travel?  We could just stay in a local hotel and let the kids play with the phones for a few days and they would be thrilled! 

We started our real Grapevine Adventure the next day by going for the fun run on the vintage railroad!  After a quick walk through the town (which was so cute and full of lovely shops...I'm already planning more trips back to explore the town some more) we came to the train!  The fun run is only an hour long, which I have to say was just about right for the kids' attention spans. 

Headed to the train!

Choo-choo!

    

Little Sister was excited for her first train ride (and for the flags they handed out for Veterans Day)!

Attempting a group shot with Daddy!

Thankfully, the train photographer got a better family picture!

 

"I'm the conductor!"

After the train ride, we walked around town a bit more to look for some food and Little Buddy found his new favorite statues:  roller skaters!  He was quite intrigued.

          

After attempting to help the fallen skater, we had lunch at local deli (again, loving the small town feel.  We found several small town restaurants that we liked a lot and were kid friendly.  I'm going to the miss the pizza place we ate at..twice!) before heading back to the hotel for naps.  The kids needed to rest up before we headed out to...

Legoland!

This was pretty much a dream destination for Little Buddy, and Little Sweetie ended up having a blast too!

    

   

Playing with blocks while waiting to enter, rocking our Emmett jacket and Wyldstyle hat.

   

    

Little Sweetie jamming out in the Duplo area!

"Let me get this straight...I can play with all these blocks?  For real?"

    

Great time on the pirate-themed spray ground turned playground for the fall season.

    

Entranced by the mini-city replica of Dallas/Grapevine area...

...and of the Star Wars special exhibit!

Little Buddy was ready to move in and live there!

Happy Lego Store visitors!

We can vouch for it...everything was awesome! 

After breakfast the next morning, we began our drive home (we hit that rest stop with the playground again too!).  It was a very quick trip, but a lot of fun.  I really want to go back and find more fun stuff to do!

Have a good night,

LSM

Little Sweetie's Momma