ThanksMas

We had a combo Thanksgiving/Christmas this year with my Uncle Howard and his family, but first we kicked off the holiday weekend with a pre-dinner with Grandpa Chip and Connie.  Then it was appetizer fun on Thursday with Howard and Lilly.  My Mom and Howard cooked up a delicious Thanksgiving meal for all of us on Friday after Kathleen and Ian arrived. 

We also did our homemade gift exchange that day.  It was fun making and receiving all the great gifts.  Here's a little sample...

Lilly made this lollipop tree for everyone, but Jace was the one who really enjoyed it. In fact, it was what he picked when asked what his favorite Thanksgiving food was!

 



Lilly also made this Olaf snowglobe for Rylee and a snowball fight kit (with cute yarn snowballs).

 



Rylee made this owl pillow for Lilly with just a little sewing help from Gaga. 

 

 

My Mom made homemade gifts for everyone: a little bag for Lilly, a crocheted towel for Kathleen, a potato bag for Howard and a travel kit for Ian.

 

She made a cute Thomas bag for Jace's train toys, a pretend diaper bag for Rylee, and this adorable apron...

 

My Dad made some cute coasters for Kathleen, Ian made my Dad a Rudolph beer, Kathleen gave my Mom a plant in a cute pot she decorated, Howard gave both my Mom and I agates in water jars (so lovely!), and I made plastic canvas luggage tags for almost everyone (there are a few that will be getting theirs late).  People were really creative and thoughtful with their gifts!

Flower Girl

Last weekend, Rylee fulfilled one of her life long dreams: she was a flower girl in a wedding!  Friday night was the rehearsal.  Rylee loved every minute of it, but Jace was in full jealous mode.  He cried the whole time because he wanted to walk and stand next to Rylee.  Based on this behavior, I decided not to bring him to the actual wedding on Saturday.  My Mom's knee was horrible so she wan't walking and well, we know about Papa, so just Rylee and I attended the wedding.

Here she is showing off her dress and shoes at home...

With co-flower girl, Lexie, during pictures...

The wedding party...

After the wedding, Rylee and I picked up Gaga, Papa, and Jace for the reception.  We arrived last so there wasn't any place for us to sit.  Luckily, they pulled out an additional table and created a place for us right in the front by the dance floor.  It worked out great.  This was Papa's second outing since his accident and he had a great time chatting with all his family and friends.

Jace was a bit of a crazy man.  He spent the first part of the reception running back and forth from our table to the front entrance which meant I had to chase him through the throngs of people.  

When the dance started though, he was all about the dance floor.  He and I joined in the mother/son dance.  Then he danced with the kids.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but everyone came up to me to tell me what an enthusiastic dancer he was!

I took Gaga and Jace home around 9 (after Jace had danced himself into exhaustion).  When I returned, Rylee told me that she had danced with the groom (apparently I missed the dollar dance).  In her words, "He twirled me.  It was so romantic."  :)  Papa, Rylee and I stayed till the last song (about 10:30).  Rylee danced almost every dance with one of her friends from school. They danced on the stage above the dance floor.  They even danced the slow dances together - with their arms on each other's shoulders -  it was adorable.

What a night!

Beard Be Gone!

The much anticipated activity of the weekend was Jon's beard removal.  

One last look at his "epic beard"...

Chops...

Rylee refused to kiss her Dad with his beard, 

but she was brave enough to give his cheek a peck during shaving...

The goatee...

Rylee's request: the handlebar...

And finally, the 'stache...

As you can see, Rylee prefers her Daddy clean-shaven!

As do I... shhh!

Fall Fotos

While Jon was here, we attempted to get a family photo.  Emphasis on "attempted" as Jace runs to the camera saying "I see, I see" before he even poses for a pic.

We had a few spectators: Gaga, Grandpa Chip & Connie, Howard & Lilly (who was our photog).  Jace was pretty much in constant motion and it seemed like pure chaos, but in the end we managed to get a few keepers...

I even like this one where we are clearly bribing our kids with cookies.  Reality!!

In case you're wondering, time didn't permit the family photo shoot to be after the beard removal.  I guess it deserved to be immortalized anyway!  :)

Daddy time!

I haven't had the chance to post pics from our Daddy visit back in October.  We had so much fun (even if we did have to share him with his hunting buddies).  We miss you already, Daddy (but we don't miss your beard!).

The kids had a few specific requests for when their Dad was here.  The first was that we play outside.  It was a bit chilly that weekend, but we still made the most of our Fall weather.

Pool noodles make excellent light sabers so we had to battle Darth Daddy (sorry, no pics).  And when you tire of fighting the dark side, Papa's wheelchair makes an excellent stroller/lounge chair.

(P.S. My Dad had his first non-doctor outing since his injury that day.  

He attended Crosby's football playoff game.  Go C-I Go!)

Of course, Jace had to show off his mad four wheelin' skillz.

The kid's second request was that Daddy make his famous grill pizzas.  Yum!  Their third request was that Daddy shave off his beard.  More on that in later posts!

Even though it was a short trip, we managed to squeeze in a birthday brunch for Grandpa Chip.  This pic was actually from the day before at my parents.  Of course, I forgot to bring my camera the morning of the brunch.  Par for the course for me these days - I can't remember anything! 

Halloween 2014 - Trick or Treat!

It was a full Halloween day here.  I volunteered in Rylee's class for their Halloween costume parade and party.  No kindergartners had any idea who Hermoine was, but the upper classmen and adults all recognized her.  I worried that I should have had her wear her Elsa dress like 4 other girls in her class, but she didn't seem disappointed with her choice.  Whew.

After school, Grandpa Chip and Connie came over bearing treats and stayed for a spontaneous Halloween happy hour.  Sara also dropped off some goodies and had a quick visit with us.

We had a few trick-or-treaters stop by afterwards: Max as Captain America Winter Soldier (I think).  The Meyer boys as basketball players and the Red Power Ranger.  Their cousins came with them as well (Jack was a football player and Chloe was a darling fairy).

 

We squeezed in a super quick Skype with Daddy so he could see the kids in their costumes and then we started trick-or-treating ourselves.  First up was our neighbors so we could walk there.  We managed to get Jace into his car seat to head over to Greg and Sharon's.

 

 

We decided to drop Jace back off to Gaga and Papa after that so Rylee and I could keep driving and treating.  We hit a popular street near the fire station first.  Then we stopped at the house where I grew up and the house next door (which used to be the Johnston's house).  Good Halloween memories there!  Then we went on to Jeanne's, a spooky house that we happened to drive by, and Big Grandpa Bob's.

 

 

We made two more quick stops at Bart and Penney's and Ginny and Tom's.  G&T were down in their Sugar Shack so we were treated to a spooky walk through their dark property to find them - kind of fitting on Halloween night!

 

There were other people we would have liked to have seen, but we decided to head home as Rylee "was exhausted from all this Halloween fun."  I guess that means it was a good night!

 

 

Halloween 2014 - Costumes

Rylee fell in love with the first couple of Harry Potter movies at Cedar Crest so she picked her Halloween costume out in July.  She makes a pretty cute Hermoine if I do say so myself.

"Expecto patronum!"

 

 

Jace didn't really have much say in his costume (if he had his way he would have preferred none), but I did pick a character from one of his favorite shows.  A big thanks goes out to my Mom for using her garage sale magic and crafting skills to convert a 10 cent dalmation sleeper and fireman costume into Marshall from Paw Patrol.  Jace looks ready for a "ruff, ruff rescue" to me!

 

 

And by some Halloween magic, Jace decided to wear his hat for almost an hour.  His previous record had been about 4 seconds. 

 

 

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