christmas 2012

Every year Christmas gets more meaningful. It's so much fun with kids!

Precious Moments

These are the moments you need to capture...

Tis the Season for Holiday Parties

We had a fun-filled weekend of holiday parties. On Saturday morning, we took the boys to my company's annual kids party. They do a great job with activities for the kids, a clown, face-painting, tatoos, Santa and a magician. Kellen loved Santa this year and couldn't wait to sit on his lap and tell him he was a good boy. Kellen did tell him he wanted a Thomas the Train and that was the first we had heard of that so guess we need to go shopping ;-) Saturday evening we had a party at our friend's house, kids were invited and they had babysitters...bonus! Of course, Kellen wanted to hang with the adults, so that kind of backfired but it was still fun. On Sunday, I hosted my first annual kiddie christmas cookie decorating party. We had a ball and plan to make it a new tradition. The kids had fun decorating cookies and christmas trees and eating lots of sugar! Sorry to our friends who brought some crazy sugar-filled kids home with them.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great thanksgiving weekend this year. My parents came on Wednesday for dinner and stayed over to help me cook in the morning. Kellen loved having Grammy and Grampy stay at his house. My mom brought him a gingerbread house and they had a ball decorating it (eating it) on Thanksgiving morning. It was a gorgeous day so Greg and my Dad even did some raking and built a firepit in our backyard. We invited friends of ours who are Canadian and Welch and don't have family nearby, they have two boys the same ages as Kellen and Liam, so it was a lot of fun to have them celebrate with us, especially since we always miss the McCabe's on Thanksgiving. The boys were actually well enough behaved that we all got to sit down and eat together. Doesn't happen very often with 4 boys 2 and under. On Friday morning, my college roommate Kim, came to visit. She was in town to see her mother-in-law and made a pitstop to see us and meet Liam. It was so great to see her, unfortunately our visits these days are short and sporadic, but it's great to have the time together when we can. Then on Saturday, we got up and drove to Grandma and Grandpa's for our second Thanksgiving. It was so nice to see everyone and Kellen always loves playing with his big cousins Ryan and Rachel. Rachel is so good with him and now that Kellen is older they can actually play together a lot more. It's so fun to watch. Here are some of the highlights from the long weekend!

Thankful

A day to give thanks for the gifts we are blessed with every day!

- this year we are especially thankful for Liam. He had already brought so much more love and joy to our family.

- the bond between brothers. It began on day one, kellen loves Liam so much and Liam is really starting to interact with him. It is so much fun to watch and really melts my heart.

- a happy marriage. I don't know how people raise toddlers without an equal partner to share all the joys, laughter and frustrations.

- strong family bonds. The older we get, the more important our family relationships become. Nothing is more special than time spent with family and bringing up our boys in such a close and loving extended family.

- traditions. I love reliving all my favorite family and holiday traditions by introducing them to my own family. I hope our boys someday look back on their childhood with as much nostalgia as I do.

- friends new and old, near and far. Friends are there to share all the ups and downs of this crazy life. We are fortunate to have all types of friends - those with kids our ages to commiserate with, those without kids that we can have adult conversations with, those nearby even on the same street and those far away that we use technology to keep up with, new friends we have made through work and school and old friends forever treasured! Thank you all!

Health and well being. This year we have lost a couple people who left the world too soon - we count our blessings everyday for our health, well being and pray for those less fortunate.

As I try to instill a sense of gratitude in my children by saying thank you every night for something that day, I reminded of how very much we have to be thankful for not just this time of year but everyday!

Happy thanksgiving to all!!

Liam's 4 Month Stats

Hard to believe my big boy is already 4 months! He went to the doctor on the 20th. He was 14lbs1oz, 50th percentile, 25 inches 50-75th percentile and 75-90th for his head circumference. Keeping in tradition with all our boys, their heads are the biggest parts of them!! Poor guy got 4 shots and was a bit fussy last night, hoping for a better night tonight. At least Grammy and Grampy will be at our house tonight so we'll have lots of hands to hold him.

Brotherly love

When kellen wakes up in the morning, the first thing he asks for is Liam. He really loves his brother and Liam is starting to be thoroughly entertained by him.

Dr. Kellen

Kellen gave Greg a physical on his birthday. According to kellen, Greg is not very healthy. But we are not sure medicine is his thing since he said he could hear Grammy through his "telescope"

Halloween

This year was a great Halloween. It was really Kellen's first since he was sick his very first year and last year we had the terrible snowstorm and were in Albany. We have been reading Halloween books all month and he was so excited to dress up for school and go trick or treating this year. He wanted to be a fireman this year, so I made Liam a dalmation costume. We went to about 6 or 7 houses in the neighborhood and Kellen loved it. He would ring the bell and then scream "TRICK OR TREAT!". He also loved coming home and giving out candy to all the big kids. Kellen does not like chocolate at all but we quickly figured out that he does love the other sugary candy like skittles and smarties. A 2 year old who is already crazy does not need that kind of sugar!!!

Greg's Birthday

Thursday was Greg's birthday. It also happened to be Liam's first day of daycare, so it was a day of mixed feelings for all of us. Liam did great at drop-off, and had a good day at school. Kellen was a little sad, he must have known mommy was sad and he didn't want to leave Liam. I went into the office for a couple hours and then met Greg for a nice birthday lunch at Max Oyster Bar. Kellen and I made him a cake and decorated it when Kellen came home from school - he loved doing the candles and singing Happy Birthday to Daddy. Saturday Greg's parents came for lunch and spent the afternoon hanging with the boys. It was a fun day.