Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Turkey Day!!

This year for Thanksgiving my kids looked so adorable!  All I wanted this year was a nice family picture of all of us. I tried and I tried but this was the ONE day that my kids were NOT going to cooperate!  

 We started here.  Not too bad, except Claire looks miserable and Oliver is looking the wrong way.

Ok Claire is cheering up. But Mark isn't looking and I am apparently talking.

Now I may be yelling at someone and Auntie Rose's hand has entered the picture.

 Yep, things are going really well.

So this one may be the best.  Even though Oliver is making a goofy smile.  This was our best one of the night.

Oliver looked so handsome in his tie. I swear if you slapped some Old Spice on him and handed him a briefcase, he would be my father!!

Then of course, the turkey was hat was brought out.

We tried to get a shot with Papa....yeah that didn't go so well either.

Then we tried with Aunt Sue....nope not gonna happen there either.

Oliver did however, enjoy the pie.

Then it was time to head over to Aunt Irene's.

Where Oliver snuggled up with Tom and continued to eat some more food.

And then some more.

It was then that I decided to try to get another family shot.  Yeah, still not gonna happen.

It doesn't matter though.  This year I am so thankful for everything that I have.  I am so lucky to be surrounded by a wonderful family!  Also, I am thankful for the health of all of the people I love.  But, most of all I am thankful for the most amazing children in the world!  They complete my life and make everyday perfect (even when its not).  Also, I am thankful for a wonderful husband.  Mark is a great husband and an incredible father and I don't know what I would do without him.

Well now that Thanksgiving is over....IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!

So we started decorating!!

Oliver was amazed by all the lights and decorations.

Claire got the Christmas bug from me apparently because she LOVES decorating!!

We loved decorating while listening to Christmas music!

Claire's favorite part is putting the star on top of the tree.

She loves helping her Daddy.

Oliver loved helping too but he didn't get to do too much because he just shakes everything.  So he got very sick of hearing "no, no" over and over.

So he grabbed his Thomas book and hopped on the couch.

Then it was time to bust out the train.  As you can see, Claire and Oliver was SUPER excited to get started with the train.

Oliver was THRILLED with the train this year.  He just kept yelling "Choo, choo!"  and "Whoa!".

 The kids waited sooo patiently while Daddy set up the train.

They loved it when it was all set up!! 

 They watched the train for almost an hour! 

Oliver kept waving every time the train would go by.  Then he would blow it kisses.  I swear he was so excited every time that it went by that I thought he was gonna pass out!! 

My favorite season is here!  I can't wait to do all the fun Christmasy things with the kids this year!!!

Happy Birthday Great Grandma!

Yesterday we all got together to celebrate Great Grandma's birthday!  Aunt Irene had a special cake made and Great Grandma just loved it!

Claire was very interested in the picture on the cake.  

 Claire and Owen had a blast just being Claire and Owen.  They loved playing and running around like little maniacs!  Oliver did his best to keep up with them but he was no match for these two!

Of course, they had to help Great Grandma blow out her candles. 

Then it was time for our "Family Portrait Attempt".  We set up the camera and the timer, everybody took their places and we got started.

Here is attempt number one.  Looks great!  Well....Tom and Grandma's eyes are closed and Great Grandma looked extremely surprised!  OK let's try again....

Great Grandma is no longer surprised but Tom and Grandma still have their eyes closed.  OK let's try again...

Alright Grandma has opened her eyes!  But now Joe's are closed.  And Tom's are still closed.  And I somehow gained a few pounds since the last shot.  It was at this point that we said... well that was great, enough with the picture :)  We did pull this off a few years ago.  Click HERE to check it out!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!!  This year we had a great Halloween!  Claire loves dressing up and enjoying all the parties and activities that go along with Halloween.  And Oliver is old enough to really  join in the fun now!

Claire and Oliver were mice this year.  Well, it started out that they were elephants, then mice, then rats for a short time, and then back to mice.  Claire really wanted her and Oliver to be the same thing.  When I kept asking her what she wanted to be, she would say "Whatever Oliver is going to be because he is my brother."  So it was finally settled on mice.  And I must say, they were the cutest mice I have ever seen.

We started out the festivities with the Halloween Bash at my school.  The kids had a blast playing in my classroom.

Oliver loved playing with all my calendar stuff.

Claire wasn't really into the dancing at first but Oliver jumped right into the Cha Cha Slide.  Claire warmed up and her and I rocked it up a little later.

Then we went to a Halloween party at Aunt Pam's house.  One of Pam's friend brought her dogs and they were dressed up in adorable little costumes.  My kids thought this was the greatest thing EVER!  They especially liked that one of the dogs was named Oliver.

Here are my crazy mice as I was trying to get a cute picture of them together.  Thank God I got one (see above) because something happened to all my pictures from when we went trick or treating (I have finally started to get over it...kinda....I still feel a little like throwing up when I think about it but I am getting past it.).

Then we headed to our town's Halloween Party at our local park.  The kids loved the firetrucks.

Oliver was super excited to sit inside the truck.

Then on Sunday we carved our pumpkins.  Claire just had to write her name on hers so that everyone knew it was hers (we are getting there on her name writing).

Oliver was so excited to get his own pumpkin.

He kept kissing it.

Claire loved drawing her own face on her pumpkin this year.

And Oliver did his best to draw his own face.

Once the face was drawn on his pumpkin Oliver kept staring at it.

Claire got right in there to scoop out the goo.

Oliver LOVED scooping out the goo.

He worked on this forever!

Grandma stopped over to help out.  Oliver loved using the spoon to scoop stuff out.

He really got into it!

But I think his favorite part was banging the spoon on the bowl to get the goo into the bowl.

Overall, the kids loved Halloween!  When we went trick or treating (which we have no pictures of...breathe....I just have to breathe) Oliver was hilarious!  He would yell "tree o teet" and then he wouldn't let people put stuff in his bucket (thank you again Auntie Kate for the adorable Halloween buckets).  He wanted them to hand it to him so that he could put it in himself.  Then he would yell "TAN YOU!"  and blow kisses.  It was adorable.  One house just kept giving him candy so that he would do it again and again.  Claire loved trick or treating too but she didn't last very long.  After about 10 houses she was ready to head home and check out her stash.  Aunt Jessica, Uncle Nick, and Giada met up with us and we had a blast.  After we headed home and they stayed out trick or treating Claire goes "Wow Giada must really LOVE trick or treating!".

At school Claire and Oliver's costumes were a hit!  The teachers took an adorable picture of them and now it is the picture on their sign in computers.  I thought this was so sweet!  Then I turned around and saw this!  Claire apparently had the "Quote Of The Week".  I guess every week they take one of the hilarious things that the kids say and put it up on the wall for everyone to see.  Have I mentioned that I just love this kid!