A Grateful Heart

Here's a list of just the few things I am grateful for that occurred this past week:

1. Being home all week with Gavin and half of it with my hunny.

2. Playing under the kitchen table with those two.
3. Getting the house decorated for Christmas and even a present or two wrapped.

4. Seeing my grandmother get more beautiful each year.

5. Getting spontaneous bear hugs from my two-year old.

6. Having that same two-year old be my big helper and really seeing him getting the grasp of obedience.
7. D creating a Winter Wonderland with the outside Christmas lights.
8. Enjoying Thanksgiving with both sides of our family.

9. Being chased by a dragon.

10. Partaking in the annual dressing making collaboration.
11. Watching Gavin and his cousins play in the same water fountain at my grandparents' house that me and my cousins played in.

12. Listening to what everyone had to be thankful for around the dinner table and hearing my son shock us by clearly saying, "I don't know."
13. Playing games to work off Thanksgiving lunch.


15. Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
16. Snuggling with Gavin while watching Sesame Street.
17. Singing Happy Birthday to my 85 year old grandfather.
18. Being almost done Christmas shopping.
19. Having a date night with my hunny even if it was only to Starbucks and Target.
20. Having the energy to act completely silly so three little boys under the age of 6 would simultaneously smile for the camera.
As you can see, it was a week I was truly thankful for.

Just Go With It

I can't say there has been one thing in particular that has kept me from updating this dear old blog lately, but rather just life happening at the usual rapid pace. I will never say that being a stay-at-home mom is not a full time job, because it is, but I find myself trying to do the job of a stay-at-home mom the way I would like plus have a full time job outside the home. At some point, something has to give and I guess it will be this blog sometimes. Thankfully the week-long Thanksgiving vacation came just in time.

A few weeks ago, Gavin started taking his socks off and putting them on his hands like sock puppets. We would come in his room in the mornings or after nap time and find him like this.
So, we decided to get old socks and make puppets for him. With the use of some felt, hot glue and wiggly eyes, Francois and Reggie were born.
And since the glue gun was already hot, we decided to make a pine cone turkey. Basically we cut out felt for the legs and beak; glued on wiggly eyes and loosely added the colorful feathers.
When I originally saw this idea somewhere, you were supposed to hide the feathers and have the child find them. Since Gavin's a bit young, I decided it would be more fun to "fly" the turkey, later named Gobble Gobble, around the room and let Gavin collect the feathers. The joys of pure delight did not happen. What I got where gnashing of the teeth and wailing because I was apparently destroying this beloved turkey. All was well when I showed him we just stick the feathers back in. Gavin even took a "few" laps around the house with his new favorite game.
For Thanksgiving, we may take Gobble Gobble along for some hide and seek fun with the cousins. I'm excited to get to see all of those cousins starting tomorrow. We might even let the little cousins play too.

Monkeying Around

This little boy also does a mean monkey sound. I'm hoping to give some updates this weekend on what why this blog has almost fallen off the face of this earth. Have a great week!

Ferocious Friday

We Almost Missed the Boat

My creative husband came up with the idea that for our costumes this year we would be yacht rockers. Let me define this. Yacht rockers: Those who enjoy 70s and 80s smooth music while leisurely sailing on their yachts.

And here we are:
This is the third year we have had a family theme. The first year, we were a tree, lumberjack and tree hugger.

Last year we were yard ornaments: light, gnome and fairy.
My, I can't believe how much little boy has grown.

D hooked speakers to the boat so he provided the traveling entertainment. And no, that is not his real chest hair, thank goodness.

Gavin enjoyed getting spoiled by the grandparents. I think we have an endless supply of tootsie rolls.

We went to a fall festival later on in the evening. One thing that neither D or I counted on was that maybe two adults out of the whole crowd dressed up. I think we were those two. We kind of toned down our costumes before venturing out.

However, we had a great time and eventually sailed off into the sunset.