Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday.  I love to cook and entertain and be with family, and this is a perfect opportunity!  I actually got to cook two turkeys this year and had so much fun.  We had a small group thanksgiving on Monday of Thanksgiving week and I cooked a 22lb bird and then I cooked a smaller bird for the family on Thursday.

The kids and I got up early and let Mike sleep in, he hadn't had a real day off in several weeks.  I got them in on the action this year and had them  help peel potatoes.  They loved it!

 

 

When Mike got up, they all sat together to watch the parade.  Logan alternated between sitting and dancing for everyone.  She has aspirations to one day walk in it, herself.  She'd like to be a Rockette.  :)

I was so thrilled when I sat them outside to take pictures and Logan gave me a nice, genuine smile!  It's so rare to get her to just smile and not grit her teeth or make a funny face.

Even more thrilling was that Brody cooperated, too, so we were able to get some really nice shots of the two of them together.

I can't believe she's almost four.  It's unreal.

After their naps, Logan helped me snap some green beans and kept me company while I finished up the Turkey.  Mike's Aunt Diane came over with her husband for dinner.  It was nice to be with family on Thanksgiving since our families are all so far away.

This November we've been keeping a thankful tree with the kids.  Each day they get a handprint and we write what they're thankful for.  We pray and thank God for whatever it is they say and then we hang the handprint (leaves) on the tree.  It's been a great exercise in thankfulness for all of us!  Here are the kids with the tree about midway through the month:

And here it is nearing completion:

 This year we are so thankful to have two healthy children, to have families who love us and most of all to have a God who gives us grace and forgiveness, daily.  Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Fall Ya'll!

It's been fall for a while, but I finally got around to getting some fall pictures last week.  The leaves have fallen so we've been doing a lot of leave pile playing lately.

It's been a beautiful fall this year!  Lots of temperatures in the 50's-60's and several days in the 30s-40's.  We're hoping this means a cold and snowy winter!

There are a couple of Churchill expressions if I ever did see any.

This was a random day where it hit 70, so Brody opted for shorts.

The kids love that we're able to sit outside for hours and play and are enjoying it now, before it gets too cold.

Have I mentioned how much I love this little girl?

She seriously melts my heart into little pieces.

And this little boy does the same.

Logan has been looking through different blog posts and keeps asking, "where are you mommy?"  So, here are some pictures so she can look through and see me, too, one day!

After being outside on the cooler days we've been warming up some apple juice and drinking warm "apple cider" in their coffee cups.  

It's been a fun fall, so far!

Dentist Visit

Logan had her third dentist visit last week.  This was the first "real" visit she's had, though.  The other two have been "happy visists" to get her used to being in the office.  For those she sat in my lap the whole time, had the dentist look at her teeth but not poke and prod and when they brushed her teeth it was just with a toothbrush.  This visit, she sat in the big girl chair and got the works!

Brody loved playing in the train themed waiting room!  They have a big electric train that circles the ceiling and he literally could have sat and watch it for HOURS.  The kiddos played drive through with the little firetruck in the picture.  Brody ordered apples and Logan is handing them to him.

The hygienist made her feel so comfortable and talked her through the whole process before doing anything.  She gave Logan a princess sticker and happily provided one for Brody when Logan asked for a sticker for her baby brother (melt my mommy heart!).  She commented over and over on how beautiful Logan's teeth and are and how well taken care of they are.  Logan was thrilled that she had no "cavity monsters" in  her teeth!  

I didn't get any pictures of L with Dr. Buddy (what a GREAT name to have as a pediatric dentist, isn't it?!) but he is fantastic.  Talks to her about princesses while checking her teeth, encouraging her to get her teeth up to "princess sparkle" standard.  He's just a fun Dr.  

Logan did SO WELL!  The last time we went she was supposed to have her big girl visit but the big chairs just scared her too much.  They say that a small child usually requires two of those happy visits to be comfortable enough to face the big room.  She climbed right in this time, locked on her special "dentist glasses" (they give them glasses to help with the bright lights) and was sweet and answered all of their questions.  Hopefully it'll go this smooth in six months when they both have appointments!

Sofia Premiere!

Disney started advertising their newest little princess months and months ago.  It's been pure torture for us as every day started with, "is it Sofia day?"  So, we were so thrilled to wake up yesterday knowing that it WAS Sofia day!

And we celebrated in Princess style.  We made glittery crowns to wear in the afternoon to help pass the time.  Logan's was pink.  Of course.  

We had Logan's favorite meal for dinner.  Since she's our resident princess, we called it our princess dinner.  (kilbasa, rice and corn)  And then the kids and I made a cookie pie for the viewing party!  (Brody had to have his own, masculine crown, too.)

When it finally hit 7 o'clock, Logan and I snuggled up with our crowns, ate our cookie slices and enjoyed the movie!  Now we'll be hearing about Sofia until January when the actual show premieres.  Thank you, Disney.  :)

Fall Festival and Halloween

This year I told Logan she could pick whatever she wanted to be, but she had to pick something that she and Brody could do together as a pair.  Initially, she decided she wanted to be Aurora and have Brody be Prince Phillip but changed her mind and decided she wanted to be Rapunzel and Pascal from Tangled.  We already had an Aurora dress that we got back when the Disney Store was clearancing (I know, totally a made up word) their costumes, so, I told her we couldn't go buy a new one but I'd make them their costumes.  

There was no pattern at all for the Pascal costume so I just kind of had to piece together the costume on my own, but I like how it turned out!  Most people thought he was a dinosaur...but a few people who knew the movie knew exactly who he was.

We got a wig to go with Logan's costume and she wore it for a long time while Skyping with my parents.  When she took it off Brody wanted a turn.  As soon as he saw himself on camera he couldn't stop giggling.  It was so funny.  I'm sure we'll pull this picture out for the wedding slideshow one day...

We took Logan trick-or-treating last year and it scared her pretty badly.  She saw some nasty people who thought it was funny to scare little girls and so Mike and I decided (after waking up with her for several weeks with nightmares) that we weren't going to do Halloween anymore.  It wasn't edifying and we couldn't see anything in it that resembled or honored Christ in any way.  So, we went to a fall festival at a local church--the kids got to dress up and play games and eat a little candy and we knew we could control what they were taking in with their little eyes.

Here they are ready to go!

Brody was so excited to see all of the different activities at the festival.  He really loved playing the bean bag toss games.

Logan had fun climbing hay mountain and bouncing in the bounce houses!  ...and posing for pictures, of course.

On Halloween, we got dressed up again and went around and got the freebies that some of the restaurants were offering.  We met up with our neighbors for breakfast at Krispy Kreme for free donuts!  (For the record, Halloween was no different than any other day at our house--Logan spends 90% of her time in dress up attire)

Logan did decide to bust out the Aurora costume for the morning:

Then we came home, got changed and headed out for a free chick-fil-a lunch!

We had a meal to deliver that evening, otherwise we would have gone to a few more places for their costume freebies.  It was a fun day out but the kids were WIPED that night.  I'm not sure we would have even made it out trick-or-treating if we had wanted to!

Disney: Final Day!

We let Logan choose where she wanted to end up on our last day at Disney and she chose Magic Kingdom.  there was still so much she wanted to see and do, so we woke up early and headed there!  The kids were so excited when we got there.

The very first thing Logan wanted to do was meet Merida (the princess from Disney's movie, Brave).  Thankfully, we got into the second group of people in to see her, otherwise, our 20 minute wait could have easily been an hour and a half.  That girl was popular!

 Merida is Irish and while we were in line and Logan was listening her converse with other little girls she looked at me, confused, and asked, "why is she speaking Spanish?"  ha!  Anything that sounds odd and not like normal American dialect to her is Spanish.

After Merida, we met up with my old college roommate, Rachael and her husband, Drew.  My parents took Brody to the circus area and we took Logan to Splash Mountain.  She seemed a little nervous, but had so much fun!  She was so excited to conquer the mountain with daddy and mommy and talked about it non stop the whole drive home.  She actually still will sit outside and have Brody sit next to her in a "log" and play splash mountain.  They scream as she narrates all that's happening on the imaginary ride.

After the ride I took Logan back over to the Fantasyland dress rehearsal and we went through the Belle story experience together.  While we did that Brody and daddy hung out together.

We finished off the day by heading back to meet the princesses again.  The one princess Logan had been itching to meet was Aurora.  She's recently become her favorite princess because she wears a pink dress.  Surprise.  Anyway, we hadn't found her, but thankfully, she was at the princess meet and greet on our final day!  Along with Cinderella and Rapunzel.

After we finished with the princesses, we went outside and watched their big afternoon parade.  The kids were pretty beat (as evidenced in the next picture) but it was a big highlight of the trip.  

This was such a memorable trip for all of us!  We had such a fantastic time spending time with family, and together as a family and making memories with the kids. (Rachael get's credit for the next picture, thanks for coming and hanging out with us!)