Month: December 2014

catch the moment: week forty-nine

Gallery posted on by mommyinthemidwest

I should really be addressing my Christmas cards tonight so I’m going to try to make this quick. We had a fairly festive weekend, despite 2 of our 4 planned get-togethers being canceled due to puking kids (theirs, not ours). Then one of the children at the 3rd get-together was throwing up after we left.  By Sunday morning, I felt doomed that we would be throwing up by the end of the day. So far, so good…knock on wood!  It’s that time of year.  As I selected and edited my pictures for this week, I realized that I’ve done an extra crappy job of taking photos of my kids lately. I will have to focus on that – it’s just getting hard to get a decent picture of them because it’s almost dark by the time we get home and the lighting is poor inside by then. Add in the fact that they rarely ever stop moving and well, it sucks.  BOO winter!

Linking up with Mindi, Sarah, and Stephanie again this week for Catch the Moment 365.

337/365 – Wednesday, December 3rd: We always check the mail first thing when we get home.  Theo LOVES to do this and he and Dexter literally race to the mailbox each day. 12-03-14

338/365 – Thursday, December 4th: We got all of our decorations up early this year, thanks to being home over Thanksgiving weekend. Love pulling up to this sight at the end of a work day! Our home looks so cheery and festive this time of year.12-04-14

339/365 – Friday, December 5th. When our play date got canceled, Ryan suggested we go to the YMCA for a free gingerbread building activity. As you can see, it was very busy but also very fun. This was the first time I had ever built one, too! 12-05-14

340/365 – Saturday, December 6th.  Our friends’ sweet 2 month old baby girl at their annual Festivus party. Good grief, she smelled amazing and is the best little cuddler!12-06-14

341/365 – Sunday, December 7th: We celebrated our favorite little 6 year old’s birthday at a gymnastics party. She was over the moon excited and so adorable when we all sang happy birthday to her. She’s officially a big girl with a bunch of friends from school at her party.  And PS, she designed her own cake!  So super cute.12-07-14

342/365 – Monday, December 8th: Playing with bokeh in my poorly lit living room. Ugh. 12-08-14

343/365 – Tuesday, December 9th. After failing to get any decent pics of my kids, I decided to take a picture of Theo’s choice for his ornament this year. I mean, he likes pizza and all but…okay. The randomness on our tree multiplies each year. I’ll have a pretty, themed tree one day. Maybe.  12-09-14

So that’s it for this week – maybe not the best pics ever, but they captured what we’ve been up to and that’s all that matters. I love the sweet little girls and I also love day 338 – our exterior lights at home.  Which picture is your favorite this week?

~C~

 

catch the moment: week forty-eight

Posted on by mommyinthemidwest

A few more words about our Thanksgiving weekend can be found in the previous post, but it’s also the main theme as it blends into the Christmas season in this week’s Catch the Moment 365 post.  I’m linking up with Mindi, Sarah, and Stephanie once again this week.  We had a very relaxed and enjoyable long holiday weekend.  Looking forward to a couple more long holiday weekends at the end of this month!

330/365 – Wednesday, November 26th.  A good friend of mine asked me to take a few pictures of her sons and a few weeks earlier, we planned this date after work.  I was super nervous and expecting the worst.  Unfortunately, it was 30 degrees and we were all freezing. I was able to get a few cute pictures like the one below, but our session was definitely cut short by all of us being a little cold, crabby, and uncooperative.  Luckily we were able to get together again later in the weekend and I got a few more we liked.  11-26-14

331/365 – Thursday, November 27th: Thanksgiving Day. I spent most of the day cooking and cleaning before Ryan’s parents arrived with these lovely flowers. I didn’t take many pictures at all (but you can see a couple more in the previous post if you are interested). 11-27-14

332/365 – (Black) Friday, November 28th: We aren’t big Black Friday shoppers, but we did go to the mall around 2pm to let the boys pick out their ornaments to put on the tree that we were getting prepared to decorate. Dexter chose a very random fish ornament and Theo selected a pizza ornament….okay, whatever you say guys!  I snapped the picture below when we sat down for a snack break. I offered this kid ice cream and he requests yogurt.  11-28-14

333/365 – Saturday, November 29th: I was enjoying a clean house with a sparkling tree, nostalgic hand-painted decorations, and the scent of a candle burning in the afternoon.11-29-14

334/365 – Sunday, November 30th: We broke out the Lego Santa’s Workshop set we’d been saving until after the house was decorated for Christmas.  Needless to say, the boys were thrilled. This set was a lot of fun to build and we want to get more pieces to add to the village!11-30-14

335/365 – Monday, December 1st: On the way home from work. 12-01-14

336/365 – Tuesday, December 2nd: Prepared with a cup of water, a bowl of popcorn, and sleeping bags on the floor – we camped out past their bedtime on a school night to watch the Toy Story that Time Forgot Christmas special.  The boys loved it! I mostly played Tsum Tsum. 12-02-14

So that was our long Thanksgiving weekend in a nutshell. It was pretty great overall!  I am loving the clean house and decorations everywhere. My favorite picture this week has to be little Mr. P on day 330 – what a sweet little mischievous face! Which one do you like best?

xo,

~C~

 

thankful: 2014

Gallery posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Here we are – it’s already December 1st and what’s new? Not much, just another 11 months that have flown right by. Our tree is up, the temps are down, and winter is upon us.  This Thanksgiving season came and went in a blur, spanning the second half of November.

A couple weekends ago we went to Tennessee to visit my family.  We decided to go early since my sister and her family would be on vacation the entire week of Thanksgiving. While I would have loved to hop in a suitcase and make another trip to sunny Florida, I figured I should probably stay home instead.

My sister’s best friend and her family recently opened their own Froyoz shop so you better believe that was number 2 on our list of places to visit – right after we ate dinner.

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Saturday (11/15/14) was “Thanksgiving.” It really felt like it all day long.  Lots of yummy food, football, games, and hanging out. I didn’t get the memo about wearing stripes though.IMG_5869 IMG_5885

My mom’s amazingly perfect peanut butter pie. Oh, that meringue. IMG_5897

Of course my kids would be the ones with their mouths full of food in every picture…IMG_5904

Sunday we had to go home after lunch – you’d think we took the boys to the aquarium. They loved the lobster tank at Red Lobster.IMG_5907 IMG_5910 Flash forward 10 or 11 days to the Thanksgiving Day everyone celebrated. My sister-in-law and her husband had to work Friday so we didn’t get together with them. My father-in-law was still recuperating from his knee replacement surgery the week before so we didn’t get together for several days like we normally would.  My in-laws came to our house and I prepared our meal…which was pretty pleasing to my taste buds!  We had crock pot turkey, yeast rolls, broccoli and cauliflower au gratin, hash brown casserole, green bean bundles, peanut butter fudge, toffee chocolate bars, and….IMG_6220 IMG_6221 IMG_6223 IMG_6224

…a nap.IMG_6229 IMG_6234As you can see, I didn’t go out of my way to take loads of pictures.  We actually spent most of Thanksgiving weekend holed up at home, putting up decorations and cleaning. I was sick with a cold so didn’t feel like doing a ton anyway, so it was nice to just have a 4 day weekend to spend at home instead of traveling here and there. It felt great going back to work with all of our laundry and dishes done and house aglow with twinkling lights.  The boys are excited about taking turns with our 2 advent calendars – a traditional felt one and a Lego one they got from their cousin, Spencer.  Just enjoying this time of year and trying to get my shopping done so I can enjoy the days before Christmas this year instead of getting into a complete funk like I did last year.

If you’re still reading all this rambling, thanks, and I hope you had a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend too!

xo,

~C~