Friday, January 11, 2013

Thanksgiving and Beyond

11-22-12
Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving morning, we went out to cut down the Christmas tree. It was a beautiful day for it!




 
We skipped out on turkey this year and opted for a Thanksgiving grill-out. We grilled burgers and had the usual picnic-y fare to go with it. (I made a turkey 10ish days before Thanksgiving, so we needed a little turkey break!)

11-23-12
We decorated our Christmas tree on Friday after Matt got home from work. As you can see, Daddy had little helping hands eager for some work to do!
See Charlie holding onto the water pitcher?

Watching very, very closely at Daddy's technique.

Now that Daddy's done watering the tree, Charlie takes it upon himself to inspect the water pitcher.

The tree is upright and standing tall! Do you see what Charlie is doing with the water pitcher at the bottom of the picture? Typical toddlers - seeing, exploring, playing with whatever they can get their hands on!

Hahaha! It's a tiny cup of hot chocolate ornament!



I have no idea how this happened! I found it while looking through the pictures and don't remember how they got so coordinated with their arms!

That night, Matt got Alanna's hair to stand up in a perfect point. I have never even tried this before, but apparently when Daddy does bath, it makes it on the agenda. More than one way to cook a goose, people!

DINOSAUR JAMMIES!!!
 11-24-12
Parade of Lights - Pueblo, CO
Starting temperature: 65 degrees. Ending temperature: 55 degrees. It was soooo nice out! Especially compared to last year where Alanna was teeny tiny and under several layers tucked into the stroller.


11-25-12
After church on Sunday, we spent from 10-12:30ish outside playing in the beautiful, beautiful weather. Soccer, picking up leaves, going for a walk, etc... So fun! This was the first time that we went for a walk with both kids in the wagon instead of the stroller. Alanna loved it!

I finally got serious about cleaning out the bottom of the armoir to use as toy storage instead of games. Yes, those are footprints on the back wall from one of our many moves, no doubt.

Countdown to Christmas jar! Matt helped me fold 28 cards into little boxes that I filled with slips of paper, each with a new activity/game/gift/thing for the day. We had a great time pulling out the day's number and doing whatever activity was listed in the box! It's definitely something we'll do in future years.
 11-27-12
Today's thing was to have hot chocolate and marshmallows!

11-28-12
This day's activity was to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and have popcorn.

11-30-12
Making gingerbread houses (out of a clearanced spooky village Halloween kit I got 70% off!). Put a few candies on the house, put a few candies in the mouth. Repeat, repeat, repeat. We had a blast!





This is the last time Charlie was in sleeper-style jammies. It had to be documented!


November Odds and Ends

November 3, 2012
Playing outside on a beautiful day!


The yellow thing is actually a sun shade for an inflatable bee that popped last summer. The kids had fun being pulled around by Daddy for a while!

 November 5, 2012
Making popcorn for a snack.
 November 6, 2012
Potty Training!
I decided to put underwear on Charlie for the first time shortly after Alanna's birthday. She actually wasn't feeling well, and I had cancelled a playdate, so I knew we would be home all day long - perfect for potty training. I put underwear on Charlie at 8am and by noon, he had three #1 accidents and one #2 accident. I wanted to throw in the towel, except I couldn't find a clean one. :) Charlie wore a diaper for nap time but when he woke up, it was right back at it. I put underwear on him and helped him sit on the frog potty every 60-75 minutes. From after nap until bedtime, he successfully went potty 6 (or more maybe?) times! Anyway, I think I posted more about his potty training experience on another blog post. Here's Charlie modeling his new underwear!

SOOOOOOO CUTE!!!

"Go pee-pee frog potty!"
 November 10, 2012
Showing off her sweet little ponytail. She picks up all AM and some FM stations with that thing. :)

And this is why she needs the ponytail in the above picture! Alanna's hair is getting long!
 November 11, 2012
Baby workout!
 November 13, 2012
Playing toys in the toy tub.
 November 15, 2012
Actually, we purchased this van on October 25 but didn't take a picture of it until the 15th of November. We bought it in Colorado Springs. It's a 2011 Kia Sedona with 37k miles, cloth interior, third-row split bench seats that fold flat, and a whole bunch of other features along with sliding door windows that roll down. We LOVE it. So nice for us. Charlie keeps calling it the new van - even now a few months later. :)

November 17, 2012
Family trip to the zoo to take advantage of our season pass. Alanna has a close eye on the giraffe!


Potty training? No problem!
 November 20, 2012
Alanna can stand up in the middle of the room! I'm sure her quads were on fire by the end of the day due to all the practice standing up. :)

November 21, 2012
Charlie has been into looking at all the Shutterfly books I've made! This particular one is a book all about his 2nd birthday. Glad that he's enjoying the books! I have had to reign in my desire for the books to be kept in pristine condition; Charlie is actually very careful with them, and if I have to re-order a book because it was looked at too much, then so be it! 

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Alanna's First Birthday

November 2, 2012
Happy 1st Birthday, Alanna Faye! We spent the day at home doing normal things with the exception of birthday cupcakes and opening gifts. It took a handful of days after her birthday for it to finally sink in that our baby girl is now 1! I made foods that she likes for meals that day and we had another round of red/pink cupcakes. We played outside for a short bit (after I woke her from a 3+ hour nap!) and just enjoyed the day together celebrating this beautiful girl.
Good morning, birthday girl!
 
Playing with Daddy

Making laps around the house. She wasn't walking on her own at this point (but started just after Thanksgiving).




Charlie did really well with letting Alanna open her own presents.

Checking out a new book!

After Alanna played with this stacking toy for a little bit, Charlie got in there and showed off his skills. :)


I made Alanna her very own ABC book using a free code from Shutterfly. It has some fun pictures of her (all of us, really) for each letter of the alphabet. Yep, that's usually how ABC books work. :)

Weebles tree house play set



Get it, girl!


Yay for a fun birthday!


Birthdays are exhausting.