Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their family and friends, I know we did! Instead of traveling down to California to visit my in-laws, like we usually do, this Thanksgiving we stayed home and it was just the three of us. As much as I love visiting our families, especially around the holidays, there is definitely something to be said about being at home. No stresses about traveling or packing or cooking for mass amounts of people, and no trying to please everyone. We spent Thanksgiving exactly how we wanted to and it was fabulous.

After a quick breakfast of orange glazed cinnamon rolls and coffee we put on our winter coats (It was cold for Phoenix! Only 49 degrees!) and walked down to our park. We spent about an hour kicking the soccer ball around, going down slides, climbing on the jungle gym and through the tunnels  and rolling down the grassy hill before we were all worn out.

After we got down we all lay down for a nice mid-morning nap and then we put out some munchie foods, opened some beer and put on the the football game. In true Thanksgiving dinner fashion we pretty much spent most of the days munching and lazing around with beer and football.

and we went all out for dinner, even though it was just the three of us. We chopped and baked and stirred and boiled and had a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. There was ham (I'm not a huge fan of Turkey), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls cranberry sauce and wine. L loved trying all the new food and we ate way to much and still ended up with a ton of leftovers.

I love that L is a little older this year and seemed to have a better understanding as to what was going on around him. Or, at least, he was more excited about what was going on around him. And now that Thanksgiving is over I am in full Christmas mode. I love, love, love Christmas, and that love has only grown now that I have my monkey to share it with. L and i braved the crowds out for Black Friday at our local Target and Kohl's, picking up Christmas Presents, decorations, wrapping paper and eggnog, and then we spent the afternoon listening to Christmas carols, watching Elf (favorite Christmas movie ever!) and decorating our house. The Christmas village is up, the stairs are wrapped in garland, the stocking are hung, and even the creep angel from my childhood glows from the corner of the room.

I hope everyone had as great a Thanksgiving as we did, and let the Christmas festivities begin!

Plaid Pajamas

Life has been busy lately (really, what else is new?), hence the lack of updates lately. And this is not going to be much of an update. With Thanksgiving just around the corner my focus right now is on the upcoming holidays. I am planning on cooking (gasp!) and am more than a little nervous about this. And as soon as soon as thanksgiving is over it's CHRISTMAS! Yes, I love love love Christmas time and am planning on going into full Christmas Music, Christmas Movies, Christmas Stories, and Christmas decoration mode as soon as Thanksgiving Day in done. I can't wait.

But, in the meantime, here is a little something to tide you over:

Seriously, is there anything cuter then a baby boy in his big boy plaid pajamas?

I think not.

Wedding Weekend

It has been a long week of catch up (even though it's only Wednesday) and after all the craziness I am finally getting around to writing again. After the excitement of Halloween and costumes and candy, we had a few days of rest before we boarded an airplane bound for Minnesota. My beautiful cousin Kellie was getting married an we were so honored to be there for the festivities. I have been looking forward to this wedding forever. It is not often the my crazy, kooky, wild and fun clan gets together. Really, the extended family of cousins and aunts and uncles only see each other for weddings or funerals, so we are all very grateful when it is a wedding that bring us together.

We were slightly nervous about how L would do on the plane ride. He has flown several times before, but when he was much younger and able to nurse and then sleep on takeoff and landing. He did wonderful on the flight there, but the return flight was a different story. He has been fighting a cold already, and between the plane ride, the change of weather and the complete abandonment's of schedule it grew progressively worse and seemed to spout horns and a tail on the return flight home. We became, in a few short house, that couple. The couple that, when you were younger and long before you ever had kids, you wonder why they would ever bring their child on an airplane. He screamed.... and screamed.... and screamed... for three hours. It was awful, and I went into full mama bear mode, staring daggers at anyone who dared give an irritated glance in our direction. But we survived, and the important part is the fun we had this weekend.

Have I mention I love my family? The are so fun and diverse and absolutely wonderful to be around, and I love seeing them. L got to be surrounded by his many cousins (and second cousins) and S was the most wonderful husband ever, watching the baby while I bonded and gossiped and laughed and talked with family it had been far to long since I have seen.

And really, I have no words to commemorate the weekend by. I think pictures would tell the story much better. But, needless to say, we laughed and we talked and we drank and we ate and we remembered and reminisced about how absolutely important family it. These people make me who I am and I am so happy my husband is getting to spend time with them at such a young age.

Congrats Kellie, you looked beautiful and we all had so much fun!