Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! On Thursday we went to my Dad and Danielle's. Uncle Randy played race cars and puzzles (flown in from France from Mimi - Danielle's sister).

Danielle always sets a beautiful table and serves us a delicious meal!

Traditionally Mimi makes all the deserts! Each year they set a gorgeous dessert buffet. I brought Danielle flowers from my garden and they happen to match the desserts! Mimi always decorates the desserts with real flowers from Danielle's garden.




On Friday we drove down to the Woods - unfortunately I have no pictures :(. Sandy made a delicious meal and we watched a movie and played games!


On Saturday the Brachs drove all the way up from Morgan Hill (2 hours away - where Ryan's family lives) just to see us and spend time! We sooooo appreciated it because we got to meet 4 month old Anya for the first time! She is precious! We have not seen the Brachs in almost a year -it was a big deal to spend time with each other - even if it was short. We were so grateful they drove all that way!


This year - NO big drive up to the mountains to Forrest Hill to cut down trees at Snowy Peaks Christmas Farm with the Holmes!!! No sir-ee. This miniature Santa would have had a heck of a time huffing and puffing up those trails! Nope - this year we hit MIKEY'S of Natomas park on the street corner! Looking forward to carrying on the tradition with the Holmes next year though!



Is that Santa???? Oh no it's me!!!

New favorite activity

Syrup

I don't know if this was a low parenting moment, a completely absent minded moment, or just the pure sneakiness of a two year old.

I put Jack in his high chair with his lunch - and only his lunch (that is all I can recall). I went into the office to skype with Carrie (leaving him - hence the low parenting moment) and chatted with her for a short while. I went out to the family room to check on Jack and this is what
I thought . . . "Oh he must have went his pants . . ."


Then I saw this - Soda???? I don't even have soda in the house??? Did he vomit?????
(notice the feet)


And then I saw this on the floor . . . . . . WHAT?????? How did he get the BRAND NEW, OPENED THAT MORNING, bottle of SSSYYYRRRUUPPPP???? (now completely empty!)

Now he is scooping the syrup in his spoon and eating it - great.

Off to the shower - where his syrup covered body rubbed all up against the white fabric shower curtain.

It took three times to clean the floor - the syrup had dripped everywhere from trying to bring the high chair top to the sink, the rags from cleaning, etc! I felt so defeated after trying to clean it two times and nothing! Mind you, when you take a mop to the syrup on the floor, it spreads more and more and more - so much so it ended up covering the entire eating area and walk way into the kitchen! Did I mention I am 9 months pregnant and humongous and just spent the entire weekend scouring the house in preparation for the baby? P came home and bought special cleaner and took care of it for me! My husband came to the rescue! Of course this morning . . . I noticed it all over the walls!

My fault - completely my fault. But I STILL have NO idea how he got that syrup.

After I took this last picture - we drove to the hair cutting place a few hours later!!!!!!!

His way overdue, shorter, non-syrup hair cut :)

Cecchins

On Saturday we drove out to Oakland & spent the night. We were supposed to be celebrating Patrick's birthday present (which was purchased back in July) at the Elton John/Billy Joel concert. Unfortunately it was canceled due to Elton John being sick. The Cecchin's had offered to watch Jack. We still wanted to spend time with them and their SWEET boy Marco. Jeff and Sarah cooked for us as though we were actually in Italy! 5 DIFFERENT homemade (including dough) pizzas on the bbq for lunch, homemade rissoto, arugula salad and homemade rustic italian bread for dinner, AND homemade sourdough waffles in the morning!!!! IT WAS AMAZING!! We are so grateful! They also played Elton John and Billy Joel in the background for dinner ;). Thank you Cecchins for a weekend filled with tons of laughter and great food in Italy (in Oakland)!!!

Marco and Jack played SO well together - it was really fun to watch them interact!

Last week

Last week Joanna came over for a little while - we let Callie and Jack play in his room while we caught up in the family room. After about 10 minutes we thought we'd check on them - and this is what we found ...

A visit from Harmony!

Last weekend Harmony came up to visit us! We had so much doing nothing at all other than eating and staying quiet around the house! Jack love playing and snuggling with his Harmony! Thank you for visiting us Harm!!! We always LOVE it!!!

Dad's Toddler Tatoo Shop

Patrick had fun with his son and a marker!!!

I knew something was up when I heard nothing but silence in the family room!

Fire Captain Jack!

Jack had an entire entourage with him - being the only grandchild and all! The weather was perfect, the decorations were fun (however we were all so surprised with how little people did decorate this year and how few people actually had their lights on opening doors - economy we suppose), and Jack hit the nail on the head with the first house down to the last with "Trick-or Treat and Thank You!" Thanks to Carrie and Charlie for giving us the idea of practicing over the last few weeks! Grandma Sandy & Auntie Carolyn have better pictures - when I get those I will post a few more. Jack carried the same bag from last year - the one my Grandma Emma hand made me when I was a toddler.