Christmas - part one of two :)

after our Christmas Eve service - he was so excited for Santa to come!!

Christmas morning - Bill was the first one up... :)

a little unsure at first about why we were so excited... but he caught on!

Connor's second Christmas was a great one - fire truck, train tracks, clothes, a few books,
a giant floor  puzzle, and a school bus!

Bill gave me a wonderful gift - a song book and all the cd's I don't already own of my favorite singer - Sara Groves.  One of the cd's is autographed!! :) :)  I also got lots of other things... but I won't bore you with the details.

I gave Bill a hiking trip with Tumpline Ministries to Montana.  He'll be going this coming summer.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to our family and friends!

Hope your day is a good one and we'll see you soon!

toddler Pittsburgh-eze. :)

"Hause"

:)

I also forgot to ask him to say sandwich - which Connor calls a "sam-ich". :)

Trains and Trees

Connor likes to play "T Bo" at our house - no, not football playing... ;) ;)

Train. Board.

Like at Grandma and Pop-pop's.  It's very exciting.

We put a blanket over our piano bench, and it's a Connor sized train board!

Our Christmas tree was a two day event - going and getting the tree, and then decorating it.

Connor seems to like it, but he's been doing a good job not touching it! (So far...)

The night we got the tree

Decorating - he loved it!

getting ready for our Christmas card picture!

bubbles!

Connor figured out how to blow bubbles in the tub last night.

The reason I'm holding the blue bowl is because I was showing him how myself, and then he wanted to keep trying in the bowl too.

He eventually laid down on his belly and started blowing bubbles in the tub too - he thought it was so fun!

Back on Track :)

"doing science" with the nieces and nephews on Thanksgiving

John Gallo - I am so very sorry that I didn't capture your entire face for that picture... 

would have been a keeper for sure.. ;)

Night Night Thomas

Cousin time at Monna and Pap's house

A future candy maker in the making!

Figured out how to bypass the "you are out of storage space" issue from last week.

We're back on track and now you have seen what we did during Thanksgiving.

Look for some new pictures up soon!

:(

out of storage space.

not sure what to do.

we'll see...

Jump!

YAY!  We've moved from galloping to full out jumping! :)

Indian... I mean, Native American.

At Connor's school, they are celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday with a special lunch.  

The 2 year old class made pilgrim hats.

The 1 1/2 year old class made Indian headbands.  Except Connor.

Connor's teacher said that she tried to get him "fitted" for his headband and he wanted nothing to do with it.  He liked the feathers, but he wouldn't let her come near him with the paper strip to put around his head.

So... true to form, I thought I could make him do it. (go ahead... laugh away)

Today we sat after dinner and colored some paper and then I cut out feathers... and a paper strip for a headband.

We went into the bathroom to try it out.  He started screaming like I was going to cut his head off with the strip of paper.

He hated it.  Did not want to wear it.  Even after I showed him how cool I looked wearing one.

Then... I thought of this!

Feathers on his hat!  Now, I realize the irony behind it - it is camo after all - but we're going with it.  He likes it.  And he'll 'blend in' with a headfull of feathers.

oh. my. goodness.  what a crazy boy!

Flashback

Last year at this time - celebrating Pap's birthday and going to a craft fair.

:)  Such a cutie right? 

Clean!

Hard-working Bill with the carpet cleaner round one - the downstairs

It worked great!  The carpets are so much cleaner!

So Tuesday afternoon went a little something like this:

1:15 - Connor goes to bed, Bill goes and rents the carpet cleaner, and we get the downstairs ready to be cleaned.

2:00- Bill cleans the downstairs living room and the steps

2:45- we move the upstairs living room furniture over to one side of the room, Bill goes and buys more carpet cleaning solution

3:30- I start making dinner, Bill waits because Connor is still sleeping, and that machine is so. loud.

4:30- Connor finally decides to wake up! ;) Bill and Connor eat and then play...I leave for music class...

6:15- I come home, Bill starts cleaning in the upstairs living room, and I have dinner, then ...

What to do with an almost two year old with no play space in the house available...??

play-dough!

From 6:15-7:15 we played with play-dough at the table.

no too bad for a non-artist huh?  ;)  (it's supposed to be a dog...)

Connor loves the animals I make - he isn't too gentle though...

oops... pulled his ear off...

very carefully putting the ear back on... :)

After playdough we did bathtime and bed for Connor boy and then Bill cleaned the landing and the other set of steps.  Thankfully Connor is a heavy sleeper in the evenings, so the noise wasn't a problem then!

I think the carpets look fantastic and Bill does too.  The house is still a little out of order (toys in the dinning room) but that will be fixed this afternoon.

Glad to have a day off to get a huge chore off the to-do list!

Be Prepared

So... Hurricane Sandy was supposed to be horrible.

And it was.  To most of NJ and lots of other coastal regions...

We prepared - candles, flashlights, we even had jugs of water ready!

We had some water leak into our basement by Sunday afternoon ~ but Bill went out and put the tarp in the flowerbed, and the water stopped dripping and the wall/floor dried up by Sunday night!

We were a little stir crazy inside on Monday, and Tuesday we ventured to the library.

It was actually a nice little "fall break" of sorts because everything we are normally doing on those days was cancelled!  And... everything else was closed, so we couldn't go anywhere.  Since the threat of losing power and flooding wasn't a worry by Monday, we just relaxed and sat around doing nothing.  It. Was. Great!

So, we're safe and sound, but are praying for family and friends we know on the coast that are dealing with house damage and other events from the storm.

Visitors!

What a Weekend!

It started with visitors, and ended with a hurricane... (sound familiar?)

Over on my sister's blog she shared some pictures of playing in the leaves on Friday afternoon, but I don't have any of those...

So we'll start with Saturday morning - We went to the Quality Evergreens place down the road to pick some pumpkins and ride the hayride.

oh yeah... and there was a train!!!

Connor loved the goats at the petting zoo area

newlyweds!

playing in the corn crib - it was slippery and Connor kept falling down!

Uncle Tom with Connor on the tractor

hayriding

family photo... minus Bill... who was at work in the morning

going to get some pumpkins ~ who's excited?? ;)

"Cheese"

Saturday evening we went to Cadorus to trick-or-treat in the campground.

The website for the event was a plethora of information, including this fact:  "Campers can expect around 1,000 trick-or-treaters each night".... that's right.  1,000.

We timed everything exactly right - we pulled into the parking area with no line, trick-or-treated right away while we had some day light left... then rode the hayride with a minumal wait.  It was great!

all dressed up!

Look Aunt Laura!  candy!

We loved trick-or-treat!

Uncle Tom, Aunt Chelle, Chloe, and Uncle Kevin counting the candy!

Another post soon to share the "storm" photos... :)

Leaves

Our front yard tree has a LOT of leaves.

We've been raking for quite a few days now... 

Connor really likes the leaves, but he doesn't really help keep them in a pile!

Trick or Treat

Someone at our house loves his train costume...

and did a great job trick-or-treating tonight!

We can't wait to go again on Saturday!!!

why yes, that is a clothespin holding his costume together... it was just a little too long in the front, but I pinned the sides together with the clothespins and that solved the problem!