Grateful

Oh, what a lovely week of family, friends, minimal routine, and lots of good food.  We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with your families, as well.  Just to keep things real, on Thanksgiving morning, the kids' moods had hit a low when we were out for a walk.  Noah was screaming and hitting Evie, and Matt had to carry him home slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Luckily, we all recovered and had a great feast at my parents' house!

Noah enjoyed lounging with Grandma after dinner

Even the wishbone knew we couldn't handle another argument between the kids, because this is the most diplomatic break I've ever seen!

Roscoe wanted to be sure he didn't miss out on the holiday, so he helped himself to a bag of Grandma Betti's homemade dinner rolls when we were out one evening.  ARGGGGHH!  Couldn't he have eaten a store-bought item?!

Wanting to keep the cooking going, Evie mixed up the first batch of Chex Mix of the season.  Yum!

Since we didn't have to travel for Thanksgiving and school was out for the week, we needed a little change of scenery by the end of the week, and a trip to ECHO fit the bill.  There is a really fun exhibit right now, and of course, Noah found the drums!

Noah must have been going through a developmental leap lately, because he has been showing more interest in potty training (yay!), and then he realized he can climb out of his crib (oh no!).  Luckily, he is so big that he can climb out of his crib pretty safely, but the only hitch is that he will no longer stay in there for time-outs!  He got to celebrate his potty success with a trip to the drum store and the cupcake store.

Another very special moment was that we got to meet my friend Mary-Alice's new baby girl, Emily.  Both kids had a chance to hold her, and I got to enjoy lots of cozy baby snuggles.  It's almost hard to remember my kids ever being that small.  Evie would have held her all night, and Noah had the cutest comments, like "Her hair is so soft!" and that she felt warm and snuggly on his lap.  I didn't think he was capable of such calmness, but he did it!

Lego credits to Matt

This one is MY baby...he's a little bigger than Emily!

And last, but certainly not least, we had our holiday photos done with Tara from BirdieLou.  There's always outfit stress, angst about the kids' behavior, and then we get these gems in return.  My heart is full of gratitude for these little ones!