Tis' the Season

We enjoyed a great festive day today. We woke up to our first snow of the year (which is apparently very late for IL) and enjoyed a lazy day around the house. Highlights for Alec included shoveling the driveway (which took poor Matt almost 2 hours) and building his first Gingerbread House. Papa Randy and Retta sent our xmas presents this week and several of them we were allowed to open early, the Gingerbread making kit included. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out, and Alec is pretty impressed with how good it smells. Thanks Retta and P.R.

Enjoying our first snow

One of Alec's favorite new games is to pretend he is a dog like Brody - this is him pretending to "run crazy" in the snow like a dog.

So happy that his snowpants from last year still fit

And of course Papa Randy and Retta didn't forget Brody. Here he is with his mammoth sized dog bone that was delivered this week. It's almost as long as he is! We just let him sniff it to get some pics, b/c we are afraid of what might happen if we set him free with it in the house. He will have to wait for some warmer weather to enjoy it in the yard. Of course, I have been trying desperatly to get a cute pic of Alec in front of the tree and I am finally successful with the shot that includes the mammoth bone!

Attempting to take off with the bone, he failed!

Work and Soccer

Alec has been particularly hilarious lately. He is completely into imaginative play and is constantly making up hilarious stories or scenarios or scenes and telling us all about them. One of his latest things to do is pretend that he needs to go to work like dad. This started by him telling us on Sunday that he needed to make his lunch, which Matt does every night. So, for the last week he has riffled through the kitchen and packed a lunch for himself. Then he wants to have meetings with me during the day (which consist of him eating his lunch.) Last night ayt dinner he asked Matt about what movies he watched at work, and when Matt said he didn't really watch movies at work, Alec told him that was too bad b/c he could watch movies at his job. He also told him that he had had a meeting with JP, who is Matt's boss. Then while running errands with me today he saw an office building and told me that was his office, which was called Sevenary, and that he worked on the 8th floor, and that at his job they designed monorails, but that they didn't actually have any monorail tracks there, they only had regular train tracks. It's hilarious!! Last night Matt gave him his own "work" lunch box (which was just one we had in the pantry) but it has been great b/c he no longer wants to carry around his giant plastic toy bin full of his lunch to his meetings, which often take place in my car. Anyway - here are a few pics of one of his self packed lunches.

On another note, Alec started soccer yesterday. We had gone to one trial class, and he loved it, so he was thrilled to actually start yesterday. It's a really cute soccer program and Alec did great. It is supposed to be a class for kids only, with no parent involvement, but several kids had a terrible time with that and spent most of the class running to their parents or crying. Alec was the complete opposite - he marched right over to his coach and had a blast. He listened really well and definitely got in a workout. He actually tried very hard to be the fastest at all of the sprints (which he was) but he was a little confused when he asked the teacher who was the fastest and she said "everyone." Anyway, we are super excited to see how he does for the next 3 months. Here he is modeling his uniform.

With his new soccer ball, a treat from mom and dad.

Looking so grown-up

During practice

Telling other kids what they are supposed to be doing (yes, he has a bit of his mother's bossiness in him.)

Mid-hop

....and I have to throw this in b/c he cracks me up,

While riding to soccer yesterday and having an apple in the backseat, he said "mom, this apple goes straight to my butt." (Apparently I need to watch what I say about my weight gain to Matt.)

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving from Wheaton!!! We had a wonderful turkey day this year. My mom and Ross flew in last weekend and were here all week to help us celebrate. We did lots of shopping, eating, and lounging around and all had a very nice time. It was actually a really nice treat to be in our own home on Thanksgiving, and Matt and I both agree that it was one of the nicest we have had together. The feast was fabulous, and we just really enjoyed relaxing and spending time together as a family. Alec, of course, loved having his grandparents in town and was completely spoiled with attention all week long. Matt and I were able to go into the city last weekend to a nice french restaurant (right next to Harpo studios, which was cool) and a party at one of his colleagues new places in the city while Alec made Thanksgiving crafts with Grammy, which was a treat for all of us. All in all, a wonderful week. The house seems strangely quiet today, but we plan to put up the tree tomorrow so hopefully we can keep up the festive spirit. Thanks so much for coming Grammy and Papa Ross.

Grammy brought the parts to make this hilarious pumpkin turkey - Alec had picked out the pumpkin ahead of time and had it waiting. They also made the two small pine cone turkeys, which Alec has named James and Chicken Furry.

Helping cook, Alec loves to turn on the mixer.

Whipped Cream samples

A family shot, and probably one of the first belly pics I have taken. I am 24 weeks and feeling great. This pregnancy has certainly been an emotional one and we have had a number of scares, but everything is now going well. The baby moves constantly and I am feeling terrific (although I think I could win a medal for my ability to gain weight during pregnancy, but what the heck, right??) My docs gave me the okay to fly to CO for XMas at my appointment last week, so we are all excited about that and Alec talks about HIS baby constantly. If you ask him if it will be a boy or girl he almost always says a boy, but whenever he refers to the baby it's as a girl....she, her, etc. So - who knows. I was very certain Alec was a boy, but I am on the fence with this one. I am carrying the exact same as I was with Alec, and if I went with my guy I would say a boy, but I certainly have my doubts. Regardless, we are SO excited! Because I need to have another c-section, we know that the delivery date is March 8th, unless this little one decides to come earlier.

Lessons in turkey carving

Our little turkey

And another belly shot, pardon the pants, but you can only wear jeans on Thanksgiving for so long....

Fire

Matt was very excited yesterday to build his first fire in the house with Alec. Alec was of course in heaven, mainly b/c he worships Matt and everything he does, but also b/c he thought it was pretty cool to build a fire too. It's nice to live in a place with a real fireplace and no burning restrictions. Hopefully we will enjoy them throughout the winter.







all three boys proudly admiring their work

Trick-or-Trash

Alec thoroughly enjoyed Halloween this year, and is still loving every minute of having candy in the house...at least I can use it as motivation to make him eat all of his meals! Gene and Susan came out to see us over the weekend, so Alec was extra excited because it was Halloween and he got to spend it with his Grandparents. We didn't do too much; carved pumpkins, watched football (tear), went trick-or-treating, and checked out the local Wheaton sites. All in all, a very successful weekend, and it was a blast to see how cute and excited Alec was about wearing his costume and trick-or-treating. He made it for probably 45 minutes, and was very polite when saying "trick-or-trash," and "thank you," and everyone got a real kick out of his costume. They actually had trick-or-treating here in the afternoon, which was something Matt and I were not used to at all, we both remember having to wait until it got dark to go out as kids, but I guess with it being on school night, the town does it earlier. So, we headed out about 4, and surprisingly really liked it. It was much easier for the little ones to get around in the daylight and the majority of people handing out candy just sat on their porches and driveways. It definitely felt like a whole town event, which was cool, and the street a block away from us is apparently trick-or-treating central, so there were literally hundreds of kids out and about. I can't help but agree with all my fellow mom friends and say how much more fun the holidays are with kids!

Working hard - Alec of course wanted the biggest pumpkin to be his

With Papa Gene and Grandma Susan

Posing with the family of pumpkins

Halloween morning

Hitting up the neighborhood

We let Alec wear some real trash stickers on his can, and he couldn't have been happier about it. He constantly wants to get out and play with the trash stickers (which we have to use every week when we put out the trash) and we never let him, so it was an extra special treat.

Just like a pro

Leading the pack

Showing off some of his goods

He even found a little time for leaf jumping

Starting to peter out

and taking the easy way home....trick-or-treating is hard work after all.