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.