Weekend Visit to Trenton & Thanksgiving

This past weekend Anthony took Saturday off of work and we headed to my mom's for the weekend. The last time we made the drive to visit them was for Easter, so it was definitely our turn! Anthony and I were excited to have a little mini vacation and a break from the routine. The drive really wasn't that bad. The last time we visited James was so much younger and had a much harder time with being in his car seat so I think that made us feel like it was a much longer trip than it actually was.

Saturday afternoon we met a family friend for lunch at a local restaurant and James was a little cranky. He has become unbearable in restaurants, mostly because I think he hates having to sit still. We realized while we were eating that it was probably the first time in at least 3 or 4 months that we had gone to a restaurant with him just for that reason. He decided that he didn't want to sit in his highchair, he wanted to stand in it so he can see over everything and everyone. I ate my food with one hand on him in case he lost his balance, but at least I got to eat my food and he wasn't screaming so I count that as a win!

Since the restaurant was so close to my mom's house we walked there and back with James in the stroller. Once we got home we put James down for a nap and once Anthony and I got comfy on the couch we were out! My brother took a picture of us:

It was the best nap ever!! Seriously. I am going to have daydreams about that nap. It was so relaxing, I didn't have anything else that I should have been doing since I wasn't at home, James was sleeping so it felt like I didn't have anything pulling at me: no one needing my attention, no housework, bills, or anything else to be caught up on. I felt so refreshed afterwards, I kept thinking, "This feels so good!". I guess when you are tired so much, it is amazing to feel genuinely well rested. Now it has got me thinking about taking vacations that are just about catching up on sleep...mmmm...doesn't that sound glorious? :)

This year was our second time hosting Thanksgiving and it was a blast! The turkey turned out great and no mishaps with the brining or finding mysteriously missing giblets/neck like last time.

The turkey had a little bald spot where Anthony snuck a piece of skin :)

 Here is everyone sitting around and visiting. Anthony and his brother-in-law Michael were in the garage talking boats :)

 The feast is served!

 James had gotten up from his nap right before we sat down to eat, so he wasn't very interested in eating. He was still a little overwhelmed with all of the people in the house since they weren't there when he went to sleep! He kept pointing at things on the table like he wanted something to eat but when I tried to give him some he would instantly try to throw it on the floor...we are having some rebellion/independence issues right now :) He wants things, but he doesn't want me to give them to him. Somehow he wants them to appear on their own I guess.

 He started playing with a spray bottle I use to clean him and his tray after meals. He has pretty good aim with that thing!

 After dinner, we had a birthday cake ready to celebrate Anthony's mom's birthday next week. I didn't have any regular candles, just a bunch of random numbers so we decided to put all of the numbers on her cake as a joke. It was so funny!

 She loved the cake!

 Then she realized how old her cake said she was...

 Here she is blowing out her candles with Dallas' help:

 James observing it all:

 He loves blowing out candles, but he doesn't know how to really blow air yet. He just makes a "shhew" blowing sound and looks at the candle expectantly. I realized where he got yesterday when I watched Anthony let him blow out a fragrance candle I had burning. Anthony leaned him over to the candle and right as James went "shhew", Anthony blew air from behind him so the candle would go out. James totally thinks that is was all him! :)

Thanksgiving 2012 was great, I'm glad that everyone could come and I can't wait to do it again for Christmas!

Fall Family Pictures 2012

I decided that this year I wanted to start a tradition of us taking family pictures and doing Christmas cards so we had our awesome friend, Summer, take our pictures! I was super nervous and worried about them. I kept imagining that I would look horrible in them (not fishing for compliments, I just thought that I would stand in an unflattering way or look weird or something. I don't think I am ugly :) and then I was worried about our outfits, the lighting since it was right after day light savings, etc... Luckily, everything went great!

We ended up just going into our friend's neighbor's backyard for the photos, so she was able to let her 1 year old nap and just take the baby monitor with her. After the shoot, she did some cropping and resizing and then gave them all to us on a cd right them. There were so many to choose from!!! It was awesome to have them right away and I was surprised at how great they turned out with no editing. While we were going through the pictures, our friend kept saying how she wants to just steal James and keep him for herself he is just so cute, and we agree! He was adorable for the pictures, not shy at all!

 We've learned that if you ask James to give you kisses but you don't turn your head towards him, he will reach up and turn your head for you, so we got him to do it for the camera.

 He loved being on Anthony's shoulders, he thought it was the funniest thing!

 We just love his "Ooooo" face in this one :)

 When you tell him to "give hugs", this is what he does. It just makes you melt!

Birthday Bonfire at the Beach

A few weeks ago we went to James' buddy Layton's first birthday party at the beach! It was such a cute idea, it started right around sunset and after it got nice and dark we roasted hot dogs and smores over the fire. Of course, James was more interested in the wagon full of fire wood than he was the fires, but what can you do? That boy is obsessed with anything with wheels.

It got really, really dark once you walked away from the fire so there were a few "oh no!" moments when James wandered away and I had no idea where he was. Next time we are definitely bringing those glow in the dark necklaces so we can see him!

Here is Anthony and James watching a group of people play football:

 Love those cheeks!

Trunk and Treat and Halloween Day

I'm finally getting around to blogging about the last of our Halloween festivities! First was the ward trunk and treat. James was the cutest cow alive and I was a farmer. Anthony was supposed to be a farmer too, but they moved the starting time to right after he would get off of work so he didn't have time to dress up.

Here he is checking out some one's real live "toto" for their Dorothy costume:

The ward went all out this year and had a bouncy house and hay rides around the parking lot.

They had a really cute game called "whack a priest". They had a large cut out where the priest quorum would take turns popping up throw holes and you try to whack them with foam noodles. It was the most popular game! I think they loved it more than the bouncy house, can you believe it?

Here we are on the hay ride. James a little overwhelmed :)

I thought that the outtake to the above pictures was pretty funny so I had to add it :)

Halloween night we went downtown to trick or treat around the businesses. They had the entire street blocked off and it seemed like the place to be for little kids. There were so many people there! All the costumes were so adorable and everyone loved our little cow. We brought his car to push him around in and he loved it! It was perfect, he could see everything and still hold up his bucket for candy.

Here we are, both of us wearing our shades :)

After downtown, we stopped by publix to treat or treat around the store.

It was so funny, they would put down the candy bucket to let him choose and he would take as many handfuls as he can. He was so cute, they didn't mind :)

After that we headed home to have dinner. We didn't have very many trick or treaters come to our door, and James went to bed right on time so all in all not too crazy of a Halloween, but still very fun!

Volusia County Fair

Last Thursday we went to the first (free admission!) day of the county fair with our friends, the Nolans! The plan was that we would get together and take family pictures and then head to the fair, but a crazy turn of events kept that from happening. Anthony ended up being called in to work at the last minute and had to deal with police (!) while James and I waited and waited, hoping that we would get out of there in time before the sun went down. Unfortunately we had to reschedule our pictures for this week, but you will get a preview of James' outfit since we went straight to the fair after Anthony was done at work.

As soon as we got there, we checked out the livestock pavilion where we got to pet roosters, sheep, cows, and pigs that were going to be shown in competitions later in the fair. We explored a petting zoo where a deer tried to eat my shirt and we talked to the local bee club about the ins and outs of raising bees. They had an entire building dedicated to old motors and another building dedicated to model trains. I expected James to be really excited about the trains but we didn't get much of a reaction. I think he was a little overwhelmed :) Who could blame him? Once we made it to the midway with all the rides and food vendors, it was stimulus overload.

Summer got this picture of a vendor selling deep fried butter. We almost wanted to buy it just to see how they make it and what it looked like. Gross!!

Here is a picture of Anthony holding James. James wanted to be held a lot while we were there, probably because of all the noise and lights :)

As we were heading towards the exit we found a side section that had all these kid activities! It wasn't crowded at all and I was a little sad that we didn't notice it earlier before the sun went down. They had a bunch of tractor pedal cars, a place where kids can make their own scarecrow, milk a fake cow, saddle a fake horse, and dig in a pit of corn with different toy tractors. So much fun! James loved the pedal cars, as soon as we put him on one he started rocking back and forth really fast, urging the car to "Go, go go!"

Here is James with the Nolan's little boy, Layton. They were checking out the others' car :)

Yayy for the fair!!