We had a great Thanksgiving again this year! Our house was just like I remember Thanksgiving as a kid: boxes of Christmas stuff strewn about the house, ready to decorate, a half-naked Christmas tree begging for ornaments once Dad got the lights working and in place, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV as we decorated and waited for the big feast in the early evening. Unfortunately, we still have a princess who needs her nap, so we werent able to go to Eric's family dinner at 1pm, but when Whitney woke up, we headed over to my parents. Our little "Native American"/"Pilgrim" wasnt entirely happy all day, as she was working on a pretty nasty ear infection (we learned the next day at the doctor), but she had many happy, playful moments filled with holiday smiles and fun :)
She insisted on wearing the Thanksgiving outfits she created at school :)
And while she wouldnt eat the traditional turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce (does your mom get those awesome lines/stripes in her perfectly-formed cranberry sauce the way my mom does? awesome.), green bean casserole, etc etc etc...she was happy to sit at the table and entertain my parents, grandfather (GG), Eric and myself.
After her Thanksgiving attire lost its glow, she was thrilled to don a princess crown the rest of the evening. No one was willing to argue with the toddler, so family pics had to wait. haha
While her spirits were high, she was happy to play catch with her GG. Im not sure who was having more fun, but they were both belly laughing and cracking each other up!
LOVE this smiling face :)
Hugs for her GG!
Dress-up is Whitney's FAVORITE lately! She was devastated that we would allow her to wear her Snow White dress to Thanksgiving dinner, but she found some of Mac's reading glasses to help with her need to dress-up.
Whitney LOVES flowers. LOVES. When she sees weeds in the grass with "flowers", she insists on picking "just one!" She asks for flowers at the store and loves to pick petals whenever we pass flowers in a park, Disney World, or Mac's back porch. I bought her a little group of gerbera daisies last week and she seemed to think I was the coolest, nicest mommy EVER. Who knew it was that easy!?
And how cute is this dress!? I think I have mentioned here before that Eric's cousin, Devin, and Aunt Cindy have started their own shop, Pincushions and Pearls, on etsy and Face.book. You should go "like" them on FB and follow them on etsy because they are just getting started, but truly make great quality clothes! I sent Devin some fabric I found at Walmart and she happily (and QUICKLY) whipped up three A-line dresses for Whitney! I LOOOVE A-lines on little girls, and couldnt wait to put her name/monogram/turkey design/ANYTHING on the front to personalize each dress :) Devin lined each dress and really did a great job! They only have two items on etsy right now, but their prices are great, work is professional quality, and they are super speedy! They can make all kinds of designs....pillowcase dresses, alines, boy's jon jons, and more, and Aunt Cindy is the proud owner of an embroidery machine that I am sure she is itching to use! Go check them out!! Tell them Kathleen sent you :)
And, riiiiight before Whitney hopped in the tub on Thanksgiving night, we HAD to snap at least ONE good family pic! We are sooo bad about getting pics of the three of us. I used to rely on the monthly chair pictures we took at my parents house each month during Whitney's first year, so I guess that means we should do those again when we are a family of four this Spring. :) (My parents are just thrilled.....I think we had all JUST forgotten all the dancing, singing, and ridiculousness it took to get baby Whitney to look at the camera and perhaps flash a smile each month in that chair. Now we all get to do it all over again :) I just made our shutterfly books for 2009 and 2010, and I was really happy with the pages of family chair pics and monthly pink chair pics of Whitney, so we will definitely be repeating that process for our lil man.)
And at the end of the day, when all the yummy food was consumed (Eric and I came home with two heavy plates of leftovers.....we ate them both before bed that night. The food was THAT good. NOTHING beats my mother's Thanksgiving dinner!), Eric and I put the finishing touches on the tree and discussed how blessed we are, and just how grateful we are for all the fabulous people and things we have in this life. Awesome family, the BEST friends, our health, a home, a great church we love, a career and company Eric respects and is highly-respected in (and a position he has enjoyed going to daily for over 12 years), a miracle baby on the way and a marriage and friendship that we are extremely proud of, excited by, and thankful for. I am overwhelmed with just how amazing life is at this stage in our lives.
On Saturday night, we joined some of our favorite friends, Julie, Jonah and their three kids, for a trip to Hollywood Studios for their annual "Osborne Family Festival of Lights". We've been the last two years and LOVED it, and really love that its a family tradition now. We will go back at least two more times before the holiday season is over, and it just never gets old. What is better than 550 MILLION Christmas lights, blaring Christmas carols, and SNOW in FLORIDA?!
(And seriously...how much do they look alike in this picture:)
Last year, Julie bought a house right around the corner from our house and we couldnt be happier! Jonah, Eric, and I all worked together when I first graduated from college, and I knew Julie through mutual friends and we all went on a cruise with her "back in the day" when Eric and I were first dating. Julie and Jonah were with other partners in those days, but God had better plans and has brought them together as a family, and we are so thrilled to be friends with such an awesome couple with such fun kids! And they live right around the corner? How can it get better!?
The "snow" was blowing and it was impossible not to sing along with the Christmas music.....and almost as impossible to snap the elusive Bass family picture.
We tried our best...
Love this girl :) SOOO excited for her and Jonah to get married in a few short days!!!
The obligatory self-portrait pic.
The kids were all so well behaved and so much fun! We werent there long, but that's the blessing of living where we do...we can head to Disney World for one show and a hot pretzel and/or popcorn (I may have eaten both...just sayin') and call it a night!
How fun are they!?
Just as we were snapping this pic, Whitney noticed the "SNOW!!" falling down from atop the buildings :) It was a great night with great friends and we cant wait to go back for more with Eric's sister and my parents and brother this month!
On Sunday, we drove a few hours to a little town near Eric's sister's house. We had several things to celebrate as a family and it was fun to get together in a great location with few distractions and no timeline or ticking clocks. It is always SO NICE to get together with Eric's Dad and "that side" of the family. On his Dad's side, Eric is the oldest of six, giving Whitney and Grady lots of awesome Aunts and Uncles and a growing bunch of fabulous cousins who are amongst the most well behaved, smartest kids Ive ever had the pleasure of knowing. I am so proud to be their aunt :)
We gathered for a casual "Thanksgiving" at a small restaurant we had almost exclusively to ourselves, and to celebrate Eric's Dad's birthday. Gary is such a great dad and an awesome Papa to all of his grandkids, and he's had such a rough year, losing his wife, Robin, after a lengthy illness and hospitalization, their dog, Skipper, after years of loyalty, and most recently, his own father who lived close and was a special part of Gary's life. I never feel like we thank Gary enough for just being himself. He deserves to be happy and to enjoy life, leaving the last year or so in the past and starting to focus on the great memories and bright future God has for him. We are proud to call him Dad and Papa, and I LOVE when people notice how much Whitney looks like her Papa :)
After some lunch, we all headed to the picnic tables to decorate some small ornaments my Sister-in-Law had found. Crystal also laminated a lot of the pics we gathered for the memorial video Mandy made for Robin's funeral last year. We used the decorated ornaments and laminated pictures to decorate a Christmas tree in Robin's honor on the town's Green. It was fun to see the whole family get involved in the decorating, and I know its something Robin would've loved.
I think this was everyone's "favorite" (least favorite??) family picture. We agreed that we were all going through some sort of "chubby" phase....Im blaming fertility treatments...I cant speak for the rest of 'em :) (KIDDING!)
Callie and Whitney look more and more alike every time we get together :)
Lynzie was smart enough to bring glitter for the preschooler cousins to tackle. Whitney is apparently very new to the glitter concept, and dumped the entire bottle on one side of the pinecone. Eh. It happens. And Aunt Lynzie was awesome enough to laugh and let it go :)
After some decorating, some "Happy Birthday" singing, and some cupcake devouring, we all walked to Robin's tree together.
Every family member put ornaments and pictures on the tree.
This was my favorite picture. Robin with all her Daughters...and an angel keeping watch. This was taken three Christmases ago....long before we ever knew we would lose Robin so soon.
And I like this pic, too, from Eric and my wedding day in 2005.
Lynzie and I walked around the town green and looked at all the decorated trees. Some families are celebrating the holidays without their babies or their pets or their grandparents or their family in the military. The trees are a nice way to gather as a family and remember a person who is missed all year long, but especially at the holidays. We all agreed it was a great experience and hope to do it again next year.
And in a quick attempt at a family picture, you can actually see the baby belly/food baby I am slowly growing. :)
On the way home from our visit with family, Whitney was tired and wanted "Beaw Bwanket and Binky, Pwease." We explained to her that the Binky Fairy came the night before and left her the purple hula hoop, and that we didnt have any binkies anymore. She tore our hearts out crying for a solid 40 minutes, bringing tears to my eyes as I knew I couldnt give in and let her have a binky, but hated hearing her so upset. She never, ever cries like that, and it was so hard to know that WE were the reason she was so sad. Eric even googled "how long to expect a 2 yr old to cry after giving up binky" because we couldnt take much more and she was ripping our hearts out with "But Daddy.....I...dont....WANT....a....puwple....hula hooooop! Da Binky Faiwy can come take it BACK! I want her to bwing my pink bink back!!!" between sobs and gagging and...oh, the drama. Thankfully, I had a few candy canes in the car and offering her a treat was just the ticket to end the tears, get some laughs, and start moving on from the binky days. Two small candy canes later, and she briefly fell asleep a happy girl, while Eric and I reserved our high-fives, believing we had just won the battle but not the war.
That night, we knew we might have some meltdown to deal with, but the fact that she only had a cat nap in the car seemed to help us out a bit, as she was sooo tired when bedtime arrived. We followed our normal routine of bath, prayers, books, and bed, and of course she mentioned the Binky Fairy and got teary-eyed. We reminded her that she isnt a baby anymore, and while that didnt really satisfy her, she laid down with some tears and requests for binky. After a few minutes, I went back in her room, gave her good hugs, and she asked me if I would read another book. A rare moment of fast thinking struck me right then, as I suggested we put Whitney's tiger paw night light in her room (instead of in the hall outside her door) and allow her to read in bed before falling asleep. I remembered doing this as a child and figured it might be another ticket out of BinkyLand. Sure enough, our girl LOVED this idea and happily laid down in her newly night-lighted room with TWO books I chose for her. We said good night again and I headed back to the couch where Eric and I finally high-fived ourselves "The Binky Whisperers", as we expected exponentially more drama from our diva.
We happily listened to her over the monitor, reading to her Jessie doll and asking questions on each page the way we do when we read to her. We figured she would likely take a while to fall asleep, but would do so without a binky or tears, and once the novelty wears off, the books wont keep her up as late. Awww, isnt that sweet!?? Yeah. Well. About 10 minutes later, Whitney very seriously says, "Ummm, Mommy? MOMMY?" So I walk into her room with the intention of reminding her to go to sleep and finish reading her two books. Psssht. This kid failed to pay attention to the part where I said she could read "the two books I gave you." See that bookshelf next to her bed there? See all those books? She took it upon herself to pull every. single. book. off those shelves, pile them in her bed with her, and "read" them to her Jessie doll. Apparently this wasnt a problem for her until she could no longer lay down because the books had overtaken her entire bed, from headboard to footboard. I could NOT contain my laughter, as I called Eric into the room to witness the situation our daughter had created. We both stifled laughs as we helped Whitney put the books back on the shelves with stern warnings that we would have to turn the night light off if she didnt stick to one or two books. More hugs and kisses, some laughter, and she was out like a light within 20 minutes. Wrong end of the bed? I'll take it. As long as she is sleeping binky-less!
Such a sweet angel, making us laugh and stare at each other in awe of her intelligence and ability to melt our hearts on a daily basis. :)
This morning, Whitney slept especially late (8:10am) and was still sorta sleepy when she finally got out of bed. She asked to watch "Letter Factory" right away, so we snuggled on the couch for a few minutes before I told her I was going to get her milk and some breakfast. Sleepily, she said, "Wait, Mommy. First I am goin' give Gwady a biiiig kiss, okay?" Then she leaned down, lifted my shirt up, and kissed my belly. She looked up at me, smiled, and said, "And I'd wike a bwuebewwy muffin wiff my milk, pwease." Such a sweet girl. :)
I am 18 weeks pregnant and practically beggggging Grady to give me some solid kicks. Nothing yet. Rest assured, the world will know when it finally happens. My belly is now, definitely noticeable, but not entirely convincing as a pregnant belly, as opposed to a "that girl ate too much" belly. It does seem to grow considerably throughout the day, maxing out in the evening and helping me to feel a bit more pregnant and less "fat".
No comments:
Post a Comment