Weekend Recap: Our Thanksgiving & More

Another fabulous holiday in the books.  I believe I said this at Halloween, but Ben truly makes holidays   infinitely more fun!  I wish I had more time to describe every last thing we did, but there are just not enough hours in the day.  Plus, I hear that a lot of cyber Monday deals are still going on...

We kicked off our Thanksgiving celebrations on Wednesday with my mom's side of the family.  Our cousins were in town from New York, and it is always great to see them.  It will be the last time seeing them when they are a family of 3!  Theo wasn't feeling the greatest on Thanksgiving, so he did not stick around too long.  We did, sort of, manage to get a picture of them in their matching train shirts!

My mom totally goes all out with the holiday decor--just the way I like it! :)  Our current house isn't big enough to host a huge family gathering, but hopefully next home will allow us to host big, festive parties!  As usual, our time with our cousins went way too quickly.  Although the little guy in red would have loved to hang out all night, we didn't want him to get too off of his schedule.  I'm so thankful for all of my cousins!

Although we had plans of kicking off Thursday with a turkey trot, we decided to pick warmth over fitness.  Ben wasn't in to the Macy's Thanksgiving parade just yet, but he was definitely in to skipping his nap.  He didn't want to miss any of the excitement.  Can't blame him.  Unfortunately it was too cold for him to wear his cute turkey outfit, and unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of the entire ensemble, but it might be in the top 10 of cutest things I've ever seen him wear.  

Although I was holding him for most of his nap, he was able to catch a few zzz before kickoff!  Our first celebration of the day was with my dad's side of the family.  We went over to our cousin's new house fairly early so as not to miss the (pathetic) Packer's game.  Luckily I was able to capture Ben's "touchdown" when the Packers scored, because that was the only touchdown of the game.  Although we had some upset fans, the delicious meal helped make everyone happy again.  Benji's main dish is pictured in the lower right corner below, everyone else's meal is the top right corner.  Sigh....

One of the many perks of hanging with our cousins is that there are girls who want to "babysit" Ben.  He loves other kids, so he happily played with the big kids while we ate.  It was great!  

My picture-taking definitely dwindled by the end of the day.  There was a big crowd, but unfortunately I did not get pictures of everyone. :(  On a positive note, everyone did get lots of Benji kisses, which are even better than pictures.  I cannot get enough of his little smooches and I will probably cry the day he stops doing that.  Hopefully that day will never come.  

After this celebration, we were off to Andy's parents' house.  I took a few pictures there, but looking at them now, the are quite blurry.  Maybe my vision was a little off after eating so much.  Since his parents knew we might be turkey-ed out, we had lasagna for dinner.  Somehow, we managed to find room in our stomachs for more food.  It was delicious!  

I am beyond thankful for all of the amazing people in my life.  Three family parties, each with wonderful, loving, fun, kind, and happy people?  We are so blessed.  

In a past life, I would have gotten excited for some black Friday shopping, but this year I was completely content staying home.  I actually found some fantastic online deals.  We had a lazy day but we did finally leave the house to go to my mom's so Ben could play with his east coast cuz.  In true Benji-form, they played with each and every toy they could find.  It was adorable.  :)  

The highlight of Saturday, and one of the highlights of my entire year, was cutting down our Christmas tree!  This will definitely be a post-Thanksgiving tradition.  We went later in the day, so not only was the lighting amazing, there was also barely anyone there.  It felt like we were way out there and that we had the whole place to ourselves.  (Think Griswold "Christmas Vacation" style...)  Although the weather was pretty nice, Ben got to break in his new snowsuit.  

Of course, I had to take a million pictures.  Look at that lighting (and the cute little blue snow bunny)--how could I resist?!

Ben LOVED watching his daddy cut down the tree.  He even found a Benji-sized tree.  As soon as I figure out how to get the videos off of my iphone, I will post them.  They make me so happy.

We capped off our weekend with tree decorating, Christmas shopping, and more eating.  Of note, Ben slept through THREE meals while we were out over the weekend.  As much as I love his company, it was like Andy and I had 3 dates!

While going back to work was rough, my heart was so happy and full after 4 days with my family.  I am so thankful this past weekend and every weekend.  This whole year has been packed with blessings.  At the top of my list is good health.  Although I was hoping to be done with Ben's surgeries by now, and although his lack of eating stresses me out more than anything, I know I should focus my energy on how well he is doing.  He is the smartest and happiest boy ever!  I love him so much it hurts!  I also have to mention my amazing husband.  I am so thankful for him!  He loves his little family so much and it melts my heart to watch Ben copy his daddy.  He has kept me level-headed when I start to stress and is so patient, thoughtful, loving, and sweet. :)  He even makes fireplace s'mores with me.  My boys make me the happiest wife and momma!

And on that note, I should probably wrap this up, as Andy wants to go to bed!  Goodnight!

Weekend Recap: Animals & Auntie Anna's Birthday!

I think it goes without saying that long weekends are the best weekends, and this past weekend did not disappoint.  We kicked off our Saturday morning with a trip to the petting farm with some of our friends.  Although I am not what one might call an animal lover, I had an absolute blast, as did the boys--obviously!  I am going to let the pictures do most of the talking.  You could get up close and personal with a ton of animals.  You could even milk a cow!  (Only Andy did that.)  The first thing we did, and perhaps the highlight of the trip, was Ben's pony ride!  It was SO cute.  His horseback riding auntie was so proud!  I, on the other hand, was in shock that my baby is turning into such a big boy!  Babies do not ride horses!

As if Ben riding the horse wasn't too cute for words, the ridiculous levels of cuteness continued when he got off of the horse and found a Benji-sized pony.  And then he asked for one for his birthday.

"We're going to be friends forever."

Even I got into the animal fun.  I was just thankful that the goats weren't trying to sit on my lap and eat my clothes like they were doing to someone else in the group...  

While Andy was spending his free time looking for quarters so he could feed the animals, I was spending my free time making sure that everyone's hands were sanitized.   Yep, Benj, pointing to the animals is just as fun as feeding and petting them.

I am happy to say that the boys stayed on the outside of Patty the (700#!!) pig's pen.

More pointing. 

When Ben wasn't pointing and grunting at the animals, he was staring at them so intently.    "Guess what?  My mom likes to eat chicken."   (**I had to ask Andy for verification that the bird was indeed a chicken.**)

Ben and his bud decided they wanted to become one with the animals, and thus they ended up in the corn trough.  Look at them sharing so nicely!

And since working the farm is exhausting, the boys made sure to relax on a hay ride and in the hay barn.  Andy was so proud that Ben knew what to do with the straw to be more farmer-like.   (Hay/straw--what's the difference??  And why do they chew on that anyway??)

Ben literally fell asleep the instant we drove away--a sure sign of a great day!  We had to get home to see one of our favorite people---Maggie!  She came to help get things together for Ben's party.  We were up crafting and laughing past midnight (a rarity for me) and there's one project in particular that we are especially proud of.   I will have to post more about our slumber party later-- I don't want to ruin any of the birthday party detail surprises. ;) Sunday was a lazy day until we decided to introduce some more friends to our beloved beer garden.  They have 2 little girls who doted on Benji the entire time.  Even when it started to rain, they made sure he was ok--so sweet.

"I can't hold my bottle, I have to hold my stick with one hand and relax with the other hand."

Monday, labor day, was also Auntie Anna's birthday!  Auntie tried to let Benj practice for his upcoming celebration.  He did not seem overly interested, so hopefully that will change in the next 10 (ahh!!!!) days!

I apparently did not take too many pictures, but that is only because Benji and I were so busy playing football (in our matching vests.)

As with all weekends, I was sad to see this one go.  Back to reality, but it's a shortened week and we have plenty shenanigans in store for this coming weekend!  Thanks to my wonderful family and friends for another memorable weekend.

Weekend Recap: More Birthdays!!

So many fabulous people have birthdays in August!  Our first celebration of the weekend was for Ben's bff Maddie!  How is she already 1?!  Madds is a mere 20 days older than Ben, so that means his first birthday will be here in the blink of an eye.  Ben had an awesome time at the party.  When he wasn't digging in the garbage, he was chasing balloons, playing with the boxes for Maddie's toys, or trying to figure out how to take apart a folding table.

I wish I could say that Maddie enjoyed Ben's company as much as Ben enjoyed being there, but that was not the case.  She cried nearly every time he was in her presence.  At one point, she was just walking along and turned the corner only to find Ben and immediately burst into tears.  It was making me sad too!  Luckily, they are so young that they still have plenty of time to work on their relationship. :)

On Sunday, it was time to celebrate my mom!  My sister and I had been planning this party since April, and we were soooo ready for it to happen!  We literally had to lie about 25 times so she would not know what was going on.  I was feeling guilty about the string of lies, but it was totally worth it.  She had NO idea!  (It's hard to tell from the video, but Anna DID know that the surprise was going to happen. ;) )

As you can see in the video, she was totally and completely surprised.  ;)  She thought she was accompanying Anna to her work picnic.  Anna even made a fake invitation and all.  We tried to incorporate all of my mom's favorites including her favorite color combo and her favorite foods!  There were over 60 of her loving family members and friends there, including family from New Mexico to New York!  My mom is simply the best and is loved by many, as was evident based on the turn out at the party.  I'm not putting up (too many) pictures of all of the guests, as I'm not sure everyone would want to be on my blog, but trust that there were lots of wonderful people there!

It's no easy feat hiding cart loads of stuff from my in home baby-sitter! Luckily Benj kept his mouth shut. :)

Book club ladies + Ben

The old neighborhood!!  I wish Benji could grow up with wonderful neighbors like these people (and their children!)

We love you so much, Mom!  Thanks for being the best mom and Nana ever! Happy 60th Birthday!!