Cousins!

We are home from our trip to Houston and getting back into our "normal " routine. Today was a much quieter day than we've had in a while and Anabelle wasn't too happy about it. Alone with me all day she kept asking where Daddy was, and when I explained that Daddy was at work she then ran through the list of everyone she could think of wondering where they were. Sorry kiddo-it's just Momma!

We had a great time on our trip to Houston. Anabelle was so good on the airplane. She was entertained by reading the SkyMall magazine, drawing on her MagnaDoodle, eating snacks, playing with playdough, and watching Blues Clues on our new Kindle Fire. It was also nice to not have her sitting on my lap the entire flight, especially since my lap seems to be getting smaller these days.

We spent our time in Houston relaxing, spending time with family, playing games, eating, shopping and having fun! Anabelle had a lot of fun with her Grandma, Grandpa and Super Duper Auntie Tish (who came in from Las Vegas for the holiday). She also was VERY excited to see her Aunt Mary, Uncle Mike and cousins -Donte, Taylor, Gianna and Dominick. When they were around each other she played non-stop and didn't want to be interrupted, and when they weren't over she would ask about her cousins and when she'd see them next. It was so fun to watch them playing, and they did a great job with Anabelle. As always we are already looking forward to our next visit to Houston!

Playing dress-up with Grandpa's clothes.

Watching the Thanksgiving Day parade with Grandma.

I tried to get some cute pictures of Anabelle in her turkey shirt.

My friend Kylee made this adorable turkey hair bow for Anabelle.

Playing with Dominick: what could be more fun than crawling around under the dining room table?

Coloring with Gianna; Aunt Mary showed off her drawing talents and drew some Blues Clues characters in Anabelle's notebook. She loves coloring them in and looking at them.

Cousins! Dominick, Donte, Gianna, Anabelle, and Taylor.

Mary was great at getting Anabelle to smile for pictures!

Yum! Pumpkin Pie for dessert.

Anabelle and Grandma

John, Anabelle and Super Duper Auntie Tish

John, Anabelle, Grandma and Grandpa

Anabelle with her Grandma and Grandpa.

Thanks for a great visit!

Happy Thanksgving!

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! We are thankful for so many things- especially this little turkey!

"Could I be wearing anymore clothes?"

A super gold star to whoever can tell me where that line is from.

What's been going on around here?

Lately I seem to be taking less and less photos of Anabelle and our daily outings. Not because we aren't doing anything, but just because I don't think of it. This leads to a decrease in blogging-sorry. Our days are generally filled with play dates with friends, story time at the library, grocery shopping and errand running, and playing/ chores at home. Anabelle is doing great. She talks so much and says the smartest/funniest things! She picks up on a lot of things that surprise me. She can really be entertaining to watch and play with. Both John and I were just remarking the other day how well behaved she was most of the time, and that she didn't seem to throw as many tantrums as we'd expected. Well Anabelle must have heard this and decided that she would show us that she can act like a typical 2 year old with the best of them. The last few days she has been more whiney than usual and is also exerting her independence. Often you can hear her saying "Apabow do it!" (we are still working on saying Anabelle) repeatedly, followed 5 minutes later by a scream of "Mama help you!!!" (i.e I need help). I am glad she is learning to be more independent and I know that this is a big area of development that all children go through, it can just be exhausting sometimes.

I finally managed to finish some sewing projects I had been working on for the fall. The first one is a little owl dress that I made for Anabelle. I had originally bought the fabric back over the summer thinking I would use it to make something for Marena and Adam's little boy, Everett. But the brown corduroy owl material just never seemed right for anything I was making. So instead of wasting it, I decided it would make a cute jumper. I had some real difficulties while sewing this and made some stupid mistakes, but thanks to some suggestions from some sewing friends I was able to fix it. I think it turned out pretty cute. It's a little big right now, but hopefully that means it will fit her for a few months. Anabelle was not in the mood to have her picture taken, so I just snapped some pictures while she was playing.

The second project is a turkey shirt for Thanksgiving. Last year it was my first ever sewing project (on a machine) to make Anabelle a turkey shirt and I loved it, so I thought she should have another one this year. It was my first attempt at words on a shirt and although it takes much longer, I like how it turned out. I think she'll wear it with a jean skirt on Turkey day-Gobble Gobble!

Last year's shirt

This year's shirt, similar but with some changes.

Now that I am done with my fall sewing projects I should really jump right into working on the Christmas/Winter things I want to make. Maybe if I start now I'll finish before December is half over. A girl can dream right?

We are heading to Houston on Friday to have Thanksgiving with John's family. I am hopeful that Anabelle will be good for the flight, I think she is old enough to be interested and excited in what is going on and enjoy traveling a little more than in the past. I think it will also help that she will have her own seat and we will have a whole row to ourselves. I know Anabelle is excited to see Grandma and Grandpa as well as her Super-Duper Auntie Tish, Aunt Mary and Uncle Mike and her cousins. Our trip has been a frequent topic of conversation around here as we get ready. Be sure to check back next week and I am sure I will have more photos to post of our visit.

Morton Arboretum

A couple of weeks ago my Mom and I decided to take Anabelle to the Morton Arboretum in Lombard, IL to check out the children's garden. I had been to the Arboretum before but had never visited the children's garden. For years I had been hearing about how wonderful it was. When I was teaching it was recommended as a place to take my students, and then when I joined the Mommy circuit it was again recommended as a place to take Anabelle.

Well it certainly didn't disappoint. The weather was cool but beautiful, and it seems that all the summer crowds were gone. We had a fantastic time climbing, running, exploring, touching plants, and dipping our fingers and toes in fountains. The grounds are full of plants, sculptures, fountains, rivers, climbing areas, little houses, slides, small scale furniture, water fixtures, tunnels, mazes and bridges. There was such a variety of things to do and see that this place would be appealing to kids of pretty much any age. We liked it so much we decided to purchase a yearly membership. I hope this trip is just one of many.

Halloween Hangover

Halloween was quite different this year than last. From the 1st day I put up the decorations Anabelle was already more involved than previous years. She loved playing with all the pumpkins and ghosts around the house, lining them all up on the stairs. She played with the Halloween colorforms that we had stuck to the front door window, moving the witch and bats around. She talked about our pumpkins on the front step almost daily, often saying "hi" to them out the window. It was fun to see how involved she was this year and I can already imagine how exciting next year will be for her.

When the big day came around we started off our fun by going to story time at the library. The librarian read books all about Halloween and the kids danced to songs like "5 little pumpkins", something we had been singing here at home too. After that we did some grocery shopping and headed home for lunch and a long nap- it was going to be a late night.

After nap we got our costumes on, Anabelle was excited to wear her "cow pants" and I dressed as a farmer. Soon we started getting trick or treaters coming to the door. When the doorbell would ring Anabelle would run to the door ready to hand out candy to her "friends" as she called them. Never mind the fact that she didn't actually know them, when you're 2 everyone is a friend. She would give them candy and then when they left she would cry and yell out "friends!" We went through this quite a few times, with Anabelle very upset and just not able to understand how the whole trick or treat process worked.

Soon it was time for dinner, we decided to have some special ghost pancakes, complete with raisin eyes.

Then it was finally time to go trick or treating. John had to miss out on the fun because he had his championship game for his softball league (bad scheduling!). My Mom came over to have some fun with us and help out.

Anabelle did not want any part of holding Mommy's hand, she only wanted to hold Grandma's hand. That's ok, I was busy taking pictures :)

Walking up the steps to the first house.

Picking out some yummy candy.

Anabelle did great! She really got the hang of saying trick or treat, holding open her bag, and then saying thank you. Everyone thought she was very cute and some people asked her to moo. She was very excited and seemed like she could go on much longer than we did. We just went around our block and then it got pretty dark, so we headed back. While we were gone we left out a bowl of candy for any kids that came by, and when we got back it was almost empty. Although Anabelle did manage to find an orange sucker and ripped the wrapper off with a quickness only a child has. I took this opportunity to snap a few more pictures.

After eating her sucker it was time to go inside and relax for a little bit. Some more trick or treaters came by and now Anabelle understood how it worked. She passed out the candy and said "bye-bye" as they left-no tears!

Enjoying some of her loot, M&M's!

After this we went over to Uncle Mike and Auntie Steph's place where they had some friends over. We had a good time eating and visiting. Anabelle was definitely worn out by the end of the night, so we headed home and straight to bed. It was a great day. To top it off, John and his team won their game and are the season champs! If you're gonna miss Halloween, at least you guys won :) Good Job!

Despite going to bed late Anabelle was still up at her usual 7:30, so today we had a Halloween hangover. Oh well, it was worth it, we had a great time. Already looking forward to next year :)