Our Christmas Tree

On Saturday we went to Conifer for our 3rd annual tree cutting adventure with the O'Reillys.  It turned into quite a party this year-a bunch of families (inclduing the Nelsons) all went together and we tailgated after cutting down our trees with chili, cornbread and other snacks. It was a great way to quick off our holiday season! Here are Mac and I with Anne and Gus before I realized it was freezing cold and bundled up Mac in his snowsuit.

 The dinosaur snowsuit-adorable.

James has been exceptionally awesome since turning 4. He has been nice to be around, listens, is kind, showers all of us with affection, etc. Well, I guess he was due for a major meltdown and he sprung it on us right as we got to the woods to cut down our tree. To say he was unpleasant to be around is the understatement of the year. He had to sit in the car for most of the festivities and we skipped the fire station and Santa this year. Oh, the drama of being 4.

 The 4 of us with our tree-nice and scrawny, just the way we like it.

Mac and Gus post tree cutting.

Tailgating after tree cutting.

We fully decorated on Sunday and are all ready for the holiday season at our house! We were terrified of what Hurricane Cormac was going to do to our tree this year. We didn't put any lights or ornaments on the bottom few feet (which makes for a really sad looking tree) and so far Mac has pleasently surprised us by not attempting to pull it down on top of himself or climb it yet. He LOVES the tree and all of the decorations and every single time he goes into the living room, he crawls over to it, points, and says, "Ooooohhhhh!" The novelty has not worn off yet and he loves to look at it, especially when it is lit up. Luckily James doesn't seem to mind that the tree is not fully decorated and has already said about 100 times, "Isn't our tree so beautiful?"

As obsessed with lights as Mac is, I can NOT wait to drive around and look at light displays with him this year. I think he is going to lose his little mind. Everytime we plug in the tree lights, he starts to clap. Seriously, the holidays are so much better with little kids around!

Thanksgiving

James was really sick all week long, and was finally feeling a little bit better for Thanksgiving on Thursday. We went up to Ft Collins and spent the day with the Nichols since Dave and Katie had just returned from Florida. We celebrated in the typical way-hung out all day with family and ate way too much food. We have so much to be thankful for, it is something that I am aware of everyday of the year, but it sure is nice to have the month of November to focus on it even more :-)

 Mac was looking especially dapper in the outfit that James wore on his 2nd Christmas.

 Checking out sticker books with Grandma Barb (Amberly's mom).

 James being sick all week meant that he got to wear "comfies" and skip dressing up for dinner.

 Mac was entertained pretty much all day by emptying Mimi's kitchen cabinets and creating a giant mess.

Tay and Chloe got in on the kitchen destruction as well.

As usual, we skipped all of the Black Friday shopping nonsense and instead opted to take James to his first movie in a theater-the new Muppet movie. He has seen Muppets Take Manhatten and The Muppet Christmas Carol before, so he is familiar with the characters and was super excited for his date day with us. He got to pick out whatever he wanted at the theater-he chose popcorn and Skittles. He was a little bit nervous when the lights first went out, but he really enjoyed the movie. The movie was so, so, SO good (and it had a super cute Toy Story short at the beginning-a HUGE bonus for James) we all really enjoyed ourselves. It was such a fun experience to share with him, and hopefully one that he will remember :-)

What I will remember from James' first movie experience: having to spend the whole movie with one hand on his seat because he was too light to hold it down without it folding him in half, the 10 million questions he asked during the movie, the way he got scared during one (definitively not scary) part of the movie and I had to carry him into the hallway where it was light and how he peeked around the corner to watch the screen for it to "not be scary anymore", the way he has started about 100 sentences today with, "Remember that one super funny part from the Muppets yesterday.....".

Look who wants to walk....

Originally I had predicted that Mac would be walking by Thanksgiving. But I forgot to take into account that much like his brother, his preferred mode of transportation is being carried by me 99.99% of his waking hours. Just this week Macky has started to try to walk. He will take a step or two (his record is 4) before he falls and then crawls to me as fast as he can and demands to be picked up. And forget trying to make him walk or encouraging him to practice. It has to be completely his idea, or he just arches his back and flings himself to the ground.

Macky waves all.the.time. He waves anytime he sees a window, a mirror, a light, or a person. When he wakes up in the middle of the night and I go into his room, he is either standing or sitting in the middle of his crib and waves as soon he sees me. At restaurants, he stares at someone and waves at them until they wave back and then repeats with someone else. Here is the Mac Wave.

Breadsticks make an acceptable substitute for pretzel sticks when at Mimi and Papa's house.

Maybe he will walk before Christmas....

What is new?

How is November halfway over already? I am not quite sure how that happened. A little update on what we have been up to: Mac is a crazy maniac, who I think is following in his cousin Chloe's footsteps (yikes!). He climbs on everything and when I remove him or try to redirect him, major tantrums ensue.  I have no photos of his crazy antics, because I am always trying to keep him from suffering a major head trauma instead. Two things can stop his tantrums: pretzel sticks and lights. The kid is 110% obsessed with lights and spends the better part of his waking hours pointing to lights and light switches. If a light is on, he wants to turn it off. If a light is off, he wants to turn it on. And repeat about 600 million times.  This photo was taken seconds before he crawled on top of his activity table, tried to stand up and fell off on his head.

Pointing to a light with a mouth full of pretzel sticks moments before trying to crawl up on top of the play kitchen.

James has had time for nothing but Legos lately. Literally, if I ask him to do something or tell him it is time to go somewhere, "No time Mama! I am too busy with Legos!" To say he is obsessed would be the understatement of the century. In true James fashion, he does not get mildly interested in anything. When he likes something, he LOVES it. Case in point: Peter Pan, Thomas the Train, Buzz Lightyear, Superheroes. Legos are just the latest obsession, but I think this one will be fairly long lasting. I would say he spends a good 6 hours a day playing with Legos. He builds things, but mainly is into the little Lego guys and creates all sorts of highly invloved plot lines and just sits at the table having the Lego guys talk to each other. (I am feeling rather sad that we did not make it to San Diego this year because Lego Land would be the best thing that has ever happened to him)

The train table is a major source of entertainment for both boys. James is into building tracks and Hurricane Cormac is into seeing how quickly he can tear them apart and hurl the pieces to the ground.

Macky has learned to dance anytime he hears music (cutest thing ever) and give hugs (equally cute). Last night he spontaneously crawled up to James and hugged him, it was literally one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. Although when James tries to give Mac hugs, it usually looks something like this:

And here is my failed attempt at getting a photo in matching Thanksgiving jammies under our Thankful banner.

We have been reading lots of Thanksgiving books and talking a lot about what it means to appreciate what we have and how much we have in our lives to be thankful for.  A few times at dinner James has initiated everyone sharing what they are most thankful for. He is typically thankful for Legos or superhero toys, but has also been thankful for his family, his Moo Moo (Mac), and his friends. We were shopping for Tim's office furniture last weekend and while we were walking through Crate and Barrel, I said something along the lines of how I wished that I could go on a shopping spree in there and redecorate our whole house. James looked up at me and said, "You know Mama, you should really just be thankful for all the furniture you already have." Good point James.