The Fam

Not professional... but they'll work to get Christmas cards in the mail!

We forgot to get the fish in this picture... we really did intend to put the fishbowl on the coffee table in front :)

Tree lights would have been nice :(

And since Grandma was taking the pictures, we had to get a couple with her & the kids. A couple of my favorites.

It's up... it's down... It's up again

We got the tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Piper just couldn't get enough of the decorations. Every one that came out of the box got an "Ahhh" or a "Wow!" or an "Oooh...." as if she hadn't seen them before. It was so cute. I didn't take any pictures of the final product because we were planning on taking quick family pictures by it this morning. But this morning, when I went to move the couch for pictures, the cord got knocked out of the socket. When I went to put it back in it was really hot, so I let it cool down. Then.... no more lights. They no longer work :( The tree is at least 15 years old. We inherited it from Steve's mom when she passed away a few years ago. I loved this tree. It was skinny and fit perfectly in our tiny living room. The lights were red, white, and green, which I have never seen on another tree. The big red ornaments were hers; the rest are mine. Picture from 2007 HERE.

The tree with no lights :(
So anyway, we took the family pictures sans lights, and then took it down and put up the little tree. We got the little tree last year when Georgia was a puppy so she couldn't reach the ornaments. So at least we have something. I let Piper do most of it herself. She had a ball.

Then, when she fell asleep, I rearranged it. Family pics in the next post. My camera isn't that great, but we were running short on time and just needed to get something done to get Christmas cards out. Katherine, we still need to schedule "real" family pictures with you soon!

Guess who loves pumpkin pie?

Well, me, yes. Max, too! We gave him his first taste of pumpkin pie, and he LOVED it. He started crying when we stopped shoveling it in.

To backtrack, we spent Thanksgiving with Steve's side of the family.

Mike carved the delicious bird that Amanda cooked.
It just isn't Thanksgiving without olives on your fingers.Steve's excited to eat!

The kiddie counter.After dinner...

Ponies...& Wii baseball.And of course, naps. Happy Thanksgiving :)

So much to be thankful for

I have attempted to write this post a dozen times. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time. I definitely have so much to be thankful for; my family, adoption, Max's birthparents, the gospel, friends, economy-proof income, double insurance, successful open heart surgery... the list goes on and on. Life is good. Actually great. I'll leave it at that for now.

Happy Turkey Day!

He cracks himself up

Here is Max practicing sitting the other night, with just a pillow behind him on the bed. He was playing with a package of baby wipes and when he would crinkle it, he would laugh and laugh. He thought it was so entertaining. I was going to do a post about what to get him for Christmas - along the lines of what toys do/did your little ones love from 9 months to 18 months. But I think I found a great one here...

More helping

This time Piper wanted to help wash Max's hair.

So I put Max in the big tub with her...

{Can't wait til she asks if she can help clean the toilet!}

Knock-offs

Well, we found these smaller knock-off Pillow Pets at the grocery store for $8.99. {I had already ordered the Lady Bug one from QVC.} We have a couple of birthday parties on the horizon, so I picked up a few. Piper wouldn't put them down. I kept reminding her they were for gifts, not for her, and that she had written to Santa asking for the Lady Bug one.

Sorry if your kiddo gets the pig one, it's slighty used......

At least I know she'll love her birthday present!

My big helper

Yesterday we heard Max stirring in his crib, waking up from a nap. Two minutes later, Piper comes running in with this:

{I hadn't even gotten Max out of his crib yet}She was so proud of herself. She made Max a bottle "all by herself". It looked a little watered-down, but not too bad. She told me it squirted all over when she shook it up, but I was actually surprised the lid was on as tight as it was. She said she was going to feed Max 'some ounces'. And she said she put 3 scoops of powder in. So yeah, a little diluted, but I couldn't say no to letting her feed him the bottle she made all by her almost 4 year old self!

{and then after she got bored feeding him less than the first ounce, I added some more formula while she wasn't looking}

She also just learned how to feed the dogs - "Get the stool and reach into the dog food bin in the kitchen cupboard, and scoop the food into the bowls." I think the dogs got fed 8 times yesterday!

Sleepover(s)

Grandma has an annual Thanksgiving sleepover with the grandkids. The main purpose of the sleepover is to decorate cookies the next morning. This year she's splitting up the sleepover between families since not everyone could make the same day. So this weekend was Piper's turn with a couple of her cousins. She loves sleepovers! She went to sleep the earliest at 12:30am, then Gibson zonked out at 1:30am, and finally Grandma turned off the movies at 2:30am so Nito would go to sleep! Grandma's a good sport!Last night Piper wanted a sleepover with our bulldog, Georgia. Usually Georgia sleeps gated in the kitchen, since she's the chewer. Zoei, however, usually gets a prime spot on the bed. So Piper decided she wanted to sleep on the floor in the kitchen with Georgia. Unfortunately, she fell asleep on the couch before making it to the kitchen.

{At 4:30am, she woke up, had a good cry because I had turned the tv off, needed a brownie, and climbed in bed with Zoei.}

It feels like winter today

Max is ready!

A wedding cake!? Really?

Piper's 4th birthday is coming up in a month, and Christmas is two weeks after that. She is in full swing thinking about what cake and present she wants, and what kind of party. We've only done family parties up to this point, but she's been invited to several friends' parties and is pretty sure she needs a princess party this year, too. Not sure if it's going to happen, but we'll see.

Anyway, she saw a commercial a week or so ago for a Pillow Pet. Have you seen these? The Ladybug is sold out most everywhere I'm finding, except on QVC. Of course that's the one she wants. She's already mailed a letter to Santa requesting one {and the turtle one for Max}.

The other night I was surfing the net for birthday cake ideas. I came across this cute ladybug cake...

She liked it, but we kept browsing. Last year we did a princess castle & she loved it. She saw more princess castles that she liked (but I wanted something different this year), and fairies, and flowers, and a purse cake.... and.... many more. Every night before we go to bed she wants to get online and look at birthday cakes. While I was putting Max to bed last night, she kept clicking through some cakes on the Wilton cake pan website. A few minutes later, she came running into his room and exclaimed, "I want a wedding cake!"
This is what she had found....


Yep - she wants this wedding cake for her 4th birthday.

Oh, Piper

Since it is Nat'l Adoption Month...

something funny...

The other day we were hanging out on the couch talking about who knows what... and Piper was being really silly, so I commented, "How did I get the two cutest kids ever?" Piper looks over at me and replies, "Well, Max is Melody's kid."

I guess she's right - he got his cuteness from Melody & Fred, his birthparents!

{I'll take credit for the monkey jammies!}

Zoo Day

While the weather was still nice and Grandma & Grandpa were still in town, we headed to the zoo this week with a few cousins.

--

Piper, Dallis & Max on the alligator (Nito's leg in the alligator's mouth).

Kai making sure his brother's leg was ok.Max hangin' in the stroller, soon to be napping...

Peacock

Snow leopard (I think)

Lynx

The gang on the tiger statues.

Snow leopard (?)

Mommy & baby giraffe

Piper telling me "I'm NOT going to stand by the zebras for a picture!"

Zebras

Penguins

Carousel ride

Mommy & baby Zuri elephants

The 45 second 'live' version of the zoo...

After the zoo, we came back to our house and made cookies :)

Piper said, "I have the best cousins in the whole world!"