Thanksgiving 2012: home away from home

Once again, Zane and I made treats for his friends at Mrs. Jeri's. Once again, it was an idea from Pinterest. What would I do without that site? Make plain ole chocolate cupcakes? In the words of Zane, "Boring!"

Tada! Turkey cupcakes!

This is the first year that we have spent Thanksgiving away from family. We copped out of being adults at Easter and went to Cracker Barrel. We decided to buck up and be adults for Thanksgiving. We were really excited that our friends, Jon and Kirsten, joined us. We may not have been with family, but we had a great day and some GOOD food! Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, rolls, and bourbon pecan pie. Mmmm.

Spider-Man joined us, too.

And this little girl who looks like she's calling the hogs in every picture.

Zane likes to climb in bed with her and declare, "It's a party in her bed!"

Zane played some serious super hero games with Mr. Jon. And then this happened at 5pm. Brother was out for the night.

About the time that he went to bed, Hollin woke up from her nap and demanded more of Ms. Kirsten's sweet potatoes.

She then found her sunglasses and threw a fit until I put them on her. So funny. She thought she was pretty darn cute. We did, too.

Feeling pretty blessed to have these three in my life.

 

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Disneyland

Yes! That is Lightning McQueen, Red (aka "Brad") the Firetruck, and one of the tractors from Cars the movie!

Matt had a conference the second weekend of November in Anaheim, so we all decided to go and visit Disneyland....with Radiator Springs being our main stop.

The kids were so excited to get there that they didn't want to go back to sleep, even though we got up at 3am. Eventually we got them to take some short naps on the plane. I thought Hollin looked so funny riding in the car service.

 

I could focus on these aspects of the trip:

*It was cold and pouring down rain our first night at Disneyland

*Hollin got really sick

*she earned herself an expensive pair of Minnie Mouse pajamas from a gift shop after having a blowout diaper

*the combination of daylight savings time and traveling two time zones had the kids up every morning at THREE am.

*flying with a grumpy three year old and a sick one year old is not for the faint of heart

*Zane spilled a bright red drink on the carpet in our hotel room

*and he cried every.day. to ride this Teenage Mutant "Inja" Turtle ride that we saw at the mall. Like, would have chosen this over Disneyland. (Thanks Uncle Rico)

But I won't mention that stuff. Nope. I'll just say that I was super excited to finally see Disney for the first time. Our second day there was perfect! Sunshine and upper 60s. We had a great time! We spent all day at the California Adventure Park. Zane's favorites were Carsland (obviously) and Monsters, Inc.

Zane and Mr. "Uh-tato" Head

Eating at Flo's V8 Cafe

We got back to the hotel at 4pm and both kids crashed! For the night! Good thing we went to bed early because they were up waaaay before the sun the next day! They sure are sweet when they're sleeping.

I'm thankful that we were able to take this trip as a family. Memories made. Not planning any trips with two kids for a few more years....

 

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better late than never: 13 months

Just now getting around to posting pics of our thirteen month old. Girl does not want to take a nap today (not normal for her), so this will probably be short and sweet. She has dropped her morning nap for the most part. I made the mistake of letting her fall asleep in the car today at noon. So then she took like a 10 minute nap. Boo.

 

She crawls everywhere and cruises around the furniture, but still no walking. Maybe she'll start while we're in Arkansas?! That would be fun!

 

She started saying 'cheese' today while I was taking her picture. Well, "eeeee!" Close enough.

She has four top and four bottom teeth. One more coming in on top.

 

Her favorite things are: her brother, someone crawling toward her really fast, bonking heads, books, and food.

Standing up in the chair while I try to take pics.

Sweet sleeping angel.

 

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Just cuteness

Bath time buddies

Ready for bed

Matching monkey jammies

Ready for church (Zane calls it "shuel" aka school)

He wanted to "dress like a mans"

Precious girl in her big girl carseat

Sunday afternoon naps are the best

He put marshmallows on the ends of a pretzel stick and said he was lifting weights. Hilarious.

Stepped up his game with bigger 'weights'

 

 

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12 month appointment

Is that not the saddest little face you've ever seen? That is the face of a one year old after four immunizations and a blood draw. And of course she's a chubby one year old so they missed the vein in the right arm and had to do it again in the left. Oy vey.

 

Zane told me before we went that "I just can't watch baby Hollin get shots because it might hurt her". So for shots he hid his face. When she started screaming he YELLS, "Aaahhhh! That doesn't sound very good!" Apparently he got over that. Fast forward to the lab, where I'm sweating bullets, holding Hollin in a full body lock in my lap, two phlebotomists are trying to find a vein, she's screaming bloody murder....where's Zane? Head poked between legs, under an arm, wherever he can get to see what's going on. "What they doin', Mommy? What is a vwein? Why they need her blood? STOP scweamin', Baby Hollin!"

 

Seriously brutal. It wore us all out. Even Zane. He came home and fell asleep at 4pm. And slept until five the next morning! Luckily, matt needed to get up early and work on a presentation. But 5am is still early. This is how I found him in the living room at 7:30am.

Here she is before the appointment.

Playing in the exam room. Happy and naive to what was about to happen.

One year stats:

Height: 29 inches (38th%)

Weight: 21lb 4oz (66th%)

Head circumference: 47.5cm (96th%)

 

Short, chunky, big head, healthy. Pretty sure her stranger anxiety just got a lot worse.

 

I have to give credit to Zane. He was really a good helper. He wanted to know what was taking the doctor so long. He asked her, "Did you have a really hard case next door?" Ha! Obviously he's heard a little medical talk at home. He taught them how to 'shoot webs' like Spider-Man. I thanked him for being a good big brother while I was putting him in the car. He took one of his stickers off and slapped it on my arm. "Ank you for being a good mommy." Highest praises from a three year old.

 

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