Thanksgiving 2013!

What would Thanksgiving be without family??  I remember my childhood Thanksgivings, having a blast playing with all of my cousins while the grown ups talked and did their grown up things.  Makes me happy to see my kids having fun with all of their sweet cousins!  This year we decided not to travel with the baby, so we had lots of visitors on and around Thanksgiving.. from my side and from Brian's side!

These first pics were taken a few days before Thanksgiving.. my sister Hilary and fam drove in all the way from Virginia and we were having horrible weather when they got here (cold and ice).  My mom's electricity actually went out for a bit so they came over to our house to warm up!  So glad we got to spend that time with them!!

Aunt Hilary feeding Ben..

Sweet boys about to play a game of "hit stuff with stuff".  haha

 

Thanksgiving day, we headed over to my mom's!  Here is Brian's brother, Uncle Danny, with Benny on his first Thanksgiving!  Uncle Danny found out recently that he and his wife, Tiffany are going to be parents, so they had a lot to be thankful for! :)  They were here from Casper, Wyoming, for about a week.  We had so much fun, even went to see the Curious George exhibit and the Fort Worth children's museum!

Aunt Tiffany is a tickler!! 

Best family shot we could get :)

Playing with cousin Avery!

Center of attention!  Play time with Aunt Hilary, Aunt Alison, and cousins..

You think he is spoiled???  Naaaah!!

 

A picture with Uncle Danny and Aunt Tiffany just before they left!

 

Guess who got here the same day Uncle Danny and Aunt Tiffany left?  Aunt Pam, Uncle Jeff, Anna, Matt and Joey!  They could only stay a couple of days, but we packed in a lot of playing and park time, and the kids had a BLAST together!  Anna and Lilly played with their dolls, and the boys did boy stuff like looking for bugs, digging in dirt, and wrestling! 

 

All huddled around their newest cousin!

Took some pictures for my mom of all of her sweet grandkids together.  Oldest is 16, youngest is 3 and a half months!

 

Another picture of cousins from the other side!  MOST of Grandma Diane and Papa Dick's grandkids.. Just missing one sweet girl, cousin Emily!  But she is coming to see us after Christmas in December!

 

 

LOVE LOVE LOVE all these sweet kiddos! 

Ben's three months old!

Let's see, what's been going on from Ben's third month?  He's been super responsive, smiling and laughing.  Right at about three months (last week), he started talking his head off.  For the last few weeks he's been sleeping from about 7:30 to midnight in his crib, then we get up and eat and he won't go back to sleep unless he's in the swing.  So we swing so mommy can get a little sleep, and then we're up again around 3 or 5.  So most nights he's waking up a couple of times still, hoping that will change soon!  I'm still nursing, but he's SO HUNGRY all the time, that we are also giving him a little formula now, at least a couple times a day.  Oh how I can't wait until he can start eating baby food!! He's sweet and content in the morning and most of the day, and around dinner time he turns into a screaming, crying little monster!  I think he's overly tired because he refuses to sleep during the day.  As much as I try to convince him to take a nap, he's afraid he's going to miss something!  I don't even think he blinks! 

Nate and Lilly are still all over him every second.  They love him so much, always entertaining him like pros. The second he starts to get unhappy they are in his face singing him songs and holding his little hands.  They are such a tremendous help to me.  How did we do this with two little babies and no little five year old helpers all the time to fetch burp cloths and diapers for me?? :) 

 And some shots of my big three month old!  You can tell his face (and the rest of him) has filled in and he's started to get that sweet chunky baby look.  He reminds me of Nate so much. So sweet!

 

 

Nate and Lilly playing in the front while it was still warm at the beginning of a Texas fall!  I think this was some time around the beginning of October.

 Sitting in his bouncy seat- not blinking!!

 Nate and Daddy playing a little ball!

 He absolutely loves this play mat!  He can lay under this and bat at these little toys for hours!

Almost caught up!

Just a little note to family members who are reading the blog.. I've had about three or four blog posts started in my drafts and just finished them, but when I publish them they end up in the order that I started them (on that date), so you may have to go back a few months to see them.  Some of them are in between posts you have probably already read.  So scroll back and make sure you didn't miss anything.  Hope that isn't too confusing!! 

Happy Halloween (and Ben's 2 months old)!!

Well this year we had one baby getting his well check on Halloween and two big kids trying to get sick on HALLOWEEN!  After Ben's check up, I turned right around and took Lilly back to the doctor to check and make sure she didn't have strep throat.  We were relieved to find out it was just a cold.  But poor thing had an awful sounding cough, so instead of joining friends to Trick-or-Treat, we just hung around our neighborhood.  It actually didn't turn out half bad!  The kids had a great time, we got to say hi to some neighbors, and the candy buckets were LOADED (which, let's face it, is the only thing that really matters on Halloween).  Even though they weren't feeling good, they sure did look awful cute!

Our sweet neighbor, Donna came over before we left to give the kids a little treat (She had been dressed up for work and was sweet enough to give me her hat and bow tie after these pictures so I could be Cat in the Hat! 

Iron Man (the blue one) and Doc McStuffins!

 Happy Benny on his first Halloween!  His 2 month well check (a little late at 2.5 months) went great!  He was 23.25 inches long and weighed 11.9 pounds.  He was just smiling away at the doctor, it was super cute.  Doctor said he was right on track with all of the physical stuff that he's supposed to be doing (tracking with his eyes, trying to keep his head straight, etc.).  He was somewhere between 15-20 percentile for height and weight, so he's still a pretty little booger.  But something tells me that will change (especially as much as he is EATING)!! 2 month old pictures at the end of the post below!

 

Cutest Winnie the Pooh EVER!

It was a gorgeous night- the perfect fall weather for Trick-or-Treating!

Of course Me-Maw came over and went with us!!

 

 

Lastly, some two month old pictures of Benny!