Thanksgiving, Christmas Trees and Black Friday - Yes, I said Black Friday!

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving?  We did!  Cam cooked our Yummy Turkey, and I made the rest.  Since it's just 4 of us we don't make a lot.  One of our favorite dishes to make is a sweet potato and stuffing casserole-ish dish.  We make it often, but not often enough we can't have it on Thanksgiving too!  Then just some other basics that you can't have Thanksgiving without - green bean casserole, cresent rolls, and apple pie!  MMM, MMM!!  I also got a Pumpkin Cheesecake from my friend Emily.  She make some for the MOPS bake sale and then took orders for Thanksgiving as an additional fundraiser.  Apparently it was a big hit, she had 20 cheesecakes to make for Thanksgiving this year!!!  Anyways, here's some pictures from Jayce's First Thanksgiving!!

We also went to cut down our Christmas Tree.  We went to Beaver Meadows Resort Ranch to do it this year.  Let's just say it's nice to have an alternative to the limited dates of the Forest Service . . . but I think they will our first choice.  Beaver Meadows was just lacking in tree selection.  It's been picked over pretty clean, and it's a small cutting area, so it didn't take long to grab one and go!  I will say that's a plus though.  I think we had the thing picked out, dragged back and on top the car in a little over an hour!  That may be a record!  It's also the smallest one we have ever chosen!  We were going for a smaller tree this year.  With Jayce walking now and grabby hands all over the place, we thought it best to stick with around 8-10 ft tall.  I think we got one a little over 8 feet.  It's perfect though!  Nice and full and round.  I love it!  And so does Riley!  After we got it put up and decorated he kept saying "I love my new Christmas Tree!"  (of course everything is "new" now - "I love my new pillow pet" (that he got last year for Christmas), "I love my new bed" (after I change and wash his sheets), I love my new Fill In The Blank!")  Although it was hilarious the next morning when I came downstairs and he looked at me with the most pitiful face and said in the saddest voice "There's no presents under the tree!"  It was so hard not to laugh while trying to explain to him that it's not Christmas YET.  Guess I should have started the Advent Calendar before putting up the Christmas Tree!!

Oh yeah, one more thing I wanted to tell you about.  I love my boys.  I want them to have the best Christmas, but I also want to save some money.  So...I did it.  I went out Black Friday Shopping.  AND I WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN!!!  I worked retail for 5 years and HATED working black friday. So I swore I would never go out and be one of those psychos on the other side of the counter!  Well, like I said, I love my boys . . . so much that I caved . . . and went out.  Not only that, but I went to TOYS R US!!!  I have to be NUTS!!  They opened at 9 pm Thursday night.  So I put the boys in bed and headed out.  Got there a little before 9 and walked to the store to find a line at the entrance.  Expected.  So I went searching for the end of the line.  And I walked, and walked, and walked, and walked.  The line went all the way to Target (four stores over) and then crossed into the parking lot, went all the way to the back of the lot and then turned back west towards the Toys R Us!  It was NUTS!  So I waited.  This part wasn't so bad.  It was a little after 9:30 when I made it in the store.  Not too shabby.  (I was expecting that part)  So I went searching for the things on my list (1 in particular) which they didn't have.  Dag-nab-it!!  So I FINALLY found the other items I had scouted out and got in line to pay (at the back of the store).  It is now 10:00.  And I waited, and waited and waited and waited.  And then . . . waited some more!!  It was about 10 minutes to MIDNIGHT before I finally made it to the front of the line!!  It was Ridiculous!! (thankfully I had my trusty Twilight Books app on my phone to keep me entertained!!)  So all that waiting in line, to save $40 and change on toys (since I didn't get the big item I was shooting for).  Oh well.  Like I said, I love my boys.  I just hope they love me too!!!  ;)

Cameron scored big though.  My Christmas present this year (and probably fir the next 5 years) is a new camera!!  And with our trip coming up he gave it to me early!!!  I'm so excited to play with it on the plane!  I got a new camera, 2 lenses, and a polarized filter (so that the sun, sand, and water in Hawaii doesn't glare too much in the photos!!)   Thanks Cam!  I love you!  I promise to take beautiful pictures for you!

Speaking of pictures . . . we got some taken of the boys last week.  Some of Jayce for his birthday, and some Christmas ones of the boys in their matching Christmas sweaters.  The lady was really sweet, and she took a LOT of shots.  You can see all that she took HERE.  You can even order them right off the website . . . sorry we aren't sending any out of these - our deal on the photoshoot doesn't include enough copies.  So enjoy looking at them, oh yeah, the password is Nov232011.

Well, that's all for now!  G & G Louie get here this week, and then Cam and I are off to HAWAII!!  So my next update will be about that trip when we get back.  Also coming up, Jayce's Birthday!!!  Look for lots more to come!!

New Playset

Hi All!  Hope you are enjoying your exciting November!  We are!  Fall finally showed up (not too cold, not too hot!) and we are taking full advantage!  Last weekend we went to a friend's house to help them dismantle a play structure.  Jan and Tim's boys are now in college and they decided they wanted to remove the play set the boys played on for years and put in a more "adult friendly" bench and water feature.  But thankfully they didn't want to just throw out the play set.  SO. . . they gave it to us - FREE!!!  Not only that, but they helped us take it apart and move it to our house!  We are so blessed to have such generous friends!  So anyways, last Sunday we spent the afternoon (and a good part of the evening) taking apart the playset and moving it to our house.  Riley was so excited . . . everyday last week he would ask me "is Daddy going to build my playset today?"  So Finally Saturday he set aside the time to do it. 

Disassembling at Jan's House

Reassembling at our house (this is quite a ways into it already)

Riley can't get enough, and it's not even finished yet!

Yay!  All Done: "treehouse", slide, rope swing, swing, climbing net, monkey bars, room for sandbox underneath, and more!

It took awhile with just the two of us (ok, mostly Cam on his own).  And some very nice neighbors stopped over to help us stand the thing upright.  But he finished it all in one day!  Riley couldn't be happier!  He has played on it nearly non-stop since it was put together.  It's supposed to be nice all week this week, so I'm sure he'll be out there everyday! 

In other news, Jayce is getting more steady on his feet.  He's walking 3 and 4 steps confidently now (away from the couch) and standing for just about everything.  My guess is by his birthday (which is only a month away now - sheesh!) he will be walking almost everywhere!  Ugh! 

Yes, it's only a month until Jayce turns 1 year old!  I can't believe it.  And I know this month is going to go fast!  Next week is pretty busy for us, MOPS, pictures, a Girl's Night Out for me, and Breaking Dawn comes out (SO EXCITED FOR THAT ONE!!! - I may spend the entire weekend in the movie theater!!) Then the next week is Thanksgiving.  Once again a quiet Holiday at home with just us.  Then on Friday we are going to go cut our Christmas Tree.  Cam has some work shutdown days on Saturday and Sunday, so we are going to skip black friday (not that I care to venture out in it anyways - 5 years working retail cured me of that!!) and go Christmas Tree cutting instead. 

Then the week after Thanksgiving is another busy week - The Week Before HAWAII!!!  All our last minute prepping and Grandma & Grandpa Louie are coming!  They are going to stay with the boys while Cam and I take a MUCH NEEDED vacation to the beach!  I can't wait!  Cam's running in the Xterra Challenge Race there and so we are taking some extra time to relax.  2 or so days of sightseeing, 1 day of hiking, and the rest it's just laying on the beach!!!  Now that's MY kind of Vacation! 

Then we get back and it's Jayce's Birthday Party, early Christmas with G&G Louie before they leave, and then just another week until Christmas!  Wow, the rest of this year is gonna go fast! 

Look out world!!

Well, Halloween was a great day for us!  Riley let me paint his face, and LOVED it!!  He got so many comments and I think he really liked the attention.  We went trick-or-treating around Old Town in the morning, got a TON of candy and lots of complements. 

Then we stopped at McDonald's for lunch (a REAL treat in our house!), which may have been a bad choice on Mommy's part.  There are a couple of McDonald's in Fort Collins, but instead of going to the one in the middle of town with the playplace (a kid friendly one) I thought it would be easiest to go to the one on the way home, at the intersection of Highway 14 and I-25.  Sounds reasonable right?  Well, We had the time, and it would be easier to go inside to eat rather than go through the drive-through so in we went.  FORGETTING that I had dressed up for Halloween with the boys!  Needless to say the McDonald's at 14 and I-25 doesn't see too many kids (clean floors and tables, not much room for strollers, smaller tables, etc.) mostly truckers, construction workers and farmers from the east side of 25.  At least that's how I saw it when in I walked dressed like a black cat (face paint and ears, and even a tail!) and two equally costumed children and received stares from EVERYONE in the restaurant!!  Ok, maybe the lady behind the counter wearing the devil horns wasn't staring, but everyone else in the very crowded restaurant took a double take at us.  I learned my lesson: If you are going to dress up with the kids, pick a lunch place where there are other moms who understand and appreciate the effort, or at least utilize the drive-up window!! 

Anyways, back to our eventful day!  After the dreaded McDonald's incident, we went home and exhausted Jayce took a nice long nap.  When Jayce is napping I try to have one-on-one time with Riley, and I had some Halloween activities lined up that I wanted to do.  First was Cookies!  I had gotten some cute spooky cookie cutters and so we tried them out!  After making the cookies I wanted to add a few spooky decorations to the front porch for trick-or-treaters.  I found this great bat idea (good ol' Martha!) using clothespins.  So Riley helped me paint the clothespins black, I cut out the bats, and we glued them on.  When they were all dry we hung them outside in our "cob-web fabric".  Riley thought it was SO Spooky! 

By then it was time for dinner.  So we scarfed down our homemade calzones, touched up our make-up and headed out for Trick-or-Treating!  Riley had a blast running from house to house.  But by about halfway through Mommy had to hold the candy bag between houses.  I will admit, he did have a lot of candy!  This kid made out like a bandit! 

Jayce stayed home with Daddy to pass out candy.  He was pretty trick-or-treated out after a full weekend of it.  But he did get his own time to shine that day!  He discovered he can walk!  He had been taking a few onesie twosie steps and falling into the couch to cut corners, but this was the first time he had taken more than just a step.  I was finally able to catch it on video last night! 

He is such a big boy (in a little boy's body!)  He's still wearing 6-9 mo. clothes so it's funny to see this tiny little thing walking!  Well, we are off to Oshkosh for some additional winter clothes!  We got even more snow yesterday, and even more coming on Saturday.  Sounds like we skipped fall this year and went straight to winter!!