Thanksgiving Day

I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving was here, and now gone...just like that.  We, including Grandma Helland, celebrated this year by joining the Townsend Family (Steve's cousins on his dads side).  Everyone participated by bringing dishes to pass. Steve and I brought some appetizers and my mom's all time holiday favorite, creamed corn casserole (yummy). I started cooking by 9:00am in the morning after getting the boys all cleaned up from breakfast.  Steve is so good with the boys. He took them outside to play for just over an hour or so.  I was able to get so much accomplished during that time. Once they went down for their morning nap, I finished making the corn casserole.  Sometimes it can be exhausting packing the boys up and bringing all their items (portable highchairs, play yards, snack bag, diaper bag, toys, extra clothes, etc), but at the end of the day 1) they are so good when we go out and 2) we pack up ahead of time so that we are not doing everything at the last minute.  Once the boys woke up after their nap, we fed them lunch, changed, and off we went...

As soon as we got to Fred's house, we started warming up the appetizers. The boys always get excited when we go somewhere new and so we have to spend a good chunk of our time exploring, ahem; almost the entire time we spend exploring :). It was nice because Steve could watch one little boy while I watched the other little boy. :)  We knew they would not take their afternoon nap because of all the excitement, and so whenever I know we are going somewhere that entails a lot of action, I tend to push their morning nap so they go down later. It worked; however, Zach started to get really tired by 6:00. Dinner was originally planned for 5pm, but we didn't sit down to eat until 6pm (dinner for the boys is at 5pm). With that said we tried to give them some of our dinner but after their meal, getting really tired from all the walking and playing, the boys were not up for more food. That was okay. We put our dinner off to the side, realizing we would just eat later. We then got them in their jammies, got sippy cups of milk, and put them down in Fred's spare bedroom. They both were a little fussy but realized with Zach that he wanted the play yard Jack was in :) and so we switched them...ha. Zach fell asleep and Jack fell asleep after about 10 minutes. It is unusual for the boys to go to bed as early as they did, which was about 6:30, but they must take after mommy...when I am tired, I am tired. Jack woke up around 9:30 (which was unusual as well). Although the play yards are never as comfy as their own bed.  In any event that was our queue to pack up the play yards and make our way back home. The boys went straight to bed with no peeps. Such good boys. Jack slept just passed 7am and Zach woke up around 6:45am. Overall, what a great holiday, minus fun filled pictures. This is one thing about me in that I am so caught up playing with the boys that there are many times that I find myself saying that would have been a great photo. Thank goodness for Steve's phone! :)

I decided that I wanted to do something different since the boys are getting older.  Here is flashback #1 from the boys' 1st Thanksgiving to the boys' 2nd Thanksgiving. It is amazing to see the transition.

Jack and Zach (1st Thanksgiving --- just about 6 months)



Zach and Jack (2nd Thanksgiving --- just about 18 months)
**Zach was not in the Kodak mood...:)

We spent the rest of the weekend just relaxing and having a great time. As we did back home in Fox Lake, we would decorate for Christmas the day after. I would decorate the inside while Steve hung up the lights outside, etc. Well, this year is slightly different as we are still in the apartment. All of our holiday decor is back in Fox Lake :(, in addition we will be packing up our belongings the week after Christmas getting ready to move into our new house (yes, that post is coming). That didn't stop us. Since we are tight on space, and were already at The Home Depot, we decided to pick up a 4ft lighted tree. It works for now...next year will be a whole lot different! Plus, we can use this lighted tree in our new house.  The boys in less than one day are attached to the Christmas Tree. We ask them both where the Christmas Tree is and instantly they get up from playing and run over pointing at the tree. It is great! We point to the lights, cranberries (cherries), and pine cones telling the boys what the object is in parallel. What made this even more exciting is we could hear in Zach's voice that he was trying to say cherries. Steve and I just about fell to the floor. I mean saying Mommy and Daddy is just as exciting, but cherries is just wonderful. :) I have an inclining they will be chatter boxes very soon just given their demeanor now.



The "Apartment" Christmas Tree

The boys are scheduled to take their holiday formal photo on Sunday, December 5th. I hope this goes okay, meaning having both of them look at the camera...at the same time. That seems to be the challenge these days the older they get. We will put our faith in the hands of the photographer! :)

The boys are slowly getting into watching a little TV. I like the fact they are not fans of TV, but we do love watching them get so excited when Elmo's World comes on. We don't let them climb all over the furniture, but will allow them to site on the kitchen chairs only for TV. As soon as they hear the intro for Elmo's World...watch out! They try to push the chairs over in front of the TV so they can watch their show. Here is a shot of them from Saturday morning.

View from above...

Zach and Jack watching Elmo's World



Later that day we got the boys outside to run around the tennis courts. They love it! We tend to bring some toys and this time around we brought with us their wagon-trucks. Just shortly after they started walking many month ago, Steve would pop them in the wagon and push them around...faces lit up like Christmas Tree lights. We still pop them inside as often as we can; they are getting heavier. :) The boys will take turns pushing each other around.  Steve was able to snap some photos in addition to Zach giving Jack a hug. I love this; that one minute they are mad at each other because of a toy and in the next minute they show so much love to one another!

Jack getting pushed around by Zach



I love my brother!

There is still so much to say, so stay tuned (we have found a house, Christmas photo, Jack's doctor appointment, and Grandma Smith is visiting in addition to Grandma and Grandpa Helland)

live.laugh.love