Happy Holidays!

We took the kids to a studio yesterday afternoon for their holiday picture and, although Hannah really didn’t smile for any of the pictures and looks less than thrilled about being photographed (which is CRAZY because she’s such a happy baby and smiles all the time), we ended up with more than enough pictures for our holiday card.  But… because it took so dang long for me to get the card together it’s looking a bit iffy for cards to be delivered before Christmas.  Thankfully they say “Happy Holidays” so really, they’re Happy New Year cards, too!

While she didn’t smile for her pictures she couldn’t be prouder of herself:

Daredevil

I think she’s trying to kill me – the child is a daredevil who  makes a beeline for the nearest sharp object, elevated surface or electrical cord.  Where her brother was content to lay around and pretty much wait for us to bring him somewhere or bring things to him this child will not. stop. moving.  Case in point – she has finally figured out how to do the traditional hands and knees crawl:

Hold me!

This is what happened during out Christmas card photo shoot this weekend.  Do I even need to say that we’re trying again this weekend?

And for whatever reason, turning 31 seems like I’m SO much older than it did when I turned 30.  Who would have thought this would be the ‘hard’ birthday?

I figure the least I could do was update with some of the pictures from Thanksgiving weekend.

Tonight Brian and I went to dinner at a new local-ish (about 20 min drive away so not that local) restaurant for dinner and Blake and Hannah had a babysitter – a non-family member babysitter – one of the daycare teachers from Blake’s room.  This was a first for Blake (and only second time for Hannah).  And now I’m seriously considering having the babysitter come over every night and put Blake to sleep because she said after reading 4 books it took about 10 min total.  What?!?  Brian and I have spent, on average, 30 min waiting for him to fall asleep each night (because if we don’t then boy, is there sobbing).  Who knows…  Maybe we’ve turned a corner!

In other news I am now on the “maintenance” phase of Weight Watchers.  Even with the holiday (during which I didn’t go too crazy, surprisingly) I managed to continue the weight loss and now I’m allowed a few more daily points.  At some point I’ll post a final before and after picture (which I don’t think will be that dramatic but obviously will show some change) but right now I think I’m going to do the opposite of healthy and lay on the couch and watch TV!

Bring it on, December!

Very thankful as a matter of fact!

For whatever reason it is clear to me this year, more than any other, how bless/lucky/fortunate we truly are.  Brian and I both have good jobs (and heck, I even found a new job in a very tough economic time) and our kids are happy and healthy.  We have a roof over our heads and we are able to put food on the table and heat our home.  So rather than complain about the minutae of everday life (which, come ON, I’m so good at) I’m just going to say this:

I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Note:  I set this up to auto-post on Thanksgiving because although other are particpating in NaBloPoMo in November I’m apparently particpating in NaBloNoPoMo – National Blog No Posting Month and I’d like to try and fix that)

Or not…

My last day of work before starting my new job was Friday the 13th.  On Thursday the 12th Hannah came down with what was apparently (thank you for making me feel guiltier) very bad ear infections.  Poor little thing got her temperature up to 102!  So until about 4 days ago we weren’t getting much in the way of sleep around these parts.  Add in to that me being nervous because I started a new job on Monday (the 16th), a birthday party on Saturday (the 14th) and a baby shower on Sunday (the 15th) – in Madison, 2 hours away – and that sort of explains why things are a little lacking on the blog update front.

Heck, I still have House from MONDAY on the DVR to watch!  And I don’t even have to make that hellish commute anymore.  Seriously – it is WONDERFUL.  There are no words to describe how much more relaxed I am now that I don’t have to rush so much in the morning because I know that even if I leave the house at 7:30 I will get to work by 8:00 (when before I would have been walking in somewhere closer to 9:00).  All that means I can be home, workout complete, by 5:30 most nights!  This week was relatively hectic because I also had to work on baby shower and birthday party invitations so after putting the kids to bed I walked around the crafts and scrapbook store unable to make a decision.  Seriously – I have to make returns to 3 stores because I changed my mind later.  But – the invites were finished and dropped in the mail today.

Tomorrow we have a girls day doing some holiday shopping (although I think I’m mostly done but am in desperate need of some new work pants for myself).  I’m hoping to do some updating over the Thanksgiving holiday because I do have a ton of pictures – and at that point I think things will have slowed a bit so that I can actually sit and get things done!

This morning Brian and I ran the “Jingle Bell Run” at the Milwaukee Zoo.  In honor of the occasion Blake wore a Christmas shirt – he wasn’t out of place considering there were jingle bells to tie on your shoes, and Santa, an Elf and a bunch of presents were running the race, too.  So yeah, maybe we looked a little strange walking around the zoo afterwards… and going to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  But that’s not why I say our name could be Griswald….

We put up our Christmas lights this afternoon.

Yep, I’m not proud but when you live in northern Illinois and you have a weekend in November with 70-degree weather you take advantage of it.  And we did!  But we are NOT turning them on until after Thanksgiving so I think that makes it slightly better.

I can’t believe how nice the weather was this weekend – when I signed up for the race I was thinking I’d be running bundled up – I even bought a pair of gloves!  It ended up being one of the better races I’ve run – not too hot and not too cold.  I think the great weather for the run today (which I haven’t found our chip times for yet) I’m in the mood for another race – even thinking about one on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s day (hey – the give you a bottle of champagne!) but I’m guessing those races won’t have 60-degree start temperatures…

The fact that we were able to see the zoo afterwards made it that much better. While we were walking to the first exhibit we asked Blake what animal he’d like to see and he said he wanted to see a peacock.  Not really knowning where the birds were, and thinking maybe many of the animals would be staying indoors I was like, great…  we’re going to have to walk around the entire zoo to look for a peacock and we’re not going to see one and it’s going to end in a tantrum and crying and man oh man…  And then what do you think was walking down the path towards us (seriously, not even in an exhibit but walking. down. the path):

Jingle Bell Run and... the Zoo!

I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief!  I don’t think you can quite tell but in the picture with the cheetah Blake is moving away from the window as quickly as possible – the cheetah kept walking past and eyeing everyone – and Blake was SO brave (even hitting the window)… until the cheetah came back!

Hannah was also with us but for the majority of the visit this is what she did:

Napping at the Zoo

I’m gearing up for my last week of work before starting my new job next Monday.  Here’s to  new things!

*Side note…  This morning we were thinking we’d have no problem getting up and leaving the house by 7:00 considering one, or both, of the kids are usually up by 6:00 every day.  Yeah… no such luck today!  Hannah had a rough night and after I handed her off to Brian at 5:30 (after being up with her from 4-5:30) she proceeded to sleep until just about 7:00!  And Blake slept until 6:45!!!  What the heck?!?

I still sort of can’t believe I posted that information on the web – and at this point I’m going to post fast and furiously until it disappears off the main page!

I have a week longer at my client site and then next Friday is my last day at my current job.  I’m looking forward to the shorter commute but I’m starting to get a bit sad about leaving my current company – they’ve been great to me (and I’m not just saying that) and I’m hoping I can keep in touch with the friends I’ve made.   Heck, one has decided to run the 1/2 Marathon with me in May (or so he says) so I’m hoping I can hold him to it!

We’re starting to get things planned for Blake’s 3rd birthday party – I can’t believe it’s just over a month away!  We were looking at old videos the other night trying to look at milestones (and see how crazy similar he and Hannah are!) and it seems like just yesterday he was a little guy who just kept opening his mouth for more peas.  Yeah, that’s not going to happen today!

It’s almost scary how much they look alike…  But at the same time I also think they are SO different!

Two things, really (for those of you looking for kid updates you are more than welcome to skip #2 all together):

1:  Hannah is now doing a modified crawl (not quite a military crawl but more of a flop and wiggle move).  Here’s a quick video (she was getting tired so she took a lot of breaks, this is just a quick one).  She’s only 6 months old (and change) – that’s just too darn early!!!

2:  Now that October has come to an end I’m finished with the Shredheads challenge and I’m crazy enough to post my before and after stats, with photos.  Yep, I’m gonna do it!  I’m proud of my progress and can definitely tell I’m in better shape physically – and heck, if I can win a prize then all the better!  I also have to give massive props to the group set up over there – the support and motivation is awesome so if you’re looking to get in/get back in shape that’s a great place to start.  It’s certainly motivated me – and maybe even Brian, too, because we’re going to run a 5K on Sunday!

Because my Weight Watchers weigh-in days are on Tuesdays my dates fall a little outside of the month of October but I think/hope that’s okay.  From September 29 to November 3 I lost 4.5 pounds (down from 128.5 to 124) and 3.5 inches from the places I’ve been taking measurements(1 from my waist, 0.5 from my hips and 2 from my thigh – and I’m dumb because I’ve only been measuring one thigh)

So yes, I’ve officially lost it – I have posted my weight and pictures of my bare stomach on the internet.  Let the mocking begin (Brian… I’m looking in your direction).

I could watch this over and over all day:

(that’s what Blake says when we ask him what holiday it is or what all of the decorations are for in our neighborhood – Halloween-time)

I have a CRAPLOAD of candy left over and I am trying to figure out how to save it so I have an emergency choclate stash (shut up) and also get rid of it so I don’t eat it…  If I was smart I would buy candy that I don’t like to eat – but obviously I’m not!  The reason we have so much is the first year we lived in our house we ran out of candy during trick-or-treat and ever since we have been terrified of running out again.  Seriously – I was warning Brian that we were getting low and he waited and waited until finally we had one bag left and I ran out to the store to get more (which is the WORST idea ever because they jack up the prices and I spent gobs of money on candy that cost like 1/10 as much the day before).  While I was gone he actually did run out of candy and was looking furiously around the house for things to give out and – I’m not kidding – thought of passing out free restaurant matchbooks!  Yes, he’s a genius!  Because clearly matchbooks are a better choice than the granola bars we have in the house.  I’m just sayin’…  Since that year we over-buy EVERY SINGLE YEAR and end up populating the work candy dishes for months.  But honestly I think it’s all worth it in the end because it was AWFUL to run out!

Before we went begging for candy we had swimming lessons:

Swimming Lessons

Then we decorated our pumpkins – I got this set of Mr. Potato Head-like things (monsters and animals) and Brian and Blake had fun making up different combinations and decorating the pumpkins.  It was probably for the best that we didn’t carve them because, unfortunately, some of them were rotting (gross!).

Pumpkins!!!

After naps we spent a good amount of time telling Blake that no, it wasn’t time for trick or treat yet.  But then we got the kiddos dressed and loaded up into the wagon (which, unfortunately, I don’t have very good pictures of):

Halloween-time!!!

Yes, Blake’s top is on backwards.  Yes, we fixed it before he went out trick-or-treating.  Both kids had a full-layer (plus more in some cases) of clothing on beneath their costumes because it was COLD!  Like last year Brian went out trick-or-treating with the other dads and kids in our neighborhood while I handed out candy with the other moms.  This year the food and drinks were set up across the street in our neighbor’s garage (where there was a space heater – inside – and a bonfire – outside)  so I got to hang out for a bit while Brian walked the kids in the wagon.  After a short trip around the block he dropped Hannah off with me, took a little break for all the kids to warm up, and then they went back out.  I think the fresh air was awesome because Blake fell asleep in like 5 minutes tonight!  If there was a way to trick-or-treat without candy I just might have him do it more often!

Brian’s across the street at the party while I’m monitoring the kids post-No More Trouble Zones workout (which, I did the full one instead of the “Quick” version and wow… now I remember why I usually choose the quick option).  I think we’ll all sleep well tonight!

Happy Halloween!

(I was totally going to post a ridiculously cute video of Hannah laughing but YouTube is taking FOR.EV.ER to process the video…  And I’m old so I’m getting tired!  Another day – I promise.)