november randoms

he is the happiest when he is outside. she is the happiest when she is coloring. everything. sharing our best friend with our siblings. a day outside with spiderman. bath time smiles.

 

thanksgiving

This was our very first Thanksgiving as a family where we didn't travel anywhere or go to a friend's house to spend the day. We stayed home and had a very mellow and very low key dinner and it was actually quite nice and relaxing.

We started our morning off by eating our favorite Wayne's french toast and then planted ourselves on the comfy couches to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. To my surprise the kids actually enjoyed it(when the big balloons were on) and they got super excited when they saw spiderman, mickey mouse and snoopy!

I spent most of the morning baking yummy desserts and treats for us and a few friends to enjoy. The pumpkin bars were especially delicious! :)

  And while I cooked our yummy dinner I had a few helpers in the kitchen to keep me company. 

Our little Oliver is getting so big! 13 pounds to be exact! 

Love watching these two bond! 

  Look who found his thumb! He doesn't suck it all the time and actually prefers his binkie over it, but every now and then you can find him like this! pretty cute!

  And like I said, it was really low key. So we pretty much stayed in sweats and pj's for the day. 

I cooked a turkey breast that had the bones still in and made two kinds of potatoes, roasted squash, cornbread stuffing, rolls and salad. Nothing special but still yummy. 

  And after dinner, Sabrina entertained me by coloring and singing while I cleaned up the kitchen. 

Coloring is Sabrina's new favorite thing and she will color for hours. I love watching her because she gets so serious about it. Maybe she will take after me? :) 

  We really did enjoy our little holiday, but nothing beats celebrating and spending time with family. Looking forward to Christmas when we travel to Denver. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday too!!

 

silver dollar city

Back in May we headed down to Branson, MO. for a family fun weekend. We ended up spending some time at Silver Dollar City and just absolutely loved it! So much that we bought a season pass.  So when it came time to plan what we would be doing for thanksgiving we decided to head down to Branson and use up our pass again.

This was Sabrina's first time riding the rides. At first she wasn't quite sure about these things and was very nervous about them, but after a little while she eased up and began to enjoy them more. 

And can I just say I LOVED not being pregnant this time! I actually got to ride the rides and have fun with the kiddos! It was a blast! 

And of course Chase was his usual dare devil self. Just riding every single ride he was big enough for and having a blast. 

I absolutely loved riding the rides with him. He just laughs and squeals the entire time and it's so infectious. I couldn't help but laugh and smile with him, we just loved it! 

Sabrina loved watching daddy and Chase up in the big swings. She would get excited every time they would swing by. 

The neat thing that Silver Dollar City does this time of year is cover everything up in Christmas lights and perform various light shows and Christmas parades. The kids loved looking at all the lights and as we were waiting for the parade to start, I decided to nurse Oliver hidden by these three little Christmas trees. Each one was a different color and the kids decided to pick their favorites; Chase's was red, Fisher's was green and Sabrina's yellow. Once the light show began, the trees turned on and off with the music and they all thought this was super awesome! They just stood there jumping up and down and watching the lights on the trees. So fun to watch! 

  And just a few more pics I took with my camera phone. We love, love going to Branson! So much to see and do and this trip was way too short for us! Can't wait to go again soon!! 

our adventures :: instagram

oliver : : two months

Our little Oliver is growing! He is getting big and chunky and long! Both Wayne and I can hardly believe how fast our little guy is growing.

But he is still the sweetest and calmest little thing. 

He has become quite the mama's boy. He loves it when I am holding him or near and can be quite fussy in other people's arms. But he will still smile and talk and coo with you. His personality is growing too, which I am totally loving. He smiles when you are changing him(he HATES messy diapers) and will talk to you while you are giving him a bath. Speaking of baths, bath time for Oliver usually involves his brothers and sister's help and he loves the attention he gets while getting cleaned.

And out of all his siblings, he loves watching Sabrina the most. He just stares and follows her with his eyes. He gives her smiles and will try to talk with her, it's really cute to watch. 

He doesn't mind his big brothers either. Fisher is learning to not get so close. He likes to always check on Oliver and make sure Oliver has plenty of company. He also likes to stick his face right in Oliver's face, and Oliver is beginning to not like that so much. So we are working on boundaries and stuff. But it is still sweet to see the big kids be so amazingly loving to their little brother. 

But oh are we so completely in love this sweet little guy! 

  We have definitely been blessed to have Oliver be such an easy baby for us. With the craziness this family can ensue its been nice to have a laid back, take it easy, go with the flow kind of kid. He loves sleeping in his crib or in my arms the best, and is pretty happy hanging out in his bouncing chair or play-mat while I get dinner ready or kids off to school. He gets pretty upset if he has a dirty diaper and will just love and smile at you while you change it. Plus, he has finally blessed this tired mama with 6-7 hour sleep stretches at night now. So thankful for that!

Oliver's two months stats:

will know for sure next week but he weighs close to 1l pounds

wears size one diapers

wearing 3 month clothing that looks like it is getting pretty snug.

Loving our little(or should i say big) chunk! Those cheeks! They are so fun to kiss and smooch!!

fall randoms

Spending lots of time outside in the sun! And tummy time is always better with a friend by your side!

 

growing

Happy eight weeks little guy!!

 

*yawn*

movember

As you may have noticed in previous pictures, Wayne has been growing a nice Grizzly Adams type beard. Apparently he was growing it for a good reason. 

  Movember. 

What is Movember you ask? 

During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of mustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo's, these men raise vital awareness and funds for men's health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives.(source: http://us.movember.com/about/) 

So early morning on November 1st, the beard began to disappear... 

Into this awesome stash. 

Let's be honest. I am not a big fan of mustaches. They kind of creep me out, and there have been many times when Wayne and I are having a discussion and I brake out into a laugh or a big smile because I really can't take him seriously with that hairy thing on his lip. 

But, it's for an amazing cause and he convinced over 20 buddies from his office to join in and create a team. So that totally makes up for the creepiness factor. Here is the link to his team if you would like to donate: http://us.movember.com/mospace/4176865 

 

 You stay classy San Diego!