My Love/Hate Relationshiop with November

I can write this now that the month is nearly over. November has turned into our craziest month of the year. Most people start their stress in December, but mine eases considerably as soon as Thanksgiving weekend is over! I have lots of blogs in my head that need to be created and posted, but this one will have to do for now while I catch my breath.

November always kicks off right after Halloween and the time that we take our annual family pictures. We started November by celebrating my dad's birthday in Decatur at which all of his sisters were there to celebrate. It was a nice surprise! My grandparents recently moved into an assisted living facility as they are unable to live independently anymore. It is a really nice place and it was great being able to see all of my aunts. I volunteered to bring the cake since I was making Jacob's practice birthday cake the night before. Well, I'll talk more in another blog about this, but it turned out HORRIBLY! I tried to fix it for my dad's party, but it just got worse. Dan convinced me that it still tasted good, and since it was just family, what did it matter? Well, everyone got a kick out of it and my tears over it turned to laughter too.

The next weekend Dan and I got away for the first time since before kids. We celebrated our 11th anniversary on 11-11-11, so how could we not do something special?!! We ventured over to Peoria for the night and did some shopping, ate a nice dinner, and went to a comedy club where Kevin Pollack was performing. We had a good time! We are so grateful for my Dad and Debbie taking the kids for us!! We desperately needed the time away and it was nice :)

Jacob turned 4 a few days later and then we had his first friend and family party that weekend. I underestimated the time and energy those take! I'll share more on that later, but it was a lot of fun and went well.

The next week we celebrated Thanksgiving three days in a row with family and the weekend ended with me being sick, yet having to work a TON just to get caught up on a deadline I had. We somehow managed to get the house all decked out with Christmas decorations and lights too, which was a priority for me to get done. The kids LOVE them!

On top of everything else we both have been crazy busy with work and have also been tackling home projects (more on that later). I'm leaving out a lot of other miscellaneous things that we have had going on, but you get the drift.

After proofing this, I realize this comes across as whiny. As stressful as November is and as exhausted as it makes me, each event was filled love, laughter, family, friends, and great memories. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Looking back, each year gets busier than the last, so I guess it strengthens you for what's ahead :)

Outtakes

I hear a lot that we have cute pictures of the kids. Well, it's because I only pick out the good ones to share! There are LOTS that get deleted. I have no idea how people managed having any decent pictures of little kids before digital cameras! Anyways, I save a few outtakes of our photo shoot to share with you :)

Halloween Weekend

We squeezed a couple of Halloween activities into the weekend before Halloween. We made cut-out pumpkin cookies and the kids actually cut them out themselves and decorated most of them. We passed them out to their teachers along with homemade cards. We also carved pumpkins and used patterns for the first time. I feel like they turned out well and I am anxious to try out new designs next year!

The kids loved trick-or-treating this year and they went around the neighborhood with our neighbors, the Tuppers. Jacob kept pace with the other kids, but Bailey lagged some. She's just in her own world sometimes! The kids got quite a bit of candy and it should keep them motivated to eat their dinners for awhile!!

Albums Back Up

I didn't realize it until lately, but my last two photo albums (Wisconsin Dells and Fall Photo Shoot) were not accessible to view to anyone but me. Well, I fixed the issue, so take a look!

Halloween Parties

The kids had their Halloween parade at daycare along with parties in their classes afterwards. I felt like a ping-pong ball bouncing between both their parties, but I had a great time. Bailey's class decorated pumpkins, read a story, played "where's the skeleton bone", and had fun snacks. Jacob's class read a spooky story, played Halloween bingo, decorated pumpkins, dropped popsicle sticks in a pumpkin, and had snacks.

I usually ask the kids what their favorite part of their days are and that night Bailey said it was her party. When I asked her what part of the party was her favorite, she said "having mommy there". I absolutely melted!

Parade and a Party

A few weeks ago we took the kids to the ISU Homecoming parade. We had a great time and the kids got lots of candy. We left halfway through it so we could go to our niece's 6th birthday party out of town. The kids had fun and it was nice to see Dan's mom and sister. We figured the kids would take a nap on the way back home. Wrong! Since they loaded up on cake and ice cream prior to leaving they were absolutely wired!! This was the first time that Bailey skipped a nap. It was an early bedtime that night for sure :)

Here are some pictures from the day. You'll see one picture of Jacob eating cake. The reason for the picture is because all the other kids were seated at two tables in the room and Jacob didn't have anywhere to sit. He quietly went to another room, grabbed a toddler chair, and brought it back and faced it away from everyone else and peacefully ate his cake and ice cream. He wasn't mad, but just handled the situation very maturely. It was almost sad to see him by himself, but I was also a proud momma for how he handled the situation :)

Fall 2011 Photo Shoot

We took family pictures a couple of weeks ago on ISU's campus while the weather was nice, the trees still had leaves, and while we had family in town. My sister was here for the day and my dad came for a few hours as well. I made the mistake of giving the kids a lot of juice beforehand, so they were hyped up on sugar. Bailey is also in the nose-picking phase and with having a cold, it didn't help the situation! Several pictures were ruined by her finger in her nose :( Any suggestions out there on breaking this habit? It's seriously a major issue right now. Anyways, afterwards we grabbed a quick dinner at McD's and then went to the Haunted Trail here in town. It was a fun, yet tiring day!

Photo Shoot Album

Fall 2011 Photo Shoot

Pictures while waiting for the Haunted Trail

Pumpkin Farm

We went to Rader Farms a few weekends ago while we had a free Saturday and nice weather. The kids could have played there all day! This is the fourth year in a row that we've gone and it just keeps getting bigger and better! One thing about having kids is that you get to relive your childhood again through them!