Thanksgiving...

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Garet's dad.  They live in the mountains in Virginia and it took us about 3 hours to drive there.  On the way Colin insisted that he was NOT tired.  But, alas, I was right again...

 

I actually forgot my good camera (crazy right?!) so you get an overload of iPhone pictures =)

 

The first night we were there, Garet's dad showed us this "Blueberry Moonshine" that he had gotten.  So, of course, we had to sample it =)

 

They live in the "valley" versus "on the mountain"... so the next day we drove to the top of the mountain to see what it looked like up there.  We knew that it was snowing and the slopes were open, but, wow was it cold!!

 

They said it is always about 10-15 degrees colder up there. 
And we could hardly see where we were going! 

 

I am totally fine just hanging out inside! 
Garet and his dad hung out in workshop too... they made a stool for Colin!

I love it!  (this is before it was painted)  I think it is amazing that Garet went to him with an idea, and boom.  It was done. 

 

Addison and Suzi hanging out...

 

Barbara tried to do a craft with Colin... but the glue just wasn't cooperating. 

The kids were both battling colds (and now so am I...) so we tried to have down time.  Colin has this awful cough!  While we were there, Colin discovered Snoopy.  And LOVES him! 

 

Thanksgiving morning =)

 

Addison and I hung out inside while Barbara went to an exercise class and the boys got a fire going outside.

 

 Oh, surprise!  Colin playing with cars and trains! 

 

The fire stayed going all morning and into the afternoon...

 

... so Colin got all bundled up and helped throw sticks into the fire.  He's such a great helper.

 

Addison and I bundled up too.  We spent approximately 5 minutes out there.  If you look closely you will see the drippy nose.  Hers, not mine.  

 

After we had lunch, everyone else went back out to roast some s'mores!  Don't worry I got Garet to make me one too =)  It was such a pretty day! 

 

During nap time Barbara got everything ready for our Thanksgiving dinner!  When Garet went to get Colin from him nap, he took this picture:

 

Sweet, precious boy!
This is the only picture I got of our kids on Thanksgiving.  Guess it sums them up!

 

Barbara did an awesome job at making Thanksgiving dinner!  Here is Pop with Addison:

 

The high chair Addison used was Garet's dad's and his sisters growing up.  I love that!!  We did belt her in though =) 

 

 After dinner and the kids were in bed, we got out desserts!  Here is Garet with his apple pie...

 

It was such a great visit!  We had so much fun... since the kids were sick, and didn't seem to be getting better, we left a day early though.  On the way home, Colin was looking through Garet's pictures on his phone.  Seems that he figured out how to take some of himself... Garet found a few that looked like this afterwards =)

 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

Weekend away...

This past weekend, Colin went to stay with Garet's mom.  It is amazing how much I missed him!!!!  It was soooo quiet!  While he was gone, we got LOTS done!  We finished painting the living room AND the guest bath!  I will show pictures when it is completely done (like the curtains, pictures... )

 

So, Garet's mom was AMAZING at sending us updates- pictures and videos - of our little man!  I loved that!  He had a blast!  His cousin Carly was there too.  I think they all had a good time.  Here are just a few of the pictures I got this weekend...

Even though he had fun, and even though we got a lot done, I am so happy to have him home =)
While he was gone, this little lady started riding up front in the shopping cart, and sitting in a high chair at restaurants though!

 

Now we have to start preparing for Thanksgiving!  Wow!  It got here fast!

Halfway to one...

 I am keeping track of all the updates on Addison at the top of the blog... it is an easy way for me to click and look back on what was going on.

 

 

 Addison is six months old!
I took some pictures of her - Colin and Suzi came in for some pictures too =)

 

Addison is:
- eating oatmeal, fruits and veggies.  So far she likes everything she has had except the green beans.
- taking a nap twice a day, anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  Sleeps at night from 7/8 - 7 in the morning.  Sometimes waking to eat.
- sitting up.  She can do it for a long time, but when she is done she just falls... backwards, forwards, or sideways... I always keep a pillow handy =)
- grabbing anything in sight! 

 

- She LOVES her brother, probably as much as he loves her.  They are absolutely precious together.
- She loves to be outside.
- She hates her carseat and riding in the car.  Hates it.
- She likes to look at herself in the mirror.  And thinks she is hilarious.

 

In these pictures she is wearing a dress that my mom made me when I was a baby.  I took lots but I may use them for a Christmas card... so I'm not posting any more of them here =) 

We love our little lady!  She completes this family and has brought us so much joy!
Here is Colin at 6 months.

Halloween...

Here is our Halloween!

We got all dressed to go to Colin's preschool for a Halloween party...

 

It was adorable!

 

and the kids were sooooo quiet!!
 They had fun snacks... more like sweets.  All that was left on Colin's plate when he was finished were 2 grapes and a strawberry (with the chocolate licked off).

 

Then they had music class... which Colin LOVES.  He always talks about "Miss Robin" =)

 

(they were swinging scarfs)
That night after dinner, we got all dressed up to go trick or treating!

 

Addison and Colin love each other so much!  It is adorable! 

 

I was talking to Garet and said, "hold Addison while she sits on the fireplace" and I think Colin thought I was talking to him.  He sure tried to hold/hug/rock her...

 

Glad Garet was there =)
When we went out that night, Colin was super excited!  Here he is at his first house!

 

 He had to look at each piece of candy before he put it in his pumpkin.
 It was awesome to watch Colin's excitement in going to each house... "let's see who's next!"  "wonder what we will get!"  It was so so so precious!

 

 He was literally running to each house.  We only went down one street.  After he would get candy he would hold up his pumpkin and say, "I have A LOT!"  He was so cute!

 

Probably 3 houses in, this happened...

 

She fell right asleep!
When we got home, Colin got to pick 1 piece of candy to eat.  Then he helped pass out candy.  Everytime the doorbell would ring he would jump up and RUN to the front door.  He would tell everyone "Happy Halloween!" 
Garet and I were talking about how AMAZING it is to see everything through our kids eyes!  It is so wonderful!  We had a great Halloween! 

Camp...

This past weekend, Garet was in charge of camp.  (He works with the Boy Scouts and has campouts over the weekends that he has to go to).  This time, our whole family went!   We got to stay in a cabin - good thing because it got down to 20 degrees!!  The first night, after the kids were asleep, we hung out by the fire.

 

There wasn't any wifi or t.v. *gasp*  So, we had to talk and stuff like that.  I know, crazy, right?!
The next morning, like I said it was like 20 degrees, so there was fog over the lake.  This was our view out the window...

 

Those black things on the water were geese.  Colin loved seeing the "steam" everywhere.
This cabin we were in is for scouts.  So there were bunk beds.  We haven't encountered bunk beds before... here is Colin asking so sweetly, "Mommy, can I get up here?"

 

And here he is yelling, "Get. Me. Down!"

 

haha
We walked around camp, and Colin got to do this treasure chest toss.  The camp was a pirate theme, so there were kids dressed as pirates and fun activities.

 

Addison and I were there too.
By the way, I took my nice camera, but only took pictures with my iPhone.  Go figure.  So I did not realize how bright the sun was behind us.  But here we are anyway:

 

We walked down to the lake, which was so pretty!

 

And Colin threw rocks in.  The first thing he said when he saw the lake was, "I sure hope there are rocks to throw in there."  Precious.

Before nap we turned on Chuggington.  I thought this picture was funny of the two of them.

 

Then, while Colin napped, I got some special time with my girls.  Well, Suzi slept.  Addison and I played =)

After nap, we hung out at the camp office while Garet did some work.  We took Colin's Jeep, so while G looked after Addison, Colin and I had fun outside.

 

Then, Colin decided he wanted to run around camp.  This is a HUGE camp.  And Colin ran the whole way around it!  I couldn't believe he didn't slow down!  I actually had to jog a few times to keep up!  There he goes...

 

The next day we were about to load up to head back to the office... all the scouts were leaving that morning.  We got this picture while Addison slept =)

 

Once Garet got everyone checked out, we hung around waiting for his sister and her family to get there.  I walked with the kids over to the tee pees while G finished up in the office.

 

The weather was so perfect!  I still tried to bundle Addison because she started getting a cold (which got worse after this day!  Poor baby.)  Love my kids!

 

Once Garet's sister got here with her family, we showed them around.  Then all went back to our place to eat some lunch.  It was nice visiting with family!  After lunch, we all headed out to hike to the pirate ship!

 

Of course, Colin brought his wagon.
Here are the guys looking out over the front of the ship.

 

This is almost all of our crew hiking...

 

This is the view from where we were hiking.  Can you see the house?  That was where we stayed.

 

It was a lot of fun!  It is too bad that Garet works on weekends, but I love that we are able to do this with him sometimes!  Colin LOVES being out and about with his dad!  And it is amazing that we could stay at this camp.  It is beautiful there!  It is fun to see what Garet does while we are there too.  And it's neat to visit with the scouts.  We had lunch with one of the troops (or packs?  or dens?  Garet?  what is it again???), it is awesome that they really do everything over the open fire.  We had chili, and they had coffee (which was kept hot by the fire)  So neat.