Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we headed to Midland to spend the holiday with Jason's family.  We figured it made sense since we'll be going to Disney World over Christmas break with my family.  Unfortunately for Grandma Sharon (my mom), she's getting the shaft...just kidding!  It's hard to make everyone happy, I guess we'll have to make it up somehow.  We always joke that since she's from Canada, Thanksgiving really isn't her holiday, but anyway...

Sydney always enjoys going to Midland to see Grandma Polly and  Grandpa Joe.  She was especially excited because cousin Tyler was going to be in town and she just loves him.  She follows him around like a little puppy dog everywhere he goes.  Fortunately Tyler has a great personality and puts up with all of her requests and makes her laugh uncontrollably...it's so cute.

We ended up having a nice dinner with lots of realtives, which I always enjoy...the more the merrier!  The only tough part for me was sleepig.  I always have a hard time sleeping when I'm not in my own bed.  Jason ended up sleeping in a room with Lizzy (she had an awful cold and was caughing and sniffling) since he can sleep through anything.  It seems like guys have this ability to not hear the kids when they wake up!  I guess this time it was a good thing because he was able to sleep.  I slept with Sydney, which wasn't too bad.  She kept waking up in the middle of the night to ask me strange questions.  "Mommy...does Grandma Polly have monkey magnets"  "Yes, Sydney, go back to sleep."  "Okay, good night Mommy."  She must have had a lot of dreams, but for the most part she slept okay.

As for poor Grandma Polly, she wasn't feeling well and wasn't her usual self.  She is the type of person who likes to cook and play and do things for others and that just wasn't the case this weekend.  I know it was hard for her to sit on the sidelines.  She hasn't been diagnosed, but her joints have been aching for a few months now and she is just all achey througout her whole body.  She takes medication, but it doesn't seem to help much.  By the afternoon, the pain eases a little, but she just doesn't feel herself and hasn't gotten out much lately.  It's sad, because she dreads waking up in the morning because she knows that she'll be in pain.  Too bad the doctors can't figure out the problem.  It must be hard to always feel pain.  Sydney and Tyler drew her a picture to help her feel better.  It might have helped a little...but only for a minute or two.

We were supposed to leave on Sunday, but we left Saturday right after lunch.  I felt like we were kind of in the way.  Grandpa Joe has to help with everything that Polly can't do and I think everyone was stressed, and it didn't help for us to have Savannah with us barking up a storm and driving everyone crazy!  Besides, I hate coming home on Sunday's and having to catch up with laundry and everything right before going to work. I like a day to get back into the swing of things. Sydney and Lizzy were so excited to come back and play with all of their toys.  I think they were getting bored.  I think we're going to have to pack a lot of toys for Disney World so I don't go crazy!  So, I'm thankful that Jason let us come home early.

But, I'm thankful for so much more!  I'm thankful to have a wonderful healthy family and two of the cutest kids who always make me laugh and put a smile on my face.  We will hope that Grandma Polly feels better really soon and she can get back to her normal activities.

Oh What a Feelin', When I'm Dancin' on the ...Fireplace

I'm not knockin' Jason on this post, I just think it will be fun for Lizzy to read one day! 

So, today Jason had to stay home in the morning to wait for a package to be delivered from work.  Sydney was at school, so he only had Lizzy to contend with...yes, contend.  I spoke to Jason around 10:30 a.m. and he said, "I don't know how Helene takes care of this kid every single day, she is a terror."  He said that she has been jumping on the couch, running around like crazy, taking every toy out, and eating everything in sight (we still haven't put locks on the cupboard).  When he went to answer his phone, she ran up the stairs, closed the gate, and started running.  Basically, she has to be watched at all times, as do all kids her age.  I'm guessing Lizzy is pretty normal, Sydney was just really calm and that is what Jason is accustomed to. 

Although Lizzy has the tendency to wear a person out, it's actually quite enjoyable to see what she is going to do next...you never really know.  The other day we were sitting on the couch watching t.v. and Lizzy decided she would climb up on the fireplace and just start dancing...it was quite random.  Then, she get's down (because we made her) and starting jumping up and down on her pink chair (which she fell off of).  It's like she's a ping-pong ball...non-stop back and forth!  Once on the floor she looked as if she was going to attempt a somersault; she thought it was funny to look at me upside down through her legs.  Not that I want her playing on the fireplace, but it's all so cute and just makes me laugh.

We gave her an apple so she would sit still for a little while!

Tonight we gave her a little ice cream for dessert, I mean hardly any, because she had already consumed enough food for the day.  She was going to get every lick possible out of that bowl.  I really wish I caught a picture because she figured out that if she put the bowl in her mouth, she could drink the melted ice cream.    It was so cute, she had her whole face in that bowl and was just one big ice cream disaster to clean up...but that's what bath time is for...and at the end of the day, she had fun and these are the simple memories I will always treasure.

Halloween

Halloween always seems to create a lot of hype and anticipation.  Lizzy, of course, had no idea what was going on, but Sydney talked about trick-or-treating for days.  But when it came down to it all, it was a bit overwhelming.  Sydney spent the entire day asking me when we were going trick-or-treating.  In fact, it was the first thing she asked when she woke up in the morning, and then asked every hour after that. She was just so excited!

Since day light savings time happens after Halloween these days, it was still light at 6 pm, which is later than I thought trick-or-treating should begin.  We had to get going a little after 6 though, because both kids were getting tired before we even began.  After all of the excitement, once we got their costumes on, they both kind of stood there with a blank stare, totally tired.  Sydney still wanted to go, she would never pass up candy, but was definitely tired.  They were cute though!!

Sydney had fun going to each house and Lizzy was loving the fact that people were dropping candy into her pumpkin.  Lizzy refused to be carried though, and I'm not quite sure what we were thinking not bringing a stroller, so we moved pretty slowly.  Occassionally I would scoop Lizzy up and run to the next house, but if I got ahead of Sydney she would cry because she wasn't in front...I'm telling you, this trick-or-treating stuff is not an easy task.  I can't wait until they are old enough where I can wait in the street as the kids go run from house to house and I don't acutally have to go to the door and ring the bell.

About half way through, Lizzy totally ran out of gas.  She was crying hysterically and I ended up carrying her home...oy!  Jason continued on with Sydney, but not for very long.  They came home pretty quickly after.  Sydney was tired too and she just didn't enjoy it without Lizzy.  They definitely got enough candy between the two of them though.  We are set for quite a while!  I'm pretty sure Sydney enjoyed passing out the candy to the kids afterwards more than trick-or-treating. She stood by the door with Grandma Sharon to watch for more kids coming, and Lizzy enjoyed being surrounded by candy!

While we were out, Grandpa and Grammie went out to get us all dinner...it was a family affair!  Besides, we had to celebrate Jason's birthday!  The kids seemed to get a second wind and we had a little cake and ice cream (as if candy wasn't enough), and then they crashed and went to sleep.  It was definitely a long day for all of us.

The next morning we took Jason out for breakfast for his real birthday!  I love going out for breakfast!!  We had a great weekend.  I also loved gaining an hour!