Catching up

Hello there. Seems the blog has taken a back seat to life once again. The events in CT last Friday left me with a heavy heart and an even greater appreciation for spending precious time with loved ones. My prayers are with those affected by this tragedy.

I need to do a little catching up on the blog since Christmas is only 7 days away. WOW. Time flies! I'm finally getting my cards out today - feeling good about the fact that they're actually out before Christmas!

Thanksgiving was quiet and wonderful. We celebrated with cousin Jess and Meg :) Enjoy the pics.

Grant was a much more willing subject than Willa Nug but she was a good sport :)

Hello!

This was our first year cooking a turkey without any of our parents around to help. We actually did it (with help from Bubbie on the phone)!

Our meal was delicious.

Attempts at a family photo....good thing Amanda did a much better job with our card photo! Can't wait to show you.

New bib, new outfit...you have to make the most of these one day holidays!

The DUKE fan training is coming along nicely.  Don't worry all my fellow UVA grads - he has a UVA sweatshirt he's waiting to grow in to :)

We had the best time picking out our Christmas tree this year. I can't wait until Grant is old enough to really realize how fun it is!

We got our tree at Russell's Tree Farm. Vermont friends - a must do! A horse drawn sleigh carries you over a hill to Christmas tree land. If we had waited another week we could have gone in the snow which would have made things that much more exciting. Oh well - maybe next year.

Here we are at the beginning.

Will got to join us this year :) She thoroughly enjoyed eating the horse poop once we let her off her leash much to Matt's dismay. Gross.  She also loved playing with her doggie friends there.

Hm. Which one to pick?

This one!

Matt handled the tree work while I wrangled the dog and baby - I'm not sure which was easier :)

Adorable cabin where they served hot chocolate...there are the horses!

Pretty light :)

I think it's safe to say Grant has been more interested in the tree since we got it home!

OK tree plus presents :)

xoxo!

A few things....

Hello friends. I have Thanksgiving and Christmas tree cutting pics to share but haven't loaded them yet...I'll get there are some point!

A few things from the past few weeks...

We went hiking with our friends Sarah and Joe :) The last time we hiked in the snow with them I was 21 weeks pregnant with Grant. Now Grant is here and she's the pregnant one :) Time marches on.

I would love to use that as our Christmas card photo but sadly it is from my iphone and I'm not wearing any makeup :)

Grant now fights with Willow over the coffee yogurt container. Usually she wins. I feel bad for her since she has to compete for our attention these days.

Brrr. Winter is coming!

Grant tried his first food - brown rice cereal. Yum.

Hm....

I can do this myself thankyouverymuch.

MORE!

Grant's friend Jackson turned 1. Ah - can't believe it!

Matchy matchy :)

Dads...believe it or not this was the best pic of the bunch.

Moms...a bit better here.

Cynde and John visited. How great are these pics? We only took some this one day since we were all sick for most of their visit. Bummer.

Love.

Outtakes from the 5 month photo shoot. They are getting a bit more tricky!

xo!

Thankful

Wow. We've had a bumpy week or so around here! Last weekend my in-laws visited, as did some version of the flu. Yuck. Matt and I both came down with it. At the same time. Thank goodness for grandparents and a baby who somehow didn't catch our germs!!

There are times when you realize why people say being a parent isn't easy. As my mother-in-law told me last weekend "Once you have a baby, you are never allowed to just 'be sick' again." It's true.

However, even after a few days of illness + night number idontknowivelostcount of waking up every 3 or so hours, I look at this sweet face and have never felt more thankful.

We have a lot to be thankful for - family, friends, living in a place we love, being able to do things we love, our Willa-nug. We had a great thanksgiving with Aunt Meg and Jess, a week off work for me, and finally seem to be turning the corner to feeling better.

Here are a few more Grant pics for you. We love this busy boy!

Can't believe he is already 5 months old :)

xo!

Sweet tooth

So my little candy man has had a sweet tooth from the beginning. I'm convinced he is the reason I could not get enough of sugar during my pregnancy, a sad thing that has continued on since he was born as well. In order to get him to move during our non-stress tests while I was on bed rest, they had to give me ice cream! So it's only fitting that Grant rolled over the first time for candy.

Check it out yourself - captured via iphone.

Halloween night we had our candy bowl on the counter and Grant was beside it as I was getting him ready for his bath (which we do in a bath tub in the kitchen sink).

Things started innocently enough - he was curious about the bright orange tub.

Then pulled all the way over once he realized there was CANDY in there.

Thinking....Well, candy. Don't mind if I do.

Hm. Which one...

Yep. The bottlecaps should do it.

WHAT? I can't eat candy yet? I guess I'll chew on this for a while then.

xo!

Halloween

I have to be honest. I wasn't going to buy Grant a Halloween costume. Shame on me! Then a series of events occurred and we ended up with invites to 2 baby costume parties that we were able to attend. Yikes. I couldn't let Grant go to a baby party without a costume! How embarrassing :)

SO. I headed to Kmart and bought the last thing they had in a 0-6 month size - a lion. I must say he looked pretty dang cute. Plus it was 50% off since I bought it the day before Halloween.

Now let me back up a bit...Grant geared up a few days early by wearing his pumpkin shirt and booties :)

Then his pumpkin hat...

By the time we carved our pumpkin he was feeling the spirit.  He had several Halloween bibs too but I neglected to get a picture of him wearing one. 

We headed to our first baby party the day before Halloween.

Grant and his friend Henry both came as a lion.

Our second party was actually on Halloween...no other lions in attendance, but lots of other cute costumes :)

The real excitement came later that night when Grant got hold of some candy. I'll share about that next.

xo!

A Few Fun Things

Hi there friends!

Happy first day post-election! It's a cold one here in Vermont but I'm doing a little celebratory dance for a reason other than that Obama won the election. Grant only woke up once between 6:45pm last night and 7am this morning. Our own little family victory since sleep has been elusive recently and a few nights ago we were up 10+ times. Hooray!

OK - on to our first fun thing...

We went to Montreal a few weekends ago with a bunch of friends - our first night away from Grant. He stayed with my parents (as did Willow too of course) and did great! Of course he slept like an angel...but then again so did I. My only night of 8+ hours uninterrupted in 4.5 months. Ah.

The guys rode the bikes up just like last year. It was a bit colder the morning they started and they had a few technical issues but made it up in time for dinner (barely) :)

The girls made our way up later in the afternoon, did some shopping, and then I had over an hour by myself in the hotel room to nap + get ready. Ah. We went to dinner then out afterwards and it was such a great time!

All the ladies - including Grant's friend Reagan who made the trip :)

See the blue pants I'm wearing? They are a bit bright for me but I love them. That leads me to my second fun thing.

Stitch Fix. Perfect for a girl like me. I've shared with many of you already but I highly recommend it. If you click on the link it will take you to the website (and if you order I will get some referral credit - yahoo). I read about this on a few blogs before I tried it for myself.

Here is the description off the website...

Stitch Fix is a fun and easy way to keep your wardrobe up-to-date. We get your style and size preferences, then send you a package of stylish goodies to try on at home, in your closet, with your favorite jeans and heels.

Once you are accepted off the waiting list (it's still in Beta), you fill out an online profile (very detailed about sizing and preferences for clothing), then request your "fix"! A stylist in San Fran will pick out 5 things for you (anything you say you'd like - I usually ask for shirts and pants). They charge you $20 for that service. You try everything on and if you keep something then the $20 is applied towards your item. If you send everything back you lose the $20. Free shipping both ways! I haven't had a box yet where I haven't kept something.  I'm thrifty so you know it can't be too expensive!

The best part for me?

We will only send things that we truly think you'll love. But, occasionally, we think you will love things that are slightly outside of your comfort zone - that's part of the fun of having us style for you.

Try it!

OK my third fun thing...

theSkimm.

theSkimm is the daily newsletter that simplifies the headlines for the educated professional who knows enough to know she needs more. We do the reading for you and explain it with fresh editorial content, breaking down what you need to know to start the conversation.

Another thing I read about on a blog. I love getting this in my inbox every morning because it makes me feel so up to date on current events - especially because I don't have time to read the newspaper or news online (like I ever did that - oops). Bonus - it's not boring!

That's all for now...naptime is over and my time for blogging is up :)  I'll be back soon with Halloween pics.

xo !