'Santa-Baby..."

Look at this cheeky little monkey- all sweet for Santa, as if he's gonna bring her something good this year :)
I mean, com'on, how adorable can one little person be... I swear sometimes I just feel like I'm playing house with a really freekin' precious doll-baby! I'm such a proud mama :)

Thanksgiving

What a fun and crazy holiday we've had. It was such a different experience this year (as I imagine will be the case for at least the next few years, as Patton and I continue to through monkey-wrenches [... I mean, babies] into the mix). For the first time since Pat and I have been together we didn't host the Demers for Thanksgiving- Instead, we made the family rounds. On Thursday, we headed over to my parent's house for a traditional McConnell family T-day feast. It was very nice to spend the evening with my Mom, Dad, Lucas and BOTH sets of grandparents. It was also nice to enjoy all the flavors of Thanksgivings past- the sweet southern dishes that I've missed over the last 4 or 5 years; carrot pudding, jello salad, pineapple soufflé and cornbread stuffing. Sofie seemed to really dig the eats as well- she had both a perma-grin and the roundest little baby belly I've ever seen!

On Friday, we headed out to Denise's for the Demers Family Thanksgiving. The traditional Demers fare was a wonderful way to round out the T-day festivities- I love that sausage stuffing!! We really enjoyed spending Friday with Diane, Denise and Matt (and missed seeing Karen and the kids).

As if TWO thanksgiving dinners in a row was not enough- we decided to fill up the weekend with more visiting- On Saturday night we took a trip out to Herndon to catch up with the Devine's. It was so nice to see Lea, Chris and the kids; who all seem to be doing exceptionally well. They are quite possibly the most adorable family on the planet :)

Whew.... Thanksgiving always seems to come with an exceptional amount of planning, prep and clean-up. We send may thanks to all three familys who hosted us this past weekend. And somehow, while we ourselves didn't actually do any of the hosting this year- we still ended the weekend pooped from all the activity. And for reasons unrelated to pilgrams or turkey there was still plenty of planning, prep and clean-up :)

Halloween....BOO!

It should be said that ravenous, polyester-clad little people running about the neighborhood accepting candy for the favor of not covering your house in cheap single-ply toilet paper is not really all I hoped my little baby would grow up to be- but that said, I'm no scrooge (or the Halloween equivalent of) so, Of course, we dressed the baby up. *For real this year, not just the orange and white striped onsie that one gets away with on the first Halloween, but an actual outfit that actually resembles something other than a 13mth old little person. To be fair, I should state up-front that I had no part in the costume buying process- all credit goes to Grams. If left up to me, I'm sure I would have come up with something extra creative... like, a 13mth old little person in an orange and white striped onsie, or ... OR maybe a 13mth old little girl who was on her way to bed dressed in her finest footed pj's (though that one might have required a little more effort and likely wouldn't have happened). So, our little girl was a little can-can dancing lady-bug... that looks a little something like this...



There was no actual trick-or-treating involved this year, as- well, let's face it, -she's got 6 teeth and I've had more than my fair share of the kiddo's candy for one year* (*I buy candy each year for the trick-r-treaters that NEVER show = I buy candy each year for... ME) But we did at least make it out of the house... We went to the last farmer's market of the season and saw all the other little ghouls and goblins (more accurately, all the other little spidermen and princesses) on parade. And later 'over the river and through the woods to great-grandmother's house' we went.



Lots of fun and yet, no cavities to speak of... we'll see how many years we can keep this up.