happy thanksgiving!

This year we had been planning to host Thanksgiving at our house, but between Hadley's party, starting full time school for Asher, and being pregnant, I just wasn't up for it.  Luckily Drew's parents live nearby and were more than willing to host, so we took them up on it!  Hadley's BFF cousin was there and they were 2 peas in a pod!  :-)

Every holiday needs a kids picture and every year Thanksgiving is our WORST photo of the year.  It's good to have things you can count on.  

Emmy helps.  :-)

Drew likes to help me get my camera settings right by being the test model.  Back off ladies, he's taken.  

Lots of cousins to play with at Thanksgiving this year!  Asher and Hadley are so lucky to have lots of close in age cousins!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with so much good food, friends, family - what else can you want?    :-)

november happenings - week four

Hadley found these Mr. Potato Head glasses and insists on wearing them saying "I wear my smart glasses like Pop Pop"  ha!

I tried to get a Christmas card photo of the kids and, as per our usual, every pic was a winner.  #lovelychildren

We live about 30 miles for New York City in a suburban New Jersey town, so I'm shocked every time we see what I consider major wildlife in our back yard.  These deer hung out with us for a long time and weren't nervous of us at all!

I'm still working on Christmas wear around here, but Hadley has a new dress for the holiday.  It's a bit longer than I meant to make it so we might save this one for next year.  ;-)

This is Thanksgiving week. so a special post just for that is coming up!

november happenings - week three

After we got back from our fun-filled Florida trip it was back to reality - school, work, and cool weather.  This little princess figured out a way to embrace the chilly temps and still stay in Disney mode.  :-)

I've taken a step back from embroidery orders, but I did make this adorable Curious George shirt for a special little guy's first birthday!

Asher has figured out how to buckle and unbuckle himself in the car (praise!) and now when we wait in line for school drop-off he and Hadley join me towards the front.  As in, in my ear.  And Hadley likes to stroke my hair.  haha!

School pictures came in!  How handsome and grown up is this guy??

I can't believe this is his 4th school picture.  Love them all.

Hadley had a school picture as well, but like a delinquent mom I completely spaced out on placing an order for prints for her.  Oops.  #momfail

Tis the season to start prepping Christmas outfits!  I decided to add some ruffles to the bottom of Hadley's fair isle leggings this year and I love how it turned out!

Of course Asher needs a special shirt or 2 as well.  Drew gave me a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas last year and I love that I can make him shirts using HTV.  His shirts are getting too big for the hoop limitations of my embroidery machine so this is an easy way to make larger designs for him.  Yay!

florida getaway - day two

On the second day of our family adventure we took the kids to the happiest place on earth - Disney World!  It was a quick drive from the resort where we were staying so we got up early and had some breakfast while we waited for the gates to open.  The kids were ecstatic!!

Of course we all had to wear our Disney best.  :-)

We knew from previous experience that we had to get to the park early and head right to Minnie's station on Main Street so we could minimize our wait time to see this all-important celebrity.  Hadley is easily Minnie's biggest fan so seeing her was a MUST for us!

After Minnie we went next door (and luckily inside since it was already getting HOT) to see Mickey!  They did a little jumping together to start the day.

We tried to make it through this trip (since it was only 1 day) without a stroller, which made Daddy's shoulders a pretty popular spot.  I honestly don't think we can do it without a stroller yet.  The kids both walk really well and it's nice to not have to fool with keeping track of a stroller, but the little legs get tired fast and a lot of times it took us forrr-ever to get from one place to another.  Pregnant mama couldn't carry anyone from very long so we were kind of slow going at times.  The heat didn't help - yikes.

Since our last visit to WDW Hadley has discovered Tinkerbell.  We didn't meet her last time, but this visit we made sure to get a FastPass to see her!

Sneaking a peak while waiting for our turn... :-)

 Tinkerbell didn't disappoint!

As always, meeting characters was a priority for these kids.  Hadley and I split up from the guys to see Daisy and Minnie (again) while Drew and Asher went to visit with Donald and Goofy.  Hadley is so star struck - it's adorable!

I didn't take many pictures on rides, but we did plenty of that too!  Aladdin's magic carpets, Dumbo, Buzz shooters, Ariel, and the carousel were favorites.  Of course we also loved Winnie the Pooh, It's a Small World, and Mickey's Philharmagic Show.  I wasn't sure how they would do with a 3D show but both Hadley and Asher loved it!

We had a later dinner reservation (7pm) so as per Hadley's usual after we ordered she fell asleep BIG TIME.  She was fine one minute, then the next I look over at her just in time to catch her head from slamming on the table.  Girlfriend was out.  Luckily we didn't really order dinner for her since we knew she'd just eat off our plates so Drew, Asher and I ate while she snoozed on my shoulder.  After dinner we caught a little of the parade and decided to call it a day.  

Our day at Disney was such a special treat.  I know Drew and I will always treasure the memories of being here with these two amazing kids at ages 3 and 5 (truly the best ages for maximizing the magic!).  Next time we come, we'll be a family of 5!   

florida getaway - day one

Living in New Jersey comes with the big perk of having a few random days off at the beginning of November for statewide teacher's conference.  We decided to take advantage of the break and extend it a bit to surprise the kids with a trip to Florida!  Thanks to Drew's hotel points we were able to stay at this amazing resort in Orlando for a few days.

The resort had several pools and most of them were completely empty.  It felt like we had the place to ourselves!  We were worried that it might be cool for swimming in November, but there was a record breaking heat wave that week (good and bad) so swimming wasn't only ok, it was completely necessary!  

This was a family baby moon of sorts and I have to say - this is the best way to travel with a baby.  Tucked away safe and sound (and easy to transport, ha!)

The splash pool was perfect for the kids since it had a little depth but wasn't over their heads at any point.  There was even a water slide which Drew and I had to laugh at since it was SO slow.  The kids practically had to propel themselves down it.  ha!

The weather was perfect for splashing and the kids had a blast!

That night for dinner we wanted to try somewhere new and different for Asher and Hadley so we made a reservation at Benihana.  They love rice and Chinese food so it seemed like a safe bet.  The food was a hit, but the show...not as much.  Asher was terrified of the onion volcano and even after we asked the chef to skip that part A was a little nervous of what would happen next.  Meanwhile Hadley got petrified of the automatic flushers in the bathroom and took awhile to recover from that trauma.  Basically it was a fear-filled dinner spectacular!  ha!

They did love the food though and at the end the waiter brought them ice cream which negated every scary other thing the place had to offer.  All in all, day one of vacation was a big WIN!

Up next...Day TWO!