Nutshell: Thanksgiving 2011

It's old news now, but I need to at least document some of our NYC Thanksgiving from last year.  We made it to the Macy's Parade, and frankly, I'm not sure that the whole parade is worth it, except that thanks to Adam getting to the parade route at 5am we had spots right on the front row.  But, there was a bevy of semi-recognizable celebs (yes, I'm including the fact that we saw Neil Diamond in that list), lots of clowns throwing confetti, plenty of huge inflatable balloons overhead, and a few marching bands that may or may not have made me a little misty.  What was worth it was that we got to hang with the Jennejohns and others that we knew from the ward there.

 Old Neil himself

And, finally, Santa Claus showed up.

Other weekend events....

 Taking Isabel and Olivia and Saul to mid-town to make a few holiday stops like the Rockefeller Center tree, American Girl Doll store, and FAO Schwartz.

Isabel is dying for an American Girl Doll cat.  Most over-priced plush toys ever!

Adam and I did Thanksgiving dinner on our own this year, 

and I must say, we did a pretty darn good job and got the whole thing on in record time.
 
The whole thing was so. stress. free.

Adam did this year's turkey again--fab.

Took the kids to see the new Muppet Movie 

(and I may or may not have misted up a little when Kermit sings "The Rainbow Connection.") 

Spending the rest of a warm afternoon in Central Park.

Pretty nice over all.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our own little stable. 

On being too close to your little brother..

Isabel:  "Mom, Saul just ah-choo'ed on me!!"

The First Four...um...Eight Weeks

While I started to think about this post when Soren was four weeks old, I never finished up and, wow, now he's eight weeks old.  While the last two months of pregnancy feel like about two years, it's as though I sneezed and--poof!--suddenly he's two months old.

Really, I don't know what has happened to the last eight weeks.  The only proof I have that time has actually passed is that now I'm short two boxes of diapers, Soren is missing most of the hair he started with, his little chicken-legs are plumping up, he's too long for the outfit he came first came home in, he's sleeping in six hour stretches at night, and he's learned how to smile and coo making it so that I'm having a hard time doing anything else in the day but sit and kiss his chubby little cheeks (not that I want to do anything else).

Here's a smattering of photos from the last several weeks.  See for yourself....he's perfection!

=

Two-for One: Baptism and Blessing

We had one day in October where we were lucky enough to get all the planets aligned and all the grandparents in town while Aunt Jayne was still here and (most importantly) baby Soren was older than 2 days so I felt like I was with-it enough to shower and leave the house, so we did some last minute planning and, voila, were able to have Olivia's baptism and Soren's blessing all on that day.

 It was a lovely, lovely day--in every way.

Halloween 2011

While our pumpkins never filled the measure of their creation to become jack-o-lanterns, I still feel like we can actually mark down another Halloween accomplished.  Why does this holiday feel like such a feat to pull off....and, I don't even actually make any of our costumes!

 Baby Bear

(The second choice when we couldn't get a good last-minute "Mini Me" outfit put together for him and Adam)

  Little Samurai  

 A most frightening Vampire

A dapper Buddy Holly

 Prom Queen circa 1987....or something...

  A Cheerleader Cat

 (because, of course, a cat)

An eager Tourist

(He reports that he went to Rome, but the only thing there was a little yellow dog!)

This year's Halloween Memories:

• Baby Pumpkin in a box.
• Snowing on Saturday before the ward dinner and trunk-or-treat.
• None of the kids stopping for even two seconds while marching in the school's costume parade so I could get a picture that wasn't just their backsides.  Hey don't blame me in twenty years that there's no record--I tried.
• Max lobbying to go dressed as a construction barrel.....and why couldn't we just steal one from a construction site to use?  Of course we can take it back after... (Many thanks to Anna for the substitute Tacky Tourist solution.)
• My having dinner ready early!! And, still making the 4:30 piano lesson!
• Olivia completely taking charge of planning and acquiring her own costume, down to the teeth and hair dye.  
• A swell neighbor lending out face paint and ball gowns.
• Only using one Costco-sized bag of candy (so now I can take the other one--still unopened--back!)
• Max informing us at 5pm that he had a major TAG project due the next day. What?? So then why did you spend all afternoon on Saturday reading an entire book? 
• A teary and frantic Max at the computer while the other kids leave for trick-or-treating without him.  Lesson learned about organization?  Time will tell...  
• Isabel sobbing/realizing that she left her "good" cat ears headband on the bus.  Of course you did.  Oh, why did I let you wear them to school! The result: the old cat ears headband and a not-very-cheery cheerleader.
• Max finished his project at 7:30 (insisting that it was good enough for an A!) and running out for some last-minute trick-or-treating spoils.
• The intact pumpkins are on the porch now posing as Thanksgiving decorations.

Ahhhh....good times.

The tearful Cheerleader Cat