Thanksgiving Time!

Ever since I can remember, we have celebrated Thanksgiving weekend with my mom's side of the family - The O'Brien's. Even when we lived in Maryland... we made the long drive up to this area to all be together. My mom has a large family and it is so incredible how many in her family still make it a priority to all be together during this time. We all seem to go our separate ways for Christmas, which is ok and only makes this time even more special. Of course, through the years... not everyone can always be there, but we all know that we want to be there together. It is such fun to celebrate together and even more fun to watch my girls love the time so much as well.

This is my cousin, Terrance. He is a pretty quiet guy, but when he was holding Colin... big smiles were seen by both!
Doesn't Natalie look so grown up with her hip pushed out to the side and holding Colin. Of course, I don't let her walk around with him (although she would like to) but this was fun to have her feel so grown up holding him.

The Thanksgiving day table.

My mom is so impressive. This year may have been a record high with 28 people for dinner. She always makes it a point to have us all sit down together for this meal. Look at how her entire house was rearranged to make it happen. Thank you, mom!

My brother and his girlfriend, Amanda with Natalie and Liam. Liam just turned 7 and is also in the 1st grade. He is my cousin's son and Natalie and him LOVE each other. It is so wild to see how excited they are when they get to spend time together. Sadly, we really only see Liam 2x/yr (thanksgiving and for a summer weekend) but yet they always seem to act like fast friends as soon as they are together. It is as if they know the special bond they have together as family.

Natalie and Colin full of smiles.

This is my cousin Katy. She and her sister, Erin, stayed at our house this weekend and totally spoiled my girls. It was great to have some time with just them at our house. Outside of the fact that they are both super successful, they are also just incredible people with such warmth and are filled with fun. They never seemed to tire,...they were always willing to play "just one more game" with the girls.

Here is the cutest baby boy at the dinner table (well actually he slept through dinner, but you know what I mean!)

This is me and my cousin, Jen, right after we ran in the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. We are both mom's of three and have used running to create our own time... it was great to be in this race with her (although she did finish way ahead of me - but who's counting??)

Running in this turkey trot (5K) has become a tradition and part of our thanksgiving morning. I love it! The idea of doing something healthy for me and good for the community on a day full of so much food and goodness, just seems right. I think this is the 6th year that we have made this part of our day. Sadly, this year... we missed a couple of our co-runners. My brother is recovering from a broken foot and my other cousin- Jessie, was out of town for the weekend. No worries, November 2009 will be here before we know it!

Thank you to all who make this weekend so special to me, my girls and my family.

What we've been up to...

Life in Giumarra land has been pretty status quo. ..
Days seem to go by so fast and weeks are over before we know it. The last week things at work were so busy for me that I was really struggling with trying to be a good mom, when my days were full of so much craziness that I was coming home later than usual and feeling drained by the time I got home and was with the kids. I learn more about myself all the time. I have learned that I like to be busy at work and I like to feel that what I do is important - I will even complain if I don't feel busy enough, but at the I know that my most important job is the mom that I am at home. Sometimes I just have weeks when I don't feel like I can do both and then get down on myself that I can't be a Super Social Worker and a Super Mom. So... after a good conversation with a friend, I looked at how I can work on making my time at home the best it can be. I can't focus on how hard it is, because that won't change a thing! Focus on the little things and making special times with tiny bits of time. This weekend we had a Game Night with the girls and they loved it... especially Natalie (as long as she was winning!) Then on Sunday, I took the girls to the pool and watched them swim and swim and swim. What fun!

Now we are on vacation for the next FIVE days.

Can't wait for our time at home together!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Big smiles from Colin
Colin's life as a little brother of 2 older sisters.
Check him out playing with the American Girl Doll.

Sadie looking so pretty before she goes to her Thanksgiving Day Celebration at her school

All bundled up together after a tub.

Just a super duper cute baby.

S-E-V-E-N

Our baby boy is 7 months old!

What an awesome little baby boy that we have. It continues to be lots of fun watching him grow from newborn to infant and now baby.

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  He is still a huge fan of the jumper. It makes this super loud noise every time he jumps. We can be in the other side of the house and know that he is doing ok just from hearing the bounce, bounce, bounce noise. It makes a great babysitter.


• Colin is eating lots of food... Trying all sorts of fruits and veggies. He even had Cheerios for the 1st time today!


• No more teeth yet, although I am sure there is one or two more just around the corner.


• He is sitting up like a champ.


• He is reaching for everything and anything. Whatever you have, he wants to check it out.


• He is still not rolling over much. He can... but he doesn't. He is not a fan of his belly and doesn't really move around much. I guess I shouldn't complain... I don't need to baby proof yet, but I would like to see him become more confident in that position.


• He will talk and make noises, but he is a pretty quiet baby. When I told this to the Dr at his 6 month check up... they told me, "He has 2 older sisters, he may never get a chance to talk!"


• He is turning out to be a very serious baby. He smiles and laughs, but more often than not... he is checking things out. He is a little guy that needs to take it all in and be sure of the world around him.


• Lastly, and sadly... today was Colin's last day nursing. I have been hanging onto it for over a month now. I have said over and over, "Today will be Colin's last day nursing, but then the next day comes and we go forth with it." This time it is for real. Going back to work was hard and I just couldn't keep up with him... so over the past month I cut back to just nursing him mornings and nights - but I know that I was not producing enough for him and I was always second guessing myself - is he hungry or is he just cranky. Plus the last couple of weeks, nursing has frustrated him. He has come to enjoy the warm, constant flow from his bottle and wanting it over me. This has been sad for me. Knowing that he is my last baby, I don't want to ever forget the incredible closeness that comes from nursing... but I know that isn't something that can last forever. Our time has come... and I need to accept it. Knowing that my nursing days are over gives me such sadness and such relief all in one. Does that even make sense?

Opinions Needed!

It is time to think flooring!

The primer is done and painting has begun, so we now need to think flooring. Nick and I both were hoping to just continue the same wood floor that is in the rest of the house, but it is fairly expensive and hard to locate an exact match. Neither of us are experts on interior decorating, so we are asking for help. We realize that if we did a different wood floor, it would have to be very different... a close match would look silly. Here are a couple pictures of the floor we currently have matched up against a light floor. What do you think? I took a couple shots from different views so that you can get an idea of what it might look like? Be honest, we don't have anything nailed down (at least not yet!!)...

Our Snow White

Do you ever wonder why kids get stuck on different activities or toys? Or what makes a child like one toy so much when another one doesn't ever get played with? Well... meet our Snow White (AKA - Sadie). She has always told us that Snow White is her favorite princess and when she got this outfit from some friends for her 3rd birthday, she loved playing dress up with it for a couple days. But then, like most toys in our house, she put it aside and would occasionally put it on for a brief dress up show.

However, since last Thursday, Sadie has had this outfit on. She has worn it constantly. She lays it out on her floor at night (cap, crown and shoes included) so that the outfit is ready for the next day. She has even brought it on play dates and dinner outings. She has not asked to wear it to the sitters or to school, but will talk about how she will wear it as soon as she gets home. She has eaten all her meals in the dress, watched TV and even debated taking a tub in the dress. I've even caught her posing for pretend pictures of herself in this dress.

If only we could understand the thought process of a 3 year old??

Election Day!

Today is election day.

For months and months and months, we (well really just Nick) has been following the political race for the White House. As today has drawn near, our whole household has become excited about what today means and what an exciting time it is for our country. Nick and I never thought that we would be the type of people to put political signs in our yard, but this election brings out a new excitement in us both... and now also in our children.

We were planning to all go and vote together as a family, but Sadie is sick... so Natalie got to go and vote with Nick and then later, with me. Democracy is such an awesome thing to be part of and it is fun to share the American pride with our children.

Here's to Change!

Halloween and Birthday Extravaganza

Nobody loves their birthday as much as me!

I think it comes from having to share it with a holiday. As a kid, it was always hard to share it with Halloween... the classroom birthday party combined with the classroom Halloween party just didn't seem fair. Now, I love sharing it with a holiday, but also love making it a big deal! My family (well at least my girls and my mom... Nick - who is another holiday/ birthday - seems to think that I should have already outgrown needing to celebrate my birthday) has learned well and love to celebrate big for me.
Nothing like doing it last minute... here we are on Thursday night (the night before Halloween) with our Jack-O-Laturns.

Here is my pumpkin!

Don't you love this picture??
I love how Sadie is looking at Natalie. She is literally looking up to her.
Notice the costumes.... Sadie wanted to be just like her sister.
Recently, Sadie has really been very cute as she tries to copy whatever Natalie does and says. It is very funny as they are such different kids, yet there is nothing like wanting to be just like her big sister. I hope they are best friends forever!

Lots of Halloween fun!