A First and A Third Thanksgiving

We have so much to me Thankful for.....

most of all TWO, beautiful, healthy, smart, wonderful, sweet, lovable and loving children.

Lily celebrated her first Thanksgiving in a special tutu mommy made

Mommy made that tutu to match the turkey bow.

As always she was a hit, Grams just loves her littlest Cupcake.

As a special treat Great Grandma Joyce and Great Grandpap Steve came down from Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Grandma Joyce has been sick so had not meet Lily yet.

Great Grandpap Steve LOVES all the kids and will hold them and love them as long as he can, Lily just loves everyone. Both of her Great Grandparents kept saying how she is the happiest baby they have ever seen.

We are lucky enough to avoid the stress of Thanksgiving by going to a buffet (NO cooking for us) with ALL of our family, this year there was 20 of us! As we got ready to head to the restaurant Johnny was readying books to his cousin Sammi.

Shawn loves this picture of little Samantha becuase he calls her a "bruiser." (She is Johnny's kindred spirit, a rough and tumble little girl!) But seeing the bruiser all dressed up really hits Shawn funny and makes him giggle, I just think she is adorable!

Lily just loves everyone, here a visit from Wyatt was making her giggle. I can't say how wounderful is was to have all the SIX grand kids together and have all of our family in one house, talking and sitting together, this is what the holidays are about.

One of our traditions is to take advantage of this long week end and set up the Christmas tree and decorations (yes it is almost Christmas)

I am so excited this year becuase Johnny really gets it! He was VERY excited to help Grams and Pops decorate their Christmas tree.

Before we got to the restaurant Johnny was running non stop with one cousin or the other, having so many "friends" around really makes him happy! But this excitement made it hard for him to sit down and eat his special meal.

This picture really got me because he looks ridiculous in that bib! But he is only two, reasonable he could still need a bib, but Johnny looks like a man child here.

That is the same bib he wore for his first Thanksgiving TWO years ago...it says "Gobble till you Wobble."

Lily is not yet 6 months old, so she started her dinner in her carrier, like a normal baby. But we learned quickly that that was not going to fly.

The big girl wanted to see everything and be apart of the event, so she got into a restaurant high chair for the first time!

Mommy made special organic sweet potato baby mush for her have for her First Thanksgiving meal, but it gave her a tummy ache and diarrhea when we started it the day before. So Lily's meal was a rice cracker and plain rice cereal....she LOVED it!

Lily also loved the extra attention she got, Great Grandpap Steve just can't say no to holding a great grand baby.
Neither can Papa.

Little Wyatt ate two full plates of dinner and then finished up Johnny's. He didn't stop until we started to get worried he was going to get a tummy ache and had to cut him off! He ate straight for the entire 2 hours we where there! Everything from cod, to turkey to dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.

Mommy has been on a low carb diet for a month now, I have lost enough weight to not blow my diet off for the holidays, but not enough to put it out to the public. So Mommy had a lot of turkey, beef tips (very yummy), and salad. I am proud to say I made it through the day regretting no extra carbs!

I also have no pictures of Ella since she was at the other table, but her and her Mommy had made conversation starter cards and she kept asking questions that we could all answer together, it was a great idea and I loved listening to stories about everyone's childhood and favorite things.


Here we are! One happy family. Even though neither kid is looking at the camera I still love this picture because everyone is smiling and happy and obviously having a great day with family.

Easter 2010

Easter this year was so much fun! Easter bunny basket, church and an egg hunt and family dinner!

The Easter Bunny may have gone a little overboard this year.

Even though the Easter bunny didn't hide the basket, it still took Johnny a few minutes to realize where it was and what he was suppose to do with it. But once he did he dug in and had a blast!

He got a new dinosaur and an elephant, he picked each off the basket carefully and held on to them for the rest of the morning...if the basket just had these two in it, he would have been happy.

Roarrrrrr!!

And his chocolate turtle. Every time he found a new candy or food item he would ask for it to be opened, chew on it a little and then hand it back. Also Johnny didn't want to wear the blue bunny ear head band from his basket, so Momma put on the bunny ear hat she made him...so he is festive.

Daddy (in his Christmas jammies) helped Johnny sort through everything else, showing him these new little dinosaurs.

He really enjoyed this chocolate flavored duck! And see he wants to share. But he ate half of this before moving on.

Of course he got the traditional kite, which Daddy was very excited about and has been checking the wind each day this week waiting for a good day to show Johnny how it works.

He is just a pretty pretty boy!

The Doodle Pro was something Johnny asked the Easter Bunny for and has been a clean and safe drawing toy.

After a morning of playing and eating chocolate we got dressed up and headed to meet Grams and Pops for Easter Mass. Mommy and Grams got this adorable sailor suit and saddle shoes for his fresh start this spring.

Johnny is a good boy, but he has a lot of energy. We tried to take him to the church child care but someone closed the door and it locked and no one knew. Johnny sat with us for a little bit. It was frustrating but we all understood why he wouldn't sit still, Daddy and Papa took turns walking outside with him. He was very happy to have so much of his family all together.

Our sweet little family outside after Mass.

After Church we headed home for a nap and preparing for everyone to come over for an egg hunt and Easter dinner.

Ella quickly showed Johnny how to hunt for hidden eggs and they had so much fun.

Look at them go, they where very quick at finding the eggs, which is good because the chocolate in the eggs was melting.

Grams and Pops where very helpful in making sure the kids found all of the eggs!

Grams and Pops got Johnny his first bike as an Easter gift. Daddy put it together while we played and waited for dinner to be ready.

This bike is very cool, Johnny can peddle and use it like a normal trike, or there are foot rests and we can just push him, OR the handle rolls underneath it so he can practice peddling and use it like a rocking horse! Johnny was excited to get on it, but still hasn't mastered the peddling part.

Finally dinner was ready!

Ella and Johnny helped to set the table with candy, so everyone had a sweet start to the meal.

For dinner we had honey glazed spiral ham, mashed potatoes, home made macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, and then dessert was a special derby pie and lemon merrang pie! Everything was so yummy and it was nice for all of us to sit together and enjoy it.

After dinner Papa took Johnny and Samantha to the park in our little wagon.

SOOOOOO much fun! Everyone hung around and played, blew bubbles, played "Easter Bunny" and watched a little TV. It was a wonderful day! I love making memories with our family.

What we did miss was Charlie, Michele and Wyatt who stayed in Ohio this year. We will see them in just a few weeks, but we thought about them all day. The Easter Bunny left three very large chocolate bunnies at Aunt Nenni's house for the three able to eat chocolate kids and we are saving all three for when Wyatt can enjoy them with us.

PARTY!!!

I spent two weeks stressing myself out about this party, but in the end it was so so so much fun!

All set up and ready to go! Our dinning room turned into party central with green fruits and green veggies, cookies, green M & Ms skittles and green Peeps! UMMMM

As our friends and family started to arrive everyone settled in nicely and just started to play.

The Roller Coaster in our hallway was a great point of interest and all ages loved it. Here Ella was playing with her new friend, our neighbor Aidan.

Uncle Tommy got a chance to show Sammi Godzilla and dinosaurs and she was very interested. Godzilla's tail was very yummy.

Once everyone was in Mommy tried to follow her organized schedule of party fun and do our craft, decorating liners that fit into travel mugs (that actually where not dishwasher or microwave safe) The kids liked it, but the call of such a beautiful day outside and all the great toys around ment Mommy should not have bothered with a craft, but it was still lots of fun!


Yes that is Johnny in a full tux for his special day! SO adorable! But we are doing pictures in this tux on Monday, so Mommy wanted to get it off of him before the real playing began.

While Mommy got Johnny changed Daddy brought out the bubbles (which where not in Mommy's schedule of party fun, but it was so beautiful outside) and this ended up being the main event of the day!

Johnny knew what was going on while Mommy dragged him around the house getting his cloths and diaper changed, he was yelling out "BUBBLES, BUBBLES, BUBBLES!" so finally he got to join the fun, in an outfit he was free to get as messy as he wanted.

and oh did they have fun, for over an hour this entertained them!

Even when the older kids lost interest, Johnny and Wyatt could not be deterred.

He just gets cuter!

With the older kids outside, our youngest guest was inside enjoying some pretzels and yogurt, but I couldn't help myself, this picture is too adorable.

Grams and Pops and their grandsons. I have three good shots of this pose and in each one Johnny is looking a different way, none of those ways are forward!

Then the silly string came out and that was great fun!!

Somehow Papa found himself as the center of the attacks, poor Papa!

So while the big kids where attacking Papa, Johnny and Wyatt where just running, and Wyatt had his first big spill right onto the concrete, he was a very good boy about it and got some ice and some Tylenol and was as good as new, mostly.

Some love from Mommy and Daddy always helps, and by the way Wyatt will be a big brother at the end of October! How exciting!! A sixth grandchild and a 4th cousin for Johnny!!!

So then we headed inside for some cake! Johnny helped Mommy decorate, at first, then Mommy tried to cover up mistakes with the little sugar pieces. I think it looks great, even the cake itself was green.

Johnny loved it when everyone was singing to him, he laughed and bounced in his seat and then blew out the 2 candles all by himself!

Johnny certainly thought it was yummy.

He is not a big fan of his hands being dirty..."hands wash"

Whatever pain was left, was gone with the addition of cafe, isn't he cute?

As the party whined down we decided to open presents. Uncle Chuckles, Aunt Chel and Wyatt got him this the official Toy Story Bucket O Soldiers and these are great! Very sturdy and just a little bigger then off brand soldiers Johnny loves them!

Next was a special present from the Hart Family who live across the street.

A golf set!!!!!! Daddy was very excited though Johnny wasn't sure what it was, we know he will love it when he learns he can hit a ball with a club.

Then a special present from Aunt Natalie, Uncle Tommy, Ella and Sammi, a Sesame Street book of echo friendly crafts to do with Mommy and a gift certificate to the Bouncy Place!!! yeah he gets to go to a super fun place and bounce around in really big bouncy houses! FIVE TIMES!!! Thomas and Nat always find these great things!!

Now on to a big bag from the Fox family who live right next door. I love that Sara got this green bag and green paper and so did Johnny.

and Johnny was super excited about this dump truck and sand toys!! "open, open, OPEN!" Now Mommy and Daddy need to get him some sand for his sand box.

Daddy teaching Johnny how exciting golf is, Look at my little man !

After everyone went home we laid down and relaxed for a few minutes before the cleaning began. We all had such a good time!! The house was crazy with kids and Mommy got to sit and talk to other Mommas and Johnny was surrounded by friends and people who love him, again it was a perfect day!!! Though we didn't do the sundae bar Mommy had planned or the story time, or the video games, the kids just didn't need those things, they had each other. Johnny is so lucky to have all these loving people in his life, thank you to everyone who came and we hoped you enjoyed it as much as we did!