Advent?!

Well, it is hard to believe that Nell is two, Thanksgiving has past, Advent has started and Christmas is barreling toward us.
Looking at the calendar can almost cause a panic attack.

Anyway,
we had a great Thanksgiving and long weekend.
Zaven was lucky enough to have playdates fri, Sat and Sunday.
Two away and one at home.

We did a lot of ball play, block building, wrestling, flying on my feet etc. The weather has not been great but we have had fun.

Today the kids were excited to get out the Advent calendars and wreaths. They also were thrilled to get out the Little People Nativity set that Brice and Christie gave us in 2005!


Nell has been taking good care of her babies. I asked her if her baby had a name and she said "Five" which is funny because Zaven always called his baby "Two" when he was little.

Nell is TWO!

I can't believe that my baby is 2!
We have been celebrating her birthday for 3 days.
On Sunday we bought a big balloon (that nell call her "baldoon"), we made a cake and opened some gifts from Grammy and Papa, Milla and Poppy and Ella and Spencer.
The kids had a great time playing.


Nell had a good time giving Chris tea, she was back and forth asking "mo-mo tea, dada?" and she would rush over and get the pot and come back. this went on for a long time.





zaven built a cool ship for R2D2 out of Nell's new blocks.

On Sunday when he got dressed in his grey flannels and his argyle sweater he came up and asked me "don't I look like I am going to work?" pretty funny. but since he has practically sworn off "baby sweaters" i.e. anything with a dog on it. I don't know what else to put him in.

Nell enjoyed her cake- but really loved the ice cream.

When she was opening her presents she would say "that's my happy birthday present"
or
"it's my happy birthday"

Then on Monday at school they celebrated her birthday at school. In the morning she and her friends made a cake (think Whole wheat, applesauce, honey, eggs and cinnamon- baked into a loaf) and then they had it for snack in the afternoon. Her teacher made her a sweet little knit kitty kat. She really loves it- it is very sweet.

Today we sang again and ate leftover cake.

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving and certainly feeling very blessed and happy.
Tomorrow I am going to Zav's school to volunteer in the classroom- should be interesting.
Then I have the rest of the day to myself. I am not sure what I am going to do.
I hope I am able to make it a fun and relaxing day.

le

I have 10 looking for 20...

Saturday night we went to the church auction, there were some neat things.
we ended up buying several things.
Chris got a "lap desk"



I loved this Fish,it is a print, but a very nice one. I think it will look great framed!


and this chaise is really comfy.


we also bought a sideboard- but it is not here yet, so I do not have photos.- everything was a good deal and we had a fun time.

Nell was funny, she was calling the bags bracelets and walking around with them on her arms


Nell and Zaven enjoying their poptarts.


when we got home from Church, Zaven wanted to have a beach party, so we got out his ocean sheets and he and Nell are here on the beach


Later Nell set up a picnic for and on Chris.


Tomorrow I will deal with the insurance stuff.

wrecked

last night on my way home from work, as I was about to turn onto the road where Nell's school is, a girl hit me from behind.

i was stopped and she was going about 40 and never hit the brakes.

I am fine.
The guy at the junk yard said he thought the prius was totaled.

Here are the pics. the back windows are broken out.

trick or treat

we had a great halloween,
the weather was nice, we all got home and got the kids into their costumes.
zaven's rockstar hair was hard to achieve, but there was plenty of gel and it was messy and sticking up in some places- he said he liked it, he had on his "tatoo" shirt, jeans and his cardboard cut-out guitar.

nell's frog zip on costume was easier- though getting her to say ribbit instead of wonk wonk when you ask her "what does a frog say?" is another story.



we went over for dinner and trick or treating at a friends house. they have a great neighborhood, a horse shoe shape with good spacing, almost no cars, nice people, and enough houses to get the kids enough candy without being gone for too long.



a nice treat was that we got to go trick or treating at the Snydacker/Ullman house and Ben and Caitlin were home for the weekend. the kids were happy to see them.
by the end of the night nell was saying "froggy go night night"

nell continues to be very funny. her new thing is when you ask her something she says "yeah mmmhmm, yeah" and nods her head. she also has a little bendy figure that she calls "my guy" and when she can't find him she goes around saying "where's my guy?" and then she gets him and bends him and says "Nell's 'former" which means Nell's transformer- she longs to be just like Zaven.

she is getting pretty independent, she will go and look for "her guy" upstairs, today she played in the backyard by herself for a little while- she thought Zaven was going to come but he was watching football.

saturday was zaven's last soccer game. he scored 2 (or 3-if you ask him) goals and no one scored on him while he was goalie.



we went to eat at a diner - came home for nell's nap. after that i took the kids to the grocery and then we had alive at 5.

then last night i must say- i became a believer in standard time! i loved moving the clock back to 10:15 and knowing the alarm was set for 6:15- 8 hours of sleep! are you kidding.
and it actually worked out. the kids slept and i was very happy.

today, there was a church breakfast so we got up and went to that. then we ran an errand during church and then zaven wanted to go back to play with grace after church, so we did that.
then during nell's nap today, zaven and i went to the middle school and played football, basketball and soccer.
we were there for about an hour and a half, it was fun.

i made beef stew for dinner, it turned out well. zaven enjoyed it. nell, however, did not.
can't please everyone all the time, i guess.

back to work tomorrow.
le