Tuesday, December 13, 2016

November Happenings

Nolan woke up on November 1st, which meant he obviously needed to inventory all of his Halloween candy from the night's hard work Trick or Treating.


He also rocked some sweet glasses Grandma gave him.


We took a walk early that morning, still in our Halloween jammies, to go see the remainder of the decorations over at Spooky Lane, since we missed it the night before (we didn't have enough time this year!)  To my surprise, the neighbors really get to work early to take everything down, because by the time we walked over, nothing was up!  Nolan still enjoyed seeing all the decorations on our way there, even if it wasn't dark enough to enjoy the lights.


Acelyn took some sweet pictures in her room.



We did some early voting, which Nolan thought was the coolest because we all got stickers, and then headed to play at the park to enjoy the nice weather.  Acelyn swung on the park swings for the first time and loved it!





I caught Nolan being super sweet with his sister and was reading her a book about fruit, apparently. 




We had another park day, and this time brought a picnic along for lunch.  The weather was perfect and I think this was our last day able to wear shorts for the remainder of the year (for Acelyn, anyway)!  We ate lunch and Acelyn tried some Mum Mum.  Every time we have her try one of these, she has the weirdest face and can't quite grasp the concept to eat it.  It probably tastes like cardboard so I guess I can't blame her!  Later that night, we took a trip to Costco and Acelyn sat in the cart for the very first time with her bro.














That weekend, we had another soccer game, where Nolan finally was able to play by himself with no tears and actually enjoyed himself!  By playing, I mean he stepped on the field and ran around and didn't touch the ball once... but hey, he was out there and we were SO proud!!





We ate out at The District with the Luks fam, spent some time walking around and shopping afterwards, and had fun watching these crazies run their energy out.


We spent a Sunday at Yardhouse at the Linq with our friends Aaron and Althea to watch the Ravens vs. Steelers game.  Because there's no way Nolan would sit for the entire game at the restaurant, I took him and Acelyn over to the Flamingo to check out their habitat.  We saw lots of fish and birds, and Acelyn got in a relaxing nap falling asleep to the waterfalls.  Nolan was absolutely obsessed with the parrots and couldn't stop laughing at their squawking!  



















Acelyn turned 1/2 a year old (insert ugly sobbing here)! 


The next day, the kiddos got their flu shots while we had Acelyn's 6 month check up.  We celebrated her 6 month birthday with Sprinkles cupcakes and her favorite, green beans!





Acelyn fell asleep in the car and I found her like this when I went to get her out.  Oops. 


She took the longest nap since she wasn't feeling great from her vaccinations, but looked so adorable and pretty.


I introduced her to my old Cabbage Patch dolls and it was love at first sight.


We played in the backyard and had some fun with the Boomerang app. 



We took some pictures for Nuby and Nolan wanted to crash our shoot, so of course I let him and got some silly and sweet shots of the two of them.






I scored some amazing June and January finds from another Mama on IG, so of course we had to try on our goodies as soon as we got them.  She totally approved!


The next morning, Jason had the day off, so we headed out to breakfast at Skinny Fats and then took a trip to Home Goods and Ikea.  It didn't last long, though, because Nolan threw up all over the Ikea cafe while I was nursing Acelyn.  It was horrible, and I felt so bad for him.  We booked it out of there after we cleaned up and spent the rest of our weekend resting.  This was the beginning of our sick cycle for the month, where Nolan, Acelyn and myself continued to pass our colds and stomach issues back and forth to each other.  Needless to say, we spent a lot of time inside for the remainder of the month!





We had some awesome entertainment for a full hour, while a crane removed and replaced a A/C unit of our neighbors.  Nolan was in crane/truck heaven and sat and watched intently.



The kiddos watched a movie while resting up from our colds. 



Acelyn practiced her stretching/crawling moves.... this girl is so eager to get up and go but hasn't quite figured it out yet!  She's a trooper though, because she face plants often and is never phased by it!






I got some snuggle time in while rocking her to sleep.


Acelyn had a giggle fest with me during Nolan's nap one afternoon.


We ate out at Cafe Zupas and while Acelyn had some of her own dinner, she kept sticking out and playing with her tongue.  New fascination! 


Nolan was finally feeling better and just in time for his last soccer game and end of the season party!  He had another brave and successful game of playing by himself with no tears!  We are so proud of how far he came this season.  He started by refusing to step onto the field without me by his side, tantrums and tears and all.... to half way through the season, finally getting brave enough to play a little at a time with me on the side, to being able to finally sit on the sidelines and enjoy watching him voluntarily ask to play and enjoying himself!  It was quite the experience and we loved watching all of these little ones play, SO funny.  And, to top it off, playing with all of our friends was icing on the cake!  I loved that us girls that grew up playing soccer together got to watch our own kiddos play together, and that we were able to play with Nolan's best friends, too!  Team Green Beans had an amazing season, and we're happy to have been a part of a great, fun team!















We celebrated Hudson's 4th birthday at his Star Wars themed Jedi party, complete with a Jedi-trainer that Nolan talked about for days!  We had a blast and Acelyn partied so hard that she passed out.  We love you Hudson, and can't believe you're 4 already!









We went grocery shopping for all of our Thanksgiving goodies, and the kids rode in the car cart together.  They were loving it until Nolan shoved Acelyn's face into the steering wheel... so that ended quickly.


Every morning, we typically watch Daniel Tiger to chill before we start our day.  Acelyn has grown super fond of it and absolutely loves when the theme song comes on.  This is usually how she reacts when she hears it- big smiles and lots of talking!  If she's not in the same room as the TV, she will look around everywhere to find it because she knows it's on somewhere!


We made handprint turkeys for Turkey Day. 


We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with family and lots and lots of food!












It didn't take long for us to break down the Thanksgiving decorations and get the Christmas ones up!  The kids were pretty excited about it, especially over these reindeer antlers.







Acelyn had a giggle fit over a snowball fight.


We decorated the kids' tree and Nolan is seriously obsessed with it this year.  Acelyn thought it was pretty cool, too.



Acelyn's talking has really taken off this month, and she's expanded to Maaas and Baaas, as well as blowing raspberries all the time and babbling up a storm! 


I attempted my own photoshoot for our Christmas cards, and it was a struggle, to say the least.  Luckily, we got what we needed.... and a few laughs, too!


Acelyn's stepping up her selfie game and getting pretty good at cheesin' it.


She refused to sleep in the middle of the night, and instead wanted to just give lots and lots of smiles and love.  


We got the tree up finally, and Nolan was a super big help by separating out all of the pieces (yes, we have an old ass tree that is a pain to set up... but you can't find big, fluffy trees anymore so I just can't part with our full one!)  This was the first year that I didn't curse putting it up, and I think it's because Nolan helped so much!  He was so excited to organize out the branches, help me "fluff" them out, and of course, place ornaments on after I strung the lights.  Daddy helped lift him up to place the star on the tippy top!




Acelyn looked so pretty when I rocked her to sleep.


These two played SO nicely together and I'm loving seeing their sweet bonding moments as Acelyn gets older and Nolan can relate more to her!  


...Until next month!

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