Thanksgiving

We had a blessed and restful Thanksgiving.  This is the first time in many many years I have not worked on Thanksgiving and although I don't really mind working it was a nice change of pace and a much needed time of rest and relaxation.  We spent the holiday with Shawn's brother Jeff his wife Katie and their kids Sam who is 2 and a half and Maya who is 10 months.  We had such a fun time together and the kids really enjoyed each others company.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures of our holiday. 

 

 The happy four Maya 10 months, Symeon 1 1/2, Sam 2 1/2, Marin 6 months

 

The girls enjoying a light drink

 

These two might be trouble when they get a bit bigger!

 

 

 The boys baking Nana's famous apple pie.  They did a great  job!

 

A little wrestling

 We spent a lot of time outside throwing rocks in the water, eating M&M's and playing on the porch.

 

Here are our guys enjoying s'mores.  True to their personalities Sam sat and savored his while Symeon had a few bites and then he was off again.  

 

Marin enjoying her first Thanksgiving.  She was the only one awake when it came time to eat which was fine with us adults. 

 

 Handing out Cherrios to the crowd.  This was a favorite snack the whole weekend. 

 

Uncle Shawn and Sam enjoying a snack

 

 Marin and her Uncle Jeff, we are hoping at Christmas she will let people hold her but honestly this might be as good as it gets. 

 

Maya loves to eat!  She spent a ton of time in her seat enjoying life.  Here she is with a black bean beard it was adorable!

 

Katie and Maya enjoying the campfire.  Love that faux fur Maya!

So Busy

Marin is very busy these days.  She is getting into everything and has begun pulling herself up on stuff.  When we went for her 6 month check up the doctor said she is doing things that a 9 month old would do.  She is so similar to Symeon in that regard, he was also a very busy baby.  They both rolled over at 3 months, sat up at 4 months, and crawled at 5 months.  Symeon took his first steps at 10 months so we will see if Marin continues on the same path.  If she does that means we will have two walkers in just a few months.  I'm not sure Shawn and I are quite ready for that adventure.

 

 

If you are wondering what you are looking at Marin loves to drink out of Symeon's water bottle.  She sucks up so much water we have to take it away from her.  She will go to any lengths to get it and since she has not quite figured out how to set it up right she will often lay on her side drinking away.  

Phish

Shawn is a huge Phish fan and he went to a show recently in Philly.  In my younger childless days I would often go with him but to be honest concerts of any sort are not really my thing.  I can't stand large crowds of people, I hate standing for an entire show when I paid for a seat, and the clincher I am often in bed long before 2 am which is when he got home.  I know I may sound old but I have been like this since I was a teenager except for the 2 am thing.  Anyway Shawn had  a great time and he had amazing seats 6th row from the stage dead center.  He came back with some cute shirts for the kids I think Phish fans are mostly in their 30's now with kids so they are catering to their fans.

 

 Phish Show

Future Phish Fans

(Oh wait Phish will probably be way to old to be touring by the time they would be allowed to go to a show.  Sorry future Phish fans I guess you will have to find your own band to love and follow.)

Daddy's Girl

Symeon and I were out the other night a little later than we expected and when we got home this is how we found Marin.  She often falls asleep on Shawn, in his lap, on his shoulder, or sucking on his fingers.  I guess it is easy to sleep when you feel so loved

CT Friends and Family

Marin and I recently took a flight to CT for a long weekend.  We had such a wonderful time visiting with my family and dear friends.  In one short weekend we had a photo shoot with Lisa who is an amazingly gifted photographer some pictures soon to follow, celebrated my niece Clover's 8th birthday, and had a small reunion with some high school friends.  It was a wonderful and restful time for us both. 


I have not seen some of my high school friends in a number of years so it was really special to get together reconnect and meet each others children.  Here are a few pictures from a really special afternoon.  You are all such a great group of women and I really enjoyed our time together.  It did get pretty wild with lots of little ones running around but that made the day even more special.  We have gone from knee socks, polyester skirts, and maroon sweaters to motherhood together what a blessing to continue having these friendships through the years.   

Michelle and William

Lourdes and Danielle

Here is the whole group minus some willing photographers.  There were kids ranging from 17 years to 6 months, an adorable set of twins, many handsome little guys, and two new babies on the way.  AHF created the bond and I am forever grateful. 


Here are some family photos.  Do you think Marin and my brother's daughter Clover look just a bit alike? They were super sweet together. 

Style

Our little guy has such a fun personality.  He is a happy guy and very curious as well and this combination can make for eventful days.  He even has fun when he is on time out which can make disciplining him difficult.    Here are a few pictures that capture these "events" in all his glory. 

Here is a new twist on dishes!

Here he is chugging back Sissy's snack.  He suddenly wants to eat baby food.  I wonder why?!

Symeon loves to put things in a line.  Her are his car...

 

  ... and here he is lining up Daddy's drinks.  Like I said he likes to line things up. 

 
                  

Gross!

                                                                        

Really Gross!!!

I told him to stop doing this or no girl would ever want to kiss him.  If you look behind him there are tampons all over the floor which he found and dumped.  Today was a potty oriented day.

Marin's Half Birthday

It is hard to believe Marin is 6 months old.  Similar to Symeon's half birthday I spent a little time next to Marin's crib watching her sleep and thinking about her birth and what a blessed day it was when she came into the world.  She has had a busy month learning to crawl, sitting up, and trying food and everything is going well.  She is learning to love food and she crawls all over the place getting into everything.  We thought we were busy before but honestly we had  no idea.  If you turn your back for a minute she is into something that probably isn't best.  One thing I notice is how much more relaxed I am if we ever have any more children God bless I would probably be so laid back they could raise themselves.  When Symeon began to eat food I would only give him one type for several days and then introduce another with Marin I'm like that didn't seem to bother her so let's trying something else.  I would only give Symeon one cherrio at a time and watch him this week I dumped a bunch on her tray and told her to have a blast.  She smiled and began shoving them toward her mouth and granted only a few made it there but still I thought they dissolve she will be fine.

We are enjoying every minute with Marin.  She loves to know over blocks we build up, she drinks out of our water bottles by sucking out of a straw.  She loves magnets that are low on the fridge and she loves anything Symeon does or anything he is playing with.  This love for her brother leads to a lot of refereeing in our house.  Shawn and I didn't realize there would be this much "negotiating" in our house so early.  Marin does not give in easy and she holds her own with her big brother.  God bless Symeon if he even looks at her wrong she lets you know it.  She continues to smile easily and can bring a smile to the face of the most stoic person.

 
Marin is snuggly and a pure delight to have in our family.  We feel so blessed to be her parents and be entrusted with raising her.  Happy half birthday our beautiful baby girl you bring so much joy to us and we love you!

Marin wanted it but didn't like it...

Marin has been looking at food longingly over the past month and I finally gave her a little rice cereal today. After I saw her face I guess rice cereal with a tiny bit of peas was not what she was thinking about over this past month. I am going to try again in a few days, we will see if it gets better. As particular as she has been about eating up to this point I am prepared that she might have similar issues with other food.



Mom I am not sure about this food stuff



Mom I don't think I like this



Yah I am sure I really don't like this

Just some cute pictures

They both had their computers open and they were "working" on them. Symeon was typing letters he knows and Marin was mostly eating the mouse on her toy computer.



Someone gave me these bows for Marin's hair so I thought I would give them a try just to see. Gosh she is cute but she is not fond of the bow. She had it out in about 2 seconds.



Symeon on the other hand loved the bow and would have worn it as long as I let him. I find he likes anything Sissy has so for instance if I want to trim his finger nails all I have to do is put Marin on my lap and begin cutting her nails and he comes over showing me his finger nails so I will cut his as well.



Marin enjoying some lite reading on the couch.



Hanging out in their pajamas.

A nice walk

Our dear friend Rachel likes to take Symeon for walks and he loves to go anywhere Ms. Rachel will take him. He adores her so the other night when she stopped by to pick him up he was ready to go. He had a very short nap on this particular day so I think a nice walk wrapped in a warm blanket made sleep inevitable. Rachel said he managed to point to the small stream with a weak arm before he drifted off to sleep.

Fall Festival

We finally had a nice Saturday so we headed to a fall festival. It was a beautiful day. We went to this festival last year and it was weird to remember being there with Symeon as a baby and I would have been pregnant with Marin. My how a year has changed our family.


Milking a fake cow, Symeon wanted to drink the water which was just gross.


Symeon and I playing in the corn box.


Marin (5 months old) and I enjoying a beautiful fall day.



Symeon (8 months old) and I at the same festival last year. I think it is funny I am wearing almost the exact same thing a year later.



Symeon loved the Alpaca's


This was the best picture we could get of the two of them. They were both so busy we were lucky they both sat there for a few pictures.

Photo shoot

Getting a good picture of Symeon and Marin together can be a bit difficult. Here is one of our photo shoots, I think they are all cute because they show their personalities.