Two Thanksgivings & A Stomach Bug

While we were home for Thanksgiving we celebrated by having lunch with Jordan's family and dinner with my family.  It worked out well except the night before I started feeling really, really bad.  I never did throw up (which is fantastic in the world of stomach bugs!) but I was up a lot during the night and I just felt really bad.  I spent most of Thanksgiving day sleeping in, eating crackers, drinking Gatorade and being really lazy.

It didn't help that it was so warm during our visit.  All we really had was long sleeves and pants!  Jordan took Jack and JM for a walk before lunch.  Jack was so happy and JM did a really good job of walking him!

Table o' Desserts

I didn't get any pictures of Gaga's Thanksgiving feast because I just felt too awful.  Gaga had the works for us; turkey, dressing, rolls, potatoes, green beans and probably some other good stuff that I can't remember!

Matthew was ready for his second Thanksgiving!  I kept thinking how last year we ate Thanksgiving in the hospital and Matthew was soooo little and precious!

We all took great naps and then woke up for more food.  At mom's we decided to do something a little different this year.  We decided upon steaks, potatoes, and veggies and rolls.  Like Jordan said, it was a real treat for us because we never spend the money on steaks at our house!  It was different, but really nice to not have to eat two Thanksgivings in a row!  I ate crackers and soup.

All the men were really excited about the massive plate of steaks my dad grilled!

Can you tell Matthew just ate a little bit of cake?!

Jordan and I decided we would let John Michael eat a little more cake, as he had already had some at Gaga's house.  It's Thanksgiving after all!  He just keeps asking and asking for cake, so we said after that night no more for awhile!

It was so warm on Thanksgiving day.  I remember last year it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing so hard and cold as we brought Matthew home from the hospital at around 9 that night!

Later the night it started to rain, so as is JM and Dad's custom, they went and sat out on the back porch.  JM played and played in the window and waved at us and said Hi to everyone in the den!  They had a good time!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.  Ps 107:1

This Thanksgiving I was thankful for:

-Healthy and beautiful children.

-My marriage and my awesome husband who does so much for me.

-Sweet family who loves us so.

-Jordan's job that he enjoys and the security we feel because of it. We know so many people are out of work or are looking and it's just so tough out there right now.

-The Lord and what He means to us as we go about living our everyday lives.

-We have a roof over our heads, food in our pantry, and two cars to drive.  It's as simple as that...we are blessed!

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Matthew Turns 1!!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since we welcomed our near-11 pound sweet Matthew into our family!  What a joy he has been and such a wonderful, perfect addition to our family!  I'm thinking I'm going to do a post all about Sweet Matthew tomorrow, so for now I'll just share his birthday party pictures!

We had a red, white, and blue sailboat theme and we celebrated with close family and friends while we were home for Thanksgiving.  It was a perfect day, even though Matthew had to go down for nap for part of his party!

Happy Birthday Matthew!

We had balloons, hanging balls, and sea gulls!

Our cake matched the invitation and Matthew had his own little cake to eat as well!

Matthew was so excited, he could hardly stand it!

The cake sitting on decorative red fabric and fishing net.

And of course we had to have Robin's cookies!  They also matched the invitation perfectly!

My grandmother put the sailboat stickers on the back of the cookies.

The front entryway welcoming our guests!

12 months of Matthew!

We took a quick family picture before everyone arrived!

My favorite part of the day was finally meeting my cousin's sweet little one!  It was a task taking their picture all together!

Matthew was holding her hand!

We ate brunch and had such good food!  We also had orange juice, tea, chocolate milk, and lime water.

And we had a lot of food!

Matthew was not nearly as interested in his cake as JM was!

But he did eventually dive in and eat a little.

He also had a certain little "helper" to help him eat his cake!

John Michael could not resist helping Matthew!

Afterwards, Matthew opened a few presents and some sweet cards!  We had an awesome afternoon and had such a fun time celebrating Matthew's first year with us!

 

"Mama...Hat!"

The other night before the start of bedtime routine, Jordan put Matthew up on his shoulders and ran around the house with Matthew cracking up the whole time.  John Michael looked very perplexed.  He finally looked at me and said "Mama, hat!"

We could only figure that he thought Jordan was wearing Matthew as a hat, so he wanted in on the action. 

I obliged.  I wore him as a "hat"!

 

I Had The Best Day With You!

Dear Baby Matthew,

Before you turn one next week I wanted to show you our super-fun Friday afternoon that we shared last week!  Daddy was so sweet and he let BOTH of us sleep in while he took John Michael to Mother's Day Out.  It was so refreshing to have a morning to sleep in and then hang out with you!

After we got up we headed out to McDonald's for a little breakfast together.  You ate pancakes and waved to everyone around you and smiled up a storm!

 

I just sipped my coffee and enjoyed watching you knowing you'll be turning one soon!  I think you're starting to look more and more like your daddy's baby pictures.

After breakfast we headed up to the Promenade to just walk around and do a little bit of Christmas shopping.  I found myself in a big-time pickle because I desperately needed wipes and I had NONE!  I ended up using a lot of wet, scratchy paper towels!  It's funny now that I think about it!  You didn't mind and we continued on our merry shopping way!

We got to look at all kinds of Christmas decorations and pretty Christmas trees.  Also, you were very attached to a packet of ketchup that you found in the car.  It caught quite a few people's attention while we were shopping!  You were just so happy to hold onto it the whole time!

We looked at the pretty fall leaves and I gave you one to hold!  It was bigger than your head.  You also held onto this leaf for a long time until you tried to eat it!

Last, but not least, we checked out the fountain and enjoyed the water!

Matthew, I had THE best day with you!  I've tucked this one away in my memory, buddy!  We couldn't love you more and we're so excited for you to turn ONE next week!!

October Leftovers

Here are some random snapshots from October that I never got onto the blog!  October was a fun month and I need to make sure I document what we did during the month!

We had some pretty hot days for it to be October!  We played outside a good bit, especially at the beginning of the month.

 

 Matthew enjoyed rocking a lot in JM's chair.  Matthew now has his very own with his name on it.  He loves to rock!

 We went to one of the many craft fairs in our area.  This is the only picture I took there.  You can really feel the level of excitement by looking at their faces.

 We played at Chick-fil-A one night for dinner.  Matthew peeked his head out the window of this tree at just the right time!

Mainly, I just love this picture of both boys chilling out after naptime.  Matthew already loves flipping through (& ripping!) books. 

 I attempted to make a pumpkin bundt cake for a Sunday School get-together.  Attempted is the key word here.  I just about died about 5 minutes after I put it in the oven and thought something didn't seem right.  I was right to be concerned; I didn't put 4 eggs in it!  Four whole eggs!!!  The indention on the left side is from Jordan sticking his finger in it because he said the batter was good and it was good without eggs.  Gross.  I ended up running by the store and taking a very yummy cinnamon roll cheesecake to the party instead!

 Matthew loves this Busy Ball Popper and he especially loves the air that blows the balls toward the top!  His expression is priceless!

Sweet Jack giving Matthew kisses. 

And then it looks like Jack is about to eat Matthew, but he was just yawning!  Funny picture! 

 The weather turned cooler and we played outside some more.  JM with his favorite thing in this world: football!

 On a really fun note, JM and I spent one afternoon outside while Matthew napped and he taught himself how to blow bubbles. 

 We were out there a long time and he eventually took the bubbles from me, blew and blew and blew...

 until he got it juuuuust right!  Viola, bubbles!

 I made Halloween cookies and iced them.  John Michael sort of helped me make them.  He was way less interested than I thought he was going to be.

 And Gaga came to visit around Halloween!

What a wonderful, fun, and busy month.  It seems like nothing will slow down until about January!

 

Verse O' the Day:

Let me hear Your loving kindness in the morning; for I trust in You; teach me the way in which I should walk; for to You I lift up my soul.

Psalm 143:8

Matthew's First (Early) Birthday!

Matthew's first birthday is coming up and I wanted to make sure we celebrated with his little friends.  We will be doing an actual family party on his real birthday, but I wanted him to celebrate with his pals!  I decided to do a sailboat theme with red, white, and blue.  It turned out super cute!

We hung seagulls in the archways

And we used little accents that we already have from John Michael's nautical room

Seagulls and fishing net abounded

As did nautical flags

Our front entryway welcomed everyone into our sailboat party!

We had a Happy Birthday! banner and I hung red and blue lanterns above the table

I cannot take any credit for our meal that we ate.  Jordan's mom was up visiting so she cooked and cooked and cooked for us!  She made a pumpkin cheesecake with praline pecans and we had early Thanksgiving dinner...dressing, gravy, rolls, green beans, and cranberry sauce!!  It was so good!  I was so thankful for her cooking for us!

More red, white, and blue

Our cupcakes and giftbags were also red, white, and blue

My almost birthday boy!

Matthew is lucky to have a few friends that are right around his age!  Here's Luke,

and Kaitlyn,

and Shepherd.

Matthew ate a cupcake to celebrate with his friends!

He was pretty curious

and I think he liked it!

A lot!

Matthew's party turned out so cute and best of all, we had so much fun talking and catching up with each other!  I can't wait to do it all again for his real birthday in a few weeks!