3!

What I made him.

What we made him for cake.

home made dino pinata. Made by J. She rocks!

She made the crown too.

A constant theme...no time to post. But I will post these 3 year old pictures from E's party in case anyone still reads this. If you do read this, please comment. Thanks!

no time, just a little holiday cheer

a tree!!!!



I mean it...I don't have time. I'm in the midst of seeking career advancement, christmasing, mothering a very needy toddler (needy in a good way, he's just got a lot going on right now)

We are so far from being done with christmas decorations and gifts that i feel a little sick thinking about it. But that might be the chocolate i just downed too....can you say sugar high?

The squirrel design is coming slowly and sorry leslie, is kinda on hold until after christmas! hope you're still reading and not disappointed. I've scrapped a couple designs because they didnt seem cool enough.

Last weekend we got a tree, at hmo dpoe. Twas fun and easy and less stressful and expensive than a treelot. That doesn't stop me from feeling a little bad about getting a tree from a big box store...i mean we are a diy christmas family, but we just can't afford a nice tree from a lot or nursery and we can;t do the driving to the country this year, which we have NEVER done, for the record. Last year, since we were out of town from the 2oth to the 27th, we didn't get a tree at all.

E. is loving the tree. He says hi to it every day. We just got the lights on it last night, so it's not even decorated yet. It smells great. Just not as far along as it was, pre baby.

Hope you all are staying sane. I know we aren't.
some christmas pictures

smile for the camera!

Preview

sleep is for the weak

that's what peanut said yesterday, at nap time. Oh, he slept....but only for about 20 minutes.  

the beautiful start to a very short nap

Then he was up up up to party.

We went to my moms. A first in many years. We usually go to Detroit but the people we see there, J's fam, moved too far away to visit at thanksgiving. 

Dinner at my moms went better than I thought. E melted down a bunch, but when you skip a nap, that happens. He was super cute with his cousin and ate turkey, which is a big deal because he doesn't like meat very much.

 

yyyyyyuuuuuum!

with  the cousin

This good holiday makes me feel cautionarily optimistic about christmas. We are in town for both holidays this year. certain people i know who d not live in my house are a little stressie and sad at christmas, but it comes out as anger.

More on that later, or not.

For now, I'm going to leave it with the fact that we had a great holiday!

did you hear about the giveaway? You only have a few more days to enter to win your very own custom made softie. See the give it away now post for more details!

apple orchard

these apples are delicious. As a matter of fact they are she said. can all this fruit be free?

It was awhile ago now, but we hit the apple orchard this year. It was tons of fun. We always go with my mom and sisters. This year it was super cold and we went to a place in Wisconsin called Apple Holler. A hootin tootin good time if also a bit expensive and commercial. Still, it was one of those times that was super fun, and it's always nice to have a good time with my family, since that isn't always the case. Peanut loves my mom, and she's a good cha cha (that's her grandma name), but her mothering leaves something to be desired. I've mentioned it before so I won't go into it now. We all know I will mention it again as the holiday season approaches and I grow stressed from it.

I love apple orchard day though. It kind of brings out the best of us all. We come together, pick together, try to stay warm together, enjoy the crisp sweet taste of apples and the warm sugary taste of apple donuts together. This year, peanut was so mobile and loved eating his apples. I think this warmed my mother's heart. Whatever happens, whatever ugly passes between us, I like that we have this. A healthy fall day to celebrate harvest, the earth and going forward. We got a lot of apples that day, but since peanut is an apple or 2 a day kinda guy, and i am a apple or two a day kinda mommy, they are all already gone. So we are back to buying them from Trader Joes.

Here are some pictures from the day.

cha cha picking the first apple

My sister's friend M, Auntie M (my youngest sister who is in High School), My nephew K and apples

Cha cha and Auntie J (K's Mom)

Peanut and his cousin K

Mama, Mommy and Peanut

leapin' leopard

with mama

suckers!!

bay? bay? (band? Band?)

our little leopard on the way to the parade

pumpkin carving on the night of halloween

Halloween was sick house here, but the previous week there was a neighborhood parade and trick or treating in the stores in our hood. Peanut had a blast. There was a marching band. He LOVES marching bands. Sadly, we got the tail end of the band and he wanted to follow them where they were going. He stood watching them saying, "bay? Bay? C'mon? Bye!!"

trying for 30

Now, it's no secret that I don't post as often as some people do. Part of that stems from the fact that i am busy, part of it comes from being lazy, and then I also think no one reads anyway, but that's not the point, I guess. So even though it's november 3rd and I am going to need to play catch up, I am doing the NaBloPoMo challenge. It will give me a chance to articulate all the crazy stuff that's been happening of late.

And hopefully make me a better blogger.

I am going to take this moment to say that while I mostly write about peanut, I'm going to try to write about other things too, like crafting and maybe even politics, Or to bore the life out of you, my life story.

I'm also trying to lose weight, could write about that as well.