Thanksgiving Sunshine

 We had a beautiful, sunny, crisp fall day for Thanksgiving this year.  After a yummy family dinner we took a walk to the park to enjoy the sunshine & each other.  The swings have not been Heidi's favorite thing but she is slowly learning to enjoy them!

 Heidi LOVES watching Allison climb the rock wall.  She kind-of freaks out and tries to dive out of your arms after her.  It is pretty cute!  If Allison isn't on the rock wall Heidi doesn't seem to notice it!

 It was late afternoon and the shadows were really long so we decided to try to get a 'family' shadow picture.  After this Allison & I had a lot of fun trying to make funny shapes & characters with the shadows.  She had a hard time believing me that I wasn't touching her when my shadow-bunny landed on her shadow-head.

Ah yes, and someday this girl is going to learn bark chips are not for eating.  Until then we have to come up with creative things for her to play with to keep her off the ground.  This looks like a good option until you realize how much she is pulling his hair!

Turkey Trot 2013

 We started our 2013 Thanksgiving with a Turkey Trot 1K fun run with the Booth family.  Logan & Allison ran the race while the little sisters stayed snuggled up in their strollers.  Logan came by first and things were still fairly crowded so Janelle just headed to the finish line.

 Allison ran the entire race, and held Mark's hand the whole time.  Things had cleared out quite a bit when she came by so I jumped in and ran with them.  She was very focused and hardly said a word but just kept jogging along.

Jon & Janelle managed to get a picture of all of us coming up at the end!

 There was a giant inflatable turkey at the finish line.  The kids thought it was pretty funny....and after picking up their ribbons and family pics they all kept going back to it!

Yup, they loved that turkey.  And Lauren's cow suit is about as cute as can be!

10 Months Old

 Our Heidi-bug is 10 months old already!  Miss Leslie was here last weekend for the 10-month pictures!  She has been so much fun for us lately and is starting to entertain us with her antics and crazy expressions.  No check-ups this month so no stats to report but here are a few other tid-bits.

 Sleeping:  Heidi is a champ at night - sleeping 12+ hours!  She has learned to find her own pacifier and will be content in her crib until we come to get her, sometimes as late as 8 am.  Often when I go to get her on a week day she is curled up in the corner semi-awake with her pacifier and bunny blanket.  At daycare her naps are short.  Like 45 (sometimes 20!) minutes short.  A few times a week she'll surprise them all and sleep up to 2 hours.  At home, however, she naps very well (probably because she is tired from the week!).  In general they don't mind the short naps at daycare because her general demeanor is very cheerful.

 Eating:  The Heidi-bug is fully weaned (thanks to my trip to Ireland).  She is a great eater but wants to feed herself more and more.  Her favorites seem to be salmon and beans, peaches and apples and this month has developed an affinity for asparagus.  She generally likes real food and more complex flavors (soup, stir fry, etc.) over typical 'baby food' which we don't mind a bit.  Her breakfast is unsweetened yogurt - I'm quite proud of myself for getting her to eat that since I failed miserably with Allison!  She only has two teeth on the bottom still; we're hoping she gets more soon to make eating food a bit easier.

 Movement:  Heidi crawls all over the place and is capable of climbing but hasn't been interested in climbing our stairs.  She pulls up on furniture and anything else she can find.  She has recently started letting go and standing without assistance.  She also has started walking along furniture and transfer from one piece to another.  She loves her the little baby push-cart and can walk with it pretty well.  Oh, and she does not like sitting still.  Go figure!

Social:  Heidi loves going to daycare.  She seems to really enjoy both her teachers and the other babies.  As far as we have heard she is cheerful all day and likes to be in the middle of everything.  With that said, if she is unhappy about something she is not afraid to express her displeasure - you should not make a bottle in front of her and not feed it to her immediately! :) She is still a bit of a Mommy's girl but thanks to my trip to Ireland that has let up a bit.  She has a new favorite person, too, Allison.  She lights up and giggles just at the sight of her and she loves to follow her around or just watch her.  She does not, however, like to be held by her (see the picture above - my attempt at a picture of both of them - Heidi instantaneously arched her back to get away).  We are so thankful for our Heidi-bug, life would be so boring without her!

Pajama Day!

The girls had 'pajama day' at school the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  Their 'Christmas' PJs came with 2 sets - so I let them wear one to school.  Allison was pretty proud of their matching PJs.  Heidi was clueless :).

Miss Leslie Comes to Town

The weekend before Thanksgiving Miss Leslie came to visit and we had a girls' weekend (including Allison & Heidi) while Mark enjoyed his new Xbox One.  We went to high tea on Saturday afternoon.

 The tea shop had an old fashioned high chair they put Heidi in, including tying her in with napkins.  She loved it.  And that expression kills me!

 Allison had her very own Mad Hatter tea, complete with hot chocolate and a dish full of mini marshmallows.  

 Then we stopped in for a tour of the Albany carousel.  One of the carvers let Allison sit on a tiger that was in process.

 We had a beautiful sunny afternoon so we had to stop at the park!

 Leslie & I managed to get some sewing done, too.  And Allison loved being in the middle of it!

 We had our first holiday Starbucks drink; a very fitting thing to do considering Miss Leslie is from Seattle.

And our girl made the most of her last afternoon with Leslie, a new headband, Hello Kitty Bingo & Tattoos!

Allison's Greenery Arrangement

 Last weekend, while I was on my way to Ireland, Allison went to the local Little Sprouts Club with Nana & Papa where she made a holiday greenery arrangement.  I'm pretty sure she had some help from someone, it turned out pretty fabulous!  She is proud of it sitting on our table, too.  Hopefully it lasts through Thanksgiving.

Allison also wanted me to take a picture of her new Calico Critters set; it is actually a Sylvanian Family set that I found in Ireland - a sleepover set.  I got it since she was having a sleepover at Nana & Papa's while I was away and has been very into sleepovers of late.  She loved playing with it and wanted a picture of her set arranged just so.  (It is a good thing she is enjoying her Calico Critters, she may be getting just a few for Christmas!!).

Ireland

 I spent last week in Ireland for a work trip.  I really don't think it would be possible to have more fun on a work trip (although I am so glad to be home!!).  I arrived early on a Sunday morning, flying into the Shannon airport on the west side of Ireland.  I had all day to get to my hotel so I took the scenic route and stopped by the Cliffs of Mohr.  This is the viewing tower there.

 And I ate breakfast while it started to rain outside.  Thankfully it was dry while I was there but it was cold, so I bought myself a wool hat in the gift shop!  I spent 3 days on the west part of the island in the countryside at a factory doing a software install.  It was beautiful there, lots of rock walls/fences with sheep, cows, ponies and donkeys all over.  Unfortunately the roads were very narrow without pull-outs so I never managed to capture a picture of the countryside.

 Midway through the week I moved closer to Dublin to our plant there.  I arrived on Wednesday which was a stormy sort of day so I only went out for a short walk to explore my new hotel, the Carton House (above).  It was beautiful, I felt very pampered staying there!

 Oh, and I found this gingerbread muffin on my way back from the western coast.  It was pretty yummy and very cute!

 The foxes around the HP site in Ireland are very, very lazy.  As seen by the number of bunny rabbits on the site.  There was a massive herd of bunnies.  They were very cute.  And everywhere.  Apparently my Irish colleagues don't even notice them anymore!

 I had to take a picture of my hotel room.  it was one of the nicer rooms I've ever stayed in.  

 My friend, Roberta, was in Ireland the week before me and recommended a restaurant in downtown Maynooth, near where we were staying.  we made it one night and I had this fabulous roast lamb shank for dinner.  It was tasty.

 I also drank a LOT of Irish tea while I was there.  One of my coworkers sent me home with a big box.  We'll see how long it lasts!

 And I had this huge tower of profiteroles (cream puffs) for dessert.  They were very yummy. 

 On my last day I managed to have some time while it was still daylight to do the 3 km walk around the Carton House grounds (there are two separate golf courses with two different walking trails exploring the grounds).  The grounds were beautiful!  And it was a nice afternoon with the sun actually peeking through!  I really wish Mark could have come along and played some golf.

 And on Friday night before I flew out we went to downtown Dublin for dinner and a few other things, including a visit to the General Post Office.  I mailed a post card home to Allison from the original post box.  I beat the post card home, though!

I had a great time and would love to go back, but not without my family!  It was definitely an easy country to be a tourist in.  And of course, it helps that I have some great co-workers / friends that made the time as enjoyable as one could expect from a work trip.  And I have to mention that Mark did an amazing job holding down the fort while I was gone - especially considering both girls had a case of pink eye while I was gone!