Thanksgiving 2010

It was our year to host Thanksgiving, but we nearly yielded it back to Mandy’s aunt and uncle. A few weeks ago, we still hadn’t gotten any commitments from my side of the family to attend. An inquiry to Uncle Steve about the Johnson Family’s attendance brought only a brief, non-committal response: “Will there be sledding?” – a reference to their last visit at New Year’s. Laurie’s husband was yet again deployed, this time to Afghanistan, and not able to assist in the cross-country travel from South Carolina. My mom’s house was in the process of being renovated, and not habitable. We finally settled on Laurie, Amelia, Olivia and my mom staying with us for the week, and Steve and Lisa made plans to arrive en masse after being assured snow was not in the forecast.

We’ve had outstanding weather for November and given the number of attendees, we were hoping for outdoor weather, and more places to seat everyone - unfortunately it was first scheduled to get below freezing on Thanksgiving Day. Despite that, all 32 of us managed to find a place to eat, and not surprisingly, no one went hungry. Laurie helped prep and cook a lot of our food, and everyone brought a ton (literally?) of other food.

Because of the chaos, we didn't manage to get pictures of everyone (or at least unflattering ones where you weren't eating), but this was pretty representative.

Mandy & I started out with an early morning date at Starbucks. Laurie and Elliot baked cranberry scones while we had a little quiet start to our day

The kids anxiously awaiting the food.

Karen, Anna and Sam eating at the kids table.

Noah and Amelia helping Aunt Laurie to make scones the night before.

Grandma Joann

Laurie and Bella talking to Uncle Rafe (from Afghanistan)

Grandma Joann, Grandpa Larry and Olivia

Noah tying something to his boat

Grandpa Rick making gravy

Uncle Steve and Katie

Beef tenderloin! We also had a 25-lb turkey and Jason brought a huge ham he smoked.

One row of sides. No one went hungry.

Just a few desserts...

Par for the course. Luci went on the lam again - Uncle Todd found her a couple blocks away near the high school.

Grandpa Rick at the "adults" table. Something wrong with this picture.

Happy Finn, eating some Thanksgiving meal.

Amelia (with evidence of Thanksgiving around her mouth)

Aunt Sam reading to Elliot

Grandma Lois learning how to use her new iPhone

The cousins playing with Noah's "marble thing" on the dinner table.

Bedtime stories with Aunt Laurie

Plaza lights

Laurie wanted to take Amelia to see the plaza lights. Todd & Dylan came along as did Noah & I. Paul was at home with Elliot getting him ready for bed. The best part was having Paul drop us off and pick us up so we didn't have to deal with traffic. And as a bonus we drove around Brookside looking at lights on the way home.

No fantastic pics highlighting the lights themselves. I just took the small point & shoot and took some of the family. We had a great time!

The kids stopped for a pic in front of the Eddie Bauer fountain.

They were pleasantly surprised to see Santa outside of Starbucks. Noah told him he wanted crash cars and a skateboard when he turns 5.

Enjoying their hot chocolates, steamers & treats at 'bucks

Aunt Laurie & Dylan

Me & my boy

Dylan & Amelia walking together

Todd, Noah, Laurie, Amelia & Dylan

Siblings :)

Cousins & friends

Noah got a sweet ride much of the time on Uncle Todd's shoulders

Noah & Amelia camping out

We made Noah & Amelia a bed on the 3rd floor on an air mattress. The first night was interesting. They were both enthusiastic about camping out on the 3rd floor together. Noah was exhausted as he'd gotten up that morning early and they were going to bed late. We set up a monitor and were listening to them. Talking, Talking, Talking and Talking. We heard them talk about dragons and bad dreams. At one point Amelia said she'd give Noah one of her dreamcatchers to catch his bad dreams. It was so cute.

Then, like a typical man we heard Noah say "Can we talk about this in the morning? I'm getting tired".

And like a typical woman, Amelia kept gabbing. It was so funny.

She's a cuddler and has to be touching. He came downstairs at 4am saying she was too close and he was going to fall out. When Paul took him upstairs Noah had only a couple inches, but was unwilling to "trade" sides. So Paul just moved Amelia over. Since then we put a pillow between them to help keep Amelia from scooting Noah out of bed and it's worked out great.

Running Away

Blog-wise, we’ve been largely silent in November. Not due to a lack of things going on, but rather the opposite. It’s been a busy month, getting ready for visitors, holidays and other stuff going on.

We started off the month with doing the 5k Lung Hill Run, a benefit for the early detection and successful treatment of lung cancer. It was a very chilly morning, but the run was near the Liberty Memorial, and the many hills got us warmed up pretty quickly. We both set personal records (27:47 for Mandy, 23:25 for me).

In September, Mandy and I decided to make a commitment to maintaining a healthier all-around lifestyle. Last summer we were both in very good shape, and for no good reason at all (not that we didn’t use every excuse in the book), we backslid pretty far over the winter and the summer. It got to the point we were both feeling pretty miserable, so we decided to do something about it.

In less than three months, by getting and staying off the couch and not succumbing to any excuses about the weather, busy schedules, sleepless nights or [insert excuse here], between us we’ve lost the equivalent of Noah – except it’s 50 lbs of fat instead of muscle. We’re not really dieting or depriving ourselves of anything either – Mandy’s cooking some tasty yet healthy meals every night, and we’re generally (but certainly not always) making more good choices than bad.

Looking good!

In addition to hitting the gym, running has been a regular part of our regimen. Because of Elliot’s sleep schedule (he’s usually up by 5:30), we run in shifts. I usually run at 5:00 AM while Mandy takes care of him (and tries desperately to keep him quiet enough to keep Noah asleep), and she usually runs right after I get back.

Rather than look at it as a dreaded way to stay in shape, we’ve both been having fun with it. Neither of us can stand the treadmill, but we both enjoy the quiet solitude of the early morning darkness, so we run outside no matter the weather. Sometimes with the iPod, sometimes without – Mandy likes to end her run at the local coffee shop a few blocks away and walk home with her iPod set to Christmas music. And there are some occasionally fun and funny things that happen along the way, like the time I got attacked by an owl while running through the Plaza one early morning a few weeks ago. I thought I was being mugged – it hit me hard in the back of the head, dug into my scalp with its claws and tried to fly off with me. Unsuccessfully of course, but it left me feeling confused/unsettled/disoriented the rest of my run. I ran a 10k that morning without really thinking about it.

We’ve been signing up for a few organized runs along the way, mostly to stay engaged. We wanted to train for a 10K around Thanksgiving, but our schedules (and our kids) didn’t cooperate, so when my sister offered to let us go for a run together the day after Thanksgiving, we took her up on it. Since we never do this together, we had a great time running and talking, and in the 22 degree weather we ended up running 6.4 miles through the Plaza, and up a pretty challenging and hilly course. Just the thing we needed to take the edge off the feast we had at Thanksgiving the day before. To think that twelve weeks ago, Mandy had just started by running intervals - running 30 seconds and walking 30 seconds - makes that accomplishment even more impressive.

We’ve made a lot of progress, and while we’re still not where we want to be, we are still as committed as ever to staying healthy for good this time. With two extremely active young boys, we will need it if only to keep up with them. We're shooting for a half-marathon in April.

Pre-Thanksgiving Cousin fun!

Paul's sister Laurie along with her 2 kids, Amelia (4) and Olivia (1) arrived with Paul's mom, Joann on Monday night. The kids have been having so much fun. Here are a few cute pics.

Elliot reading with Grandma

Olivia has gotten so much bigger & stronger since we last saw her. Her therapist told Laurie she'd probably make a lot of milestones while here and she immediately waved to Paul when he said "Hi'. Her first time. She also kissed a babydoll last night. All things they've been working on. She's such a show-off ;)

Sitting up so strong. She loves all the toys!

Laughing :D

Noah was running and pulling Amelia in the wagon up the street

Running a race at the church

Ready for a wagon ride

Playing in leaves

I'll post a separate post about Amelia & Noah camping out on the 3rd floor next.

Bikes

I took the boys for a bike ride together last week. Elliot is getting pretty good on the strider, just walking/running with it. Keeping him on task though was a bit challenging. It would have been fine with just E, but Noah would get to the end of the block and be laying in the grass for several minutes waiting for us to catch up. So we only went down one block and back. E had fun riding at first, but then felt the need to stop to play with everything. He also got pretty contrary when I tried to help steer him quickly across the street, pushing me away and screaming. And then there was the whole turning off the sidewalk and wanting to ride his bike in the middle of the street thing..... yeah, he's not quite "there" yet, but it was still fun!

Noah's 4 year check up

Yes, it was a couple of months late, but last week Noah had his annual well child check up. No surprises. Still healthy and still a big guy. 43" and 45 lbs of solid muscle (95% for both height and weight). The funny thing is his weight was down a couple of pounds from a GI virus he had earlier that week.

We got our flu shots together (I went first to show him what a breeze it was) and he also got a booster for DTAP. He needs 3 boosters total before kindergarten so I figured we'd get one to spread them out and DTAP was an easy choice with the pertussis outbreaks.

The appointment was on Veteran's Day so Paul was off work. We went out for lunch, frozen yogurt and the library that afternoon as a treat for being so brave with his shots. Noah's been wanting to go to Yogurtini for quite awhile, and it lived up to all he'd hoped for. He topped his swirled froyo with cocoa puffs, jelly beans, granola, raisins, candy corn & marshmallow cream sauce. It was a pretty small portion and he didn't even finish it, but he loved it!

It's hard to believe Noah is a big 4 year old now!

Brrrr

Paul & I have held off turning on the upstairs heat so far. We have the heater on downstairs as needed and bundle up in warm jammies and blankets at night. But, this morning it was down to 63 degrees up there. Noah said "BRRRR!!!! It's a good thing I'm wearing my long underwear"

He doesn't have long underwear and not even sure how he knows what they are, but it cracked me up. And prompted me to turn on the heat, finally. If he was cold in his fleece PJ's and chamois blanket, it's too cold.

A Happy Halloween

This year we had the funnest Halloween with the boys. This is the first year we did real trick or treating to any extent. In the past, we have always taken Noah to the Brookside shops in the afternoon and since he's not a big fan of keeping on costumes and was always pleased with his stash, he'd strip down when we came home and be ready for some treats and just handing out candy. This year we skipped the madness and crowds.

Instead we headed over to our friends' house where everyone ate, socialized, played, bounced and jumped in a lot of leaves.

E is signing "more" after Paul threw him in the pile

All kinds of crunched up leaves came out of the boys clothes when they undressed later

Then we decided to trick or treat with our friends up and down their block. Elliot did maybe half of the houses. Sometimes he'd walk up with the big boys and do it with them, other times we helped him. Never in a hurry, he wanted to just eat his candy right then. Who am I kidding, Noah was the same way. He kept wanting to go back home and quit so he could eat his candy.

Everyone loved this porch

Noah & his buddies

Group shot of all the kids after trick or treating. Notice my two boys are the only ones too busy eating to look at the camera.

That crazed hot tamale look on our way home

After we got home, we did only a little more trick or treating and of course we were thrilled to run into Noah's BFF, Hudson and family. This is Noah with Hudson & Kate (Hudson's cousin)

This is the first Halloween, or really time in Noah's life ever, I didn't limit his candy. I just let him eat what he wanted. I limited Elliot, but let him eat way more than Noah ever did at that age! Poor (or lucky?) second kids. I warned Noah too much would make him feel sick to his stomach and encouraged moderation, but you can guess that he didn't trust me! He did say his tummy didn't feel very good at bedtime and was pretty wound up, but it was a fun night. And after that night, the rest of the candy magically disappeared.

*I realize E is wearing a non-costumey sweatshirt over his skeleton outfit, but it was chilly :) I always choose comfort over cute. And heck, he is cute in anything anyway!