This is What TWO Looks Like

Mark turned 2 a little over a month ago. What a difference a year makes.  I have been so blessed to be able to stay home with him and watch him grow.  Of course there are times when I'm ready to pull my hair out or give him a good punt, but he's so sweet most of the time. There are so many things that he does and say that bring me so much joy. Little moments like when we are in the car and he calls out "Hey, Mom. I love soooo much!"

So what did we do for the little monkey's special day?  Not much! The night before, we had grandpa and Jennie come over for cake.  They got him the ginormous "Hug Me" Elmo doll.  I find it a little creepy but he took a liking to it.  He likes to feed it his plastic food that Sarah got him. Usually there's peas in Elmo's mouth.

This is what I found this morning.

November 3rd was such a beautiful day!  It was sunny and warm. Matthew had a baseball game that day so off we went to the ballpark.  Mark always has fun climbing on the bleachers and walking around while we watch the game. Today, he got to hang out with Matthew in the dugout too!

So excited to see Matthew Bo-Bo!

I love how Matthew is looking at Mark.  So much love!!

Hanging with Bo-Bo in the team dugout

Then we came home and he wanted to water the plants.

Then he played on his swing set with Michael Bo-Bo.

 It was a fun day!

Christmas Around the House

Christmas decorations are up.  Phew, it's a lot of work, but so worth it!  I love decorating for Christmas. This year, I did not get anything new.  I'm using all the stuff I had from last year, but rearranged a few things to make it feel like I have some new stuff.

Actually, for this year, I want to do some Christmas canvas artwork with footprints from the boys.  We'll see how this goes.  I don't think I'll have problems with the 2 older ones, but Mark might be a little squirmy.

This is our family room.  This is where I put up a mini tree that serves as a place for all the ornaments I don't want on the "big" tree.

A little close-up of our mantel. I love these stockings.

Our digital countdown clock

I got the mercury pot last year and planned on an arrangement of red roses, but it was easier to plop in the poinsettia. I think it turned out nicely.

 This is in a little corner of my kitchen counter. Yes, we need more paper towels.

Our dining room

Our living room with the "big Christmas tree."  We've had this tree for a couples of years and I still have not found the right topper for it yet.

These are the mini trees I made for the boys.  Each one has a theme that relates to my little guys. I will have to change Matthew's from basketball to baseball soon.

Linking up to Kelly's Corner - Christmas Tours of Homes.  Can't wait to get more ideas, especially for the tree topper!

Post Thanksgiving Post

Thanksgiving week went by so quickly! Today, the boys are back in school and we are somewhat back to out routine for another 2 weeks before they get 2 weeks off for winter break.  December is going to fly by.

We didn't really do much of anything last week.  We had our Thanksgiving at my in-laws (turkey and prime rib-yum, yum).  Mark decided that he loves sweet potatoes.  Who wouldn't when it's covered with marshmallows? Michael did not care for turkey, but Matthew said that he had the best turkey ever. Funny boy.

The next day, our high school football team was playing in the quarterfinals of the state championship playoffs at the Cowboys Stadium so we decided to take Michael and Matthew.  I had a good time and both boys were really into the game-even Matthew up until the last quarter.  Our team did not win, but it was a very close game and it was nice to not have to pay an arm and a leg to get into Jerry's World. I was not allowed to bring in my purse into the stadium and I left my phone in my purse so no pictures.

The weekend was quiet.  I didn't do much shopping because we really didn't need any big ticket items and the stuff I want go on sale all the time. My biggest score were $.99 poinsettias. Hah-hah. We decorated the trees and I'm pretty much done with the Christmas decorations.  There are a few final touches, but the majority of it is done.  Too bad I'll only have it up for a few weeks.

Marky preparing a meal in his diaper. We took this play kitchen down from the attic and he loves it.  This was Matthew' kitchen originally and I'm so happy that we can get more use out of it. I'd forgotten about it until we saw it while we were bringing the Christmas stuff down.

Saying "cheese" before Thanksgiving dinner.

A little snack before dinner

I made everyone dress up.  They were not happy about it at first but they got over it.

Mark loves to line up his car like Matthew did.

Putting up ornaments!

He found the beads and decided to wear them for the night.

The finished tree!  I had to go back and rearrange the ornament the next day to balance it out.  But they did a good job!

Boot Weather

Happy Thanksgiving Eve, everyone!  Today, I'm linking up with Alison at "Get Your Pretty On." It's finally boot weather in TX this week, but who knows what next week will be like, so I've been wearing boots ALL WEEK LONG.

Here's my favorite look this week.

 {sweater - Target, shirt - Nordstrom Rack, jeans - Old Navy, boots - Nine West}

Another Catch-up Post

Is this really Thanksgiving week?  I can't believe that time has gotten so out of hand.  The boys are on break so the house is going to be a little "lived-in." Haha.

Thank goodness baseball and soccer seasons have ended.  Our weekends will be a little less hectic.  Michael had a great tournament last weekend. He played very well.  His team ended up beating the only team that beat them in the whole tournament for the championship.  It was fun, but exhausting - 2 games a day.  Thank goodness the weather was beautiful.

Go Solar Chelsea!

Matthew also played his last baseball game of the season last weekend.  They did so well too! They won 22-18 or something like that.  Some of his teammates & family went out to lunch after and the boys had so much fun together.  I hope we can  keep most of the boys on this team next season. Matthew is already looking forward to next season.

Go Southlake Pirates!

Post-game snacks with his teammates

He will have his end of season party next week at the Ranger's Stadium.  So cool.  One of the perks of having the son of the GM for the Texas Rangers on the team.

We've had crazy weather around here - sunny and warm one week and freezing cold the next.  We are suppose to be in the midst of a freeze and it was suppose to have snowed, but it didn't.  It's just plain cold.  Oh well.

M and I went to see "Catching Fire" this weekend and it was so good!  The movie was 2 1/2 hours long, but it was so good it didn't seem like we were in there for that long.  I can't wait for the next one to come out!

Some random pics of monkey for you to enjoy.

Being silly with his "num-num"

Matthew was so sick last week - had to stay home from school for a few days.

 

Mark LOVES to feed the ducks at the pond by our house. "Eat big one!" is what he says when he throws them the bread.

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