Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving morning with the Oldhams. We got to spend some time with Nate's brothers and their wives. It was nice seeing them since it's been awhile! We ate there at noon. Cathe prepared an amazing meal! Then we went over to Aunt Anita's and Uncle Ed's to visit the Grays. Then we ate our 2nd meal of the day at Granny's around 3:45. It was nice to actually have the meals spread out a bit further this year. We had a nice day visiting with family and eating wonderful food. By 6 pm I was absolutely miserable...I just knew I was going to pop open between all of the food and Nolan! I did have many contractions that evening, through the night, and Friday. So far nothing consistent with their timing.
















While Cathe was cooking, the very sensitive smoke alarm kept going off for no reason. Hallie Kate is terrified of the sound of smoke alarms. So every time it would go off she would run frantically to Aunt Heather and crawl up in her arms and stay for awhile...until the coast was clear.

















Uncle Nick and Aunt Terrah....HK had a hard time keeping her two sets of aunts and uncles straight.

















HK and Uncle Noah coloring pictures
















HK and her Daddy snuggling in the floor watching Tinker Bell...well at least HK was watching it. Pretty sure that Daddy was sleeping. She is really beginning to snuggle more and love on her Daddy alot. It is so precious to see...it melts my heart. If you ask her who her best friend is, she says "Daddy". So he's trained her to say it...but it's still pretty cute!

















Before the nap Daddy was fortunate enough to get HK to rub his head...his love language is by far physical touch. I won't be surprised if hers isn't that either!!!

















HK with her cousins...Rylee Kate, Rachel, and Reece. HK really enjoyed playing with her cousins that afternoon! She went all day without a nap...there were some rough moments for sure! However she survived the day and is making up for it today. So far she's been sleeping about 4 hours for her nap and she's still snoozing!

















Nate and all of his cousins on the Gray side. Everyone was there except for Matt and his wife and two children. It was nice to see everyone. Not sure that everyone will be able to make that picture at Christmas time.

I am very thankful for my family...every single one of them. I am especially thankful for my wonderful husband and how he loves us, plays with us, and provides for us. He is an amazing man. I'm also extremely thankful for my two children. I can't wait to meet Nolan...hopefully it won't be long!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! May it not be long before there are pictures of Nolan on this blog as well!

Decorating at Nana & Grampy's

Hallie Kate gets very excited when a Christmas tree is pulled out and she is definitely going to help. So if you don't want her help...don't get it out while she's awake! So Grampy had quite the little helper to put up the tree!





















Sorting the branches
















Trying to put the branches in
















Scooting the tree back into the corner
















Even help with the lights!!!
















She takes her work very serious!






















Thanks Mom for the great side shot. I was doing the doorway in the family room and Mom snapped a sneak side shot. There are some others but they are not allowed to be seen by anyone!! We drug the process out of decorating for several days, but it eventually got done. Now we can enjoy next weekend!

Hallie Kate & Jack

Monday and Tuesday Jack and Hallie Kate got to play together at Nana's house. They did lots of fun things...
















...including sitting in time-out...together? I hated to inform Nana, but I did not think that sitting in the same time-out chair was very effective. Take a look at the picture and decide for yourself. They each had their individual turns there, but when they are both at fault I believe separate seats would be better next time....although it makes a pretty cute picture!
















They were dressing up with items from the dress-up box and dancing. Notice the short Santa at the bottom of the picture. It's one of those annoying things you want to hide or snatch its batteries! It spins, dances, and sings "Here Comes Santa Claus". They loved it!!





















Then they both tried on Lilli's chef outfit!




































...which then led us to bake some sugar cookies! We got out the cookie cutters, rolling pin, and flour. They actually did a very good job with the whole thing! We made two pans of cookies. Jack preferred the Christmas trees and HK the gingerbread man.

















Then they put sprinkles on the first tray of cookies. Definitely showing some cheese!
















Of course, they had to taste their work when finished. They both approved!!

















We iced or "painted" the second tray of cookies with paint brushes.
They took this work very seriously and honestly did not lick the icing until I told them they could at the very end!

















After cooking time came art time with Nana. They traced their hands and then painted them.
















Then Nana cut them out and made them look like turkeys.
They had a lot of fun together in those two days!

On the Road Again

Saturday we hit the road again. Nate was going to be working the next 3/4 days and nights. So we figured we'd head on to Eldorado for a few days. Daddy would head on over in time for all of the Thanksgiving festivities. Saturday evening Papa and Cathe were having a reception to celebrate their recent marriage. Unfortunately, Daddy was not able to go because of being on call. Then we were going to start helping Nana and Grampy get their Christmas decorations up early this year so we could relax the weekend after Thanksgiving!

HK loves Nana's Disney Princess Enchanted Christmas movie. She was sitting in her chair and wanted covered up with 3 blankets. She sat covered up like that for the entire movie.

HK sportin her new dress up coat and hat from Grampy and Nana. It is really adorable...just wish you could see the white furry boots at the bottom! They make the outfit!

HK and Papa dancing together at the reception.

Family Outing

Last Friday evening was our Family Fun Night. Hallie Kate has been asking for quiet awhile to go to Chuck E. Cheese. So we decided Friday night was as good a night as any. She was like a pin-ball bouncing around in the place. She would've been happy just putting coins in the slots and feeding the tickets in the ticket muncher at the end. She enjoyed playing with the other kids more than by herself!





















Daddy and HK playing some miniature air hockey.






















Slidin' down the mini-slide. She climbed up in the big tunnels but got scared and her Daddy had to go and get her out. That was a pretty funny sight. Seeing as Nate is the most flexible the choice was an easy one as to who had to go and get her!






















HK definitely had a fun evening at Chuck E. Cheese!

Christmas Decorations!

Saturday was Christmas decoration day at the Oldhams. We usually do our decorations the weekend before Thanksgiving, but Nate is on call this coming weekend. It's definitely a family affair! The morning started out with Daddy and HK making a donut run.
Then Daddy drug all of the boxes out of our little storage closet out on the balcony.
It's our yearly cleaning out of the storage closet.










Daddy had lots of help from HK. They put the tree up while I took down all of the fall decorations.










While Daddy "rearranged" or "tidied" up the storage closet, HK and I put up her pink tree.













I bought her some new pink Disney Princess ornaments for her tree. She loved them!










She enjoyed trying to help hang decorations on the tree.













Then she showed Daddy her tree...pointing out all of the Princesses and other ornaments.











Daddy had to put the tree skirt on the tree because there was no way me and my belly could get in the position you see those two in above. HK decided she needed to help with the tree skirt as well.













Here is the finished product. I waited to actually put all of the ornaments on during HK's nap. She might've been a bit more help than I actually needed!














This is our tree of all of our "special" ornaments. Nate and I started buying ornaments for one another the first year we were married. Then there are other special ones people have given us since we've been married. This may be the last year for this tree because we are outgrowing this one!











We got out HK's Fisher Price manger scene. She has played with it almost exclusively since getting it out on Saturday. She loves her "anger" and "angel" and "Baby Jesus". The manger plays Away in a Manger. She also enjoys trying to sing it! She wants to take it everywhere we go...not a good travel toy...too many pieces!!!











That night Nate made homemade pizza. Then we went to Target and shopped for a little girl for Operation Christmas Child. Hallie Kate helped pick out toys and clothes for the little girl. Then we went back home. HK got her new Christmas pajamas...a family tradition...new Christmas pjs. I like giving them when the decorations go up...that way they can wear them many, many times. She also got a new Christmas book about the meaning of Christmas. Then we ate popcorn and watched the Veggietale's movie, The Star of Christmas. It was a very fun family day!!!













HK's new Christmas pjs.











Daddy rubbing HK's back during the movie.

We are set for Christmas...decorations ups, gifts bought, gifts wrapped. So now Baby Nolan can come anytime and we can enjoy Nolan and the Christmas season!

Santa's Lap???

So one might think by seeing the reindeer antlers on Hallie Kate's head that she saw Santa Claus at the mall today. Well, yes....and no. She did see him. She has been talking about sitting on Ho-Ho's lap and telling him that she wants a camera since mid-July. Let's just say she's alot of talk and not much action for once. We ran to the mall today to make a quick exchange. We stopped by just to see Santa and sit on his lap. I kind of had a feeling she was going to bail on me...so I wanted to give her time to warm up to him. We got close to the area and she started telling me no and crying. I wheeled the stroller up to the entrance and she really started crying. I knelt down next to her (no small task might I add) and she put her arm around my neck. I felt like I was in a head lock...quite a strong one too. He was a very nice Santa. There was no one else around so he came over to us. He gave her stickers and read her a story. I hugged him and gave him high-fives....none of it mattered. I unbuckled her to try and get her out and she cried..."no...do not get me out!" I was trying hard not to crack up. Here my little tough girl is afraid of Santa Claus! We wheeled to the other side of the area to watch some other kids take turns. She did wave to him, blow him a kiss, and say good-bye. Oh yeah...she did end up giving him a high-five as well. I wish I could've had it on video! So needless to say, it's going to take several trips to warm up to Santa. Maybe she will go once Nolan's born. Who knows! She never ceases to surprise me! Also, in the picture above are all things precious to HK...her blanket, her Bear, and her princesses!

Pics from HK's Weekend

Nana sent some pictures from HK's weekend at their house!

Hallie Kate & Jack are watching Barney together in the van. They are on their way to meet me in Mt Vernon Monday morning. Nana snapped their picture when she had to stop at the bridge!

Hallie Kate & Jack enjoying some pancakes for breakfast before setting out to take HK back home.

Hallie Kate and her Grampy reading bedtime stories. Who knew there were so many verses to the Itsy Bitsy Spider?

HK modeling her new dress Sunday morning before church.

HK & Grampy playing a duet on the piano.

Nana giving HK lessons on cracking an egg.

This is HK's new favorite book...it's Target's Christmas toy catalog. She is pointing out a page on which she found princesses. It sets on the ottoman with Mommy's magazine.

Date Night

As I've mentioned before, we trade date nights with the Slaters. One couple goes out one week and the other couple the next week. The "at-home" couple gets both kids. It's been a very enjoyable trade-off! However this week and next week are our last scheduled date nights. We started in August and have gone all the way up to Thanksgiving. Then we'll see how things go with the arrival of the new babies. That's when we'll need the break the most...so hopefully once we've gotten into new routines we'll be able to figure out a new plan.

Karsten and Brooke went out Tuesday evening and Kellen was at our place.















HK & Kellen enjoyed dancing together during Dancing With the Stars! They were quite entertaining.
















Then Kellen gave HK a ride in the doll stroller. It's amazing that it did not break!
Then Kellen played a concert on the piano for HK as she stood and listened.
















After bathtime, more Dancing With the Stars...the tutu still on...even over the pajamas!
















As we waited for Karsten and Brooke to return home and the toys were all cleaned up, we ended the evening with stories on the couch with Daddy. As always, HK was so excited that Kellen was at her house!