Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we drove to Indiana to spend the holiday with B's family.  We spent Thanksgiving at my brother-in-law's where we ate too much and the kids played hard together.

Very thankfully that all the kids get along so well.

U seemed a little more excited about taking a picture than Etta.  :)

But he was less than thrilled at the end of the night when I made him sit with his sister.  He was done.

We went back to B's parent's to relax and hang out or so I thought.  At 8:30, B got restless and wanted to go shopping.  We sent him and his dad out to scope out the crowds and grab a few things.  Classic B got flustered over the TWO things I told him to pick up and came home empty handed so I went back out with him and we knocked out our entire Christmas list!

I have NEVER been a Black Friday shopper but the three places we went weren't that bad and I didn't have urge to punch anyone.  It was a win/win.

Friday morning, we all went back out to do a little more shopping and these two got matching coats.

They were stuck to each other's hips all weekend.

Saturday, we went ice skating down in Indy.

This was C's first time skating and she wasn't sure about it at first.

We had to have a little pep talk after one time around the rink but after that, she loved it!  Well except she didn't like holding on to her daddy.  

As my niece put it, 'he is unstable.'  Ha!  If she only knew.  ;)

So it was up to her aunt and uncle to take her around.

The ice skating crew.

All 3 big kids loved skating and it will definitely be on our must do again list.

The rest of the night, the kids played while the adults chatted and caught up on life.  We left Sunday morning thinking we would beat most of the heavy traffic.  Not so much.  We all were dead tired and this morning was by far one of the worst reality checks we've had.  C kept yelling no over and over this morning when we were trying to get her out of bed.  She is her mama's child.

Torture

Every year around this time, I torture my family with family pictures for Christmas card purposes.  Every year I hear a lot of moaning and groaning and a lot of 'I don't wanna.'  Every year it's a circus and this year was no different except we added one more to our act.

My dad (the photographer) and I decided we wanted to take the pictures at WKU's campus.  There are several cool places to take pictures so we decided to try it out.  I'm very pleased with how they turned out despite U being completely DONE 30 minutes in.  Short nap and almost dinner time is a bad combo for him.

I can't handle that she looks 10 in this picture.  

U was more interested he his surrounding than the camera.

There are about 50 horrendous pictures of either U throwing a fit, someone with their eyes closed or me jumping up calling quits on the whole thing.  I'm pretty sure a paid photographer would charge me double for the hot mess we always seem to be on these days.

Life This Week

We've actually had a pretty good week this week.  Last Saturday, we joined some friends for tailgating before the WKU football game.  C had a blast running around with all the kids and the adults enjoyed talking and hanging out.

U had his first tailgating experience and as you can see he was stoked about it.

There is a similar picture somewhere of their mama's tailgating together 12 years ago.

Oh how our tailgating days have changed but we still have a great time!

Later that afternoon, we had family pictures and they were pretty much a nightmare.  U was done after about 20 minutes and cried unless I feed him Teddy Grahams.  It turned super cold quick so our session didn't last long.  Thankfully, my photographer (aka my dad) is free and can deal with me calling it quits mid-photo.  I can only wrestle a crying 30 pound baby for so long.

Sunday was supposed to be the usual church day but U had other plans.

I was pulled out of Sunday School before it even started because U was throwing the biggest fit any of us had ever seen.  He was dead asleep when they tried to switch him off to the Sunday School nursery workers and this obviously ticked him off.  When I finally got him, he was barely awake but managing to cause quite the scene.  I grabbed both kids, our stuff and ran out like a woman on fire.  I left poor B standing there like a deer in the highlights as I peeled out of the parking lot.  He doesn't move fast enough for me.  :)

I headed straight to urgent care because I knew something wasn't right.  In the back of my mind I knew he probably had an ear infection.  It took the doctor 2 seconds to confirm what I already knew.  We got our meds and U took a nice long nap after we got home.

On the plus side, this week has been an awesome week for C.  She got chosen as a Leader of the Week in her class and Monday I get a phone call from school telling me her teacher gave her an office referral (a good thing at our school) for taking the initiative to help a student without being told.  As part of the reward, she got to talk to me on the phone from school.  She has been DYING for a referral.  She was a bit of a teacher's pet at daycare and her teacher always bragged on her so she has had a hard time adjusting to not being a favorite.  I kept telling her just to keep doing the right thing and be the best she can be and one day it would pay off.  Well that day was Monday! 

After her gymnastics glass, we took her to eat at a restaurant of her choice and ice cream to finish the night.  She was beyond excited.

She also got recognized in class for making good choices this week (something our school stresses to the MAX).  Sadly, those good decisions didn't extended into our house BUT I've always said my kids can act like heathens at home as long as they behave out in public.  C has that rule down pat.  She will be the death of me.

10 Months & Halloween

Uryah Bayles is 10 months old!

And when your 10 month bday falls on Halloween, you get your monthly picture taken in your Halloween costume.  Later you will see how much he loves his attire.

Uryah is in the 28 pound range, wears 18-24 month clothes, wears a size 4 shoe and a size 5 diaper.

Naturally because he is larger than most babies his age, the question we get asked EVERYDAY is, 'what are you feeding that boy?'  Well this...

This is a typical plate for U (normally double the size of his sister's).

He has no shame in his eating game.  It gets shoveled in at a rapid pace and he lets you know how good it is the whole time he's eating.

I have found that he isn't too found of Alfredo sauce but other than that, he still pretty much eats anything we put in front of him.

And of course we still have to share our snacks whether we want to or not.  #mamadoesntlikesharingheroreos

In the last couple of weeks, he has started backing off some of his bottles.  Normally he will get half of it down and then refuses the rest which is great for my wallet (so long thirty dollar formula) but he doesn't like regular milk much either so I'm not sure what we are going to do.

U still isn't walking or crawling.  He gets almost on all fours but refuses to go anywhere but he is pretty good about scooting everywhere so I guess he sees no point in it until I walk away.  Then it becomes a REAL big deal.  :)

Uryah and C's relationship continues to grow each month.  She has always loved being in his face but now that he is pulling up and really into playing, she is stuck to him most days.  She has been amazing at realizing my time has to be shared when U is awake and when she wants to play a game, it has to be one that she doesn't mind U completely destroying.  We usually wait until his nap times to get in our really good games and/or girl time.

'Here Bubberz, let me give you a neck massage.'

I keep thinking there will be a day when she will grow tired of him but she really loves having him around.  It may have something to do with she can make him laugh the loudest and how he loves watching her act all kinds of crazy.  Rarely does she ask to get him away.

That's about all we have to report on U's 10 month update.  No new major tricks but growing wild everyday!

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Halloween was really fun this year.  I was pumped about the costumes C had picked out for her and U and since it was on a Saturday, there was no rushing around.  It was wonderful!

We started the day with a silly string fight.

A few bottles are making their way into her stoking.  Girl loves some silly string!

I remembered late Thursday night that U didn't have a treat bag.  Usually not a big deal to anyone because they would just buy one from the store except for C's first Halloween I had a bag embroidered and then I bedazzled it with an orange feather boa.  Clearly, I couldn't just buy one for U.  

My mom was able to find me a lime green bag and I cut out a design on my Silhouette.

And of course I had to monogram it.  :)

I would have loved to do more but I have to remember he is a boy and I can't bedazzle everything.  ;)

After I finished making the bag, we were ready to Trick or Treat.

Miss Piggy was ready.  Kermit, not so much.

Our good friend JP joined us on our Trick or Treating adventure.

We hit a few houses then came back to my parent's so C could hand out candy.  It's her favorite part of the whole night.  Go figure.