Because Thanksgiving deserves another day!

It was fun to be back in DE again this year for Thanksgiving at Tom & Viv's.  This annual tradition has been going on as long as I can remember and I have sweet memories of laughing with the family, eating too much food, and meeting new people.  While Maelee & Lilee were the only little ones this year, they both enjoyed themselves and Maelee was especially grateful to have some good one-on-one time with her beloved pal, Jake, the schnauzer.

But before I jump right into Thanksgiving day, Maelee's pre-k class had their own little Thanksgiving celebration the week before. She made one cute little pilgrim girl, if I do say so myself!

They sang adorable songs for us (see video below!) and we feasted on fruit, homemade corn muffins, and fresh churned butter.

The kids did a bunch of cute crafts and learned a lot about the first Thanksgiving so it was fun watching Maelee develop a better understanding this year of why we celebrate this holiday and why it's so darn important to give thanks! The thankful tree that Maelee brought home did include standards like family and even sparkly shoes, but I imagine she was the only kid in her class that had a leaf that said "angler fish" on the tree. (What is it about that darn fish?  Side note- it was hilarious that both my brother and my cousin, via my parents, sent us links for Maelee about the sea devil angler that made the news!)

On Thanksgiving Day, after a turkey shaped pancake breakfast, we hit the road for our first long trip in our new car.  Ironically, our trip down to Williamsburg was in a rental as Steve had a free weekend and we booked it before we became proud owners, so it was nice to let "Elsa" really stretch her legs.  Really, could our silvery/icy car be named anything else?

Traffic was a breeze and we enjoyed spending some time with Too-Dad & Too-Mom before heading over.  Also gave Maelee and me a chance to make some Oreo turkeys (well, mainly me as this apparently wasn't too interesting for Maelee, but she did get several candy corns into the filling!).

Dinner itself was delicious and we were proud of Maelee for trying several new things.  We told her for every new bite she took, she'd get a bite of dessert and it worked at least a little.  Her favorite food of the night?  Too-mom's deviled eggs. :)  They were yummy!  Lilee also tried just about everything but was a bit unsure of most of the new textures.  I was hoping to capture quite a surprised expression when she got a bite of the tart cranberry sauce but she didn't seem to mind!  And she sure did love Nana's pumpkin pie.

It was a special evening and overall, the girls really did great.  And they have really loved being able to see Too-Dad & Too-Mom so much!  It is always such a beautiful Thanksgiving celebration up in DE - the only problem we had was that you can't get leftovers when you travel!  So, after both my mom and Steve had mentioned wanting to pick up a turkey to roast and have some leftovers from, we decided why not just celebrate the day all over again?

So last Sunday, that's just what we did.  Complete with all the fixins.  My mom got a great price on one of the most delicious turkeys I've ever tasted, thanks to some brining and other special touches courtesy of Nana.  Mmm, are we enjoying some yummy turkey sandwiches now! 

 

Maelee said the sweetest, most sincere prayer for us and said how grateful she was for family.  It has been a year of mixed emotions for our household but with lots of huge blessings.  We are all so thankful for new family with the birth of our precious Lilee, and for being closer to much of our family now that we're in VA.

Slideshow of Thanksgiving Festivities:

And below shows some more November happenings, including a fun bonfire with our church community group, Anglerfish pancakes, Lilee's mischievous side, Maelee's goofy side, more fun on "the truck," and crowding around the window to watch the snow fall.

Slideshow of November pics:

And finally, what better way to end a post on thankfulness than with some sweet shots of our now 10 month old little blessing.

Such a joy!

A few more here:

Worth the Miles!

Last weekend, we had the super special treat of visiting Steve & Mava Miles down by Williamsburg.  Steve is my mom's cousin and they are truly some of the sweetest, most gracious, sincere, and fun people we know.  It was such a great time.

We got on the road much later than planned on a Friday afternoon, after spending much longer than planned at the DMV (but praise the Lord we are now very proud and happy owners of a car!!!), so the miles and miles we traveled took hours and hours longer than planned due to crazy I-95 traffic...  But, it was all worth it!  Both the having a car part, and seeing these awesome folks. :)

We got in late Friday evening to a delicious crab casserole and roasted vegetable dinner, complete with a yummy lemon frozen pie. 

Happy to see "Uncle Steve" and excited to dig into her frozen treat!

Loved finding Maelee in this beautiful sun room "reading" both mornings 

And playing!

Their house is on acres and acres of beautiful land and Maelee loved getting a little time each morning with the horses, pony, and dogs.  She especially loved that Steve & Mava's daughter, Madie, had also come home from college for the weekend.  Whenever Madie was around, Maelee was with her- the entire weekend, she was her "best friend."  It was a riot!  Madie was so sweet and patient with her and really made an impression.  It is crazy that she was in our wedding as a little girl not too much older than Maelee is now!!!  So special to watch the two of them together.

Maelee loved her braids from Madie!

As my Aunt Mae, my Nana's sister who reminds me so much of Nana, doesn't live too much farther away, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see her and have her meet our girls.  It was a quick visit but so sweet and so wonderful to see her.

This time, poor planning and lack of cell phone service (as Steve's aptly named "T-not-so-Mobile" joke implies!), resulted in many more miles and hours to get to our next destination, but we eventually made it to Colonial Williamsburg for the rest of the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day, if not quite nippy (!), and Maelee loved talking to the live characters.

Maelee had the longest, funniest conversation with these two men and the best comment she made was that she liked the man in the foreground's "Elsa braid!"

Lilee was a trooper the whole trip and let both Steve & Mava hold her!  Yay!  

She's getting much better with that :)

The morning we left, Mava & Madie gave Maelee the awesome surprise of her very own private pony ride on Bell, complete with braids and pink bows!   Needless to say, she was tickled.  Loved every minute of it! 

BFFs

Such a wonderful family!

Both of these little ladies loved the visit and we already can't wait to see them again.

A slideshow of more pics from the weekend:

And, on the topic of miles and these little ladies, we took out the little truck Maelee got from Too-Dad at her first Christmas and Lilee LOVES it!  These two spent the longest time taking turns being pushed around.  It was so cute.  Lilee can not wait to walk and this gives her the most adorable practice.  Enjoy the videos of the action!

An Icy End to October!

This year has been all about Frozen for our big girl!  Our big girl and just about every other big (or small) girl (or boy) on the planet...  Oh, in case you don't happen to be one of them yourself, it's a crazy popular Disney movie.  And I didn't really try to fight the obsession.  It was actually quite a timely and helpful obsession, given Lilee's arrival and the biggest message of the movie being all about true sister love.  It certainly didn't hurt with the sisterly adoration!

So, needless to say, it came as no surprise that Maelee wanted to be Elsa for Halloween (the big sister and most obsessed about character from the movie) and I couldn't resist outfitting Lilee in the adorable little sister Anna tutu-onesie. They were one cute pair. 

Building up to that excitement, Maelee had the super special treat of seeing "Frozen on Ice" with Nana & Pop-Pop the week before Halloween. She kept saying how "amazing" it was.  This one will definitely go down as one of her favorite childhood memories! 

The pre- show with lots of Disney favorites

Completely awed & mesmerized

The stars- Elsa, Anna, & Olaf

With a birthday party after school earlier that day, including an almost 2 mile walk home before catching a cab due to missing the bus, she was one exhausted little girl-

I can easily count on one hand (not even including the thumb!) how many times she has fallen asleep in the car, so she was clearly wiped out!

After having barely recovered from the excitement of the ice capades followed by a fun sleep-over at Nana & Pop-Pop's, the weekend before Halloween our little Elsa & Anna (well, Elsa... Anna's a bit young for candy!) enjoyed some trick-or-treating "a la NYC" style, going around the little shops & restaurants of Shirlington Village.  We may have seen an awful lot of other Frozen characters along the way, but our little duo sure was the sweetest, cutest pair according to my biased mama self!

 

True Sister Love

Our "ice queen" warmed lots of hearts along our jaunt through town 

with her very enthusiastic spirit!

Anna just enjoying the conversation between the two Elsas

Fun afternoon!

The next day, Steve and Maelee had some daddy/daughter time at another Halloween event in the cute town of Del Ray which is in between Old Town and Shirlington; Pop-Pop and Lilee had some grandpa/grandchild time together at the playground; and Nana and me had some mommy/daughter time sans two little girls to go shopping for said two little girls!

 Strawberry Shortcake this time around!

More fun dress-up in another fun little town!

Fun on the swings with Pop-Pop!

Unfortunately, all the excitement from the weekend fun took a nasty downward spiral with Miss Maelee's attitude and behavior to the point where we had to limit Halloween night's festivities... But  after having a pretty good week, we thankfully didn't have to do away with it completely.

We waited till the last minute this year for the pumpkin carving but 

Maelee had fun digging right in to help with the prep work for daddy!

Fun, but she's no fan of sticky fingers...

As we had already planned to be in Old Town on Halloween so I could get my mom's old iPhone set up for me (thanks to losing mine... but truly thankful for the timing in that my parents had just upgraded to new ones and were able to give me an old one!), we didn't want to pass up the popular trick-or-treating along South Lee Street. Similar to the decked out brownstones along Park Ave in NYC, many residents along S Lee St go all out for local and visiting trick-or-treaters alike.  Maelee felt right at home and even though we weren't able to hit every house and stay for very long, both girls had a great time.

Maelee was so tickled to see a "real" grown-up Anna along the way!

While we explain to Maelee that Halloween isn't really a "holiday" that we celebrate, like Christmas or Easter, we do participate in the fun of costumes and she has really taken to the joys of make believe and dress-up lately.  She can quickly go from Elsa, to Strawberry, to Ariel, to Belle to T-Rex in one afternoon!  She definitely enjoyed that aspect of Halloween this year especially.

After we got back home from the S Lee St adventures, Maelee helped daddy with the final touches for the pumpkin carving of her choice...

An angler fish!

That's our girl :)

Her obsession with the angler fish (originally due to her love of Finding Nemo) has been taken to a new level recently with the stuffed angler fish gift from Uncle Dan, along with the deep sea model creatures he sent.  She has named the "friend," Anglie Claire Butterfly, and it has been her bedtime animal of choice many nights since.  It is a riot.

Pure joy to open up her new friend

Video of sweet reaction

And more of our Halloween Fun:

As for Lilee, October was another big month for this baby girl.  She is no longer a scootcher but has been crawling and cruising around all month and loves getting into anything and everything- including the cat food, blinds, wires, and of course, the cat himself...  So we are doing a lot of firm "No's" and redirecting lately!  

She is babbling up a storm and I am just about thoroughly convinced that her "mamas" aren't just random noises anymore :)  Other adorable new developments are her "so big!" hands-up pose that she started earlier in October, and then waving towards the end.  Here are some pics primarily of our littlest little lady!

So big!

Sweet Sister Love

Lilee thwarting a time-out for Maelee...

She loves to crawl right up to her when she's in a time-out!

Another new development wast the start of finger food!  

She was more ready than mama, who is always a bit terrified of choking... 

but she's been doing great!

She loves sitting in the grass and playing with the leaves!


Saying, "cheese!" with Pop-Pop!

And a hilarious new trick this month was discovered one day when Lilee was happily taking her paci and Maelee jokingly instructed her to "take your paci out!" And so she did!  It was a riot.  Pic and video below!

Already doing what big sis says!

Slideshow of more October fun:

Just like Maelee is pretty non-stop, and full of energy now, Lilee already can not stay still for a moment.  Diaper changes truly are near impossible!  It will be interesting to see if this keeps up or if she does a 180, like Maelee did (in that she was a pretty chill baby!), when she gets older.  We are enjoying watching her little personality develop in the meantime.  So finally, here are a few pics of our little Lilee at 9 months.

Super quick shot before...

the headband and the wings come off! 

The split second before she rolled over and crawled off!

 Final slideshow of our adorable Butterfly Bundle:

October was a big month and a beautiful month, and ended with a "brrrr!" in little Maelee's imaginative mind as Queen Elsa...  Between her love of princesses and strange sea creatures, her eclectic quirks continue to both confuse and charm us. And we can't wait to see what Lilee's quirks end up being. They are two unique little ladies!