23 Months!

We started off with Thanksgiving which was so much fun...

We managed to squeeze in enough seats for everyone!

We also had great weather during Thanksgiving week and Todd's dad stayed for a few days after so we went on the boat a lot and B loved it!

They got some fishing poles and B also got his birthday present early from Uncle Chad and Aunt Maria...huge hit!

He is now the proud owner of a Mercedes Benz.  

We got his class picture back from school and he can name every kid in his class!

Lots of playtime outside.

New basketball goal...

And we quickly moved on to Christmas!

I attempted several times to get a pic with hopes of making a Christmas card happen but no such luck and time ran out.

I have been playing around with Mary Kay's embroidery machine and this was our first appliqué project! A christmas train shirt of course. I hope to make a lot more stuff!

Went to the class christmas party...

and we had our neighbor friend who lives down the street over to decorate cookies. Brooks loved it! 

Todd had a terrible month at work and was almost never home before midnight this whole month. He also worked every sat and sun so we had a hard time finding time to go see Santa...BUT we finally made it one night and as you can see it didn't go so well.  Maybe next year he will be into Santa!

"my draw" 

Attempted SEVERAL times to get a shot for a christmas card but ran out of time.  This would have been it though!

We went to the festival of lights on James Island one night. Brooks LOVED it! They had a merry-go-round that he was really into and this year they added a little train that drove you around to look at the lights. We had to wait like an hour and fifteen minutes to ride it but it was so worth it because he loved it so much.  

Decorating presents for grandmas. 

I had to take this pic because I dressed him in this outfit one day and I could not get over how much he looked like a grown up! 

We went down to grannys for christmas at the end of the month. This was our best attempt at a fam photo before the christmas eve service. If you can't tell I was getting a lot of mileage out of the jon-jon because this is probably our last year for them :(.

snapped a quick pic after church...B was the opposite of well behaved during church. He doesn't really understand being "quiet" yet and we ended up just running around in the lobby with him.

Opening some presents Christmas eve! 

These are more pics from the festival of lights...I added these from Todd's phone and I don't know how to move them around.

Riding the carousel!

on the TRAIN!

opening presents

The whole gang on Christmas eve!

22 Months!

Month 22 ran from Oct 25-Nov 25 so we had a lot of holiday fun packed in this month! Holidays with kids is just the best thing ever, IMO. I loved it as a preschool teacher and I love it even more now that I just get to concentrate on my own child ;)

We started off the month with a little Folly staycation. Our neighbors were nice enough to lend us their condo to stay in while we waited for the fumes to air out in our house.

It had a great porch where sister and I did some studying while B napped.

We went for a walk on the beach our last morning where we played with TRAINS of course.

We went to Dad's work for the annual Halloween party for families. 

Todd and I went to our neighbors party and dressed up like vampires...mainly because a cape was the cheapest item at the costume store and I really didn't feel like going all out because-pregnant. 

Brooks and Dad carving a pumpkin...we had to wait until Halloween day to do it because of the weather around here they rot almost instantly once you cut them.

My little puppy posing with the finished product. and of course-TRAINS.

Neighborhood parade with his friend Lilly.

This was the amount of candy we had LEFT OVER. seriously dangerous for a pregnant person to have this sitting around the house. Thanks for that extra 7lbs.

Reading his favorite Halloween book...

I took B to Skyzone one morning and he started building towers with the blocks and counting them. I sent this pic to Todd because our child is OBVIOUSLY a genius. 

He wasn't feeling well so we had a doctor visit. Ended with a rash and an ear infection but he played with this train coloring set for over an hour while we waited. 

We stayed in one day because it poured rain all day long so I sent this to Todd when he asked how things are going. Rainy day=total destruction

Unfortunately, Todd's grandmother Billie passed away this month so we made a trip up to Northern Virginia. It was a very sad occasion but we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Todd's family while we were there. 

Class Thanksgiving party...someone liked the snacks!

He was excited to see me there in his classroom.

To switch gears a little, we are hosting Thanksgiving this year and somehow (long story) the # ballooned to over 15 people. As an added stressor, Todd and I randomly decided to remodel the guest bathroom before everyone arrived. We had a huge punch list in there, including regrouting the tile in the shower, hanging all new plumbing and lighting fixtures and painting. 

We ran into a bunch of obstacles, as usual, and this is me sending Todd a picture to send to the plumber to try and figure out how the heck we were going to change out the handle in the shower. Luckily the plumber was a nice guy and we managed to do the entire project with no professional help. Todd can now add amateur plumber to his long list of attributes ;)

I will post the after pics soon! It looks really good...no more brass rusted everything!

At the end of the month Todd's grandma came to stay with us and stayed through the holiday. B had fun hanging out with her during the day and we discovered a new spot with great grilled cheese, fries, and ice cream - 3 of his faves.