Advent Mischief

I realize I was tempting fate when I put our advent calendar house on the counter right near where Summer eats her breakfast each morning. But I decided to tempt fate....and lost. Summer took full advantage of sneaking the chocolate out of each of the doors. This is her, "I'm cute so don't get mad at me face":
And her cranky "mom isn't falling for it face":

And finally, her "wait a minute, mom isn't too mad at me so I'd better work with it" face:

It's kind of hard to get mad at a cute little three year old when chocolate is within easy reach. Lesson learned: Just put chocolate in one day at a time, rather than fill the whole thing up at once!!

First Lost Tooth!!

Ben lost his first tooth!! His tooth had been loose for a little while and so when he bit into a particularly hard apple it fell out. He was pretty surprised and super excited. His dentist gave him this little tooth holder to put his tooth in so it wouldn't get lost when he put it under the pillow for the tooth fairy.

The tooth fairy gave him $1 and he couldn't rest until he spent it. He chose a santa pez dispenser at the grocery store and was very cute about paying for it with his tooth fairy money.

Santa Girl

Ben's amazing preschool teacher from last year offered to take all of her last years students to the movies to give all of us mom's a few hours of free time to get a little Christmas shopping done. So Summer and I did a little Christmas shopping and took a pit stop to Sees candy while we were at it. She wanted to wear this little dress because she loves it. She calls it her "Santa Girl" dress. Kind of ironic since she is totally afraid of Santa!! Here's the two of them goofing around by the big outdoor Christmas tree by the theaters:

Really?

This is what Summer did to her room while she was suppose to be taking a nap......Fiesty and Troublemaker don't even make a dent in describing her little personality on this day.

Thanksgiving 2009!! Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. I love all the menu planning, cooking, and baking that is involved. I love having family visit and make a point of making everyone's favorite pie. It's a time to feel so grateful for what we have. I am so grateful to have smart and fun husband that provides us with a warm home, food and love. I feel so lucky to have two gorgeous kids that are so much fun and make me feel so loved. I am so grateful to have an amazing family that is so loving, generous and supportive....and to have my sisters as my best friends. I feel lucky to also have such wonderful in-laws who I enjoy spending as much time as possible with.

This Thanksgiving we talked Brian's parents into visiting, as well as Shannon, Katie and Emma. We had so much fun together. Here's a few pictures of our Thanksgiving feast:

Here's Ben watching me carve the turkey:
Here we all are getting ready to feast:

Another group shot:

And then of course it was time for pie. I think I made about 5 or 6 pies for all of us. Yum!

We definitely had tons to eat and it was a fabulous day to spend with family.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2009

We had a fun weekend spending time with Brian's family. Summer loved her "Pa" and brought him book after book for him to read to her. She was in heaven. Summer was also able to talk her Aunt Shannon into reading to her as well. Here they are "reading" on of my Hershey's cookbooks:

Bonnie, Summer and I went on a little girls lunch and shopping trip, which was lots of fun!

We went to Corner Bakery and around South Coast Plaza.

We had such a fun time with the Weber's and really hated to see them go. It was so nice to have help with the kids, dishes, and just doing fun stuff together!!

Drill Boy

I needed to install some curtain rods, which is tricky when Ben is around. Ben loves to use my drill. I love my drill, it was a gift from my friend/former boss and her husband when we bought our first home. So I have a hard time sharing it with Ben....but, under close supervision, I let him drill holes in a cardboard box. Look how excited he is!! Such concentration!