Thanksgiving Break

My parents came up to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with us this year. To be honest, it was nice not having to pack up the house (ha!) to travel - especially since we are going to TX in the next few weeks.

I picked them up from the airport late Wednesday morning, got the bags, picked up Tom at the house and then headed out for lunch at Primanti's. We picked the kids up right after and pretty much stayed home the rest of the night. I did a little baking, but not much else. Oh - I did do some "Black Friday" shopping online and got quite a few things.

Thursday, we looked over the sale ads and then prepared Thanksgiving dinner. It was such a nice afternoon with the family. That evening, after stuffing ourselves with pie - my parents and I went shopping at a couple places and got everything on our lists. We were only out for a few hours.

Family photo (minus me)

There I am!

Grace was play peek-a-boo in the previous picture.

Black Thursday (?) shopping

Dad actually didn't gripe this time - haha

Tom suggested that we go to the Strip District (in Pittsburgh) Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun. We ended up spending the most time in Penzey's (a spice store). They had a cute little section for kids to color, which worked out perfect for us - we didn't have to rush. I even picked up some teacher gifts.

The kids are occupied while I shop.

After spending a couple hours there, we headed to The Church Brew Works for lunch. It is very interesting (Tom and I have been years ago) and my parents and the kids liked it. Hopefully, Tommy won't think all churches have beer and food - haha.

Tommy sat with the girls

Grace sat with the guys

Yummy beer

Grandma & Grandpa with the kiddos

Sunday, was another laid back day. We didn't do much - just grilled steaks for dinner and hung out. We did take some photos so I could do Christmas cards. Here are a few pictures I loved, but didn't use for the Christmas card.

They can be so sweet to each other.

Handsome.

I have a good looking family. :)

My parents left late Monday morning to head back to TX. It was a fun weekend!

Meeting Baby James

This past weekend, we headed down to Nashville to meet the newest addition to the family, James William.

He was born on November 13th, so he was a little over a week old when we got to see him.

Grace and Tommy were excited to meet their new cousin. They also had a lot of fun playing with Evelyn and all her toys.

We stopped to eat lunch at Big Boy on the way down.

Baby James

Grace & Evelyn hanging out in "da crib"

Grammy had to extend her stay since James was late.

Grace holding James "by herself."

Tommy fell asleep (with my glasses on) on the way home from lunch at Chuys.

Tom and a little football fan.

Tommy played on this motorcycle pretty much the whole time.

Grace checking on James

Eddie reading to the girls before we left on Sunday morning.

Steelers Game

Last Sunday, we were invited to go to the Steelers vs. Lions game at Heinz Field. The best part was that it was in a suite. It was perfect, especially since it rained the entire game!

We enjoyed the food and drinks and made sure to sample a little bit of everything.

The Steelers even won the game (the Lions were favored to win)!

Great view!

Marc (the host) and Chidi - haha

Storage Room

We moved into our house a little over a year ago. One of the things on our to do list was building shelves and organizing our storage room.

To be honest, I was a little embarrassed by how messy the room was. I like things to be picked up and in their place - and that room was the opposite of that. I forgot to take a before picture with the crap all over the place though.

The room before we moved in.

A couple of weeks ago, Tom built shelving units for 3 of the walls.Once he got those up, the both of us organized and put everything in bins, sorted through boxes and gathered some stuff to donate to Goodwill.

All our holiday decorations in one place

Some of my stock pile

Random stuff

Tom even put a curtain over the window.

It's amazing how much an organized room can make you happy! :)

Measuring Up

Grace is a pretty creative little girl.

One day she had a little ice cream left in her cup, so she mixed it with a little milk and started measuring it out. So cute!

Field Trip with Tommy

Last Friday, I joined Tommy's class on a field trip to the Carnegie Museum of National History.

Their class has been learning about dinosaurs for the past month and everyone was excited to go.

We had a lot of fun looking at all the dinosaurs, digging for fossils, eating our packed lunches and running around (oh wait - that was just Tommy - haha).

Tommy wanted to sit with me on the way up and the way back. :)

Tommy posing by one of the smaller dinosaurs - Why does he look so grown up in this picture?

Digging for fossils

The kids paying attention in the class.

Looking at fossils.

Class photo

Halloween 2013

This Halloween the kids both had a lot of fun.

That morning we dressed them in their Halloween shirts for school. I had a full load to take to school - the costumes, lunches, items we signed up to bring to their party and the treat bags for the teachers and kids. Whew!

Tom & I picked them up a little early, grabbed McDonald's for dinner and headed home to eat before the Trick-or-Treating started. In our area, the townships/cities set the times to trick-or-treat. Our time was from 6:00 to 8:00 and just our luck it rained the entire 2 hours. Tommy and Grace didn't mind too much, but it was a pain having 3 umbrella's and a wagon. We went to about 4 or 5 houses before deciding that it would be easier to just get the car.

On the way to start our journey

Snack Break

The kids ended up getting quite a bit of candy for the hour we went. We did end up going to our neighbors house that night for some adult jell-o shots and some playtime for the kids (they have 2 boys ages 4 and 7).