A Modern Day Baby Book: November 2012

last day of november

This puts into words how I feel about my growing babies...it is going by way too fast.

you will never have this day with your children again.

today is a gift.

breath and notice.

study their little faces and feet.

relish the charms of the present.

enjoy today mama, it will be gone before you know it.

Jan Hatmaker

That's right, I titled this post "condiments," which have become Liam's favorite new toy! We got him a walker so he could be a little more mobile. Whenever I open the fridge, he immediately stops what he's doing and makes a b-line towards the fridge door so he can play with the condiments. It will be funny to see his reaction if he ever gets one open and in his mouth.

our little thanksgiving

We started our day off with our first 5k, walking of course. Most people went to the big Solano Turkey Trot, so it was kind of nice to have our first run, I mean walk, be small and non-intimidating. We started at a park, and went through a beautiful historical housing district, then down to the Christmas tree in downtown Vacaville and back. Addie ran and walked most of the way, but on the last leg I put Liam in the Ergo and Addie rode in the stroller. It was a gorgeous day and best of all we helped contribute to the Lymphoma Leukemia Society.

When we got home we prepared our second turkey dinner for the year! Kevin perfected the deep-fried turkey and although I couldn't quite replicate my mom's awesome dressing, I did pretty well on some ginger-cashew green beans and a pumpkin cheesecake!

Here was baby boy's turkey dinner in a jar...

Addie and I had been collecting "beautiful" leaves on our walks. She was so passionate about her leaves, so we used them for a turkey day craft!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Love, The Widmers

bentley

Most of you know, Addie had an extremely brutal summer with her skin. There was lots and lots of itching, which led to cracks and open soars. She was in pain and I was in constant fear of infection. As her mom, I was willing to do anything to take her pain away and keep her safe and comfortable. This is my job. And I was failing. After trying numerous lotions, medications, baths, etc, I pushed to have her tested for skin allergies.

Sadly, the results showed that she is sensitive to dogs (level 3) and cats (level 2). After talking with our pediatrician and the allergist, we decided it was best to try a year with Bentley living with my Aunt Pam. I'm tremendously grateful to her for taking him in. Without her willingness to take Bentley, we would have probably had to say goodbye to him permanently.

There is hope though...Bentley is a non-allergenic dog and rarely sheds. Addie has lived her whole life with him and as much as I would like to have an answer, this may not be it. We will reevaluate next fall. As for Six our cat, Kevin and I felt that he is just too old (12 years old) to be transplanted. Addie is less allergic to cats than dogs and if she doesn't have a better summer, we will have another bridge to cross come next fall.

For now, I know Bentley is enjoying his time in a kid-free, dog-friendly home. He is cared for with as much enthusiasm as we once had, before two very important little human-beings came into our lives and rearranged our priorities. That makes my heart happy for him! Thank you Aunt Pam.

Baby Bentley
Christmas of 2007

early thanksgiving

Loved, loved having family here for Thanksgiving. I am so, so grateful for these people who I get to call family and who have made me who I am today. Even though there were times of chaos, it was so good to all be together! Love these peeps!

Playing a little game and enjoying some appetizers while the turkey cooked!

The kids' table!

We even had some Native Americans at our kid's table!

Almost ready to eat!

So blessed to look out from my kitchen to see this!!!

Baby Liam's first Thanksgiving!

Baby Luke's first Thanksgiving!

After dinner, Grammy was instructed to sit. She had done most of the preparation for dinner! Thank you again Mom for another great Turkey Day Dinner! One of these days I'll get as good as you!

win the day!

Or night! It was a cold one and not such a great first half but the Ducks came back and blew Cal away! Thank you, thank you to Aunt Jan and Aunt Pam for watching the kids while we cheered on our beloved Oregon Ducks!

Having dinner and drinks at Pyramid brewery before we took a shuttle to the stadium!

The girls!

Mom and a very cold Dale! Ha! Ha!

My babe and I, with Santa Claus photo-bombing us!

family

We got to celebrate Dale and Grammy's birthday, a Duck win, and early Thanksgiving all in one weekend! Here's a some pics as our family rolled into town to start all the celebrations!

First Auntie Pam arrived!

Then we picked up Grammy, Auntie Jan, and Dale from the airport!

Addie was thrilled to see her aunties!

And finally the cousins were reunited!

We went out to dinner Friday night to celebrate Grammy and Dale's November birthdays!

So glad we got to celebrate Grammy and Dale! Happy, Happy Birthday you two!

a mermaid and her lobster

For the first time since Kevin and I have lived here, it RAINED on Halloween night! We weren't worried about it when it started to sprinkle and we kind of laughed it off as we reminisced about all of our rainy Halloween nights growing up in Oregon. Then...it poured. We were all soaked by the time we made it back home. Even the stroller hood couldn't keep Liam completely dry.

More importantly though, Addie had another year of enjoying the trick-or-treating experience. She still is a pretty brave little girl when it comes to the scary Halloween stuff. We only had to go with her on a couple houses. And Liam...he sat in the over-priced lobster costume for the whole ride around the neighborhood with hardly a fuss. It's fun to think, that last year at this time we still didn't even know what sex we were having. Now, I can't even imagine a Halloween without him!

pumpkin carving

We grew two pumpkins this year in the garden, except one is still pretty green. So we got three more on our trip to Larry's Produce. Addie still wasn't crazy about scooping the guts out of the pumpkin. She immediately wanted to wash her hands. Then she watched while Kevin and I carved, and this year, dremeled designs into the pumpkins. Liam took a nice nap while all of this excitement was going on and I wonder how he'll feel about pumpkin guts next year!

costume parade

Addelyn's preschool had a costume parade and sang a couple of Halloween songs for us parents! It was absolutely adorable! It doesn't get much cuter than a bunch of three year olds in costumes!

our race car driver

For Kevin's birthday we got him a racing experience, where he got to take a class, suit up, and drive a real Nascar car (okay really close to one). The kids did so good and patiently waited for their daddy's turn to drive the loud, fast car around the track. We had fun watching him and I think he enjoyed it too.