Thanksgiving!

We had a great thanksgiving this year.  I was so glad everyone rolled with the punches and came together.  Since we were on baby watch my in-laws graciously brought a turkey feast to my house, and since my birthday was the following day, and I didn't know if I'd be having a baby, we also had my family join in and make for one big Thanksgiving.  Ted worked his cooking magic and made a great bird, stuffing, gravy and cheese rolls (all from scratch).  My mom made mashed potatoes, green beans and brought the Asti.  I made the Wheeler Apple Pie.  It was great to use my dining table and dishes we never do, and it was nice to have my brother who has spent so many holidays abroad with us too.  Liberty had a blast - we set up the bounce house and did a Turkey craft with her too.  My birthday/Black Friday was fun too.  Cameron and I got new phones (happy birthday to us!) and went to Liberty Market by ourselves for a birthday breakfast date while Grandparents watched Liberty.  We also celebrated with them at Joe's Farm Grill for dinner.  AND Cam and I went to see LIFE OF PI in 3D!  All my birthday wishes came true.  I have the best family that let me relax on this holiday and everyone was beyond helpful.  So much to be thankful for!

Nursery/Playroom BEFORE & AFTER

I had such a good time creating this nursery.  I knew I wanted a spindle crib (thanks Grandma Jo!), the same dresser we have for Liberty from IKEA, and the 3 closet doors taken off to store toys.  Then since Liberty's favorite color is blue I thought the combo playroom/boys room would be fine and I incorporated a mixture of all blues and grays.

Some of my favorite things:
ABC flashcards hung with putty
Formula 1 race track art from ETSY (for Cameron really)
Ledge shelves for books from IKEA
Biplane from my mom (pier 1)
Cross from two-mom - 10+years ago from Tubac art studio.

Thanks to Cameron for not painting the room this time. LOL j/k.  Honey, all your handy work made this room possible and I love you very much.

BEFORE & during makeover....


AFTER:

FLASHBACK'S GIG

My dad had a great gig in Fountain Hills at a neat cowboy venue called Ft. McDowell Adventures (hayrides, lasoing, campfires, good, live music, etc.  It was great to hear the band play and have a fun night out.

My dad's rocknroll band FLASHBACK:

From 2012_11_9 Flashback Gig in FH

Cooked our hotdogs and smores!

From 2012_11_9 Flashback Gig in FH

With my mom, Liberty, Patrick, my uncle Franc, Patrick's stunt double Chris, and Cameron.

From 2012_11_9 Flashback Gig in FH

Happy Birthday Cameron

Cameron took the day off work to celebrate his birthday and to try to accomplish the JOE'S RESTAURANTS birthday trifecta.  Yea for free meals and a lot of leftovers! Fun times.

Breakfast at Joe's Farm Grill:

From 2012_11_05 Cameron's Birthday

Lunch at Joe's Real BBQ

From 2012_11_05 Cameron's Birthday

Forgot to take a picture at Liberty Market for dinner but it was super fun.
and Cameron did a little car seat installation too........Liberty his constant sidekick in all things Baby Henry related:

From 2012_11_05 Cameron's Birthday

Grandma Jo Visits

Cameron's parents were coming to visit Liberty and celebrate Cameron's birthday.  However, Ted went to San Francisco to be with his dad, Granddad to us, who passed away this past weekend.  So our weekend was a mixture of grief, reminiscing about Granddad and celebrating Cameron's birthday.

Tea Party

I was invited to Liberty's tea party a few weeks back and it was (in her words) "a wonderful tea party" - she's gotten so funny about role playing and it reveals so much of what she's learning.  For example, I had no idea she knew what a "recipe" was but I learned from her that she does indeed and she was kind enough to share her "famous cranberry tea recipe" with me.  She was a kind host that was even concerned with cooling down the tea for Curly the poodle dog.  She was also cute in the fact she wanted to wear a special new dress (complete with tags) and a bracelet to the event. This is a long video probably only watchable to family at 4:35 minutes long.  So here is a picture for the more casual blog visitor:)

From 2012_10_30 Tea Party + videos

From 2012_10_30 Tea Party + videos

HALLOWEEN Trick or Treating

Actual Halloween - I feel like we've been celebrating all week long!  Cameron got home early and we went to Chipotle in costume (minus the glitter tutu).  We brought our dinner home and sat in our driveway to pass out some candy to early trick or treaters.  Liberty has dressed up as a "little gray cat" for days now and on actual Halloween she decided she wanted to be Cinderella - so after dinner her fairy godmother came and bippity boppity boo - she was transformed to Cinderella.  She was a pro trick or treater and then really liked handing out candy too.  At first she kept calling the trick or treaters "customers" and liked serving them like at a lemonade stand she said (too much Max & Ruby television!).

Pumpkin Carving and More Fall Festivals

We went to Vertuccio Farms again (this time with Cameron) to pick out our pumpkin and do more jumping on the air pillow!  We got there right when they opened on a Sunday so Liberty (and very pregnant mommy) wasn't overrun on the air pillow with bigger kids.  Libs really likes the cow train and milking that silly cow aka plywood cow with fake udders.  We also checked out the farmers market next door which was really cool - got some honey and you can see real bees at work in a display they've created.  The night before we went to our neighborhood Fall Festival which generous neighbors put together each year that involves homemade chilli and pies, a ton of booth games, and 2 bounce houses.

Liberty requested our famous KITTY CAT pumpkin design for our pumpkin again this year.  She wasn't that interested in helping with all the slimy guts, but salted those seeds for roasting and we all enjoyed those.