Sunday, November 29, 2009

The Holidays are upon us...

True to form, here I am with the monthly update. I also have lots of fun photos to share!

First up, I was in Washington, D.C. earlier this month for the national journalism convention. While I was gone, Steve still had grad school, so Auntie Susie and Nicky came over to babysit Jack. They had a great time. Those two little guys are becoming such good friends. Jack asks for Nicky all the time, and whenever we see a little boy out, Jack calls him Nicky.

Here are the photos from their night of fun. Auntie Susie took them.

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We hosted Thanksgiving again this year. I think this is was our seventh Thanksgiving. Wow, does time fly! We had 19 for dinner and about 25 for dessert. Our house was alive with gratefulness! Here are the photos.

Jack helping Nana get the candy ready
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Master Chef Steve grilling the turkey (he had another one in the oven; over 40lbs of turkey this Thanksgiving in addition to a ham and a beef tenderloin!)
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Uncle Eric entertaining James and Jack
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Isabella putting the boys in their place
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All of the Watts women in one place!
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The Reilley Women (sans Aunt Gina, we missed you!)
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This year, we decided to go chop down the Christmas tree on Black Friday. Luckily, we got the house cleaned up on Thursday night, so we were able to meet everyone in time. We also brought along Nana, Papa Pete, Aunt Shayna, and Shane to help us. All of the usual suspects were there too: Auntie Susie, Uncle Pete, Nicky, Grandma Sue, Pepere, Aunt Connie, Auntie Bubbles, Uncle Mike, Grandma Nan, Papa (Nick), Paul, Brent, and Dawna. We had quite a large group! We had a lot of fun though.

Shane and Jack helping Steve cut down the tree
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Shane finishing the job
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Jack wanted to use the saw too
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The crew and their product
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This picture doesn't do justice to the fun these two had running through the aisles of trees. I wish you could hear them laughing!
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Scouting out airplanes
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Grandma Sue and Pepere came home with us to pick up Thanksgiving leftovers, so we put them to work helping us put up the tree.
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Well, you've made it to the end of another blog post. Here's your reward: Our official family portraits. We went on Saturday and had the professionals take the pictures. Enjoy!

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Sunday, November 01, 2009

With my extra hour...

We had a fantastic Halloween this year. Jack dressed up as a monkey and trick-or-treated around our neighborhood with Steve, Pepere, Grandma Sue and me, and then again with our friends, the Mosimans. He was super cute, and he even did the monkey sounds if you asked him.

I think Jack's favorite thing about Halloween was pumpkins. We visited Randy's Vegetables a week before to pick out pumpkins. Jack loved every second of it. He walked around checking out all of the pumpkins. He kicked a few around to make sure they were good (or because he thought they looked like soccer balls, whatever). We found a family-size pumpkin and a Jack-size pumpkin. As much as Jack liked pumpkins, the train-ride at the pumpkin patch was that much more fun. He has started to recognize trains and tell us about them. And every time a train something-or-other comes up, he wants a ride. At the pumpkin patch, we took a ride.

In other big news, Jack has started using the potty. Not anything regular, but he's had a few successes, and that's pretty fun for all of us. We're not holding our breath waiting for full potty-trained, but it is exciting to start another developmental step.

Enjoy the photos!

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