It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

It's amazing how many more Christmas activities we could do this year now that both boys are a little bit older! We took full advantage of the season, and peppered our December with lots of Christmas outings. We picked out our tree the day after Thanksgiving and got right around to decorating it, as well as officially starting to sing Christmas carols (though Pierce has been regaling us with "Deck the Halls" since August). We baked and decorated Christmas cookies (and Teddy ate his while decorating), went to the Pops Children's Concert (both boys adored it!), went to breakfast with Santa in Winchester, a Christmas party at Myopia, and then finally flew out to California for the actual holiday.

Pierce and Foster were roommates this year, which was much more successful than we thought--though it didn't stop a couple of 4 am wake-ups. They loved palling around together, and all 4 cousins had a blast playing, exploring local museums and taking trips to the playground. Nana, Pops and Santa were all so generous with the kids, that this will certainly be a Christmas to remember. We also shared the news that we are expecting Mini-Morris #3 in July, and can't wait until he/she can join in the playtime!

It was a very Merry Christmas in Tiburon!

November musings

It is embarassing how empty the blog has been for months. I figured out how to post-date, so I can go back and edit the year to make it look like I was on top of things. It's hard to remember too many details from November (now that it's March), but there are always some pictures!

There were two very exciting reasons to write about this month. One was we took a family trip to the Winchester Hospital ER to get some stitches for Teddy. While playing with Pierce, a small push from behind sent him flying into the bottom corner of our stairs, and 10 stitches later, Teddy came home with a lifetime memento of that moment. Pierce, Teddy and I were all in tears when it happened. It seemed to take forever to stop the bleeding enough to get to the hospital in our own car. Halsey met us there in a cab. Teddy was super brave, and was discharged with his papers after only 2 hours! Our neighbors, the Pines were on call in case we had to bring Pierce home, and spend more time at the hospital. Thank goodness our local hospital has a Pediatric ER--something to keep in mind if we ever move. I think I was more scarred by the event (no pun intended), with Pierce in a close second. Once the stitches were in, Teddy didn't seem to mind his little "owie", but it sure is hard to look at your perfect little baby with a gash on his head! He's a great sport.

The end of the month brought Thanksgiving at the Morrises. We celebrated with Marmie, Papa, Darcy, and the Loomises. The boys were our adorable little turkeys, ate up all of their yummy Thanksgiving goodies, then played on the indoor slide and bouncing horse until they were exhausted!

Hurricanes and Halloween

Well this Halloween sure shaped up to be an interesting one! With the threat of Hurricane Sandy ruining the actual holiday, festivities started early in Winchester. We had our town parade (both boys got maracas to play in the procession--the highlight!) and trick or treat on Saturday, which was so much fun. We met up with our good friends to show off our costumes, and collect as much candy as we could. Pierce loved filling his bag with candy and has asked for a treat following breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, no! He actually knows how good candy is now. On Sunday, we went to the Halloween party at Myopia and got to show off our elephant and giraffe costumes for Marmie and Darcy. Fortunately for us, Sandy did not cancel Halloween in our town, so Wednesday brought more trick or treating for both boys, who then crashed as they got back from their neighborhood jaunt. It was a very Happy Halloween here. Hard to believe November is already at our doorstep!

P.S. I just found out about a good friend of Santa's, the Switch Witch, who trades Halloween candy for a new toy. She is going to visit our house next year. Plus, then we can donate the candy to shelters and the troops. Our dentists will be happy!

Hanging Around the House

Along with all of our fall adventures, we've had plenty of fun times around the house, too. Yardwork and climbing on furniture outside, and "camping" inside have been big hits, as has dressing up! These boys know how to keep themselves (and us!) busy.

I neglected to give a report on Teddy's 15 month visit--he's up to 29 lbs and 34 inches, and is in the 95% and 99% for weight and height. His verbal skills are blossoming and he loves repeating any word he hears. He recently added baby, happy, help (and even says, "hep, Mama" when coming down stairs), Sadie, come, hoo-hoo, dump truck and choo-choo to his vocabulary. He loves animals--especially cats (mow-mows) and horses (neigh-neighs) and trains and trucks, and playing dress up!

Feeling Fallish

It has been a gorgeous fall in New England, and we have taken full advantage of the beautiful weather with trips to the farm, hayrides, nature walks, apple activities, eating cider donuts, and finally--today's adventures to Smolak farms for some pumpkin pickin' fun!

The boys bounded out of the car to run around and pick out the best pumpkins in the patch. Teddy tried to be the world's strongest baby and pick up some very large pumpkins, and Pierce loved running through the old sunflower patch and checking out the "pumpkin tree". Both kiddos loved the hayride through the orchards, especially when a small frog jumped out of a tree and onto the shoulder of a fellow passenger--too funny. We fed the deer at the petting zoo, and enjoyed a picnic lunch before heading home.

Everyone enjoying the hayride!

Annual Apple Picking

We went on our annual apple picking trip with the Bourque crew this last weekend, and, as always, had a blast! It was a beautiful morning, and we actually arrived to Honey Pot early in order to do our fall photo shoot. That went about as smoothly as you can expect with two toddlers :). The boys were actually great troopers and I hope we got some good pictures. Will be sure to post those pics in a few weeks!

After the photo shoot we had some time to enjoy a hayride prior to meeting up with the Bourques. It was so crowded at the orchard this year, partly due to the beautiful day, and partly due to the early apple season. People were everywhere--but we still managed to find some delicious apples.

As always, Pierce and Erin had a blast running through the rows of trees, rolling down the hills, climbing up the ladders into the trees to collect apples and chomping away on fresh fruit! Teddy and Nettie scoped out the scene from ground level and from inside the wagon, and polished off a few apples themselves. Thanks to Megan for lots of the great orchard shots!

Off to the races!

We brought home two giant bags of apples, and have already baked up an apple crisp, apple cake and applesauce. Yum! We love the tastes of fall.