O Christmas Tree

Yesterday I cleared the corner in our living room for our Christmas tree. Well, that corner looked rather lonely to me, and I have been in a very Christmas-y mood for the last week or so, so I decided we needed to get a tree sooner rather than later. The problem with that is, it is a month until Christmas, and a real tree (and I LOVE real trees) would die before Christmas. That, and with the price of them these days, we decided to get a good looking fake tree. So mom took herself to Target and bought a tree. Which I actually really like. I assembled the tree late this afternoon. Natalie helped me put up the new star (I hated our old one lol), and mom put the lights on the tree.

Well, once the lights were on the tree, Ms. Sarah decided she had to go explore. As you probably noticed in the picture, the lights are just out of her reach (we did that on purpose lol). Sarah likes the Christmas tree! :) It was so cute to see her trying to figure out what that was!

After admiring the tree, Sarah moved on to play with her brother. She happily hit him on the head, then sat on his head in her attempt to get to her activity table. Apparently, his head makes a good seat lol.

Thankful for Sesame Street

I'm quite sure I've mentioned before Sarah's unending love for all things Sesame Street, especially Elmo. When we put on Sesame Street, she makes a bee line for the TV stand, pulls herself up, and talks and sings along. It is quite the hoot. The sad part is, she knows when it's coming now. As soon as we start flipping through the On Demand menu (we can access SS any time of day or night lol), she gets very happy. Well, we have taken our love for Sesame Street to a whole new level. A week or so ago, I put on Sesame Street, put up the gate to keep her in the living room, and went to the kitchen to do some dishes/cleaning. Her big sister Erin (who shares her fondness for Sesame Street, although not quite to the same degree), was in the living room with her. Suddenly, Erin came running out to the kitchen to tell me that Sarah was sitting on the TV stand. I didn't quite believe her at first because there's really not that much room up there. So I come around the corner, and sure enough, she has squeezed her little butt onto the TV stand and she is petting Elmo on the TV. Of course, as things go, my camera batteries were dead, and I wasn't able to get a picture of this.

Well, last night, Sarah and Erin were sitting down watching Sesame Street as we were winding down for the night. I went to check on Tim in our room (which is adjacent to the living room) and came back out to see Sarah happily sitting on the stand again, this time happily patting Cookie Monster. This time, I got pictures!

Thanksgiving was fabulous this year. It isn't technically Sarah's first Thanksgiving, but considering she was only a couple weeks old this time last year, it feels like it's her first. We had dinner at the Galvins on Thanksgiving Day. Sarah slept through dinner but woke up just in time for dessert. Auntie M made mini pies, so we gave a cookies n cream one to Sarah. In case there was any doubt, this child LOVES dessert. :) Yesterday we had Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house. Sarah was awake for dinner this time, and tried some turkey (which she seemed to like...she ate a good bit of what she was given and happily played with the rest). We went outside to watch the Christmas parade at 3, then it was back to Meme's for dessert, where Ms. Sarah decided my piece of pie belonged to her. She ate the whole thing. Thankfully, Meme brought me some pie later to make up for what Ms. Sarah chowed. :) Chocolate mint pie is definitely her thing lol.

So to wrap this up, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you have a blessed and happy Christmas as well.

One Year Old

Monday marked the passing of one year since Sarah was born. I still cannot believe how fast this year has flown by. It seems like just a day or two ago that I was in the hospital giving birth to her. And now she is a year old. Amazing. And a little sad, too, because she's not a baby anymore, and she's my last baby to boot.

I have to say though I cannot begin to put into words how much I have enjoyed the last year. And I am so looking forward to the next year, and all the years to follow with this sweet little girl who has made our family complete.

First Birthday Party

Today marked a momentous occasion...Sarah's first birthday party! The party was today at 2pm at Sarah's friend Bradyn's house (his mom and dad offered us the use of their place to help us out a bit). The theme of the party was Sesame Street, namely Elmo, who is Sarah's absolute favorite. Sarah's friends Bradyn and Hailey came over, along with their parents, and Beepah and Kathy (Kathy is Bradyn's grammy). The kids watched Elmo's World, and then we did presents. Hailey helped Sarah open her presents. Sarah was more interested in the package of socks and the little bag they came in that Beepah gave her, and Hailey was more than happy to "open presents". After presents came cake! And boy, was that cake a hit! We bought a Sesame Street birthday cake to share, and bought Sarah a small little round cake for her first taste of the confection. I am attempting to attach a video to this blog for the first time ever so you can get the full effect. A good time was had by all and the birthday girl is currently crashed out in her crib!

Trick or Treat

This month marked Sarah's first Halloween ever. We believe in Halloween at our house, but we do believe in having a little fun, so we do allow the kids to get dressed up and do some trick or treating in our neighborhood or Nana's neighborhood (or both, as was the case this year). It's fun for them and good exercise for mom. :)

Sarah's costume was a bumblebee. We went to a harvest party that the church here in South Berwick put on the Wednesday before Halloween, and then we went trick or treating on the 30th (that is the night our town does it). Sarah loved trick or treating in our neighborhood. It was still light out (because daylight savings was a week late this year). She sat in the stroller and sang and talked the whole way.

After walking a few streets in our neighborhood to show the neighbors our costumes...oh, I forgot to say that Erin was Snow White, Natalie was Juliet, and Connor was Obi Wan Kenobi...we met up with daddy and Auntie M at Dunkin Donuts to get coffee for the grown ups and go to Nana's for trick or treating. When we got to Nana's, she wanted to take lots of pictures before we left. As you can see by her expression, Sarah was not thrilled with this idea.

After all the photo ops, Mommy, Auntie M, Glen, and the kiddos, including my neice Maddie, who was a duckie, set out trick or treating. This was all well and good....until we got about halfway down Nana's street and realized that Sarah had my coffee coozie in her hand with no coffee in it. You guessed it, my ice coffee was sitting beside her in the stroller upside down. This effectively ended her night of trick or treating (her butt was covered in ice coffee...it smelled awful good lol). I took her back to Nana's to get changed, and she stayed with Nana, Oso, and daddy to hand out candy while I went back out in search of the others. All in all it was a fun night, and as you can see from the last picture, Sarah likes Halloween candy (I gave her a mini Hershey's bar yesterday during the Pats game).