26 Week Baby Bump (Baby #2)

Posting these weekly (or monthly in my case) updates has been a little bit of a challenge. Not for any particular reason other than when I get a moment to myself, you'll probably find me lounging in front of a TV, on my phone or reading a book. The larger I get, the lazier I feel....and this poor baby is already suffering from #secondchildsyndrom. ;0p 

Total Weight Gain: 10.3 lbs 

Symptoms: Lots and lots of baby kicks! And now officially starting to feel huge...it's getting harder and harder to tie my shoes and the heartburn has kicked in. I'm a little swollen at the end of the day, but not nearly as a bad as I was at this point with Lincoln, so I'm hoping it's not as intense this time around. 

Gender: Baby A Numero Dos is a boy! Can't wait to see these two brothers love on each other. 

Nesting: We've started to clean out what will become the nursery and have purchased and put together the new dresser. We're re-using a lot of Lincoln's old stuff, but still need to purchase a crib and a few decorative pieces. 

Lincoln's Thoughts: He's exited about the baby, but has also really started to play like he's a baby himself. Saying mama...I walk like a baby (as he waddles down the hall) or making baby noises. Hoping this isn't a little call for attention as my belly gets bigger and the baby becomes more real to him. 

Are We Ready? Not even close! This babe can take its' sweet time cooking for a while but also, so ready (already) to be done being pregnant. 

2017 Christmas Tree Hunt

I'm back with more festive fun! And fare warning...this is a long and photo heavy post!

We hustled back from the island after Thanksgiving late Friday evening (arriving home after 1 AM!) just so we could keep up with our annual post Thanksgiving Christmas tree hunt. We headed back up to Hansen's at Green Bluff, our favorite tree farm, to pick out the perfect tree!

You guys, this year is the best year yet! Lincoln finally really grasps the whole Christmas/Santa fun and he is so into it this year. He picked out our Christmas tree and of course helped Kevin "cut" it down. Once we had picked the perfect tree and tagged it for tree pick up, shaking and baling, we made our way back to the bonfire for s'mores and hot cocoa!

Hansen's is one of our favorite places to pick out our tree, not only because they have the best Christmas trees, but also because of the little extra's they throw in for the kiddos. They always have free hot cocoa and candy canes in addition to letting each little one pick an ornament off the tree to take home. This year they added s'mores around the bonfire which Lincoln loved!

After collecting our tree, we headed back home for an afternoon nap before all of the holiday decorating fun began. I pulled out our Christmas box, a tradition we started the first year Lincoln was born, and filled it with this year's Christmas jammies, a new movie Winnie the Pooh's Christmas, a new book, Llama Llama Holiday Drama, hot cocoa, marshmallows, and homemade Christmas Popcorn (recipe to come!). When Lincoln woke up from his nap, we were ready to get our holiday jam on. We played our Christmas Playlist and got to work, completing all of the Christmas decorations prior to settling in for a tasty leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Pot Pie, holiday movie and treats.

It was the perfect way to wrap up our weekend and kick off the Christmas season! We've got lots and lots of holiday activities planned for the next few weeks, so be sure to check back in for more holiday fun!

A Hat Island Thanksgiving

 Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend and a very Happy Thanksgiving. We spent the past week out at our favorite place, Hat Island, and celebrated Thanksgiving, island style for the very first time!

Lincoln, my mom and I left Saturday and spent the evening in Everette before catching the ferry over on Sunday. Our drive was fairly smooth until the very end, when Lincoln ended up getting car sick all over himself and the car seat. It was awful. I felt so bad for the little guy. My mom and I do not handle puke very well, so while we gagged our way through cleaning up the mess, Lincoln huddled down in the front seat of the car until we could get him all fixed up.

On Sunday, we met up with my little brother, went to breakfast, ran some errands and did a final grocery run before hopping on the ferry that afternoon at 3PM. The wind was crazy and the boat ride was extremely rocky but we made it! And then we ran into our first mud slide. Ugh. My mom and I got Lincoln settled down with a movie and proceeded to make about 7 trips back and forth with all of suitcases, coolers, grocery and a 22 lb turkey.

While getting to the island can take a lot of work, once you're there, it's full on relaxation mode. We spent Monday and Tuesday cooking up a storm! I made Christmas Cookies, Peanut Butter Balls, French Onion Puff Pastry Puffs and helped my mom with the Kibbeh.

Wednesday brought the arrival of Kevin, my dad and my little brother! We headed out Wednesday morning to pick up Kevin and ran into ANOTHER MUDSLIDE. We weren't able to get around this one, so my mom called a friend to pick up Kevin and deliver him to us, and we did the same for my dad and Griffin later in the day.

Thursday was the big day and it ended up being the most relaxing and chaos free Thanksgiving yet! Lincoln and I made cinnamon rolls to start the day and we all lounged around, watched Christmas movies and hung out while the turkey roasted and the food cooked in the over. My mom had prepped so much of the food throughout the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving that there wasn't much for us to do until right before dinner time, when we made a salad, some mashed potatoes  and cooked the grape leaves as well as warmed the stuffing, rice dressing, meat pies, etc. Dinner was delicious (as always), the drinks were flowing (for those of us who aren't preggo) and we were all sufficiently stuffed. We ended the night with Christmas Cookies and Peanut Butter Balls and more holiday movies!

Friday was a lazy start, when Lincoln actually slept in till 8:30!! A holiday miracle in and of itself. We spent the day eating leftovers, lounging and cleaning up and packing before heading out on the 7 PM ferry that evening and making the long drive home.

It was a great first Hat Island Thanksgiving, mudslides and all! Now back to the work grind.

Thanksgiving Toddler Crafts

Happy Thanksgiving week! If you haven't caught on by now, I am a holiday junky...and I'm constantly on the lookout for lots of fun and festive crafts!

We are out at the island for our first #AHatIslandThanksgiving and I came fully stocked for turkey themed crafts because I knew the weather would likely have us spending a lot of time indoors. I wanted to pop in with two of the best Thanksgiving crafts I've found yet!

The first one is a repeat from last year. Trader Joe's has the most adorable gingerbread turkey's for your little one to decorate. If you have a three year old like mine, you'll spend more time convincing him not to lick the icing and eat the candy then you will actually decorating the turkey, but it's still a fun tradition that kept Lincoln entertained for a good 45 minutes. The end result turned out pretty cute too! And because it's the holidays, he'll be munching on that candy turkey for the next few days, until I can discreetly throw it away.

Next up is the big winner. I picked up this felt turkey craft from Target back in October and stashed it away for a rainy day. Once we figured out we'd be headed to the island for Thanksgiving, I decided to save it for a the trip. The recommended age is for kiddos 4 years and up, but with a little help, Lincoln was able to make this just fine. It comes complete with a plastic "needle" and yarn thread to sew the turkey together, stuffing for his belly (Lincoln took a time out to pretend he was Santa Clause), and cute little felt stickers for the turkey feathers, body and face. This craft lasted us a good hour and the end result was adorable. Lincoln loves his turkey and is currently napping with it.

The felt turkey was such a fun activity and only $5! I'm already planning on heading back to Target next weekend to see if I can find a Christmas version (maybe Santa or a reindeer!).

Hope this week is full of lots of festive fun!

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

I can't believe it, but we already have snow on the ground! Not even a week past Halloween, and we were blanketed with enough of the white stuff to build a snowman!

Now that Halloween is over, Lincoln is convinced that Christmas is happening any day now and the snow did not help in trying to convince him that Christmas is still a good 7 weeks away and we have to celebrate Thanksgiving first.

The snow started on Saturday morning and picked up all day on Sunday. We headed out bright and early (daylight savings, what's that?) to build our first snowman of the season. He was a bit lop sided, and we didn't have coal or a top hat, but we made due with leftover Count Chocula (spelling?) cereal and a sand bucket.  Our poor snowman only lasted a day though...by this morning he had melted into a sad little lump.

We've told Lincoln he'll have a good 4 months minimum to build a million snow men though so I think we're over the dying snowman over here.

In other weekend news, we've already started on our Thanksgiving prep over here! Lincoln learned how to make Lebanese meat pies this weekend with nana and cousin Jill!

Cheers to the very best time of the year!