Gratitude

I know Thanksgiving is still a week away, but one thing I'm thankful for is our ability to travel and because of that we'll be down in Asheville so I won't be around to list out things that I'm thankful for this year.  So I thought I'd do it in advance.

- I'm thankful for a beautiful, healthy daughter.  I am amazed every night that she loves the routine of going to bed.  Putting jammies on, bouncing on the bed, then kissing Maddy goodnight, snuggle reading stories and after the last one she says "turn light on"  (she's got the on/off mixed up), we turn the closet light off, kiss her goodnight and put her in the crib and cover her with blankets and leave.  Sometimes it's a little harder when we are in unfamiliar places but she is good to go 98% of the time.  Her naps are more like 50% of the time.  :-)  But she still gets them.

- I'm thankful for a fun and adventurous husband who is willing to get out hiking at a moment's notice.

- I'm thankful to live in a beautiful spot where we have met some fun and interesting people who also have children and that Mat enjoys his job.

- I'm thankful for an amazing family who is willing to travel to visit us or open up their homes for us to come stay in!

A sunny day walk in November

 

We couldn't stay inside last weekend.  It was sunny and in the 60s.  Sheesh!  If you didn't know, you wouldn't think it was November.  We went to Southwick Beach State Park and enjoyed walking along the wide, sandy beach for miles.  It was a perfect outing!  I'm probably going to take Brie and Maddy out there again tomorrow to try and wear Maddy out.  So that maybe, just maybe, she will be a wee bit worn out for our long trip to Asheville on Saturday.  It's supposed to be sunny and I think only in the 40s, but we'll still have fun!

I adore my little Brie!

I am not biased or anything, but I do believe that Gabriella is the most adorable 2 year old daughter of mine.  She is so mobile now and loves to get outside and hike.  In the top photo she and Maddy are waiting for Mat to arrive home for work so that we can take a walk at Wehle State Park.  The bottom photo is out at Wehle.  The leaves are on the ground around here and it is getting dark early!  It is winter.  We still haven't seen snow yet...but are hopeful that this will be the epic winter we've heard this area could have!  (Note that in the top photo, Brie has put a fleece on red hair Dolly to make sure she's warm on the walk.)

 

Brie's helping me make butternut squash filled ravioli.  It was a delicious dinner.  Thank you to pinterest for piquing my interest and helping me break out of my routine menus of nightly meals!

Gabriella's modeling the craft that she made at Story Time last week.  The theme was on voting and elections.  :-)  Thanks to the Henderson Free Library for having such a lovely story time each week!

Potty Training continued...

Brie is not potty trained yet.  But we are working on it.  Everything I read says not to pressure or make your child do it or it might delay them developmentally so we are going with Brie's pace.  When she wants to sit on her potty we do it and sometimes she even goes in it and she is so excited.  But most often she sits on it and I read to her.  I think she just likes the reading time, but hey, eventually we will get there.  I hope.

Getting brisk around here!

We went to our local state park to have Maddy run around this evening and it was COLD and windy.  Thankfully, we brought enough layers and Maddy and Brie had a fun time running around getting some energy out.

Mat and I are very lucky that Brie is so content and happy being with us doing pretty much what we want.  We are so very fortunate and try to appreciate this time because who knows how much longer it will last.  Here's some pictures from our weekend hike down in Ithaca which was lovely but it definitely is getting cooler around here.  I don't think it got above 35 degrees, but Brie was happy to hike most everything about 2 1/2 miles.  Which is impressive to us as her legs are so short!

Happy Halloween

from our little pumpkin!  Brie was moving too much for us a to get a good shot of her as a pumpkin.  She had a delightful time running from house to house trick or treating. (We were able to get 2 years out of her pumpkin costume, we probably are going to have find something new for next year.)