Happy Thanksgiving

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year, hosting our parents and grandparents for the festivities.  It was a beautiful day, 65 degrees and sunny.  We had tons of food and were very happy to have the chance to celebrate together.  We discovered Tom isn't a fan of sweet potatoes - he took one bite, spit them out and then blew a big rasberry.  Ellie kept everyone entertained and insisted on having several people read her princess stories, while Tommy doled out high fives.

It was a great start to the holiday season!

Waving hi, in my big boy shirt

There's dad in the window!

Family photo, Tom semi-cooperated

With the Postlewaits

Kline family picture

Helping Mikey celebrate his birthday, which was the next day.

Princess stories

Hi Five with Papa

And with Large...

Meeting Santa

We took the kids up to our city's Annual Tree Lighting recently.  Santa comes to the tree lighting, and the kids got to see him.  Ellie did pretty well, telling Santa she wanted a vacuum cleaner, but only if I went with her.  Tommy, not so well, who wasn't a fan of the big guy in red. 

One vacuum please

Mom smiling, Ellie trying, Tom in agony.  Also, Ellie now firmly believes that Santa has a daughter, thanks to whoever this girl is in the picture.

Tommy Burgess Turns 1

Well, the day finally arrived.  Our sweet boy Tommy turned 1 on November 18th.  Words can't describe what a joy Tommy is to our family.  He is the sweetest child around (confirmed by almost everyone around us).  He is always ready with a smile or a laugh for us.  He is walking now, almost everywhere, very determined to be in the middle of the action.  Tom loves to climb on anything, and we frequently find him in places he shouldn't be.  He is talking - "Hi" "Bye Bye" "Ma, Ma" "Da, Da".  He shakes his head "No, Thank You", loves to wave hi and goodbye, and whenever he is looking for Ellie, he puts his hands up to question "Where is she?".  Ellie is for sure his favorite person by far.  She gets huge belly laughs out of him for about everything she does. 

Tommy is such a great child, and we are so lucky to have him in our family.

He celebrated his birthday in style, complete with a day at home with mom, a family party and a party with friends (that come complete with a kitchen fire from making pizzas.  We will never have our act together).  All in all, he had a great birthday.

Birthday boy with a birthday balloon

Playing with his new toy

Posing with Dad

Check out Ellie - yes, she attended the party in her princess dress.

And insisted on opening and using Tom's presents first.

He gets his chance.

Ellie in action.

 

 

Tommy figuring out another way to be able to play with his new toys.

Digging in to his cake.

Hanging with Mom before my party with friends.

Singing Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candle, again with help from Ellie

Family pic

Working on the leaves

Snapped a few pictures of the kids playing while Mikey was hard at work cleaning up our leaves.  Its been such a great fall this year, and we have been really enjoying it.

Trudging through the leaves

Getting ready to jump in that big pile

Success!

Burgess Family Photos

So we took some family photos together on a pretty October day.  I went into these pictures with high hopes and good spirits, and left with a feeling of doom and defeat.  Let's say that an hour long photo shoot with a 3 year old girl, who wanted nothing to do with listening or posing, and an almost 1 year old boy, who can't hold still for longer than 5 seconds, wasn't the best experience.  Thankfully, we had a really nice and talented photographer, pretty weather and some great scenery on my side that day, and we ended up with some great photos. 

Here are a few:

Tommy Showing Off, Part 3

Watch as Tommy scales the stairs, both up and down.  He works extra hard to get down the stairs and finally figures it out.

Tommy Showing Off, Part 2

Here is Tommy taking lots of steps!  He gets pretty excited when he is walking...

Tommy Showing Off..Part 1

We caught Tommy on video recently showing some of his new tricks...here is one of him waving "Bye Bye"

A Happy Halloween

Ellie and Tommy had an exciting Halloween.  We trick or treated in our neighborhood.  This trick or treating expedition didn't go as well as the one at their school.  Ellie was a little apprehensive this time around.  I believe it to be due to the mixture of: older children zooming around, strangers answering the door and it being dark.  A man answer the door dressed in a werewolf mask didn't help  :)

We did manage to get a few good shots though.  Enjoy!

Embarking on the outing with Cookie Monster and Elmo.  Tommy pretty much insisted on standing in the wagon at all times.

Here we go!

Success!

You can see I had to play an "involved" role.  At the end I was the one asking for the treats, taking them and thanking them.  We pulled the plug shortly after.

She did like the decorations on the houses.

This was my favorite.  We had just left the last house of the night and Ellie pulled Tommy into her lap, where he sat happily until we got home.  Sweet moment.