Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, Oh My!

The fall really got away from me! When I checked to see when I last posted and saw it was all the way in the middle of October I was fairly surprised. I knew it had been a while but that was a pretty long while. So I have a few things to get caught up on. And I better do it now before we add in another little cutie that will need her own updates as well! We are in the final weeks until baby girl arrives and I am both so excited for her to be here but also a little overwhelmed at the prospect of how everything is going to change. But it’ll be here before we know it and we can’t wait! 

So going way back to where we left off with all the pumpkins. We had the best time enjoying some Halloween festivities with our little guy. He’s really still too young to appreciate or understand trick or treating so we figured we wouldn’t be trick or treating in the neighborhood. That felt too much like hubby and I just asking our neighbors for candy. 

So instead we opted to take him to the Aquascarium event being put on by the aquarium. It was a few days before Halloween and he got to wear his costume and see all of the aquarium creatures while also picking up some candy along the way. He loves the aquarium so this seems like a great option for this in between year. 

JB made the cutest little monkey and while the trick or treating aspect was a bit confusing, he overall had a great time!

 

And on actual Halloween, even though we didn’t participate in the trick or treating- we did head up to the neighborhood costume contest/parade. This time our little monkey had his banana with him thanks for our pup Bo and we walked in the parade. I think we were robbed that he didn’t win but it was fun anyways. 

Right after Halloween we had some family photos done. We have used this photographer for JB’s newborn photos, a family shoot ahead of Christmas last year and again this year. 

And because I had a pretty solid bump at this point, these doubled as both family photos/Christmas card photos and maternity photos. I didn’t do maternity photos with JB so it’s nice to have some professional shots of the belly this go around. It was a bit of a hot mess, at least it seemed that way to hubby and I. 

Since the time of day we were doing the photos is not always ideal for him. He was a bit cranky and doesn’t really understand what posing for a photo means so was pretty resistant to any of the posed photos of the three of us. But somehow our photographer worked all her magic and captured some of the sweetest photos. I’m so happy to have these from this precious time. 

Thanksgiving rolled around shortly after, and we celebrated by having my grandmother over. She doesn’t live far so it has worked out each year we’ve lived here for me to go pick her up and bring her to our house for a few days around Thanksgiving. It’s great to have her here and so fun for her to get some time with JB too. My in-laws cam the day after Thanksgiving for the rest of the weekend which was also great! I managed to not take a photo on Thanksgiving but we did snag one the next day when we put up the tree!

 We ate plenty of food and all just followed JB around. Unfortunately at the end of the weekend he began not feeling well which then began about 2 weeks of illness in our home. JB had RSV and was truly just pitiful. And just a few days later I began coming down with it myself as well as the hubs about a day or two after that. And let me tell y’all this virus just lingered and lingered. 

But as we were finally feeling better we were able to sneak up to visit my sister’s family for a few days. We dropped off Christmas gifts, got to check out their new neighborhood, visit a local brewery and the cousins got to spend some time together which is always so fun!  

And I got to see one of my best and oldest friends. She was hosting a little Christmas favorite things party and so I timed them trip to be able to see my sister and go to the party too! It is always the best to see her and the weekend was great, even if it flew by.

By the time we were back from this trip it was pretty much time to start gearing up for Christmas! We visited Santa, which went slightly better than last year but he is still more of a fan of Santa from afar than up close.

We were going to be hosting my husband’s family (parents as well as his brother and sister in-law and their pup) for the actual holiday which meant a full house! This was so fun to have a household full of people to enjoy the Christmas magic with a little one. 

JB had the best time on Christmas, he was so excited about every single gift and it definitely took us a while to get through everything just because he had to stop and play with everything for a bit before looking at anything else but it was the best time watching him  be so excited. 

He doesn’t understand the concept of Santa yet but he definitely recognizes Santa and likes to point at him and say “ho” whenever he sees one. Next year I think he’ll be more aware of the magic of Santa which will add a whole new layer of fun. He also loved anything snowman related this year and loved painting out every single on in our neighbor’s yards during our daily walks. 

As the Christmas frenzy died down, we just spend the last days of the year getting the house back in order, doing a few little projects to get organized and start gearing up for baby, We are eagerly looking forward to all 2024 has in store for us. Hubby and I will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary in another week and then will be joined by our little girl not too long after that.We can’t wait to watch JB become a big brother and expand our hearts even more for this little one. 

Happy 2024 everyone!