Thanksgiving Fun in Jersey

Since we have been home to Iowa so many times this past Fall we decided (well our pocket books decided) to stay in Jersey for the holidays...all of them (x-mas too) and although we are sad about missing our families, we are making it great by starting some traditions for our little family of 3 :)

So far all we have is doing some type of craft with Gwen (and any other kids that may arrive later in life) and this year was a Thanksgiving Wreath!




We also decided to start putting the tree up the night before Thanksgiving that way we can have the tree lit and the decorations up for Thanksgiving Dinner...Gwen LOVED this the most. She was so excited to put her ornaments up, it was absolutley adorable. Great Grandma Wright made her a sled the year she was born like she does for each family member (I got one too!) and Gwen loves this one the most.





We have cooked Thanksgiving dinner each year that we have been out in Jersey and usually for more then 3 people so we have had to make a lot of food. We tried our hardest to buy and cook for only 3 people this year (well 2.5 since Gwen doesn't eat that much) and yet we still ended up cooking as if we have 10 people over! OOPS! Oh well...we are still eating leftovers today (is it Tuesday the 30th)...believe me we have thought of some pretty creative ideas to make these left overs NOT boring :)

This picture doesn't even have the Green Bean casserole on the table yet...and 2 pies, WOW!!!


We were really excited to be able to use not only all of our new Calphalon pots and pan and Turkey roaster, but also our brand new casual china from our wedding, We LOVE IT! Gwen even got to use her "good dishes" I received as a shower gift for her 3 years ago!



And finally, can't publish this post withour congratulating Jason on his first time EVER finding the bag of gibblets in the turkey! Congrats hunny...it only took you 3 years! He would always dig around and then be like, "Stef, I don't think they put one of those bags in this turkey this year" EVERY YEAR...lol. I would then step in, find the bag and make fun of him but no...not this year. Way to go husband!!!

Undies!

Gwen is officially in undies as of this past weekend :) She even wore them to daycare and so far has gone to the potty IN THE POTTY 3 times :) Very proud of her and very thankful of no more diapers (hopefully soon) because they are expensive! So Nov. 21st she will be 2.5 yrs old and completely potty trained (crossing fingers) which makes me completely happy!

Oddly enough this whole transition went over pretty quickly. She started liking and sitting on the potty (not going) when she was 18 months. Then around 2 yrs would randomly go and we thought WOW do we have an early bloomer on our hands...and then she digressed and quit liking it and wouldn't go at all. I believe the wedding took over and we just stopped "trying" as much and let her kind of figure it out herself. Obviously we took her and encourraged her but didn't force it. Then this weekend we told her we were out of diapers and she needed to wear undies like Dora....and she did! Even pottied in public restrooms while we were out and about.

Oh the joy of not having to bring diapers anywhere....love it so far! Except this AM on the way to work we had to stop 2 times and a pee and poopie attempt before getting on the highway. She peed the one time so that was worth it but I don't think my work will be ok with be being late numerous times because Gwen yells pee pee, lol.

Halloween 2010

Well Gwen is NOT a fan of playing dress up unless the dress up clothes are normal adult clothes. Very goofy. She will wear heels, my clothes, dad's clothes...but is not into dress up. That being said, this Halloween was very difficult to say the least. She said "No" to every outfit pointed at and even the ones we borrowed she would not put on. Finally and only because she saw her cousin Riley wearing this before, she picked the Go-Go Dancer outfit from Target and wore it to her daycare Halloween party.



On Halloween weekend she would not put her outfit back on so we didn't go trick-or-treating...lame I know but she didn't want to. We have a ton of candy left over from the wedding and we carved pumpkins and baked the seeds together so she had a good time (and the daycare had a big party so she definitely had some Halloween fun) so we just didn't go out. I guess you could say after the wedding and all the craziness it was a nice Halloween indoors :)