Thanksgiving '08

It's very weird to think that this is Ivy's 3rd Thanksgiving! She was the tiniest little thing for the first one...

Thursday was a great day of baking and cleaning and family fun. It looks like Nanny and Ivy were up to their old lessons in photography...

Friday has become our traditional Day of Decorating! The lights went up high (with some help) and the tree was decorated by someone with a new view on ornamentation (everything went in one spot until something fell off). Then we celebrated the coming season with a little hot chocolate! (Ivy's first, and she LOVED it!)

And, of course, we'll be enjoying more Nanny love until Wednesday!

By the way, I finally finished last week's post... scroll down to see the fun for November 18-24th.

Turkey Lurkey

Tonight was Ivy's school Thanksgiving program. Typically school functions are too late in the evening for our early-to-bed girl, but since Nanny is here to keep her tomorrow, we enjoyed the program and covered dish dinner. Madrina, Aunt Shirley, Uncle Jack, and Cory came with us!
Ivy anxiously awaited her turn cheering for every song or reading and then saying, "Ivy's turn up there!" Her class sang a little song about a turkey's head going wobble-wobble while he says gobble-gobble and wore a shirts they made a with a turkey handprint. The highlight of her evening was running around and climbing the risers with all the other kiddos.

We had another haircut last week, and Nanny took a lot of pictures, so I'll post some of them here. We get her hair trimmed about every 8 weeks these days. It's hard to believe that she was so tiny at her first haircut...and we thought she was SO big!

Ivy's friend Annie came and spent a little time on Saturday afternoon. We took the girls to Wal-Mart for a little buggy surfing...

When we came home they wanted to play outside, despite the cold! Rest assured, we weren't out for long before I enticed them in with a treat!

Alex and I learned that Ivy definitely has the makings of a GREAT big sister! While Annie was here, Ivy picked up Annie's spilled snack, helped keep her from the edge of the driveway, patted her back when Annie's teeth were hurting, and showed her a few beauty tips...

Nanny and a Two Year Old!

Finally, a chance to update thanks to dinner and dessert 'Rita's style!

So on Thursday night, after Ivy went to be Nanny finally arrived at the Alfaro house. Ivy had been waiting for her Nanny for a month, and Thursday was no different...in fact, we told her that morning that Nanny was coming, and I think that's why she kept stalling sleep. Our bedtime at 6:30 girl did not give up until 9:20! And still, she missed Nanny's arrival! So, the next morning when she woke up, it was with Nanny on the brain. We went to Nanny's bedroom and when Ivy saw her there, she was a little shy...for about 2 minutes. Then she needed to sit on Nanny's bed...

and then to eat br-fust (breakfast) with Nanny, and then to sit in Nanny's lap!

I am SO glad that she knows my mother and that she has built that bond with her despite the distance between them.

Saturday was Ivy's birthday. We scaled the party down this year, inviting only the people who seem to mean the most to Ivy. This year's party was considerably different from last year's party. The kids were really able to play together and interact more and that was so sweet to see!


The Sit-N-Spin that Ivy was given by Momma and Papa was a hit!

This year, Ivy helped us sing Happy Birthday, and gave us applause at the end!Another difference between this year and last was that ALL the kids wanted to unwrap the presents! That was fine with Ivy! The more the merrier! All the other generous gifts were certainly appreciated, and we were also able to send a good donation to St. Jude's Children's Hospital in honor of Ivy's birthday, which felt great!
We are sending a special "Thank you" to all of the friends and family who fill Ivy's life (and ours) with love and joy!

What's Happenin'? Not much!

I loved that show, What's Happenin' and What's Happenin' Now? back in the day! Nothing like a little reminder of Rodge, Dwayne, and ReRun for some good memories to surface!

Anyway, not much has been happening around here. Sunday afternoon Ivy and Kevin spent a brief moment coloring. For two go-getters it's unusual for them to stop very long!


Later that evening Alex was putting some things in the attic and Ivy decided to catch a ride up... she LOVES to climb, but I think that was a little more than she expected!


On Election Day I tried to get a good picture of Ivy and I wearing our "I VOTED" stickers, but alas...

she had other ideas...


For the past month I have been on a peanut butter cookie kick. I usually make them while Ivy is napping, but this weekend the urge didn't strike until almost bedtime! We decided to have a little post-dinner dessert so we whipped up a batch quickly...

As you can see, Ivy was a great help! (All the cans stacked behind me are part of her helping me clean out the cabinets. I don't know if she'll ever get tired of undoing things!!)

So this week was pretty boring, but stay tuned! Nanny arrives on Thursday so there will be TONS of pictures for the next 3 weeks!!!

More fun than words can express!

Well, the last two weeks have been full of SO much fun, that I'm almost sad I haven't been able to share it with you every day! Some of the fun has been for the family, but some has been just for MOMMA!

Two weeks ago, things were pretty typical. We had a good week and Ivy surprised us all by pointing to the words Ivy, Momma, and Papa when I read them. That was pretty much the biggest milestone of the week.

The weekend, however, found Alex and I at a Panther's football game. This is the first time we've gone since Ivy arrived, and we enjoyed ourselves just as much as we used to! Our team won (although they didn't really deserve to) so the mood of the crowd was contagiously happy!

The week flew by as I awaited the arrival of a very special T-Shirt that I would wear on Thursday evening... you can see it in the photo below!

First time was a great time! Second time was a BLAST!!

That's right! My friend Brooke and I, and my new friend Beth (she's Brooke's friend but it's impossible not to be friends with her if you're around her long) went to see Danny, Donnie, Joe, John, and Jordan... The New Kids on the Block!
Suddenly Dramatic Faces with NEW Tickets!

When we arrived at the cheap seats (we were going to see a bubble-gum band after all) they met us and explained that we should go down a few more sections and see a man at a table. Well, there were a line of folks there, and when we got our turn, we got UPGRADED seats! Down a level and just off center stage! Let me tell you, if I'd have had any idea that the concert was going to be as good as it was, I'd have paid for the floor seats! What a super show! It's amazing what conditioning can do to the stamina and physique of near 40-year-old men! They sang and danced and talked and whipped the crowd into a frenzy for a solid two hours! And the truth of the matter, in my opinion, is that they are better now than they ever were during their first time around! Like fine wine...


Not bad for a cell phone pic...

Friday was Halloween, and we took our little ladybug all around town to visit Aunt Shirley and Uncle Jack, and Sissy and Pa, before landing at our friends, the Watsons' house. We met up with our sorely missed friends, Ben, Owen, Noah, their parents and baby Clara. We had a wonderful, if too short, time with our costumed kiddos!
Mid-transformation

The Grouchy Ladybug?

Checking for aphids...

A squeeze...


Conductor Ben, two Africanized Honeybees, and our lil' ladybug...

Trick or treat... chocoli, preferably.

Yes, I helped her getting the candy...but not eating it!

I hope the photos have been worth the wait! Next week, an attic trip and a comparison shot for an old friend...