Traditions

We are not able to make the trip up to see my family in Philly this year. Evan got really sick last year and took a while to get better. The cold weather was just too much for our Florida baby, so Dan and I decided to stay home this year. I love my traditions up in Philly and will miss my family a ton, but I am determined to make this year a great Christmas for my family.

Here are some of our traditons, some new and old...

Enchanted Tree Lighting Ceremony
Every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving we go to Hyde Park for their Enchanted Tree Lighting Ceremony to kick off the holiday season. We meet our friends there and drink hot chocolate and wait excitedly for Jolly Old St. Nicholas to come an light up the 30-foot Christmas Tree. Yay! It is officially Christmas time!

Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree
We got our tree at Home Depot over the weekend. We spent a cozy night at home decorating our tree. Every year since Dan and I started dating we decorate our tree with Chirstmas music playing in the background and with a mug of hot chocolate! Evan is so fasinated with the tree!

Christmas Pajamas
I bought Evan's Christmas pajamas! I can't wait to see my little boy go to bed on Christmas Eve wearing his new pair of Christmas plaid coat pajamas.

Santa's Post Office
At every Macy's across the county there is a mailbox to collect letters to Santa Clause. We brought Evan's stamped letter to Macy's addressed to Santa at the North Pole, and drop it into Santa's special mailbox. For each letter recieved there will be a $1 donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $1,000,000. I am excited to make this one of our new family traditions!

More to come...

So Much To Be Thankful For!

We started off our Thanksgiving day with getting up at the crack of dawn, at 5:30 am, to head down to the Turkey Trot. Our race started at 7 am. Poor Evan was so confused why his parents were getting him up before the sun even got up!

My mom, Evan and I walked the 5K fun race while my dad, Dan, Steve and Jose ran in the competitive race.

This is a tradition my family has done every year since I can remember. It was a great start to our day!

After the race we had an amazing breakfast at my parents. Then we took a drive over to see my parents new condo on Indian Shores.

We could not go inside yet because they don't actually sign for it until Tuesday, but we got to check out the beach!

Evan loved crawling around in the sand and splashing in the waves with his Grandpa!

After the beach, we spent the day relaxing, watching some football and preparing for dinner. We missed having my sister home this year. She was not able to make it home from law school because Thanksgiving falls right in the middle of her exams.

My mom did a great job and the dinner was oh so good! After dinner, my cousin Frank came over to have pumpkin and apple pies.

I love Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for my family, wonderful husband, and my sweet little boy! I am a lucky girl :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This isn't just a turkey as you can plainly see.

I made it with my hand which is a part of me.

It comes with lots of love especially to say,

I hope you have a very, Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Love, Evan

Finger Painting Fun

Today we finger painted! Evan had a blast. He painted not 1, not 2, not 3 but 4 masterpieces.

He was very focused during his art time today. He didn't mind getting messy at all and thankfully didn't try to put any paint in his mouth! Evan has done painting with pudding before, but this is the first art project I can keep and it will be proudly displayed on our refrigerator. I already know that I am going to be one of those moms that never have clean refrigerator doors... it is always going to be covered with kid's art projects, pictures of family and friends, and party invitation.



Only in Florida can you have your baby outside in his diaper doing finger paining in November.

One of Evan's masterpieces!

The Mota's... as Elfs!

This website it too funny. Dan and I can't stop laughing :) Evan looks so dang cute!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/tZWKEOzu7DZIwXEK

Well, I need to get to bed and stop playing with this site... good night!

Ft Myers

Visiting family, sand, sun, swimming, a visit to my favorite little whole-in-the-wall bookstore, a well over due date night with my hubby, drinks and live music at the Holiday Inn... I so needed this weekend!

Pop-Pop and Evan looking at boats on the balcony.

My handsome little guy!

Date Night :)

They loved on Evan so much this weekend!
Dan and I love visiting my Granny and Pop-Pop. They have a condo in Fort Myers Beach right on the beach. We packed up our stuff and headed down on Friday night and stayed until Sunday. It was too short but we cramed all the fun we could. The weather was amazing!

Top Ten

Things I am loving about Evan right now. (It was hard to pick just 10, but here they go...)

10. I love how Evan gets his face right up to his play fish tank. He normally has a pretty short attention span with his toys and moves from toy to toy at lightning speed, but this little tank mesmerises him!

9. I love the way Evan's hair is just bearly long enough to make our first attempt at a mohawk.


8. Evan plays chase! He prefers to be the chaser :)



7. He sits outside reading books with me. This kid seriously loves to be read to.


6. We have nicknamed him "lit'l bulldozer " He knocks over anything in his path and then he will try to climb over it.


5. Evan has his own cabinet now in the kitchen with a random collection of pots and spoons and bowls for him to play with while I cook. I love my little helper!


4. I love how his eyelashes are so long. This kid seriously has some beautiful lashes!


3. Evan finds the best hiding spots in the house. He is going to rock at hide and seek! He is such a cool kid :)


2. Most nights he sleeps in his bed... but there are those nights when he just needs some extra snuggles. He gets in our bed and curls up so close to me and sleeps so peacefully. I love this feeling of watching him sleep. Some people might think this is a bad habit, I think it is heaven!

1. Finally, Evan looks dang cute in a raincoat! I love this smile more then anything!

Halloween Weekend

Early this week we noticed Evan started to get sick and I took him right to the doctors the next day. He was put on meds and I was hoping he would be better by this weekend... but yesterday was his worst day and he had to go to the doctors again and we found out he has a double ear infection and he had to get two shots of strong antibiotics. I felt so bad for my little man. He was acting lethargic, pucking a lot, and did not eat or drink much for almost 2 days. We were worried he would have to admitted to the hospital for dehydration, but thank goodness he started drinking some yesterday afternoon! This morning he is doing a little better and seems to have some of his energy back. We had a lot of fun activities planned for this Halloween weekend, Evan's playgroup is having a Halloween Party and we were going to go to a Fall Festival with Tiffany and her family. But we had to cancel those plans and opt for staying at home and nurse our sick boy back to health. My family is coming to town today. Evan will get to see his Great Granny, Great Pop-Pop and crazy GAB (Great Aunt Barb)! Everyone is coming over to my house tomorrow for some good 'ol fall fun! We are making pumpkin bread with pecan butter, carving our pumpkin, and making home-made carmel apples in the crock pot with all the toppings. If Evan is feeling a little better we will try to take him to a few of our neighbors houses to go trick-or-treating. Dan, Evan and I are all dressing up as pirates this year! Happy Halloween weekend everyone!

Evan Update

Evan is so full of life and Dan and I are loving this watching him explore and experience all these new things. He is crawling all around faster and going further each day. We recently took Evan to Clearwater beach to see the sun set with some good friends. This was only the second time Evan had been to the beach. The first time was when he was just four months old. As we were walking down the beach to the shore I caught Evan with this sweet, shy little smile on his face. When I put him in the sand he started crawling around with his best buddy, Joshua. He is teething a lot, so his hands are in his mouth all the time now. Which is usually fine, expect at the beach... he ended up eating a ton of sand! But he didn't even seem to mind :)

Evan is starting level 3 at Gymboree next week. His teacher approached me and felt Evan was ready to move up to the next class. We tried the level 3 class about a month ago but he was too overwhelmed. Now since being back in level 2 a few more week he has gained a lot more confidence, so I think his is ready now!

Evan loves standing by the front door window waiting for his da-da to get home from work. It is so stinkin' cute!!

Ready for Fall

I spent last weekend getting Fall/Halloween decorations out of the garage and decorating our house for fall. I love bring out the pumpkin candy dishes, spiced candles, and hanging friendly skeletons on our doors. When Dan and I were at the mall we could not resist buying some of this amazing pumpkin bread with pecan butter with from William Sonoma that we sampled. I can't wait to make it for my family. Just might become a new family tradition :) I am also looking forward to picking out Halloween costumes and planning trips to pumpkin patches and fall festivals. I sure do love this time of year!