Thanksgiving

Last year for Christmas Haley got me a spring foam pan.  It has only taken me until now to get the guts up to try and use it.  I am please to present my first attempt at homemade cheese cake.  Pumpkin-gingerbread-pecan. 

 And my first attempt at home-made crust for my apple pie.

 Brooke has become obsessed with 'pretties' in her hair and the latest are headbands.  But she doesn't really look 'pretty' in them because her hair goes nuts around the elastic.

 We had a group of friends over and decided to put on a movie in Peter's room and turn 'em loose to all the adults could hang out.  Not a bad idea, as long as you are okay with the mess that will follow...

 Our thanksgiving group.  Minus Bryan's dad.  He was taking the picture.

 Mount Washington

 Riding the Duquesne Incline

 Thanksgiving isn't complete with out some sort of Christmas-ee adventure to wrap it up.  We visited the tree down on Carson street to let the kids run around and attempt some pictures.  (more pictures to follow in next post.)

Let the Holiday's begin!!!

Happy Birthday Bryan

 Bryan is officially old this year.  Why?  His wife has wrinkles.  That makes him old. 
We celebrated by going on a date to one of his favorite places to eat- Texas Roadhouse.  Country music, random bursts of song from the waiters, and lots of hot fresh rolls.  What could be better?!

 We had a small gathering to celebrate and to help us eat the ice cream cake.  It was tasty, but not much to look at.  I made it in a loaf pan and when I dumped it out I saw how poorly I had packed in the ice cream.  Oh well.  I have something to improve upon next year.

Tractor Ride

 Peter has been asking to go on a tractor ride since about July.  I have been promising him one when the 'leaves started to fall off the trees'.  So when my parents came for Halloween, we decided it would be a good time to go.  It was tricky to find a couple hours to go when it wasn't SNOWING or DOWN-POURING buckets of RAIN. 
I love Peter's face in this one: (he really did enjoy the ride!)

Autumn Activities

I made some bows.

 here I am looking very pregnant at 31 weeks.

Peter has enjoyed his gymnastics class

 The last day of classes was 'bring your friend' day.  We brought Brooke.  She was in heaven.

 Here she is trying to do a front roll up the mat.  It wasn't too effective but after 1 hour in the gym, she can do a front roll by herself.  I am impressed.  She has been doing them in the living room all day!

 the "fat" beam

Rock Stars

They make me laugh.  Brooke finally will move to music.  She used to just sit and stare at Peter.  (Probably overwhelmed at the craziness that she saw when he dances.)

Little Moment

Today I was reading to Peter while Brooke was taking a little morning siesta.  (That is NOT normal for her at this point, but she woke up at 6 and was grouchy by 10 so I put her down for a 40 min nap.)  It was really nice to have some quiet time with Peter all by himself.  He and I just enjoyed some books together and then he started staring at my pregnant belly.... The baby was moving a ton so I put his hand on my stomach and let him feel him/her kick.  It was so cool to see Peter's face light up when he realized that there was SOMETHING in my super large tummy!  He was so excited and loved feeling the baby move.  This was the first time I have really attempted to let him feel kicks.  I was excited to see how excited he got over it.  It made my day.

And by the way, Peter informed me that it IS a baby brother because he has a baby sister already. And that we need to name him Hiro.

Sweet Caroline

We enrolled Peter in a gymnastics class this semester to help him with some coordination skills Bryan and I felt he was lacking.  He LOVES his class and has so much fun.  His teacher's name is Caroline.  I have been practicing proper edicate and telling him he needs to call her "Miss" Caroline.

Well today on the way home from class he started telling me all about the things that he learned from "North Carolina".  Wait- What?
 
"Peter", I say, "What are you talking about?"

"My teacher Mom! "North Carolina".

I had no idea he even knew there that the words "North Carolina" even existed.  I wonder how "Miss Caroline" likes her new name?

Men In Tights

I love fall and Halloween has always been fun, but since we have moved to Pittsburgh, I have a whole new love for the holiday.  It may have something to do with the fact that my parents have made it a tradition to come visit for the weekend.  I love it and have looked forward to it since, uh, last Halloween!
I also love that Peter is still willing to let me pick out his costume.  I am thinking this is the last year this is going to happen.  But to his benefit he does love this character and was so excited to dress up.  Bryan's mom made the kids costumes and they came out absolutely adorable.  The one thing Peter's costume lacked was bottoms...so this is what we found.  He is very manly in them.  I am just not going to mention the little dance he did every time he told someone that he was "Peter Pan!"

 Brookey was my little Tinkerbell

I make "Monster Cupcakes".  Aren't they cute?!

 The spookiest part of Halloween... SNOW.  Yuck.

 My mom was some kind of pack animal for Halloween.  Free rides to anyone under 40lbs!

 Peter's first experience going trick-or-treating.  Checking out the goods! (People go all-out here.  We only trick-or-treated down 2 blocks and he got 3 full size candy bars, along with a couple 24 packs of crayola crayons and sidewalk chalk!  I felt really cheap passing out my little fun size snickers and reese's!)