Thanksgiving

Xander celebrated his first Thanksgiving yesterday and it was Aisling's 3rd. It was a long fun day filled with lots of family fun and lots of nummy food. Aisling was really excited about the holiday this year. While we were getting gas in the morning she was telling me how Daddy was going to buy tickets so we can go to Thanksgiving. So cute.

We started the day driving out to Riverside to start the festivities at Aunt Joan's house where we were greeted by Grandma B, Grandma Kettle, Uncle Mike, Aunt Joan and of course Sam. After changing Xander's monumentally horrendous diaper, which required a bath in the tub, (note to self: no prunes for Xander if we are leaving the house), we hung out for a while. Ais did some crafts with Uncle Mike and Grandma and of course played with Sam, who usually tires out before Ais does. It was a special treat to have Uncle Mike out for the holiday. It has been about 8 years since he was able to make it to Thanksgiving, so we were really excited to have him here this year.

Next it was off to Aunt Lea's to see the rest of the Thirkettle family. Becca was there with new baby Matthew, who Aisling just loves, and Tommy and Celine brought there three kids. It was amazing to see 6 little kids running around (well I guess only 4 out of 6 are running around, but you get the idea.) It seems like all of a sudden there are children everywhere and I just love it. The ages of the kids are Gavin 7, Delianna 5, Aisling 2 1/2, Ilyssa 1, Xander 6 months and Matthew 4 weeks. It was a really fun time and really a special day. I love all these Munchkins everywhere!!!

For Round 2 we headed to Aunt Angie's to see the Kesinger/Protz side of the family. The kids both crashed in the car on the way so they were both a little grumpy when we got there, but after a while the woke up and more fun was had by all. The other new baby in the family Baby Shawn was there and Ais and Xander got to play with him too. He is 6 weeks older than Xander and crawling now. Aisling thought it was hysterical when she tried to hold him and he just sat up and crawled away. She isn't used to babies being mobile yet. He is so cute and Xander just loved him. He kept looking at him and smiling and kept trying to grab him. I think they are going to be great buds. It is so great that we get to see both families for the holiday. We love them both and have such a great time with each side. I am so glad we can make it work and that the kids tolerate the long day of driving and hub-bub. It is so worth it, I know they have a great time too.

The other big news is that we are now a bippy free home. Xander stopped taking his bippy about 2 weeks ago, which is kind of a bummer sometimes, but the bigger news is that Ais gave up her bippy and made it through a whole night without her beloved "pink bippy". She, being so excited by holidays this year, agreed to give her bippy to Santa in the hopes that he would return the favor with a "Jasmine" princess trike. We were going to wait till Christmas day, but I was worried she would change her mind, so Santa came early and she is now the owner of a new red flyer trike. She was really excited and couldn't wait to try it out this morning. And she went down tonight without her bippy too so I think it was a success.

Here are the pics, with more on the photobucket site.

All the little ones. I never knew how hard it was to get 6 kids to look in the same direction at one time.

Uncle Mike and Xander. They are already good buddies.

Grandma and Aisling.

Aunt Joan and the kids. We tried to get Sam in the picture too, but the most we could manage is his tail.

Nana and her Great Grandkids. Baby Shawn, Xander and Aisling.

The two boys and there respective grown ups. Daddy Shawn and I.

Grammy and Xander.

Aisling and her trike. So long Bippy!!!!

6 months old

Xander is 6 months old!!! He is getting so big so fast. So what is our 6 month old up to you may ask. Well.... He is getting close to crawling. He managed to squirm across the dining room floor today and is almost getting his knees under him. His favorite toys are cups, his little ball, remotes, anything electronic really, and anything he can shake and fling around. He puts everything in his mouth and is really good and quick at grabbing everything that comes near his little fingers. His favorite food is Orange color, well carrots and sweet potatoes in particular. He ate a whole jar of sweet potatoes today and was making little nummy noises after each bite. We think he is teething, although, we don't' see any chompers yet, as he has been really fussy. He is constantly drooling and gnawing on everything. He has been pretty fussy too and hasn't been sleeping all that great at nap or night. I sure hope they pop through soon. He has developed a really loud and blood curdling scream as well. It is so loud and piercing, sounds kind of like a jet engine, dentist drill and Nazgul all at an ear popping volume. Aisling usually gets really upset when he cries like that and then she starts crying. It can be pretty painful when they are both going at the same time, especially when it is in the car.

Here are some pics from our recent events (in no particular order).

Brian and Xander with Sienna at her Big 3-0 birthday party.

Here is Ais checking out her big gun. She had so much fun playing Skeeball with Sienna, Whitney. Arianwen and Ais played skeeball for a long time. Ais also liked the air hockey and was pretty much beside herself with excitement the entire night.
The games continued the next day when Uncle Allen came for a visit. Ais had fun playing guitar hero with him.

Last Saturday we drove to Irvine to visit with Eric, Jen and Sabrina. Ais loved Sabrina and had so much fun playing with her at the park and in her room too. Ais is still talking about 'Brina and how much fun she had. She also now wants a Scooter for Christmas... "Like Brina"...

Here we are with Bolt at the Lot event last Friday. Ais really liked the walk around character Bolt and even went to see the movie with Daddy on Sunday. She only made it about half way through, but she said she liked it. If nothing else she had fun eating "poc-corn" and having a fun outing with Daddy.

Ais and Grandma made Turkey's out of construction paper last week. Ais really loves doing projects and was very proud of her Turkey. Grandma also taught her a Turkey song that she sang nearly the whole way home from Riverside. I still have the darn tune stuck in my head.

Yay, a messy baby face. I just love messy baby face. Xander chowed down his carrots and was just so cute in the aftermath.

A New Cousin

There is a new little guy in the family. My cousin Becca had a little baby boy on Halloween. Today we met Matthew for the first time. He is so cute and so itty bitty (7 lbs). I didn't know anyone could grow such a little baby in our family. Becca looks great and doesn't look like she had a baby only 10 days ago. She has done the pregnancy, birth and now Mommy thing without hardly batting an eye.

Ais really liked baby "naffew" as she calls him. She held him, helped feed him and wanted to take him home with us. It was pretty cool to see all three kids together. It is going to be fun to have another baby around and I think Xander and Matthew will be good friends.

Here are some pics from the day.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. Our Tinkerbell and Spider were just cute as can be. It is so fun dressing them up. We went to the studio for lunch to check out the lot event and then went to Grammy's for some trick-or-treating. Aisling really got into it this year. She had fun watching Grammy carve the pumpkin and helped put some sprinkles on some Halloween cupcakes. When it got dark we went trick or treating. Ais knocked on the doors herself and said trick or treat and then "Thank you very much" after she got her treat. It was really fun to see her really participate this year. Now if I could just get her out of her sparkly shoes and wings....

Our little Tinkerbell

Baby Spider's first Halloween.