Giving thanks...

We celebrated Chase's 1st Thanksgiving this year and had a wonderful day. We headed out to the Berkshires to spend the day at my cousin's house for an Italian feast (multiple courses, lots of yummy food). There was a full house, around 20 people in all, and it was great to be surrounded by family. It was the 1st time some had met Chase, and for others they hadn't seen him since he was 3 weeks old. He's grown just a little bit, and showed off his smile and cheeks and charmed everyone. We failed to really document his 1st Thanksgiving unfortunately, I just forgot to take pictures. But Friday was a different story. On Friday I cooked a Thanksgiving meal for just the 4 of us (who am I kidding, for Charlie and I) because we had a turkey that has been frozen since last year and figured why not. So I roasted a turkey and make all the fixings and it was delicious if I do say so. I had to get a picture of Chase with the turkey and he was thrilled let me tell you.


Anyways, hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! I have so much to be thankful for, even more this year then ever before. I have beautiful healthy kids, a wonderful husband, a job and a home and some pretty fabulous friends. Couldn't ask for much more... And now, bring on Christmas baby...

Disney...

We did make a trip to Disney while in Orlando (I mean how can you not when you are right there?), though it wasn't quite what I had envisioned. We knew going down there that Audrey was young to go and we had pretty low expectations for her being excited to actually go to Disney. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom (ok I decided) because I thought she would be able to relate the best to the stuff there. She isn't into the princess thing yet so Magic Kingdom seemed silly. Anyways, we got Parkhopper passes for free from my BIL's friends mom (random but so awesome, thanks again Paula!) which was great. We spent a couple of hours at Animal Kingdom. We started with the must do Kilimanjaro Safari which was pretty cool. Audrey was scared almost the entire time on it, didn't cry but asked to go home about 2 minutes into it (see picture below). We then headed to see Mickey, which she actually enjoyed. Last time we were there and she saw a character she totally freaked out, but this time she gave him a hug and yelled "hi Mickey". We then went to the Lion King show, which I LOVED btw. Audrey started out strong, clapping and yelling. By the end, she had proceeded to curl up on Charlie's lap and pass out. Chase was asleep on my lap so it was quit the scene (it is REALLY loud in there for those of you that haven't been). We made the executive decision to go home at this point. We meant to go back after naps but gave Audrey the choice to see Micky or go to the pool and she quickly picked the pool so that was that. Maybe next year...

Audrey's favorite part was the map, she was very excited to follow the map, you know, like Dora...

This pretty much sums up what she thought about the safari ride...

Loved the drums... I did not...

Orlando...

We headed down to Orlando last week to see Charlie's SIL & BIL that live there (thats for you Vinnie:) and to meet up with his parents. It was a perfect little vacation, the weather was awesome (80's everyday) and we got to relax about as much as you can relax with 2 kids... We stayed at an awesome hotel, the one that Karen and Vinnie got married at actually. We basically hung out at the pool the entire time we were there which I am pretty sure was fine with everyone involved (it certainly was fine with me!). It was a pleasant surprise seeing as I wasn't sure if it would be warm enough down there to do that for even 1 day let alone 3. Audrey had a total blast at the pool and at the hotel running everywhere.

Anyways, a big thanks to Karen and Vinnie for hosting us and everything you did to make our trip great! We had a wonderful time and can't wait to see you guys at Christmas!

I love my sister...

And my sister loves me...

Six Months...

I'm a little late with this, but Chase turned 6 months this week... We sang to him and everything on his 1/2 year birthday. Audrey loved it and wanted to know where the cake was and the presents...

I have to say that this month Chase has really started to blossom. He went from the infant sitting in the bouncer in the corner to needing to be in the middle of the action at all times. He is quickly turning into a boy boy, and loves to knock things over and hit the ground with his fists, laughing the entire time. He loves to just sit on the floor and play with toys, paper, really anything he can get his hands on. He is constantly reaching for something when you are holding him, especially if you have food, which makes it quite a challenge. He can move himself around very well now too. He goes from sitting to laying on his back to spinning around on his stomach very easily now. He is super strong on his stomach and I am waiting for him to decide to start crawling (which I am SO not ready for btw). He is eating solid foods, though we haven't been very good about it. He is only eating 1 meal a day, and really it gets skipped sometimes when we are hectic after work. He has done the rice cereal and is now on oatmeal and has done all of his veggies. We tried puffs the other day and he likes them but doesn't get how to get them into his mouth quit yet. I have to say the kid loves to eat the solid food. He gets really excited when the spoon comes out. He really wants to eat what we are eating and I can't wait for that either. This baby food stage is really not that much fun...

We had a bit of a rough month with him as far as health wise goes. He was sick for a good portion of the month with a really bad cough that kept the poor kid up all night (poor him and poor Charlie and I). After multiple trips to the doctor (I joked that we were paying for their lights but it isn't far off recently), they think he had brocialitis (baby bronchitis) but really they have no idea what it was. They ruled out RSV and pneumonia, put him on a nebulizer treatment and gave him antibiotics just for good measure. He is finally better, but I will say I am concerned now that he is going to be vulnerable to this every time he gets a cold. Hopefully not, but I'm sure we will see sooner then later. He also officially has eczema which really stinks. He gets lubed up with lotion 2x a day to try and help his skin retain moisture. My doctor believes he is breaking out because of the change in weather so I am hoping she is right (and that it isn't food allergies or something like that).

He had his 6 month appointment yesterday (we actually went to the doctor for a scheduled visit!). He is 23 lbs 5 oz (still off the charts) and I don't know how long he was but he was in the 93rd percentile (I wasn't paying attention for some reason when she took the reading).

trick or treat....

To say that Audrey was excited about trick or treating is the understatement of the year. I spent all week prepping her for Halloween because I really wanted her to enjoy it this year. I think Dora, Diego and the rest of the Noggen crew actually explained things to her better then me, but regardless she definitely got the concept of costumes, ghosts, pumpkins and most importantly trick or treating by the time Halloween got here. The girl is mildly obsessed with candy right now (ok maybe more then mildly) so the minute she realized that she was getting candy when she said "trick or treat" she was SO excited. We did a little practicing before the nights festivities began and she did well (whether she remembered to say thank you while she was out is a different story I know). Charlie took her this year, and went with our neighbors which turned out to be perfect. Izzie and Audrey are great buddies and we knew that Audrey would be more excited about the whole thing if she went with Izzie. While I didn't go (Chase and I manned the house and gave out the candy) but apparently the girls loved it and had a great time. They made it out for almost and hour and a half which I couldn't believe. Audrey got home and ran in to show me her candy in her pumpkin. I lifted the pumpkin and I swear the thing weighed 10 lbs! I looked and Charlie like "she's been carrying this??". Apparently Audrey wouldn't put down the pumpkin or let anyone near it, like she was going to loose her well earned candy. Kind of funny. Charlie said she almost fell down multiple steps due to the heavy bag but somehow she made it with no incident. She got home and I think she probably tried every kind of candy in her bag which was pretty funny. Anyways, hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! We sure did...

Practice makes perfect...

Playing at a neighbors pre-trick or treating party...

The girls in action...

End of the night... The wagon was finally used for something other then the beer cooler...

Dorothy and the Giraffe...

Well we had a successful costume year in the Dennison household. I don't know if you remember last years costume debacle with Audrey (ie. she refused to wear one), but I was pretty scared by that whole experience and wanted to make this year as smooth as possible. I decided if I got a dress type costume it would be easy to get her to wear it, or easier at least. I found a Dorothy costume and crossed my fingers. But she did great with it! She loved the concept of wearing a costume (well either that or she knew needed to do it to get the candy but whatever) and put it on with no issues. While I have to admit she had no idea who she was (I tried to explain, but she doesn't even know what a movie is, let alone a character in a movie) she looked darn cute. I'm looking forward to next year when hopefully she will be old enough to want to be something...

Chase on the other hand I had a tough time with. I got 2 different costumes for him and neither fit and I got a little discouraged by the whole thing. Then I started to feel like a horrible mother that the poor kid had no costume for his 1st Halloween. So my neighbor came to the rescue and let him borrow a giraffe outfit which worked out perfect. I laughed because giraffes are huge in the baby world right now as any of you new mothers know (Sophie is one his favorite toys). I told Charlie "oh he is going to be Sophie for Halloween, how cute". Charlie said "no, my son will not be Sophie, he is a giraffe". Ok whatever. He wore the costume for all of an hour but looked darn cute.