Thanksgiving and Christmas Flair

We had a fun and busy Thanksgiving weekend. We ran a 5K, ate like pigs, and spent time with several family members. Overall it was a great weekend and we are thankful for all of our friends, family, and loyal blog readers.


Don't I look so happy to be getting ready to run a 5k :) I wanted to quit half way through. But George would not let me. And I am so glad he made me finish !! In case you can't tell from our outfits, we ran the 5K at George's high school. And oh ya, he is wearing his hockey jersey and warm up pants from high school. Pretty impressive !!

After our run we had worked up quite an appetite. So we headed to Grammy and Grampy's for dinner. A special thank you to Grammy and Aunt Eileen for all of the cooking they did for us. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious !!

Ellie cuddling with Grampy. She must of had too much turkey :)

The Spencer girl's with the chocolate pecan pie we made we extra TLC.

We were lucky enough to spend much of the weekend with Aunt Eileen. It was great to see her and the girls loved playing with her. We are looking forward to seeing her again when we visit her at the Jersey Shore this summer :)

Ellie and Aunt Eileen relaxing before bed.

We headed up to Nana and Papa's the day after Thanksgiving for our second
Thanksgiving dinner. Ellie loved Nana's apple pie. She actually ate that whole piece in front of her by herself. She mastered the use of the spoon while she conquered that piece of pie. You can tell from this picture that she was all business while she devoured the pie.

Of course, a picture of Isabelle and Felix.

And of course a picture of all of the cousins at the kids table.

Nana and Ellie at Thanksgiving part 2. Thank you to Nana for preparing a yummy dinner for all of us.

George and his early Christmas present from Colleen. Oh yes, you are correct, that is a Superman Get Snuggy !! Awesome !!

With Thanksgiving over we have moved on to the next holiday. This past weekend we cut down our Christmas tree, put up all of our Christmas flare, and of course the outside lights. This is a picture of George using his "apple like deltoids" to cut down our tree :)

The girls watching Daddy cut down the tree.

A side view of the tree on my car.

Daddy and Isabelle placing the star on the tree. The tree is short, round, and full of ornaments. It is perfect !!

Last couple weeks (pre T-Day!)

Ellie sporting her "Donald Trump" hair! She has recently entered the word of "pony tails"!

Ellie has also entered the world of "shoes"! She has been walking / running for a little over a month so some new shoes were much needed! A special thanks to Grammy for helping us shop for shoes! I can imagine how this obsession is going to get out of control! Girls and shoes - yikes!

Papa was a bachelor last week with Nana relaxing in FL with her sisters. We promised Papa a dinner date at the Olive Garden for his birthday a few months back! We (Papa, Grammy, Mary, George, Ellie, Isabelle) all joined the clean plate club and had a great dinner ; the wine was pretty good too :-)

The girls sporting their new winter coats!!!

This past weekend we hosted a sleepover!! Julianna and Tyler (along with their parents) ventured to our house for a Saturday night party! The kids were awesome and super well behaved! Our house looked like a tornado blew threw it!! We all survived :-) Special thanks to Kelly / Fern for the yummy lasagna, cookies and wine!

Isabelle and I had a date on Sunday! We went to a hockey game!! Isabelle had a lot of fun drinking her soda, eating sweets and looking for the alligator (really it is a shark!). We topped of our date with a trip for "Chinese" - Isabelle's request!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy T-Day! Mary and I have a lot to be thankful about and this includes our loyal blog fan base :-)

Fall Fun and Halloween

Fall is officially here. It is colder and getting dark earlier. But we are having fun with all of the activities that go along with fall. We have been apple picking, playing in the leaves, and of course we celebrated Halloween weekend !

Below are pictures of the girls over the last 2 months.

The girls love raking the leaves and then jumping in the pile. Daddy raked for 5+ hours last Sunday so there aren't too many leaves to play in any more. But the yard will be full again soon !

Another way we got rid of leaves was to make scarecrows. We made one scarecrow for each of us. Check out the heads on the girls :)

Ellie playing with leaves. She loves to look out the window and stare at the trees. At first she was not sure what to make of the leaves. But now she loves to play in them.



Fall also means the start of the Bruins season. Ellie is a huge fan as you can see. She is accessorizing with her pink purse :)




Daddy and Ellie at the Halloween party at school. We all had a great time running around the classrooms trick or treating. (This picture is out of order. Ignore my lack of blogging skills.)





A few weeks ago we went apple picking. Daddy and Ellie on a hayride on the way to the orchard to go apply picking.



Grammy went apple picking with us. She also went to the playground with us and decided to show Isabelle how to swing. Grammy has great form :):)





Our little pumpkin in the pumpkin patch.






Isabelle loved apple picking. I have never seen her eat an entire apple by herself before this day. She really enjoyed the fresh apples.

Mommy and Isabelle on the apple picking hayride.

Isabelle, Mommy and Grammy apple picking.

All of us being silly at the apple orchard. Ellie is with us. She is just hidden :)

A rare family photo.

The girls.

Our big lady bug.

Isabelle and Mickey and Minnie at the school Halloween party:)

The 2 cutest ladybugs in the world !

Our little ladybug.

Isabelle and Felix at the Halloween parade and Felix's birthday party.

Nana, Papa, and Ellie at the parade.

Mommy and Ellie at Felix's pirate birthday party.

Nana in her Halloween flair :)

The girls and their neighborhood friends. We had a great time trick or treating on Halloween. The kids ran around in the freezing cold and now we are all enjoying the candy they collected.

The girls right before we headed out to go trick or treating.

Ellie's First Birthday !!

It is hard for me to believe that it has been a year since Ellie was born. The past 12 months have gone by so quickly. But I also feel like I don't remember life without Ellie. She is such a great kid and a joy to have around. She has made our family complete and I can't wait to see what the next year of her life brings. She is a cuddly, curious, funny, sassy little girl. We all love our little Bubba so much :)

Ellie eating her first helping of cake. She was surprisingly neat.

All of her friends and cousins enjoying their cake. Can you say sugar high !

Ellie, Marc (her Godfather) and Jill. Ellie did not eat much of her cake. But she did enjoy gnawing on George's head. She literally was using his head (and what little bit of hair he has) as her binky. I think it was the highlight of her party.

Ellie surrounded by all of her presents. The yogurt melts were a huge success. That was one of her favorite gifts. Great job Aunt Peggy :)

Ellie, Mommy, and Daddy

Ellie's awesome elephant cake. Thank you Grammy !