Christmas is coming!

Woot woot!  Christmas is coming.  The Artinghelli household has their Christmas Tree and decorations up!

We took the boys for our annual Christmas pictures and let me tell you, BUST!  For starters it was hot as hell in there.  John David wasn't having it and Austin was just interested in everything but taking pictures.  Typical of a 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old, however, I expected more out of the photographer.  From experience, when you get those cutsie pie pictures, they look so cute and look like their were all nice and calm from the pictures, when in fact, for my family, it's pure chaos!  However, with all of that chaos, we can get cute pictures.  This time, not so much.  Thank goodness that I purchased the membership, otherwise we would have paid a fortune for nothing.  I left with nothing.  I thought the photographer could have done a better job or at least tried a little harder, I could have left with at least one good picture.  Sigh.... I guess I'll have to play photographer at home. 

We had a great time putting up our Christmas tree.  Morgan, Austin and John David took care of the bottom of the tree and Kevin and I took care of the top of the tree.  So far they don't care too much about the tree, ornaments are still on it!

This Sunday we are going to Breakfast with Santa at Brookfield Zoo with my work.  Hopefully the boys enjoy Santa and aren't too scared.  My guess, Austin will love him and John David will scream his little heart out.

November update

Has it really been a few weeks since I posted.  I've been crazy busy at work, so by the time I get home, I just want to veg!

Boys are great!  Growing like weeds!  They are so much fun!

John David is obsessed with the balls.  He loves throwing them and running after then, I swear a ball can keep that kid busy for hours!  Woot Woot!  Austin loves to watch cartoons, John David, not so much.  Last night, Kevin had the Michigan basketball game on and John David was glued to the TV!, What?!?!  So it looks like Kevin has a sports watching partner!  John David is recovering from 2 ear infections and teething woes!  He is taking it like a champ, but boy, that has to be painful. I think he has 10 teeth now!  10 teeth in 4 months, OUCH!  He has learned the wonderful art of climbing.  He can get on the chair and if we aren't quick enough, he will be on the table!  The good news, he can get down!  For a while there, he was stuck.

I can't believe how much Austin is talking!  You can actually have conversations with him!  On the flip side, he is taking everything in, the good, the bad and the ugly.  Over the weekend, he was going to watch a movie with grandma, he brought lovie up with him.  He told Lovie to "Sit down", not 3 seconds later, he said "Sit Down, Now!"  Hmmm, I think he's modeling me, hmmmm is this good?  Hey, at least he understands!  We took him over the weekend to find his snow boots.  He was in love with his Spider-man boots from last year and he has been having a hard time with JD getting his hand me downs, so I wanted to get him all excited about picking out new snow boots so when it's time, he will be fine with it all.  He picked out Cars snow boots!  And they light up!  Both kids have light up boots, we will be lighting up the town!  He had too much shopping fun, since he passed out in the cart.  We were shopping, he was talking, next thing, he has his head down, I thought he was just being funny, nope he fell asleep!  Too stinkin cute!

Kevin is on his own at work, no more having to go with someone.  I'm so proud of him and he's doing a fantastic job!   Michigan is doing great!  He was able to go to a Michigan bar last weekend to enjoy the game!  He brought the boys home little footballs and they love them.  Both of them keep asking for their footballs!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'm so looking forward to the feast!  I can't wait for the Mashed Potatoes, one of my all time favs!  I'm looking forward to the weekend, I have things planned every day, so that makes it more fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Halloween Fun!

Let's see, it's been awhile.  We've been busy busy busy bees!  Last weekend we partook in pumpkin carving and boy was it a blast!  Kevin started off only wanting to take pictures but once he got started he was so into it!  I think he had the most fun.  Austin loved the goop.  And he loved taking the seeds and putting them in the strainer.  He kept saying "give me"  hmmm wonder where he learned that from.    John David, I don't think, knew what was going on.  He was sitting in his hi chair watching.  He would take seeds and try to eat them and kept picking up the top of his pumpkin. 




Getting the goop out!



Daddy and Austin with their masterpiece.





JD with his pumpkin



Come on Mom and Dad, let's go!

Halloween was a blast!  I wasn't into Halloween too much prior to having the boys, but I think I was just so excited for them. We were only going to go up the block and back, but since we were having so much fun we decided to go around the block.  Next year I'm sure we'll be ready for a longer route but this was really their first time so we wanted to take it slow.  We went to like 2 houses with Austin last year.

Trick or Treat

Austin was a natural trick or treater!  He would run to the house, cutting through the yard (who taught him that), ring the door bell, hold out his bag or take 1 or 2 or 3-4 pieces of candy (we need to work on that).   He even knew the drill if they weren't home, wait 10 seconds and then he'd babble something to us like they aren't home and proceed to the next house.





Superman!

JD was close behind.  He was a bit more shy and would want to be held while getting the candy.  He loved going up the the houses after he figured out what was going on.  He wouldn't let go of the bag.  They were getting a litle cranky so we thought we skip some houses.  Austin was not up for that.  He was "yelling" at us that we missed the house and run up.  So of course we would go, one house we tried to tell them they weren't home, but he wasn't having it.


We got home and rang grandmas doorbell!  We had to bribe them with candy to eat dinner.  They ate their dinner and each got one piece of candy.  Austin loved when the doorbell rang, he would run to the door to see the costumes. He repeated everything I saw, oooohhh, ahhhh, happy halloween,  thank you, you're welcome.  That kid, too stinkin cute.



 




Halloween was so much fun that I can't WAIT for Christmas! 











We have a baseball player on our hands

I think Kevin is ecstatic with John David!  John David is 16 months and throwing better than Austin is at 28 months!  See for yourself below! 

I think it's time to start making his promotional video for the major leagues ;-)  When did they start throwing? Maybe he'll be a pitcher?  or if Kevin has his way, we will need to beef him up some more so he can be a QB!  For Michigan ;-) Ha!


Not much else going on with the Artinghelli Clan.  Boys are great!  They amaze us each day and are beyond fun!  There is never a dull moment, that's for sure.  

Oh and in case you were wondering if I got cuddles from Austin yesterday.  You bet I did!  When Kevin was playing "baseball" with John David, I was getting extra cuddles and hand holding from Austin while watch Little Einsteins.  Take that, Alice! ;-)

Stop it, Mommy!

 Austin is quite the talker these days.  He repeats most things you say and adds his Austinisms to them.  As you know he says butterfly but calls it a budderby, school bus is ool us and ire uck is Fire truck.  It's great to have a conversation with him.

With that said, I do not like his most current saying, "Stop it, Mommy!"  Most recently, he said it to me last night as I was trying to cuddle with him. Austin can be quite the cuddlier, when he wants to.  He loves to give kisses and hugs!  Actually he always says "One more"  numerous times for hugs and kisses!  So I'm all about getting in the extra cuddles.  But for some reason, last night, he didn't want to cuddle with me.  He actually said, "Stop it, mommy!" :-(  Austin is also sweet on a girl named, Alice at daycare!  How fitting, Alice! :-)  So maybe he doesn't want the extra cuddles from me since he's saving them for Alice!

Let's see how tonight goes!

Pumpkin Farm

Today we went to Edwards Apple Orchard in Popular Grove, IL and Goebberts Pumpkin Farm.  It was a long day, that's for sure!  Boys did well for the most part. We packed it up and were on the road by 8:40 and got home after 3!

We went on a wagon ride.  Austin was amazed by the horses that pulled us.  His new word is horsey and he tells us what a horsey does, neiiighhh.  Too stinkin cute, I'm going to need to keep the video camera on me at all times, that's for sure!

 After the wagon ride, we went on the ponies.  Morgan was so excited to ride the ponies and we thought it would be a good idea to have Austin and John David ride too!  Austin loved the ponies, John David, not so much!  I actually had them stop so John David could get off.  He was much happier watching, maybe next year we will try again.

There was so much to do there, pony and wagon rides, animal feeding and watching (which Austin loved!), playgrounds, climbing on tractors were a few things we did.  They had apple picking but we decided not to participate, I'm not sure the boys are quite ready for that, maybe next year!

We took this chance to see how "tall" Austin is.  What would you say?  Almost 3 feet?  We will have make this a yearly picture so we can watch him grow!  We will start the tradition with John David next year.  He was very content with watching from the stroller, and I didn't want to jinx that!

The one thing the apple place didn't have was pumpkins, so we went to Goebberts.  This is my favorite picture of the day!  Grandma took it (thanks!)  and I think it's great.  Must be his blue eyes!  Don't you just want to squeeze him?!?!!

So both boys, only got about 30 minutes of nap time!  They wouldn't nap when they got home and have been sleeping since 6:30.  Let's hope they sleep in for mommy and daddy tomorrow.

Here is a picture of me and Kevin riding the tractor!  Hey, the parents gotta have fun too!

And maybe tomorrow, I'll post a picture of the apple cider donuts that were a MUST!

Weekend Fun

It's been a great weekend!  A busy one at that, which I like!  Saturday morning, I took the boys to the park right by the house.  We decided to take the trail behind the park, where the frisbee golf course is, it was beautiful.  I can see us doing a lot of walks back there.  Their was a mom and her son feeding the ducks in the pond.  So cool.  Here are some pictures at the park and a video of Austin with some of his new words.

 John David sitting on Grandpa's bench.

 Austin pushing John David.

 Austin and John David going down the slide together!

Austin riding the dinosaur!

Kathy, Sean and Vince came over.  Sean sure made the boys giggle, he has a way with getting them to laugh.  On Sunday, Grandpa came over to watch the Bears game and brought the boys a truck and a taxi.  Austin loved calling it a "tuck"

I'm looking forward to next weekend.  A visit to the pumpkin patch and possibly a visit to the movies so Austin can see his first movie at the movie theater!  He loves to watch movies!