Thanksgiving Post

So here it is, our Thanksgiving post....way late. Noey had daycare the day before Thanksgiving, so I wanted to let her wear her headband we got at a craft show. A few weeks earlier, the day we got our house inspected, my sister and I went to a craft show. I left with 2 headbands, a ring for Noey, and 2 Christmas gifts. The little turkey headband I just couldn't stand it - too cute!

This is what she wore the morning of daycare. She was battling a terrible cold - which I ended up catching by that night:

I asked her to say cheese.....and this little girl is TOO MUCH - she had to pose for the camera: 

The turkey headband - see isn't it stinkin' cute?!?!

As I said, I caught her cold and really usually enjoy getting together with family and holidays. However, I wanted to do nothing but take Sudafed and lay in bed. BUT, when you are a mom, you cannot do that! SO, instead I decided, we were going to dress comfortable and relax. Noey wore a sweatsuit and I just wore a warm hoodie! We started off by going to my mother in laws house for a couple hours, and then ended up at my mom and dads. Here she is being entertained by my *wonderful* sister and mother - thank goodness for days like these where I can veg on my moms couch and have them play with her!

My dad opted for deep frying the turkey this year. With my mom having surgery, she wasn't too happy about the idea of slaving over a stove while balancing her cane. Myself & my sister both have in laws to visit, and while we were going to plan dinner if we couldn't do it at my moms - we ended up not having it. My dad deep fried the turkey in the yard, sporting the hat below, so of course Noey had to wear it haha!

 Noelani & Auntie Amanda:

 Noelani & Daddy reading books:

 She was curious about the whip cream...SO I had to do the old fashioned "spray it in your mouth"!:

And that was it! I didn't even have the energy to go black Friday shopping until the next morning. I went home miserable, went to bed and then when Noey woke up at about 6am, we went shopping! I actually lost my voice the next day and after a couple of shopping hours, it was home and to BED for a nice long nap for both of us!

Halloween

HALLOWEEN - this is now Noelani's favorite holiday. Ok, so it doesn't really count because it is the first one she got the concept of, haha, but she loved it! She woke up the next morning, sat straight up in bed and said "chicka cheat?" (Trick-or-Treat).
Noey loves Elmo. I was very hesitant to dress her up as Elmo, since the "traditional" costume seems more of a boyish outfit. However, I found this costume online and knew right away, it was what she had to be!!!

*My Sassy Little Elmo*

We had a great Halloween weekend. For her, it started Thursday night, when my sister came over and she helped with Noey & I carving her pumpkin. Noelani LOVED it and was rubbing the guts all over her. Once we were done, I lit the pumpkin and she laid on her tummy looking into it amazed.

After carving pumpkins, it was time to bake cupcakes for daycare. Here she is helping:

 Friday was her Halloween party at daycare. Because we would be getting a lot of use out of her costume, I decided we would just use a Halloween shirt in case her costume got dirty at daycare! PLUS, I used to work in daycare and would not want to be the one changing all of the kids in and out of their costumes!

Finally, Saturday, she got to wear her costume for gymnastics and bring treats for her little friends. Getting the kids to all sit for the group shot at gymnastics in their costumes was about as interesting as getting them to sit still for their group photos last week that the professional photographer took!

I tried to squeeze in some type of nap for her, and then we were off to Trick or Treat at a local college. The Red Cross sets up a "safe" trick or treating, and for $2 you go from class to class and collect candy. When we got there, of COURSE it started to rain. Noelani was such a good sport and it was just her and I. She was such a good listener. She waited so patiently and didn't cry once! Even when we got inside she was wonderful - even though the lines took forever! She was so excited when we pulled up and she saw the kids dressed in costumes. She was screaming "A-WEEN MOMMY, A-WEEN!!!!" She was excited, until she saw some of the "spooky things" inside and got nervous and was crying a few times. Here are some pictures:

*Waiting in line*

*Finally inside-entrance to trick-or-treating*

*It took her a bit to catch on, but then she got the hang of it!*

I took off of work Monday because I knew she would have a ball dressing up and coming to my work. Also, a co-worker of mine has a 2 year old daughter and we decided we would take them out to lunch together as a special treat (McDonalds - yuck! lol).

*SUGAR - just what they didn't need!*

*Notice my girlie girl, had to find the hand purse to wear*

*Chicken nuggets AND fries (usually she has to get apples - but it was a special day!)*

We went home and she got a much needed nap. After her nap, I made dinner and we headed to my Aunt Sherris house so that Noey could Trick-Or-Treat with her cousin Aryanna. The two of them had a BALL! Noey loved going from house to house and saying "Chicka Cheat". She would tell people "Thank you" and when they would say "you're welcome" she would scream "WELCOME!" Here's some pictures from that night:

Nana & Noelani

Auntie & Noelani

COUSINS

At the end of the night, they kept hugging like crazy. I'm so glad that we were able to go together and she had SO much fun!!! 

I love fall....

Noey rocking her "bracelets" Nana gave her

Looking for the squirrels in the tree

She must have ran 300 laps up and down my moms neighbors sidewalk

Did I ever mention how much I love my little Noelani? ACK I want to just eat her face! She is such a love bug. I swear to God I will never stop loving her for all my life no matter WHAT! Even on nights like tonight, I never get sick of being a Mama! Antoine has to work super stinky shifts the next 3 days because he is helping with inventory at work. That means he leaves before she wakes up and comes home WAYYYY after she goes night night. Sad - I looked at Noey tonight as we were eating dinner and said "it's kind of quiet without Dada isn't it?!" She looked at me and said "YES!" I know baby, but Daddy & I work all these hours so we can provide the best for you.

Speaking of best for her....we have started to plan our 2013 Disney trip. Yayyyyy! We will be taking her there for her 3rd birthday (so exciting!). Neither Antoine or I have ever been there before!

Ok well...off to bed for this Mama! After a full day of work, then a meeting that ran over by 45 minutes, hanging with Nana, dinner, baths, dishes, and a bedtime for a feisty girl...I.AM.BEAT!

Fall is finally here!!!

WARNING: This is going to be a picture heavy post - don't say I didn't warn you!!! 

I am still sick...but, with a weekend this nice, I couldn't just sit around and make my poor baby sit in the house! SO, I sucked it up and yesterday I packed her a lunch and we went to the playground. Dada was working, so I picked up grandma and we brought Jazmin (our chihuahua) and Noey to the playground. 

As you can see in the photo below, bread is pretty much a waste in my house with Noelani. I read somewhere before that you should try presenting a food to a child around 10-15 times before really ruling it out. SO, I periodically make her sandwiches with bread. She ate a quarter of a slice and that was about it - at least she ate most of the bologna!!! You can also notice, the diva has on some Dora bracelets. 

This is a new little playground they redid by my moms house and I have been meaning to take her here, so today seemed to be the perfect day. She started off on the bigger kids set, but after she realized it was a bit too big, we ventured over to the age appropriate set for her. It's really adorable and this little setup is specifically for kids ages 2-5. It's really cute with different climbers for their size. There's also a little section with a Train that she enjoyed. I thought the bongos were cute too!

We stayed there for about 45 minutes to an hour and she was really awesome when we went to leave. It's hard to predict lately how she will react. She gets very overly emotionally lately about certain things - so I anticipated a meltdown. I also anticipated a meltdown when we left gymnastics that am, but it didn't happen - maybe because Nana was there too! We went home and her and I crashed for a nap for a couple hours!