Happy Birthday Little Man

In Early December Miles turned two. TWO! My little baby, can't believe it. I'm pretty sure I will say that every year, bear with me, it's shocking to a mama.

He is a big fan on Mickey Mouse so we had a Mickey themed party...or three parties. On his actual birthday we had a "play date" type of party with his buddies in the area. This was probably the least stressful of the parties and the kids had a blast.

Then a couple days later we had our families over to celebrate Miles and Auntie Monica's birthday which was also nice.

Auntie Andrea and Cousin Joe doing some serious playdough work

Then a few days later my friend Jenny and her family were in town for only a few days so we got together with them and a few other friends with kiddos and celebrated Miles' birthday again....lucky kid. Of course he loved celebrating again and again and again. This last party was the craziest but in a good way of course. Don't know if this is because it was our third party in 5 days or just the sheer volume of children.

At two years old our Miles is becoming quite the little talker and is starting to come up with some funny things and not just repeating and the inflection he uses on certain words is so funny and adorable. He loves playing with his friends (although still loving a little too hard) and will pretty much have fun wherever he goes. He's a pretty happy go lucky kid, just VERY active. Have to keep him busy all day but he's a lot of fun. One of my favorite things he says is "Hugs you mama" when he wants me to hold him. My heart is melting more and more with his sweetness (and can immediately harden when he turns around and is absolutely defiant). Miles is going to keep us on our toes that's for sure but we're ok with it :)

Love you little man. What a blessing you are to our family.

ROAR!!!!!

I forgot to post a picture of Miles in his Halloween costume. Feast your eyes on our little lion. ROAR!!! My mother-in-law made this adorable costume and I made the mane (what a pain in the butt). We had to practice a lot before hand with the mane. He was quite afraid of it but after all the work I put into it, he was wearing it!

 

 His little buddy  superhero friend Neason stopped by for a quick Halloween picture

He actually went trick-or-treating this year. I love Halloween so I was super pumped. Auntie, Mimi, and Papa joined us. Let's just say it was trick-or-treating was complete mahaim. I never even knew we had so many kids in the area. Last year we ran out of candy within an hour so this year I bought a huge bag thinking I was so prepared. Wrong! It lasted maybe an 1.5 hours.  

Family, beach, airplanes, friends, and a little Mickey

This October my Nonna (Grandmother) had a big birthday and the family thought about what we could do to celebrate this milestone. She doesn't need anything. She loves her family. She hates that we aren't all living close together. That's it, we'll take a trip and all get together!

This lead us to southern California. My parents, Nonna, Nick, Miles, and I hopped on a plane (standby that is) and headed to LA. We met up with my Aunt, Uncle, and cousins who live near San Francisco, rented a house near the beach and went to Disneyland...all in four days (including travel days). Needless to say it was a whirlwind trip, it was a lot of fun. Miles loved seeing his family and playing with his cousins.

This blanket kept him busy for a long time on the plane. Who knew?

Cousin time!

Liked the sand, hated the water. He was so afraid of it.

Running to Papa

He had a good time at Disneyland and did really well waiting in the long lines. It was so packed because we had to go on a Saturday and it was close to Halloween. He was a trooper though. The first ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean and he was not such a fan. He buried his little face in my chest and closed his eyes. No crying but he clearly did not enjoy it.

Disney day!

Cousins!

Getting some Auntie attention

Had no hopes of him napping at Disney but he actually fell asleep in his stroller. NEVER happens people.

Family shot

Happy Birthday Nonna!

And just out of sheer coincidence my good friend Cari and her husband Andy were in the area visiting her lovely sister and her family. Craziness right?!?! So my Indiana friend met up with us in California...naturally. 

Indiana and Chicago collide in California

We had to know something was not going to go perfectly on this trip and it came in the form of being stuck at LAX all day trying to get on a plane. Needless to say I was rather apprehensive about this with an active toddler and a small supply of diapers (had a whole bunch packed in my checked luggage. I was optimistic. Why don't they sell diapers at the airport?). Miles was such a good boy at the airport and again took a nap in his stroller. Shocked people, shocked! We made it on the last flight out and with just enough diapers.

 

When we got to Chicago the airport was a ghost town because our flight left LA late and we got back around 11:00. Miles had a great time running around. 

Fun trip, but went by way too fast. Hope we get to see our California family again soon.

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

So I promised pumpkin patch pictures back in November, so pumpkin patch pictures you shall receive....in December. You're welcome :)

We went to the pumpkin farm that I went to as a child, but they changed the way they do things now and sadly I don't think we will go back. Disappointing.

We did however leave with these little beauties. 

Love how Nick tried to hide in this picture, but then you see this large foot at the bottom, haha!

We got to go with our buddies, the Loftus'. It doesn't get much cuter than these guys.

Fall Fun

Recently we have gone a few fun fall outings (say that 10 times fast) to some pumpkin patches and "apple orchards" that you must feast your eyes on.

One lovely fall day daddy took a day off of work to go apple picking with Grandma and Auntie Andrea since Auntie had a day off. We did our research and thought we found an apple orchard that actually had apples for folks to pick (Illinois got hit with warm weather early and then a frost which killed a lot of the apple blossoms). Well apparently this orchard had not updated their website, and there were indeed no apples to be picked. We asked if we could just walk in the orchard so Miles could get a sense of apple picking and they said "...sure, but it will cost you $5 a head". The cheapskate in me said no thank you. I am not paying $25 to take a walk amongst some trees so we looked at the chickens they had there and took pictures next to some pumpkins.

After that disappointment we met up with Grandpa at a fun little zoo. So the afternoon wasn't a total bust.

Miles also had a great time with his friend Charlie running around Charlie's backyard and jumping in a huge leaf pile. Good fall fun. Pumpkin patch pictures to follow.