Christmas Cookies.

Caiden and I spent one morning making snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, and sugar cookies (my favorite) for the ladies I visit teach as well as my sister's family. We had a lot of fun rolling out the dough and playing with the cookies cutters together. Caiden insisted on two types of cookies, babies (tiny gingerbread men) and dinosaurs. Apparently dinosaurs are a very important part of Christmas. So we made some run of the mill Christmas trees and angels and gingerbread man and then some dinosaurs and tiny cookies for C. He loved it! It was like playing with delicious play-doh (which is one of his most favorite activities). We had Christmas music playing and enjoyed some holiday spirit together. Tomorrow we are going to make a sugar cookie house and let Caiden decorate it with frosting and candy. He is going to love it!

Birthday Parties.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I had the chance to co-host two birthday parties: a surprise 1st birthday party for my niece Rilee (circus themed) and a 3rd birthday party for my nephew Michael (Buzz Lightyear themed). I love parties and I love party themes! I'm all about inexpensive, hand crafted, exciting decor!  I love planning parties, crafting parties, and the feel when it all comes together! And I love my niece and nephew and am so glad I had the chance to celebrate their birthdays with them. I just wish I could celebrate every birthday with each of my nieces and nephews. We've got nieces and nephews in North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Utah, and here in Connecticut. I just wish I could scoop them all up and have them close by forever! I think family reunions are in order asap.

One Year.

I was rummaging through some photos on one of my external hardrives and came across some one year portraits I took of Caiden. Surprisingly, I never even went through the RAW files. It's shocking. Such a momentous time and I never even went through the photos? When I pulled them up in photoshop I could see why.. my backdrop had gotten all wrinkly while being stored, Caiden wasn't very cooperative and I must have been having some lighting struggles that day. But 2 photos turned out! And when all you really need is 1 good photo, double that is great. I remember thinking that I wanted to do a progressive shot every year with a red backdrop and a skateboard to see how much Caiden changes. I'm glad I found them as we near his 2nd birthday (say what?? my baby is almost 2? cue the tears). But it truly is amazing how much he grew in a single year.

Fireman Santa.

On Black Friday we all gathered at my parents house for a surprise visitor. In Brookfield if you show your support for the fire department in the form of a donation they will come to your house in a firetruck with Santa on board. My parents dropped some gifts off for Santa to deliver to their grandbabies (thank you!). We gathered all the kids on the front stoop and waited. We saw the firetruck lights come up the driveway. Caiden was kind of nervous about the firetruck, but he was terrified of Santa. In what was probably a mediocre mom move I forced the situation on him anyway. We tried to take some pictures with the firetruck and then headed inside with Santa. When it was Caiden's turn to get his gift from Santa he kept a healthy distance between them, took the gift and dashed away to open it in safety. Give a year and he will be all over that firetruck.

Thanksgiving.

The whole entire Greer family was together for Thanksgiving this year. It was my first Thanksgiving home since freshman year of college. It was our first holiday all together since the three youngest grandbabies joined the family. It was so nice to just spend time together. Miles, my dad, Caiden and I started our morning with a 5 mile Pequot Runner race in Southport. It was the perfect way to start a day centered around both gratitude and food. So grateful for strong healthy bodies that burned lots of calories so they could be stuffed full of turkey! Our day was then filled with family and good food. Looking around our Thanksgiving table and out at the kiddie table my heart was so full seeing how blessed I am and all the things I have to be grateful for.

Nature Walk.

Caiden and I showed the White's our favorite nature walk spot on the Still River in Brookfield. It is beautiful every season. I've said it before, but I love trees. There's something eerily romantic about leafless trees and late autumn colors. So happy we could share one of our favorite spots with Robby, Nikki and Rilee.