i just finished...

...playing two games of banagrams with alanna. we are so glad it is finally the holiday weekend, and she is so stoked to have three days off of school (including today). our friend compton took her to see "new moon" this morning. they went to the 10:45 am showing, and there were only 6 other people in their theater. she loved the movie, and they both said that it was much better than the first one (he also took her to see it last year). i haven't read any of the books, or watched "twilight", and i don't ever plan to, haha. so a big thanks goes out to compton, for being such a good friend!

i also just finished making a couple things to take to thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. we will spend the holiday with danny's family at his mom and dad's house. my mother-in-law spoils us each year with a huge amazing vegan feast! she is so accommodating when it comes to our strictly limited diet, and i am very thankful for that. before i moved out here, i would usually have to make my own tofurky, and eat it by myself, while the rest of my extended family ate the traditional dairy and meat filled holiday meal. so it is really nice to have so many delicious options (thanks vicky)! can you tell i am very excited to eat, haha!?

i made my mothers famous cranberry relish. she has made it every year, for pretty much my entire life, and everyone in our family just loves it. i've brought the tradition out here, and now danny's family likes it too

and i also made a pumpkin "cheesecake". this is one thing that i am really good at baking, i've made it so many times, and it always turns out delicious. my brother-in-law billy (danny's sister's husband) is just about as opposite of vegan as anyone could be, (he is a real steak-and-potatoes kind of guy), and he love, love, loves it! he gets sad when i don't bring it to family get-togethers, haha. i even made him one as a gift, for his past two birthdays. he is going to be very excited tomorrow, haha

before it's goes in the oven


and after it comes out (it needs some soyatoo on top!)
our house smells sooo good right now!

we took our pitbull, lucky dog, to the vet today for his annual exam. we think he has a urinary tract infection, so he has to take an antibiotic. but they took a blood sample, and everything else looks great. he is 11 years old now, and he is starting to slow down a bit, but he is happy and healthy, and has many more years to go. we are thankful for his good health.

he is always so rowdy in there, that we have to put a muzzle on him. poor doggy, haha. danny took this photo with his phone

we love a parade

saturday morning alanna and i went down to the annual raleigh christmas parade. this is the third year that we have watched it. the whole thing is pretty long, like 2 hours, so i left malcolm home with danny. it was nice to have some baby-free time, and to not have to spend the whole time chasing him around. he can be pretty exhausting these days. here are some of the highlights:

the girl in the center front is alanna's friend sienna, from her last middle school. she is part of a competition jump-roping team

we liked the marching bands and their shiny instruments

this teeny-tiny bus was full of "little people" dressed as elves, haha

when i was little, i was super afraid of the hamburgler from the mcdonalds ads. at night, i would run past our dark living room as fast as i could, because i thought that he was gonna jump out and get me, haha. so this float pretty much creeped me out!


some cool old classic cars


star wars fans like christmas too (there were tons of them, way more than in this photo)


some old guys on little red tractors (i took this one for my father!)


the morning radio show that we like to listen to


the biggest shopping cart ever!

and last, but not least... santa!

raleigh has lots of beautiful old historic victorian-style homes. we parked between two of my favorite houses

and this is malcolm's new favorite thing to do... run around nude!

this was on saturday after i had given him his nightly bath. he cracks me up! he was also loving me taking his photo up-close. he usually turns away from the camera. here are the best shots, haha :)

daddy's baby version 3.0

he was listening to xone choicex on danny's laptop

(in case you missed them: version 1 and version 2.0)

in love

i want my christmas tree to look like this one please! how totally cute is this!? disneyland, i love you <3

this past week

not a lot is going on around here. alanna spent the weekend at danny's parents house, so it was pretty quiet in our house... except for the fact that malcolm is currently obsessed with "the nightmare before christmas", and we've been watching it non-stop since friday! but of course he likes it, he is my son, haha, it's in his genes. alanna also loved it when she was little. she said that we've watched it so much that i am going to get sick of it, and then i will want to sell my collection. but i told her no, i've honestly probably seen it 100 times, and i still notice new details that i had missed. it really is such a work of art, and i love it sooo much, even on repeat.

on sunday we went for a lovely stroll. it was so nice and warm out, that i had to take off my sweater and walk in just a tank top. wow, i love perfect autumn weather. and have i mentioned that i love the greenway?! yeah, i think i already have :)

can you see all the turtles lined up on that log!?

this is the street that we live on


malcolm has now mastered walking down the stairs by himself


we only have 3 stairs, but he can get down them alone really well

here he is sleeping in the car with no shoes on. he always takes them off, haha

and sleeping in the cart at the grocery store

he has also been feeding himself really well too

yesterday we went to our local library

he loves the holiday board book section

i love their huge caterpillar (they also have a beautiful butterfly, but i didn't get a photo of it)

and malcolm loved running around on this cute rug

malcolms new mobile

look what i made! this cute little mobile for malcolm's bedroom. i used a set of ceramic "the very hungry caterpillar" ornaments that i bought when we went to the eric carle museum in ma this summer. i had planned on hanging them on our christmas tree this year, but was worried that lil' naughty might try to get them off, and they would get broken. i saw this mobile, and thought that it was cute, so i used her idea and made my own.

i just used a wooden embroidery hoop, painted it red, and hot glue-gunned the red cord around it. pretty simple, but a bit time consuming. i'm really happy with the results :)

and i think it looks nice hanging in his little room!

one of my...

...favorite things about this time of the year! <3