The Halsey Family

I LOVE our yearly family photos…. Andrew looks like a lil boy, and not a baby anymore!  I am about 8 weeks pregnant in these pics, and Andrew is almost exactly 18 months!  Of course, I planned us to wear sweaters for our pictures and guess how hot it was that day?!?!  Like almost 90 degrees…. we were all a sweaty mess, so to celebrate we went to the Brig and we let Andrew watch videos the whole meal and I may have order dessert!  Great parenting! Andrew was extra serious this year in our pics… very contrary to his personality!!  Can't wait for next years…. with the 4 (or 5 if Josh lets Sloan come) of us! Throwback to last year… what a difference!

Andrew LOVES the tree!  He loves the lights and especially smelling it!  Each morning he gets a thrill out of the lights going on… it is to die for, he either say WOWWWWW or WHOAAAAA!  As I am sure you can see, we only decorated the top half to avoid Andrew messing with all the ornaments that would have been in his reach.  Next year, we are going to do a kid tree in the playroom, so it will be free for all!    Koala and Mickey also love to smell the tree!

Dada, Auntie, Uncle, Andrew & I set off to pick our Christmas tree this year the day after Thanksgiving… it was ANTI Climatic, to say the least. Auntie suggested Costco…. so here is what hunting for Christmas trees looked like this year for the Halsey Fam.  Andrew fell asleep on the way to Costco which is all of 10 minutes from home…. then I picked our tree (without looking at it) from this mack truck trailer- less than thrilling!  Dada & Uncle fastening the tree down!  At least we had fun!

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays around here!  Why you may ask??  Because it is all about family, friends, fun, eating & drinking…. what else do you need!  This year was extra special because it was our first in our new home.  Josh & I both made turkeys… Josh smoked his (it was AMAZING!) and I did the traditional oven turkey!  It was a great day.   Getting everyone to have their eyes open (Auntie & Papa) was an uphill battle!  Perfect picture…. Thanks Dada for the finger!  What!?!?!?!?  Auntie is drinking!!!  Thank goodness!  The Halsey Fam! The whole 2014 group… minus Sloan!  We miss Lolo!  

So we are establishing a tradition for when we go see Santa… the day before Thanksgiving!  It is great- Not a sole is there and the workers are still is good spirits and let us take pics on our own camera!  It was extra special because Auntie, Allie, Mimi, Papa and Dada got to join us this year!!    Now here is the Santa pic we were waiting for…. he was GREAT with Santa, until we pushed the limit!  Poor Allie was at the mall for hoursssssss… so as her treat Auntie & Al went ice skating!!! She told us, she was super good at ice skating!!!  Keeping this wild man busy while we waited to see Al Farm in action!

Okay Okay, so we are calling "daycare," preschool- it makes me feel way better!  November 3rd was Andrew's first day of school.  He is going to the Pearl Center which is right by my school :)  He is making friends & learning to play well with others!  Super fun times…. Dropping him off, is not always super fun because sometimes, well, he grips to me like his life depends on it, but then there are other days, where he is like, mama who???  He is growing up too fast!

What does a lion say?? ROAR!!!  Andrew chose to be lion this year for Halloween… ADORABLE!  I got home from work, wrestled Andrew Dooda to get in his costume (he was definitely telling me he was ALL DONE the entire time) and off we went.  We made it all the way to by Dada's car in the driveway for a great game of Hello/bye-bye (3-4 minutes), then over to Rich's driveway…. where Andrew took a BIG spill and Halloween was over in less than 6 minutes.  But, hey- we got some cute pictures.  I would say Andrew's highlight of Halloween was taking the candy out of our candy basket and putting it back in!  Josh and I loved getting trick or treaters!!  It was fun handing out candy…. Sloan just loved having all the people coming to the door.   All done, Mama!  Not a roaring lion yet…..   But now he is!!!  Helloooooo….  Bye-Bye!  He's the cutest lion I have even seen, that's for sure!  Capturing ...