It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Here are the boys at the Christmas tree farm picking out the perfect tree:

Finn helping with decorating the tree:

A Hockey Rink Right In Our Own Backyard (Literally)

Drew and Finn have been hard at work constructing our very own hockey rink in the backyard. The first phase of the project is underway: roping off the rink and painting the boards. Finn is loving every minute of this, as you can imagine. Here they are working on it (also some other pics of Finn helping Drew in the yard and getting ready for his first time on his new hockey skates (video to come):

Painting the boards

Finn's Latest and Greatest

Finn has come out with some really great one-liners lately, so I wanted to document a few. My favorite: The AT&T guy came to fix our internet the other day. Finn was at the table eating his lunch and the guy had gone into the basement to look at the lines down there. Finn said, "Mommy, where that guy go? I want to bother him." I was dying. During this same lunch, he dumped out an entire container of yogurt onto his tray. When I asked what he was doing he said, "I making a sandcastle." Should have known. The other night, he pooped in his bathtub. When he noticed it floating around in the water, he freaked out. He was running around the tub trying to avoid the poo, screaming "WAIT A MINUTE! WAIT A MINUTE!" I was laughing so hard I could barely compose myself to pick the poo out of the tub and reassure him that it wouldn't hurt him. :)

Here are a bunch of older pictures that I forgot to put on the computer. Oops! I think my favorites are from when the Emmas, McCanns, Frolos, and Webers stopped for a visit in October. It was so fun to see all of the kids together!

Apple picking with the Gilbrides

Finn and Uncle Jersey having some brewskies

Drew's parenting technique

Finn giving Ronan the ride of his life

Ronan, Finn, and Charlie sharing the bus

Ronan and Kevin give Finn a ride

Love this one...Mitch, Finn, Sloan, Jane, and Charlie

On a hike in the Metroparks

A Happy Baby

Since Finn is constantly coming out with funny little sayings, I feel like Mitch doesn't get as much press in the blog. So here are some of my favorite recent pictures of him. He truly is the sweetest, happiest baby I have ever met. Even this week when he started running a fever, he was still all smiles and happy as can be. He's a cuddler and has a great sense of humor already. He loves to be tickled and bounced in his crib (this is how I can get him to laugh the hardest). He's growing so fast and is already wearing Finn's old 12-month clothes and pajamas. He's a pickier eater than Finn was, he hates peas and carrots and tends to gag and throw up when I try to feed them to him. He loves pears and apples so far though. Mitch is a champion thumb-sucker. He LOVES that thumb so much that it's all red and chapped from being in his mouth all the time. I get the feeling that this is going to be a hard habit to break someday! Here he is:

Hard at work, rolling across the living room floor...love his expression in this one!

Halloween!

Finn with his "scary" pumpkin

Visiting Dede with the Gilbrides

Mitch the Tootsie Roll helped me pass out candy

Picking up a princess, an OSU football player and a bunny to go to Dede's for a visit

Finn with his "happy pumpkin"

Finn heading out to Trick or Treat with dad

Finn the monkey and Gavin the bear

(more pictures with the Heffrons to come - hopefully Aunt Megan will email me some of the cute ones she took! Tired little Mitch wouldn't let me put him down to take any pics!)

Mitch's First Food!

Mitch has started eating baby food in the last couple of weeks and has officially earned the title of "big boy", according to Finn. So far, he's eating baby cereal, apples, pears, carrots, and sweet potatoes - and he's loving every bite! I get the feeling that Mitch might be weaned from nursing quite a bit earlier than Finn was because he's so into eating real food. We'll see how it goes! Here are some pictures of him devouring his first meal and some other pictures of the boys.

Finn sporting his new hockey skates

Drew and Mitch relaxing on the hammock (one of my favorite pictures)

Finn reading a book to Mitch

Mitch pausing to suck his thumb in between bites

Finn cheering his little brother on