'Tis the Season

For some reason, blogger isn't letting me rearrange the pictures tonight, so this post will be in reverse chronological order :)

To start, here's one of the most awkward-looking Santa photos ever! We stopped to see Santa at the firehouse on the way out of the tree-cutting area. George was very unsure of him and wanted me right next to him. He cried for a bit but managed to tell Santa that he wants 2 skid steers and 2 front loaders.
Here's our beautiful house, all ready for the Christmas season!

We cut down two trees this year for our house. The main one is downstairs in our new basement...

And the other one is a mini tree in our living room so we can see the lights from the street:
Sean and George hanging some ornaments this afternoon...
Checking out the fire truck after seeing Santa...

With our Christmas tree loot! We cut down 2 for us, and 2 for my parents because they're in California this weekend.
We always seem to luck out with the weather on our tree-cutting day each year. Again, it was a sunny, beautiful day to be out searching for the perfect tree :)
Struggling up a big hill...

Searching for the O'Reilly family Christmas tree...

We've had a lot of fun this weekend getting ourselves set for the Christmas season!

Giving Thanks

We had a very nice Thanksgiving today. It was pretty low key, but still a lot of fun with great family and delicious food. As usual, we spent the afternoon and evening at my parents' house with the Emersons and a couple other friends of my parents. My sister didn't make it out this year since she was just here for the big party last month, so I missed her a lot, but she'll be here for Christmas very soon!

Luke made some adorable place cards for us - everyone's turned out so great!
Our family shots...
In this one George has such a big smile because he's saying, "Digger!"
Playing legos with Luke...
George's first attempt at a board game was not too successful and we had to play a game of our own where the pieces could move freely whenever he wanted them to :)
Because he's completely insane, George was not a big fan of our Thanksgiving feast today. I'm pretty sure it was the best meal I've ever had, but George didn't eat too much of it. He was a big fan of the chocolate pie, though...
We have so much to be thankful for this year, as we always do. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband and son, who both make me happier than I ever imagined. We are blessed to all be healthy and happy and surrounded by loving family and friends.

Since I actually dried my hair today and put on a little makeup, I thought I'd have Sean take my picture to show off my growing baby belly. With George, I had Sean take my picture every week to document the journey. This time, I think there are about 2 pictures that clearly show my pregnant belly and I'm already 30 weeks pregnant :) So here it is...
If you feel so inclined, please take a second to cast your vote in my gender poll on the right side of the blog. I'm pretty baffled as to the sex of this baby, so I'd love to hear your guesses!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We're planning to hang Christmas lights tomorrow and cut down our tree Saturday morning with the Nichols/Fererro family. We always stop to see Santa on the way home and George has been practicing what he's going to ask Santa for - I'm excited to see how he does when he's actually on the big guy's lap :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Lots of Firsts

We have had a pretty eventful week or so with George. Here's the long story of our first ER trip:

Last Wednesday, George was helping me make dinner on his stool and I opened a can of pumpkin to make pumpkin pancakes. In a moment of complete stupidity, I left it within reaching distance of my 2 year-old and he cut his hand on the open lid. I knew immediately that it was deep enough to need stitches. Plus, it was in the webbing between his thumb and first finger, so it would never heal on its own. With both of us crying, I called Sean to let him know what happened and as soon as he got home we headed for the hospital.

Luckily, George was a complete champion in the hospital. He pretty much calmed down at home after we started playing Lady Gaga and he was so well-behaved in the ER as well. However, the doctor wanted to give him something to keep him calm while they worked on his hand and we agreed that it would be best since he won't even let me pick out a booger without throwing a complete fit. So he got a little medicine to make him drowsy and we laid together on the bed while they gave him 3 stitches and we watched Shrek. He let out a bit of a whimper when the gave him the shot of Lidocaine, but after that he never cried again. I, on the other hand, cried on the way home, while putting him to bed, and for a while later feeling enormously guilty that it had happened and that I had to go to work in the morning. Luckily, he was going to be with my mom, otherwise I would have stayed home. 10 days later, the stitches are out and our boy is as good as new.

In other firsts, George and I have been working on some potty-training for the past couple days. I knew we had nowhere to go this week so I figured we'd dive head first into it and just see what happened. Yesterday had 4 accidents and no action on the potty as well (despite the two of us being in there for what seemed like half the day). I read every book we own about 3 times and sang every song I could think of, but it just wasn't happening. Today, however, George has peed on the potty 4 times already and had no accidents! He's still in a diaper while he sleeps, that will not change for a long time. I know we have a long way to go, but I'm hopeful that it just might work in the near future :)

Here are some pictures of George in his big boy underwear:

Um, how funny is this picture with his gut hanging out?

If it doesn't work this time around, we'll just try again in a few weeks, but today has been a good start so we'll stick with it for now.

We're looking forward to a fun week of family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving and cut down our Christmas tree on Saturday! Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Our Big Boy!

I am terrified to write this because I'm afraid I'll jinx our good fortune, but I'm doing it anyway. George has made his first big transition to becoming the big brother around here by moving into a big boy bed. After looking forever on Craigslist for a twin bed with storage drawers (thank you 1912 house with tiny closets), we finally found this one and got it set up Sunday night. By Monday afternoon, George was sold. I was thinking we'd have it in the room awhile, read books on it, get used to it being there, then try to sleep in it. Oh no, George napped on it yesterday before we had even bought any sheets!
It doesn't look that great now - George picked the lovely tan comforter himself. But my parents have ordered a very cute comforter cover with.... you guessed it - trucks all over it! This is George saying hi to Nana and Pa!George even slept all night in the bed last night without making a single sound. On each of my many trips to the bathroom throughout the night (thanks to this growing baby), I would check in to make sure he wasn't sleeping on the floor, but sure enough, he was right there in the corner on his faithful Leo dog :) This morning he got out of bed, walked into our room and said, "Wake up Mommy! Wake up Daddy!" And after his nap this afternoon, I was downstairs and heard him get up. I ran up the stairs thinking he'd be looking for me. Oh no, he was in the kitchen pouring himself a cup of water!
I really hope this sticks because it was about as easy as it gets. We're hoping for a couple more big transitions for him before the baby comes (potty training and ditching the bed-only binky) so I'm glad at least one of them seems to be no big deal to George - knock on wood!!

Halloween Continued

Our Halloween weekend continued through yesterday when we carved our pumpkin. This is George pointing out the eyes, nose, and mouth that he drew to help Sean carve: George loved stirring the guts and named our lovely pumpkin "Happy Birthday."

We had such a great time at our friend's house and their annual Halloween party. This year, the giant pile of leaves in the front yard was the perfect entertainment for a bunch of 2 year-olds! It kept them all busy and they had so much fun! George loved trying to dig up the leaves with the front end loader...

Getting a little help from Elmo (Luke) with Abby the cute skunk supervising:

The costume came off after 10 minutes or so, and George really got to enjoy the leaves with his friends:

Dancing to the music of the band across the street:

Diving into the leaves:

We trick-or-treated at 5 houses or so on our block, then passed out candy. George loved carefully putting a piece into each bag that was waiting patiently for him. It really was such a fun weekend. The weather could not have been nicer and George had a blast the whole time. I'm really looking forward to the next big holidays since George showed so much interest in Halloween. Before we know it, it will be New Years and almost time to meet our new baby - I love this time of year!