Christmas Movie Monday

We had our first Christmas Movie Monday night of the season at our house this week.  It is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season, and I am so thankful for a husband who loves Christmas as much as I do, and who wants to have people over every week to watch a movie and eat lots of good treats.

Jason's first choice this year was Home Alone, which is definitely a staple from my childhood Christmas movie memories.

We indulged in pizza (although it was Donato's instead of Little Nero's) and Diet Coke (because we just don't drink Pepsi products in this house), as well as some extras not featuring in the movie, including hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows, molasses cookies, and rice krispy treats.

Connor wasn't too interested in the movie, that is, until the physical comedy began.  Burglars falling on ice and being hit with irons cracked him up.

Can He Build It?

I am super late in posting photos from our Halloween this year.  I will blame it on moving jobs and classrooms in the middle of the year, which is what I have been blaming all of my lack of productivity on lately.

For months, Jason and I were convinced that Connor would be a dinosaur, because he is obsessed with them, but right around his birthday all he could talk about was being Bob the Builder.  I thought it was a phase and he'd get over it, but he never did.  Thankfully, though, Aunt "Beff" bought him a tool belt and hard hat for his birthday, so we threw on some overalls, a plaid shirt, and John Deere boots, and we were ready to go.  :)

Connor was so proud of his "tools" and wanted to fix and build wherever he went.  My favorite moments were when he burst out into the Bob the Builder theme song at random moments throughout the night.

He absolutely loved our church's Hallelujah party this year (last year he was still a bit too small to take it all in), as well as visiting all of our family, and especially the candy, which he is still trying to finish off.

I didn't get too many great photos this year, because he was too busy running around and enjoying the games, food, and fun, but here are a few I did snap.

I also thought that I'd post a few more fall pictures that never made it on the blog from earlier in October.  These first few are from our trip with Jason's parents to Huber's in Indiana, our only pumpkin patch trip of the year.

And these last few are from Connor's first pumpkin carving experience at Mimi's house.  He had a blast, and it actually turned out pretty cute.

Her Name Is...

After years of talking about girl names (back before we knew Connor was going to be a boy), weeks of discussion once we knew Baby #2 was a girl, a horrendous episode of looking at every name in the 60,000+ baby name book, and a few front runners (including Sailor/Saylor, which I still like), I feel the need to get it off my chest and make it official that our baby girl finally has a name.

It's honestly the name we loved three years ago when we were expecting Connor, the name we have loved ever since, and truly, the name that just feels right.

Baby girl's name is going to be:  

Whew...now it feels real.  :)

Feel free to tell us how much you like or hate the name...we can handle it.  :)

Amelia Island

We arrived on Amelia Island on Wednesday afternoon and left early Saturday morning, so while it was a very brief vacation, it was packed full of fun and sun.

This was my first view of the ocean from the balcony in our condo.

Immediately following breakfast on Thursday morning, we headed straight to the beach for several hours of fun.

Connor and Jason created this masterpiece on our first day at the beach.

This summer on Tybee Island, Connor spent the whole first day on the beach crying, afraid of the ocean.  This time around, though, he jumped right in and loved every second.

We took a break from the beach to eat at T-Ray's, which, despite its location inside an old gas station, provided a fantastic burger and fries (Connor slept through the entire meal, tuckered out from the sun.).

After lunch we walked around the downtown streets of Fernadina Beach, where Connor enjoyed some gelato (mint chocolate chip) and we bought his little sis her first headband, which you can see Connor wearing in one of the pictures below.

After our lunch outing, we headed back to the condo, changed into our swimsuits, and spent the last couple of hours of sunlight taking in the beach once more.

Dinner that night was at Sliders Seaside Grill, where Jason and I both had the sauteed scallops.  Yum.

Thursday was our last day on the beach, so we again got up and headed straight out.

This day for lunch we headed to the waterfront and Brett's Waterway Cafe.  Jason had the mahi mahi with crab butter (I tried it and it was divine.) and I had the crab salad croissant with homemade cheese grits...to die for.)

Here is Connor modeling baby sis' adorable headband...and the only "memento" from the trip.

We again spent the waning sunlight hours enjoying the beach one last time.  This photo below is of Connor waving goodbye to the ocean.  :(

Our last meal was at Timoti's, where I had the black and bleu grilled shrimp, which may be one of my new favorite ways to eat shrimp.  I now know I could pretty much eat bleu cheese on anything.  :)

The restaurant had a pirate ship playground, which of course Connor loved.

We woke up early Saturday morning to make the long trek home.  These were our final views of Amelia Island:

Thanks so much to the Davidsons for inviting us and letting us enjoy this wonderful vacation with them!