december pre-christmas recap

This is a long one, so hang in there!

So, before all the family arrived for Christmas, we...

met Santa and Mrs. Claus,

brought home our Christmas tree, 

and then read some books by it,

made some Christmas decorations,

sat for a photo shoot,

hung out with our friends,

played in the snow,

(He's better about wearing mittens now, I promise!)

laughed a lot,

got grouchy a couple times,

rocked a super cute little outfit,

attended a Christmas party

cleaned house,

played with legos at Barnes and Noble,

went to another Christmas party,

read some more,

snuggled on the new couch, 

read some more,

watched the snow fall,

and then shoveled it and watched it fall again and shoveled it some more!

eating an apple

I think he's adorable when he does this!

random november recap

We got a little sick.

I went to New York for work.

It was great to be there during the holdays!

I was so excited to shop for Owen at FAO Schwartz! Thanks for giving me that moment, Owen!

We had some fun.

We went to dinner at the Nitty Gritty with Desmond and his parents.

Owen and Daddy had fun horsing around.

We bundled up to go outside.

And we started to decorate.

And that was November!

did i tell you about our thanksgiving?

It was fantastic...again! Thanksgiving in Oak Park for the second year in a row. Third annual Ierardi/Bell Thanksgiving!!!

Pit stop at the Oasis on the way to Chicago

 We attempted to get a photo of the boys to re-create last's year's!

Thanksgiving 2011, Owen and Julian

Thanksgiving, 2012, Owen and Julian

We still can't get a good picture, but for different reasons! My what a difference a year makes!

And for fun, here's Thanksgiving 2010 - no babies, but I was pregnant with Owen!

it's been awhile...

It's been awhile. I'll do some updates.


We had some work done on the house...

And we've been doing some work of our own!

Should I even bother saying, "Don't mind the mess"?