Eavesdropping on a private phone call.

I just overheard jack talking in a quiet/sad voice... This is what he said:

Um, hi. This is jack. Yeah. So, mommy has a dangle on her hair. Yeah, doctor, you're going to have to cut it off. Ok, thanks. You, too. Bye.

Then to me:

Mommy, I'm sorry, but the doctor's going to have to cut your dangle out of your hair.

What?!?!? Does he mean tangle? Dingle? I'm crying. He's hilarious.

like a weed.

jack's growing, that is. so, i mentioned that he 'got himself up' the day we left for our disneyland surprise. i'm one of those moms that lets things as they are unless we have to make a change. jack had been cribbing it until wednesday, the 10th. i knew this day would come, and i was/am oh! so! thankful!! that it took him allll this time to decide to 'get himself up'.

as pete woke grumpy jack up, i was doing something important (for the life of me i can't remember what now, but it was uber important). jack wanted me to get him out of his crib and i asked him to wait a minute. he did. maybe 5 minutes even. then, he said, 'i get myself up!' and walked his little self into the office. i was in shock. i interrogated pete. did you get him up? i interrogated jack. did daddy get you up? was this some not-so-funny joke?!?! how in the world did he get himself up without a peep?!?!

i got over the shock, asked pete to join me, and we gathered around the crib while i asked jack to show us how he 'got himself up'. he climbed over, and dropped off the side with absolutely no problem. i knew he was capable, deep down, but really wanted to ride the comforts (and safety and sleep!) of the crib as long as possible. after watching his skilled move, we left for our mini-vacay!

when we returned, it was time. it's such a big milestone to move your child out of a crib. jack and i both cried when we took the crib apart. pete was such a support to both of us. i just can't believe how fast jack is growing into a little boy. he's a kid now! in a big boy bed! my tears were gone the second jack displayed his love for his new bed. he jumped up and down, screaming, 'i have a big boy bed!!! it is sooooo cool!!! look, there's a car, a truck, another car, another truck!' -- he loved it! he cuddled up with his blanket and pillow with a grin from ear to ear. pete and i were so proud and prepped ourselves for the night. will he sleep in it? will he cry? be scared? try to leave his room? pull down the curtains? the bookshelf? i ran through the list - bolted to the wall, check. no cords, check. all small toys out of the room, check.

after taking down the crib and putting the big boy bed together, we went to a birthday party. with a bouncy house! our fears of no sleep were unfounded as our big boy bounced and bounced, then passed out, excited, in his big boy bed.

and you know what? he must've been ready, because we've had less nights of him waking up now than we did when he was in his crib! we are so lucky with this little guy :).

something else that might be contributing to all the sleep happening here? growth spurts! jack was comfortable wearing his 2T pants when we went to pennsylvania in october, went through 3T pants in 3 weeks, and is now rocking 4Ts. it literally happened in a month. he'll be riding big thunder mountain railroad before we know it!

i'm sure cupcakes are helping him grow, too, right?

pure joy!

thankful.

we are so thankful for our family, jack-attack, friends, health, a warm home, food on the table, jobs, joy, pepper&bailey, eachother... so much to be thankful for - we are so very blessed! we shared the day together as a family (morning time), as a couple (turkey trotting), with pete's family at our home (feast time!), and with my family at theirs (cold turkey sand-os and leftover pick-up! and to discuss the interesting turn of events this year -- both JD and Laura had a sig-o join the Costanzo dinner! we checked in to see if there was any gossip to share ;)!).

some pictures for our fantastic feast with grammy, pepaw, and aunt sara:grammy and jack talk veggies (jack only ate turkey & veggies!) he did have pumpkin pie for breakfast (breakfast of champions at gran & grandpa's while pete & i ran)... do you see little muffin-thing? i made a portion of our traditional welsh dressing in muffin tins. a perfect serving (don't judge if i had 2nds!), crispy on all sides but soft in the middle (dev & les, i didn't say your favorite m-word just for you!), cooked quickly - definitely doing this again!!
pepaw carving the turkey - isn't it beautiful? a 20lber cooked in about 2hours in their bbq. smoked turkey....all m, um, tender? (not sure how you two get around this word sometimes!)
bobby flay's brussel sprouts with walnut butter and pomegranate seeds (totally NEEDED to make this after seeing it on the throwdown v. pioneer woman!!). deeeeeee---lish!!!!!!
cutting the pecan pie - i was especially proud of the way it turned out this year...visually, that is. i kind of forgot to set the timer, so the insides were a little runny, but how beautiful is the top?!?! beautiful if i do say so myself!! toot-toot!

turkey trot!!

First couple 5k. Can't wait to do it again! So PROUD of you, Pete!!!!!

half moon bay pumpkin festival

we made it this year! loved famer john's pumpkin patch :),hung with the willis twins (austin & autumn),

played on bales of hay,

goofed around a on john deere,

expertly picked out tons o' pumpkins,

wagoned them around the patch,

enjoyed the unique squash,and watched his parents steal a self portrait.

(we really don't get many pics together, and the whole family ones were horrible - not our photographers fault, thanks, kristin!, just our inability to all look at the camera at the same time!)

thanks for the fun surprise, daddy!!!

wednesday, november 10th
3:45pm: receive hotel confirmaiton via email (what is this?)
4:02pm: pete arrives at home, tosses bags on the bed, and starts packing. i start packing, check the weather, then repack. jack wakes up from his nap grumpy, but turns the corner at the mention of heading to 'mickey's house'. he 'gets himself up' (he's a crib-kid, more on this milestone later!)
4:46pm: we're on the road!
11:45pm: arrive at our hotel across the street from the park
12:15am: jack jumping on bed.
3:25am: jack asking to 'say good morning to ____' (he lists every disney character he's ever heard of)
7:02am: up and at 'em for our day at the park...

completely quick turn of events and super fun surprise from daddy! we enjoyed veteran's day at the park, complete with the beginnings of christmas decor. we visited goofy, rode dumbo, checked out jack skellington's haunted mansion, and survived the wind.


after a nap and dinner, we returned to the park for the nighttime merriment, but were bummed when the fireworks were canceled.





exhausted, we headed back to the hotel for the night. friday was WILD. i mean, i'm a frequent disney go-er. this was not my first seaon pass, and there were years when i was a kid that we went a TON. i am serious, folks, it was the BUSIEST i've ever seen the park. maybe it was the gorgeous weather, the long weekend, the first official day of holiday festivities... whatever it was, it was a cluster. like, ridiculous. we had only planned a half-day anyway, so we made the best of it. we had a fun time pretty much walking around...

(rides? lines? oh heck no - not in this crowd with an almost 3yrold. no way, jose!!) and hit the road just after eating our traditional corn dog. yum, btw.

someone wasn't very happy...


** so with this new blogging promise, i'm letting go of a few things.

1. format. i can't worry too much about spacing. sometimes, i need to let that extra space or missing space go.
2. grammar. this really bothers me, but i'm not going to review my posts as though they're english papers or a resume. i'm sorry if this bothers you - it bothers me, too. i hope you find comfort it that.
3. picture order. you'll see pictures above are not in chronological order (we all seems to be wearing the same outfits both days and i posted a pic from the end of our trip in the beginning). i trust that i didn't make my family wear the same clothes all weekend and that it's better - or faster - to blog this way.

this blog is a living scrapbook. and i have to keep it going for us to look back on - and if these things bother me when i'm 80yrs old and i have the time to fix them then, so be it.

holy-moly-guacamole.

i can not believe i've been neglecting the blog. i really thought i'd be sooooo on top of it since i started staying home with little munchkin. i have been crafting with jack, playing outside, enjoying all that an indian summer and autumn can bring, cleaning while he sleeps, cooking. we read, walk, visit, and have adventures with friends. however, blogging? not so much. i'm making a public pledge to start this up again. even if it means pre-blogging with post-dated posting.

i, jen green, do solemnly promise to post 3 times a week. at least.

witnessed by y'all.

and totally call me out if i don't follow through.

why this pic? no reason, really. just a snapshot of us enjoying our valley home + oaks + amazing sunsets.
no time for blogging when you have all this to enjoy, right? bad excuse, i know.

Guess where we are....

Rainy day continued.

I really like the rain. I mean, it's great for the plants and is a
perfect excuse to lounge in sweats, read books, and make chili for
dinner. Rain with a 2yrold is a bit different. It's still fun, but you
need an outlet come the middle of the day. The second the rain ceased,
I took little Jack outside to burn off some of that energy!! It was
so fun and wet and giggle-y. And the activity made for an
appropriately long afternoon nap (during which I did NOTHING but
read!!! Housework, schmousework.)!

Rainy day.

Of course it's raining on the looooooongest day of the year!!!! I
thought we'd craft. I lost my temper, Pete reminded me that Jack can't
read my mind, that I hadn't shared with everyone that one pumpkin was
to be brown, one orange. I relinquished control and let Jack complete
the project. And he did an amazing job!!!