Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We have lots to be thankful for this year - when we're not too tired to realize it.

We maximized our Thanksgiving yesterday with a day full of hiking, cooking, cleaning and eating. Will started the day with a "turkey" breakfast.

Stella and Maggie enjoyed some of their first Cheerios. Maggie's bottom middle teeth have come in and Stella's first teeth aren't far behind.

After a short hike and some quality time in front of the TV watching the Packers, we settled down for some of Patti's fantastic cooking. The girls enjoyed a puree of sweet potatoes, apples and cranberries and Will ate a ton of turkey. He didn't care for the green bean casserole or the stuffing so Dad "sacrificed" and ate it for him. Will was very huggy and he thanked us for no good reason, which was pretty sweet.

Why Will should nap

Will didn't nap the other afternoon and he ended up falling asleep at the table during dinner. Patrick couldn't resist taking this picture.

This goes without mentioning, but Will wasn't drinking the beer (he has higher standards)...

2 out of 3 ain't bad

The quality of each day seems to be measured in how the kids sleep and whether they're all asleep at the same time. By the end of the day everyone is exhausted, but getting all 3 to nap in the afternoon is a rare occasion unless we do the nurse-n-nap routine with the girls. On Wednesday afternoon, I got 2 out 3 to sleep and enjoyed some one-on-one time with Stella.

Will still takes a 2-3 hour nap each day and when he doesn't...wow, it makes for a long, painful evening. Today, after a busy day at school and some play time in his room Will finally fell asleep (on the floor). Meanwhile, Maggie slept on the couch for hours (usually its minutes).

And Stella and I played on the floor, practicing her new skill of crawling (albeit still very rudimentary) and perfecting that ear-to-ear smile of hers.

Quality forecast for the evening: enjoyable!

And as an added bonus, the girls slept through the night from 10pm - 6am.

Will's Lambeau leap

Will kept asking yesterday "where G guys Dad?" He's too young to fully appreciate Monday Night Football, but trust me little guy - it's a good thing.

Will jumped at the chance to put on his jersey and watch with Daddy and then he jumped into the stands (our couch) to celebrate a touchdown. Take a look here.

Goin' on a hike!

The kids were tiring us out last week and Patti and I needed to get out of the house. On our way back from a diaper run on Saturday, we stopped and took a short hike as a family. Patti slung Maggie and Patrick Bjorn'ed Stella. Will was very proud to be leading us around without being carried.

One of Will's shows had a hiking episode recently and Will must have repeated one of its lines - "Goin on a hike!" about a hundred times (maybe more). He was so cute, though. We had him collect different leaves that he liked so that he could compare and contrast them at home later. He told us all of the different colors he saw on trees. He pointed out tree roots to us. It was pretty awesome.

These huge leaves were elephant ears on Will a second before this shot.

Patrick likes this trail a lot because it reminds him of home. He and his cousin spent most of their time in the woods near streams and creeks. He's thrilled that Will seems to like it a lot too.