Thanksgiving

Lennox was a great little helper this Thanksgiving. He helped mama and his cousin Holly make sweet potato souffle and pumpkin pie. Later at dinner, Lennox helped carve the turkey with poppy. For our blessing at dinner we all said what we were thankful for. Lennox said "I thankful for my mommy." It was so sweet. After dinner we all took a very long nap and at midnight mommy headed to the outlet mall for early shopping. I got home at 7am and tried hard to sleep. Lennox didn't like that idea too much.

Today we spent the day decorating for Christmas. Little Lennox was beside himself with happiness over the fun. He helped mama by hanging some ornaments on the tree and by the time he woke up from his nap later, the tree was up and the lights on the house. He stood for a long time in front of the tree looking at the ornaments and talking about them with my dad and me.  We went to dinner with Den and Pop and visited Toys'R'Us afterwards for some shopping. Mommy got the last of her shopping done :-) When we came home daddy turned on the lights outside and we all stood outside watching the fireworks from the boat parade at the landing.

Disney with Den and Pop...

We had such a yummy weekend. After the Thanksgiving program at Lennox's school we went to lunch with Mark's parents and then drove to Palm Coast. We met my parents down there and we all went to Disney for our last trip of this year. We went to Ikea with Pop and Den and they were amazed (we also got Lennox a few Xmas gifts). I got an awesome deal at Doubletree for a suite near Downtown Disney. On Saturday we woke up and headed to Magic Kingdom. It was all decorated for the holidays. I love Disney at any holiday. They do an amazing job with all the decorations.  

First we went to Tomorrowland to ride the Buzz Lightyear Star Command ride. Buzz is Lennox's favorite, even over Spidey. 

When we got out of the ride, we got to visit with Buzz. Lennox actually went up to him which was a surprise. He doesn't really do characters.

Then Lennox wanted to do the race cars with daddy. Lennox drove. Mark said he thought a few times they were going to jump the track. I guess it was a wild ride.

Then Lennox wanted mama to go with him on the kiddie roller coaster. 

And Den wanted to go on the carousel with us.

Then we went to Haunted Mansion and to the Country Bear Jamboree. Lennox had never seen the bears. He loved it, clapped and danced the whole time. When we got out he spotted some cotton candy and had to have some with Poppy while watching the parade.

He loved watching the parade and waving to the characters and pointing things out to us. We went out to dinner that night to celebrate mommy getting her National Board Certification for teaching. This morning we went to Downtown Disney for some Christmas shopping. Now we are cuddled up at home watching Alvin and the Chipmunks, Lennox's new favorite movie. 

Giving Thanks...

On Friday we went to Lennox's Thanksgiving Worship Service at his preschool. Lennox was wearing this adorable Pilgrim hat.

All the preschoolers processed into the church and put a canned good on a table in the front. Then each class took turns singing and praying. Lennox was such a big boy. His class sang "Praise Him, Praise Him." At the part where everyone said "God is love" Lennox hugged himself with all his little classmates. He was quite the little singer. His teacher said he had been singing up a storm during practice. It was so adorable. Mommy was so glad she decided to take a personal day to be there. I would have been so sad if I had missed it.

The world according to Lennox...

Some of the crazy sayings we have heard lately, and the cute and sweet....

"I not Lennox Maximillian, I Spiderman"

When seeing John McCain on tv: "That's Obama's friend"

"Mommy you my princess. You my MaryJane. You my best friend"

Everything that is far away, like our Disney trips or Christmas is "couple weeks." Every night as he goes to bed "I go to Disney couple weeks."

Batman Begins (around here)

We have just finished a little cuddling session on the couch watching Batman Returns. Lennox referred to Catwoman as the "beautiful girl," did not like Danny DaVito as the Penguin, loved the batmobile, and perhaps now a new obsession begins. He is currently engrossed in my Current Christmas Catalog, while mommy plans the Christmas gifts online, and bids for a Mary Poppins DVD for my little sweetie :-) 

What Mommy and Daddy Have Been Doing!

Last Monday, on the eve of the election, Mark and I went to the Barack rally in Jacksonville. We were lucky enough to be four rows behind him. Mommy was on tv. Once we got there we regretted our decision to leave Lennox at home. We really felt like it was a historic moment and wished we had brought him. Even though it would have been torture getting him up at 5am and waiting outside for 2 hours and about 2 hours inside as well. On Tuesday night we had "An Obama party" as Lennox called it, an election watching party with our family. Lennox loved it all and is still talking about it. When we watched Obama give his speech that evening, Mark and I were really overcome with emotion. Now that Lennox is here and our lives are so focused on his well being and happiness we want so much better for him than what we see in our world right now. And at that moment, watching Obama speak, we felt like maybe things will get better. We want him to grow up to be open-minded and be an independent thinker and we can't wait to see what is in store for our country :-) 

On another note, Lennox has holiday fever. We are planning on decorating this weekend because he is so excited and we love to see that!

Spooktacular and Mr. Moves!

Last Saturday we continued the Halloween fun and went to Spooktacular at the Jacksonville Zoo. Lennox was excited to wear his costume again. It was really crowded.

Lennox and Daddy rode the carousel. Lennox picked out this seat.

All around the zoo were little dance stations. Lennox was a dancing fool. We stopped at every one so he could dance and we could hardly get him to leave to follow the trick-or-treat path.

This is Lennox dancing on top of one of the animals in the water park, which was turned into a dance floor.

Happy Halloween!

Yes! This post looks a little familiar. We had a very similar one last Halloween when we had another Buzz year. Buzz Lightyear won the costume war yesterday. Lennox went to his grandparents neighborhood because the houses are closer together.

This was the scene before we even left Oma's house for trick-or-treating. Lennox had some chocolate fun before we left.

We started out about 6pm. At first we were the only people on the street. Lennox insisted on walking even though we had the stroller. He would walk up with mama to the door. I would ring the doorbell and he would stand there beaming until someone answered the door. He was very polite and said thank you to everyone. Going to Oma and Opa's neighborhood turned out to be a great idea because he got SO much candy. People gave out big handfuls of it at every door. And it was all good stuff.

We went to more houses than we planned to. Daddy was so amazed at all the good candy Lennox was getting and the quantity of it that he got excited to continue. Lennox eventually agreed to be pushed in the stroller from door to door. He would jump out by the front doors and get his candy and climb back in. We left Oma's neighborhood at 8pm. Two full hours of trick-or-treating. Then we went back to visit a few houses in our neighborhood. Lennox's aunt Yee Yee who lives across the street had a big stash for him, including pumpkin bubbles and some Spiderman fruit chewies. Lennox carried his goodie bag from her up to his room and mommy had to talk him out of sleeping with it. I was able to put it on his dresser so he could see it. Even though you could tell he was exhausted he insisted on a bedtime story. Lennox ended up rolling over right away once he laid down in bed. I barely got my usual good night comments. This morning he woke up and immediately asked for his goodie bag and is now holding onto it tight while we watch Disney channel :-) 

Carving

On Thursday we pulled out our perfect pumpkin that the boys had picked out a few weeks ago and got to work on carving it. Lennox was finally feeling better after his few days of being sickie. Daddy's job was cutting off the top and scooping out the guts. Lennox helped a little with this and kept saying "it's yucky." 

Then mommy carved it and Lennox tried to help. It was definitely not the best carved pumpkin. Sadly, mommy had never actually done the carving on her family's pumpkins. My mom was super talented at this. I need to get some more practice. My poor hand got so tired. Lennox loved it though!