An Update of Sorts

+I haven't updated much so here's another listed post. 

+Ryan, Dom and I spent Halloween in Michigan and then that Sunday Ryan and I returned to Michigan and Dom got to spend a week with his grandparents and family. They had a great time and spent a LOT of time outdoors. It turned out to be the perfect week to have him gone. I came down with an AWFUL cold (went to the dr and ER) for it and stayed home 2 days. I also could have totally stayed home for another, but needed to get back to work. I pretty much either stayed in bed or went to bed right when I got home. I was miserable. The week that Ryan and I were supposed to get to have dates and just do our own thing together turned out to be a really big R&R week. I think we were in bed by 8 almost every night. By Friday I was starting to feel a little better so we did go to Spaghetti Warehouse and then on Saturday we went to a winery and a Brazilian Steakhouse in downtown Cincy. We picked Dominick up on Sunday and needless to say we were all excited to be back together again. 

+On Veterans Day our friends had a birthday party for their daughter at a bowling alley. Dominick loved bowling and had a great time at the birthday party too. A couple weeks later a girl in his class had a party at the same bowling alley so we were there again. I hope it's something we can continue taking him to do because he just has the best time (and loves the pizza and cake/cupcakes).

+A couple of weekends ago Ryan signed Dominick up for a Lowes Build and Grow event. They built a race car. When Dominick came home I asked if I could see his race car and he told me no it was very, very special and I couldn't touch it. HAHAHA!

+One day at school another boy hit Dominick in the face and gave him a nice little cut and black eye. He told us ALL about it that night. Boys are tough...and rough. Dominick included.

+He loves taking selfies with snapchat. Do you snap? My name is alboutwell - add me and tell me what yours is too!

+The 20th we had a carry-in for my office for Thanksgiving. I forgot all about it so I was up early making my macaroni and cheese and Dominick came down. As soon as I finished I was going to work out, but he asked to play doctor. During the week we are so busy and rushed that I rarely get much time to play with him so instead of working out I played doctor. He's a cute little doctor, huh? He always tells me my temperature is "80 dollar 10" and says, "whoa, pretty bad!"

+I LOVE the holidays and am obsessed with decorating for Christmas. Since our house is SO small here (we hate this house) I've been putting it off for as long as I can and will be waiting until after Thanksgiving. Dominick found his Christmas tree that we put in his room so I decided to let him decorate it. He was PLEASED as punch and just kept telling me how beautiful it was and that he LOVED it so much. He kept it on during his nap and turned it on again before bed. I go in and turn it off when I close his door.

+Go Green! Go White! Go State! If you're a spartan fan, a buckeye fan, a college football fan or a big ten follower then you know what I'm talking about. :) We were screaming, dancing and jumping around after that win. Dominick was dancing around our living room singing, "we did it, we did it!"

+I doubt I'll be back in this little space before Thanksgiving so if I'm not then I'll go ahead and just wish y'all a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope all of your bellies and hearts are so full.

xo!

Fall Activities!

This year we let Dominick pick out his costume. We showed him a lot of different ones and he picked the "red inja turle" costume so we were on the hunt for a Raphael costume that fit. We ended up going to a Halloween store to buy it and he was SO excited to take it home to show his dad. He immediately pulled it out of the bag and put it on.

We ended up going to two trunk or treat events and then trick or treating on Halloween. The first one we got there late so people were literally dumping their left over candy into his basket and then the second one people kept saying how sweet and adorable he was and were giving him HAND FULLS of candy. So anytime anyone gave him one or two pieces he would stand there looking like a sad puppy dog like, "are you going to give me any more?"

The weekend of the 12th I took Dominick to a small farm that I heard sold apples, cider, pumpkins and had some little activities for D. It was pretty far and it was very small, but Dominick had the best time there! It was a fun fall weekend.

On the 16th we went to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival. There were pumpkin EVERYTHING. We ended up getting pumpkin donuts (MUST have) and pumpkin fro-yo which also was a big hit for the littlest.

We ended up spending Halloween in Michigan and went to an apple farm to have some fun. There was a zipline, bounce houses and lots of other fun things.Dominick had the BEST time!

I really feel like we were able to make the most of this Fall season and got to have a lot of fun.

Family Photos

This year I was super late to the game with planning our photos. The past couple years I book them super early with our photographer in San Diego. Mostly because it takes a lot of planning to find a weekend that we could travel, that our photographer was open and that would work for hotels. This year I just didn't have much ambition and waited for the last minute. I also forgot that it gets cold in the midwest WAY earlier than it ever did in California. Anyways, I was able to find a photographer who was just getting her name out there, but is also moving. It kind of worked out perfect because she had a lot of spots still available.

Our session was planned for the last week of October and it ended up POURING down rain. Dominick was heading to his grandparents this week so we really wanted to cram it in before all the leaves fell. We met on a Thursday night after work and I'm quite certain it was THE coldest day of the month. Dominick was NOT happy and barely gave us any smiles which is not like him at all. I'm surprised she got any good photos...here are a couple of my favorites.