october and november in our home

october and november are two of my favorite months to live in new england.  we were busy this fall as i was tutoring quite a bit, had many visitors, and were preparing for crosby's arrival.  i took a bit of a break from blogging, but wanted to share a few of my favorite memories from this fall.

first up:  blake came up from houston to surprise Greg for his 30th birthday.  while it definitely was not the same without ryan and their kiddos, it seemed like the greatest gift in the world for both of these guys.  i am so thankful for blake and greg's friendship.  so this visit was one of the highlights of our fall.

one of the greatest joys of living in boston these past 5 years is being so close to my family that lives in new hampshire.  my mom's brother and his wife, as well as their two kids (my cousins) and their little ones all live about an hour and a half's drive from us.  while living in the south, i only got to see them every 2 years or so at our family get-togethers.  it has been such a blessing being able to drive up and spend weekends, birthdays, holidays, and such with them.  i love my family dearly and these past five years have just made me feel so close to them as we have shared all of the wonderful moments of our children being born with them.  here are some pictures of a walk jude and i took with my aunt and uncle on a weekend trip to see them back in october while greg was traveling.  they live on a beautiful lake and the trees were brilliant.

we went trick-or-treating with our good friends, mimi and kent and their little ones.  as i've previously posted, jude's favorite book was always moo, baa, la la la.  so it was only appropriate to dress him up as a sheep for halloween and let him go to the doors and say 'baaaaaaaaaaaa.'

we were not able to travel at thanksgiving since that was right around my due date.  but our good friends, paul and kate, invited us to spend thanksgiving with them here in boston.  jude was thrilled since their daughter, nora, is the love of his life.  here are some pictures from our really special thanksgiving here with the jin family.

and finally, we went to pick our our christmas tree the day after thanksgiving since little crosby (unnamed at the time) was due any day around that time....but then he took his time in coming. :)  this was the tree jude picked!