November GBOMB

G O O D
+We are in the midst of potty training and I think I can safely say that Taylor has the hang of it. I still put him in diapers when he sleeps, and when we're out of the house (mainly because I don't really want to deal with public restrooms yet). When we first started this round of potty training, I thought it might be the end of my sanity, but after a few days, things got a lot better. My goal is for Taylor to be completely out of diapers by Christmas.
+On Thanksgiving, we went and watched Ralph Breaks The Internet. It was fun to have two kids sit through a movie without any worries. They both loved it and now they're begging to go back to "the big movies" to watch The Grinch.
+We are in full blown Christmas mode at our house. We watch a new holiday movie everyday, listen to Christmas music all day long, the kids look forward to getting their daily chocolate from the advent calendar, and I threaten to call Santa anytime the kids are naughty. Christmas is so much fun with kids. I'm already a little sad to think that Christmas will be over in a few weeks.
+I took the kids by myself to Disneyland twice, and we managed to go as a family to see the holiday fireworks after Andrew got off work one day. One of the times I took the kids by myself, we got to see Santa. Taylor asked him for a train and Olive asked for presents (she's not picky). There's still a few holiday specific activities I want to do in Disneyland before the festivities are all over, but Christmastime is crazy busy so we're being very strategic of when we go. That's the best part of having an annual pass and living so close is we can go just for an afternoon to do one or two things without feeling jipped.
+November and December are always my biggest months for my Etsy shop. It's been fun making new prints, having Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and seeing traffic increase for the holidays.

B A D
+We didn't want to deal with L.A. traffic during Thanksgiving so we had an unconventional Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves for the first time. Our Thanksgiving was actually a really nice day, but it was sad not being with any other family.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+I'm almost 32 weeks pregnant and starting to see my OB every two weeks which makes baby time seem so soon. This pregnancy has flown by (especially now that I'm not nauseous 24/7) because I have two kids as distractions. I'm starting to get into the final, uncomfortable stage of pregnancy though where you can't bend over, or get off the floor, or breath normally so hopefully these last 8 weeks don't drag by. I'm honestly a little in denial of how soon this baby will be here. I feel like I should be preparing more or something?
+Olive is turning two in December! I can't believe I will soon have an almost 4 year old, a two year old, and soon a newborn. How did this happen?! I mean I know how it technically happened, but it just seems insane to have growing children and so many children.

Aquarium of the Pacific

Two weekends ago, we visited the Aquarium of the Pacific. It was a fun few hours with relatively cheap admission. I think the highlight was seeing the sea lions and seals, and watching Taylor bravely pet the sting rays and jelly fish in the touch pools.

After we finished with the aquarium, we walked Pine Avenue Pier and let the kids play some games at an arcade we walked by. You would have thought Taylor and Olive won the lottery with how excited they were with the prizes they got to pick out with their tickets.

I just wanted to make sure to post these fun pictures from our day so I wouldn't forget.

October GBOMB

G O O D
+We went to Santa Barbara for a quick weekend trip. Our friends Brad and Haley flew down from Seattle to go with us and were kind enough to watch our kids one of the nights we were there so Andrew and I could go to watch a Jim Gaffigan show. More on that trip here.
+I can finally say that my all day nausea is finally gone! It only took until 24 weeks, but I no longer have to take my Zofran everyday. It is glorious.
+The Steeds were able to stop by our house on their way to and from another visit. The kids were so glad to see their cousins even if it was just a quick trip.
+I managed two trips with the kids to Disneyland this month. It's really hard to go in October because it is so packed with people who come in for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Even though our first trip was really crowded, we still had a fun time and managed to get on quite a few rides. Our second trip the week of Halloween was surprisingly empty so the kids and I lucked out with short wait times.
+We went as a family to the Aquarium of the Pacific. We've had tickets forever and finally used them. I don't think there's a better family activity than going to an aquarium.
+The whole month of October has been fun with the kids because of Halloween. They have loved watching Halloween specials and pretending to Trick-Or-Treat. Andrew took them to a fun Halloween festival in Marina Del Ray and then we had a fun Halloween activity at our church. The kids looked so cute in their costumes.
+I did a 10 day social media fast and in that time I read seven books. It's great that I read so much, but a little sad how much extra time I had when I wasn't wasting it scrolling Instagram.

B A D
+I had more dental work done. I guess this could go in the good category because it's almost all done. Only one more visit. On top of that, I had to go to an oral surgeon and have a weird blood blister removed from my tongue. I didn't expect the recovery from that to be so intense, but man, it was not fun and I'm still feeling the after effects of it. Luckily the stitches have finally dissolved so it just feels like a big cranker sore on my tongue now.
+Olive has been really grumpy this month. Anytime something doesn't go quite her way, she screams at the top of her lungs to voice her displeasure. It hasn't been fun dealing with her.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+The upcoming election. I already sent in my early ballot and I'm interested to see how it all turns out. Make sure to exercise your right to vote on November 6th!
+I think I'm going to start potty training with Taylor again. I can't get him interested at all, but he hates having his diaper changed so it's time. I just have to buckle down and be consistent with him.

Now onto the most wonderful time of the year. We've already gotten the Christmas books and movies out. I don't think it will be too much longer before our Christmas decoration goes up. I know some people argue for a clear definition between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but Christmas is just so much fun with kids and I plan on squeezing every drop of happiness out of the season (which means we will start celebrating every year on November 1st for the foreseeable future despite the naysayers).