Saturday, November 30, 2013

Thanksgiving 2013

We had lots of family fun this Thanksgiving!  On Wednesday night we drove to Tomball to have Thanksgiving with Kyle's side of the family.  We stayed with Kyle's grandma and went over to his aunt  and uncle's house the next day for lunch.  


Nonna cutting the turkey!


Kyle's cousins Olivia and Addie kept Lane entertained and it was like we had hired babysitters!  He had fun playing outside with them and talked them into playing upstairs with him when we were inside.
 



Daddy had some fun on the scooter!





Lane (and I) took a long afternoon nap and he woke up ready to entertain everyone!


 Eating some leftovers for dinner with Gran


Telling Laura and Olivia a story


Near the end of the night, Lane decided to put on a concert for everyone.  There was a karaoke machine upstairs and Olivia set it up on the landing for him so we could all hear and see him from the living room downstairs.  He was quite the performer!  He sang Wheels on the Bus, The Eyes of Texas, What Does the Fox Say, and some of his school Christmas program songs nice and loud.  At one point he said he needed to collect 4 pennies from each person before he sang the next song, and announced that he was going to give the money to people who don't have enough!  His very first "benefit concert!"


We stayed until after dinner and then made the drive back to Austin that night so we could break up the trip to San Angelo that we would embark on the next day.  We said a sad goodbye to Pops and Gran, and were on our way!
 



The next day, we drove to my aunt Kathy's house for another turkey dinner!  Lane wasn't into pictures this day.  I tried to get a picture of him in his Thanksgiving shirt and it was quite tough.  Mason finally made him laugh and I got a couple of cute ones.




Marley was happy to pose for me!


And Mason had his biggest smile ready for the camera!


After playing outside we all came in to eat dinner.  Lane is still super picky and ended up eating a peanut butter sandwich with his fruits and veggies.  He likes lunchmeat turkey, but wouldn't touch the good stuff.  Crazy guy!


Partners in crime.  These two were a wild pair all weekend!


Little Evin got to try lots of yummy solids on her first Thanksgiving!  She enjoyed the mashed potatoes!





A rare picture of just me and my hubby


We are so thankful that Paw was able to come from Brady.  I love this man!


 Evin LOVED me, as usual ;-)

 

 

But wasn't a big fan of Kyle!  She would get a scared, upset look on her face and cry every time he tried to hold her.  She did warm up to him the next day and tolerated him a lot better!


Trying for a family picture with the boy who says "Pictures ruin my life."


A little help from Daddy and we got a smile!  Too bad Kyle looks crazy!


The kids wrestled with Kyle for a while


Then settled down to watch Christmas movies in Kathy's room. 




The next day we ventured out to try to get a good family picture for Mom's Christmas card.  I had low expectations, because getting 2 kids to both look/smile for the camera simultaneously is tough!  Kathy was a good sport and came along as our "entertainment!"  I set up a tripod with my camera, put the self timer on, and we all worked hard to get a decent picture!  Kathy did a good job of making ALL of us laugh!  Surprisingly, the second frame of the day ended up being really good, and we got a few other good ones as well!  Success! 




We took some separate family pics as well...



And tried to get a good one of Mums with both kids, but Lane was done at this point and wasn't too cooperative.



We said farewell to everyone and left San Angelo on Sunday.  It was great to see all of our families!



We have lots to be thankful for this year!  I can't believe it was our last Thanksgiving as a family of 3!

Friday, November 29, 2013

Almost Thanksgiving...

The week leading up to Thanksgiving was a busy one!  Lane's school had out the whole week for the holiday, so his class celebrated the Thursday before.  He wore his cute turkey shirt and was excited to get to eat Chick Fil A at school with his class!  No turkey and dressing for these kiddos, they went for the good stuff!



When I picked him up I was surprised to see what he said he was thankful for.  Not that I'm surprised he is thankful for Daddy, but he is usually a big Mama's boy!  I thought it was pretty sweet and text this picture to Kyle.  I'm pretty sure it made his day!
 


Nevermind that my child's picture looks like a mugshot!



He did make a cute necklace with thankful feathers and included Mommy and his dog.


After school we drove to Mansfield for the weekend.  Mom was gracious enough to agree to watch Scout while we went to Houston for Thanksgiving with Kyle's family, so I had to drop off the pooch.  We made a long weekend out of it and I was excited to have lots of photo shoots planned with friends and acquaintances while we were in town.  WELL, the weather got COLD and was pretty miserable the entire weekend.  So miserable that all 5 of my photo shoots were cancelled!  We ended up spending a lot of time indoors since it was so chilly but got a lot of projects done while we were cooped up.  We ventured out to Spring Creek for lunch one day and did a little bit of shopping.  Lane looked cute in his winter gear!


Kori and Mitch had a wedding to go to on Saturday night, so Mom and I got to babysit Evin.  We had fun playing in the warm house by the fire!
 




Evin was so happy and smiley!



Tried hard for a grandkids shot...






The next day Kori came over and we worked on Christmas cards and blogging.  Evin was a good little assistant!  Lane was able to go play at Gran's house for a while and Kori and I went and did a little Christmas shopping.


It was still really cold that night and Lane enjoyed toasting his buns by the fire.  :)
 



Just a cute picture of Scouty


Lane has recently become interested in reading Bible stories.  My mom found some children's Bibles that belonged to Kori and me and he would sit and listen attentively!




Feeding Miss E



Lane was really sweet to Evin the whole weekend.  He would baby talk her, pat her head, and read her books.  We did notice some hints of jealousy, especially around Mums.  One of the nights she was there, Lane kept begging to play a game and mom said "I think Evin is about to leave soon, so we can play as soon as she's gone."  Before mom even had time to finish her sentence, Lane enthusiastically said "Bye, Evin!!!"  Haha!


On Tuesday we headed back to Austin to gear up for our Thanksgiving travels!  This is the face of a sad little boy leaving his Grandmothers!!  He almost always does this when we leave.  So so sad!





 The drive took us almost 5 hours to get home!!!  The combination of being the week of a holiday and me arriving in Austin during rush hour wasn't a good one, but Lane was so good the whole way home.  I rewarded him with Chick Fil A for dinner and he got a big smile on his face when he got to see Daddy that night.  While we were at Chick Fil A, they gave Lane a thankful turkey craft to take home, so Kyle helped him make it after we ate.

 


The finished turkey!  He started off strong with his answers and began to stretch a little when he kept needing answers to fill the feathers!  (Utility truck and my body?!?!)


Next up...our Thanksgiving celebrations!