So Thankful

Every year we switch Texas and Indiana for Thanksgiving and this year it was Indiana's turn.  We ended up leaving after school on Tuesday and going halfway to Indianapolis and dropped Petey off at Mr. and Mrs. Coonfield's (Rob and Aimee, newlyweds, cutest couple) and we stayed at a hotel.  It was slow going on the way up because it started snowing on us in Kentucky and traffic was slow.  Adam worked from home on Tuesday so he could pack things up and just swing by school, pick us up, and we could be on our way.  But it turns out that he didn't have the bags packed in the luggage carrier and we had to swing by the house to get Petey's leash so our plan didn't end up being that smooth.  We finally ended up at the hotel around 11.  The girls had fallen asleep in the car, but Kyle stayed wide awake.  As a matter of fact, he had so much energy that when we got there and got up to our room, he was climbing and swinging from the hotel luggage cart and we had to wrestle him down to bed.  He was looking for a party, I guess.  

 But we finally made it and the kids were so excited because it was snowing and there was plenty of snow on the ground.  

 Emilie loves when Gaga shows her how the crow bites and gets the top of her head.

 Kyle has really come around these past couple of weeks.  Steve dropped by last night to say hello and commented on how Kyle looks like a boy now, not a baby.  He's talking a lot more.  Loves to say "Beas" for please, "Tantu" for thank you, "Bobby" for Aubrie, and can say "cookie" plain as day.  He's quick too.  He grabbed a potato out of the pantry while I was on the phone and I really had to truck it to catch up to him before he threw it like a ball.

 It is always fun to stay at Grandma's house.  Especially when she gets us new pajamas.

 Nick had a birthday while we were there, so we got him an ice cream cake to celebrate.  He's not a huge cake fan...which I love.  Give me a pie!

 Kyle waiting patiently for a bite of ice cream cake.  This high chair was once Granny's high chair.  

 Granny has so many cool things at her house.  She has these wooden butter stamps.  I don't know how to describe it, except when you're at a breakfast place and they bring out a pad of individually wrapped butter...well, this stamp makes individual pieces of butter and stamps out a design on them.  Kyle got a hold of those off her shelf and thought he had something he wasn't supposed to have and we let him run around with them.  He also loved Gaga's doorstop that was a duck.  He carried that heavy thing around like it was a stuffed animal.  One of my favorite things to look at in her china cabinets is this nativity (above) that she keeps up year round.  I just love the colors.  She also has a player piano.  You put in a scroll and the piano plays a song for you.  So we just had to play a couple and have a dance party.  

Aubrie is excited about cranberry fluff.

 Thanksgiving dinner was delicious.  Amanda was a big help.  We ate at Granny's house for lunch and then that evening we went to Grandma and Grandpa Mark's house for a family dinner as well.  It's always good to see the whole family.

The girls showing off their turkeys that they made

 My mom has these two pinecone turkeys that my brother and I made when we were little and pulls them out around thanksgiving.  I wanted to make something similar that we can keep forever and that could also serve as a name card for the table.  So the whole family made these turkeys for Thanksgiving.  The girls enjoyed stringing the beads and cutting out hats.  Aubrie did a majority of the cutting and I ran the glue gun.  

 One of my favorite things about being in Bremen for Thanksgiving, is that we can go see Santa that is one block from Adam's house.  They have this little house right by the square and there is never a line.  You can just pop in and see Santa and say hello!

Aubrie told him that she wants a princess pool floaty and Emilie wants Princess Sophia figurines.  Kyle didn't say much but by the looks, maybe he wants longer shirts to keep his large tummy warm...

 We had the tree up before we left for Thanksgiving so all we had to do was hang the ornaments and get out the other decorations when we got back.  It took a whole week to get things under control and feel like we were rested and caught up.  The eight hour trip home seemed to have taken forever and the kids were really antsy.  The stretch of road from the KY border to the outskirts of Nashville rivals the horrible stretch from Memphis to Little Rock.  Just horrible and heavy stop and go traffic.  It's always good to be home!  We have a lot to be thankful about and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The girls wanted to help me send out Christmas cards this year, so I let them. 

Christmas card central

 Therefore, here are a few disclaimers:

1.  If it looks like a 3 year old did them, it is because she did.  You will find stamps that are upside down on your envelopes and stickers everywhere.  You will notice that some of your reindeer, snowman, and santa stickers have been decapitated because Emilie was in such a hurry.

2.  Your envelopes have been licked.  A LOT.  At first I had Aubrie in charge of stamps and envelope licking, but pretty soon her "tongue is spicy!" so I had to start doing the licking.  Then I looked over and realized that after Emilie applied stickers to the back of the envelope, she was licking the envelope again.  I don't know....

My workers and our finished pile

 3.  Some of you may have Aubrie's signature.  Emilie quit the assembly line quickly on day 1 (yes folks, this ended up being a 3 day process) and Aubrie had to pick up on the sticker application which then led to writing her name on envelopes.  (Emilie re-joined us day 2 and 3) Coach Byrd's envelope has BELMONT written on the back because she was convinced that Bruiser, the school mascot, would see it.  And she knows how to spell Belmont because of the cheer.

4.  Some of your cards may have been enclosed with lots of kisses.  Aubrie's school friends got LOTS of kisses.  Some family members got kisses.

5.  Some of your cards MAY NOT get to you!  First of all, the cute girly handwritting gene skipped me altogether.  Second, I had Emilie on the right, not sitting on her bottom (WHY CAN'T THEY SIT ON THEIR BOTTOMS???!) and she kept bumping my elbow while I was writing.  She would lean over and whisper, "How many stickers for this one?" and I would reply "Two." (Like, EVERY TIME) and she was whisper, "OK!" and then yell to Aubrie who was just sitting right there to the left of me, "THIS ONE GETS TWO STICKERS, OK AUBRIE?!?!"

6.  Kyle took advantage of me being busy and did this...

 7.  And finally, I really did enjoy doing this with the girls.  Yes, it was crazy.  Yes, I could have done it in one day while they were napping.  But they love giving and getting mail.  And they would ask me who each one was for and it was fun telling the girls all about the people that we love so dearly and are sending a card to.  I would describe the people, or remind them about how they knew them and it brought back a bunch of warm fuzzies.

I hope you all are enjoying this busy season and spending it with the people that give you the warm fuzzies.  I love you all!

disclaimer:  If you don't get a card from me, it's because I don't have your address, you moved, you aren't patient, or maybe I don't even know you and you read my blog!  PM me if you are itching for a card and we will send one your way!  You're not missing much, just a picture of the fam.

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