Thanksgiving, Christmas and Birthdays...OH MY!

"I was thinking that you guys should come for Thanksgiving and we can celebrate Christmas and Mom's 65th birthday!"  That was all I needed to hear.  The thought of being with all my siblings, nieces and nephews (on my side of the family)...I knew we had to be there! It doesn't happen often enough!  It would also be extra special for Mom to have all of her kids and grand kids together for her birthday! How perfect! 

 I am SO thankful for these people!  I love and miss them SO much!!

(Yes, and the ones not in this picture!  They are in the following pictures!)

Check out that Thanksgiving spread!  We are such spoiled people!

This right here...it makes me happy!  I hate that I don't get to do this more often with my family, so I try to soak it all in and enjoy it as much as I can!

 All of the cousins!

 This just makes me happy!

 So... since we were all together, we thought it was the perfect time to exchange Christmas gifts.  This way we could watch everyone open them in person and not have to pay to ship gifts.  It was so fun to do it this way.  Just another thing to be thankful for.

The cousin gift exchange.

 The sibling gift exchange.

 My family opened gifts from Grammy.

 Lukey and Grammy :)

Poor Roxie!  As if it wasn't bad enough that she had a house full of people and chaos, then she had to put on the dreaded reindeer antlers!  Poor thing!

 

Mom had no idea that we were planning to celebrate her birthday!  I think she was pretty surprised when the girls brought over her birthday cupcakes!

 

You have no idea how crazy this was to see!  Mom does NOT like dogs!  However, she bought this bed for Roxie and actually invited her to come sit up there with her.  Crazy!  I think she secretly likes Roxie!

 We went downtown Indianapolis to check out the shop that Rebecca was selling her products in during the Christmas season.  It was a cool little shop!

 The guys!

With All-State auditions fast approaching, Ben couldn't miss any precious practice time, so he brought his trombone on the trip.  Abby didn't want to miss out on any All-District practice time either.

It was fun when they wanted to play for us!  Bring on the Christmas carols!!

Nolan was pretty impressed by the sounds of the instruments and thrilled when Ben offered to let him play his horn.  Maybe another trombone player in the family?

This trip was amazing!  I had the best time visiting, laughing like crazy and just hanging out with my family!  I am so thankful that we were able to make the trip!  Precious memories!

Thankful!

What am I thankful for?

I don't want to undermine the important things like my husband and family, my home, food, God and all the things that we always come up with right off the bat.  But this year, I have something different to be thankful for.

Yes, I love my job as a mom, but that's not what I'm talking about this time.

I am thankful for my new job!

Getting a job wasn't something that I necessarily wanted to do.  It was one of those things that Jon suggested I do.  With Luke in school all day, I understood, but still didn't really want to.  I wanted to still be able to be a mom.  Go to Luke's class parties, be able to help out in his class and go eat lunch with him periodically.  I wanted to be at home and make yummy meals and fun treats.  I didn't want to be gone all day everyday.

The Lord knew what I needed!

He has provided me with a job where I only work two days a week and I only work during the hours that the kids are in school.  If the kids are out of school for any reason, then I am off too!  Not only that, but he put me in a room full of precious little toddlers!  I get to play with, snuggle and love on little ones and then send them home!  (I imagine that's what being a grandma will be like someday!)  This job couldn't be more perfect!

I am thankful for my job and that the Lord knows exactly what He's doing!

Thanksgiving

Not living near any of our families definitely has some disadvantages.  One of which is that it makes getting together for holidays much more difficult.  Yes, it makes the times together that much more fun and special, but it takes a lot more planning.  This past year Jon's side of the family all moved to Louisiana.  Instead of either group traveling so far, we opted to meet halfway in Texarkana, Texas.  It is a little bit unconventional to spend Thanksgiving at a hotel and eat at a restaurant, but that's not what Thanksgiving is about anyway!  It was nice for everyone to be together!

I made some yummy treats to enjoy while hanging out at the hotel.  They were delicious, if I may say so myself.

(I made individual trifles in mason jars.  Death By Chocolate and a pumpkin spice trifle.)

Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without watching the Lions lose some Lions football!

We played lots of games together which meant there was a lot of laughter!

Luke wasn't much into playing games, but he was all about getting to go swimming!

Thanksgiving dinner was served at Cracker Barrel.  The wait was long,

but it was fun to watch the kids play together and just sit out on the porch and enjoy each other and the beautiful day that it was!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my breakfast.  I have a lot of Texan friends that I thought would appreciate this!

Luke loved playing with Toby during our visit!

Look at these two little monkeys!

(Unfortunately, I didn't get any group pictures.)

We had a really great time visiting with all of the Grief's!  I'm so glad we were all able to get together!

What am I thankful for this year?  I am thankful for so much!  I am SO blessed!!  I am thankful to serve a God that loves me no matter what.  I am thankful to have a husband that loves me and takes care of me and our family.  I am thankful for my three healthy, active children. I am thankful that I am able to be a stay at home mom.  I am thankful that my foot is on the road to recovery.  I could go on and on, but let's just say, I AM BLESSED!!

Cookies, Crafts & Laughter

While the cat's away, the mice will play, right?  Well, not really.  But we will have fun!  Jon had to go on a trip for work, so my friend, Heather thought it would be fun to bake cookies.  She needed to make them for Thanksgiving anyway.  So, she drug all of her supplies over to my house and made cookies with Abby and Luke.  (I opted to stay off of my feet and just watch.)

Luke really loved helping, for a little while, anyway.  Abby loved it!

Could these two little bakers be any cuter?!?!

It was a process with MANY steps!

Oh. My. Goodness! 

These have to be the cutest cookies EVER!!

This is what I worked on while Heather and the kids were making cookies.  Isn't he adorable?! My sweet friend, Kasi, gave me the idea and most off the supplies.  I love him!  We are heading to Texas to meet Jon's family for Thanksgiving and I'm pretty sure this little guy is going to go along with us and decorate our hotel room!

We had a super fun day laughing, baking, laughing, crafting, laughing...you get the idea. (:

Thanksgiving Weekend

Back in September, when we were in Indianapolis for Kris and Scott's wedding, I asked their family to come out for Thanksgiving. I was thrilled when I got the text on the way back home that they would be coming! It had been a long time since they had been out to our house and they had never been to our house in Oklahoma! I started the countdown! I couldn't wait!

After talking to Kris about when they would be leaving their house, I figured that they would get here really late. I was so happy when she called and told me they were able to get on the road a little bit early! Hooray for happy surprises!!

Thankfully, Thanksgiving Day was a fairly low key day. It was great to be able to just sit around and hang out with family. We opted for a later dinner time which meant that we didn't have to spend the whole morning in the kitchen. We played, talked, watched the parade, checked out the Black Friday (or Black Thrusday...) sales, watched football, munched on snacks, watched The Brady Bunch...

I had some fun making some festive little place cards for a fun and festive Thanksgiving table. The bottom picture is of the kiddy table. I think it helped the bigger kids not feel so bad about sitting at the "kiddy table".

Turkey success!
I know I had made a turkey breast before, but can't remember if I had ever done the whole bird. I have to say it turned out great! Super moist and delicious!

Time to eat!
I have so much to be thankful for, but this year, on this day, I am SO thankful that I got to spend my Thanksgiving with these special people!

Ben and Alex each requested a turkey leg... (gag!!) Man, I think they really enjoyed them! There were many sounds, jokes, and just plain grossness that went along with those legs! Kris, I know you know what I'm talking about here! I'm sorry, but it was just plain nasty to me! (I am not a fan of bones in my meat!)

Our Thanksgiving feast was amazing!
I got brave and tried to make a pumpkin roll. I love to eat them but have been too intimidated to actually try to make one! After seeing a friend do it and it looked easy, I thought I would give it a try. When I was putting it together on Wednesday night...well...it didn't go so well. I made another one just to try again and have enough for eleven people and it went even worse! My cake didn't want to come out of the pan. Then it didn't want to roll without cracking and the filling oozing out. Let's just say there may have been a tear or two. Despite all of the trouble and stress, the pumpkin rolls turned out super! I will definitely attempt them again! (I would actually love to try some other flavors!)

I am a Black Friday shopper! I love Black Friday! I really wasn't thrilled about the stores opening at midnight (or even earlier). I really don't mind getting up at the crack of dawn and heading out in the cold to get a good deal. I actually look forward to it! With the stores opening at midnight, I wasn't sure if I would even go. Well...after looking at all of the ads, it was hard to resist! Kris and I made our lists and headed out! I had never been shopping with Kris on Black Friday, so I was looking forward to it even more!

I just have to say that I believe that having the stores open at midnight sure brings out A LOT more people! It was, by far, the craziest Black Friday I have ever experienced!

We had a great time and scored some great deals! We got everything on our lists for the day and were happy to take advantage of Walmart's ad matching benefits! Going shopping with my big sister was the best way to start my Christmas shopping!

Since the weather was so great, the guys decided to do a little bit of hiking out at Osage Hills.

While the guys were hiking, we tried and tried to come up with something crafty to do. We finally headed out to Hobby Lobby, but got sidetracked. We ended up going to lunch and then on a tour of Bartlesville. (Since Kris and the girls had never been here before.)

There are a few places you just have to stop on a tour of Bartlesville. The "big train" is one of them! Of course I had my camera with me!

I love it!

While we were at the train, Jon called and said that he and Scott were going to head up to the airport to go for a quick airplane ride. What?! He wasn't going to take the rest of us?!? I asked everyone with me if they wanted to go for an airplane ride to which I heard a resounding "YES!" Sooo...to Independence we all go!

I hadn't been on a ride with Jon in way too long! Isn't that how it goes? I figured if Jon was going to give rides, I wanted to get in on it!

Not only did I want in on it, but Luke wanted to go too! He knows that Daddy works at the airport and that he flies airplanes, but he had never been up in one. This was his lucky day!
YAY!! Luke's first airplane ride!
To say that he loved it would be a complete understatement! The little guy was in love! He couldn't really see anything out the window, but he didn't really care! He was up in an airplane!

This is how Luke felt about getting out of the airplane. He can't wait to go again!

We played a rousing game of Guesstures! Lots of fun! Lots of laughs!
"Underpants!" ha ha ha ha!!!

I bought these jammies for Luke on Black Friday. I still can't get over how stinkin' adorable they are! Could my little Luke be any cuter?!

Scott made some delicious omelets on Saturday morning! YUM!!!


Saturday we headed back to the train to take a few family pictures.

Something like this could be showing up in your mailbox very soon! :)

We "Love the Ville!"

If you are an avid reader of my blog, you know that I believe that no trip to Bartlesville is complete without a trip to Frank & Lola's. Jon and I knew that Kris and Scott would like it as much as we do. We decided that a double date was necessary! I think Frank & Lola's lived up to all of our hype. Kris and Scott really liked it! It was so great to hang out, eat amazingly delicious food and have great conversation. We had the best time! It was a super way to end our weekend together!

Not thrilled to be woke to get on the road...

Kris, Scott, Lex, Kortney, Reilly and Erin, thank you SO, SO much for coming out for Thanksgiving! This weekend lived up to all of my expectations and more! I had such an amazing time spending time with all of you! (We all did!) I wish we could see each other more often, but I think it makes our time that much more special! Thank you for taking the time and spending the money to drive out here. I know that we created memories that will last a very long time!