Holiday Smiles

(Thanksgiving Day 2016)

We had a great Thanksgiving week and made lots of fun memories.  Kevin had some time off for Fall Break and we got to enjoy doing fun things at home as well as taking a road trip to spend the holidays with our families.  The vast majority of our family and some friends are in Southern Indiana so we try hard to see lots of people when we're in town.  I planned things with friends, family and not much down time.  

We had lots of moments that made us smile and only a few tear inducing ones.  I'd say that's a pretty good scenario for traveling with a family of four for the holidays.  The kids slept pretty well considering they had to take naps on the go, didn't sleep in their own beds and went to bed later than we're used to most nights.  They loved playing with their cousins, seeing their grandparents and doing some fun things out of our usual routine.

Smiles:

We had some friends over to watch football, eat chili and visit.  The kids had fun together and I loved making a Build Your Own Chili Bowl Station.  It was so yummy!

Olive has been asking to help feed Fletcher.  I let her and they were both THRILLED.  He was smiling so big that he could hardly eat and she was talking so sweetly to him.

I mentioned that Fletcher is crawling... well he is crawling and leaving a path of destruction wherever he goes.  We left this closed bag of pretzels on the floor and came in just a few minutes later to check on a VERY quiet baby.  He was so pleased with himself.  I just had to laugh and vacuum up the salt trail.

Now he's pulling up on all the things... cue more baby proofing necessary and rescuing a stuck baby every few minutes.  He's strong, but not super stable so he's a danger to himself.

I think he's dying to keep up with his big sis.

We enjoyed preparing for Thanksgiving and worked on some Thanksgiving place cards together.  I write out the names and Olive did some crayon art work on them.

We headed down to see our family at the end of the week.  After so many years of driving 7-9 hours or flying across the country to visit. a TWO HOUR drive seems like nothing.  The kids both napped and we had a little car date on the drive down.  

My mom made pumpkin waffles for Thanksgiving.  Yum! 

We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  Fletcher liked the toys and hanging out with Papaw more than the parade :)

Olive LOVED spotting all of her favorite characters in the parade.  She cracked me up when she started trying to high kick like the Rockettes :)

I made two pies for Thanksgiving and they both turned out really pretty.  I visited with a friend while I made pies and it was a super fun way to prepare for turkey day.  My MIL taught me how to make beautiful pie crusts and my mom was great to provide all of the ingredients.  All I had to do was show up and bake.

Fletcher's First Thanksgiving was a hit!!  He's such a handsome little butterball :)  I loved him in this cute onesie from Hobby Lobby.  I picked up some baby skinny jeans for him to wear this day, but they were far too small for him.  Chunky baby problems :)

We had lunch plans with Kevin's family and the kids are super lucky to have two sets of GREAT GRANDPARENTS.  They go out of their way to love on the kids.  My kids both loved this giant turkey.  Nana is hanging on to Fletcher while I snapped his picture.  He looks like he's ready to play some Thanksgiving Day football :)

Olive kept hugging this big turkey :)

 My favorite Thanksgiving meal is always my mom's feast.  I grew up eating this and when I think of Thanksgiving I think of this delicious spread.  All the girls pitched in to help with different things and I'm hoping it made my mom's job a little bit easier.  The food was delicious as always.  We had a great time with my family watching football, chatting and all the 9 grandkids playing.

Fletcher got to eat rolls at every stop we made.  He was thrilled :)

I also think I have a bit of baby brain because I really had forgotten just how BUSY this crawling phase of life is.  We had to watch him like a hawk and he went nonstop all weekend.  He was pretty proud to show off his new skills :)

I love making holiday memories with my family.  The holiday wasn't perfect, but it was pretty wonderful :)  Now bring on all the Christmas things.