I am thankful...

for so many reasons this year. Here's a glimpse...

For a Boom Pa who cooked a delicious turkey!

For cousins that love each other dearly...

For my sweet husband who I love more and more each day...

For Gigi who fed baby sister so that I could finish cooking...

For Memaw who held baby sister so that I could get the food on the table...

For the three little ones being so good all through lunch...(they are raising their hands in response to my question of "who likes turkey?!" So cute!)

For being able to spend Thanksgiving with lots of family...

For my little guy finally feeling better! This truly was the best Thanksgiving blessing this year. He felt so good, he went to the garage and came back with this paint roller!

We are all so thankful for a Memaw and Poppy who adore these three munchkins...

and for Uncle Andrew who is always up for entertaining the oldest rascal.

We are thankful for Gigi and Boom, too. This has been a hard week and I have needed a lot of support. I could not have asked for two better parents. I love you both so very much.

And finally, we are thankful for this sweet little girl and her good health. She's standing on her own now...won't be long before she's off and running! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and was able to share it with those that you love.

Finally!

It took 7 1/2 months to the day, but our little girl has finally slept through the night! She went to bed at 8:45 last night and didn't wake up until 6:00 this morning. Hallelujah! Although it's probably more a result of her ears feeling much better, she picked a great time accomplish this task. You see, her big brother has been sick as a dog all weekend. The poor little guy has run fever almost nonstop for the past two days. We have been to two different urgent care clinics this weekend because his fever was so high. Neither of those doctors have been able to figure out what's wrong--both the strep and flu tests came back negative. Hopefully his pediatrician will have some answers for us this morning.

So big!

Little sister stood up unassisted this weekend!

Doesn't she look like such a big girl?

"Hey Mom, I'm just hanging here with Jackson!"

Thanksgiving Party

This past Friday sister and I went to Jackson's school for his Thanksgiving party. I was in charge of bringing the dessert and drinks. I got the really yummy sugar cookies with the sprinkles on top and thought all the kids would love them. They are usually a big hit in our house...that is, unless they are the normal looking white sugar cookie color. If say, by chance, they are the brown sugar cookie color, my child will completely denouce them.

He took one look at them and said, "these are the wrong color, mom." He then proceeded to lick the icing off the top, being ever so careful as to not inadvertently get any of that "brown" cookie in his mouth. Why the kid has such disdain for chocolate is completely beyond me!

After snack time we were ready for the game. Just check out how much taller this kid is than the little boy standing in front of him. A dad at the party actually told me that Jackson looked like he was 5. Can't say I disagree.

I'm pretty sure his height was a disadvantage for the "Pin the Hat on the Turkey" game! All the other kids got it much closer:)

While the big kids ate and played, Miss Lila had fun, too. All of the girls were so sweet to her. At one point I heard some singing and looked up to see these three girls singing to her. She loved all of the attention.

Here she is bonding with her brother's "favorite girlfriend" of the week. I'm pretty sure Lila approves!

Even though I knew it would be futile, I tried to get a group shot.

It was really comical trying to get them all to sit still. A true group of wild indians. Thank you, God, for their sweet and patient teacher. She is a saint!

Out and about

So it's almost Thanksgiving and the weather is still gorgeous here! We just had to take advantage of this beautiful sunny day and spend some time outside.

Lila got all ready to roll and even decided to sport her boots today. I love, love, love them!

We strolled around Firewheel Mall with Memaw. Lucky for Lila, Memaw even let her push the stroller for a bit. Such a big helper.

After eating a cookie at the tollhouse, Jackson said it was time to go throw some money in the fountain. He showed his sister just how it was done--he made 3 wishes and then tossed in the coins. I'm still not sure gets the "make a wish!" part, but he plays along so that he can throw the coins.

After coin tossing, big brother was off to the races. He jetted across the grass and into the play area. Then proceeded to scale this aparatus, that I think is supposed to be a sailboat from the future. Very modern. I'm just glad he got up and down safely:)

We thought Lila could check out the playground, too, so in she went to see the train. What a fun afternoon. Can't wait to do it again soon. As far as I'm concerned the cold weather can stay gone. We are warm weather peeps, for sure.

A kiss

Last night while we were eating dinner Jackson said, "mom, can I give you a kiss?" Then he leaned over and gave me the sweetest kiss on my cheek. I told him it was the best part of my day, and it was.

No matter how crazy life gets, it's so nice to stop every once in a while and enjoy the simple things...like a kiss from your first born. It really does make my heart smile. I love that kid so much.

The Ranch

Saturday we took our first family vacation and went down to Blanco to visit our good friends, The Sierras. Sam and Lila spent the first morning getting reaquainted. Right after we got there friday night, Sam started giving Lila lots of sweet kisses. I think his daddy had a talk with him that night, though, because the next morning he played it much cooler!

After a delicious breakfast it was time to begin our fun-filled day.

The little boys played some baseball and soccer...

and then talked the big boys into taking them for a ride around the ranch.

They ended up down at this pond...

where Jackson did a lot more pretend fishing than real! Us girls met them for a picnic lunch on the dock and then the dads went out in the boat to try and catch some fish.

Right as we were driving back to the house Jared caught his first fish! That's his story, anyway. They said they were hollering at us and waving their arms but we didn't see them. I so wish Jackson could have seen Jared holding a big ol' fish.

Back at the ranch we enjoyed lots of other fun things...like this big swing.

Of course, the weekend would not be complete without some good old fashioned cleaning, so Jackson promptly found a mop and went to work.

After he was done with his daily chores, we went on an animal finding escapade. Stephanie printed out two pages of animals for Jackson to look for as we drove around the ranch. He got to mark them off with his blue crayon whenever he found one. This miniature horse was a favorite. He got out to pet it and then held his crayon high in the air and told the horse, "you can't get it!"

Yes, our son taunted a small horse!

Halfway through our scouting expedition we found the ducks. Sam showed Jackson exactly how to feed them. Those ducks sure do love some corn.

The boys hiked down to the river and checked out the fish and then it was time to head on back.

Before dinner Jackson got to go on a little ride in Sam's blue car. Who knew the country had rides, too?

After the ride it was time to feed the deer. The kids put out the feed and then waited on the screen porch to see them come eat it.

There were so many of them!

The next morning we went out to find the two Longhorns that eluded us the day before. Lila enjoyed her ride in the truck, sans carseat.

And alas, we found them! I must admit, I was a little scared to take this picture!

Jackson and Jared weren't though, and walked right up to Bert the Longhorn.

We took a few family pictures. Jackson would smile for a few and then decided it was silly face time:) Thanks again, Sierras for a fabulous time. We had a great weekend!

7 whole months!

Happy 7 months to the sweetest blue eyed girl I know!

We love you, Lila Grace! Stop growing up so fast, though. I'm having a hard time keeping up with your baby book!

Dada

Lila loves her Daddy! So much, in fact, that her first word was Dada.

Yes, even though her Mama cares for her night and day, she decided to show her daddo some major love.
Maybe it was all that sweet sugar her gave her while they were hanging out this weekend.

Gotta love a little one in her jeans!

"Oh dad, stop it!"