Thanksgiving 2013

What a great turkey day this was! My parents were in town for the holiday, so not only did we get to have Thanksgiving dinner with them, but they were also available to provide two extra sets of hands to help us with projects, entertaining the kids, etc. While I don't feel like our to-do list is getting smaller, I DO know that we accomplished some of the bigger tasks over the last several days. I want everything to be done right now, but frankly, that's just not realistic! Gotta keep those expectations in check... One thing at a time has become my new motto!

Our dinner on Thursday was wonderful - instead of preparing everything from scratch, we were able to utilize Byerly's meal service, and simply had to heat things up. And it was gooood! Really good. Surprisingly good. I would definitely recommend it! Plus, it then gave us more time to spend as a family...eating, drinking, playing, and enjoying each other's company.

We started off the meal, at Ava's request, by telling everyone what we were thankful for. I think it's great that a 5 year old felt that was important - and it was good to take a few minutes to publicly acknowledge all of the blessings and joys we have in our lives!

Enjoying her new "I Spy" puzzle

Scott made his very first pumpkin pie...and it was good (says the people who like pumpkin pie...I do not, so I didn't partake in the pie eating part. But it smelled good!)

Grandma Karen and Grandpa Doug with Garrett

Busy!

Love this family!

Getting the kids under control!

Ove Glove Love!

Beer buddies

The rest of the weekend flew by (no Black Friday shopping for us!) and my parents drove back to Colorado on Saturday. We spent the remaining time organizing (my car is in the garage - yah!), hanging curtains, and starting to decorate for Christmas. It's interesting how much longer things take with two kids...Ava was so excited to decorate the tree, but Garrett was demanding a lot of attention from the ornament-prep guy (Scott.) So, half the tree is decorated, and we'll tackle the rest in the next few days.

Garrett had his one month check up today, and he's doing great! He's up to 8lbs, 14.6oz, 21.5" long, and looking good! His eyes are a pretty blue-gray color so it'll be interesting to see what color they end up as. The doctor did say he did not see any hint of brown in them, so they might end up staying more on the blue-ish side. He's happy and healthy, and that's the most important thing!

Comments

Grandparents, Birthdays, and Sprinklers, Oh MY!

What a whirlwind week we've had...I was trying to get everything wrapped up at work so I could take my 5-day "furlough" from last Wednesday, through tomorrow. Wednesday was my first day at home, so Ava and I had a ton of "fun" getting everything ready for the upcoming activities. I did have a wonderful massage, so that started my vacation off very well... Gramma Karen and Grampa Doug drove in from KC on Wednesday afternoon. We had a great evening catching up, and enjoying the nice weather (until the downpour that happened right as they were leaving our house!) On Thursday, Scott, Dad, Mom, and I drove down to Cannon Falls and Rochester to check out the areas for potential future homes/land for us. At some point, we'd like to move south of the Cities. Ava was a very good little girl, especially considering that she was stuck in a car for most of her FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! We went to Applebee's for lunch, and the wait staff came out singing to someone else...I...

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write. As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated. He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play. Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down. I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

The Early Bird

I realized that I skipped a chunk of pictures that I wanted to share...things were super busy last weekend, so we'll blame my lapse of memory on that! The focus was so much on Ava's party, that I neglected to share the family birthday photos, too. Two weeks ago, we invited all of the grandparents over for a wonderful dinner of smoked prime rib (and other yummy sides), and then topped it off with a raspberry mojito birthday cake for the newly minted eight-year-old. We like to experiment with different birthday cake flavors for her birthday, and this one was MUCH better than the watermelon cake from last year (gross-gross-gross!) Saying cheese with Grandpa Doug! G and I took a break from the present pics to take some selfies ;) Even his cars made an appearance! Super excited to be receiving an aquascope! And no birthday is complete without something from American Girl - this time is was a pizza party set - awesome! We have also...

Go, Go, Goers!

Search This Blog