Thanksgiving Week!

We have had a great week celebrating all we have to be thankful for. The kids and I have been off all week from school and we have had so much fun! I am definitely thankful for a week off from work.

Last weekend we spent Saturday afternoon at the Gaylord with my in-laws. We had a fun lunch and a great time taking in all the fun decorations and activities there. We saw Mrs. Claus and a reindeer. We also saw Santa, but neither of the kids were ready to sit and have their picture made. The kids also had a blast with the balloon guy. He made Nathan this cool Santa had and he made Abby a flower and ladybug bracelet. We also tried to take some pics for a Christmas card, but were unsuccessful. After this all afternoon activity we went to Saturday night church and then out to dinner with our Georgia friends who were on their way to Midland. Nathan and Abby had so much fun with Ansley and Char-Char!

Tuesday we had a playdate with some friends from school at the park and McDonalds. It was a warm 85 degrees, but very windy this day. Wednesday we went to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium with Mrs. Shelley, Marshall, and Drew. Perfect movie day since the was down into the 50's. We have had the craziest weather week! On a side note about movies, Clay and I watch Evan Almighty one night and it is good. The movie itself is just alright, but the message is awesome! We can change the world with our random acts of kindness.

Thanksgiving day started out early and cold! I headed down to run the 10k at the Fort Worth Turkey Trot. It was about 38 degrees when I left the house and only about 40 when I got home. It was a cold morning, but a great day for a run! Then we had dinner with my other set of in-law's here in Fort Worth. Only about half the family was here, but we still had a very good sized gathering. The craziest thing about this afternoon was that it snowed!!!

Nathan made a "snow catcher" out of some foil.

That's one cold little girl!
Even the big kids had fun in the snow.
Cousin Brady, Aunt Shelby, & Cousin Bryan


One of my favorite days of the break was Friday. Clay had to work and the kids and I stayed home ALL day. We made a fort, played, & I got the laundry done and put away! Then we went to the Shake's house to have some yummy taco soup and play games. It was a great day!

Our kids today at church with the Shake boys.

Another unsuccessful attempt today after church to take some Christmas card pics. Why must this be so difficult!?!

Baby Abby

I started working on this post about our sweet girl a few weeks ago and have just now gotten back to it. She has changed already since I started the post. She is definitely not a baby anymore. Since her birthday in August, she has developed quite a little personality. Her vocabulary is just exploding at what seems like an hourly rate. She is always surprising us and making us laugh with what she says. We used to wonder if she would ever talk!

She enjoys eating cereal out of a pink bowl anytime after she wakes up or any other time of day. When we ask her what she wants for Christmas she says, "Pink!"

She has also gotten into Dora lately. I say Dora, but she really LOVES Boots! She calls it Da Boots. "I watch Da Boots" is what she usually says after she asks for her cereal.

She is loving school after she gets into her classroom. She hates for me to drop her off at the teacher's kids care before school, but once she's in her room she does good. She is always talking about Ms. Dana, Ms. Angie, and her friends. Especially Sofia or Fia as Abby says. She also loves to go to Mommy's room at school. Every once in a while her teachers will bring her down for a little peek at Mommy during the day. Her teachers have been such a blessing because they just love and love on her.

She is such a sweet girl, but she also has a little naughty side. She is really testing the waters right now with us. Just trying to see what will happen. She also likes to test it with Nathan. One of her favorite things to do is turn the TV off on him while he's watching. He doesn't like it at all!

We are having so much fun watching her change. She may not be a baby anymore, but she'll always be our baby.

Here she is working on her prayers and showing us how she has a mind of her own!

Ready to go hunting with Daddy!

She loves her Na-Na!

Jack-O-Lantern

I forgot to include pics of our pumpkin with the Halloween post. Nathan designs our pumpkin every year and then Clay carves it. This year he had it in his head that the pumpkin would have glasses! Clay did a great job with those glasses.

Halloween!

For Halloween we celebrated at our church's Fall Fest. It was fun, but very busy. We stayed there for about an hour and then came home. Nathan and Clay went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and Abby went to bed. Abby decided it would be fun to be in the group of Naughty No-nappers at school that day. So she was practically walking in her sleep the whole evening. We had a great time that night anyway with our soccer player and little black kitty cat.

Walking in her sleep!

Poor Abby

Abby is better! She's not 100% yet, but better. She finally made it through all day yesterday without throwing up. So she and I are staying home today to let her eat and rest and get her strength back. 3 days of throwing up when you only weigh about 24 pounds is rough!!! She and I did have to miss Marcia's shower, but Nathan went and represented us. From what I hear he was quite the mingler/welcomer/helper at the shower. As bad as our weekend was Nathan was precious. He had a great time playing with Parsh, Maf, & Dee while I was holding Abby. I am so blessed that he is such an easy going kid who just rolls with whatever comes up.

I am not completely psycho that I make her wear bows even when she is sick. She asked to have her hair done on Sunday morning when she saw me getting Nathan ready for church. I thought that might mean she was getting better, but I was WRONG!

Don't think we condone doing shots at the age of 2. This little glass was the perfect size for her tiny sips of Gatorade that she was able to keep down.

Houston!

Well, I would love to have gotten to posting the Halloween pics before we left town on Thursday after school, but it just didn't happen. I would also love to say that we are in Houston for Marcia's baby shower for our sweet baby Mallory having a great time, but it's not happening either. Our sweet baby Abby has the stomach bug!!! This is her first time to experience the true stomach virus and it is so sad. She has this horrible expression on her face, like why is this happening to me? She started throwing up last night at the mall. Which was so much fun. I think she's on the tail end of it, but please pray that she recovers quickly. We want to go to the shower for baby Mallory tomorrow! Hopefully my next post will have some fun pics and Abby will be all better.

Crazy Nathan!

Nathan has totally settled into the kindergarten routine at school. He has been very busy with birthday parties, playdates, field trips, and traveling around with us. He is doing a great job in school and we are so proud of all he is learning. It's amazing how much they are soaking in at this age. He continues to be so sweet and considerate of others. He really loves his baby sister and I think he's pretty excited about his cousing Mallory coming, too. He has commented several times when we've been out shopping that we should get something for Mallory. These are some of the high points of the last 2 months in Nathan's life.

Riding in the new go-cart with dad.

Nathan loves red velvet cake or velvet cake, as he calls it. I made him one a few weeks ago and he was so excited about his heart-shaped velvet cake.

Riding in the ACU homecoming parade with Grandad.
Jammin' out in the car on the way home from Abilene during the Johnson family dance party. We're not sure where these moves came from, but they are awesome!