Thanksgiving 2013

For the past several years we have been having our Thanksgiving at my mom's house with her sister and brother's family.

A very full plate but of course he didn't eat it all.  His eyes are bigger than his stomach.

I was to bring dessert - which is my favorite thing to make.  Of course I can't just make something I have always made - I have to try something new.  I decided to make a chocolate pie, a pumpkin dessert and pecan pie bars.

Well, 1 out of 3 I guess wasn't too bad.  The chocolate had a weird taste to it and my Uncle Chris who is a chef tasted it and said I cooked the chocolate too long.  I learned a valuable lesson.  The pecan pie bars weren't that great but the pumpkin dessert turned out fine.  Needless to say I have deleted a pin or 2 off pinterest.

My dad's 70th birthday happened to fall on Thanksgiving this year so I felt like we should have a little surprise get together that evening.  I invited a few of his friends but some had family still in town and couldn't make it.  So if 3 desserts for Thanksgiving wasn't enough I made a couple more for his party that night.

I went with a Duck Dynasty theme - nothing too fancy.

He was actually very surprised.

Paul and Lynnda Cook - very good friends of our family.

I made a chocolate pecan pie for my dad's birthday dessert. It was ok but definitely on the rich side.

Cards by Trevor and Brody.

LeLe and Trevor. They love their LeLe.

A party isn't complete without PoPo.

When we were in Myrtle Beach this past summer, one of the restaurants had these key lime mints that dad loved. So of course I found them via google and bought him a huge bag.

It's hard to believe my daddy is 70. He does so much for us and is so willing to help anyone out whenever they need him. We had a great Thanksgiving reflecting on what all we had to be thankful for

- first and most importantly my personal relationship with a Loving Savior. I have no idea what I would do without Him

- my loving husband who loves me unconditionally

- my wonderful boys. As crazy as they are I wouldn't change it. 

- my health

- the opportunity to stay home with my boys. As much as I didn't think I would ever be a stay at home mom. It's crazy how God had other plans for me and isn't it crazy how it all works out.

Closing out November

As is our annual tradition, mom and I left at 5AM for a full day of shopping the day after Thanksgiving.  We refuse to shop on Thanksgiving with the mad house of people.  Ever since stores have opened on Thanksgiving, our shopping at 6AM the day after has been less crowded and is so nice.  We finished most of our shopping and arrived back home that evening around 9:30 with a car full.

The next Saturday we took off to get our tree before we left for Disney the next day.  I wanted to get it up before we left so it would all be done – so glad we did.

This is always a big deal picking out our tree – it has to be the perfect tree.

They thought these skinny ones were funny - just haven't been cut open.

We found our tree.

Now getting it in the house and up sure was fun.  It might have been a little tall, but it was a perfect tree.

Time to decorate.  The boys were so excited to help.  Thankfully nothing was broken.

The start of December brought out Dash our elf.  The boys were very excited to have their elf back.  No telling what all Dash will get into this year.

JU vs UF

One evening Jason was on his way home and called and said JU (my alma mater) was playing basketball against UF that night and Adam and Stephanie were going and wanted to know if we wanted to as well.  Of course - it's my alma mater.

Brody was so excited to watch the Gators play and of course got a big kick out of me wearing my JU colors.  We were a divided family that night.

They loved it and were cheering on their Gators as I cheered on my Dolphins.

Trevor loved it so much that he passed out for over half of the game.  He woke up as we were leaving and said "that was awesome".

The game didn't end so well for us Dolphin fans, but we had fun and of course I had to hear about it all the way home from Brody.

School Fun

Thursday, November 21 was Thanksgiving lunch at Brody's school.  I'm not a huge fan of the school food - never was and Brody doesn't really eat it either.  I think he would but I felt like I could make his lunch cheaper!!  Anyway, we did decide to eat the Thanksgiving lunch and it wasn't too bad - except for the green beans which were not Mr. Danny's!!  

All parents were invited and the cafeteria was full that day.  Mrs. Ray decorates her 2 tables for us and it was very sweet.

That evening, my mom and I went with the boys to the school to the BINGO night - Connect 4 Reading.  Brody had a blast last year and came home with lots of books so we didn't want to miss out this year and I thought Trevor might enjoy it this time.

Trevor was the first of us who had BINGO and he was so excited.  He went to the back with Mrs. Proffit and the librarian (who happened to be one of his Sunday School teachers a couple of years ago) helped him pick out a book.

His first book.

Full concentration.

Finally - he won.  I was definitely the unlucky one out of the four of us.  Whenever mom or I would win we would give our ticket to one of the boys and they would go back and get a book.  Well mom's first win Brody was so sweet and came back with a book that he thought mom would like.  Needless to say we told him he could pick out a book he would like and not have to worry about one for us.

However, Trevor still came home with about 7 books.

Brody came home with about 10 or so.  It was definitely a very productive night.  We paid $4 for pizza and came home with about 18 books.  Well worth it.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This year was the first year I decorated early for Christmas.  Since we were planning to go out of town the first week of December I wanted to have as much decorated before hand as possible.  Of course the boys were more than thrilled except Brody kept saying we were forgetting about Thanksgiving.  I assured him we were not forgetting Thanksgiving at all.

They were so excited to see all of their ornaments again.  I constantly told them it wasn't a race - but for boys it always seems like a race.

Now on to their manger scene.  This is definitely one of their highlights as they take turns opening up each piece and seeing which one they opened.

We are now in the Christmas spirit - but we haven't even celebrated Thanksgiving.

Random cell phone pics from November

Of course I don't always have my big camera with me so my cell phone has to do sometimes.  A little bit of what was going on in November.

Brody's Thanksgiving Turkey project for school

Stephanie and I had a yard sale a couple of Friday's in November and here is the empty attic that I had hoped it would continue to look like this.  We did pretty good but there will be some bins returning to the attic.

This is what happens when we let our 4 year old dress himself.  Gotta love him.

We were quite busy in November and this is how a few nights ended.

Brody received his report card back in October but with Jason's work schedule we could never get a time to take him out.  Finally we made it to his restaurant of choice - Outback.  Yummy. 

I tried my first batch of homemade laundry detergent.  It was very easy to make and so far I have been very happy with it and even better it is extremely cheap!!

A few weeks ago, Trevor and I ventured out to Jax Golf and Country Club to purchase a new to us bookcase for his room that I will need to paint.  Well afterwards, he wanted to go to a park and I really didn't know too many parks close by.  Jason mentioned there might be one in the Country Club so we drove around and found the BEST park ever.  We were the only ones there and Trevor had a blast.

Busy November leads into an even crazier December.