Thanksgiving '09

Henry and I spent our Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's side of the family. We always spend Christmas Eve with them, and since we won't be there this year, it was important to me to have some time with these special people.

My dad's cousins live out in East Texas on this old farm. It was such a beautiful day. Too bad Henry didn't feel like expressing that joy in this picture.

Cousins

Henry loved inspecting their tractor


And he actually warmed up to their dog

MiMi and Papa with their grandsons

Sisters

We had such a yummy feast! All the recipes that I've grown up loving were represented.

The "kids" table

(I failed to get a pic of the main table. I wished I had taken pics of the whole house. It's such a neat place- built pre Civil War... I actually found it on Wikipedia!)

Family taking a rest from eating before going on a hike

Henry shoving a brownie in mouth while getting some sugar from his great grandmother.

It was a wonderful day... wished we could have stayed longer, but I was glad we were able to get on the road in time to make it to Tom's parents for Thanksgiving dinner. (a pregnant girl's dream come true- 2 Thanksgiving meals!)

I have no pics from the Louis Thanksgiving... I could barely keep my eyes open after eating 2 turkey meals and driving 2 1/2 hours in 1 day.

We have so much to be thankful for and thank God for all of our many, many blessings!

Last Shreveport Hoorah

I wanted to spend a little time in Shreveport (with nothing planned to do) before Baby Margaret Gray comes. So I decided to pack Henry up and go a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

Tuesday night, we went over to my grandmother's for dinner. Henry got to spend some quality time with his cousin, Sarah Grace. (sister, Madeline, was already with her other grandmother in South Louisiana)

The next morning, I commissioned my mom to trim Henry's hair.
It was not a pleasant time for any of us. For safety reasons, I had to hold down his hands instead of documenting the experience.



Henry had lots of fun playing with MiMi's toys.

(that's a doll in the background, not a real person- yes, it is very scary)

Wednesday night, Sarah, Leif, and little Liam arrived.

Papa with his 2 grandsons

Sarah and Liam, playing while I cooked pumpkin pies.

We had a relaxing time hanging out with my family.

It was weird to think that's the last time I'll go to the Port with only 1 child.... Heaven knows I won't be returning without Tom for a long time.

Trish's Night!

My good friend from back home, Trisha, had a shower/ bachelorette party here in Dallas.

Leah, Trisha's maid of honor, who happened to be my MOH, too, threw a great party!

We met at a hotel and showered Trisha with gifts.

Here I am in all my awkward, pregnant glory, with Leah and Trisha- could they be any more beautiful ?!?

Leah made these adorable party favors- a mixed CD and candy for all the guests.

Thank goodness Meg came- wearing jeans, too...every other girl was wearing a fun, little dress.
Meg, a friend from high school, always makes me laugh, and it was good to hang out with her.

We went out to a very nice restaurant and enjoyed some great food and great laughs.

After dinner, the girls returned to the hotel's club.... I went home to my bed ;)

Since I'll be too pregnant to travel to Trisha's wedding, I'm glad that I got to spend this fun time with her.

Daddy's Days Off/ My Birthday

My sweet husband took off 2 days of work to celebrate my birthday.

We started his vacation/ my celebration with a pancake breakfast.

Then it was off to the zoo.

(Tom hadn't been since we were sophomores in college, so it was fun that Henry got to show his daddy one of his favorite places to go)
It was a beautiful day and to make things better- not many people were there.

Henry is making his elephant noise and showing his elephant trunk.

Mommas with their babies

For some unknown reason, instead of eating our lunch at the zoo, we went to a nearby park to eat. We learned that kids really don't want to eat when they are staring at a playground.

Kids really, really don't want to eat after they fall off the playground equipment.

It was so nice to get out enjoy the beautiful weather and my sweet boys!

That evening, Henry got dropped off at PatPat and PawPaw's for a sleepover.

Tom took me out to eat in downtown Fort Worth and took me shopping. We completed our "trip" with a hotel stay.

I can't believe that I am posting this picture of myself, but I was really, REALLY excited about breakfast in bed.

The actual night of my birthday, Tom's parents cooked me a steak dinner.

Tom got me my favorite- a cookie cake.

(whoa, can you tell how much food I ate in the last 24 hours!)

Tom's parents got me this rockin' trophy.... the "Better or Worse Award"... it read "When you said I do, you married us, too."... They had to have a little reminding that it was my birthday ;)
I love my in-laws.

It was a great birthday!

Thelma and Louise

Several weekends ago, Liz and I decided to leave our kiddos with their daddies, and take a road trip back to our home state. It was a very last minute trip, and we are so glad we took advantage of our sweet husbands' offer to keep the boys.

We went shopping, ate out, relaxed... we were foot-loose and fancy-free!

We meant to document the trip better- oops.

We had to stop by our old apartment in which we lived in college.

Good memories....

Sunday night, we went to our friends' performance.

Nate sang (you can sample his sweet voice here), Taylor accompanied on the piano, along with other instrumentalists.

We enjoyed songs by Michael Buble, James Taylor, John Mayer, and the like.

My roommate from junior year, Abby, was there too. So good to see her sweet face!


Liz, Kristen, and Taylor

We headed home after the concert. Liz being in her 1st trimester and me in my 3rd, we were quite the traveling pair!

What a fun time we had!

Friday Night Lights

Last Friday night, we tagged along with the McAdams Family to take Henry to his 1st football game. Rocky's brother is a coach of a small Texas town 6 man football team. This was their 1st playoff game.

Henry and Brinley
Watching the game intently with his dad

I love these kisses

Henry did pretty well sitting and watching the game... but as 9:00 rolled around (1 1/5 hours passed his bedtime) he got pretty restless. A tootsie roll pop helped keep him content.

Sweet Brinley- trying to stay warm

The Penelope Wolverines won!

Leaves, Leaves, and Cookies

A few weekends ago, Tom decided to start tackling the massive amount of leaves that bless our yard each year.

Henry was so intrigued with his dad being on the roof.

He wanted to go up there, too.
(Such a good mom- pictures before safety)




We're convinced that our across the street neighbors blow their leaves in our yard.

"Is this helping, Dad?"

Here is a video of Tom mowing over the leaves for the 2nd time that day. Henry loves to follow his daddy around.




Tom made Henry some cookies as a "thank you" for helping.

(and for Baby Margaret Gray to enjoy, too!)

Canton

Several weeks ago, Amy told me that she was making the trip to Canton to meet up with a friend. I invited myself to go along. I knew I probably wouldn't buy anything, but was willing to drive an hour for....

A FUNNEL CAKE!!

Miss Brinley got this adorable hat

To be honest, Henry was kind of a disaster. I thought he would be fine just riding in the stroller or walking beside us. But he was a little high maintenance- did not enjoy the experience.

I was very surprised when he fell asleep in the stroller.

Unfortunately, he woke up during our 30 min search for the car. Screamed. a lot.

Well, it was a good time with Amy and Brinley.... but probably won't be going back anytime soon.