Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving day started out with shopping... at a hunting store... I know this may not sound like something I would normally do, but hey, when in Texas... :)

They had some sales that Dale wanted to get before all the eating began. Thankfully this wasn't a get there at 5am kind of a sale, it didn't even open until 9am, so that was good.  The kids had so much fun running around and shooting the deer with their toy guns, I almost forgot how much I dislike guns. Almost.

The deer that they were trying to shoot "got them". Silly little boys.

Lullaby was happy once she found these "babies". Anything soft or stuffed is her best friend.

Linnaea, Duncan and Vanessa were still at home sleeping, so they missed out on the fun.  Gavin and the boys were three peas in a pod.  Reindeer mad faces:

Reindeer happy faces:

Reindeer silly faces:

Daredevil Gavin jumping from this pillar. 

On the way back to Dale's house, we saw a guy with a flat tire and the true spirit of Thanksgiving was there. We stopped and Paul and Dale changed his tire for him. It was very sweet, and I am sure that guy and his wife were very thankful.

Thanksgiving was at Dale and Vanessa's friends' house. They were so sweet to let us come too. Dale made the turkey, he deep fried it again and it was AMAZING! Paul was on baby duty.  The kids ran around and played until everything was ready.

Everything tasted delicious, we were very spoiled. The Tingy's even got tiny bottles of sparkling grape juice for the kids. So fun!

Baby Duncan relaxing with his momma. So cute. 

Linnaea was missing for a while and no one knew where she had gone. Dale and Vanessa thought she must be upstairs sleeping, but when I checked I couldn't find her. Then we discovered a locked bathroom door. When we opened it, we found her sleeping on the floor.  Poor thing must have gone in there to use the toilet and fallen asleep. I couldn't help but snap a pic.

The kids all burned off their extra calories jumping on the trampoline and doing tricks. Even Lullaby liked the trampoline, which only put ideas in Paul's head...

Our kids got sleepy around 7 (an hour past their bedtime since we were trying to stay on Georgia time) so we left. I put Lullaby down and came downstairs to watch the boys playing Legos with Paul. They were making up little stories and being SO creative and SO focused. Paul and I sat there watching and listening to them. They are amazing little boys. We are so happy with the way they are turning out.

in Houston

We got into Houston Wednesday night. The kids were pooped, but SO excited to see the cousins and all the new toys! Lullaby got in some good time dolly hoarding, but then crashed for the night.

The boys stayed up late with Gavin and Dale learning to shoot arrows. Gavin is a pro and showed off his mad skills. Our boys caught on FAST. It was impressive. Paul got these pics while I was putting Lullaby to sleep.  All of this just instilled Dale's place as the COOLEST.

That night was "pie night", which is a party their friends have every year the night before Thanksgiving with only PIE! Yum!! Paul went with and I stayed back with our kids. Paul left the party at 10:30pm, and Dale, Vanessa and their kids partied until 11:30 or later and then they came home too. Their kids are night owls, in every sense of the word, EXCEPT, they still wake up early. Wow!

trip

Last Tuesday night we celebrated Paul's birthday by going out with the Rogers family to Doc Chey's. It was really tasty! Outside there are really pretty murals of waves, mimicking Katsushika Hokusai's famous painting.

After dinner we went to a playground. We played until dark and I had all our plans to go to Hilton Head Island in the morning buzzing around in my head.

Then Dale called and asked us to come to Houston again... So we changed our plans back to Plan A, and started driving to Houston.  It was going to be a long drive so we wanted to get some hours under our belt before the next day of all day driving.  We stopped at a motel at 1:00am?? The boys slept well, but Lullaby had a kiss fest with us and would not go to sleep.  We were trying to have her sleep in between us but she thought that was a good position for kissing Paul then giggling, then kissing me then giggling, repeat. It was really cute, but exhausting.

date

Our friend Peter called us one day and asked to watch our kids. Yeah, you read that right, he volunteered to more than double the kids he already has so Paul and I could go out. He got a "YES!" from us. We dropped off the kids and finally spent the gift card my dad gave to us last Christmas for Olive Garden. It was delicious. We had so much fun laughing and eating and goofing around withOUT any kiddies to watch. Thank you dad and Peter for the fun night out!! :)

We ate at the bar so we wouldn't have to wait to be seated.  Paul ordered a glass of milk to go with his chocolate cake (so good!) and the bartender thought that was funny. Probably her first glass of milk served at the bar. Paul is so silly.