Thanksgiving, Today, and Everything In Between

Each Thanksgiving since we've been married has been different than the rest. I don't think we've celebrated in the same place twice, and we've done everything from making almost all the food, only making the cranberry sauce, ordering it from Claim Jumper, etc. It's kind of fun to always be changing things up - I do miss being with family though. 

Our kind friends the Harters that we know from Las Vegas invited us to their home this year. We brought the rolls and some desserts. I am not a big fan of pie, and I don't have much faith in my ability to make a tasty one, so I gave that job to Nate. Jansen really enjoyed helping him.

Nate played in a turkey bowl that morning with some guys from church and the rest of the time before the meal was mostly spent preparing food. Natalie hurt her foot while playing in the backyard that morning and there were some prettttttty loud wails and screams as Nate cleaned it and wrapped it up. I'm not sure I want to be in the room when she gives birth some day.

We had a wonderful time at the Harters eating, chatting, watching football, and letting the kids play in the backyard. 

The Harters also hosted a couple Basic Trainees from Lackland Air Force Base. They are almost done with boot camp there.

 The next day our great friends the Nelsons (that we also know from Vegas) came from Houston to stay a night with us. It was so nice having close friends in our home and catching up. We had many conversations and ideas about how to spend our short time together and ultimately decided to just "hang out." We watched football, worked on the backyard playset, played at the park, etc.

We sure love them and can't wait to see them again.

 December always flies by, so we tried to get the tree up and decorated quickly after Thanksgiving. If I remember right, this was a little bit of a stressful evening. Thankfully things got better because the kids just love decorating tree and I wanted them to have a fun night and a nice mommy. :)

A couple days later Nate and found probably 20 ornaments just set on tree branches. No hooks, no ribbons, just ornaments resting there. We had to laugh and shake our heads and their laziness??? or maybe just ignorance.

And of course we have incorporated origami into our tree as that is still Jansen's obsession.

The kids love playing with the nativity sets I have collected. Some are breakable (though not valuable), but we just let the kids play and rearrange them as much as they want.

Leah had her 6 month check up and is weighing in at about 19.5 pounds! Love my little chubs. Her appointment was at 9:20 though and I barely made it back to pick up Emmy from preschool at 12. Lots of waiting at the doctor's office and for immunizations. I hate that.

Natalie had her annual eye appointment. She needs a stronger prescription, which we suspected. She will probably start wearing contacts in the next couple years. She seems so young for that, but the optometrist recommended it and said it may even slow down the changes to her vision.

We will see how long it lasts, but Natalie is currently enjoying doing the dishes.

And this is her latest Christmas list:

Emmy had a happy morning decorating cookies with friends last week.

 Leah was there too. :)

Saturdays are so precious lately. Nate has been working late during the week, but he does have Saturdays and Sundays off. We always have an incredibly long to-do list, but there's always time for pancakes.

Nate was heading out on a run this morning and I suggested Jansen go with him. They ran 3.8 miles, and Jansen ran almost the entire time. 

Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent on the playset. Nate is working really hard to get it done. Emmy spends a lot of time just hanging out there with him.