A weekend behind...

Last weekend, we had a full-of-fun Saturday.

After Ben and I ran in the morning, we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  I think we go just to hear the boys say Chick-fil-A in their really cute ways.

I took this just to prove that Eli really does smile.  I love his smile and it makes me sad that pictures just don't ever do this cute boy justice.

Then we went to Bass Pro shop.  Alison wanted to see Santa, but the wait was 2.5 hours long...no thank you.  We could still see him and walked around their Winter Wonder Land and ended up buying a gingerbread house kit there.

 

Trying on hats at Bass Pro

We also stopped by Sports Authority to look for some new running shoes and somehow Alison came home with a whole new outfit, complete with a hairbow.  I loved Ben's reason for buying it for her though.  She picked it out all by herself, but I didn't think she needed a workout outfit.  Ben said, "She's just trying to be like you and she is more likely to be active if she has an outfit to be active in."  He was right and she's worn her new running outfit 3 times this week.

 

We came home and put together the gingerbread house.

 

This thing was completely worth $12 and I will never turn back to trying rice crispy treats or graham crackers or homemade cookies and icing.  It was SO nice to have it all ready and it stayed up!

Alison asked, "So...where are the boys' houses?" and Ben and I quickly said, "SSHHH!!" and realized that gingerbread houses might become an investment for our family in the coming years.  For this year, they were content to watch and offer decorating suggestions and eat a giant bowl of oatmeal.

 

 

This weekend was not nearly as exciting.  In fact, I was purposeful in making it unexciting in anticipation of a busy week.  We skipped Christmas in Downtown and the parade and the kids were just as happy having a weekend to play at home.  We went to dinner at a friend's house and went to First Watch after church (one just opened up here and we were SO excited, but they changed their menu here and there was no Bubba's Benny and our french toast was soggy.   They did give us free coffee and 2 free meals and the atmosphere was cool, but it just wasn't Lawrence...) and spent way too much time in pj's.

The "real" pictures

Right now, I'm sitting next to an open window, feeling behind on our "Christmas time" posts and it's all because the weather has just been too sinkin' nice to be sitting inside typing.  Part of me wants it to be cold so tea and Christmas music and candles lit seems appropriate, but part of me is also enjoying slipping on flip flops and playing outside with the kids.  

Here are some of my favorite pictures Kent took of Thanksgiving week.

(For the full album)

Alison with her new treats from Claire's.

Thanksgiving dinner. 

Opening gifts on Thanksmas...I am really excited about Connect 4!

 

Thank you Kent for all your work on these pictures and for letting me steal them for our blog!

Sushi

The day everyone left from Thanksgiving week, we decided to take a break from cooking and pick up some sushi.  There's a small restaurant right around the corner that we keep saying we'll try and never have.  I went in there once this summer while Ben was gone and they were SO nice to me and the kids; they let me carry out a small order of sushi when it's really a sit down place and they gave the kids suckers and coloring pages while we waited for my embarrassingly small order.  

We went with intentions to get a light dinner and fully expected to pick up Sonic grilled cheese sandwiches for the boys on the way home.  HA!  The complete opposite happened.  The place ended up being super cool and we way over ordered in attempts to have options for the kids/try some new things and then everything was so yummy that we ate every.single.thing.  I was more full from our "light sushi" dinner than from Thanksgiving!

Why am I posting about this random dinner with blurry pictures?  Because it was a really cool experience with our family.  We all really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food.  We all had fun eating with chopsticks and trying a bunch of new food.  The kids completely shocked me and tried everything and enjoyed pretty much everything.  Even picky Eli, which says a lot!

This is Colin trying eating some sushi...all was good until he tried the pickled ginger.

Thanksmas

We were up bright and early Friday to celebrate Thanksmas!

Eli was the most fun to watch open presents this year; he LOVED everything and said over and over, "I'm SO happy!"

 

 

Colin is hard to buy for because he's happy playing with whatever Alison and Eli get.  

And Alison's at that odd stage where she still loves getting Barbies and stuffed animals, yet wants earrings and books.  Her favorite present was season 2 of the Little House movies and spent the next several days trying to binge watch the whole thing (she only made it through 2 DVD's).

 

 

 The kids were extremely thoughtful this year.  Without any prompting from us, they had specific things they wanted to give Nana, Grandady and Uncle Jordan.   They each did extra chores around the house to earn enough money for what they wanted to buy and then bought it themselves at the store.  What really got me was what they chose were things they could do together.  I also found it surprising that this came on a year that we didn't make any gifts.  Previous years we've made tea towels or jam or paintings or ornaments, but this year I decided to go low-key and click "order" on Amazon.  Needless to say, it was encouraging to me and I was so proud of them.

Nana and Grandaddy opening Life from Eli

We had tea pastries for breakfast and then played with all the new toys.  Colin got these awesome blocks and many castles and towers were built.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the afternoon, Kent took our annual family pictures.  It was unusually warm that day and mosquitoes were eating us alive!

 

  

I'm curious to see how these pictures turn out.  First of all, Eli would have no part in the outfit I picked out for him and insisted on wearing this red shirt.  I decided I would rather have him smiling than a matching outfit, so I gave in to the random red shirt.  And his hair really needs a trim, but I definitely did not have time for that; we were much too busy playing.  AND he really just wanted to be in pj's in the house, so I told him if he smiled well for pictures, he could have a piece of candy and change into pj's.

"There.  I smiled.  Can I go change now?"

2 seconds after pictures, already in pj's

Second, we found out after pictures that Alison was striking a pose in every single one.  So she'll probably look something like this in all of them:

 

After pictures, we had dinner: perfecto pork, nonny potatoes, applesauce, salad.

All that yummy food made the boys super sleepy.

 

It was a sweet day and looking back at all these pictures is making me very hungry!  We may be having that dinner over again for real Christmas!

Thanksgiving

I felt like this year was the most relaxed Thanksgiving ever.  I don't know how everyone else felt, but I wasn't stressed one bit...not even for a second.  All I could think about all day, was how overwhelming thankful I was that Ben was home.  I got to cook with him and hear his laugh and see him snuggle our kids and little things like table decorations and what time we ate, just didn't phase me.  It was blissful for me and I hope everyone else felt the same.

Speaking of Ben, he's going to kill me for posting this picture, but it cracks me up every time I see it!

making green bean casserole

Also speaking of things not phasing me, I didn't pick up my camera much that day.  I know Kent got some amazing pictures and will give him full credit when I "steal" them from him :)

I can tell you that when we weren't cooking, we were watching the parade (which was way better than previous years-but yes is really just one long advertisement) or playing games.

I lost count of how many games of Risk the boys played.

The little boys were busy playing pj games...I also lost count of how many times they changed them! 

Here, they're pretending to be cars:

And yes, I let them even wear pj's to Thanksgiving dinner, because really, don't we all want to be wearing elastic pants?

Alison declared herself the new puzzle master and did this entire puzzle that afternoon.  I was so proud of her!

Because I looked back at last year's post for our menu, I'm posting this year's so I will remember!

Breakfast: cinnamon rolls 

(make more...the kids devoured them and they were all gone by the time I got back from my run!)

Lunch: smoked salmon dip and Ritz crackers, pigs n' a blanket, veggie tray and cheddar/horseraddish dip

Dinner: turkey, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, gravy, pumpkin pie, maple whipped cream

*next year add molasses cookies for dessert!

Thanksgiving week, Part 1

I had planned to do school Monday and Tuesday this week, but Sunday afternoon Alison asked if she could get all her work done then so she could enjoy the coming week.  I was working at my desk as well, so we sat and worked together that afternoon.  I actually really enjoyed that time with her and although I shouldn't be proud of extra work on the Sabbath, I was proud of her drive to get her responsibilities done before family came to visit.

Ben took the whole week off of work and we spent Monday getting down Christmas Decorations and picked up a tree.

We put ornaments on the tree in the afternoon before going out to dinner.  This year was much calmer than last year and Ben handed out the ornaments and the kids put them on the tree.  I played the buffer and helped any falling ornaments or stuck hooks.  We only put out a fraction of the ornaments, but we didn't have to go back and fix the tree after the kids went to bed.

 

This is probably the last year Ben can lift Alison to put the angel on...

 

Long story short, Tuesday morning we found this:

This poor dog was lost and must have felt our porch was warm and inviting because she wouldn't leave.  While we searched for her owner, we let her in our garage and gave her blankets and water.  She was a very beautiful and sweet dog...but she looked like a wolf, which made discovering her on our porch quite alarming.  I made Ben make sure she was safe first and then the kids were over-the-moon excited to take care of her while we found her owner.

Her owner ended up being a gentleman visiting family on a street behind us.  He let her out to go to the bathroom, she chased a squirrel and then it was too dark/she was too unfamiliar with her surroundings to get back.  We also found out that she was a pure bread husky puppy and let's just say her owner was more than excited to have her back.  Our kids were bummed because they were convinced that we were going to be able to keep her.

Ben and I could not stop laughing at the situation though.  The boys have a great talent of destroying their surroundings and we were trying to uncover their rooms before family came and then, oh yea, we had a whining husky in our garage.

The dog finally went home, the boys' rooms were found and Elizabeth, Kent and Jordan arrived Tuesday afternoon.  We had a Mexican fiesta that night and made our traditional pomegranate margaritas...the perfect ending to a crazy day.

Wednesday was girls day!  Elizabeth, Alison and I went to get pedicures and then had lunch at Panera.

bummed it's blurry :(

We spent the afternoon at Town Center and had fun shopping.

 

Alison was so patient while we shopped and then scored the jackpot at Claire's.  She's been doing extra chores around the house (yes you may clean all the bathrooms for $5!) for some money and has been anxious about buying some Christmas earrings.  When we got there, the lady told her she could get 3 items free when she bought 3.  She was in accessory heaven!

We were certainly spoiled that day by Nana that day...and by the boys.  They did all the grocery shopping for us!  We came home to a Mediterranean dinner and food for the rest of the week!