Thanksgiving at Home!!!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving. For the first time since we've been married we didn't have to travel! It was so great just to be home and to host everyone. This year it's Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with Logan's. I got to cook and plan a lot of the meal and I loved it. It was my first time to do a turkey! I really enjoy doing stuff like that and actually everything turned out!

I tried a new apple pie receipe and I think it's a winner! Logan actually said it might be the best apple pie he's ever had! Wow! Now I have to prove it by making it for the real apple pie critics in Kansas :)

I actually set the table all up. I was excited about doing all of this. I think it turned out really well.

We had quite a spread....never seems to be a shortage of food :)

Caleb was sure excited about his first Thanksgiving. He got to eat a few sweet potatoes and some of my roll. He seems to like anything you put in his mouth.

This was the kid's table....they loved sitting at it and coloring on it. Looks like Thomas, Bertie, and James had Thanksgiving dinner too!

We adopted 2 soldiers from Lackland AFB this year. It's a program called "Operation Home Cooking." It was a really neat experience. We went and picked up the girls (Sandi and Randi.....yes, we all rhymed) on Thanksgiving morning and they got to spend the entire day with us. It was so much fun to get to know them. They are in basic training right now at Lackland. They were super sweet and loved being with my family. It was a treat just for them to get to be off base. It was the small things that meant so much to them.....using our phones to talk to their families, checking their email, eating as slow as they wanted, smiling, drinking Mountain Dew :) It made our Thanksgiving extra special and I hope we can keep doing this every year that we are home.

Weston put on their jacket for a minute. I hope he's starting to understand what they do for us.

We had lots of fun play time with the cousins. Here's a lot of pictures from the weekend.

We got tired of leftovers and headed to Longhorns for a burger on Friday night. The balloon lady was amazing! She made Thomas (of course), Cinderella, and Hello Kitty.

I love my family so much and loved having them at our house. I hope they enjoyed it as much as we did. Thanks for making the long drive down. I am so thankful for my family!

Weekend at Grams & Pops

Last weekend Logan went hunting so we headed up to Weatherford for the weekend. The boys actually did amazing on the road! It was a great trip and we were really excited to see everyone.

Caleb loved watching Molly on the backporch. He had a lot of fun standing up holding on to the windowsill.

Mamaw and Papaw came over on Friday night and had dinner with us. We loved getting to see them.

On Saturday Caleb and I headed over to Fort Worth and met Melissa and Griffin for coffee. It was their first time to meet each other. They are only about 2 weeks apart. They were pretty cute trying to figure each other out. It was SO fun to get to see them and catch up. I miss her so so much!!!

While we were gone, Weston and his Pops had a big time. They put out all the lighted Christmas trees down the driveway. He was a big helper I'm sure. I think Pops needed a nap as much as Weston did after that.

Caleb and I went home on Monday morning but Weston stayed a few extra days at Grams & Pops. He had a blast!!! He's still talking about it!!

On Tuesday, he got to play with Mrs. Mel again. She came over and played with Weston. He LOVED it!!! Uncle Rick stopped by to say hi too. This boy is eating up this attention. Luckily he was really sweet to both of them and from what I've heard he has Uncle Rick wrapped around his finger. When Rick had to leave Weston gave him a big hug and told him he loved him.......that just about melted his heart. He needs some grandkids quick!!!! I just love that he knows both Rick and Mel now and has bonded with them so much....means so much to me!!

I'm not sure Weston was really ready to come back home but they loaded up and came down here for Thanksgiving. His dad was really missing him and ready to see him. But I will say it was nice to just have Caleb for a few days. Gosh...one kid is SO easy!!!! Why did I ever think that was so hard???? We went to like 4 stores in one morning!!!

Sad day for Thomas

So Weston and I were making cookies this morning together and I turned on both ovens so we could get them all baked quicker. We started mixing up the batter and I started smelling something. I figured it was just a pan that was in the bottom oven because he likes to play in that one. Then the smell got stronger and I went over to the oven and opened it. This is what I found......

Poor Thomas, James, and Bertie were melting!! Weston was in tears as soon as he realized what had happened. They are wooden trains but the wheels are plastic. The wheels are all gone :( Weston was so sad. Those 3 are his favorite :( I had no idea he had been playing with them in the oven. We find trains ALL over this house but never once had I thought I'd find them in the oven. He cried and whimpered about it for about 45 minutes. He kept saying "Thomas...too hot....oven....no wheels....oh Thomas." Really sad to see a 2 year old that upset about his favorite toy. But as soon as both grandmas heard about it they were already telling him that they'd take him to get a new one :) Got to love those grandmas....they make everything better!

1/2 Marathon

What a weekend....my parents came down on Friday night to be here for my 1/2 marathon yesterday. We had a great time with them all weekend. Rick and Mel were down here too because Rick ran in the 1/2 with me.

They came over to the house on Saturday night for dinner. Mrs. Hobbs brought her "Mrs. Mel's Ton of Fun"....it was SO cute!! She had this huge suitcase full of fun stuff for kids. She made animal balloons, played games with Weston, and had tons of other stuff in her big suitcase. Weston had a blast with her.

Weston and Pops got a little crazy with the ballons. I'm not sure who was having more fun.....Weston or Pops!

Uncle Rick played some games with Weston too. He was in heaven with all this attention!

So Saturday afternoon my sweet Caleb came down with a stomach bug. Not fun. He threw up once and had diarrhea. I started feeling bad Saturday night and then woke up with the diarrhea early Sunday morning before the race. No, not fun. But I wasn't dare going to not do it.....not after training for so long and paying $$ to do it!!!! So I just tried my best. I felt ok starting but after about halfway through I started feeling weak. Rick did awesome though!!! He beat his PR again! He did it in 1:47 and I got 1:52. It wasn't terrible but I sure was wanting to do it faster.

We had the best cheerleaders! Mom had Caleb in the bjorn and Weston was up in the backpack carrier on Logan. They were all troopers for getting up so early and weaving in and out of ALL the people and traffic. Dad walked like 3+ miles just to see us at the finish line!!! I sure love them all and it meant the world to me to have them all there.

I made the boys t-shirts to wear...."run mama run".....guess I should have made sweatshirts because it was pretty chilly yesterday morning!

So all in all it was a really fun day. I just wished I would have felt better....but oh well. I was reminded once again that life is NOT about me :)