Thanksgiving in Austin

Ahhh Thanksgiving. My personal favorite holiday. Thanksgiving is full of family, food, good libations, and warm fuzzy feelings. I love to sit back in a house full of family and hear the laughter and smell my sister's yeast rolls cooking in the oven. Bliss! Pure Bliss.

So we packed up the car - dogs and all - and embarked on the 12 hour drive. Twelve hours in a Durango with 2 three year olds (potty trained, thank GOD!), 2 dogs, and my sweet husband who only got 2 hours of sleep the night before. It was an uneventful drive, and extremely long. But we finally made it to Austin safe and sound. Just the way we like it! We had a wonderful vacation and Thanksgiving!

It's a cousin sandwich! From the top is Ryland (Suzanne), Shellby & Lily (Glenda), and my two at the bottom.

Sweet Lily, Glenda's youngest!

Ahh the kissing cousins. They are inseparable when together. They fuss, laugh, cry, and share makeup. Just what teenage girls do. And did I mention that they are gorgeous? Avery Rogers (Suzanne) and Camden Howard (Glenda).

Spencer aka The NUT is Suzanne's youngest.

Here's the gang, minus Taylor. From the top (l-r) Avery, Camden, Shellby, Ryland, Spencer, Lily, Jillian, and Katelyn.

My sweet Jillian

Ryland climbing a tree

Mee Maw (Hand on the left) training her grandchildren to Hook em Horns.

Always the rebel of the group - Jillian - giving Mee Maw the Guns' up Texas Tech sign. Mee Maw gagged a little, but Jason was proud!

I do believe it took the girls less than 24 hours to find out that Aunt Suzie has the BEST cereal of all time AND a trampoline. SCORE!

Murphy and Bella are in a stand off with Bailey on the toy. He's a toy hog.

Halloween

This year the girls chose their own costumes. First Jillian wanted to be Uniqua from the Backyardigans. Then she wanted to be Astro Boy. Katelyn wanted to be a mermaid princess. Fantastic. So here we are, strolling down the aisles at Wal-Mart and the kids fixated on the witch costumes. Then the pleading and whining began. "I wanna be a witch. Momma, can I be a witch??" "I thought you wanted to be Astro Boy?" "NO NO NO I want to be a witch like Katie." OK, so we picked out the witch costumes and I have to say, it was perfect. Well, perfect until they wanted to wear their costumes 24/7 in the weeks leading up to Halloween. After a few arguments and time-outs, we parked the costumes in a closet until Halloween arrived. The morning of Halloween, both of the girls were asking to go trick or treating at 7 am. Um yeah, I don't think the neighbors would appreciate that. At. All.

Katelyn

Jillian

This year we participated in our church's Trunk or Treat. It was a complete success. In fact, we ran out of candy (which was a LOT) about 1.5 hours into the party. Wow!

Yes, it's been that long

How long has it been since I blogged. Forever and a day. The pictures have been piling up and the guilt has been setting in. Oh the guilt. Let's just add that to the mommy guilt. Here are some fall pictures so I can catch up. Trust me, this is just the beginning of many blogs for the next few days. :)

We spent a beautiful fall day at the Overland Park Arboretum - one of my favorite places of all time! Here is Jill walking through the children's park.

SNACK TIME!

I love fall pictures. Especially when the kids play in the leaves. It's camera gold!

We always pack up some bread to feed the fish. Here the girls are feeding the fishies!

Loves and kisses!

Honest Abe

Toddlers have the knack for being honest. Brutally honest. Jillian takes the honesty to a whole new level. While getting ready this morning Jillian asked, "Momma what happened to your boobies? They fall down? Are they ouchie's?" Holy balls people. No baby, mommies boobies are ruined from feeding you and your sister. I looked like a milk cow for 6 months and felt like one too. Oh and you know what else is ruined? My self esteem. Awesome.

More flowers and butterflies!

Here are some more shots of flowers and butterflies that I have taken recently. Many of them have been at the Overland Park Arboretum. Love the arboretum!