My Mama

My mom came for a visit after Thanksgiving! We were so happy to get her for a few days to celebrate during the holiday season, and to have her here for Tessa's birthday. And because I'm awesome, the only picture I got of her while she was here is this one below that Jake took with his phone while Cole was getting his face painted. I tried to edit my children's eyes so they didn't glow demonically, but it made it even scarier. We'll keep the glow.We went to the Plano Dickens Festival one evening and had a great time with the music, Santa and Mrs. Claus visit, treats, a train ride, a short bell concert, a ghetto blow up slide in the dark, and a bit o' face painting. Tessa wanted a heart painted on her cheek, while Cole asked for a candy cane --and held still while getting it done.

The Clauses and the kids:
From Santa, Tessa made her Littlest Pet Shop wishes known, and Cole said he wanted Christmas, and I think maybe a cowboy. We had so much fun with my mom here and were zipping all over town together. Tessa loved having Grandma Lori here for her birthday and being able to hang out with her. Cole, likewise, kept her entertained and loved having her here. Baby girl did all kinds of jumping jacks in my belly for her to feel as an official introduction.

We were a little sniffly and stuffed up, like most everyone else, and immediately Mom entered the take care of us mode --especially Tessa who, I'm sure, woke her up at least once every night.

We were grateful Grandma could take the time to make her way our direction, especially at this time of year.

Bigger Ride

Her name is Cecelia.She's a little intimidating, but I'm getting more and more comfortable with her every day.

I had to say goodbye to my Escort. She was good to me and stuck by my side for about 10 years. She got me from point A to point B safely and regularly without many problems --something I had not experienced with my previous vehicles. I loved her. However, our soon to be two car seats and one booster in the back seat just wasn't happening.

But this new baby's got back. We'll fit in Cecelia.

Plus, I get to have power locks and power windows for the first time, along with a few other niceties. I feel so fancy. And loaded down with a car payment. :)

Thanksgiving 2011

Jake's cousin Andy and his family came up from San Antonio for Thanksgiving this year. It was so fun getting to know them and spend time with them.

The kids first met the morning of Thanksgiving. They, of course, got along immediately and settled down to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade after breakfast:

The weather was mild, so the dads raked up a big pile of leaves and played Toss the Kids in the Leaves and Bury the Kids in the Leaves for a while. They loved it (the kids and the dads).
Our big tree is a hard one to resist:
Our families split up the meal responsibilities and came up with a wonderful dinner. I brined a turkey for the first time, and I think it was worth it. It was certainly the prettiest turkey I'd ever cooked. Amanda made the stuffing from scratch and produced the only stuffing I've ever really liked. Woot! We were both able to visit family via the web cam that day --we're definitely grateful for that technology. That evening after the kids went down, the adults had a great time playing games. I love playing games, especially on holidays.

The next day we ventured to McKinney for the Dickens of a Christmas Festival.




Caramel popcorn and a Christmas movie on TV. What a way to end the day!
On Saturday, we had a tailgate breakfast (first time for everything) at SMU. Hooray for free breakfast! It was morning and it was a little cold, so the undergrads weren't exactly out in full force, which meant more free t-shirts, chocolate milk samples, and shorter lines for us. The kids high-fived the SMU Mustang mascot on the way out, and we took off for Fort Worth.

The giant spur. Tell me you wouldn't mind having one of these babies in your yard:
It was so cold and windy!!!! We didn't explore as much as we would have had the weather been a little more cooperative, but we still made the most of it in the covered shops stockyard area.

Cowboy Santa was there:

AND there was free face painting. Cole was excited to see so much cowboy stuff and really wanted a cowboy hat. He is still talking about needing a cowboy hat.

We went to have lunch at Riscky's BBQ.
Our awesome guests: Amanda, Zach, Andy, Tyler, and Lizzie.
In my experience, two year olds don't usually play nicely with each other, but Zach and Cole were cracking each other up over the weekend. Cole adored "Zachy". We really had such a nice visit and were grateful to the cousins for taking time to come and spend Thanksgiving with us. It's now our turn to make our way to San Antonio when we can.

The videos always end up at the bottom of the posts. Here is Tessa dancing for a couple to the live musicians in the street at the Dickens Festival. I love how I could see in her eyes that she knew she was knocking out some serious Irish dancing moves.