Thanksgiving in VA

Nanny & Addison


"Baby's First Thanksgiving"

Emma & Jackson

Baylee

Savannah


The Mullen's

Mandi & Ashlyn

Austin & Sheffield


Mom

Emma

Grant

The DeCastillia's

I can't believe I didn't get one picture of Harrison on Thanksgiving day! Oh my word! He was running around, having fun with his cousins so it was hard to keep up with everyone. Didn't get my dad, Anthony, or myself either! :) Oh well.

It was a GREAT time spent with family and yummy, yummy food! We are SO Thankful for our wonderful families. Both Anthony and I are blessed with wonderful parents and siblings and brother/sister-in-laws. Everyone loves each other and enjoys spending time together and not all families have what we have! We are BLESSED and SO THANKFUL!!! One sad note to the day is that my Granddaddy didn't make it over for Thanksgiving dinner. His medicine he takes for the Parkinson's makes him terribly sick and he just couldn't start feeling well enough to get together. We all hated that but completely understood. Anthony and I and the kids went over on Friday night for dinner and quality time with him and that helped to make up for it! ;)

On Thanksgiving night, my sisters always head off to their husband's side of the family so we decided we would go over and spend some time with our dear friends the Schrodts. David and Katy and their kids are so special to us and it was a wonderful time to just relax and catch up. The kids played so well together and we were able to get some real quality time in! Katy made her yummy taco meat and we did something VERY non-traditional for dinner. We ate tacos! They were delicious. You can catch up on her blog to see why they deviated from the traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving...don't worry they still had one, just not that night! The only sad thing is I have NO pictures to prove our perfectly, wonderful good time! What is up with me? I guess I was just having too much fun!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving it was and how thankful we are for the love and blessings of friends and family!

a pop in visit

Mimi and Papa came in for a quick visit - one day - the Monday before Thanksgiving. It was very short but we enjoyed our time with them. We ordered a meal from Lowes Foods for our "Thanksgiving" meal. We knew we would not have time to cook all the yummy food we would want with only having one day to prepare. SO, Mom has already been told to prepare herself for a lot of cooking at Christmas! :) (I don't know what the deal is with this being underlined. I can't seem to fix it)

Here are some pictures from our day...



Addison has found faces, hair, and ears. She loves to try to grab them and sometimes it can hurt! :) She is so sweet!

I think she is wondering why her bath has become such an event for Mimi to get up on a chair above her to get this picture! Everything is an event in the Williams Family!

He loves to jump over her. Poor thing!


oh how i love this boy! he truly is so sweet. he is a TON of work these days and sometimes i feel like i'm failing him. i just LOVE this picture!

ready to go to..."Papa, starbuck here we come, chick a lay here we come!" he LOVES his adventures with Papa!



Addison is really enjoying her jumparoo and exersaucer lately, and everything goes int he mouth! look at those little feet!

she loves her papa too! she has to soak it up, there isn't a lot of time to sit with him, her brothers keep him busy!

Happy Thanksgiving!


On Thanksgiving, Mimi and Papa always let the kids open something to get the Christmas excitement and celebrating started. Addison was excited about this!

"Baby's First Christmas" ornament from Frankenmueth

Jackson got a Thomas DVD. He was very excited. He said, "Taylor have Thomas too!" :)

Harrison got a cool "I SPY" game. Very fun!

Aunt Vonda and Uncle Ian sent a few surprises from Germany for the kids too. Addison got some adorable Christmas jammies, a Thanksgiving Bib, and an Ornament from Germany! THANK YOU AUNT VONDA and UNCLE IAN!!!


The boys loved their ornamnets too. Sadly, Jackson played with his a little too much the next day and broke the feet off. It still works but I was a little annoyed! Life with a 3 year old, what can you do??? :)

"Ooooo, this is pretty, can I touch it!?!?"

don't I look cute in my sleeper Aunt Vonda???

Cereal time

this boys LOVES to dress up. he was in the most of the night and as soon as he woke up the next day!

Fall Party and Caramel Apples

We had a really fun Fall Party in Harrison's class. Tonya and I organized a Caramel Apple assembly line for the kids and they had a BALL!!!

We dipped the apples in Caramel and then at each table the kids had lots of toppings to choose from to put on their apples...Oreos, sprinkles, m&m's, etc... YUM YUM!!!

I found that I really enjoy an Oreo/Carmel dipped apple! :) It was great to be able to spend this time with Harrison in his class and make memories with him. I worried the whole night before, and most of the week before, about the logistics of everything and worried about scorched caramel, etc... It turned out wonderfully and was a great success and most of all the kids had a blast!

CAST OFF

last time brushing his teeth with his cast :)






clapping hands...the simple things in life!

Harrison got his cast off this morning! woooowhoooo! He was so excited and so was I! It's been a long 4 weeks! It really hasn't been all that bad but it will be so nice for him to have full use of both hands now! He did so well with his broken arm, I'm so proud of him. The last week and half he's been writing with his right hand...cast hand. He learned to do quite well with his left hand but figured out if he held his pencil at the right angle he could make his right hand work. It's amazing how comfortable they actually get! I can't say it slowed him down at all! :)

Most exciting part of all you may want to know....he's gonna get to have a LONG SOAKING bath tonight! That hand has been getting pretty nasty! :) I can't wait to get those fingers and finger nails scrubbed and cleaned. I've been obsessed with imagining what kinds of germs have been living on that hand and under that cast! YUCK!!!

a doggy weekend

This weekend we had Nicholas - Nikki - come and stay with us. He is a little dog from a local pet adoption agency that needs a home. I'm sad to say his new home won't be our home. He is a GREAT puppy! We really had NO issues with him. He obeys his commands, is potty trained, crate trained, and just a super sweet little dog.

OK, now you're thinking..."so what's the problem if he's so great?" I just can't do it right now. It is not the right time for our family. Jackson is a little bit young to understand the difference between playing with the dog and terrorizing it. He is also just too young. period. There are a lot of discipline issues right now with our sweet little 3 year old and having a dog would have complicated things even further. Not to mention the baby and all I'm doing to take care of her.

It broke our hearts to tell Harrison. He was devastated and cried for over an hour. He wants a dog SO bad. Some of you may think I'm cruel! However, Harrison is having to learn that his wants have to meet up with what is best for the whole family. A tough lesson for a 6 year old...for anyone for that matter. After a while of honest discussion, he did start to grasp why we were having to say "no" for now. I left and cried in my room for a while because it broke my heart so much to say no. One of the hardest parenting moments for me to this point. I want to say yes to my boy! Who doesn't? My heart wanted to go for it and my head was saying NO, not yet, it's not time! Such a picture of our relationship with our Heavenly Father! Don't you know it has to break His heart to have to say no to us, even though He knows it's not best. Maybe I'm spiritualizing this too much for you...sorry...it's my blog! ;) It just reminded me that saying YES and giving in is not what parenting is about, sometimes yes, but not always.

I know we'll have a dog someday and this weekend was a great experience for all of us. It was wonderful being able to "try" things out and see whether or not it would work before we just bought a puppy and had to deal with the repercussions! I don't regret it one single bit! We all had a great time with Nikki for the weekend and Harrison understands we are going to have to wait for now.

At least I don't have to worry about him expecting a puppy under the Christmas tree only to have him disappointed! Goodbye Nicholas! Thanks for coming to sleep over! :)