Thanksgiving...updated

I need to make a correction on my last Thanksgiving blog. Sunday night at our house was actually our 3rd meal celebrating the holiday. Our small group kicked off our week of celebrating last Thursday with a full meal as well! After it was all said and done, we enjoyed FIVE Thanksgiving meals! Whew...that's a lot of food! Pics of our fun times on Thanksgiving Day...

Our attempt to get all of my Granny's great-grandkids in a pic...ha!

Get Granny in the pic and we finally get one!

Sarah and her great-great-grandmother (yes, 2 greats!).
This is my Great-Grandma "Tat". She will be 100 in March!

Aunt Betsy and SJ...aren't they cute?!

Solids

"Solids" (which are really liquefied fruits/vegetables) are going so well now. We like everything orange except SJ is not quite sure what she thinks of peaches. She likes the initial taste but as soon as she swallows she rethinks her decision. Watching her face is quite funny. We've done a lot of fruits, orange veggies and green peas. We'll be moving on to second foods in the next week or so which will offer much more variety...oh joy for those diapers to follow!

Thanksgiving, Round Two

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom's extended family on Saturday so that was TG #1.

Every year since we moved into our house we have hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at our house for all of our friends on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This was our 5th year! Our first year was a quiet 12 person dinner eaten on the fine china complete with assigned seating by names. This year was a bit larger...30 adults, 4 teenagers and 14 children four years and under. Now that's a crowd!

5 of the 14 that were under four years!

Becca with Blair and Amy with Timmy...they are 8 days apart!

Kate (below on top right) has Reese who is 5 days younger than Blair!

It was a busy September around here! :)

Look at the cute newlyweds (Betsy and Chad) on the left!

And the fab mommas, Jessica and Melanie on the right.

I LOVE doing this meal. It's always a blast and really, I only cooked the easy things...ham, smoked chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, dressing and rolls. I always have people volunteer to bring the desserts and sweet potato casserole...which are always so yummy (and more difficult to make)! Thanks to everyone who came! We seriously love having you in our home! Also, a special thanks to Becca for coming over and helping me with the finishing touches around the house! I promise this will be the last time I say thanks :).

Women of Faith Conference

The first weekend in November I attended a Women of Faith conference with friends Cheli and Molly. It was a blast! Just a few of my favorite parts:

• Natalie Grant did a concert...one word for her = AMAZING! If you're unfamiliar, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyEMJBhCtU8 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOufqWodFNo and you will be a fan. As my friend Jen said, "girl can sang!" :)
• A 5ish year old daughter of one of the singers from Mary Mary opened Saturday's meetings singing God Bless America. UNBELIEVABLE! I. Was. Bawling. It was that good.
• Sheila Walsh was one of the speakers and was by far my favorite!
• Molly, Cheli and I had cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory on Friday AND Saturday. LOVE their cheesecake!
• Kansas City does not believe in giving you much chicken if you order a meal with chicken in it. Experienced this on two different occasions. I live in chicken country so maybe I'm used to abnormally large amounts of chicken!
• I got to sleep in because I was SJ-free! (Thanks Daniel and Connie!)
• Overall, I had a great girls weekend with two great friends! Thanks for organizing, Molly!

Old people shouldn't be driving.

Like my title? Ha! Ok, before you get all upset with me, I'm totally kidding...well mostly!

My sister likes to let off a little steam on her blog from time to time so today I'm joining in!

Almost every Tuesday we have play group with a few friends and it rotates from house to house. We had PG today because of the holiday this week and today we were in Bella Vista (for those unfamiliar, it is mostly a retirement community). Anyway...the most exciting part of play group today happened right outside as four of us were loading up our kids! The streets are a little tight in BV and driveways tend to be short. Today, people had to slow down to pass by our cars BUT (and this is a big BUT) they could still get by us. Anyway, as we were loading our cars a crazy old man came speeding around the corner (it was later determined that he had been waiting on us just down the street). Mamas were grabbing babies and throwing them out of the way! It was scary! I had already placed SJ in the car so I left my door wide open and stood next to it so he would have to stop. Then he slams on his brakes and inches up to where I am and stops. Has his window rolled down and proceeds to lecture me on the way I'm parked. Asked if I was "trying to get in a wreck". Umm, no sir, I'm trying to leave. He then calls me ignorant and peels out. Extremely inappropriate driving IN a neighborhood AND with kids around. Soooo...I followed where the old fart went and got his address and license plate number AND called the police to file a complaint. I explained that any car passing did have to slow down to get through but that it was a neighborhood and a non-through street so there was no need for anybody to drive fast. Also, even if it was tight (which standing there watching him pass me, after I politely received my lecture, it wasn't THAT tight) there were no accidents and cars were only parked like that for about an hour and a half to two. He was mean and crazy and probably between 65 and 75...I thought retirees were supposed to be laid back and sweet, not this man! The lady that took my complaint said they would go to his house and let him know there was a complaint filed...eek! If he had driven up slowly and asked that we not park in the street, try to all park on the same side, or just offered some other solution about our parking I wouldn't have had a problem. The speed that he drove up and the anger in this man's voice and on his face were completely and utterly unacceptable with children present. Oh well, don't be driving foolish with babies around or I will turn into mama bear! Done with my rant! Just had to share. :)

Well...

It's official! I'm 10 weeks along...due June 10th. Life is going to be crazy come June because SJ will only be about 13 months old! We are so excited for this baby. I think our news has shocked a few and excited a few...regardless, we are thrilled! Besides, we always said we wanted to have our kids close together. So...ready or not...here we go!

If...

...we had dressed up this weekend, this is what our costume would have been!

Grammy and Papa

My parents came to visit on Friday because Daniel was going to be out of town all weekend. They also got to bring Carter with them because Kati and Darin were in Dallas! We ate dinner out Friday at Bud's Family Chicken then came home to play with the kiddos!

Grammy reading Sarah her Halloween Dora book.

Papa playing with Carter...he loved that toy.

We also headed to Eureka on Saturday. It was a beautiful fall day to be outside. Thanks for coming to visit us, Grammy, Papa and Carter!! We had a blast!