Thanksgiving 2008!!

We are so blessed that both of our families live about 15 minutes from us. We had a good, low-key, thanksgiving and spent time at my parents house and then with Chris' family. I actually only ate at the first house so I feel like I actually ate less than I do on a normal day-SUPER weird for thanksgiving but I've been enjoying the leftovers every day since :-) We spent a lot of time on our car rides between houses that day taking turns praying "Thank you God for....". Ella was thankful for mommy, daddy, raleigh, our house, our food, and the Hannahs (her favorite friends at the moment). Chris and I had lots of blessings to count. I have to say I'm most thankful for Jesus. None of what I do is worth anything if it wasn't for his limitless love and constant work in my life. Thanks Lord for all you've done and are doing in our family.


chillin with Marissa-this was before the poor little boy sitting next to me threw up all over his plate...lovely...

getting ready to eat at my rents house


My grandmother turned 90 the day before Thanksgiving! This was her first cake-angel food cake-nice and healthy so she'll be here for another 10 years!

Her second cake-double chocolate...so she can actually enjoy the next 10 years!

On to house #2. Nana was SO on the ball. She had new toys ready to entertain the kids while they waited to eat!


Silas and I got some quality time while Ping and Andrew ate their dinner. He's getting SO big!

Ella LOVED playing with her little cousin and he was SO fascinated by her.

There are about 20 pics in this series of Christopher and Ella. Let's just say they REALLY enjoyed their pie. Before this, Chris was playing with Hannah and made a joke about "getting her nose." This was NOT funny to Hannah. She had a look of sheer terror and burst into tears. She cried and screamed for a LONG time. Amy had to come try and soothe her to get her to calm down. Ella came over to pat her back and say "It's ok, don't cry!" and Christopher was chanting "Uncle Chris is bad, Uncle Chris is mean, Uncle Chris is in trouble." Andrew and I were laughing so hard we almost fell on the floor. It was HYSTERICAL. I don't tend to laugh at crying children but the whole scene was just SO amusing. NO worries though, she recovered and her nose is intact.

Raleigh. How we all felt by the end of the day. Happy, full, and ready to sleep :-)

Randomness

I have a few pictures that are not really related to anything but too funny/cute/weird to keep to myself. Enjoy!


One of the cousins was in time out but they all went in solidarity and held hands-how cute are they??

Chris has "invented" pepperoni chips. He fries them until they're crispy and eats them as a snack. SO weird. But tasty :-)

My friend Esther has taped lines on the floor in the kitchen that her kids aren't allowed to cross. It's to keep them safe when she's cooking and such a good idea! It cracked me up to see all three of them patiently sitting there and saying "Don't cross the line!"

Ella still sleeps in a diaper and the other morning I went to get her and she was all wet. HERE'S WHY-her diaper EXPLODED! I feel like moms joke about that kind of thing but it actually HAPPENED! So weird, and gross. I only used them for a week but I hereby un-recommend walmart brand diapers.

We've lived here for 2.5 years and I didn't remember until last week that our tub has jacuzzi jets. So now, if Ella is well behaved for the actual washing part of the bath, she gets to turn on the "bubble button." It's SO much fun! With a tiny bit of soap, the jets make literally a foot of bubbles!

Thanks to the Troops!

I just found out about this website sponsored by Xerox that lets you send a thank you card to the troops in about 10 seconds. Such an easy way to bless and encourage people we are indebted to. You should do it!! Click here.

Ella's Birthday Party!

Ella had a joint party with her cousin Christopher who just turned 4 at a giant warehouse full of inflatables. It was SO MUCH FUN! The kids had a blast and I went down the big inflatable slide about 8 times so I certainly enjoyed myself too. I really wish we could rent that place out for an adult party. Anyway, here are a bunch of the pictures from our super-special celebration of Ella turning THREE!!


I love this picture-some of my favorite people of all time!

Hanna, Hannah, and Hannah

My dad getting one of the last slices of pizza (we ran out toward the end! there were SO many people!)

"Uncle" Carl shooting up the deuce (as Daddy would say)

A rare picture of Ella eating! (This warms my heart-she ate at least a half a piece of pizza! that's a lot for her!)

the cousins in their throne blowing out their candles

Happy Birthday Christopher and Ella!

My girly-girl

I just put Ella to bed and she initiated an entire conversation where she was about 3 inches from my face most of the time and gently patting different parts of my face and making requests. She started with my ears and wanted to know why I wasn't wearing pink earrings. She said I should wear pink earrings for her every day (like I did on her birthday). Then she patted my nose ring and said "this should be pink too, can you do that for me?" I told her I didn't have a pink nose ring but I'd try to wear the pink earrings. Then she started patting my lips and said "I think you need pink sparkly lipstick mom!" She moved on the nail polish (also pink and sparkly) before starting again with earrings. We literally talked about this for 10 minutes. She went on and on about how beautiful everything would be in pink. When I asked her if she wanted to get her ears and nose pierced and wear sparkly pink things she sighed and said "I will, I'm just waiting to grow up."