Thanksgiving Day

The gingerbread party was on Thanksgiving I just realized, so here's the rest of the day! The three boys all had matching outfits so we changed them and went outside to play for awhile. It was a beautiful day but it had just been raining so the leaves were all wet. They didn't play in them very long before moving to something else, and I was really wanting to get some pictures in the leaves! Oh well, our leaves at home are dropping so hopefully we can get out and play in them soon.

Here's cutie pie Ben.

Elizabeth and Emma in their matching outfits.

Not a great picture but I wanted to show how cute my mom's little playhouse in the back was decorated for Christmas! They were having fun serving eachother.

Here's cutie pie Evan!

They were having so much fun chasing each other in the backyard.

They were having lots of fun walking back and forth on the "bridge" and Jackson got really brave and walked across. As he was walking back over the bridge he of course fell in and got his cute outfit all muddy. He cried and cried and kept saying "I dirty! Yucky!" Yes, it was yucky.

Thank goodness I brought him another outfit, even if it wasn't anything special. Here he is waiting for dinner. Aren't the hats adorable?

Here's Cooper waiting for dinner!

Then it was present time. We exchange Christmas presents with our cousins while they're in town for Thanksgiving.

The hit for the boys was definitely these light sabers. They all LOVED them.

My mom got my dad an electric train to run around the tree this year and they all were enraptured by it! Evan especially LOVES trains so he was very excited about it.

I thought this picture of Emma and her daddy (Jim) was so sweet.

So then we left and went to bed! Next up was the peppermint party and the Polar Express!

Gingerbread Party and More

After the hotel, everyone came back to our house to play outside and have a little birthday party for Emma.

A favorite activity of the kids is tackling!

They think it is so fun to climb on this house.

Emma's 6th birthday!

She's waiting patiently for her cake!

The next morning we tried to get to my parent's house relatively early for the gingerbread party my mom had for the kids! Isn't the table so cute? Can you see how each child had their own personalized placemat?

She got them all these matching gingerbread pjs. The plan was to have them spend the night and then wake up and have this party. Unfortunately there was some illness making the rounds so a few of the activities had to be scratched. But they still looked cute in their PJs!

She also got them these gingerbread headbands. Hilarious!

Yummy breakfast! See the cute drink glasses there on the front of the table?

After reading a book about the gingerbread man, each sibling group got to decorate a gingerbread house.

They FILLED our house!

The finished product.

What a cute party, huh? So glad my kids were invited! :)

Christmas Fun

My Aunt Amy, Uncle Jim, and Uncle Ross all came into town for Thanksgiving, along with Amy and Jim's kids-Evan and Emma. We had lots and lots of fun activities planned while they were here!

First fun activity: visiting this BEAUTIFUL hotel! It's an annual tradition of ours so I'm glad they were able to come with us. We took TONS of pictures of the kids here, trying to get a good one for my Grandma and Grandpa. I think we succeeded, we must have with the number that we took!

Jackson, Evan, Ben, Emma, Elizabeth, and Cooper
Ben, Jackson, and Cooper

I loved this picture of Emma!

After watching some trains and posing in the sleigh, we walked to see the real live gingerbread house!

It's hard to believe it's really real!

I love his shirt... and 99% of the time it's true! :)

The trains were a fascination for sure.

They had funny reindeer all around that the kids loved.

Another group shot.

Me with my boys.

Emma loved Jackson and kept giving him hugs!

Making wishes.

Amy with Evan and Emma. I was trying to get the beautiful poinsettas in the background!

Love this one. (there's a soldier behind them saluting)

And that's the end folks!

MORE Family Photos!

We have been picture taking fools lately! Good thing I love pictures! :) We met our friends Emily and Justin + their kids a few weekends ago to take pictures of them for Christmas cards. Our boys get along so well together (they have two boys the same age as Coop and J). We went over to their house afterward for dinner and playtime!

It was such a cute area with some fun train tracks for the boys to play on.

I'm not posting any of Emily's in case she is using them for her Christmas cards! :) I'll post soon about all the fun we had over Thanksgiving!