Thanksgiving weekend

We packed up and traveled to Alto for Thanksgiving on Tuesday afternoon. On the way, we stopped at a convenient store in Madisonville to take a bathroom brake where the kids saw lollipops they had to have. Lillian held onto hers as we rode, but Andrew decided to chew through the plastic wrap and ended up with rainbow colors all over him!

Wednesday, we celebrated Thanksgiving with mom. I made this Turtle pumpkin pie I saw the recipe for in a magazine. It was really good and the kids loved it too.

Then we went over to Dad's on Wednesday evening and spent Thanksgiving day. The kids loved playing outside there. Lillian also liked sharing a book with Grandpa.

Then on Friday, we made a quick gift run to Jacksonville to pick up something on Grandma's list and they had a mule drawn wagon in the parking lot with free rides, so we took a ride around the parking lot. Lillian loved it. Andrew wasn't so sure. When we got home, Lillian was still excited about the mules and wanted to see the neighbor's horses, so we walked over and she fed it a carrot.

Video from Thanksgiving day:

We Visited Santa

We went ahead and saw Santa today at the mall. I like to go early and avoid the long lines with my 2 small kids that don't do so well with all the people. Lillian was excited and ran right up to him this year. She sat and was right at home. Andrew on the other hand, just held on to me and wouldn't let go. At least he didn't cry or scream, but he wasn't sure about that bearded man at all. Maybe next year both of my kids will cooperate!

A Game with Friends

We went to probably our last Tx State football game of the year yesterday. It was a disappointing loss as we will not make the playoffs now. McNeese came back and won it at the end.

But besides that, it was a fun outing. It was a close game, so fun to watch and the kids were excited because our neighbors came and they love their buddy, Tyler. He and Andrew climbed all over and got into trouble together. Sweet baby Audrey seemed to enjoy the lights and noise as well. Plus, it was fun to have some other adults to visit with! Jeff is a fellow Tx State alumnus and his parents were also there. Thanks for coming, Karen and Jeff. We enjoyed it!

My Singing/Dancing Kids

Lillian and Andrew love music....plus they love the music that I subject them to in the car, so they are up on the current songs! ha ha...Lillian has been singing along to many songs for a while now, but now Andrew has decided to sing out parts too besides his usual swaying to the music. Here are a couple of videos I made the other evening to them watching some music on youtube.

The Kid's Professional Pictures

I'm picking up Lillian's pictures tomorrow and it just occurred to me I haven't shared hers or Andrew's pictures on here. Andrew had his pictures taken at J C Penney about a month ago and I waited on Lillian to take school pictures to buy them, but of course she threw a fit and wouldn't take them at school, so I took her by herself last week back to J C Penney and had hers taken as well. They turned out really cute!

Race for the Cure 2009

My sisters, brother-in-law, and mom all came in this weekend for the 2009 Komen Race for the Cure. We participated in it last year, but it was even more special to us this year with mom fighting breast cancer this year. Mom just had a chemo treatment on Friday, so she didn't walk and my sister Katy, had a small surgery this past week and couldn't walk either, so they kept the kids and walked around to the survivor tent and to see all the other festivities while Tory, Molly, Howard, and I ran. I was pleased with my run time this year of 28 minutes at 1 second....36 seconds better than last year placing 32 in my age 25-29 division of 164 runners. Not too shabby!

We also got a lot of great freebies and it is just fun to be around all that positive energy of everyone pulling together for the cause. The kids also did great and didn't even get out of the strollers the whole time we were there. They were just happy to get all of the little free water bottles and other stuff to play with.

Mom did well this weekend after her chemo. She didn't feel great, I can tell, but enjoyed herself. We told her that she will have to run next year! :)

***I want to say a special thanks to all that supported us in our fundraising for the cure and also to Jamie for our pretty bracelets she made us for the cause as well.

Happy Halloween

Lillian and Andrew had a great time trick-or-treating this year! Lillian lead the way to each door and rang the bell as Andrew followed behind and came up to the door with her. He even started saying something that sounded like "Trick or Treat." It was too cute! He did get really tired at one point, but once I gave him a tootsiepop from his bag, he was wanting to run and was wired again.

We got to do the first half of our trick-or-treating with our neighbors, Karen and Jeff and their kids, Tyler and Audrey. They came out the door about the same time as us, so we just walked together. Molly also borrowed my old Gumby costume and people loved to see her out...although it was a little old for some kids who called her "Yoshi"! ha ha....

The kids had a great Halloween and I know we are in for even more fun next year! Although, I think the kids may think we can do this all the time now.