Sanger Trip, Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas!

Thanksgiving was pretty normal in our house this year. It was just the four of us, which sometimes is so nice simply because when we sit down to eat and hear "Yucky! I don't want this food!" that Vic has worked so hard on, we don't have to look around at other people and be embarrassed! We had spent the days earlier in the week in Sanger for a quick trip at Melbo and GG's house that included celebrating Charley's birthday, putting up Melbo's tree, playing with Bubba the cat, and hanging out. So, while were gone, Vic had already put up all of his outside lights and prepared part of the food to cook on Thursday. So, we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and ate lunch and then Vic got the Christmas decorations down. It was a pretty low key day that ended with me doing some Black Friday shopping! On Friday, the kids started putting together little trees with tiny ornaments and we started working on the big tree. Around 6 or so that evening, we realized half of the tree's lights did not work! And if you know Vic, that will just not do. So, after trying and trying to fix it and make it work, Vic headed to Lowe's to buy another tree. By the time the night was over, we had the tree up and decorated. It was late but we let Atticus stay up to help us and he was so funny! He took his job so seriously. He loved that he was getting to stay up late and that Grace had to go to bed. He wanted to help with all of the ornaments and would tell us which ones he could put on (even if they were breakable) and tell us which ones to put up high so Grace wouldn't get them. He loved going through those ornaments! It was a sweet evening with him. The rest of the weekend was spent with me making ornaments for our church's family advent devotion and Vic and Atticus saw "The Good Dinosaur" in the theater. It was a nice family weekend!

 

 These two look so old here!

 

Ah-a casual Thanksgiving Feast.

 

 So, the two pictures above show some of the donkey's I made for "A Meaningful Christmas" Advent ornament exchange and devotion that I organized for 24 people at our church. Of course, I was finishing these up the last minute, but I loved how they turned out!

 And here's a few pictures from our fast trip to Sanger:

 

 Feeding goats.

 Even if Bubba is not interested, he is pretty patient while Grace plays with him non-stop.

 Happy 27th Birthday Charley!

While we worked on the tree, Melbo and Atticus played some Go Fish, which Atticus LOVES to play.

So, while we didn't know that Vic and I would be doing the same thing of trying to get lights to work on our tree at home, GG and I first spent a good hour or so on Tuesday trying to make these lights work on this tree. It was pretty hilarious once we realized that there were so many missing. But, we just forged on and covered it with ornaments!

Atticus and his GG!

Playing Catchup: Huey Powell Weekend

We had our annual fall Huey Powell weekend in November. On November 15th, they all came to the house (actually the Powells stayed all weekend) for a fun day for the kids to play and adults to visit. Actually, this time around Mandee, Emily and I even got a couple of hours away to have a visit at Napa Flats with no kids! It was full of toys everywhere, lots of snacks, lots of playtime and lots of fun! And here's a picture to show how big our babies are getting!

Ben, Beck, Leighton, Camden, Atticus, Haley & Grace!

Playing Catchup: Aggie Football Season

We had a up and down football season - we never knew who our quarterback would be and we had some great and not so great games. A couple funny things about football this year is that 1) Atticus learned from early on that we DO NOT like Alabama. In fact, Whitney was in town for the Alabama game and we tailgated on campus and talked a lot about beating Alabama. Well, ever since then, if there is ever a "bad guy" or we are watching ANY football game, Atticus will just assume Alabama is the bad guy or other team and say "Go Aggies! Beat Alabama! We do NOT like Alabama!" or if he wants to tease us, he will tell us he wants Alabama to win, before going back to the Aggies. 2) Hearing Grace yell "Go Aggies!" and noticing the ATM logo for the ags anywhere has been fun. She picks up on things ever quicker with a big brother like Atticus! Plus, she is just a smart little girl!

Also, this year, Vic and I went to Sanger and along with Mom & Dad, Tabatha and Stormy and my college friend Shelby and her husband Matt, we all went to the Arkansas/Aggie game in the Dallas Cowboys stadium. Daddy and I planned it out so we could tailgate all day and watch the Corps of Cadets walk in. He has been once a few years ago and enjoyed that part especially. Well, we ate good, enjoyed a great day of tailgating in great weather, did a lot of people watching, played some 42, visited, and then went to the game. Unfortunately, the Corps had already done a march in that morning in downtown Fort Worth, so we missed that part. :( But, we went to the game and cheered the Aggies on to an overtime win - whew. It was just a lot of fun and a nice, relaxing, day. I will say that since we decided to not spend every dollar we had on seats, we ended up pretty close to the top. However, I think next time we will invest a little more. It's easy to get up there, but WHOA! You feel like you are going to fall over once you get up there. It is REALLY high up and I felt much better sitting down than walking around. But, it was a great experience and something I hope we do again in the future!

Also, I have to document our Alabama game tailgating experience. It was towards the end of October and we like to take the kids to one game to walk around campus each year. We usually do the one where the COALS tailgate occurs so we can eat lunch and visit with anyone we know. And it happened to be the Alabama game weekend. Plus, Whitney, Katie, Steve & Patricia were in town for the game and even had a ticket for Vic, since Kristofer couldn't come at the last second. It was a really fun weekend of having everyone at the house for dinner each evening and because ANRP was celebrating 25 years of the intern program, Cady even got Whitney and I a tour of the new Kyle Field. So, it was just a busy and great weekend. Well, on Saturday, I had the MOST special time with Atticus. When we arrived to tailgate, it occurred to me that I had not brought anything for the kids to do and that Atticus thought he was going to go to the game and see more than what we had for him. So, while Katie's parents were tailgating there and had washers and boards that Grace played with, Atticus and I snuck off walk around Kyle Field and campus. It was so much fun! Just he and I walked through the tailgates and all the way to Kyle where we took pictures, saw so many statues (which became is bucket list for the day - finding all the statues that happen to be really new since the renovations have been done to Kyle), and then going to each booth that was advertising something and giving something away. Atticus was just so cute in his little Aggie gear and held my hand and walked and wanted his picture made and to see what each booth had or if there was a game for him. He LOVED collecting his prizes. By the time we got back, and found Vic, Atticus was anxious to show Vic his prizes and then find more. We ate lunch at the tailgate and then right before it was time for the kids and I to head home to watch the game on TV and everyone else to head to their seats, the 4 of us headed into the Ag Center to see the department booths. I don't think anyone could have loved this setup more. Atticus went to every department. So, he spent the most time in the Entomology booth because they had bugs to look at and touch. Then, he spent time winning a prize in the Soil & Crop booth because Vic knew all of the grasses and crops. He went around to everyone and was so excited. He told me multiple times "I am such a lucky boy!" when he would get another goodie. It was so cute and I loved it so much! I hope to remember this Aggie day forever!

 

 

Playing Catchup: Halloween

Halloween was really fun this year! Grace understood all of the Halloween things because Atticus was so into it: ghosts, costumes, spiders, spooky things, haunted houses, everything. We watched all the "pooky" shows for Doc, Mickey, Shimmer & Shine, Paw Patrol, etc. but Grace's favorite was "Mickey Boo!" and we even recited the story (from the cartoon) each night at bedtime with her other stories. Oh! And every night, we would go through all of the Paw Patrol characters so she could tell me what she thought they should dress up as for Halloween. So funny! We decorated their rooms with lights (purple for Grace of course) and spider webs and Halloween drawings. Atticus especially loved this part. We did some other fall things like go to the pumpkin patch and the corn maze in town and hit up our fall festival at church. They wore their costumes to school. Grace was a kitty - since she is SO into kitties! And Atticus was a dinosaur - a pterodactyl actually! GG came into town and made his entire costume and it was so great! I threw pieces together to make Grace's, but she only let me do her face one time when we practiced. She never wore her face paint to school or even on Halloween. On Halloween night, GG was here and we had Chris, Katherine and Olivia over for dinner and trick or treating in our neighborhood. The kids were so excited to trick or treat. Atticus knew exactly what to do and so did Grace...but she got distracted. There is a neighborhood cat that has been around the last few months and belongs to a family down the street. It is the sweetest cat and the kids love it. So, she happened to see it and then it ran off and for the first few houses, all she really wanted to do was say "here titty!" and whistle for the cat. So, she was a little slow to trick or treat at first. THEN, we realized that Atticus would not go up to a house unless there were no kids there. He would just wait at the end of the sidewalk and not even let Grace walk up there without him with her, until the kids walked away from the door. He was too funny! But, he was great at helping Grace and trick or treating. And he got more comfortable as the night went on. Grace, however, got tired of walking. We walked the entire neighborhood and Vic actually pulled our red wagon with some drinks and snacks in it and it turns out that it was a good idea. We didn't expect the kids to ride in it, but Grace decided she was tired. So this became our routine: Grace got in the wagon after a house, rode it until the next house, got out, trick or treated, and then got back in. Over and over. It was just too funny to tell her no, but definitely took more time! So, she may have skipped a few houses without knowing it, while Atticus hit them all. She also wanted to eat the candy as she went (and so did Atticus!) and she was only really interested in suckers while Atticus preferred chocolate. They were a mess. And boy were we all tired at the end of the night. Olivia didn't last as long (bless those infant bedtimes!) so they left about an hour in, but the rest of us trudged along. It was really fun and I think this is the first year I have had so much fun around Halloween time because the kids were so into it! Here's some Halloween pictures!

 This was the first house they wanted to go to. For the two weeks prior, the neighbors decorated the lawn with all kinds of zombies and ghosts and the kids LOVED going to visit it each night. So, finally, they got to see it this night when all the lights and sounds were going.

 Grace was just whistling for that cat!

 

 Atticus would not let Grace go to a house until he was ready!

 Enjoying your chariot, Grace?