Thanksgiving 2009

With my due date being the Monday before Thanksgiving, we had no plans to leave home. Instead, my parents and one of my sisters came up to spend the weekend with us and hopefully get to meet baby #3. And let me tell you, I did just about as much as I could to get this baby out--but to no avail. We had a great weekend, though, and I am thankful for all we were able to get done before the little one arrives.

This was the first year I have ever hosted Thanksgiving and prepared the entire meal by myself. It was actually quite fun and nice to not have to travel anywhere. Matt and I are thinking this could be a new tradition for us! We also loved it because it was our first holiday in our new home, we had plenty of space, and I got to use my china and crystal from our wedding!! Yes, it's all been in boxes at my parents house for the last 7 1/2 years and now I finally have space for it!

My kids LOVE egg nog and got to have some in their 'coffee cups' after dinner--the official beginning to the Christmas season. And you can see just how much Sadie enjoyed her cup...

Friday morning I woke up at about 4:30am with some contractions and thought for sure this was the day. I never have contractions prior to going in to labor, so this must be it. I got up and did some online doorbuster shopping and my 6:30am my contractions weren't really progressing. So my mom and I headed out to do some more shopping with a twofold purpose--(1) get some great deals and (2) keep the contractions going and send me in to labor. Well, neither of those purposes were fulfilled. We were too late to get any of the deals we wanted and my contractions stopped. So by 9am we were back home.

After Matt and my Dad realized that the items they wanted to look at were not 'doorbusters' and therefore they didn't need to shop in the morning, we headed up to Cambridge, MN (70 miles away) to my aunt and uncle's Christmas Tree Farm. It is a beautiful place and I have so many great memories of Christmases spent there growing up.

I did, at this point, ask my family if they thought it was a good idea for me to go up there since I had been having contractions and so many of my friends had said earlier in the week, "Well you really aren't thinking about going that far away, are you?" But of course my family, like me, thought it was no big deal. I mean, they do have hospitals there if we needed one. So off we went.

Aunt Adie giving Wyatt, Nani, and Mary Jo a ride up to the house on the gator--probably Wyatt's favorite thing on the farm

My kids were enamored with all the 'wildlife' and hunting gear inside my aunt and uncles house......you can definitely tell that this is a house of 4 boys!

Wyatt is quite the observer and was watching intently as they put each tree on the machine that shakes all the needles out and then baled each tree. My aunt said they usually bale the little kids that help them out during the Christmas season, but Wyatt wasn't too interested in that yet. I do have to say that as I look at this picture, I can't believe how big Wyatt looks!

Family picture in front of the gift shop.....4 days overdue!

With Pops, Nani, and Mary Jo

Once we got home, my Dad, Matt, Mary Jo and Wyatt headed out to do some shopping while Sadie, my Mom and I began the Christmas decorating. Sadie started to dig through the boxes of decorations and found the stockings first....

I mean, where else would you put stockings, right??

She helped me put some of the lights on the tree, however, I am a bit of a 'light' freak and am very particular about how they are put on. I can't stand it when the cord shows and I really despise it when it looks like people just went back and forth across the front of the tree. I know, most people don't care, but for whatever reason I do. And my husband is actual thankful for my attention to detail in this area because our tree does look much better for it!

Enjoying the traditional bottled cokes while putting up the ornaments!

We were trying to get some good pictures of everyone and Sadie's only concern was being able to drink her coke without stopping! Good thing this is a once-a-year tradition!

The true "Coke-a-Cola Classic" drinkers....the rest of us opted for Diet

Our best attempt at a self-timer photo (we missed you Linds and Rob!!)

The sign of a great night!

My family headed home a bit earlier than expected on Sunday afternoon due to the baby deciding not to make its appearance yet. And here I sit on Tuesday afternoon still waiting. We are now 8 days overdue but I have to say that I am actually thankful it didn't come over the weekend because we were able to have so much fun with my family and get so much done.

It was a great Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for---(in no particular order)

*personal relationships with Jesus Christ

*God's grace

*our marriage--which is stronger today than ever before and we are still so much in love with each other

*Wyatt and Sadie--we are so thankful we get to be there parents

*a healthy pregnancy and baby--no fears in this household of having a preemie!

*Matt's job--not only a great job with a great practice, but also in the city we wanted to be in

*Amazing family--we are so blessed to have such supportive families that we both love

*Great neighborhood--we couldn't have picked a better place to live

*Freedom--living in a great country that gives us the freedoms we cherish

There are many more but these seem to top the list. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving (and hopefully we'll have another little one to be thankful for any day now!)

Grandparents Day

On Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving), Wyatt's preschool had "Grandparents Day" to present a little Thanksgiving program and invite relatives to see their school. Wyatt was so excited that Pops (my Dad) was going to be coming and had been counting down the days about a week prior. It was lots of fun and Wyatt was beaming the entire time!

Wyatt was an Indian, along with his friends Isaac and Justin

They had some crafts/activities back in his classroom and Sadie loved getting to make a pilgrim hat and 'dress up' just like Wyatt got to.

Despite not being a pilgrim in the program, Wyatt did get to make a pilgrim hat with Pops!

Wyatt and Sammy (2 of the 3 Musketeers!)

It was a really fun morning and Wyatt loved having Pops visit his school and get to 'participate' in all the activities. And I actually learned a thing or two about Thanksgiving from Wyatt. He was telling everyone at Thanksgiving about the Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, Squanto, Samoset, the Common House, the 5 kernels of corn each person got, etc. It was lots of fun and actually made our Thanksgiving that much more special!

Another funny....

As Wyatt and Sadie were fighting over who could go first while helping me bake some holiday goodies, I was attempting to take the moment to teach Wyatt about selflessness. I said, "Wyatt, how do you think Jesus wants us to treat others? Doesn't he want us to let other people go first?"

To which he replied, "But Mom, I am the other people."

You can't help but laugh at that one.

When 'no one' is watching

I happened to be able to video tape one of those precious moments when you catch your kids doing something adorable and they have no idea you are watching. They were in bed pretending to be 'going to bed' and were praying....so cute!!

He's come a long way

Halloween Part II

On Friday night, we went to church with our neighbors for a kids' Pumpkin festival. I had to take these pictures of the kids in the car on our way there--it cracked me up to see this in my rearview mirror!

Sadie was "Miss Spider" from

the book "Miss Spider's Tea Party"

Spiderman

Sadie really looks up to our neighbors 2 daughters (Gracie is Wyatt's age and Lily is 8yrs. old) and since they were getting their hair 'colored', Sadie had to as well!

Of course she picked pink!

She wasn't sure about getting her face painted, so we opted for getting her hand painted....and she chose a cute little ladybug! (Don't you just love the pink hair?!)

And in typical Wyatt fashion, he wanted Sadie to go first so he could check it out.

Once he saw that she lived through the whole ordeal, he was okay with getting it done as well

And his choice? A spiderweb of course!

This is a terrible picture but I had to include it on here. The guys sitting at this table were like "Science Guys" doing all kinds of cool 'experiments' and tricks for the kids to watch. Wyatt was so intrigued with it all, despite the fact that much of it was way over his head. But he still listened intently and got really excited when the guy in the black shirt showed the kids the hydrogen car (see the little white thing on the table). When he said, "This car runs on water!" Wyatt turned around and looked at us with huge eyes and said, "Wow!" Maybe he'll be an engineer someday like his Pops! He definitely was fascinated by this more than all the candy and games!

Then home to carve some pumpkins!!

(Nothing like waiting until the night before Halloween)

So excited to begin the carving!

And it's serious business whenever you give Matt a scalpel, er, i mean a carving knife!

(Gotta love the pink hair--thankfully it came out easily!)

Sadie was all fun and games--the boys on the other hand, had a serious plan of attack and took their carving very seriously.

Now on to carving Daddy's pumpkin

(I tried to take a better picture of all the pumpkins, but

Sadie's just wouldn't stay lit--so sorry about the blurry picture! At least

you can see what Sadie's little one looked like!)

Halloween is finally here! Bring on the candy..

Another picture taken inside after they were done trick-or-treating.

The great thing about having younger kids is that they don't last very

long! They started getting cold AND were dying to eat their candy.

The kids had a great time and it was even more fun living in a neighborhood with SO many kids. We had our first experience of getting 'booed'. We had never heard of this before, but during the weeks leading up to Halloween, someone will leave a bag of candy on your doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run away. And inside the bag is a little picture of a ghost to hang in your window so everyone in the neighborhood knows if you've already been 'booed'. The kids LOVED this and I think they like 'booing' more than getting 'booed'. But they are already talking about what they want to dress up as for Halloween next year!