Sunday Sillies and the Sandbox

Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE these boys?!?

 Cole kept yelling "up, down" when he would stand on top and then run to the bottom

 Something (or someone) was funny...

 Sweet boy...

 Funny boy... and determined boy...

 LOVE this one!

 Cracks me up!!!

Does this say, "Take the d&%n picture already!!!"???

 Such a Richard face...

 Perfect -- a sling-shot shaped stick G found... on second thought...

 Sharing in the sandbox...

 My heart is overflowing!!!

More F-U-N from our week off...

We kept busy all week with lots and lots of playing.  You couldn't have asked for better weather, and since Cole has decided he's not happy unless he's outside... well, we obliged!  We also took care of some other things...

I had a girls night last Friday and we saw the new Twilight movie... it was so great!  Nothin' like skinny margaritas and a much anticipated vampire movie -- LOVE girls nights!

(no idea why I look like a vampire in this pic - also, hate this pic... love these girls though!)

Grady's school picture retake came today through email... can't believe he is almost 6!

I got my Christmas cards made and ordered - I am very happy with the final product!

Gotta LOVE Shutterfly!  I ended up using the family picture taken of us at the pumpkin patch, and then individual recent pictures I took of the boys.  I never ended up getting one decent of both kids, but I think this design worked out well.  I actually love them!   

 Cole is book, Thomas, Elmo and outside obsessed.  

We also heard LOTS of good talking from this little guy this week!

 Grady loves art projects, so we made salt dough ornaments and will paint them sometime this week!

Talk about cheap and easy entertainment...

 Bike riding, bike riding and more bike riding...

 We played "campers" and collected firewood.  

This is Grady I think starting a fire... pretend that is. 

 This would be Cole stealing the sticks out of the fire and running away with them...

I think G told him he would catch on fire if he kept doing that.  Nice...

 Sweet big boy!

 We discovered (after finding drips of blood all over the floor), that Cole had sliced a chunk of his pinky toe skin off playing outside.  The sink cheered him right up!

 My new cute ski cap for this winter - love it!

I also did lots of Black Friday shopping and found lots of good deals. 

 Here are my sweet boys today... bummer that our Thanksgiving Break has come to an end.  

Cole kept running up to G and saying "hug" ... melts-my-heart!

Turkey Day 2012

Well, we hosted Thanksgiving for the in-town members of Richard's Family... which would be the reason for so few pictures!  Boo.   I was busy cooking, serving, hosting and dealing with kids and then just forgot picture taking.  I'll give you the recap. 

We started the day with the Thanksgiving Day Parade, after the kids slept until 8 - wahoo!   I say parade, but really it is half parade, and half musical production.  I personally like the floats, seeing that it's a parade and all. 

 During the parade, I started on the stuffing.

Grady loved watching the floats (while I cooked) and Cole liked running inside and outside all morning.  The weather was beautiful and Daddy kept the kids entertained all morning (LOVE you honey!), while I started prepping for our dinner. 

 Dancing to ... Not sure what?

Yep, those are Christmas decorations in the background.  I figure it takes so much work to put them out, you might as well enjoy them from Thanksgiving until Christmas!~

Random funny -  Cole enjoys filling my ice dispenser with animal magnets.  Thanks buddy!

 My fav dish of the day -- Green Bean bundles - Pinterest idea!

Green beans, wrapped with bacon, sprinkled with brown sugar, pepper, soy sauce and garlic... and butter.

Did I mention butter?!?  Delicious... I'm gonna try with asparagus next! 

 Daddy dumping the stuffing out - that bird was heavy!

I actually used carrots, celery, rosemary, lemon, onion and garlic, salt and pepper, and then also injected it with Cajun injector seasoning.  I was a little nervous about all the seasonings, but it worked out well.  

 The finished product - YUMMO!

I also made deviled eggs, stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy.  Lana brought salad and fruit and Elaine brought her rolls and a cake.  We had lots of food, yummy food. 

 By dinner time we were all hungry and it was all so good!

 Wii playing going on...

I had never personally made my own turkey, and this year was a huge success.  I have to say, it's way easier than I thought.  If you have any fear of the turkey - don't - it's a piece of cake!  I had also watched Thanksgiving Live on the Food Network the night before, and talked to my mom about 14 times as well.

This was the only picture I snagged from Richard's phone of our guests.  Sweet Aunt Lana entertained Cole the whole evening!

Well, Thanksgiving was such a great day!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful families, near and far!     

We are Thankful for OUTSIDE Play!

(I ran out of free blog/picture storage space so I am a little bit behind...)

The last few days it's been unseasonably warm here, and I have to admit (even though I personally love the cold weather) with little kids, 70's is perfect!  We have spent more time outside than inside the last few days, and the kids are happy and exhausted by bedtime... which is the goal of every parent, am I right?!?

We have been walking down the street to the park almost every day, and sometimes twice, to get some energy out.  G rides his bike on the dirt paths and Cole digs in the dirt and collects sticks.  

Good times!

 Who says we don't get fall colors in Texas?!?

 Dirt diggin!

 We also had a picnic lunch of CFA at Fort Wildflower again... LOVE this park for the little one!

 Does he not look so big here?!?  

Side note - I promise Cole does look into our eyes regularly... just not for pictures - little turkey!

He has been feeling particularly feisty lately... still so stinkin' cute though!

What a great day with the kiddos!!!