Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was spent at my parents house with my siblings and their families. It was wild and loud and so much fun! My parents are so wonderful to provide the funds for us all to get together. The are so hospitable, the food is always delicious, and we all enjoy being together. My poor brother John is in his 4th year of engineering school and we didn't see him much, his professors assigned projects and tests after Thanksgiving so he spent most of the time studying. I hope you survived your tests, John! 

We had to drive to Denver and fly out there because it was much cheaper. The kids were so confused as to where we were going! It wasn't too bad driving 6 hours plus flying, the drive home after being up since 3:30am was definitely long. Thankfully the weather was nice both ways. 

After we arrived in Houston and were making the drive to my parent's house, Paul feel asleep with his hamburger in his lap. And then Leah decided to use his head as a foot rest. Ha! 

This year us "kids" went to a place called Painting with a Twist. They show you how to paint a certain painting and you can add your own flair if you're creative. I am the least creative or artistic out of everyone. After we are done, my parents judge the paintings and try to figure who painted which one. They guessed almost everyone's correctly! Justin's one tooth painting had me laughing. That's my east-texas man for ya. :)

John got painted on.
This is a classic laughing face from my side of the family. I love it. It makes me laugh too.
We love you, John!

All efforts to get pictures of all of the grandkids together were thwarted by nose pickers, look away-er's, screamers, uncooperativeness, running, jumping, and flailing.

Everyone LOVED swimming in the pool! The kids wore us adults out! 

I have the cutest nephews in the world!

Leah got a baby doll from parents for her birthday.
Paul and David were very sweet and changing the baby's diaper, feeding her, holding her. They will be good daddy's one day.

Continued group picture efforts thwarted again...
These boys are busy busy busy!!

There were a lot of leftover sparklers from my sister's wedding. We enjoyed being pyromaniacs for an evening.

With three 2 year olds, a 1 year old and a 5 year old there was a lot of crying and tantrum throwing during the week. The kids really did love being together. It is fun to watch them interact and play like I remember playing with my cousins!

We went from 70 degrees in Texas, to 19 degrees in Wyoming. Brrr. It was white as far as you could see during our drive through no-man's land in south eastern wyoming. BORING. I can not imagine being a pioneer going along the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon. Wow. 

The week was fantastic. Thank you Dad and Mom for all you did to get us there, for all you sacrificed so our family could spend time together. Thank you for your love and for showing us in so many ways how loved and important we are to you. We miss everyone already!