Thanksgiving Weekend Recap!

We had such a good Thanksgiving break! Having Liam home the entire week was the best. We are counting down until Christmas break already! We lounged, we explored, we celebrated, and more. It was a full week! 

This will be an extra long weekend recap because our weekend began on Wednesday! Will took off from Tuesday afternoon on, so on Wednesday we headed to the zoo! It was freezing out but the crowds were low and the animals were out, so it turned out to be a pretty perfect little outing. The kids got to run around which Elias loved and the big kids got to pet a ball python!

We are wimps! It was upper 40's when we got there but we were slowly peeling layers as it got warmer. 

 1 little, 2 little, 3 little penguins! 

After the zoo, we headed to my parents' house to surprise my dad for his 60th birthday! My mom sent him off to buy himself a present...which ended up taking 2 extra hours than we thought! But he finally came home and was super surprised. I ordered these cake toppers from Etsy and they were so funny! And yes, we put SIXTY candles on his cake. It was a bonfire! Happy Birthday, Dad! We love you! 

After dinner we had s'mores in the fire pit, and then it was time for bed in our Thanksgiving jams! 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I am so very thankful for these three and their Daddy!!! 

E mesmerized by the parade performances. 

The kids alternated between watching and playing outside. Liesl loved the Rockettes and said, "I wanna be dat!" Me too, sister! 

My dad also took the kids on multiple tractor rides up and down the street. Happy Texas Thanksgiving, y'all! Ha! 

We headed to my aunt's for a big Thanksgiving dinner with my dad's side and to watch the Cowboy game! 

Our black Friday shopping the next morning consisted of donuts....and a new TV! 

We spent the weekend decorating for Christmas and just lounging. It was so nice! The house is a wreck right now with boxes and stuff everywhere so getting everything in it's place is my job this week. We put the big tree in a new spot this year, so I have some rearranging to do. I didn't post a tour last year, but I will make sure to this year! 

My Sunday morning babies! Elias moved up to the toddler room this week which was bittersweet, but I peeked in on him and he was having a blast which made me smile! 

Elias never lasts very long with these photos, but I can always get the bigs to stay still for a couple more. :) 

Liesl got into my lipstick stash and gave herself a little makeover. She is so into makeup right now! 

And we capped off Thanksgiving break with a birthday party for one of Liam's sweet friends! This two have been in the same class for K and 1s grade and are super tight! 

Have a great week!! 

Weekend Recap!

I have to start our weekend recap off on last Thursday because it was Thanksgiving feast day for our little turkey! Liesl wore this dress last year and I *think* we might be able to get one more year out of it as a tunic. I love when that happens, but I have a love/hate with being able to go back and compare how much she's grown. 

My mom came into town to help me out because I had a dentist appointment that day, and thankfully she was here early enough to come with me and Elias to get his silhouette done. It was all hands on deck trying to keep the tiny tornado still, but look at the result! I die over these! I now have silhouettes of all three kiddos right around age 1. It is so interesting to compare them. Liesl and Elias look so similar in their profiles, but Liam and Elias look identical at this age from straight on -- crazy! I'll have to post some comparison pictures soon. 

On Fridays, little miss has dance class. Her sweet friend Brooke is in her class and they have a ball together. 

After dance we headed to my MIL's house to bring her some things and hang out. Elias reminds me so much of Liam at his age; he's ALL about the cars and trucks right now. He will push them around and make "brrrrr" sounds! He also loves throwing them down the stairs so that's fun, haha. 

Saturday we spent the entire day in the kitchen! I asked the kids if they would like to deliver pumpkin bread to all the neighbors, and they loved the idea. I probably should have stepped outside and actually counted all of our neighbors before I said that, but 18 loaves later we got it done! We were also hosting our third annual Friendsgiving with our supper club that night, so turkey, ham, dressing, sweet potato casserole, and deviled eggs were also made!

The kids helped me set the table for their friends, and I just realized we never got a kid picture! We had four couples, 10 kids, and LOTS of food. It was a great time, as always! 

On Sunday the kids wore their Turkeys for Thanksgiving! 

Elias was actually cooperating for pictures this morning, hallelujah. 

My pretty girl.

And this Sunday was extra special because Liam made the most important decision of his life; to follow Jesus! He actually came to us the Sunday before and told us he was ready to ask Jesus into his heart and be baptized. We've been talking about this forever, but more seriously answering his questions and what it really means to give your life to Christ over the last year. We prayed with him at home, and it was the sweetest time listening to him pray for his salvation. Then it was his turn to go public.  He'd been nervous about the whole baptism aspect of it since at our church, it's in front of hundreds of people. But over the past few months God has really been working on his heart and his courage, and he is ready! (We started taking notice of this surge in courage when he got his flu shot a few weeks ago and didn't shed one tear - last year he FLIPPED OUT. He also currently has his first loose tooth and has repeatedly asked me to "get a tool" and yank it out. They made sound small, but these were truly signs to us that he was ready to go down in front of the church.) So he marched down in front of the entire congregation and told our pastor he was ready to give his life to Jesus. We are so excited for him! Baptism date TBD! 

After church, we had our first family Thanksgiving! We had lunch with Will's family but I didn't take a single picture. :( We had a table fall of delicious food and capped off the afternoon by introducing Liam to the game, Rummikub. Have you played it? It's says 8+ but he caught on pretty quickly, and it's a game kids and adults can both enjoy! We are definitely going to have to add it to our family game collection. 

Sunday evening we passed out our pumpkin bread! We went door to door and the kids ran up eager to deliver their goodies. Liesl knocked and Liam perfected his line of, "Happy Thanksgiving! We made you some pumpkin bread!" Our neighbors are great and were so sweet to them. 

 `

Aaaaand we ended the night with a sleepover in our room because NO SCHOOL! 

Tahoe Travels: Finale

Oh, hey. 

I didn't mean to take {another} extended blog break. 

October was very full and then I got so behind that I spent most of November trying to figure out how/where/when to start back. Liam is on Thanksgiving break, and somehow with an extra kid at home, I'm actually feeling like I will have more time on my hands to crank some posts out. Hello, both kids off school and activities and not feeling like a taxi driver for an entire week! 

I'm going to wrap up our Tahoe trip, from AUGUST, and then I've decided I'm just going to get back to our daily life posts with some posts dedicated to what I've skipped thrown in the mix. I miss posting about our simple days together, and that's always what I love reading about others too! So here's to weekend recaps, days in the life, and some first day of school and pumpkin patch pictures randomly thrown in there as well. :) 


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So, to finish up our Tahoe vacation...


Look at that lake water! This was another beach day and while the water was still freezing, it was a warm, sunny day to relax and play in the sand. 

Crazy kid! 

Elias was loving it! 

This day started with breakfast at the cutest cafe, Bert's Cafe, followed by a hike to Upper Angora Lake. Will took the big kids on a row boat around the lake while Elias and I ate lunch and fed chipmunks. 

We rented a family bike one day! It was super cheesy and touristy which is exactly why I wanted to do it! We got the biggest bike because of all the kids, who were no help, so it was actually insanely hard to pedal, but the views were worth every huff and puff! 

Another wonderful trip to our second favorite state!