Thanksgiving '10

While the rest of you are posting about Christmas, I am just now getting to Thanksgiving.  The weather started out quite mild and quickly turned brisk and cold.  Thankfully we got to enjoy the nicer weather outdoors before being cooped up inside for awhile.

We started off with soccer.

We all took turns trying to score.

Mommy played until Daddy accidentally kicked the ball into her tummy.  That's when I exit the building with my sports career.

Justin kept changing the rules, the rules to which he doesn't know well since he's never played the game competitively.

Either they are excited about the game or glad it is over.

Hip hip hurray!

Then it was off to baseball.  Love that my baseball honey is wearing his old baseball team jersey.  Way to support!

I loved watching the family's athleticism.

Kevin was the pitcher most of the time.

This little guy ran like his life depended on it.

I think everyone was just happy to be alive, be outside, and having fun.

There was plenty of trying to get the other "out".

I think everyone was smirking as I got to the plate, but would you believe I smashed the ball farther than anyone else?  I mean business, people.

I am still trying to rack my brain that I knew my husband could juggle.  Surely I knew this, but maybe he hasn't given me reason to remember in awhile.

He said he was bored one day when he was 12 and taught himself to do it.

Of course he did - is there nothing this man cannot do?

Justin took a stroll on the tractor.

And then we made an obstacle course with this little tricycle.  We would time him on Derek's stopwatch on his phone.

Then it was time for family Sorry.  I am sorry to say we did not come home with this game after Christmas.  Guess we will only play it at both of the grandparents' houses.

It's our newest favorite game, well up there with Uno.

Oh, and any game on Grandma's phone.  This child will need to be 20 years old before he gets a cell phone.  He won't get anything done otherwise.

We then played hide-and-go-seek with the turkeys my neighbors gave us.

Lots of places to hid these guys now that we changed locations from my living room.  You can only have so many places to hide them.

We do have 21 of them, you know.

Then the cold front came through.  Right before eating Thanksgiving lunch we managed in about 5 minutes to take this photo outside in the frigid weather.  I was literally running back and forth pushing the timer and checking the photo.  Was worrying more about hair in my mouth instead of making sure my outfit was in place.  Oh well.

Justin rediscovered his love for trains by creating the craziest train tracks.  The Thomas figurines would move through all sorts of road blocks.

We busted out the cold weather gear and went back to our outside obstacle course.  The time greatly improved each time with the means to keep warm.

Speed, I am speed.

The next day I took my parents' Christmas card on a Baylor painted gorilla in town.  The people at this house change his outfit every few months, and we decided to go with it.  Poor Justin had no pants that fit him, and I went on a rampage to find him some larger clothes when we got back. 

My dad got these Baylor Rise Up shirts with an Ezra scripture on the back on them.  Too bad the Bears couldn't rise up to anything at the bowl game last night, but I'll save that for a later post.

We went over to my parents' house on our way out of town.  Justin ran off some energy with flag football.

He was starting to learn the concept of how it worked.  Momma loves it because you don't have to tackle. 

It was about 40 degrees outside but my parents' were good sports.

Even the dogs were in on the fun.  And then we were back to Houston with the varying degrees of temperatures for the rest of the month.  December posts to come shortly...

Merry Christmas

May your Christmas be worshipful as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Thanks again to Rebecca for making Christmas cards a breeze this year!

November in a nutshell

When one is months behind on her blog, she then crams in several activities into one blog post.  November was a little laidback but still full of activities.


On one of our Tuesday fun days we met up with some of our school friends at Discovery Green.

You see Dora was coming, and everyone was in a frenzy.  And since it was free, a crowd had formed to greet her.

Annie's mom, Katherine, put on her daughter's Halloween mask to get in the mood.

And then she came!  I think the head piece was a little unstable as Dora had to hold her chin the entire time.

They start singing songs and dancing, and I look up and see my son trying to see what's in her mouth.  He kept saying she wasn't real (just wait until my Santa post) and wanted to prove it.

I'm sorry I captured this in a photo and THEN went to admonish my son.  I laugh every time I see this.  Such a boy, but definitely not a gentleman!

Then the kids went on a Dora adventure.  The last two days Justin has decided to walk, instead of ride his bike, around the block with me.  And we have finished the walk with our own creative Dora adventure.  Today we went through the chocolate milk river, to the oreo trail, and ended up at the chocolate castle.

Instead of staying in line to take a photo with the celebrity, Justin got one with her better side.

We then lunched in the shade (the day had once again gotten warmer than expected).

As we were walking out, Justin wanted to play in the water.  Though it was warmer, it was only 72 degrees.

I happened to have an outfit in the car, size 3T, that we changed into later (no underwear though).

He had a blast, and eventually got John, Anna, Annie, & Maggie in the wet as well.

It was fun day after all.

We had the privilege of being invited to Ethan's birthday party.  It was at Baseball USA, Derek's old stomping grounds when he would give lessons during the off season.  It was a Texas Rangers' theme, and all the Browns were decked out.

The guy hired to do the party no-showed, so the 7/8 year old boys played a game.  Justin and Braden loved watching the big boys.  Justin was mesmerized.

Smiles with the birthday boy

Landon, who was in PreK last year at our school, was there with his older brother.  Justin would talk about Landon all the time last year.  Now was his big chance to play as besties.

We played on this contraption for a long time.  It was a fun way to practice fast movement and my shutter speed.

Justin in the thick of singing happy birthday with the big boys.  Don't think he realizes how much younger he is.  He loves Ethan, so it was a treat to be included!

Nutcracker weekend came and went.  I went solo for the first time ever on Friday, thanks to Shane babysitting.  Then Elise and Aaron came in town for the weekend.  Saturday morning Derek, Aaron, and Shane went out to Lochinvar and Justin went with us girls to vamp up the Target registry.  He loved using that gun, maybe too much thanks to some deletions.  We then dropped Justin off to finish golf with the big boys and Elise and I went and had fun.

We went to Pickles and Ice Cream to find shower dresses.  This print and color was my face, thought it didn't make the cut,  Well, since this round of the shots was once again a no-go and I am not pregnant, guess I have to hope it will still be around in 2088 or something.  :-)  We then went to Elise's first Nutcracker Market ever, and I think we have something to drive into town for now every year.

Justin was asked to create a Thanksgiving wreath without help from the folks.  The stickers were whatever we had in the drawer.  So he drew his family and lots of gray long-limbed friends and a story about loving family Uno that we play at night.  We keep score and so far Justin is killing both Derek and I. 

I had the privilege of being one of four moms who helped out at the school Thanksgiving Feast.  I did not know we were putting on a puppet show.  I was Pilgrim Man, and it was hilarious listening to the kids say that was Justin's mom.  Guess I need to practice my theater skills more often!