Turkey Day Recap

We are currently driving back to Texas after a very eventful and happy few days with my side of the family. The kids are asleep, Christmas music is (unashamedly) playing on the radio, and IT’S SNOWING and looks so pretty (but is kind of scary to drive in!) 

I thought I would pop in and share a few photos from Thanksgiving Day. Here we gooooo....

First off, it was an absolutely beautiful day! I’ve always loved that would can see the front range from my old bedroom window.

Lily Mae got in lots of snuggle time with I think everyone in the family, in gliding good old Pops!

We watched the parade (duh!) because I am a true traditionalist and cannot miss it.

Laura (or Julie as Hayes calls her because, as he sadly/sweetly admitted, he cannot say “Laura” and is  self conscious that is comes out “Rah-Rah”....I cant with that cuteness!)....anyways, Laura and the boys were playing on some LEGO computer game all morning. Parker LOVES that he has an aunt who will play with him!

We FaceTimed the Anthony side of the family and my mom might kill me for posting this picture. 

Lily continued her job and head snuggler and took a nap on her Dad.

I had fun scouring my Mom’s decor-overloaded basement to decorate the dining table. I fully support her decor-hoarding habits. ;)

I somehow got out of helping with pretty much all food prep this year. Doesn’t our feast look delicious and ready to enjoy?!

We enjoyed dinner with the whole family, including the boyfriends, which I just now realized meant that for the first time ever there were more boys than girls at a Thanksgiving meal at my parents house which is super weird and awesome.

I wrangled these guys in for a photo. Thanks Jeremy for your superb photography skills!

And the kids enjoyed some time outside scootering and running and working off the feast that they did not eat. ;) ;) ;) Ha! But seriously. 

My babies are crazy and cute and apparently make me laugh very hard!

The adults “worked off” there food by watching the Cowboys pull out a win which I guess makes them 1st in the NFC East which Bryan says just shows how bad the NFC East is. 

And then we left the grandparents to put the babies to bed (again! I felt kind of guilty) and drove out to the outlets to do one of FAVORITE traditions.....Black Friday (or Brown Thursday, as I hear it) shopping!!! I know Black Friday gets a bad rap, but y’all, I am always HERE for it. 

Bryan got some pants and I got this really cute leopard print dress at J. Crew and then spent and hour and a half trying to decide between two Kate Spade purses and didn’t end up getting either one of them! Sorry if my life. It was fun though. 

That’s all I’ve got. IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am currently sitting on the couch in my pajamas watching the Macy's parade and enjoying the smell of onions and butter cooking (the BEST) and thought it would be a great time to pop in and share some of our memories from the past week. We have had so much fun. 

I'm going to attempt to use as few words as possible because there's lots to do today....so we will see how this goes!

We headed to our dear Lubbock on Friday for a busy weekend. On Saturday, me, Judy, and Lily Mae ditched the boys and went to one of my FAVORITE events of the entire year: Holiday Happening!! Like every other year, this year did not disappoint one bit. Geez I love Christmas music and shopping.

Lilybug was in her Christmas best and actually did really well---mostly on account of a much-needed stroller nap that allowed us some uninterrupted shopping. 

I am aware that this scene makes some people crazy, but I am not one of those people. 

There is nothing better!

We shopped till we dropped (and collected and few new favorites for my closet!), and then headed home to freshen up and head over to Friendsgiving with our fabulous Lubbock crew. 

I don't feel too left out yet thanks to our running group text, but being with these girls (and their husbands) in person is so bittersweet and makes me miss them even more! We love this bunch.

And we love ALLLLL of these babies. 

We left Parker and Hayes at my in-laws house so I felt like a really awesome parent only having to pay attention to one child.

The whole group! (Minus the Taylors and the Allens and about half of our kids!)

Lily and her future husband, Easton.

We loved getting to see our Grammy and Bee all weekend as well! Their house still feels like home and makes me so happy.

On Sunday, we got the treat of going to Monterey and enjoying a great worship service before catching up with so many sweet friends. We spent the afternoon eating, napping, watching football, and selling stuff on Trading Up because I really like to haul junk from Dallas to Lubbock and add unnecessary things to my to-do list but hey! I made like $160 so I was excited about that. 

On Monday we DROVE THROUGH THE NIGHT (yes) and arrived in CO exhausted and happy for my parents to take our crazy kiddies off our hands!

They made a park trip and probably did a bunch of other things while me and Bryan slept and then we got ready for: FAMILY PHOTOS! Yay. Actually it went fairly well with the exception of Lily is was determined to keep both paci and blankie in hand for all photos.

After photos we drove over to Hacienda for our usual (and now sentimental) dinner of Quesochangas and my new favorite: bacon-wrapped-shrimp. We also got to meet Laura's BOYFRIEND John who is every bit as nice as I hoped he would be! It's so weird to have grown up sisters. 

After dinner the "big kids" went to see the new Harry Potter movie which we thought was AWESOME.

------

Yesterday, I caught the cutest moment with Lily Mae curled up beside her Nonnie on the living room floor fast asleep. 

SO DANG SWEET.

We mostly just hung around the house (and it was amazing) and then Bryan and I snuck off on a date! We were *super* creative with our date and headed to the mall to eat at the Cheescake Factory and enjoy some pre-Black Friday shopping. We had so much fun and I always love to be reminded of how much I like being with my husband! I also love Park Meadows decorated for Christmas! (I have no photos of this outing but thought it was worth the mention.)

While we were gone, the kids "helped" with Thanksgiving preparations which I'm sure required ample amounts of patience from their aunts. (Pictures are once again courtesy of my Mom.)

And that's about all I've got. I LOVE this time of year and I LOVE THANKSGIVING!

More videos on YouTube!

Crafty Projects For Our Home

Hello, hello! Haysie is sitting right next to me and is telling me so many sweet things. "Mom, I want to sit and watch you work.", and "I like your 'puter (computer). I guess I'll get a wittle 'puter cause I'm a wittle boy." Not being much of a Fournado today---too busy being cute!

This past weekend I stayed up into the night working on a few projects that I actually somewhat completed so I thought I would share!

First up is this new (to me) cane back chair that I found during my first-ever trip to a furniture consignment store. I have a thing for cane back chairs and have been looking for a "petite" chair to fit in our little built-in bathroom vanity and was so happy to find this cutie! It was already in pretty great condition (I love the way the wood looks) but the seat needed to be recovered so I took my first go at upholstery and let me just tell you that I quickly found I am not destined to work in the upholstery business!! 

I went through my fabric stash and picked one of my favorite favorite remnants from a clearance bin a few years ago. I only had to purchase the trim from Hobby Lobby which cost me a whopping $2. 

I spent most of the evening watching Christmas movies and pulling and tugging and trying to get the dang corners to look the same. I eventually pretty much gave up and decided to give the chair a "pleated" look in the corners (which actually still took me half a Hallmark movie to get right) because, as I said, furniture upholstery is apparently not one of my gifts. 

This is what I got in the end, and I'm pretty happy with it especially since it was such a cheap project.

I still need to get another strip of smaller trim to put on top of the first because you can still kind of see some of the staples and fabric edges, which is why I said at the beginning of this post that these projects are almost complete.

Cute little thing in its new nook!

My second project of the evening was to spruce up my good ole' Christmas wreath that has hung on our front door since before Parker was born. I purchased this wreath at a WONDERFUL store called Paul Michael's when my in-laws lived in Louisiana and I kid you not, I stuffed it in my suitcase to fly back to Lubbock (MUCH to my sister-in-law's amusement, and I think, amazement). 

I re-did this wreath last year as well but in a more understated way with my usual neutrals and greens....but this year we went crazy outside and put up RED and white Christmas lights so it opened me up to a whole new world decorating-wise mostly because, for anyone who doesn't know, I don't use red in my inside Christmas decor which always makes me a bit sad, but it's just not in my house at all and doesn't fit! I was pumped to get to use some traditional red outside. (It's the little things, guys.)

Usually we go all white with our exterior lights, but both boys were begging for "fun" lights, and since we are in "Christmas Prime-Time" for them, we just had to oblige!

Anyways! I am so good at rambling.

Here is the wreath.

(I'm kind of impressed that these are iPhone photos--phone pictures have come a long way recently!)

I made me another trip to Hobby Lobby--WHICH, I need to tell you, my new pop-up-shop friend (her name is Aubree) is from California (just moved here) and SHE HAS NEVER BEEN TO HOBBY LOBBY.  I kind of freaked and told her to change that as soon as possible!

Anyways, I made another trip to HL and got some battery-operated lights and a few little red berries and ribbon (I already had the magnolia leaves, seed pods, and pine cones) and wah-lah! A traditional (but still natural and kind of messy--as I love) RED Christmas wreath. 

It's hard to tell, but our door is really tall (like 8 or 9'?) and it looks so grand and festive with the "new" wreath!

Also, wreath-decorating is best while watching DVR'd marathons of "Trisha's Southern Kitchen". Trust me. 

That's all I've got.

 Bye!

Our Life via Phone Dump.

I feel that the week before Thanksgiving is typically pretty crazy and this year is no exception--thankfully it's full of fun things!

Thought I would pop in and give an update before my tired eyes force me to sleep. It's quite the random assortment today.

Me and the "little kids" as I call them headed to Costco last week (one of their favorite outings--no seriously). I posted the most hilarious video of Hayes on You Tube that has been giving me a good laugh for a solid week. Go on and look, it will make you smile, I promise!

I've learned to just sit back, smile, and enjoy being part of this daily circus.

The kids wrote their letter to Santa last week as well, and sneaky sneak Parker put it in the mailbox and let the mailman get away with it without a lick of postage! We have no idea where it is. I may have to run the mailman down tomorrow to investigate.

I used the most adorable "Letter to Santa" kit that I found at Target last year (they are on sale this year as well!) It includes real shipping information (to Alaska) with directions as to how to receive your very own reply back from Santa himself. Unfortunately,the odds of my kids getting their Santa letter back are not currently looking so good...

We attended Parker's Thanksgiving Feast at school, which was actually just us sitting there while we ate sack lunches that I made, but it was still fun, we got lots of smiles, and I met a new mom to be awkward with! ;)

I just feel that I should document Lily's current favorite sentences---

"You okay?"

"I no no." (I don't know)

"Awwwww, so coooot." (cute)

"Mommy, wock?" (rock)

And her favorite: "I do it!!"

That's all I can think of at the moment but Bryan and I basically die over every little thing that she says. She's also started doing the whole hip-stuck-out-sassy-thing which, obviously, is very, very adorable (and is proving to be a great way to get just what she wants).

Haysie getting his ice cream ALL by himself at Chick-fil-a (and saying "Please" and Thank you" like a gentlemen). While we are here on this topic: I just downloaded the Chick-Fil-A app today and am pumped for ALLLLL of my future free treats as I'm sure we pay the wages of at least one Chick-Fil-A employee.

An outfit pic featuring my FAVORITE new boots from my girls trip to Fredericksburg!

Witching Hour documentation. 

Hayes, the crazy but cute, has been making this face ALL the time and I cannot take it seriously. I'm telling you, age four has been ROUGH so far.

But this face it so funny!

On Monday night, I met a new friend from Mom to Mom for a holiday pop-up shop at a new Bed and Breakfast in downtown McKinney. Y'ALL---this house (which is now the Bed and Breakfast) is seriously my dream home!! I wish this crappy iPhone picture did it a bit of justice but it just doesn't....white colonial revival, black shutters, red door, dormer windows, and all the traditional charm on the inside, too! It was built in 1912 for a local banker. I love it.

I had so much fun walking through all the cute pop-up shops with my new friend (she is so kind and easy to talk to and a GREAT shopper) and I also had fun seeing many other new friends from our church. I also very randomly ran into a friend of one of my favorite Lubbock friends (Hi, Tara!) and later connected that another one of her friends (and college roommate) is also in my "Mom to Mom" group. This world just keeps on getting smaller, I am telling you. Also--I am super surprised that I was able to say the word "friend" that many times in one paragraph.

On Tuesday, Parker and Lily had their very first well visits with our new pediatrician---whom we were referred to by our beloved Lubbock pediatrician, Dr. Gueterslogh---and who happens to also be named....Dr. Gueterslogh! Ha. As luck would have it, our Lubbock Dr. G has a brother-in-law who has a practice in Frisco--so we now have a Frisco Dr. G! (AGAIN: SMALL WORLD.) He was so, so great and I am so relieved to have found a good place for the kids!

My friend Shelbi sent this to Dove Group the other day and I about died laughing.

The main reason I haven't blogged this week is because Christmas has made its way into our house and I just cannot get a handle on it. Yay, fancy Christmas anxiety!

I've only done our mantel and tabletop decor, but I like it a lot and am happy to have my house looking somewhat clean again.

Another outfit shot with a new sweater I bought at the pop-up-shop the other night. I love it and received many compliments on it while out and about so I'm feeling like it was quite the good buy.

And we have finally made it to TODAY! Yay! I thought this blog post might never end!

Today, Lily and Hayes had their own Thanksgiving Feasts at school and I was pumped to learn that parents are NOT ADVISED to attend. Y'all, I don't know if this makes me a bad Mom, but I was so happy when I heard this. KDO time is precious to me, and standing around watching toddlers not talk and be awkward and mostly not eat the cute Pinterest food that parents worked so hard on when I could be running errands, going to the grocery store, and doing other toddler-free things is just not fun. There I said it. Whew! Feels good to get that off my chest.

But isn't this little turkey CUTE????? 

She seemed to enjoy her feast and so did her brother! 

Tonight we had another feast of sorts with our very own Aunt Abby (Bryan's sister) who is in town for work! We were able to sit and talk over tacos and brownies (and watch a few videos of her dog and cat at home). We had SO much fun and can't wait for her next trip to the Big D!

Last thing: Bryan and I have a shared hobby and that is this: looking at parenting memes and sending them to each other. I know, we are super exciting. I was commenting today that I am still waiting for Hayes to grow out if his "threenager" phase because there isn't a dramatic name for a four-year-old.... but Bryan just sent me this and I guess I stand corrected!!

Enjoy.

Hayes current status: Fournado (And 100% accurate some days! But I love you anyway, Haysie!)

I have SO much more to blog about but I need to stop because I am so, so tired. I've done a few craft projects this week and have a few other favorites to share---next time!!

Bye!