Thanksgiving

I keep waiting for time to put together a clever or creative post from Thanksgiving...however, since I can see that "time" isn't going to happen any time soon - I'll just put together a traditional re-cap! We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with Mark's parents this year & it was such a nice, relaxing day. When we arrived they had the table all decorated with these cute little cornucopias that they made (Noah particularly loved them)! After a while the boys (Noah & Lincoln) began to get restless so I took them on a walk, along with grandpa, while Mark & Mary stayed back to work their magic in the kitchen in peace!

I have to admit that, for the most part, the boys were super cute together all day. Maybe I was just feeling a little extra of that Thanksgiving-sentiment, but I sure felt overwhelmingly adoring of our two little guys. I'm so grateful that we have both of them in our family, and little makes me more happy than to watch them being fun or sweet with each other. Here's a photo of them taking turns being a monster and growling at each other - they thought it was pretty funny (and so did I actually)!

I was glad that I already had my camera in hand at this moment when Noah went up to Lincoln and gave him the sweetest little unsolicited hug & kiss. I mention this because it is somewhat of a novelty & was also so out of the blue, but sooo cute. Note the shiner on Lincoln's forehead too, it's rare these days that his head doesn't have a bruise somewhere from takin' a tumble.

Noah giving Grandpa a tickle! I love Noah's proud-of-himself smile in this photo.

Mark & Noah posing for a picture with the bird!

Grandma & Grandpa!

Grandpa carving the turkey.

I liked that Mary took the time to let us know that the napkin holders on our plates were handmade by her father (and I'm quite sure the dishes were her mother's). Both of her parents passed away this year, so it was nice to pause and remember them for a moment on a day when we especially give thanks for all the things and people that we are grateful for in our lives.

A quick little father/son smooch!

And, I couldn't only post the sentimental stuff. There's always plenty of teasing and goofing around going on too. Here's a shot of Mark & Noah at their finest :) Sorry, babe - if you don't want me sharing pictures like this of you...then don't pull such goofy faces when I'm taking your picture!

Lincoln - shirt off, bib on, ready to go!

I had to get a quick shot like this to show how Noah was sitting on two phone books to be able to sit up to the table with all of us "big kids". Pretty cute.

Eating is pretty hit or miss with Noah. Sometimes he wolfs down asparagus or brussel sprouts without a problem and other times he turns his nose up at the most basic delicious foods. He was in a more picky mood this day. While we all indulged ourselves with the traditional Thanksgiving spread, Noah only approved of some turkey & a roll, but that was about it...so we put some chex on his plate and he was pleased with that. Whatever...it's his holiday too, right?

And the meal was perfectly capped with scrumptious pies (thanks, Mary!)...


Now, I include this photo of Lincoln's belly not only to remind myself (as if I need reminding) that after dinner all of our bellies were full & round like this...but also because I wanted to say how much I love these jeans that I have for the boys - with their elastic waists! I'm telling you that they're the perfect idea for not only pudgy baby/toddler bellies, but a great idea for all of us to be wearing on Thanksgiving Day...
...when we feel like this!

After veggin' on the couch with Dad (watching a little "Grinch..") Noah wandered into the kitchen where we were cleaning up and announced, "Look at me! I'm cute!" We looked over to see that Noah had taken Mark's glasses (since he was passed out on the couch) and put them on, upside-down, and was feeling quite pleased with himself. Funny little guy.

To cap off a nice day Noah got to decorate a gingerbread house kit with Grandma & Grandpa.

Although Noah was amused with the idea of putting together a house made of cookies...I have to say that once it came to the decorating he was more interested in eating the candy than in placing it decoratively on the house! Hey, he is a two year old though, right? :)
Thanks again, Mont & Mary for such a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Among our lengthy list of things that we're grateful to have been blessed with in our lives...our family (which means you, obviously!) is the thing that we treasure the very most.