Thanksgiving Feast at Preschool

Austin's Thanksgiving Feast at preschool was this week! Shane & I headed to school and met Austin in his classroom. All of the parents and children in the turtles class headed upstairs to eat together! We sat with Austin's good friend, Sydney! Her mommy, Meredith, is one of my good friends as well! Sydney's brother & grandma also joined us. We feasted on a non-traditional meal of salad, chicken fingers, biscuits, grapes, and carrots- as well as many tasty dessert options! Austin had made a cute Thanksgiving headdress & necklace to wear... as well as a fun placemat to eat off of! I think he really enjoyed having us both there this year, as last year Shane wasn't able to make it. Looking forward to many more years of Thanksgiving feasts!

Mommy, Austin, & Daddy

Sydney & her family

Austin with Ms Kristi (one of his teachers)

One of the adorable desserts!

Austin's placemat

Close-up of the cute picture :)

One last thing- Austin brought home a picture he drew at school. It was entitled "I am Thankful for my Family." As you can see, my sweet boy included Gabby (his babysitter) as a part of our family!

College Girls Weekend- Nashville version!

It's that time of the year again! Time to see 4 of my favorite people in the world- my closest college girlfriends! For the past few years we've been gathering in Oklahoma at the Seidel's house, but Larry & Suzanne moved this year! So we decided on Nashville- to stay with Karie & see her new home!

The 5 of us- Brooke, Kristen, Karie, Jean, Whitney

Kristen & I flew out on Friday morning! After arriving we grabbed a quick lunch with Karie before picking up Brooke at the airport (from DC) & then meeting Jean (from Memphis) back at the house! Most people would probably think our get togethers are kinda boring because honestly all we really do is eat & talk.... but I LOVE IT! It is so nice to have this time to catch up with one another & be reminded of those special friendships that are so cherished!

We headed to Chuy's for dinner on Friday night- yum! You can't go wrong with mexican food! Afterwards we did a little shopping, had drinks at Starbucks, and then spent the rest of the night catching up!

Chuy's

Starbucks

After a yummy breakfast by Karie on Saturday, we headed out for lunch & shopping! We met a college friend, Brad, and his sweet wife & son for lunch- it was a wonderful little reunion with amazing food! It was a great part of Nashville with lots of unique shops- fun! That night we opted a lighter meal followed by Blue Bell Light & chocolate chips, of course!

We haven't changed at all, right?

Sassy

Karie & Brooke- I always knew they were cutie pies at heart!

Lunch with Brad, Alicia, & Harrison

Dinner

Blue Bell Light & chocolate chips... a Brooke original!

Sunday was a day of more shopping & mani/pedi before our final goodbyes :( I don't understand how our weekends always go by so quickly, but I am thankful for these girls and the commitment we've made to continue getting together year after year! And thanks to our hubbies for watching all 13 kids!! Until next year~

Ready to head out for our last day

Me & Jean

Brooke, Karie & Paxton

Kristen & Jean

Lunch at Five Guys

Mani/Pedi time

Halloween!

This year for Halloween Austin was a pirate! He loved his costume & I thought it ended up really cute too! My mom made boot covers out of felt to go over a pair of borrowed cowboy boots, and that made the outfit complete! Austin still had a little virus, so we went trick-or-treating alone and just went up & down our street. But I will say that this kid LOVES Halloween...what a difference a year makes! He really got into it and enjoyed going up and saying trick-or-treat & getting to pick out his candy.

A little story from practicing for the big event~

Me: Now Austin, what do you say when you go to the door?

Austin: Trick or Treat

Me: And after they give you candy, what do you say?

Austin: More?

:)

Our pirate! Aye Matey!

Austin & Daddy

With Mommy

Austin's friend, Addy (our next door neighbor), was also a pirate. Can you tell he was distracted?

Making our first stop

He didn't want to take the time for more pictures

Walking as fast as he could to the next house!

Walking with Daddy

Granna (my Aunt Adeline) & Gigi (my mom)

Love that a lot of people in our neighborhood sit outside to pass out candy

Me & Shane

This was a fun group :)

Checking out his loot

Our Mickey Mouse pumpkin this year- kudos to Shane!

Amber's Surprise Birthday Party

On Saturday night Shane & I got dressed up and went to a surprise birthday party for my dear friend, Amber! Her sweet hubby, Josh, had planned the entire party! She was SO surprised when she arrived at La Hacienda Ranch & realized her friends were there to celebrate! Kudos to Josh- well done! I have a lot of pics, but I'll only post a few~

Amber & Josh

Happy 35th friend!

Me & Shane

Me & Amber

All the girls

My girlfriends from the pool this summer (Tonya, Me, Sara, Amber)

And to top off the evening, the Rangers won their game & advanced to the WORLD SERIES!!

Evie comes to sleep over!

This weekend Mat & Shanna had a church retreat to attend, so Evie spent Friday and part of Saturday with us! Austin was SO excited that Evie was going to be coming over AND spending the night- his first "sleep over."

Evie arrived on Friday afternoon & we played for a while before eating Chick-fil-A for dinner. Afterwards I took them on a wagon ride around the subdivision until Shane came home! They loved taking a bath together & did great at bed time. We put Evie on an air mattress in the play room, and she only was sad for a few minutes (missing mommy & daddy.)

Evie wanted to put on Austin's apron to "cook", so Austin wanted to put on mine :)

On Saturday we woke up & had breakfast before heading out to run a few errands. Next we headed to the park & then to a birthday party for Austin's friend, Jack! The party was Toy Story theme- and my friend, Joanna, did a great job with it! The kids enjoyed playing on the bounce houses & eating lots of yummy food (pizza, popcorn, cookie cake!) When the party was over we ran a few more errands and then came home to meet Mat & Shanna. We had a great weekend with Evie & can't wait for her to sleep over again soon!

Watching cartoons while the biscuits cook (Austin looks SO big in this picture!)

Evie

This is the best picture I could get of them together at the park- busy, busy

Evie in the tunnel

PARTY TIME!

Jumping in the bounce house

Eating popcorn

Going down the slide- Evie was NOT excited at first, but loved it after a little coercion from Aunt Whitney

All by herself!

Of course Austin loved it, as usual!