Thanksgiving 2010

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at my grandmothers house. It was a little rainy and humid, but that didn't dampen our thankful hearts. It was nice to be together and celebrate. We got to eat dinner with my aunt and uncle from Houston that we don't get to see as often as we'd like.  It was a special treat! My dad fried his first turkey, with the help of my uncle and it was AMAZING!!! My mom baked a turkey too (just in case ;), so now, we have turkey running out our ears!

Ella Claire now wants an iPad for Christmas thanks to Aunt Melissa! :) By the end of the night, she knew exactly how to move her fingers to enlarge the picture. Aunt Melissa, you were very brave to let a 1 year old so close to your iPad! Thanks for helping me watch EC and for entertaining her!



We took a few family pictures outside. just a few. not so many that we couldn't decide which ones were our favorites. :) Seriously, Ella Claire is making a different face in each one and I couldn't pick, so I thought I would share them all. Hope you don't mind.

This is the look you will get from your husband, if you comment on him not cooperating for family pictures.  Ella Claire wasn't very happy with his silliness either!

The table before we ate.

Gigi and Ella Claire.

So full from all the delicious food!

Ella Claire and Cameron were so happy to see each other!

sweet Cameron

A blurry picture of sweet Clark. He wouldn't stand still long enough for a good one. :)

This was another wonderful year full of blessings (and trials too, but still thankful we can face them with the help of our Lord).  We had a great time with family and precious memories were made once again!

busy bakers

For the past 4 years the night before Thanksgiving has been a major baking night around our house, as I'm sure it is around yours too!  I usually am responsible for bringing 2 sides for our Thanksgiving dinner, but I don't start on those until Thanksgiving morning. The night before we make martha washington's, peanut butter balls, and crunchy pecan pie bites. Most years we make and decorate sugar cookies, also. This year we didn't attempt the sugar cookies, but we did so much baking that we "baked 'til we ached"!!  :) This has become such a fun tradition 'round here. Of course the more friends and family that join us the more fun it is. We crank up the Christmas music and get to bakin'!  My sisters Kim and Steph and my friend and future sis in law, Jessica join me in my kitchen. One year, my very best friend, Amy even joined in on the fun. That was a special year because Amy and her husband are currently living in Tokyo, Japan.

This year Kim wasn't able to join us because, she, along with her husband Justin and sweet baby girl Madelaine, spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Oklahoma with Justin's family. So Stephanie, Jessica and I did all the baking....in our matching aprons.....and we had a blast! We did miss Kim a WHOLE lot though!

Since there were 3 of us and 3 desserts, we each took one.
Steph started on the martha washington's.

her recipe consisted of the following ingredients...

Jess whipped up some yummy peanut butter balls.....

.....using these wonderful ingredients.

I made the crispy pecan pie bites.

Lookin' good ladies! :)

After a few hours of mixing ingredients, roasting pecans, rolling little balls, filling mini fillo shells, and dipping chocolate, we were ready to share our results!

crunchy pecan pie bites

peanut butter balls and martha washington's

These were just a few of the wonderful things we had this Thanksgiving. Oh my. Did we have some wonderful things! But, the time is now 11 pm and I have been going since 4:30 this morning. (Had to get up early for those early bird specials!) So, I am off to bed, but, I'll be back soon with more pictures from our family Thanksgiving dinner. Night y'all!

e-i-e-i-o....

....."with a quack quack here and a quack quack there"....   :)

So guess where we have been this weekend? 

EC's friend Titus had a farm animal 1st birthday party! It was adorable and so fun to see Ella Claire and all the other kids with the animals.  This was her first time to be so close to any kind of animal besides Gus. And we all know how much she loves Gus!  When we arrived at the party, Ella Claire was asleep in her car seat, so it took her a while to warm up to the animals and the new environment.  After a few minutes she was having a ball and I was chasing her around everywhere.  Later that day, Jeremy and I took her outside and took a few pictures of her playing in the yard. Sunday was a nice relaxing day with Church in the morning, lunch at my parents house and our annual church wide Thanksgiving feast.

I have to go back and say a little about Friday night too. Our weekend started with a much needed date. I don't have any pictures, but Jeremy and I met up with some wonderful friends for dinner and then rode over to Fairhope with them to look at the beautiful lights in the trees. Fairhope is so quaint and cozy and you always feel like you are on a little mini vacay when you're there.  It was such a wonderful date night with friends! Our entire weekend was fun and the anticipation of Thanksgiving this week made it even more exciting! 

So, back to the farm....

This was about as close as Ella Claire would get at first.  

How sweet is this little girl feeding the calf a bottle? I thought it was precious, but you can see Ella Claire was more into the goats.

SOOOO excited to be so close to the animals!

Getting mighty brave to stick her hands in the cage!

All of a sudden EC got a crazy idea and grabbed this goat by his horns, then started shaking him! Don't worry! I did NOT let her do this!  The goat just sat there and seemed to be thinking something like..."I hate my life...."

After we visited with the goats for a while we went over to visit Mr. Duck. This is Ella Claire with Titus, the birthday boy!

They didn't stay around too long because the duck started quacking VERY loudly. Titus and EC were terrified.  I will have to say the duck was really loud and they were really close!

















Not only was Ella Claire amused by the animals, but she couldn't get enough of these pecans! She carried them around at all times. I was so nervous that she was going to put them in her mouth, thank goodness she never did. 

Adorable birthday cake!

I think he enjoyed the cake...what do you think?

I tried to get a picture of Titus and EC looking at me, the entire time, but they were moving too fast. Finally we sat them down and tried, but EC would have nothing of it.

We had a wonderful time at the party!  Happy 1st Birthday Titus!!

The next few pics are from our little photoshoot outside Saturday afternoon.  Ella Claire is at that age where she loves to be outside exploring everywhere.  She was hilarious to watch just roaming around high stepping in the grass.

I'm not sure what she is saying with those eyes of hers....probably something like stop chasing me around with that camera!





































Can you tell how busy she is? Walking around with her tummy poked out and swinging those arms! Hysterical!  ...and yes, she was barefooted!

Daddy chased her around in the grass for a while and she loved every second of it!

Poor Gus, he was stuck inside and had to watch all the fun from the window.



With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I can't help but think of how blessed I am and how good the Lord is! My heart is so full of thanks to HIM! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and find the time to give thanks for the blessings in your life! :)