The day we gave thanks

i had an AMAZING thanksgiving!!! It was filled with friends, family, food, fun, and fellowship-all of my favorite things!!!!

 

And if i was ever going to announce that i'm preggers, this would be the picture i would use. fact: i'm not pregnant, but for some reason Grant felt the need to point to my tummy.....

me with the boys! as always...Ethan is saying 'cheese!'

Sarah, Grant, Ethan, Daniel, and I headed to Daniel's parents house by 10 am. The house was ready for a party!

i thought this was so cute!

We invited our international students to share the day with us and were so excited that 2 could make it! This was their first American Thanksgiving!!

Sarah and me!

 

   Cousin Travis...

Random shots from the day.....

I told Steve to act natural...

There is just something about holidays and babies that i think just go together. You can't help lovin on a little baby around the holidays......they are for some reason just extra precious and cute!

  

I love thanksgiving with family. We grew up living away from extended family, so we always celebrated with whoever was around. These last 2 thanksgivings with Daniel's family have filled my holiday love tank. i love just listening to everyone share their stories from growing up or memories of past thanksgivings together...i soak it all in and relish it. And having Sarah and the boys with us was just the icing on the cake. I had the perfect day. I'm thankful and my heart is full!

Love to you all!!

laura

Zoo take 2

Monday morning.....I walk into Grant's room where i was staying, and this is what i found.....

My immediate response.... "ETHAN!"

We headed to the Houston Zoo that morning in beautiful 70/80 degree weather! it was almost a shock to my system since last week i was using my ice scraper!

i love wearing pigtails!

cute cute!

ethan saying "cheese!"

this is the best pic i got with the boys...it's hard to make them sit still long enough sometimes!

cute family!

again with the cheese.....

yay sisters!!!

the boys....

Ethan got his work out in for the day...

i actually had a slight panic attack at the zoo. There were SO many people, and tons of kids, i felt claustrophic, which is very unlike me. Everywhere i looked i kept seeing people everywhere with kids going crazy, and i had to really pray that the anxiety didn't get out of control. I've lived overseas around millions of people in one city, and never had a problem, but the Houston Zoo=scary. :)

Sarah and I drove to OKC yesterday with the boys. For being 8 hours in the car, they did pretty well. There was a lot of singing and nose wiping, but what're ya gonna do right?

Grant got all serious when we first left and said "why isn't daddy thankful?" Grant thought that since Mike stayed in Houston that he wasn't thankful at all, ha!

i don't know how these children don't weigh 300 lbs, they eat all the time!!!! No wonder people shop at Sams, ha!!

I just made my first batch of homemade laundry detergent, and am SO excited!!!! totally makes my day.

Tomorrow, our plans are to go to Daniel's parents house to spend the day with his family. There will be about 30 people, bless Sherry's heart!!! We love spending Thanksgiving with Daniel's family, there is always a lot of food and family, which i love!!!! I grew up never living near extended family, so our holidays were always really small with it just being the 4 of us. So i look forward to holidays where other people come, ha! Two of our students are joining us tomorrow too. It is def a recipe for a good time!

hope everyone is doing well and enjoying family, friends, and food!!

love

laura

what haven't we done?

This post will be short and to the point, way too much to cover!!

If this isn't confusing....

Friday night we drove to Dallas
Saturday we drove to Houston
Sunday Daniel drove back to Oklahoma
(i took the week off from work)
Tuesday, Sarah and i with the boys are driving to Oklahoma
(Mike is on call)
Friday, Sarah and the boys will drive back to Houston

• Friday night Daniel and I drove down to dallas to spend the night, so we could get up the next day and drive to Houston to see Sarah, Mike, and the boys
• Mom has already decorated for Christmas and was busy baking tons of breads.

    

• We drove Saturday morning to Houston, stopping by Caroline's for a quick minute to surprise her!! I ended up going around to her back window to knock so she could hear me!
• Ethan's birthday is tomorrow but we've been pretty much celebrating almost every day. Sarah made cupcakes and i decorated.

I was proud since i don't really have a creative bone in my body.

Where we usually find Ethan....

The boys...i didn't realize Mike was brushing Jet's teeth when i took this, i just thought they were all playing together, ha!

Ethan blowing out his cupcake!

Uncle Dan & Grant.

Sunday morning we got up and took the boys for a bike ride. Which really means we just jogged next to them.

Ethan feeling the wind in his hair.

I think Grant is actually mad here....

One thing i love about Grant being 4, is he always says the funniest things!!!! I'm always calling Sarah to find out what he said/did that was funny that day.

For example...bath night I was talking to Grant about the amazing girl he was going to marry someday. he got all serious, looked at me and said "do you know any girls?" i was like ummmmm i'll try and find some for you. Then later out of nowhere, he spread his arms really big and said "i'm going to marry the most beautiful girl in the world!!!" i bet you will Grant.

But then at the zoo today, Grant said that only boys could eat cotton candy and girls didn't get any treats. He's not winning any points on that philosophy :)

And i've loved being able to read and sing to the boys and just be around them as their aunt. I love that Ethan can already recognize and say my name. Ethan will just say "mommy, mommy, or daddy. daddy." and when they respond to him he'll just smile at them, SO sweet!!

We went to the zoo today, which is funny that i hadn't gone in over 20+ years, and ended up going twice in one week. If i can say one thing.....going with just Daniel and going with 2 little boys is a COMPLETELY different experience, haha!

We're driving 6+ hours tomorrow with 2 little boys...should be interesting!!!!!

i'll write more later!

love

laura

One year anniversary!!

 
Sunday, we slept in, got breakfast, then headed to the ZOO! I haven't been to the zoo in about 20+ years.

apparently the zoo is a confusing place for the both of us...

gotta love a senior photo moment!

hmmmm....not sure about this one?

yay for self timer!!

i loved this!!

yay for anniversary's!!

At the zoo, we rock climbed! Daniel has done it before but i never had, so i was WAY excited!!! But i got so nervous and was sweating profusely!!!! the whole time i was climbing, i kept yelling "is anyone else sweating?"

I was seriously drenched when we finished! but i did enjoy it. What freaked me out was getting down. The guy was like "ok, just let go and fall." ummm really?!?!?!?

The weather was SO nice while we were there. it was fun to just walk around and be outside.

After the zoo we shopped around at the mall then headed to dinner.

At dinner, we of course, got dessert and ate this yummy oreo pie cream thing that i almost let myself get sick over.

 

We slept in on Monday, had breakfast at Cracker Barrel then headed home. We were both not ready to go back to real life.

When we got home we ate our top layer of our wedding cake (cos we're traditional like that, ha!). It was surprisingly really good! We each ate a piece, i was shocked how well it held up.

That was our first anniversary!! Hopefully first of many!

love

laura