Turkey Day 2013

I had intended to bring my camera to the 11 am feast, but of course forgot it. I did remember to bring it to the 5 pm leftovers gathering. You will notice, however, that Mark and Tim are absent from these pictures. While we were eating more turkey and enjoying more wine and even more dessert, they were standing out in the cold, in line at Dicks Sporting Goods. For a gun that Mark is planning to give Wade. Eventually. Like when he's 10. Don't ask... They were first in line, and did get said gun. Woo hoo.

The pictures are all of the kids, since we were just picking at the leftovers. Not a pretty sight. They always have so much fun playing together, it's so sweet to watch. We are all so very lucky to live near each other, letting these cousins grow up together :)

 

 

Happy 5th birthday, Wade!

I can't believe he's already 5 years old, 5 is such a big number! He is pretty sure that being 5 changes everything. According to Wade, he should be headed to Kindergarten (now) and can sleep all night long in his room (thank goodness).

He also had opinions about how he wanted his party to be. He wanted it to be at Chuck E. Cheese again this year, TMNT themed, with a TMNT cake (no cupcakes!) that had a manhole cover on it and all the turtles. And it must be chocolate. I did talk him out of the strawberry frosting, and he ok'd vanilla instead. I asked him if he wanted to invite his buddies from school, but he said no, just his cousins. And Jack :) So we played games, ate pizza and cake and opened presents after we got home. Wade had a really good time, all the kids seem to enjoy themselves, and even some of the dads got into the video games a bit :)

Thank you to every one who came to his party and for all the fabulous gifts. Which he opened voraciously. All the while thanking Mark and I over and over and over again (it was really sweet). Thank you cards to come. Soon. I promise :)

 

 

 

 

 

Family photos 2013

We took our own family photos again this year. And by "we," of course I mean Shelly :) I decided to take them at this place in Round Rock that we passed by at the Halloween Fall Festival a couple of weeks prior. There are a bunch of old buildings and plenty of trees that seemed family photo background worthy at this little place. Turns out it is a popular place for photographers and we were not the only ones there. Didn't pose a problem though. In fact, the kids did great, Mark tolerated it nicely, and I stressed out only a bit. Shelly took 600+ pictures and I had so many to choose from... Well, you'll see on the Christmas cards :)

Here are a few of the ones I didn't use. Some are outtakes (you know- the kids fighting, running around like crazy, falling down, climbing all over me, crying, Lily being a kitty cat, etc.) and others are pretty cute. None are edited or cropped though, sorry :) I'll post the ones I did use after Christmas cards are sent out. Don't want to spoil the surprise!