Post Thanksgiving Report

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.  It was the perfect day full of family, food and fun.  The only bad thing was that Matt had to work.  But that is nothing new.  I think he has worked the majority of Thanksgivings since we have been married.  

We had a relaxing morning at home and then went over to my parent's house to do some cooking.  I had some really awesome sous chefs to help me.  

 While we cooked the kids enjoyed the parade and dog show.

 We then headed over to Matt's parents house for a little Morris family Thanksgiving.  We got there in time for a game of "Happy Family" that Ben did very well at.  We then had a little photo fun!  It was great to see all the family that were there.

 We met up with Matt and went over to Andrew and Kelly's for the evening.  They were gracious to host dinner this year.  I love this couch full of boys I love!

 It was so much fun to watch the kiddos play together.  Perry adores Ben and Kate and wants to be right in the middle of whatever they are doing.  It is so cute.

 We had a wonderful spread of food!  All the traditional favorites.

 Such a cute kids table!

 I think we are probably the only family that has microscope time on Thanksgiving.  That is what happens when you have a family full of science people.  Kelly got some slides from work she wanted Ben to see.  #nerdyfamilythanksgiving

 Our attempt at a family picture!  Love my sweet family!

 So thankful for this little guy this year!  Hard to believe he wasn't around last year.  What joy he has brought to our family!

 Granna and Grandaddy started a tradition of getting the kiddos matching Christmas PJs.  They looked so cute after dinner!

 We played a few games (wouldn't be an East family Thanksgiving without some games).  Then Kelly and I decided to brave the cold and do a little shopping.  I needed some new boots so we headed to Belk.  It was insane!!!  Nothing but boot carnage to be found.  I did manage to find some matching pairs.  It is crazy what people will do for $20 boots!

It was a splendid day!  Relaxing time spent with family celebrating what we are thankful for!

Thankful Thursday

Today I will finish up Thankful Thursdays.  I have really needed this time to focus on what I am truly thankful for.  God has been so gracious to us this year even through the very tough times.  We are overwhelmed to see Him working out His perfect plan.

Even this week as we were worried about my dad and his tumor markers, God showed Himself to be faithful once again with numbers that were even lower than ever.  So much to be thankful for!!

I am learning that thankfulness is not about the circumstances around me but about the knowledge that I have been blessed beyond measure through Christ.  I am a sinner who stands condemned but through the grace of God I have the righteousness of Jesus.  So today as we celebrate the day set aside to give thanks, I do so with a heart that fully thankful.

Pre Thanksgiving Fun

We have had a good day getting ready for Thanksgiving.  It is so nice for everyone to be out of school.  We hate Matt is having to work but the rest of us are having lots of fun.  The kids "camped" in the living room last night.  They loved it.  

 We braved the grocery store to pick up what we needed for our Thanksgiving food.  It actually wasn't too bad and these guys were a lot of fun!

 We picked up Granna and Grandaddy and headed to the movies this afternoon.  The kids could not wait to see Frozen.  We are very glad that my dad didn't get chemo this week so he felt well enough to join us.  The movie was really cute and the kids haven't stopped talking about it.

 We finished off the evening playing a little Mall Madness.  The kid are now obsessed with it.  Glad they like a little bit of my childhood.

It really has been a fun day.  We are excited to celebrate and give thanks tomorrow.

Getting In The Christmas Spirit

This post is long overdue but I just haven't had a good time to post it.  I need to get it up before I forget.  A couple of Fridays ago we went on a fun adventure with the Cabra family.  We started the evening at Pizza Hut for dinner.  It has been years since I have eaten there but it was lots of fun.  The kids were crazy loud but had a blast.  

 Then we headed over to the Botanical Gardens to see the Galaxy of Lights.  It was one of the walking nights when you could walk through all the displays.  We had never done that before.  It was a ton of fun.  Thankfully the night we went it was not cold at all and there were almost no crowds.  It was great.  Our 2 angels with an angel!

 Silly snowmen kids!

 A group picture that turned out great.  Well we did have a bunch to choose from since the lady took like 30.

 Crazy boys trying to lick a candy cane!

 We even got to meet Santa.  The line was not long at all so it was the perfect opportunity.  Neither of the kids had big requests for him.

We walked through the whole thing.  It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.  Way more fun to walk than ride.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

We had a really great weekend.  It started Friday afternoon when I got to go have Thanksgiving lunch with my sweet boy at school.  I love eating lunch with him.  It is always an adventure to hear what the kiddos are talking about.  The cafeteria food wasn't bad!

 Friday night we went over to the Johnson's house for pizza and games.  Always fun!!  We love hanging out with them.  I loved this picture of the kids all around the iPad.

 Saturday we decided to put up Christmas decorations.  I am very against putting them up before Thanksgiving but with it being so late this year we thought it would be a good idea.  Things didn't go quite as planned.  The lights on our tree were not working.  Matt spent about 6 hours trying to get it worked out.  We ended up taking all the lights off the prelit tree and restringing them.  Ugh!

 But we finally got it done!  It looks beautiful as always.  I love decorating for Christmas.

 I didn't take any pictures but the Wrights came over for dinner Saturday night.  It was great to get caught up with them and let the kids run wild.

Sunday afternoon the kids were so excited to decorate the tree.  They did a great job.

So excited for Thanksgiving week and then all the Christmas festivities to start!

The Jeep

I promised I would give you the story of the jeep so here it is...  Over the summer Kate started mentioning that she wanted a Barbie Jeep for her birthday.  I of course started to panic when I saw that they were almost $300.  That is crazy!  So I started searching Craigslist and online yard sales.  I found one that was in great working order but it looked horrible.  I mean it was in really bad shape.  I bought it for $40.  I knew it was going to need a major overhaul.  

 Matt and I are always up for a project.  So we totally took it apart (this was actually the hardest part).  Once it was totally in pieces we spray painted it.  Of course it turned really cold right as we were doing this so that was a challenge.

 Then we had to reassemble and get it back in working order.  Thankfully that went better than we thought.

 We got new stickers for it and it looked like new!!

 I am so proud of how it turned out!!  It really does look like a new jeep and instead of $300 we spent $80.

 And Little Miss just loves it!

Fall Family Photos

Several weeks ago we had some fun family photos made.  A sweet friend of ours who is only 16 and starting out learning photography took them.  They turned out amazing!!  I am in LOVE with them.  I have shared a few of them over the past few days but I wanted to share more.  She made us look good!  It was such a fun time to just be outside and have fun together.