Happy Thanksgiving 2012

We got up this morning and had a little scare w/ Emma.  Autumn was saying the prayer and I opened my eyes and was peaking at Emma and she wouldn’t put her front paw down and looked like she was going to fall over and then she laid down and started shaking.  I yelled out right in the middle of Autumn’s prayer, “Something is wrong w/ Emma!”  Mom grabbed her and she said Emma was really stiff, and ran her into Dad and woke him up.  He’s been feeling sick and didn’t get home from work until midnight.  He said Emma probably had a small stroke!!!  Mom & I were so upset and just held Emma and cried.  There was a lot of debating over what to do for Emma.  After a while, she started acting normal and even ran around outside when we took her out to go potty.  We ended up taking her over to Monzingo’s to spend the day so they could keep an eye on her while we went to Aunt Sandy & Uncle Robert’s.  We would have taken her w/ us, but she HATES being in the car and hyperventilates.

After that ordeal we ate breakfast, got our stuff together, packed the car, went to my house so Autumn & I could get a change of clothes, and then we headed off to Uncle Robert & Aunt Sandy’s house.  When we got there, we did our annual tradition of getting a picture for our Christmas cards.  Here’s the best one we could get of Papa & Mimi & the grandkids.

Rocky took our pics for us and I love how he included the pretty fall leaves behind us.  This isn’t the one we used for our Christmas card, b/c we cropped it closer so you can see more of our faces.

I wanted to get a few of me & my Autumn Bottom.  Autumn was doing her fake smile so I said something funny and we were both laughing.  LOVE IT!

Mom made this super cute turkey out of veggies that she found on Pinterest.  Dad decided he wanted to be creative too and shaped the mashed potatoes to look like a turkey.  So silly!

As you can see, we had quite the spread of food.  Everyone’s plates were full and most of us went back for seconds.

Usually we try to get a picture of everyone all together, but that didn’t happen this year.  So, I went around to the different tables and tried to get as many people as I could.  I think this will be so fun to look back at the pictures from every year to see how the kids have grown & changed.

The FUN table!

The “grown ups” table

Mom went all out and made these adorable teepees and other Thanksgiving goodies for the kids to eat.  They loved them!

It was 78 degrees today, so the kids decided to be CRAZY after Thanksgiving dinner and go swimming.  The water was super cold (as you can see from Jackson’s expression), but that didn’t stop them from swimming.

This picture of them all lined up ready to jump in is so cute.  It’s funny that the 3 older boys were all wearing super hero undies.

Even after they got out of the pool an hour later, they couldn’t be bothered to get dressed b/c they were having so much fun.  I was shocked that Andrew was willing to jump in the pool but Autumn avoided it like the plague.  Usually she’s right there in the mix, but today she was content just playing on the fort and sweeping the leaves.  That girl loves to sweep.

The parents & grandparents set up camp around the fort.  They just sat and visited and kept an eye on the kids.  Inside the house there was a lot of football watching going on.

I LOVED this idea of a table cloth that the kids could draw and color on.  Autumn loved getting to write on it.  We stayed until half time of the Cowboy’s game and then high tailed it out of there before the start of the 3rd quarter so we wouldn’t get caught in the after game traffic on the freeway.

Papa made smoothies for the kids, and it’s so fun that Jackson gets to be in on this tradition now, too.

We just hung out for the rest of the evening and did puzzles, watched football, had yummy butterhorn roll sandwiches for dinner, and enjoyed being together.

There are so many, many, many things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.  One of those is the new tradition Autumn & I have started of sharing our 3 goods and 1 sad thing that happened during the day.  It has really helped us to focus on the DAILY blessings we have.  Most of the time they are little things, but it reminds us of how blessed we are.  And I always make sure to remind her that she’s my greatest blessing.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!