Our Thanksgiving

This will definitely be a Thanksgiving to remember. Each year we rotate where we go for the holiday because even though both sets of families are nearby, it's just too much eating for one day! :) This year it was our turn to be with Brody's family and his aunt and uncle invited us to their vacation place in Fredericksburg. Brody's brother and his family could not be there this year so it was just our family, Brody's parents and his aunt and uncle. They have such a nice home and we had a great time!

The great view from the backyard

Clark and Aunt Susan had fun on the porch swing

This is their little cabin next to the main house. It was so cute!

We hung out here on their patio most of the day and it was so pretty. The weather was cool but sunny, so it was just perfect!

Clark and Scarlett just kept going up and down these steps.

Me and Brody's mom

Scarlett LOVED playing with fire...thankfully Susan was always nearby!

Grandma took Scarlett on a nature walk :)

Clark woke up the morning of Thanksgiving with a pretty gross cough and runny nose, but he'd had a cold so I figured that it was just running it's course. However, by the time we got home that night he looked like this:
We found a clinic open on Friday and he was diagnosed with a bacterial conjunctivitis (pink eyes), and an ear/sinus infection. Poor little guy. Somehow he was still smiling though-such a trooper. He got medicine and things were starting to slowly look up. Until this morning (Monday) when we woke up to...

Pink eye round 2!

There is still so much to be thankful for even in the midst of sickness. I'm just hoping that we are all now on the mend!

Give Thanks

Tuesday I got to attend Scarlett's feast at school. I told her Monday night that I would be going and taking macaroni and cheese. She said, "Uh...do you know anything about Thanksgiving? They have turkey and pumpkin pie?!" I don't think she was too impressed with my offering.

The kids looked so cute in their hand made shirts. They each got to choose a Native American name, so I ate lunch with Princess Butterfly. ha!

This is one of her very best friends from her class. She talks about this sweet girl ALL the time!
At the end of the lunch Scarlett looked at me and asked, "When's the feast?" I had to tell her that the strawberries, two cheese cubes and roll WAS her feast. Oh, and a brownie. Because we all know that Betty Crocker was aboard the Mayflower.
It was fun to see her with her class and I wish I'd taken more pictures of them playing the drums under the tee pee, but I was busy doing "clean up". (otherwise known as eating the leftover brownies)

Family Fun

Saturday night Jaime and Ben went to a wedding, so we got to keep the boys. Everyone had a great time! I played around a little with picnik editing on these pictures showing the fun they had:

Football Frenzy

Scarlett has definitely become Brody's football buddy. Just the other day when the Cowboys had their bye week she mentioned that she was sad that they weren't playing because they're her favorite team. Last Friday night, Brody took her on a date night to watch some high school football in the new Heroes Stadium. Scarlett was thrilled to get some time with her "best friend, Daddy". Brody sent me a text that read:

"she kept saying 'I love being here with you daddy'...brody wept."

That girl has him wrapped right around her finger-ha!

I got in on the action Saturday morning. Let me start by saying we are planners by nature. We just don't do much spur of the moment-probably because that's tough with kids. However, when we got a call Saturday from someone with three tickets to the Longhorns game we HAD to go! My mom and dad had their own plans that day, but graciously offered to take the kids along with them on their errands so off we went. My brother got to come with us and I joked that it was a date for Brody and me but reminded me of high school when Mom would send Jordan up to spy and make sure nothing "inappropriate" was going on. :) The only thing inappropriate this time would be the amount of stadium food I would consume.

Let me say that I made fun of Brody for wearing tennis shoes. I told him three times he should wear his boots. After about the 2nd mile of walking uphill to the stadium in my three inch heels, I was regretting my mockery.
This certainly is NOT the stadium I remember from my days of going to games with my dad. This place was MASSIVE!
Whether you love this team or not, you have to admit how impressive it is to see 100,000+ all wearing burnt orange. It was awesome!
I know my hair looks pitiful here, but I was so happy to be at this game I didn't even care...and that's saying a lot. It was a great day, and a fun football weekend! (even the Cowboys won!!)

Our October

Love Creek Orchard

Before Trunk of Treats

Scarlett's favorite thing!

Clark got in on the action

(we went to a local nursery and our kids were the only ones in the bouncy house-it was a hit!!)

how are they all getting this BIG!?!

Halloween night

a blurry but goody

We're Practically BFF's

In every job, there are a few perks. My job gives me an endless supply of hugs and kisses.

Brody gets free rackets from his sponsor, discounted clothes and shoes, and his favorite perk: free lunches at the Men's Grill (yes-it's segregated-no women allowed). A few years ago we were able to go watch Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick play a tournament in Houston. His boss even got a trip to Wimbledon after all his years at the club. (hopefully we'll be around in 30 years for the same treat!)

Last night the club hosted a fundraiser for the Andy Roddick Youth Tennis Foundation. There was an exhibition but Andy got hurt at his last tournament so he just did the commentating. I missed that part, but Brody said it was hilarious. I DID however, make it just in time for this:

This is Mark Knowles who won the US Open a couple of years ago in doubles. He took Andy's place during the exhibition and did a great job from what I hear.

Both guys were really nice and down to earth. Brody was bummed that Roddick's swimsuit model wife wasn't there (ha!) but I think everyone had a good time anyway.

Here Andy is auctioning off some stuff-I don't know what it was because I tuned it out once I heard the bidding start at $2000.

Just another typical night out for us-schmoozing with tennis royalty. HA!

Today it was back to normal:

and I think that's pretty fabulous too!

The Only Thing Keeping Me Away From the Halloween Candy

In a moment of weakness (or PMS) I told Brody to buy the "good" candy for Halloween. And, because he's a good guy he not only bought the good stuff, he got it at Cost.co...meaning there is a HUGE bag of delicious chocolate right at my fingertips.

I decided I needed a project to keep me busy for at least a couple days until hopefully I would have the strength to resist. Here is our front porch:

I have to say that it looked worse before I bought the mums. It looks like a decent porch, but the bench was bugging me. Actually it was my mom that mentioned it might need to be spruced up a bit. In my typical fashion I was like, "yeah, yeah...blah, blah...I have kids to feed, laundry to do...I hate painting, so no thanks." Then some time passed and I decided, as usual, Mom was right. (aren't they always?! ps-remember this Scarlett and Clark)
So with the chocolate too close for comfort and a UT/OU game that was driving me insane I decided this would be the day to paint. I attempted to round up some helpers:

this guy claimed to have fever

(guys will do anything to get out of painting-ha!)

this guy had worked all morning and as evidenced here had a bag full of jalapeno chips and about three different football games on all at the same time rendering him too busy to be of any help

I asked my girl and she was all about helping me out as long as I called her Sally. (she is back on a Char.lie B.rown kick)

We washed the bench and right then it looked much much better! The next step was a light sanding....and I do mean light-you don't get these jello arms from elbow grease-it takes pure mediocrity to get them looking like they do. (sorry I don't have pictures of these steps...I kind of forgot I had the camera and Sally was busy running around with the hose chasing butterflies.)

Anyway...finally...I did a quick paint job. This will not win any painting awards. I think the right arm only has one coat because I got tired. And I used some spray paint on the tiny places I couldn't get my brush around. Thankfully, I don't think the painting police live in our neighborhood so I should be safe.

I think it looks about 10 times better. Now, I'm off to get a peanut butter cup :)