Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving! I love Fall. I love the holidays, the changing weather, the colors, the food, decorations and traditions and all the family time. Here is a our family's thankful list:

Emilyn

• pears and sweet potatoes
• food and bananas (according to Matisyn)
• puffs and any other yummy things made for babies
• bathtime and splashing
• desitin
• cuddly blankets and sleepy time in her crib
  
• milk
• smiles and attention
• piles of toys
• snuggling
• anything that can be put in her mouth
• as of yesterday, big people food like mashed potatoes, yams, and crackers

When Matisyn was asked this was her list:

• my house and bed
• special cups that have milk in them (she was drinking that when asked!)
• books
• oatmeal to eat
• my family
• necklaces
• princesses
• dress-up
• dancing
• treats
• shows
• friends

Matt:

• his three princesses
• family and friends
• ability to work
• technology
• hot chocolate
• pepper jelly
• his road bike
  
• mountains

Kristin (I feel like I have too many things to name that I am thankful for, so I'm most thankful for having so many things to be thankful for!!!)

• my family
• my precocious, spirited, and bright little three year old who teaches me new things everyday
• my smiley, loving, happy baby
• a helpful, considerate, and understanding husband
• a mom who is also my friend
• a dad that has been gone almost three years, but I still miss dearly
• friends that feel like family
• being surrounded by 20 + wonderful family members and a delicious dinner on Thanksgiving
  
• lots of cute, fun cousins
• music
• my Mac computer, whom I give love to everyday!
• the internet, which I know has lots the of bad things too, but that can be used to answer any question within seconds (great for my lack of patience). . . plus amazon, pandora, google, need I say more!
• my health and the health of my family, I'm thankful for that everyday
• milk (just like Emilyn)
• treats (one of my New Year's resolutions will of course be to curb this addiction!)
• hugs and snuggles from my little girls and cute husband
• warm, beautiful house
  
• matt's great job in the midst of chaos in this economy
  
• being able to stay home and be with my girls (even if I go crazy sometimes!)
• pictures to capture all our memories, since the years are passing too quickly
  

We spent Thanksgiving with Matt's family at his parents' house. There were 12 adults and 11 kids, just with the immediate family. It was fun to get some time all together, and I'm thankful to be part of such a wonderful group.

Great Grandpa Rex and Grandma Jo




Always something in her mouth! Here she is eating her first real cracker. She was definitely a fan.


Emilyn and Uncle Mike


Grandpa Rex surprised Matt by giving him his real cowboy boots after finding out Matt wanted a pair to fit in at his new job, pretty nice!

Becky with her line-up of delicious pies. I think there were 15 in all, some were in the freezer and frig. It took some tough decision making to decide which ones to have. We used dinner plates instead of the dessert ones to be able to taste more of them. What a lot of work, but they were phenomenal! Someday maybe I will be a pie baker. I made my first one ever last month!

What a table, it was fun to be able to sit all together and see each other. We all got a chance to name something we are thankful for, and stuffed ourselves on loads of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, yams, jello salads, stuffing, and rolls.

The name tags were so cute, made by Kenz and Cass I think. Here are our spots.



Grandma Barb and Emilyn





Yummy mashed potatoes

Trying to eat her name tag

Grandma Barb wanted a Christmas picture with all the grandkids. She bought all of them cute outfits and we attempted to get everyone to cooperate. It started out well, but we were losing the light outside. Here are all the cute cousins. These are just the snapshots from my camera.



Emilyn loves McKenzie

Matisyn loves the girls


Matisyn and David have blurry heads, they were the hardest to keep still!

Attempting pictures with Great grandparents inside. Notice Matisyn is missing, she's having a breakdown in another room with Matt.

We finally got her to come out.

Here is a picture with Grandma and Papa. Matisyn was also absent for the first few of these while she threw another tantrum. She was DONE with pictures and tired from the big day. She was bribed with a pretty heart necklace of Grandma's that she was able to hold. She also seemed to do better when Grandma Barb told her that Grandma Karen would want to see her princess hands!
Outburst number three. The whole family joined around to watch this one. There were also multiple video recordings going on I believe! I'm not sure how Grandma convinced her on this one, but some how she got her to come back and settle down. Those pictures are on another camera.


The nice, calm child!

After all that she got her second wind, and played well until 10:00. Here she is playing dress-up with the older girls. I'll post the "photoshopped", fixed version of pictures later.

I'm making this post as long as possible! Here are some pictures from earlier in the week:


Too cute!










Big sister, Little sister