Thanksgiving Blessings - Part II

So part II of our Thanksgiving road trip led us to Grandma and Grandpas house.  It was the first time in quite a while that all our aunts and uncles were there too.  That led to several photo ops as you will see below so we could capture the moment.  These pictures were taken after our big Thanksgiving meal, the kids played around while we took some pictures and just enjoyed the beautiful evening together.

Here is the best shot (out of more than I will see) in which we all managed to keep our eyes open and the kids smiling.  Pretty good for a non-pro pic!  Mark's "gwirl" Rae-Rae was sweet enough to take this for us (more on that later, as there is a story to share).

Grandpa & AJ hanging out together

Aunt Wiz & Aunt Ju-Ju were picture ready as always:

Now for the "gwirl" story.  Uncle Marky brought home his girlfriend for Thanksgiving.  We all found that Rae-Rae fit perfectly in with us siblings and had fun getting to meet her.  I will never forget our awesome Catch Phrase game - that's when she won me over.  I've never laughed so hard, it was greatness.  I love when all the siblings can spend time together, it always makes for fun.  Apparently Rae-Rae also won over Mr. AJ.  During our big photo op (top picture) of the family, as Rae-Rae was taking our picture, AJ pipes up "Marky.... is that your gwirl?"  It was so sweet and we all busted out laughing.  Marky immediately confirmed that was his "gwirl" and we couldn't help but notice that after that AJ made a point to worm his way between the two of them on the couch and would cuddle up to Rae-Rae.. seems little man was making a move on Uncle Marky's gwirl :-)  Such a ladies man!  Below: Marky and Rae-Rae.

KK had fun riding the scooter and playing a game of soccer with everyone, showing off her skills.  While I didn't get a good shot of everyone playing - she and the uncles had some moves!

For AJ it was the leaves that brought total JOY in playing outside - something we don't have at our home.  He loved throwing them, raking them... and especially burying Uncle Steve under the leaves before attacking him.  It was a boy's playground and little man was thrilled.

The reason I post the next picture is just for laughs... if you look at AJ you will see that he was on a roll after Thanksgiving dinner... I love that little man.

 A picture of me and my hubby... we don't have many alone shots these days :-)

A family shot of just us -we thank God for these two big blessings!

KK and AJ with Grandma and Grandpa:

So those were the after Thanksgiving pictures.... yes I did this out of order but they were so cute and I just wanted to roll this way.  Thanksgiving dinner was delicious - turkey, potatoes, corn & green bean casseroles.  Yummy!  Here is KK and AJ at their "kiddy" table ready to start the party and the adult table too:

Of course the rest of our visit was fun too - lots of playing with our aunts and uncles.  KK and AJ discovered that Uncle Steve and Aunt Ju-Ju were excellent targets to convince to take them to the basement where all the toys are and listen to music and play games for hours on end.  No matter how tired they were, Steve and Ju-Ju couldn't seem to say no to them. 

KK was especially delighted to spend extra time with Ju-Ju and Liz doing girl stuff.  She loves just sitting in Ju-Ju's room and they will listen to music or sit around the talk silly talk.  I'm not allowed to know all the details of their time together, I just know that their special elationship they started when KK was barely two is still strong as ever.  Watching her say goodbye to her Ju-Ju makes these trips hard, but seeing her joy when they are reunited makes it worth the tears in the end.

The final highlight of the trip I wanted to remember was our movie.  Typically when we visit Grandma and Grandpa's house at Thanksgiving, the family goes to the movies together.  This was the first year that sweet AJ was big enough to join us.  The movie: The Muppet's!  Best.Movie.Ever.  KK still talks about how Ju-Ju laughed so hard she cried when the chickens sang "forget you"... lots of laughs all around!

Another Thanksgiving roadtrip was complete - we were exhausted and so happy to see our beds and home again at the end of the week, but we loved spending time with all our families and making memories together.  We truly have so much to be thankful for - Thank you God for all the blessings you have given us!  May we cherish them daily and never take them for granted!

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Thanksgiving Blessings - Part 1

So this year we decided to take another great Thanksgiving adventure.  We like taking the week to visit and spend time with both families.  It saves us from having to "choose" a family to see on the holidays, especially since we prefer to spend Christmas at our house.  So the first leg of our trip led us to Aunt I's house.  It was so much fun having the cousins together again (the first time in a long time) to play.  We took a few pictures so we could remember our sweet Ida until the next visit (and a great Christmas gift for Oma & Opa with all their favorite little people).

 

Of course Aunt I and Miss Ida weren't the only ones there to greet us and play with us.  Meet George and Lily... while at first we weren't so sure about the pups (KK has a fear of dogs ever since one pinned her down when she was only 2 and I personally am not a dog person), by the end of the stay you could say that they grew on us... Here is AJ having some fun with his "Georgie". 

 

The pups liked him the best, probably because he was their size. Every now and then you would see Lily run by to lick his neck or eats and AJ would yell "Nooo Lily Nooo" and then laugh. I will admit... I even allowed George to sit with me the last day... that was huge :-)

We spent our time mostly playing "family game night" which was Wii games (in which Miss Ida schooled us every time), board games like Sorry and of course coloring and dress up.  We were so busy playing, we didn't take a lot of pictures, but here is what we do have:

The girls did enjoy making me look "purdy" together... we had fun playing beauty shop!

KK is all about her cousin Ida.  She followed her around and wanted to play with her every passing moment.  Quite a change for an only child, but Ida was very sweet to her.   KK's favorite time with Ida was playing with her in Ida's room alone - she liked being a big girl with her.  I'm so glad the girls were able to spend time together like this.

Miss Ida still has a special love for her uncle Greg, as soon as the kids were in bed, Ida and Greg would be together playing Wii or getting another "adult" game of Sorry ready.  I found a pic of the two of them when Ida was a baby... she has always adored him (and vice versa as you can see):

I think that wraps up our visit - lots of fun and games.  We even got to have an early Thanksgiving turkey dinner together and used Oma & Opa's special "oven" thing... the only thing missing was Oma & Opa, hopefully next year.

It was a great first stop on our vacation! Thanks for letting us visit - until next spring ;-) We love you!

Eclipse Soccer - Season 1 Recap

Okay so its June... and I realized that I never posted these amazing pictures of our sweet girl's 1st soccer season with her new team Eclipse.  So here it goes!  The pictures really tell our story.  KK played two seasons with the Y, but now we were on to some serious soccer.  The girls-only team plays three on three, making it more of a challenge and letting the girls play more and enhance their skills.  And boy did we see KK grow over the season!  Last spring she was just starting to get into chasing the ball and allowing others to run near her on the field.  After our awesome season with Eclipse, our little star has fallen in love with the game.  All fear is gone, replaced by a love of her team and the sport itself.  While you might find her cheering her teammates on while she runs beside them more than seeing her score, that never took away from our excitement.  She was the team cheerleader for sure, always supporting her friends and making sure they knew how great they were doing.  Coach Joe loved that she was up for anything, and would run into the game and do whatever she was told without fuss or question.  Don't think she was also a playmaker - our sweet KK had some awesome goals and moments on the field.  We tried so hard to capture those moments, but most of them were spent in the moment jumping and cheering on our girl!  Way to go sweet KK - you played strong, learned so much about the game and most importantly learned that its not about winning or scoring, but about being a great teammate a friend along the way.  I pray you never forget that!  Watching you play warmed our hearts and brought us joy, we love you!

Game 1

The cheering section

Besties

Game 3

KK taking the ball down

She's not afraid to steal that ball

Team Eclipse - Fall 2011 - Season 1

Game 5

Wait, I thought we were playing football out here

Sometimes you just need a break from all this running

GOAL!!!!!!!

Yup - blurry because Mommy was jumping up and down screaming GOAL :-)

Game 6

And that's how you score a goal people :-)

Go ECLIPSE!

Game 7

Inside the tunnel at the end of a great game

Our cousins came to watch - so sweet of them to cheer her on

Game 8

Oh yeah, we can take them

Check out her moves

End of Year Party

Like I said, we are so proud of you KK!  What a great season!