Thanksgiving Day

In honor of tradition, we woke up early, bundled ourselves and the nuggets, donned our running gear and participated in the Turkey Trot!

The oldest nuggets were thrilled to be ‘running’ with everyone…as they were official and even had shirts and bib numbers!

The littlest nugget stayed back and bundled as he and Gigi cheer the rest of our group on!

This little girl took it all in…!

After the Trot, we headed south to Texas Mimi’s house for Thanksgiving. We were able to catch the tail end of the parade, which caught these two nugget’s fancy.

Little C enjoyed catching up with Mimi and cuddled with her while his brother and sister watched the balloons and floats.

C continues to be enamored by faces…

There is something so special about this space…this table…the place settings…probably because of it’s continuity, it doesn’t change…it’s like a time capsule of sweet memories…

The table prior to its inhabitation…

Inhabited in all it’s sweetness!

After dinner, before dessert, we went around the table and shared what we were thankful for…it was pretty special time.

After some ‘serious’ time…these two got to work on burning off their Thanksgiving dinner…

As did these two!

Thanksgiving pie wouldn’t be complete without Bluebell ice cream…this was little A’s first taste of this Texas tradition and goodness!

After dessert, we all ‘retired’ to the den to watch some football.  Little C enjoyed some Aunie B time…

While these two worked on an important beading project!

Before saying our goodbyes, we snapped a few photos.

Our crew with Mimi…

Mimi and her Great-grand nuggets…

4 generations…

So much to be thankful for!

Be blessed.

Trains!

It wouldn’t be a winter trip to Texas without a trip to see the train exhibit.

The older nuggets were thrilled to have Gigi as their escort to the trains…

And the trip wouldn’t be complete without passing by the ducks and turtles to give a little nod.

This particular morning, Little A made herself at home while playing with Gigi and Papa’s dress up clothes, so much that she thought the Easter bonnet made her ensemble complete!

The trains struck the two oldest nugget’s fancy…seeing all the miniature rail cars come and go through different parts of Texas was quite a treat!

Be blessed.

Texas ‘Part Two’

After saying our ‘Good Byes’ ion Cowtown we headed east to celebrate Papa’s retirement.

Our visit coincided with Papa’s actual retirement day which meant we were in town for his retirement party…the nuggets enjoyed the chance to see where Papa worked everyday, while Gigi and Papa enjoyed introducing them to everyone.

C enjoyed sharing some photos of Papa with B…

Doesn’t the nugget that Papa is laying next to ( C ) look like our littlest nugget?!?

These two enjoyed their share of retirement cake and fruit…

While taking in all that Papa had to share about is memories of working.

After the reception, we snuck up to Papa’s office to get a glimpse. These two nuggets were quite impressed by Papa’s chair and desk.

Papa’s ‘pose’ at the party (please excuse the yellow pants).

Afterwards, we enjoyed a delicious family meal to formally celebrate Papa…the littlest nugget snuck in a little face time with his Texas Mimi and then conked out!

It was a special day and such an honor to be there to celebrate Papa in person!

Be blessed.

Cowtown

We became reacquainted with ole I-35 as we drove south for a week of fun and Thanksgiving. The nuggets were gracious travelers and did incredibly well in the car..

We even ‘survived’ our first hotel room stay as a family of five! These may have been more of a feat than the drive itself!

We spent the first half of the week in Cowtown before heading east to celebrate Thanksgiving with C’s family. We wished we had snapped more photos of our time reconnecting with friends.

Our time was full and the nuggets slept hard and proved to be fairly seasoned and flexible with living out of duffle bags and sleeping in beds other than their own!

We enjoyed quite a ‘play date’ with other kiddos from our former church (unfortunately no play date photos to speak of).

The nuggets also got the chance to see their ‘Texas Aunties’ as we visited with some of the women I used to teach with. Little C had himself wrapped around these ‘Aunties’ fingers while B and A made themselves at home with real classroom toys!

These women have been such a blessing. They were ready and rearing to celebrate our engagement…hosted a wedding shower…attended our wedding…hosted a baby shower…celebrated the arrival of our nuggets and shared lots of ‘life’ with us.  They each (along with other friends from this sweet little school) will ALWAYS hold a special place in our hearts!

It wouldn’t be a trip to Cowtown without a visit to our favorite breakfast spot.  The bakery was bustling with Thanksgiving preparations…but gracious to tell us Hello and provide a delicious breakfast that made our hearts and tummies nostalgic!

Before heading East, we snapped this photo with our friends who graciously opened up their home to our ‘crazy’ and allowed us to have s sort of ‘home base’ during our stay. It’s amazing to think that we are five kiddos deep into our friendship with this sweet family. Where has the time gone?!?! God has been gracious to allow us to pick up right where we’ve left off with these friends and SO many others as we continue to learn the dance of living up north but treasuring our relationships down south.

Cowtown continues to (and always will) hold a special place in our hearts…for so many reasons! We treasure the time we get to spend there with friends and want to make sure that our nuggets are acquainted with the place where so many of our memories and our story began.

Be blessed.