Thanksgiving Week 2014

It was a hectic week, but a great one! Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, and we are once again thankful to have spent time reflecting on all the blessings in our lives.

We decided to do a "thankful tree" (thank you, Pinterest) this year, and it was fun to write something down each night that we were thankful for, because despite having a lot of tough times this year, we know we have MUCH to be grateful for.  Benjamin tended to repeat the same three things over and over, but at least he's thankful for something (mostly Jesus, Mimi, and Mommydaddyavewy). :)

Wednesday was a busy day as I had two photo shoots and we had another long appointment at Children's for Avery.  And of course, before any of that, it snowed... which made us want to be lazy and cuddle in bed... which means we FORGOT TO MOVE OUR CARS ON STREET SWEEPING DAY!!  Yes, even in the snow, we got TWO tickets.  A pretty penny at $50 a pop, so there go some Christmas presents we were thinking about!

Other activities included making a pumpkin cheesecake from scratch, thankyouverymuch.

Being nostalgic about the best Thanksgiving, perhaps ever.

Watching the Macy's Parade!!

Playing football in the front yard, because while it may have snowed the day before, it was about 70 on Thanksgiving day!

Editing lots and lots of pictures (I had six shoots in one week thanks to the need for Christmas cards!)!

Getting lots of smiles from this sweet girl!

And when Thanksgiving evening rolled around, we headed over to our friends' house to enjoy the meal with them and the VWs who were in town (YAY!!) :)

these kiddos are about 4.5 months apart... matching shirts!

Kids table:

Wonderful hostess:

Group shot (minus me):

The meal was delicious!!

Dads and babies:

After another photo shoot the next morning, we hit up the Zoo to take advantage of the amazing weather!

Matt was obsessed with the new Otter pup that was finally on exhibit.  He took a video that he occasionally watches to make him smile ;)

Waiting for dad to be done with the otters...

We also took advantage of having one of my good friend's offer to watch the kiddos and enjoyed a nice dinner with the VWs and Hutchinsons at Union Station.  PS- if you haven't been there yet, it's awesome!!!

Saturday morning we took advantage of some final time with the VWs before they had to head back to Michigan :( It was SO nice getting to see them again, though it was such a tease since it's felt like they've only been on vacation! We love and miss them so.

 I so wish these girls could grow up together!! :(

It was seriously nice out!

BWL and Emme put on tattoos to commemorate their time together...

And that night we visited a tree lot (woah expensive!) and settled on a tree from Home Depot.  Our very first REAL tree! We decided the cheap fake one we've been using just wouldn't cut it for our family of four this year :)  Benjamin loved being at Home Depot at 8pm on a Saturday night.

And with that, holiday decorating began... which called for pot roast in the crock pot and a nice bottle of our favorite vino. :)

And hot cocoa in the morning!! (Tree decorating has not actually commenced...)

Benjamin and Matt got to swing by the park to say farewell to Emme and the VWs. So sad they're gone!

THIS:

 Sunday night we enjoyed a belated Thanksgiving dinner with the Monroe clan at our house (traditional Christmas Enchiladas were served) :) We hadn't seen Grama and Grampa in awhile, so it was nice to have them over and get some time with the kiddos!

Benjamin took these two:

Yumm... enchiladas and Broncos! :)

We hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!