Thanksgiving-Incredible Hulk style

Hi there, I’m Andrea, your long lost blogger. Oh my, I don’t think I’ve ever been this bad about blogging and keeping up. Guess that’s the life of having three kids and working two jobs. Extra time is pretty much nonexistent in our house.

Thanksgiving was a busy week. Who am I kidding...like there aren’t busy weeks?! I had 12 photo sessions that week! Yes, 12 and I’m still editing. I’ve seen hours past midnight a lot these days. I’m grateful for the growing photography business but looking forward to a slower December when I promised my family no sessions so I could celebrate the holidays with them.

The major kink in our week was Landry coming down with croup. My amazing husband took care of all three while I went on a girls’ trip, and with Landry being sick. He is a rock star. After a week of not getting better and possibly worse, we went back to the doctor and they ended up putting her on steroids and an antibiotic. Within hours, we noticed that she began to sound better. Poor thing sounded like she had been smoking a pack a cigs. The bad news was that the steroids made my otherwise adorable and sweet baby girl turn into the Incredible Hulk. She seriously had ‘roid rage and it was a rough five days. Finally, the last day we couldn’t take it anymore and we didn’t give her her last dose. Suddenly, our sweet and happy girl was back. Glad she was back, but it was at a very tiring and frustrating cost.

Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving without snuggling in bed and watching the parade. Well, the boys snuggled anyway.

Landry screamed holy terror and I almost didn’t get a picture of it. She wanted NOTHING to do with the parade. We managed to snap our annual Thanksgiving picture in the backyard with our beautiful sweet gum tree that perfectly turns the week of Thanksgiving.

The boys were working the Heisman pose like no other.

 

And this is the best we could get from Landry Kate during her 'roid rage. 

 

Next, we headed to my parents’ house. My brother came in with his kids and it had been June since I saw them. It was so great seeing my nieces and nephews. The boys loved playing football in the backyard with their big cousin, Warren.

The food was awesome, as always. I don't know what I'm going to do when they pass the torch for me to cook the turkey. That just seems too grown up for me to do.

My brother and his boys checked out the Black Friday ads and even were brave enough to go shopping.

I went Black Friday night when I discovered we were down to our last diaper. I was scared to go, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that Target was a ghost town and I even bought everything that I saw that was a deal! Double score! The trick is go when everyone else is so exhausted from earlier Black Friday sales.



My nieces Madison was there and looked gorgeous as always so I wanted to get some pictures of her with the kids.

Isn't she beautiful? Love her sweet smile. She told me she wanted me to Photoshop a blemish on her face. I told her it was just easier to do this...

It was a hard "first" Thanksgiving without my sister, Tonya. I was pretty proud that I only cried once. I thought of her a million times that day. I thought about how we would be scouring the Black Friday ads and how in her last couple of years, we would go shopping and I would joke with her that her wheelchair was slowing me down and she needed to upgrade to a jazzy scooter.

But having Madison there with us helped heal the wound. I wish my other nieces could have been there that day too because being with them helps.

In the midst of playing in the backyard, we saw a butterfly. For those of you who don't know, my sister's middle name means butterfly. I'd like to think that was her celebrating with us on Turkey Day. I mean how many butterflies have you seen at the end of November?

Yeah, me neither.

There's still so much to be grateful for in our lives and this year has taught me more than ever that people mean the very most.

Thankful

Tradition.

I crave it every time this year. It's ain't Thanksgiving without certain foods or without starting our day snuggled in our jammies watching the Macy's Day parade. Our king sized bed is running out of room. And I love that our family is so big... means big family events when they're older. Don't worry I think their spouses will think it's too weird if we carry on this tradition after they're out of the house.

I don't know what it is about kids in jammies, but seriously, footed jammies??? Forget about it. I just want to snuggle them to pieces and apparently my boys have inherited this trait from me because they were given some serious lovin' to their sister.

And after a bunch of Landry lovin' we hit the kitchen to make some lovin' from the oven with some sweet potato casserole. Nolan loved helping.

Could Campbell's hair be any more ridiculous? Project growing hair out = disaster. Don't worry, a haircut followed a few days later.

Nolan's art projects from school made from some super cute photography props. I love these blue-eyed boys so much I can't stand it. Thankful doesn't even come close.

Nolan is my poser if you can't tell. I take out a camera and he works that thing like he's a runway model. Campbell? No way, he's either pouting (see above), eating a snack (see above), laughing (see below), or if I want a good shot I have to get a candid shot. Never fails.

I'm curious to see if Landry will have a love/hate relationship with the camera. So far, she's working that camera pretty darn well.

One last shot that happens every year....our family pic in front of our sweet gum tree that normally is the perfect shade of red but not so much this year. Actually this week, it's beautiful...maybe we can fake Thanksgiving and do a do-over.

Next up, we headed to my parents. It wasn't hard to find, we just used our noses and followed the scent. This year we were all in the kitchen lending a hand.

I leave the turkey to the professionals but can help with any side dish. Man, you know you're really a grown up when you have to cook the turkey. Until then, I'll enjoy being a kid and mooching some turkey.

Justin was a natural at carving and I, of course, am a natural at devouring it. My boys seemed to take after me...

My parents know how to set a table. I love everything about Thanksgiving. The food, the love, the traditions but most of all I'm thankful for who's sitting around the table.

These two special ladies mean so much to me. My sister, Tonya, who is battling for her life with Stage 4 breast cancer. It's been another rough year finding out that her cancer has spread to her brain. Chemo, radiation, chemo again, triple steriods, ER visit after ER visit...it's been one hell of a year.

We found out that Tonya's cancer spread just a week after Landry was born. Talk about emotional rollercoaster. Extreme joy, extreme sorrow were experienced daily with no warning of when each emotion would be felt.

There's nothing that has taught me more life lessons than my sister's cancer or having children. I'm thankful for the gratitude it's given me to be thankful for each and every day.

So this Thanksgiving, I'm more aware than ever of what and who I'm most grateful for. I still hate cancer and everything it's taken from her and our family, but cancer you can't take away love and you can't take away the lessons I've learned.

Give thanks

Thanksgiving came at a really good time this year for me. This year it came to me in a new way. One of those we've-sure-been-through-a-lot-this-year-but-life-is-still-good kind of ways. Some of it I share with you, some of it I still hold onto.

I feel like this blog is a pretty good perspective of our life. I give you the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truth. But my biggest truth in our family is definitely love. There might be screaming, tantrums, tears, brief moments of sadness, and a messy house, but one thing that there is no doubt about is love.

The kind of love where little jammies and cold toes are welcomed in bed under the covers just in time to start the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The kind of love where you know that you can wear what you wanna wear and have all the self confidence in the world that you are the strongest man alive in boots. Who cares if they're technically girls boots?!



The same kind of love where you suffer through the bitter cold so your mama can get that stupid picture every year in front of the sweetgum tree that peaks perfectly on Thanksgiving day no matter when that day falls in November.

Speaking of suffering through more pictures, how 'bout these adorable hats made by Nolan?

 
The same love that no matter how much they may fight, they still love being around each other and are best friends.



The kind of love that has you driving over the river and through the woods....

 

 

A kind of love that only homemade food can convey-one that your belly full understands.

A kind of love that is shown not just by words but by action...even if it's sneaky.

Yea so it's been a rough year in the family health-wise but I'd say that the biggest blessing is that we're all here, we're all family, and most importantly...we've got a whole lotta love.

Too blessed to be depressed

I saw the phrase "too blessed to be depressed" on a church marquee years ago and I just love it. When I get down about work or whatever else might get me down, I just say that phrase and it really is so true.

This Thanksgiving, I have so much to be grateful for.

1. I'm thankful to have a job that makes a difference.
2. I'm thankful to have a beautiful home even if it's a mess a lot of the time.
3. I'm thankful to have a church family that truly is a family.
4. I'm thankful have a husband who tells me everyday that he loves me and puts up with my neurotic ways.
5. I'm thankful to have a mother who raised us as a single mom and then my wonderfully amazing dad who adopted me.
6. I'm thankful for girlfriends that made me laugh so hard this past weekend that my stomach and cheeks hurt!
7. I'm thankful for my nerdy old minivan because it means that I have a family that I prayed for.
8. I'm thankful that God constantly reminds me of all His grace and love everyday with the people he's put in my life.
9. I'm thankful for my health.
10. I'm thankful that God has entrusted me to raise these two absolutely beautiful, hysterical, blond haired, blued eyed boys. What a gift!

Church Thanksgiving dinner

Every year our church does a Thanksgiving dinner and we go. It's potluck style but let me tell you, I wear my elastic pants to this dinner. It is such good grub and it's so wonderful to spend the dinner with our church family. They are truly one of the things that we are most grateful for. We go to a small church but where we're small, we make up with heart. We just got a new minister at our church, Rob Morris, who was my brother-in-law's roommate at TCU and my youth group sponsor during church camps for years. He's been so amazing for our church and we're so excited that we're growing and so many young families are coming.

This year, Campbell got a little festive with his turkey hat he made at school. Once we were at the dinner, he definitely preferred the green bean casserole. All the ladies at church sneak him in some desserts when we're not looking and he just loves them for that. After dinner, he started playing with another little girl named Evelyn. One or both of them has a crush. It was short of a make out session during the middle of the church dinner. Once again, those McDonald boys...