Turkey Day was a success!

We are back home after a busy and wonderful week and exhausting week.
First we had a big Thanksgiving feast at the kid's school. All the kids sit at a HUGE long table and eat turkey and mac and cheese (mac and cheeseroni, as Aaden refers to it) and fruit and cheese and rolls. It was fun and wild. The kids were dressed up as indians. It was pretty cute!
The kids and I left last Tuesday for Austin. We hung out with Laila and Seth (my sister and her fiance) and planned for our Thanksgiving meal, the first one I have ever cooked! I have made a dish here and there, but this year we fixed the entire meal ourselves. My sister had done it several times before (that's what she gets for going to college so far from home...Florida and then Virginia) so it was no big thing to her, but I think that it is a big deal! We had cajun turkey (thanks to the fully cooked line from H-E-B) and honey spiral sliced ham and stuffing and green bean casserole and mac and cheese and cheesey mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce and rolls and 2 pies. We had enough food for a small army and there were only 4 adults and 2 kids who barely eat. Aaron joined us on Thursday morning (he got up super early and drove the 6 hours to Austin and was there to wake us up that morning). He also took the kids to a park for a couple hours while we were cooking. It was a HUGE help. So, we were planning on eating at 2, but we ate about 3:30 so everyone was STARVING!!! We consumed more food than any human should ever eat in one sitting and then just vegged out the rest of the evening. Except for cleaning up, of course. Then Friday we stopped by my friend Jason's house to catch the BIG game (A&M and UT of course!). I stayed as long as the kids could stand it, then headed out to the lake with the kids. My parents came in that night, and we hung out with them for the rest of the very cold and wet weekend. We came back to Longview on Sunday and headed back to school this morning.
So, that was our Thanksgiving. I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday!

Halloween

Our Halloween was busy and fun and ...well, you'll see how it ended. It started off with taking the kids to school. (Which they still love by the way.) And I went off to my bible study. I then went home and got together little toothbrush treats for the kids at school. With all of the sugar that the kids are eating I thought that they may need a new toothbrush to clean all the sugar out of their teeth. (Plus Aaden and I have not had great dentist visits lately.)
I dropped off the toothbrushes and I went and got our booth ready for trunk or treat. We did a fishing theme so I borrowed the board and the fishing poles from fall fest and we let the kids fish for their candy. I think it was fun. So anyways, after that I brought the kids home from school and we hung out and got them dressed in their costumes. Some of our friends came over and got dressed here too.
Then we left the house and swung by wendy's for some chicken nuggets (a staple in our house) and headed off for trunk or treat. The kids went around gathering candy from all the small groups. I ate chili. We ran around and had a good time. We left about 8 and headed to our friend Missy's house to show off the kid's costumes. (Missy and Jeff and their 2 kids Jordan and Erin live behind us. We have all become great friends over the fence. It makes me think of Tim the Toolman Taylor and his neighbor Wilson. It's kinda like that.) Anyways we went over there and Missy and I were talking and Rylan was raiding her candy bowl and Aaden was complaining that he wanted to go home because his tummy hurt. (Too much candy?) We were getting up to leave because of Aaden's complaining and the vomiting began. He threw up on her living room carpet and over to the tile entry and out the door on her door mat. Missy is such a wonderful friend that she told me to just take him home and she would clean it all up (as she was telling me this she was putting on her surgical gloves, it was really kinda' funny) So we came home and I bathed the kids and got them ready for bed. Rylan went right down, but Aaden not so much. He continued to vomit throughout the night. I gave him some phenergon which conked him and and seemed to help his stomach some. So I pretty much stayed up all night with him and stayed home from work the next day to take care of him.
So that was our happy and not so happy halloween.

There are a couple pictures from Trunk or Treat at the bottom. Enjoy!