Thanksgiving in North Carolina

 

The month has flown! Fall is an incredible time here, the fall foliage is so beautiful! Raking is a different story, but this year I had the help of Michael!! We spent a few hours raking last week and he stuck with me the whole time- helping rake, pulling the tarp of leaves to the street with me, putting the rakes away. He can really buckle down and get a job done!

 

 

Nicole and her friend Bianca

 

 

Nicole with her hat from her Thanksgiving Feast at Kindergarten.

 

 

Joe, Megan, Addie drove down from Ohio for Thanksgiving and Daniel flew in from the Y. The men went fishing one morning at a friend's pond and they all caught some fish!

 Daniel edited this photo, I love the coloring. Their pond is so beautiful, it's the same spot as where I caught a fish too. (my one and only fish I've caught in NC)

 

Michael loves to take pictures. Poor Diana is the star of the show!

 

 

Daniel was a favorite wrestle/jungle gym! All of the kids really love Daniel. We've prayed for him on his mission, watched his "shipwrecked" movie, and talked about him for two years and they were so happy to see him! Nicole especially loved tickling Daniel.

 

 

Tday morning the men played football and the kids played in the grass. I had them run across the field and back to work out some energy and then they used the soccer nets to make a train. Michael drove the train and Nicole shoveled coal. We're talking serious fun :)

Michael wanted Addie to join him in everything he did prettymuch the whole weekend. He was so sweet with her and keeps asking me if she can come play.

Walking over to play football...

Before our Tday feast, the kids played in the leaves (even though I'd raked them just the day before, a whole new bunch of leaves were already covering the ground!)

We are so thankful for family and the gift it was to have Daniel, Joe, Megan, and Addie be with us. Daniel made some amazing green bean casserole and stuffing, Megan and Joe made some tasty rolls that didn't last until the next day they were so good, Joe baked the turkey and did gravy, I defrosted the punch (hard manual labor there!), and I think Joe and Jim did potatoes- the kitchen was getting a little crazy then. It was a delicious dinner and we topped it off with pies for dessert. Jim got his cherry pie, and we had pumpkin and lemon meringue too.

Working off the stuffing by wrestling the stuffing out of each other. Jake is usually the instigator, but Michael will happily wrestle with his small fry brother!

Diana all tired out from her first Thanksgiving. I love this sweet cuddy girl. She gained 2 1/2 pounds this last month and has jumped right back on the growth curve. Hooray!

The day after Thanksgiving everyone went to the beach (I stayed home with Nicole and Diana who were napping). The lake beach, not ocean. But the kids didn't know the difference and a plus was that the adults took turns kayaking!

The water was chilly, but I knew there was not a chance that Michael wouldn't get absolutely soaked.

 

 Hiding behind the couch playing with Addie!

Oh it was Joe and Jim peeling. And now we know.

Daniel starting the green bean casserole. It was a new recipe, and he did a great job!

Taking pics of the dinner before it disappears in 20 minutes.

Addie is really growing up and she totally fit in with the other kids. She is really sweet and communicates very well for her age. I kept thinking she was the same age as Jake since they're like the same size too :)

Chillin' on the porch.

 

After the kids went to bed, we played Yahtzee and had so much fun. Joe and Megan smashed the rest of us! We watched the BYU vs UNC womens final 8 soccer game. While the guys rooted for BYU, I rooted for UNC just for fun and it about drove them crazy :) The game was really good and could have easily gone either way, UNC had this incredible save. My favorite part was when they announced they would have two 10 minutes periods of sudden death. And someone said "So how long is sudden death anyways?" hehe.

 

Daniel got the "lucky" seat in back whenever we were driving and my kids couldn't be happier about it!

Jake studying black friday ads. I was thrilled that Kohls black friday stuff was available on Wednesday, so I was able to get everything on Wednesday by using gift cards we earned through credit card points. It made the weekend so much easier to not face any crowds!

Playing in the backyard! Looks like Addie was testing out the climbing dome.

 

On Tday, we skyped with Mom and Dad and played games together for a while. This game has an elephant that shoots "bugs" out of his nose and the kids try to catch them with their nets. They were going wild!

 

When everyone left Saturday morning, Jim and I started putting Christmas lights up. The kids dragged all of their blankets out front and waved at people driving by.

 

The weather was so nice and they had fun relaxing. I think they just wanted to see if Joe and Megan were going to drive back. :)