Happy Thanksgiving

I know this is late.  Shut it.  Just enjoy.

I can't remember the last time Chad and I went "home" for Thanksgiving.  I don't think we've been home since we got married.  And speaking of, our wedding anniversary is tomorrow (December 6th)!  8 years! 

Anyway, one of us usually has to work during Thanksgiving or the days before or the days after.  For the last 3 years we have been invited to spend Thanksgiving with some close friends of ours.  We enjoy going to their house!  They are like our second family!

Thanksgiving morning we spent our time watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (a must for me), putting up the Christmas tree and putting up Christmas lights outside.  Okay, so Chad did the last part by himself.  I did my part by approving of them!  ;)

Look at this gorgeous blue sky!  The weather was absolutely perfect on Thanksgiving Day!

Did I forget to mention this part?  Grandma's Chocolate pie!  It's a Thanksgiving must in our house.  My Grandma makes the best chocolate meringue pie I've ever eaten.  Unfortunately she doesn't really have a recipe for it.  Go figure!  One Thanksgiving, years ago, I got her in the kitchen with me to help put together a "recipe" for it.  I've made one every year since then. 

Eli had to oversee the Christmas tree assembly.  First thing he said was "Ohhhhh, it's so pretty"!  How sweet is that!

 Eli thought he was just as big as Elijah.  He's really into wrestling other kids these days!  No matter the other kid's size!

It was a perfect Thanksgiving Day.  As perfect as it can be when you aren't able to spend it with all of your family.  I finished up the day by black friday shopping at Toys R Us.  Shhhh.  Don't tell Eli!  It was madness.  But it was fun.  I love black friday shopping!  I did most of mine online though.  Definitely the way to do it!  No lines, no crowds, no pushing, no fighting, no cold. 



Where to Begin

I feel like I'm so far behind on blogging I don't know where to begin.  I haven't been real great at updating lately.  Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution?  I may have a few blog posts right in a row.  I would love to do them in chronological order (because that's just how I am), but I don't know if that will happen.  Just hang with me and enjoy the pictures.  I have quite a few...



New Addiction

Has it really been 14 days since my last blog post?  I don't know where the time has flown.  I feel like I have been in a whirlwind of activities.  I don't think it will slow down anytime soon either.  Maybe after the first of the year?

I looked on my computer hoping for some cute pictures of Eli to post....nothing.  Nothing since my last post.  I know I have been taking pictures I guess I just haven't uploaded them to the computer.  One problem I know of.... our little point and shoot camera has seen it's better days.  I loved it too.  I'm very sad about it!  I'm keeping my eyes open for a new one for Christmas but haven't found one I love yet.  Also, I got the new iPhone back in October and have found myself using that camera more than my real cameras.  It actually takes decent pictures and I always have it with me!  I just need to get better at uploading my pictures from my phone!

So what have I been up to you ask?  I have a new little addiction.  Pinterest!  If you don't know what I'm talking about you should learn about it quick!  It's only the best idea for a website and I should have come up with it.  It makes me stay up way too late, spend too much money and wish I could recreate all the cool stuff I see on there!

This is the first thing I made from Pinterest.  Cookie Dough Dip.  Enough said.  I've shared it with many people and they have all loved it.  What's not to love?  Cookie Dough?  In a dip?  Genius!

I shared this recipe with my Mom.  She said it had potential but needed a little tweaking next time.  We love jalepeno poppers in my family and it sounded like it would be really good.  After stumbling upon this recipe I was led to the blog Deep South Dish.  They have some really good southern recipes. 

That's another reason I love Pinterest so much!  I have found so many new blogs I'm now following.  Mostly food blogs but they are great ways to find new recipes and ideas!

Another recipe I found from Pinterest is this one (also from the Deep South Dish blog).  I made it today in honor of Thanksgiving tomorrow.  I admit, I'm not a green bean casserole lover.  Okay, now pick your jaw up off the floor!  I just have never been a fan.  Until now!  This is the BEST green bean casserole I've ever had and I could eat it everyday!  I will definitely start making this on holidays (and probably more often than that). 

A couple of weeks ago Eli and I made this.  It turned out exactly like the picture!  It was too cute and Eli was very proud of his turkey.  This is the main reason I joined Pinterest.  I need ideas for crafts to do with Eli.  It's gotten too cold to play outside and we need things to keep us busy in the house.  He's starting to love painting, coloring, cutting with scissors or any kind of craft.  We also will be making these very soon, I've already bought all the supplies!  How cute are they?!

And I've bought everything to make this for Eli's room.  I'm in the middle of redoing his room and need ideas for things on the wall. 

I warned you.  I have a new addiction.  Can you tell?  I seriously love this website!  Start follwing me if you want.  And maybe I will start following you! 

I promise next time I will have pictures of Eli to share. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Gobble, Gobble!

Boys Will Be Boys

Here are a few more pictures from Brian and Grant's visit last weekend.  Eli hasn't stopped asking about "my friend, Grant".  He keeps asking to go to Grant's house.  I guess he doesn't understand how far away Connecticut is from Arkansas!

Boys doing boy stuff... digging in the dirt.

Eli insisted on the boots and goggles.  I guess he was planning to get really dirty!

They played here forever!

Who doesn't remember running, jumping and rolling around in the the fall leaves as a child?  I know I remember it well!  I used to love playing in the leaves!

And evidently they loved playing in them as well.

My Friend Grant

This weekend Chad's brother, Brian, and his son, Grant, came to visit.  Grant and Eli have such a good time together.  I hope this is just the beginning of a close cousin bond between the two!  They are leaving tomorrow and I know Eli will be sad when he wakes up and realizes Grant is no longer here.  Each morning when Eli wakes up he asks "where's Grant?".  "Grant's my friend", Eli says.  It's pretty cute!

We tried going to the Bentonville Square for their monthly "First Friday".  It was so packed we didn't stay long.  Grant was taking a cat nap in the car and missed the pony ride.  This was Eli's first time to ride a real pony!  He wasn't so sure about it at first but ended up liking it towards the end.

One of Brian's favorite places to eat here (and ours too!) is Gusano's Pizza.  They have great chicago style pizza.  Well great to Chad and I seeing how we've never been to Chicago and had REAL Chicago style pizza from Chicago!  Ha!

Notice what is sitting in front of the boys on the table?  iPhones are one of the greatest inventions!  The boys loved watching Go Diego Go after they were finished eating dinner!  It's a nice way to allow us to finish our dinner in peace!

Poor Grant is so tired.  He was definitely a trooper since he had to wake up at 3am to catch his flight to come visit us!  I don't think Eli would have been such a sport ;)

Sweet cousin hugs!

Can you find Grant?  He was hiding from the picture!  Chad's Dad came up for the weekend too!

This past week Chad had a birthday.  We were both working most of the week and didn't have time to properly celebrate with a cake.  We saved the cake for the weekend when there would be other people to help eat it!  Good thing we did too!  That cake is delicious!  It needs to leave our house ASAP!  I'm eating way too much of it.  Shelby Lynn's Cake Shop is our new favorite local cake place!  Their cream cheese icing is to die for!

Of course they had to take a bath together!

On Saturday the Hogs played S. Carolina.  We had a big tailgate of the year.  The weather was great, cool and sunny!  We tried something new this year, I made chili instead of BBQ!  It was a nice change, especially since the weather is cool now.  Eli was a fan of the cupcakes for sure!  I think he had three. 

Here he is asking for his second one.  Which I gave him.  Hey, we were tailgating.  There are no rules when tailgating ;)

One happy boy!

I had the bright idea of taking riding toys with us to the tailgate.  Good thing we did!  They were a hit with the boys!

Eli trying to sneak another cupcake!

I actually remembered to get a picture of Chad and me.  And forgot to get one of pretty much everything else.  Go figure...

Today the boys played outside most of the day.  We got out the bike trailer and let the boys take a little ride in the neighborhood.  Eli loves to ride in the bike trailer!

I have more pictures of the boys playing outside but my computer is being a pain and won't recognize my camera so I can download the pictures.  I will upload them when my computer quits acting stupid.

Poor Eli.  He is going to be so sad in the morning when he realizes "my friend, Grant" isn't here!  Good thing he is going to Nana's (his babysitter) and will be with Alexi the next two days!  Hopefully she will distract him from missing his cousin!



Halloween Traditions

We've been trying to make some Halloween traditions the past few years since having Eli.  This year we added painting pumpkins to our traditions.  Eli is really into arts and crafts lately so I thought this would be perfect!  It was much better than carving them!  Actually we haven't even carved pumpkins yet and tomorrow is Halloween! 

Eli and I went to the store and I let him pick out his pumpkins.  Eli loved painting the "baby pumpkins" as he called them.

We've been going to this one local pumpkin patch since Eli was born.  It's not really a pumpkin "patch".  They have pumpkins set up with all sorts of fun halloween stuff.  It's a great place to go take pictures!  I've said for the past month I was going to take Eli to a real pumpkin patch but something just always came up and we didn't go.  Eli, I promise next year I will take you to a real pumpkin patch!

Ha!  This picture make me laugh.  Chad told Eli to go stand beside the skeleton and put his arm around him for a picture.  Eli thinks skeletons are funny so he went right up to it.  It started talking and scared Eli to death!  I snapped the picture just as Eli was running away!  Look at his face!

Love this sweet face!

I love this picture too!  It looks like Eli is reacting to the huge pumpkin beside him but he's not.  He's fighting the crazy bush behind him!

Peek-a-boo!

One of my favs!

 

Another favorite.  Such a sweet smile :)

Look at this gorgeous tree (and my gorgeous boys)!  The trees have really been pretty this fall!  Much more so than we thought they would be with the hot, dry summer we had here.

Eli was over taking pictures at this point.

Happy Fall, Ya'll!