Thanksgiving
Well we made it through another Thanksgiving in our home, but not without the help of lots of family. Every year that we have it at our house I gripe a little, or maybe a lot, but secretly I think I like it. I love that everyone brings their holiday cheer to our house in addition to their yummy food. The Hathaways stayed with us a couple days with their six kids and so our kids were in heaven with all these playmates to choose from.
Each year there is some variance to our Thanksgiving, but there are also some staple dishes and activities that we do. A typical Thanksgiving in our home goes as follows:

Wednesday we prep with pies, appetizers, or whatever can sit and fit in the fridge overnight
Thursday we wake up early and get to cooking some more while listening to a little Christmas music. Our menu is usually, turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, pretzel jello-salad, my mom's awesome rolls, stuffing, and spinach dip (a must in Tom's book). This year family members brought all the pies so that stress which tends to be huge for me was taken away.
After dinner we all sit and digest the food for a while and then we each draw pictures of what we're thankful for and try to guess who drew what. Usually not long after an intense game of mafia ensues.
This year it was so great to see everyone, friends and family and it was a reminder of what is most important.

Kristin and Owen made these cute suckers for everyone.
We finally followed through with getting a ping pong table and were so glad we did.
Jess and E played and played and played some more. I think they are showing me there best karate moves here.
Rain was in the forecast, but we got nothin but sunshine the day after Thanksgiving so we took advantage of it and went to the park and carousel to see Santa and take a ride.


What's a family get together without a sumo match???
Our least favorite part, saying goodbye to the Hathaways...luckily we will see them again soon. Not long after their departure we put the fall decor away and got out all the Christmas stuff. On to the next exciting holiday and from now until Christmas Jessie and Tegan will be asking me if Santa will be coming tomorrow.

Feeling a Wee Bit Guilty

Recognize a commonality to these photos?






And it all started here...
I've always loved that Tegan sucks her fingers. It's made her even more precious to me than she already is. I love that she has used it to self soothe, help her fall asleep, calm down, and turn to when boredom gets the best of her, but I don't like how she simultaneously rips her hair out while she sucks them. I guess rip is a strong word to use, there was a time when she was younger that she was actually ripping her hair out, hence the short hairdo for the first 2 1/2 years of her life, but now it's more of a slow twist over and over. She's breaking it all off and thinning like an old man on one side of her head.
I didn't want to take away her one true love until much further down the road, but the vain part of me doesn't want my daughter having a big bald spot on her head. I tried to think of all these different ways I could solve the problem like a hat with fake hair for her to twist, or a wig, but I knew I just needed to get to the root of the problem--her fingers. And I did what any mean mom would do and painted her nails with the nastiest tasting stuff ever. Watching Tegan's face after her first post-nasty polish application was sad. She was surprised and confused. I explained to her the reason which brings me to another thing I adore about Tegan, she just rolls with the punches. She agreed that it was time to become a big girl and hasn't complained once about her nasty tasting fingers. She's happily let me reapply it. But I feel guilty taking away her best friend and a little saddened that I no longer get to see her happily sucking her fingers, and a little frustrated that it now takes her twice as long to go to sleep at night, but a little happy that she no longer twists at her hair, and finally a little unprepared to see my little girl becoming my big girl.

Halloween Time at Our House


We had fun carving pumpkins with friends. Ventured away from the classic jack-o-lantern a little bit.


Thanks to my friend Kristin sending me some good ideas, we decided to go with a bird theme for Halloween and I tackled homemade costumes for us. It was easy enough for me not to mess it up too bad and the girls loved them. The girls were peacocks and I went for a giant nest on my head. Tommy decided to be a bird watcher.
After nights and nights of asking the girls finally got to sit down for hot cocoa and marshmallows.
We made goodies...

and granny apples
and trick or treated door to door for the first time ever with the girls. They loved it and didn't stop until their bags were to heavy to go on. By the end, Tegan had fallen asleep on my shoulders. We were happy for the nice weather that accompanied a great day.