Thanksgiving

Yes that confused face is correct - it is January 2010 and yes I am blogging about Thanksgiving 2009. My New Year's Resolution is to just be honest and not hide behind excuses. So here it is: My children are nuts and at night after they go to bed I want to crash and blogging takes more energy than I have left most nights. BUT American Idol is back on now and I can blog and watch that at the same time so hopefully I'll catch up a bit.

Back to Thanksgiving :-). We spent Thanksgiving in Huntsville with everyone in Southeast Texas with a drop of Walker blood along with their spouses, roommates, and dogs. Note the dock behind us. We started out on the dock and when it started to crack and give, we high-tailed it to the grass. That's the whole family, minus Walker who was napping, and Uncle Stevens and Aunt Betsy, who live in North Carolina. No worries, lots of cute pics of Walker to come!!

Douglas, Candy, and Uncle Michael spent all day cooking. If I could bottle the smell of the stuffing I would send you all some so you could drool while you read blogs. My husband is a stellar cook - we will definitely be having a Thanksgiving dinner in the Spring!!! Kidding aside, there really were 28 people there for lunch so it was quite a spread.It was great to see everybody - we don't get to see that side of the family very often and it was so fun for Kinsey to hang out with her cousins. Here she is getting pushed on the swing by her cousin Clay.
And here she is with Clay the next day having leftovers.And here she is with her Aunt Kim practicing ballet moves.But nothing compared to the excitement of hanging out with Hailey!!! The girls tried a sleepover at Hailey's house, but Douglas and I ended up going to get her at 11pm. She wasn't quite ready for a night away from us knowing we were just down the road. Here they are watching Cinderella at Hailey's before the sleepover meltdown. Matching pajamas from Obi & CC's trip to Alaska.
Tag and Walker had fun, too. I can't wait to see those two when they are a little older and can really play together. At this age, they spend most of their time alternating naps throughout the day :-) This is the only shot we got of the two of them together without Tag screaming. He was super tired and ready for a nap, but Walker had just gotten up and we needed to do a cute matching outfit photo shoot. Sweet cousin Kim took these pics and patiently dealt with fussy Tag. Here are some other cute shots of these little guys...
And a couple of cute ones of Hailey and Walker...
And finally a few more pics from the holiday...
It's kind of odd but some of my favorite pics of Tag are from his cryfest outside at the photo shoot. Even all teary-eyed, he's adorable.Here's Crystal and Tag - I love that we both have little boys around the same age.
Great times with the Hallams and Walkers!

Finishing up late Oct - mid Nov

October means the purple flowers are blooming at Pops and Nana's house! Walk with me back to 2006... 2007... 2008... and now 2009...It is much harder to get a great shot now that there are so many of us, two of whom are squirmy and very easily distracted! Sometimes you get a great pic, you just have to cut several other people out...
This is my favorite pic featuring crazy faces from 2 of my 3 favorite guys...And my favorite Tag pic - he decided to bust in on some Kinsey, Nana & Pops pics...Then it was time for some golf.
And Tag loved playing ball...
Pops and Tag played basketball inside and Tag got the crazy giggles.



For Halloween, we met up with the McBrides at a local nursery (the plant kind) for a pumpkin hunt and some candy grabbing. Kinsey picked out her own outfit. The boots used to be Emma's.
Tag had a long day and was pretty pooped after the pumpkin hunt.
Tag loves sunglasses. Back in October, he called them "Rashish". (Now he calls them "Gasses!") He would bring them to us and say "Rashish ON!" and then walk around in them like a movie star.
Tag loves playing night-night on Kinsey's bed. And of course, crab enjoys it, too.
Kinsey was doing some wand work in the laundry room one day when I heard a crash. I turned and looked and she had fallen into a box and was laughing her tushy off.
And now for some brother-sister cuteness. Kinsey loves to sweep the back porch, Tag loves to throw dirt on it. It's kind of a perfect combination.
And sometimes Tag likes to get in on the sweeping...
I would love to know what that little boy is thinking sometimes.
But I know he loves getting his picture taken.
More cuteness...
This was the day they decided they needed boats. So we used the laundry basket and an empty rubbermaid container and they set sail. Now when Tag sees the laundry basket, he says "Kinsey boat!"We got this tent for the kids at Sea World... ...and Kinsey thought it was the perfect place to read a spooky story in it to Pops.
We had the privilege of hanging out with Lucy a couple of times - Kinsey loved her role as babysitter, especially getting to fed Lucy!And Tag just loved playing with her. In mid-October we traded in our faithful white truck for another tan minivan. We have had awesome experiences with CraigsList - Douglas has the magic touch :). Anyway, this new van, which is actually a 1999, has lots of cool features like this carseat within a seat. Pretty neat according to Kinsey.
And the new van came with a flowery umbrella in the back, which Kinsey also thought sweetened the deal.
We decorated the tree a bit early this year because late November was really busy for us. Kinsey was so excited to go up in the attic and help Daddy with the decorations.
Here's how excited she was to decorate the tree with me...
I'm kidding - she really was excited about the tree but not so much about taking pictures! I finally got a smile.
So I would like to be able to tell you that decorating the tree with the children this year was a wonderful family moment during which we built traditions and shared much joy. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The truth is, I about had a nervous breakdown. In years past, Douglas and I have had a blast decorating the tree, remembering where we got certain ornaments, and watching Christmas Vacation on TV. This year, we played a cd of Christmas carols (which Kinsey kept asking us to change) and I spent most of my time saying "That one is BREAKABLE! Stop grabbing! Don't pull it off the tree!!!" Finally I looked at Douglas and said, "Ok, some of these ornaments I like better than my kids. We need to figure out a better way to do this next year!"
But the tree finally got decorated and Kinsey helped Daddy with the squiggles on top, which she thought was super-cool. And I learned a little bit about storing kid ornaments separate from prized ones :)
Just before Thanksgiving, we had a great visit to GG's house and got to see Aunt Linda and Uncle Rodney also.
Tag loves phones and pretended to talk to Daddy while we were at GG's.
Kinsey has a super-cute friend from church named Kara. Here they are during Sunday School on the playground.They also got to hang out at a park together for a MOPS (Mothers-of-Preschoolers) playdate.
Tag had a good time at the park, too.