Thanksgiving and Family Fun

A fun-filled week with the Thanksgiving holiday travels, Daddy on vacation and Aunt Catherine in town. In order to maximize our time with her, the family got together a few times while she was home.

Pawpaw had his birthday on Monday so we all celebrated at Grandma and Pawpaw's house. We drove up to San Marcos on Wednesday morning and spent the rest of the day shopping at the outlet malls and getting settled into our hotel (Luke's first hotel stay.)

Thursday we drove to Wimberley and spent the day with my mom's side of the family. It is a gathering we attend every year at my Granddaddy's house and property in the Hill Country. It is usually a fairly big crowd, but this year it was enormous. There were nearly 60 people there for Thanksgiving. It was great to see so many people, but a bit overwhelming at the same time. We had a wonderful time.

Friday we headed home after a stop in Lockhart, TX for some fabulous BBQ. I'd like to say that the drives were uneventful and easy, but they weren't. My boys are not used to car travel (as we do it so rarely), so neither were very happy to be strapped down for the 3 hour drives. I was definitely ready to be out of the car too.

Friday night, the family was at our house for dinner before Catherine left town. Jacob just adores his cousins, so he was so happy to have them over to play. Saturday, Jacob had another birthday party. It was a super busy week.

Luke is rolling around like crazy these days. When he is put down on his back, he almost always flips to his belly. He's not super happy to be on his belly most of the time, so I'm not quite sure why he always rolls there. He seems to have forgotten that he can roll back to his back, so he just fusses until we help him out. Food will be started this week - he's ready. Sleeping has been a precious commodity lately, and it is wearing me thin. I'm hoping some cereal in the evenings will help things out. No teeth yet, but I think they must be close with all the drooling and gnawing he does. He's also in a phase where he wants to be held and/or constantly entertained. This, of course, is nearly impossible to do all the time, so he's having to learn to 'wait' occasionally, and with that waiting, we are learning just how loud he can be.

Jacob is still a handful, but also lots of fun. We hear him say some of the funniest and cutest things these days. I'll post about some of the most recent ones later. He is also saying some things that we aren't quite sure where he picked up. I guess that is what happens when kids start going to school/nurseries/bible studies, etc. He loves to sing and listen to songs, so when he thinks no one is listening he will break out into songs that he has learned at school and/or bible study. If I ask him to sing them for me, he won't do it, but instead wants to sing the songs I have taught him.

Go here to see the rest of this week's pictures.