November to Remember

The first weekend in November began with an early morning performance & clinic at the Gateway British Brass Band festival at Ritenour High School in St. Louis. The Bulldogs did amazing and brought back such fond memories when they played a piece from The Pale Blue Dot! I literally had to hold back tears, they are amazing.

Seems like many of our pictures are of these silly pups just livin' the life! Tay and I went on a shopping day together & went to Madi's 1st bday party. We also took both pups to the dog park together...it was Millie's first time ever and only Milo's second visit. It started out really rocky, but after a long walk on the leash to wear them out, they eventually got to go inside the doggy part and meet some friends. We are gonna try to take them more often so they can be used to other dogs.

Tay and Mayven at Madi's bday!

We had our first snow of the winter on November 11th. It was Millie's first ever snow and Milo sure showed her how a snowday is done! He is my winter pup and was tiny during last years blizzards!

Since the kids aren't at Progress South anymore, we don't get to participate in the wonderful assembly that honors our Veterans so well. We still honor our own WWII vet, my Dad, and are thankful for all who have served. Such a special holiday.

More pictures of the kids with these silly fur babies...they sure are entertaining! Looking back through the photos to do this post makes me realize that we did spend quite a bit of time in the family room, eating by the lit up tree & fire. I didn't post all the food/tree pics but there were quite a few. The only food pics are the ones that were on Thanksgiving eve, we had all planned on having company that day, no one came, so we ended up having a quiet evening, eating pizza while watching Christmas Vacation...perfect night.

Thanksgiving eve, enjoying pizza and lights! 

The picture below has a funny story! We mess with Tay so bad...we just went to Petsmart to buy a training collar for Millie. She barks at everything out back and hasn't responded to any other training methods. After much research, we decided to try a shock collar. Anyways, we come home and are reading the instructions, Billy is reading it aloud, so all of us can follow the same procedure. (Trying to be responsible here) Billy reads, "to ensure proper amount ofo shock is being administered, place collar on youngest child, turn voltage to highest possible setting, press and hold the red button". Taylor is over here, on the couch with her jaw dropped, jumps up and insists on seeing this in writing! It's so funny messing with her! BTW: no pets OR children were harmed during this joke..lol.

Taylor and I did our annual black Friday shopping trip...5am we were headed out! We hit Walmart, which was empty. Tay ended up buying a pack of good markers, that weren't even on sale..lol. Then we had breakfast at Chic-fil-a before heading to Target and Michaels. Tay bought a little pound puppy from Target and more markers/pens at Michaels....whoa, big shoppers we are! lol! The last picture shows what an early morning shopping trip causes...pure exhaustion!

 

Tis' the Season to Decorate!

The Christmas season is even shorter this year since Thanksgiving is the last week of November, leaving only three short weeks to celebrate. This is sad because even on a normal year, the time flies by, I just want to slow things down, make it last. Anyways, I used that as the excuse to set up the trees, the weekend after Halloween! lol! I put the lights on but that was it, I still left fall decor out for Thanksgiving. I really love Fall as well so I don't want to short that season either! These dogs make good photo subjects and it's their first holiday season so they are front and center in most pics..lol!

I know as the kids get older, some things change and we lose interest in some of the more kid-ish traditions. That makes me want to make new ones and include the kids in what we decide to do. It's definitely more fun if everyone is enjoying it. I asked Blake if there were any Christmas season traditions that he was looking forward to. He said that he definitely wanted to go see Christmas lights, but not the same house we have gone to the last couple years. Once we've seen it, we've seen it...maybe a new drive-through somewhere... And he really wanted to go down to Main Street in St. Charles to join in their Christmas celebration. They have all the lights, reindeer, carriage rides & Santas from around the world. I am so glad I asked him, and that he had an opinion on things to do as a family. Thanks God!

Since the whole family is coming to Thanksgiving, we decided to put the outside lights up the weekend before. It was 60 degrees and sunny so that sure helped! Billy & I got everything down and ready, we called the kids out to do the fun part. Blake had an idea how to do the front lights while Billy hung the snowflakes from the roof. Taylor must not have been that "into" it this year, because she was bummed that she couldn't stay inside to finish homework. She ended up doing a great job at decorating the little pine. Billy and Blake circled the big maple with strands of lights. When it got dark, we made hot cocoa and took the pups out to join us as we lit it up. It was bright and cheery and ready for the season!

The weekend right after Thanksgiving, we took down the fall decor and brought up the rest of the Christmas stuff, including the box of special ornaments. We always make it an evening, that we decorate the tree and read the memories in each one. We ended up doing it on Saturday evening. Both kids came down, Blake got a big glass of egg nog and pumpkin pie to start the night with. We dug out the ornaments and hung them one by one, being careful not to place any too low on the tree because our lil' Millie pup would definitely love to eat them! We read the memories and reminisced about the years passed. It was simple this year, the tree looks beautiful! The kids don't have their special ornaments to unwrap and place on the tree yet this year but I have them ordered. They were understanding, as Blake's was handmade and personalized and Tay wanted to pick her own. lol!

Thankful Thanksgiving

This year, everyone decided to come to our house on Thanksgiving for our traditional turkey dinner. I was so excited to have the whole family together again this year, but unfortunately Stanley couldn't make it at the last minute. I was still really glad that Amanda got to come this year, it had been a really long time since she was able to come to a holiday!

Since I work now, even though it's only three days a week, it does throw off my schedule of planning and being able to gather all the groceries etc., in a timely manner. Time seems to fly by even faster since I less days to do home stuff. Anyways, it wasn't bad, I've been utilizing the Wal mart pick up and planning ahead better. I had everything bought and ready the week before. I prepped most of it the day before and by Thanksgiving, when everyone was showing up, things were just ready to pop into the oven. Pups were waiting by the door, ready for some peeps to come give them some lovins'!

We all got to chat and cook and even got to play a couple card games that Aunt Sissy and Uncle Danny brought. One was called "New Phone....Who dis?" It is silly and reads the funniest things.

Anyways, Billy said grace, we plated up-buffet style and dug in. The dinner and desserts were delicious, we all had a great dinner together and spent time chatting and playing games. Wayne, Regina and Amanda wanted to see everyone they could since Amanda was with them and hadn't seen any family in a long time. They headed out to go see some of Regina's family on Thanksgiving too. Danny and Diana hung out, messed with the dogs (even though Millie spilled Wayne's beer and Danny's coffee because she was so excited!) and had a really great visit.

It was a bummer that Stanley ended up not being able to come because of truck issues, we missed him and sent him a picture of all of us and he replied, "Ha, I didn't know it was a Halloween party!" That stinker!! We were very thankful for the food, family to share with and for all we have been blessed with. It was a Thanksgiving full of thanks.