A Bunch Of Turkys

This year Jonny and I visited my family for Thanksgiving, and it turned out great because my whole family was able to make it home for the holidays. It had almost been a year since we had seen any of my sisters and brothers, and we were very excited to play card games, have family talks and eat lots and lots of turkey. The picture above was taken right before our Thanksgiving dinner, on our front steps. Our Family is growing for sure !!!!!

 

We were so excited to be able to see and hold the new baby Emmett and to spend time with the little boys Mason and Deacon. Even though we were so excited our plane was still delayed, because of a huge thunder storm that came in. Even with a little wait we made it home and was able to be with the family.( In the top right picture) that was the first time Jonny has held such a small newborn baby, and he did really well. We were both so surprised how small he was, but within the week and a half we were there he chucked up a little bit. It must have been that Thanksgiving Dinner his momma ate :).

Thanksgiving dinner was sooooooo yummy we had everyone in the kitchen at one point making their dish for the dinner, it was a little over whelming at times, but it was really cool to just step back and see everyone in the family laughing and talking and helping each other. Jonny and I made mash potatoes and pistachio pudding. I made so much potatoes around (5 pounds) that it was coming out of our ears by the end of the week. Good thing everyone loved it and it was all gone by two days. Even Emmett was a little overwhelmed when we placed him next to the pumpkin pie, it was about the size of him !!!! Mason and Deacon loved our pistachio pudding and called it pistachio ice-cream :) they ate it all up, wanting more and more.. ( I'm glad it was a hit with the little guys.) We ate and ate and ate till our turkey pants would not stretch any farther...

The best part of thanksgiving with my family is our tradition, each year we go around the table and say what we are thankful for and how much we are grateful for everything we have and all of our blessings. It was really amazing to hear all of my parents, brothers, sisters and even my nephews talk about what they are thankful for. Jonny and I are truly blessed to have such a loving family and such support from every direction we look. There were tears of happiness and love and those are the best feelings that I could hope for our holiday together.

 

After dinner I was lucky enough to be able to take a little turkey nap with this guy laying on my chest. He is so sweet and so snuggly, I just wanted him all to myself all week. I loved it when he would grab my fingers with his little hands and hold on for dear life :). It was so fun because Jonny and I got a change to babysit Mason, Deacon, and Emmett for a night and it was so much fun:). I had Emmett and Mason and Deacon just wrestled and wrestled with Jonny till they all just tuckered themselves out.

At the very bottom (sorry its a blurry pic) is Jonny playing with the boys, they were moving so fast it was hard to take a decent picture, and of course me and Emmett just hanging out at the top right.  Another thing we were able to do is visit Jonnys friend Rob and his wife, who live in Winston Saleem NC. We spent the day visiting and meeting his baby. I'm so glad that we were able to make it out there to see friends and to catch up, they had not seen each other in a year or so. On the way up we passed the big peach water tower, its Masons favorite.  

I was so greatful to be with all of my family during the Thanksgiving holiday. I love each and every one of them so much and I'm so thankful that I was born into such an amazing family. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope that your Turkey day was filled with love and laughter.

WHAT HAVE I DONE........

I have been wanting to do something with my hair for a long time, and was really scared to do anything, I mean I get scared getting my hair cut so I was a little hesitant to do anything. ONE day my friend Heidi and Emily where going to do hair... Since Heidi went to beauty school I felt a little better. Sooooo a long story short I WAS PRESSURED into dying my beautiful hairs..... I picked out a "BOX" mistake 1, that was really close to my actual hair color, just adding a little warmth they say.... well that little warmth turned my hair RED !!! Yep red..... Not knowing what just happened or how to react I liked it at first, then Jonny saw it and in a nice way expressed that he did not like it and that I destroyed my hair... :( And I totally agree with him.... WHAT WAS I THINKING.... sooo for 2 days I was a solid Red head, and not saying anything against red heads, but red is not my color. It had to be fixed so I went to the salon and did my best to fix it.

So at least now I have some highlights and low-lights put into my hair so it is not all one color. I feel like it is better than the red, even though my hair still has a red tint to it, it will just have to do.... My hair is ok now as iv gotten use to it, but I will never dye my hair again until I will be needing so when those grays start popping through..... which hopefully will not be for a while for me. First experience of hair not so good, I think I have learned my lesson. I will one day advise my daughters to not dye there hair EVER....... Should have listened to ya mom. :)

Born To Be WILD

 

 In October Jonny and I volunteered for the Zoo with there special Halloween event. It was a lot of fun to see all the kids in there costumes. We spent all day putting little tattoos on babies, toddlers, and adults, by the end of the day we had pruney fingers and tired backs but it was worth serving.. as well as FREE ZOO TICKETS. 

since Jonny and I will be moving soon we decided that we cant let our free tickets go to waste so we decided to spend the day at the zoo :). It was so fun to see all the animals and every type of monkey and bird I think are known to MAN.. they had quite the collection I was impressed. We loved seeing the sea tanks and learning about the animals around the world. It was really fun, but also really sad. Jonny and I both agree that every zoo that we have ever been to the animals just look depressed and sad, just walking around in a circle over and over again. We both think that going out in the actual WILD would be much more exciting and dangerous ... now that seems like REAL FUN to me :) !!! The most important thing for me was spending time with my husband, holding hands and walking and enjoying the happier animals. We even tried our luck with fitting in, while looking through the African  masks, it was a fun day spent with a fun Best Friend !!!

When Life Gives you Lemons, Make Lemonade !!

If your going to live in Texas you gotta love lemonade, because of all those HOT summer days.... Jonny has a co-worker that has a lemon tree, and every two weeks or so he just brings him 1-2 bags full of fresh lemons. At first he brought them home and I was a little confused of what I was suppose to do with them, but Lemonade was the only thing that just made since :) ... So every two weeks we get more lemons and we make more lemonade, its like we have a never ending supply of lemonade on our hands :) and its very yummy and super easy to make !!! Until we get a juicer one day, Jonny will just have to do :) its hard work to juice all of those lemons, but as you can see he is more than happy to be my handsome juicer for now :D. Its always fun cooking with Jonny and just spending time together doing what we love and making what we love too !! We will MISS THOSE SUMMER DAYS... Bring on the Winter... :)

Oh, the places we will go !!!

For those of you who do not know, Jonny and I have been presented the opportunity to take a field assignment in Illinois, for 10 months. We had 2 weeks notice of Jonny needing to be out there, reporting on December 2nd just after out thanksgiving in North Carolina. We will be living in Nauvoo, Illinois with the Mississippi River right in the front yard, Its beautiful. We will miss Texas and all of the amazing friends that we have made, we feel truly blessed to have had everything we had in our "almost" first year of marriage. Texas has been amazing but Illinois will be filled with many, many new adventures.It was unexpected to pick up and leave everything and move, just as we have gotten our house to feel and look like our home. I know this will be a great thing for Jonny and I and we are very excited for the new change. Good things are going to happen wherever we go, I know that when im with Jonny that is home for me. :) Together we can make any adventure fun and memorable, I would follow Jonny around the world and back if needed :).