Thanksgiving Week

What a fun week we had. It started off with a great snow storm. The flakes piled up fast and furious on the windows (Tyler tried to document that in this picture) and made for such a cozy feeling. Enough snow stuck around in our shady backyard for the Californians to get a little excited when they came for the holiday.

We keep trying to catch the little one's plentiful smiles on camera. He loves to chat with any willing body and can't keep from smiling about it. The fact that he's getting good at chewing on his fist makes it hard to see the smiles. We love our fat & happy boy.

It was time to break out the exersaucer. This was (one of) my fantastic yard sale deals from this summer. Two days to recover the house from 4 cases of the swine flu, get ready for 6 overnight guests, and prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for 14 called for drastic measures. Camden is technically a little young, but he loves his new toy! He's strong and chunky for 3 1/2 months and loves the new entertainment. So do his brothers. We love that he can be happy for short spurts without being held, and we love the cheeks & chins on our chunky monkey.

All the company wore our little guy out. He amazingly fell asleep in his Daddy's arms and they had some quiet time before the feast on turkey day.

Here's our great group -- I promise I didn't cut your face off on purpose, Nate. The thankful letter of the year was "G", thanks to Mandi. Some of the things we were grateful for: grapes, good food (I think Nate was grateful for that about four times), Greek Gods, gardening, gender, "gluls", gyros, gorillas, grass, gravity, gingerbread, gratitude, and there was a cute two-year-old that always sang "Jingle Bells" when it was his turn.

I was most especially grateful for what each member of our group contributed. There were lots of helping hands. Tyler kept the fire going and the house was toasty warm even though "the heater never went off once all day long!" It was a proud time for my pyromaniac. He was also the masterful tucker-inner at naptimes. Elise made the stuffing, set the table, and filled in all the cracks, Mandi made the yummy mashed potatoes (oh yeah, and the cheese ball and the sweet potatoes the day before while she babysat my children because she was super kind and came to rescue me instead of going to work!!!). Kudos also to Mandi for bringing friend Bob. He is offically invited to every single Thanksgiving dinner we ever have. As his shirt implies, he is truly incredible. He served as the human jungle gym for my boys, lounge chair when Jacob got worn out and just wanted to watch the Brady Bunch marathon, baby care giver extraordinaire (he kept Camden happy even when he'd gone over four hours without eating!!!), he kept us all laughing, and he singlehandedly did all the dinner dishes. ALL of them. He washed my pile of dirty bottles, too. Somehow I didn't think his doggy bag was a sufficient thanks.

Thanks to the cute engaged couple who drove a long way to be with us. More fun company, and more help with childcare. I was so thankful when Camden was crying in his exersaucer and not many people were around. Denver immediately went to him and picked him up, keeping him happy until I was free. Last night when I was feeding the baby at 1am and Drew woke up screaming, Camilla got up and helped. Two of the many times their hands were full with my bundles of energy. They also made the most fabulous pies of the holiday: two incredibly delicious versions of French Silk Pie. Yum!


Hooray for cute cousins that essentially met for the first time and are instant buddies. We even discovered they share the same unique middle name! Hooray also that they are not the "fire & gasoline" combo that their fathers still are.








Thank you family for being good sports and letting our potentially germy girl, Callie, join the festivities for dinner. Thank you Callie for being such a good sport and camping out in your room for the remainder of the weekend! We really like the hairdo she gave to Drew when he visited her one day. Yes, it is time for a haircut.

I love that many hands working together can make for a fantastic holiday and that everyone made it a fun hosting opportunity. We're so grateful that we had so many wonderful guests to keep us company for the holiday.

Camden's smile is no longer elusive for the camera. Thanks for smiling for the camera, buddy!