Thanksgiving Recap

We had a fun-filled Thanksgiving at our house. Trey's entire family was in town and we all gathered over at my in-laws house on Wednesday evening for a big family dinner! It was chaos, as usual. And we all secretly love it.

Here's Gran-Gran cooking up some goodness for us all! And please notice my wonderful sister-in-law, Sheila in the background pouring a glass of wine. She knows how to handle this family. :) 

The big boys entertained themselves with this game....which I forgot the name of.

While my sweet angel read books and was quiet as a mouse the whole evening...

HA! You didn't really believe that, did you?? If you did, you haven't been reading my blog too long. Case in point. Katie Belle wanted a picture with Hudson. This is how that worked out.

Grace and Hudson had their very own little table in the study. Getting them both to look at the camera was impossible though. These two were adorable together. 

They're only 6 weeks apart and they had so much fun. 

They loved these scooters that Gran Gran and Grandaddy gave them. They zoomed around the house all night long...never far from each other. So cute!

We had a wonderful meal - turkey, pork tenderloins, corn casserole, stuffing, green beans, rolls, etc... We all stuffed ourselves and then went home to bed. 

On Thursday, the 3 brothers: Brent, Houston and Trey decided to bring back the "BRO BOWL" tradition. They used to play a "friendly" game of football every Thanksgiving morning and affectionately dubbed it the Bro Bowl. So.....2010 was the Bro Bowl comeback. 

They decided to involve some of the kids as well. Trey and Sawyer teamed up, Brent and Zach (Zap & Zip) and Houston and Hagen. To say that it was FREEZING on Thursday morning is an understatement. It was frigid!! We were all bundled up. Hudson insisted on walking to the park first. 

Please notice the child does not have on a coat. It was 36 degrees. He REFUSED to put one on. From here forward - mark my words, he will not be going outside without a coat. I wasn't in the mood to fight the battle on Thanksgiving so I let it go. BUT, I will not let it go again.

He finally realized there was something going on over on the soccer fields. So...he took off running towards Gran Gran!

Before he made it to Gran Gran though, he decided to join the football game. Down. Set. HUT.

Like any good quarterback, he's watching the play. Good job, buddy!

Kathryn and I finally decided it was way too cold for the little ones, so we sat in the heated car for the rest of the game. 

Hudson, Kathy and Grace cheering for the boys!

We were pretty lazy for the rest of Thursday. 

We enjoyed leftovers, watched the Cowboy game and hung out.  

On Friday, we made our annual trip out to Trey's aunt and uncle's ranch. The kids have so much fun out there! It's like their own personal playground. Alan and Lee are so generous to have us all out. 

They made this horse walker into a swing set. And they even had a baby swing for Hudson. 

He loved it!!! I thought he might get dizzy go round n round. But, nope. It was hit!

Grace rode in Hagen's lap for a little while until Hudson gave her a turn in the baby seat. That went over real well....as you can imagine. 

We played on 4-wheelers

We explored the creek

We played in the tree house

We rode scooters some more...

Safety first.... the kid who hates to wear hats was obsessed with this helmet.

The kids played in the rocks

Caleb and Hudson had fun with this dump truck

And that takes care of the last few days with the Nevilles! Hope you all had a good Turkey Day too!!

It's hard to believe that it's almost December. 

Have you decorated for Christmas yet??? More to come on that.

Making my list and checking it twice....

I've been browsing some websites lately thinking about all the stuff we "need" and decided to make a wish list.

1) We need a new set of sheets for our bed. For real. We have one set that I love and one set that I'm not so fond of. I need another set that we love. And I think these may be them. Don't you know that Trey will love laying his head down on these ruffled, frilly sheets every night? Maybe not. But I like them.

Found here

2) I need some new shoes. Or that's what I tell myself anyway. How cute are these??

Found here

3) I've been trying to decide what to put on our front door this year for Christmas. I think we need a bay leaf wreath like this one. I have some embellishments that I want to add as well, but those are a surprise.

Found here

4) I think Hudson needs this. From Santa Claus. Don't you think this will keep him occupied for hours??? That's my motivation anyway. 

5) I've been wanting a new Northface vest also. You know...because it gets so cold in TX. ha! It actually does get cold here. I promise. Perfect outfit for running around on the weekends. 

Found here

6) I really need a new wallet. Really, I do. And this one would be fabulous!

Found here

7) We also need a new kitchen table. The one we've been using was passed down to us from Anthony. It was in his college apartment. I think it's probably time for an upgrade...what do you think??? Here's what I've chosen. I scored an old church pew from some family friends that I'll paint and use on one side of the table. Now I just need to choose some chairs. 

Found here

I guess I'll stop there even though there's several more things on my list. Now if I could just win the lottery! 

What are you wishing for this Christmas???

Terrible 2's???

Hudson is 20 months old and I think the terrible 2's are beginning early. To say that the last few weeks have been challenging is an understatement. And I'm sure it will only get worse from here. I understand the whole thing. He's showing us his independence.

Let me give you some examples of his behavior lately:

1) One morning this week, he spilled a cup of water all over his PJ's shirt. I went over and stripped his shirt off of him because it was soaked. He immediately threw himself on the couch and started screaming, NO, NO, NO, NO and pointing to his wet shirt. I held it up and said, What?? You want this back on? And he just stares at me crying while reaching out for the shirt. I explained that it was wet and he would be cold if we put it back on him, but he continued to stomp his feet and have a fit. I walk off to the kitchen to let him settle down. Finally though, I'd had enough. I walked back over and put his wet shirt on him and all was good. He sat in wet PJ's for the rest of the morning. Whatever.

2) He eats yogurt every morning. I usually pour a little bit of multi-grain cheerios in with it and cut up banana or strawberries. That's exactly what I did one recent morning and he went ballistic. Screaming and pointing to the yogurt. Obviously he did NOT want cheerios and fruit in his yogurt on this particular day. He refused to touch it until I picked all the cheerios out and then I accidently forgot to get one and you would've thought it was a spider in his yogurt. Geeze.

3) We were at Joe T's a few days ago and he had one of his cars at the table. There was another little girl sitting at the table next to us who was probably about a year old. Hudson kept looking over at her and then he would look at his car and say: MINE. MINE.  As if that little girl was going to come over to his table and grab his car. For real???


When I asked Hudson's teacher how he was one day this week, she said: "Well, let me be honest with you. He's been pretty cranky...actually, he's been a grouch all day." Sounds about right.

We're hoping this stage doesn't last very long. It won't, right????

The Zoo

We loaded up on Saturday morning and went to our spectacular Zoo with Gran-Gran and Grandaddy. Hudson is so funny when you put him in new settings. It's almost like you can see the wheels spinning in his little head. He doesn't smile very much - he just looks around and takes it all in. That's exactly what he did at the Zoo.

Hudson looks thrilled, doesn't he??? I'm pretty sure that look was for me as I pulled out the camera. I can't wait to see the looks I'll get when he's a teenager. 

A beautiful cheetah hanging out on a gorgeous morning.

He loves the Zebras

And the giraffes

 Next up were the white tigers. Gorgeous creatures, but I was glad to have the glass between us. Especially after we saw what they did to those pumpkins! Hudson was a little nervous at first, but after a few minutes, he gave everyone a show by roaring the entire time we stood at the glass. 

We walked over to the lions too. We were able to see this Mama, but the Daddy Lion was snoozing the whole time and never stood up. 

We waited for awhile, but no luck.

This bear made an appearance for us though. He walked back and forth several times.

And Hudson loved it

Trey, Suzanne and Ed took Hudson inside to see the birds - I opted out. 

Here he is feeding a bird. Who's child is this??? 

Look at that determination and focus

And then he's so proud of himself

Right after this, he decided to put the stick in his own mouth and have a little taste. Trey didn't notice so I was the crazy mom outside the fence screaming and waving my hands trying to make Hudson stop. Geeze.... 

Next on the list?? The primates. 

Hudson was scared of the penguins, but loved this gorilla. There's something wrong with that. 

I forgot to take my flash off, but the gorilla and Hudson are face to face in this picture. 

Then the gorilla decided to give everyone a nice butt shot - which Hudson obviously found amusing.

Last but not least, we let our little monkey climb around for a bit.

And then it was time to go. I love the entrance and exit to our Zoo. They make it all look so pretty!

Thanks to Gran Gran and Grandaddy for treating us all with a trip to the Zoo! We all had fun!

Trey decided to play golf with my parents on Sunday morning, so Hudson and I grabbed a golf cart and followed them around for 9 holes. He had a blast running around the course. 

And even decided to take a few swings. 

The next Phil???

His favorite part was driving the golf cart though

He started to get a little restless around the 6th hole, so we showed him a great game. Take all of the tees out of these slots and then put them all back. This occupied him for the next 3 holes. 

And that was pretty much our weekend in a nutshell. Fun times!

I told Trey that I was ready to get out all of our Christmas decorations and he thinks I've lost my mind!

Has anyone decorated yet??? That's on the list for this weekend. I guarantee it.