Thanksgiving Weekend

We have had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend.  Wednesday evening my mom and dad and brother and sister in law made it into town.  Sara Kate has been talking about going to Ghee's house for about a week now and we have kept correcting her, telling her that Ghee was coming to her house.  She was so excited when she got home from school and Ghee and Poppa were here!  We had a low key evening that including lots of play and a little prep for our Thanksgiving feast for Thursday.

Thanksgiving day was beautiful!  That morning Phillip and Holly took Sara Kate to the playground, which she absolutely LOVES!  They had a great time and it let us get some things done at the house for lunch. 

I cheated and didn't buy a whole turkey, mainly because I didn't want to be eating turkey for days and days.  I bought an 8 lb. turkey breast and my parents brought up a ham that my dad got from work.  We had turkey breast, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, dressing, cream corn, green bean bundles, fruit salad, cranberry, and rolls.  Chris' mom and dad and grandfather joined us and it was just lovely to have everyone together like that.  I didn't think to take pictures of the food and I didn't think to get my big camera out to take pictures at the table.  But this is kind of a cool cell phone pic, in my opinion.  And yes, we are awesome and ate on our glass dinner table pushed up to card tables.  That's what happens when you have a table that seats 4 and have no dining room!

I loved Sara Kate's little fall dress she wore this fall.  Thanks to my friend Karen who I bought it from.  We didn't get any great pictures of her in it because she got cranberry all over it and I had to wash immediately. :-)  And who knew she would like cranberry so much?!  Was a shock to me!

Of course after a big meal and a tryptophan coma comes nap time.  Sara Kate faded fast during lunch since it we were eating during her nap time.  My dad also crashed afterwards.  :-)

After a little visiting, Chris' grandpa had to head back to Bentonville.  We were so glad to have him join us.

My brother's birthday is November 23, which this year fell the day after Thanksgiving.  So for our Thanksgiving desert, we enjoyed a yummy Rick's cake.  Yes, it was a desert making cop out for the holidays, but my family loves these and Rick's always does such a great job.

 Sara Kate is happy to have any excuse to eat cake!

 So glad we could celebrate together!

We watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special that night, watched some football, and just enjoyed having everyone here.

Friday we had BIG plans.  It was the last Razorback game of our pitiful football season and the game was in Fayetteville for the first time in many many years.  Too bad they had to move it back on a year which we sucked!  But even during a bad season we love going to our friends house to tailgate and have some fun.  Friday was no exception.

 

Originally Chris and I were just planning on going to the game, but I ended up not selling Phillip's ticket so he decided to go.  Then Holly decided she wanted to go.  She didn't have a ticket but we were able to buy one on the walk to the stadium.  It was freezing cold and I certainly didn't expect us to stay the whole game, but our Hogs made a game out of it!!  We took #7 LSU down to the wire but in the end our team couldn't pull it out.  There's always next year!!  We love our Hogs!

Saturday we got up, got dressed, and headed to the mall for a little shopping.  

Sara Kate and I came home early so I could get her down for a nap.  We needed her in good form for a photo shoot!  I can't share any pictures now but here's the one sneak peak I can share, one Chris took of my mom and dad.  Love it!

We had a great dinner Saturday night before watching more football...unfortunately our Mississippi State Bulldogs SUCKED and lost to the Ole miss stupid rebel-we-can't-decide-our-mascot-black-bears.  Big bummer.  0-2 for my teams this weekend!

Today we all attended a great church service before everyone had to head out of town.

We are so thankful for both our families and are so glad we had great company all weekend.  I miss my brother and parents dearly when they are away, and I know Sara Kate does too.  She LOVED having everyone here.  Hopefully it won't be too terribly long before we are all together again, but we made great memories this Thanksgiving weekend!  Hope ya'll had a great holiday weekend, too!

Messing Around

We spent a low key day at home today doing alot of nothing.  I got up and went for a run (4 miles, yay!), but now it fells like I pulled my groin muscle or something in my upper right leg (anyone have experience with this??).  On the way back home I stopped by the most delicious bakery in the world, that would be Rick's Bakery here in NWA, for donuts!  Sara Kate was THRILLED when I got home with donuts, and she happily plowed through 2 glazed donuts in the time it took me to eat 1 cinnamon roll.  And she asked for more.  HAHA!  We had lots of play time after that because she was on a major sugar high!  But in the midst of the sugar high, we had a little photo shoot to show that our little Sara Kate can look equally cute in Razorback red or Mississippi State maroon.  I got my bachelors degree from MSU and my masters degree from the U of A so the annual AR/MSU game is a win-win game for me.  And our Hogs suck big time this year so the Dawgs majorly prevailed.  She looks equally cute in both sets of colors but she needs new outfits in both...both are 18 month sizes from last fall and she's wearing a 2T now.  Hello gift ideas!  :-)

Aside from lots of play time, we spent lots of time today with cameras in hand.  Chris has a very good eye for photography and has a little side business, which I plan to write about soon, but I love taking pictures too.  I post alot of his pictures on my blog.  I always have my iPhone in hand snapping pictures, and for Mothers Day this year he got me a new camera, an Olympus Pen EP-1.  It's nice for many reasons, but one is I can attach different lenses to it.  Today we messed around with attaching his lenses to my camera and he taught me some stuff.  He also taught me a little bit about editing in Lightroom.  So without further ado, here's my 'messing around.'  And yes, she has a bruise on her cheek from falling into something at school.

 

 

 

 

Thankfully we had a really nice day today and were able to play outside a good bit.  I have always known that good lighting is the first step to a good picture (and the last picture isn't great because it was getting dark).  It's nice to have a photographer in the family (Chris!!) but I like to take decent pictures too.  Hope everyone had a great Saturday!

A Day With My Cousins

Hey, ya'll!  It's me, Sara Kate!  I haven't had a chance to get on this computer and write lately...I've been so super busy doing stuff like playing outside and playing puzzles and reading books and getting in trouble for not listening...but we won't dwell on that.  I had a fun day today with my mommy.  She didn't make me go to school today because she had a holiday for Veterans Day (thank you veterans who served and still serve our country).  And what made my day extra fun was that I got to spend it with my cousins, including my cousin Hannah who is my most favorite person in the whole world!!  I got to play with them last night too and I was VERY upset when I had to go home.  But mommy assured me that I could spend the whole day with them.  And she was right!!

I woke up this morning and I REALLY wanted to wear my owl dress.  Mommy kept suggesting other things, like a pink dress or my dress with cats or one with flowers.  But I yelled 'no no no, owl dress!!'  So she caved.  I have a special knack for getting my way sometimes...but I try not to exploit that TOO much.

Before we could go to Meme's house, she had to take me to the eye doctor.  She said it was for a check up and the doctor would look at my eyes.  The last time I went I was 6 months old but I don't really remember that.  I behaved really good and did what the doctor wanted me to do.  I wore an eye patch like a pirate and looked at pictures on a wall and followed a light and wore some glasses and looked at a book.  Mommy also talked to her about my 'wandering eye,' as she calls it.  

It's very mild and looks like this if anybody wants to see...

But after my exam the doctor said my eye health is perfect and it's just something called 'a breakdown in binocularity,' which means it's just the way my eyes relax out when I'm tired.  They also dilated my eyes.  I looked funny but I could see fine.  I heard the doctor tell mommy that dilation affects kids differently than it affects adults.

 

I was so excited to leave the eye doctor and go to Meme's house and see Hannah!!

Shortly after we got to Meme's house we left to go shopping.  I got to ride in Meme's car with Hannah while Hayden rode in my car seat with mommy and AJ (that's Aunt Jenny).  That made me so happy! 

 

Mommy said she didn't even have to adjust the straps of my car seat so my giant man baby cousin Hayden could fit into it!

At Target me and Hannah rode in the cart.  It was super fun and we were SOOOO silly!  AJ called mommy to see where we were in the store and mommy said she was surprised they couldn't hear us!

After a couple more stops we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and I was so excited!  I love that place!  I ate all my chicken like a big girl!

After lunch we went back to Meme's house to take a nap.  Hannah and I said we would lay down together and nap but mommy and Meme didn't buy it!  

 

Actually, I kind of got in trouble and mommy almost made me leave and go home because I wouldn't calm down and go to sleep.  But Meme saved the day and I fell asleep on her shoulder very quickly.  I sure love my Meme!!

 

Hayden woke up from his nap first and mommy said she finally got a picture of the 'most serious child on the planet' smiling.  That boy is silly.

 

After our naps we got to play some more before Hannah and Hayden had to go back home.

 

I was sad to see them go but mommy said I would see them next week for something called Thanksgiving.  That sounds really cool!

Mommy brought me home and I saw daddy and we played all night long!  We played puzzles and books and ball and the jumping game and the pretend game.  I love playing!!  I took a bath and got ready for bed.  Mommy is saying I should go to bed now so I better get off here.  I just wanted to tell ya'll about the fun day I had with my cousins and I can't wait to see them again soon!

Ozark Corn Maze

About 2 weeks ago, on a lovely fall afternoon, we made a trip to the Ozark Corn Maze.  This was shortly after Sara Kate's school field trip to the corn maze so she was still talking about 'the corn maze and pumpkin patch (which they didn't have but she insisted on talking about pumpkins).'  We were hoping to go to the pumpkin patch at the Ozark Corn maze but unfortunately we went too late in the season and they were all out of pumpkins.  BUT they had an AMAZING corn maze!!  They had a petting zoo (we went in and Sara Kate acted like she was terrified of the animals...weird!) and wagon ride, but we mainly just focused on the corn maze.

How cool is this?!?

Just like at her school trip, Sara Kate loved running through the maze and getting to decide what direction to go.  She was a very busy girl on a mission!

 

 

 

 

 

 I absolutely LOVE everything about this picture!! 

 

 

We stayed in the corn maze for probably 45 minutes and tried to walk our way around to the pumpkin patch area but we could never find it.  Eventually we made our way out and had a little fun with a hay bale.

I'm glad we got the opportunity to go since fall is winding down and Chris' work schedule has been really busy lately.  Of course Sara Kate had a blast, and I love 'seasonal' family activities like this and making fun memories!