Happy Thanksgiving

I was hoping all week to find the time to write a heartfelt "thankful" post but spare time just hasn't been in surplus around here.  We're right upon one of my most favorite holidays of the year.

 I love everything about Thanksgiving... reflecting on our many blessings, time spent with family and friends, food, laughter, shopping {yes, I'm a cray-cray Black Friday person}, and so much more.

 

We hope that your holiday is spent with loved ones and filled with wonderful memories and moments.   From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Life Lately...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

 at American Implement!  This week we trimmed the showroom tree.  It's fun that this night has become an annual tradition for some of the families that I work with.  We order in pizza and bring our families out.   Our kids have a great time running around playing and helping decorate.  I didn't get a picture of Keeler but he looks forward to his night every year.

On Friday night, we all went over to Granny's house to celebrate uncle Troy's 50th birthday!

 Everyone wore black and spoiled uncle Troy.

 We had a great time.  They had some really cute decorations and party props.

 On Saturday morning, Keeler went to the farm with Tyler.

Kal and I went to the local Tumbleweed bazaar with Whitney and her boys to see Santa.  I told him he needed to look nice for Santa so he let me dress him up a bit and fix his hair ;)

 This boy cracks me up!  This "duck face" is his new smile.

He did great with Santa.  He didn't want me to go up with Santa alone so it made it nice that Whitney was with us to take his picture.  He told Santa that he wants a "choo-choo train."

Saturday evening, I happily volunteered to watch Natalie's little girls while they attended the annual Chamber banquet.  We planned on attending as well but I really didn't feel like leaving the little cowboys with a sitter after a long work week.  We needed some time at home together.

It was a lot of fun to have some little girls in the house.  Kal wanted to bake them an orange cake... so what did we do?  We baked an orange cake (we'll leave out the part that it tasted awful and no one finished an entire piece).

Sunday, we had a great family day... went to church and then went back to the Tumbleweed bazaar so Keeler and Tyler could check it out.  Tyler ended up buying one of everything - and we all think I'm the shopaholic?!

It's too cute not to share... here's a special little message from Kal to his aunt Samantha.  We can't wait to see you all over Thanksgiving.

Weekend Whoas!

Here's a little recap of our life lately.

We bid farewell to our pumpkin collection and...

 said, HELLO to the Christmas decorations!  There's nothing sexier than a man that will stay up late and decorate with his crazy wife.  And opps... he'll be upset that I say he's "decorating" - his job is more along the lines of assembly and electrical.  We took care of all the basics on Friday night and then the little cowboys helped put on ornaments in the morning.

 Of course, decorating quickly turned into fighting about who got to be on the ladder.  Life with boys - gotta love it!  And while they fought, I put out all the other decorations.

I know it's a little early for Christmas decorations but it just works so much better for us this way.  It was the last free weekend for us before Thanksgiving and then we'll be out of town.  Now when we return from Thanksgiving we can transition right into Christmas and just enjoy the season.

On Sunday we woke up to 4" of fresh powder snow.  The weather made it feel that much more magical to have all our Christmas decorations out.  We spent the day lounging, playing legos and watching a Hallmark Christmas movie.

In the afternoon, we headed out to the farm with Tyler for a little "redneck sleigh ride."

Koko B. got to enjoy the fun.

But poor Kal fell asleep on the way out and missed all the fun.

After riding, Keeler was cold and went into the shop to warm up.  I walked in and he said, "Want a hand-warmer mom?"  I honestly thought he had one of those little pouches until I looked down and saw what he was holding.  What a kid!

Kal got to enjoy the snow too.  On Monday, he went to work with Tyler.   (And you think your job is hard... try watering cows in 7 degree weather!)   In the afternoon they picked up Keeler from school and headed out one more time for sleigh-rides.  Even Uncle Troy had a blast.

Oh Hey Friday!

Erika/Narci/Andrea

Oh hey Friday!  It's very nice to see you again....  This week has felt terribly long mainly because I've been under the weather and we're all still adjusting to daylight savings time.  My work days feel really long while the evenings are just too short.  Here's a random recap of what we've been up to:

{one}  Recently we took little Koko B to Keeler's classroom for Show & Tell.  Keeler and Koko did awesome!  I had this fear of Koko peeing down the hallway but nope, all was well and he loved the attention.  Poor Koko is also suffering with the time change.  Our evening walks have been cut short because it's almost dark when we get home :( 

 {two}  We're celebrating the outcome of this week's Election Day!  

I could eat up this little "mi voto" face :)

{three}  This past weekend we took the little cowboys to the movies to see Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY.  I've always been a huge fan of the book and have read it countless times to the little cowboys so I think I was more excited to see it... and let me tell you, if you haven't seen it - go!  It was darling and our entire family LOVED it.  I might of even cried a little at the end... great message and great family fun.  This is only our second time to take both the little cowboys to the movies and we were really impressed.  Growing up has it's perks :)  

{four}  We recently took our family pictures and I'm dying to see how they turned out.  The session was sealed with a little froyo bribery. 

{five} Did you catch the CMA awards this week?!  I haven't watched it in years but I stayed home sick one day this week so I managed to watch too much TV and let me tell you, Luke Bryan's smile and this little duet between Miranda Lambert & Meghan Trainor were both adorable!  I couldn't stop smiling :) 

{six}  and lastly, let's just get this weekend started.  I'm ready for some downtime {maybe even a little messy baking} with these little rug rats!!

Oh Toodles!!

This weekend we attended a fall costume party for my Ladies of Junior Civic club.  It's the first time in years that Tyler and I have dressed up so I was pretty excited and I immediately started trying to come up with the perfect couples' costume.  

And let me tell you, it wasn't easy. 

We finally settled on Mickey & Minnie Mouse and I LOVED it!  Tyler was such a good sport and this my friends, is number 1,579,563 why I love him so much!

It's the one day a year you can wear anything you want and I apparently wanted to feel like a fancy five year old.  Fluffy skirt and bows everywhere.

 

We didn't have to buy much to pull the costumes together. I already had this darling dress (which I was thrilled to get to wear again) and I made our ears out of headbands, felt, cardboard and a little glue.  Then we pinned buttons made of felt to Tyler's red shorts.  Seriously, easy peasy.

We had so much fun at the party and the other couples had some great ideas too.

None of us wanted to spend much money so the creativity in coming up with something was the best part.

Lois Lane, a señorita, Wenda - Waldo's girlfriend, Wilma Flintstone, Minnie Mouse, a mail order bride & a flapper girl!

In addition to our party, we had the best time celebrating the holiday with the little cowboys. 

  Friday afternoon, I helped with Keeler's school party.

I loved getting to see all the costumes a get to know his classmates.  

We went trick-or-treating at the local care home and then back to the classroom for games.

When we got in the car to head home, Keeler said, "I knew my friends would like you.  You're just like Samantha (my sweet sister that teaches preschool) and EVERYONE likes Samantha."  Well, thanks little buddy and of course I had to call my sis and share the good news :) 

We also went downtown for the Trick-or-Treat Trail, had a nice family dinner out and then went to a few select houses to trick-or-treat.  Kallahan wasn't too big into trick-or-treating this year... after he got a few pieces of candy he preferred to stay in the car, eat his candy and requested that we "go home" multiple times.  Then he ended up crashing before we even pulled into the drive.  
 
{My sleepy little rodeo clown}
I hope you had the best Halloween!