thanksgiving 2009 - georgia

We spent a week in Georgia for Thanksgiving visiting Wes' cute family. We always enjoy seeing them - especially when all of us are able to be there! It was great having the entire clan together. This year the family consists of 10 adults, 2 kids, 4 toddlers & 2 newborns with 2 babies on the way in 2010!

The week consisted of: a lot of chatting and catching up, cooking and more cooking, baking, what seemed like endless sinks of dishes, laughter, toddlers laughing & fighting, playing games, college football, Zoo Atlanta, dinner at Spencer & Leigh’s, black Friday shopping, Lassiter football game, the Jefferson Township park, a visit to Melissa & Robert, seeing April & Gareth, family pictures, and more!

ZOO ATLANTA



I was determined to take Nate to Zoo Atlanta since we don’t have one here in Vegas and he is obsessed with animals. The weather cooperated so off we went! Nate was in h e a v e n not only because of the animals but because he got to go with a few of his cousins. He absolutely loves them. Bayley and Kendal held his hand and took him all over the zoo. Olivia joined up with them as soon as she got there!




One funny thing about Nate at the zoo – he’d get right up the front and yell “come over here” to the animals. He wanted them as close as possible. So of course, when they didn’t listen, he’d turn around to us and say “ears not working!” I always ask him if his ears work when he isn’t listening so apparently he gets the concept since the animals were ignoring him!



We ended the trip to the zoo with the playground, a carousel ride & the train.




DINNER AT SPENCER & LEIGH’S IN ELLIJAY, GEORGIA

A few weeks ago, my sis-in-law Leigh left me a message asking what my favorite dinner and dessert was. I didn’t think much of it but come to find out she was planning a dinner at her house to celebrate the birth of our little boy in February!

She went all out on my favorites - tacos and ice cream and much more. Her home was beautiful as always, decorated with Christmas, and she made a delicious dinner for all of us with an amazing presentation. There were so many yummy things to choose from! It was a wonderful night in their home . . . thanks again for thinking of us and putting so much time in to such a nice evening! Wes and I appreciate your thoughtfulness.


FAMILY PICTURES



Since we had everyone together – we all decided that an updated family photo was a must. Leigh found a great photographer who met us at a park on Wednesday afternoon for some photos. I brought my camera and got a few – I’ll post the professional ones once I get my disk.

{However, I think I'm going to instigate a new rule that a 7 month pregnant person should not be in family photos! It's not pretty. Notice you won't see me in a single photo - I prefer to stay behind the lens these days.}

our two newest additions - both born in September - Addison & Jaidyn

the thornton kiddos [wes' sister's kids]


nate enjoying the outdoors


kids playing




leigh and baby jaidyn



THANKSGIVING DAY

We had a pretty relaxing Turkey Day. Lots of cooking going on in the morning while the cousins played. Alyssa and I found these rice krispie turkeys online so we got everything ready for the kiddos to make them. They had a great time - these are their masterpieces.



Wes, Nate & I ran out to see a good friend of his, Melissa and her husband Robert that morning but the rest of the day was spent at home. We had a delicious thanksgiving meal that we all pitched in on. Many hands definitely made for light work that day! The best part? We all opted to eat at 2:30 so all kids were asleep except for the older Thornton girlies – Bayley & Kendal. It was nice to enjoy a meal without toddlers!

BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING
Somehow I never knew about this day until I became a Griffeth. And now it’s a tradition – as crazy as it is sometimes! After 3 hours of sleep, I got up at 4am to join the girls for a morning of shopping. While I wasn’t absolutely thrilled with the sale selection – I did manage to get all of our Griffeth Christmas shopping done which was a big accomplishment for me! Leigh and I were out the longest – finally returning home at 1pm. That’s a good 8 hours of shopping and the day was only half over!

A FEW NATE THINGS TO REMEMBER . . . .

HIS FEELINGS ABOUT ALABAMA
He’s been talking about going to Alabama for a month now. {we fly in to Birmingham, Alabama to cash in on our southwest RR points and then we drive to Atlanta}. We got to Alabama about 8pm on Saturday and we’re on our drive to Atlanta and Nate is still asking to go to Alabama. We explain that we are in Alabama but he wasn’t feeling it. I’m not sure what he was expecting. Then we get to Chic-fil-A to get some dinner and we ask him if he wants French fries and of course he says yes. Well, they have waffle fries so I hand him one and he says, “I don’t like Alabama fries.”

SO EXCITED THAT HE COULDN'T SLEEP.
He had the week of his life with his cousins. He had such a hard time going to sleep because he was afraid he was missing a party with his cousins. He laid in bed repeating “play toys” and as soon as we’d go in there to get him he’d say “where is everybody?” The room he was sleeping overlooked the main area of the house downstairs so it got a little noisy at times. One night he would not go to sleep so I went in there and told him it was bedtime and he looked at me with his innocent little face and said, "but everybody talking!" I couldn't trick him.

COUSIN LOVE.


Nate loved all of his cousins but he especially bonded with Kendal on this trip. Kendal is our adorable five-year-old niece who absolutely loves little kids and being a mommy. So Nate not only loved her but she enjoyed playing with him, too! He c o n s t a n t l y asked for Kendal – wanting to know where she was at all times! She was absolutely adorable with Nate. Alisha, I wasn’t kidding about shipping her out to me for a few weeks this summer!



BABY LOVE.
Nate also loved the two babies in the house. I was curious to see how this would go - he loved them! I know part of it was due to the fact that there were so many other people for him to play with but he was very aware of where the babies were and wanted them by him a lot of the time. He’d say “little baby. Be soft with baby. Kiss baby. Baby eat.” Etc. It was a good preview for him, I think!

Thanks Griffeth clan for a great week. A special thanks to Robert & Doreen for hosting all of us and making it such a memorable holiday.