thanksgiving [weekend] 2010

we had a nice thanksgiving holiday this year with the perfect amount of scheduled events and enough time to just do what we felt like doing.  here’s how it went:

. it all started on wednesday around noon when wes came home early from work to see his cousin olivia and her husband Zack.  They were in town and they came over for lunch and to visit before they headed back to Idaho.  It was great to see them!

. wednesday afternoon the boys and i headed over to my parents.  they had quiet/nap time while i set the thanksgiving table and helped my mom with a few other things to make her thanksgiving day a little easier.  wes stayed at home with his “to-do” list and worked his tail off.

. thanksgiving was perfect. [see thanksgiving DAY post below].

. it’s finally cold here and i’m loving it.  definitely makes it feel more like the holidays.

. black friday shopping began at 3:30am with Sam.  I wasn’t going to go quite that early – but then figured I might as well.  It was a morning filled with shopping, exhaustion, McDonalds breakfast, an out-of-it driver and a fiesty passenger.  i can’t remember a time when i’ve ever been that tired.

. we visited santa.  nate wasn’t scared at all this year.  he climbed right on up and told him he wanted a tool bench.  ryan was perfectly fine on santa’s lap, too.  in fact, he kept turning around trying to grab at that long white beard.  luckily the camera woman was ready and as soon as he looked at us after screaming his name, she got the picture!

 

. on friday night, sam cooked everyone a pot of chili so the marz clan re-convened at my parents house for chili and cornbread.  i didn’t have to eat one thankgiving leftover [i don’t love leftovers] and it was great.

. we went to the district to see the big tree, do some christmas shopping, and ride the carousel.

 

. we escaped saturday afternoon and left the boys with a babysitter to see the next three days with russell crowe.  my cousin, elizabeth, was the director’s assistant on this movie so we wanted to check it out.  her name is mentioned once in the movie and she has a few appearances so that was kinda fun.  good movie.

. we got out all of the christmas decor and finally got it all up and the bins put back in the garage on tuesday.  it was quite a process this year for some reason!

and that pretty much sums it up.  i love thanksgiving weekend.

thanksgiving [DAY] 2010

i heart thanksgiving. 

 

 

thanksgiving day was great.  after an early lunch at home we headed over to my parents house for some fun - nate & ryan were in cousin heaven.  a few of our thanksgiving day activities included:

    . playing in the leaves.  my parents have some great trees in their front yard that shed their leaves just in time.  the kids loved it.  they buried aunt sam and papa and thought it was hilarious!  even kyle got in on the fun later in the day.  he raked up the kids a big pile of leaves and then they threw them on kyle!  even ryan had a little fun in the leaves.

  

 

     . going on a bike ride.  We took the kids around the block on their bikes with Ryan in the wagon. 

 

  

  

  . we played ping pong, air hockey, made rice krispie turkeys, played pin-the-hat on the turkey & watched a little Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. 

 

 

It was a great day with the Marz clan.  I always enjoy spending time with the entire family & the little cousins have a blast.  Ryan will love it when he’s a little bigger and can keep up with them!  But until then, he kept an eye on the fridge and whenever it opened, he was in it!

My mom made a great Thanksgiving dinner filled with all of the traditional favorites.  It was delicious. 

What a great turkey day it was.

abbie’s 5th birthday at sunshine mall

it was our 2nd annual trip to the sunshine mall [galleria mall] for abbie’s birthday today. sam and i love to shop and it looks like abbie got that gene, too so sam and i take her shopping for her birthday.

abbie’s friend Ruby gave her a build-a-bear for her birthday that abbie is in love with. so today we headed straight to the build-a-bear store for abbie to pick out new clothes and to wash her bear, abbie. [they are twins, with the same name]. she was particularly excited about washing abbie-the-bear and so we wanted to buy her the blow-dryer and brush that follow every girls [or bears] bath.

i’m pretty sure abbie had a great time . . . and so did sam and i. we love this niece of ours. she is getting to be such a big girl . . . i can already envision many shopping trips in the future. she kept saying to us . . . “i think i picked out the perfect bear.”

We finished our shopping trip with auntie anne’s pretzels and fruit punch [abbie’s request] as we watched the dancing christmas bears.

happy birthday, abs.

[my kids scored big on abbie's birthday, too! They got to play with Daisy, Aunt Ali & Uncle Tripp!]

ryan: [9] months old

our little monkey is 9 months old.  i love this boy to death but he is so much work lately!  for the last month he’s had super-swollen gums and so he just wants to be held.  he’s either in to everything in the house or he’s in our arms!   when he’s not held he is determined to figure things out, get in to everything, pull everything down, rip everything apart . . . with a big smile on his face. 

a little more about ryan at 9 months:

. he can open every cabinet in our house.

. he loves toilets and can find an open one in seconds.  disgusting.

. he loves bathtubs.

. he loves the dishwasher.

. he climbs entire flights of stairs [with supervision].  he is learning how to go down.

. he throws everything. 

. he claps – usually for himself. [see video]

. he tried saying “uh-oh” a few times today.  He got the sounds right.

. he babbles mama and dada all day long.

. he absolutely hates getting dressed.  i am thinking about inventing a child restraint system for diaper changes and getting dressed.

. this boy loves to eat absolutely anything.  he still loves baby food but really loves any big people food.   he can eat quite a bit!

. he’s still not a very good napper.  bedtime is at 6:15/6:30pm [because he’s exhausted from a long day] and he wakes up around 6:30am [with one feeding in between and if he’s up any more than that he cries it out.  that middle of the night bottle is ending soon!]

. he loves his bottle and his binky.  he gets soooo excited when he sees a bottle of milk or even if I sign “milk” to him.  But don’t let him see a bottle because he’ll scream until he gets it.  this will be a fun one to try to get rid of in a few months!

. he has two teeth on the bottom and one random one on top with three more on top about to cut through.

. he weighs around 21 pounds . . . putting him in 12/18 month clothes.

. this boy is in pain from teething.  he’s been a whiny mess for a month.  as long as he’s being held – he’s totally fine. he definitely doesn’t want to be crawling around or playing for very long without you on the floor right next to him or holding him.  he’s pretty much following me around and pulling on my pant legs all day long!

. he loves big kids and always wants to be a part of the party. 

. he’s crawling really fast.  especially when we play “i’m gonna get you!”

. he likes to dance by shaking his head back and forth really fast. [see video]

. he loves balls.  we play catch a few times every day.  this is one activity that nate actually enjoys doing with his brother.

. he’s always got something in his mouth.  his latest move is that he likes to crawl with something in his mouth.

  

.he loves to be outside but it’s tricky now because he crawls right for the dirt and rocks and eats them.  but thankfully he loves the swings where he’s contained!  nate loves to push him in the swings.

[thanks aunt ali for letting me borrow your fun tree swing!]

. i love having two boys.  this is as matching as they will ever be . . . jammies!  nate thinks it’s pretty cool that they have the same pajamas.

ryan "dancing" and clapping

o christmas tree

yep.  it’s up at the griffeth house.

every year it’s a debate as to when to put up christmas decorations.  i love thanksgiving so i don’t want to neglect that holiday – but then again – it feels like just as you get all of your christmas stuff up it’s time to take it down.

so this year, we compromised.  we put up JUST our tree today . . . the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  it’s surrounded by fall decor and a few Thanksgiving items so I don’t feel like I’ve totally forgotten Thanksgiving – but we’ve got a splash of Christmas.  AND, my tree is done.  one less thing to do after Thanksgiving since we enjoy Black Friday shopping, relaxing, enjoying time with Wes, football, and lounging at my parent’s house.

and, i’m pretty sure i wouldn’t have been able to handle Nate asking me all week long to put up and decorate the tree.  today was enough!  he was my little helper while ryan screamed and wes made a big pot of soup.  our fingers are crossed that ryan doesn’t pull the entire tree over.

happy thanksgiving & merry christmas!  i love this time of year.  and i’m THRILLED that it’s finally cold.  it’s making it feel like the holidays outside, too!

[side note: since we’ve been married this is our first year staying home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We typically always spend one of those with Wes’ family in Georgia.  I’m sad we’re missing it this year . . . we just can’t get out there twice every year with the kids . . . but i’m still bummed].

san antonio, texas

We had a great trip to San Antonio, Texas.

Months and months ago we were chatting with Spencer and Leigh and they mentioned that they wanted to go visit Grant & Alyssa in Texas this fall. Since we were thinking the same thing we decided to go on the same weekend! So the Spencer Griffeth family flew in from Georgia and we flew in from Vegas and we had a blast with all of our Texas family.

A little bit about the trip:

. day 1 was at the San Antonio Zoo. The kids had a blast and loved running around with each other outside and seeing all of the animals. I think we saw 100 monkeys at that zoo! They had a great 20-minute train ride, too which they all enjoyed.

 

. day 2 was at the San Antonio Riverwalk. We took the kids on the boat tour and then grabbed lunch before heading home for naps. Or in our case, quiet time with the Naters. 

. morning of day 3 was at grant and alyssa’s house where they made us a delicious breakfast and then the kiddos ran around in their big backyard! They loved it and we got some time to sit and chat.

. afternoon / evening of day 3 was a kid-less adventure to Austin, Texas to see the Texas vs. Oklahoma State football game. An absolutely adorable babysitter came to play with Nate, Spence & Jaidyn and stayed with them for 12 hours while we had some fun. We drove to Austin, ate at Pappacitos and then walked around the campus before the game. It was Jarrett’s first Texas football game so we were glad to be there with him.  Even though Texas took a beating, it was a fun game!

 

. i’m pretty sure I’ve never eaten that much food on a vacation. We ate a lot. But you can’t go to Texas without some Mexican food and some Texas BBQ. So we ate alot of it and it was tasty.  We went to the original Rudy’s BBQ where I fell in love with creamed corn. [i had never had it before].  this stuff was absolutely delicious.

 

. cousins ROCK. Nate had an absolute blast with his cousins. The kids played so well - it was amazing! Spence has officially entered the crazy little boy club. It will be fun to see Trey/Nate/Spence together at the lake next summer. Every time Spence or Nate would wake up, they’d immediately ask to play with the other one.  Every time we leave the Griffeth cousins I wish they lived closer because they just play and play and play and love it. It’s been a while since we’ve had Olivia around so it was fun to see Nate interact with her. [they are only 3 weeks apart].

[this is the only picture i have of baby maddie!  she’s 4 months old and it was great to meet her.  nate loves babies!]

. Ryan will have to enjoy cousin time at the lake next summer because he wasn’t invited on this trip. We missed the little man but not one time did we wish we would have brought him! It was a great trip with just Nate . . . he was in need of some Nate time & we had a blast with him.

. We didn’t want to bombard Grant & Alyssa and their little family with 7 people so we stayed with Thayer & Alison this trip who are almost empty nesters! It was fun catching up with both Grant & Alyssa as well as Thayer & Alison.  I lucked out with a great set of immediate and extended family in-laws.

. We lucked out with great weather. It was a little humid – but not nearly as bad as it could have been!

. everything really is bigger in texas. Holy smokes.  You should see the size of these elementary schools.

. the kids loved the old toys that Thayer and Alison kept from when their kids were little. They don’t make toys like they used to!

. Leigh, Alyssa & I got out a few times while the kids were napping to do a little shopping & visiting.

. It was nice to spend some time with Wes. I feel like I don’t get very much quality time with him so it was nice.

. Traveling with an ipad on an airplane is fabulous!

. Family is the best.  We had a great time.