Gobble Gobble

 

This Thanksgiving was a total blur of food, family, and fun! It started off with Josh's parents driving down to spend the week with us. We have so much fun when they visit, so we were pretty excited about it! I was working Tuesday night when they got into town but from what I hear, everybody had a lot of fun eating Mexican food from Roberto's and playing with the baby. Josh had to work Wednesday, so Austin and I took the Grandparents to Coco's Bakery to buy the pies for our Thanksgiving feast. Tradition holds that I always make the pies from scratch but with this being our first time hosting Thanksgiving and having little Austin always there needing all my attention, I decided to delegate. After that we went to the mall and Steve/Janis took Austin and I shopping for our Christmas presents! Josh just got cash since he wasn't able to go. I got some super cute clothes and Austin got an adorable sweat suit and football jammies to keep him warm for our trip to Utah! Thanks you guys! We got home just in time for Josh to get home from work and then my Grandma Helm and cousins from Texas (Heather and her son Alex) came to visit! I haven't seen Heather in almost ten years so this was a fun surprise! They were heading out for dinner so they didn't stay long but we enjoyed getting to catch up a bit with them before our next visitors arrived! Josh's brother Nick and his family dropped by to see our new house and Austin for the first time! We got pizza for dinner and had fun talking and catching up with them that night and of course showing off our little man. Austin thought Cousin Porter was hilarious and had fun playing "peek-a-boo" with him. Aunt Jen loved holding him and Austin must have liked it too because she kept him calm while all the little kids ran around like crazies all around him. This was by far our busiest day and before we knew it, it was time to go to sleep so we could be well rested for Thanksgiving! Well, everyone but me that is. Austin still doesn't believe Mom actually needs sleep at night....

Austin meeting our "Texas Cousins" for the first time!

I had delegated most of the difficult jobs out to everyone who was coming over for dinner so the only thing that had me stressed was trying to keep the house clean for guests... a difficult job when you have so many people coming and going! A special thank you to my sweet Mom for bringing over half of her kitchen to make up for everything I was lacking and to Nathan for bringing the turkey! He cooked it in the deep-pit and it was just as yummy as I remembered it being when I was growing up. My sisters also came over with their contributions, as well as Grandma/Grandpa Porter which meant we got to enjoy Grandma Porter's famous frozen fruit salad! Thanks to all these amazing people who we love so much, our first Thanksgiving in our home with our baby was a total success! We had a great time sitting at the table laughing and talking and eating way more than was necessary. It just all tasted so good! There was a point that night when I couldn't take the pain anymore and got Austin all suited up in his warm monkey suit so we could go take a walk with my parents and sisters and work off all that food! Briana and I made the brilliant decision to run and do jumping jacks around the neighborhood which resulted in me feeling even more sick than I was before, but it made for a pretty fun memory :). Pie and football came after that and then everyone started heading for home. By the end of the night, we all had to roll ourselves off to bed. That's how you know it was the perfect Thanksgiving ;)...

Thanksgiving Day with Grandma and Grandpa Porter & Aunt Briana

Thanksgiving Day with Grandma and Grandpa Ronnenkamp

Austin things Aunt Sadie is so great, he literally worships her! haha

Oh how I LOVE my sisters!

You could say we have fun together :).

We love Great Grandma Porter!

Isn't this the cutest little monkey you've ever seen?! Getting ready to go on our walk.

The next day was Black Friday and Josh went with his parents to the Bass Pro Shop. I stayed home with Austin and did some online shopping because I really didn't want to brave the crowds with a baby. Josh came home with this gigantic bass fish stuffed animal for Austin that is literally 3x his size. It was pretty funny seeing Austin try to play with it and watching Josh's excitement when he saw that Austin liked his gift. Josh is seriously the cutest Dad. He is still a child himself so it makes me laugh when I see him interacting with his son. What am I going to do with this massive fish you ask? I.... have.... no..... idea.... but my boys love it so that's all that matters, right? Later that afternoon Janis and Steve babysat Austin so Josh and I could join my family at the movie theaters to see Catching Fire. This was the first movie we had seen in forever and we loved it! My extended family from my Mom's side all went with us so it was quite the party. Even though most of us only live 30 minutes away from each other, we are all so busy that we never get together.

The new member of our family... Austin's fish.

 

Family is the best!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for babysitting me!

Steve and Janis left early the next morning and Josh and I spent the rest of the weekend trying to recover from the holiday. We ended up going to the mall as a family to let Josh spend his Christmas money from his parents and eat lunch at the food court. Austin is at such a fun stage where he loves to look around and interact with people so the mall was the perfect place for him. Every store we went into was full of his paparazzi. I love my little family so much. I've thought a lot about what I am most grateful for over this past month and it always comes down to family. Nothing feels more heavenly than being surrounded by the ones you love, laughing, and having a great time.