Thanksgiving Festivities 2016!

My beautiful family on Thanksgiving Day :)

These posts are slightly out of order because I am trying to play catch up since this holiday season has been one for the books! We are constantly doing stuff! It's crazy but so much fun!

Anyways, as always, I was in charge of the pies for Thanksgiving this year which I am not complaining about one bit because I LOVE BAKING!!! However, Eve had been sick that week, there was loads of laundry to do, I needed to pack us all up for our weekend trip to Logandale, and there was no way I was going to find the time to bust out 6 home made pies!

So we compensated by buying all the pies and then spent a good portion of the day using this month's Baby Boy Bakery kit to make little individual pies! The kit also came with pie boxes that you could decorate and make pretty. It was a blast! I love these cooking kits because it gives the kids and I a chance to shut out the world and just bond. We learn counting, colors, textures, and the proper way to do things in the kitchen! We all love it! The shocker this time around though was when Austin pushed me away and told me he was going to do this all by himself! And he actually did a great job! Seriously, I was so proud! I was also a little sad that my baby boy is growing up but I couldn't be happier to see how confident he was as he worked his little hands in the kitchen! Eve was sick so she couldn't be a part of the baking process, but she had a blast coloring the pie boxes with us! We then gave those pies away to all the grandparents on Thanksgiving day along with the finger paint turkeys they made at Messy Mondays Class :). They were a big hit!

Little hands at work!

Cutting out the pie crusts

Adding the apple filling

Closing the pie

Sealing it tight

And there you have it! Little pie tarts!

The pie box decorating! Apparently you can never have too many crayons ;)

Thanksgiving day was full of fun, food, and laughter! Basically the best day ever :). My brothers Kyhle, and Strom flew in the night before so we got to spend the whole weekend with them which was incredible since we never get to see them! They were both the life of the party with their hilarious jokes and made it all that much more fun! Most of my Mom's side of the family showed up so it was a HUGE party! The weather was perfect for an outdoor venue. We were outside the whole day and clear into the night when we lit candles and broke out the pie! Then when it started to get chilly we made a bonfire and the party continued there!

Seriously, there must have been 20 cars in the driveway!

Austin was totally in his element! He is such an outdoor boy!

And Eve was loving all the attention!

Even Uncle Creg showed up! That's rare these days since he's usually in jail or homeless somewhere....

My brothers are home!!!!

Good food, good company

Grandpa's girl

Lots of loves from her Uncles

The men just chillin' on the porch

LOVES from her Grandma and Great Grandma!

Playing with Uncle Brian

If Saxon and Sadie had been there, this would have been a full family picture!

Eve is obsessed with dogs! This didn't bode well for Buster....but he was so good to let her ride him!

Naomi showed up with her new baby! These two cousins kept holding hands and were so fascinated by each other! They will make good friends when they get older :)

Did I mention how excited I was that my brothers came home?!!

Cuddles with Uncle Strom. We tried so hard to get her to fall asleep but it just wasn't going to happen. There was too much going on!

And then there was the bonfire....

Since we won't have the boys home for Christmas, my Mom wanted to do a little mini Christmas with them. We set up the tree, decorated it, ate cheese and summer sausage with specialty crackers and egg nog, and had a great time! OH and there were presents ;). I wish the boys would come around more often because they made the house more lively with constant laughter....

Loving on sweet Lily dog

Awww... so sweet

Presents!

Food and fun!

Me and Briana! Sadie was in Tennessee with her new boyfriend.

Evie thought she was so big sitting there!

Evie got a new little friend!

Austin learning how to shoot his new gun! He is obsessed with guns lately so this was very exciting

Just look at that cheesy grin!

One last hang out on the porch before our fun weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house came to an end.

Sadly, Josh had to work the day after Thanksgiving so he couldn't be there for everything but Kyhle came home with us and spent a couple days before he had to fly back home to Indiana. We had a great time! He got to go with us to our Messy Mondays Class which was a blast! Austin had decided to stay behind in Logandale with Grandma. He was having too much fun and didn't want it to end yet. That was just fine with us because that meant that we only had one kid to take care of! Plus that gave each kid some extra one on one time which they both needed.

We got to play with Moon Sand! It's too bad Austin missed out on this class because he would have loved it!

Evie was in messy heaven!

I love this girl so much! She brings so much joy into our lives!

Taking it very seriously....

They weren't having fun or anything ;)

After Messy Mondays, we went out for some Pink Box Donuts! Their signature maple bacon donut can't be beat!

Yummmm!

It was the perfect ending to the perfect weekend! We were all sad to see it come to an end... I am so thankful for our family and what a joy they are in our lives! They can also add lots of drama but what family doesn't ;).