A First and A Third Thanksgiving

We have so much to me Thankful for.....

most of all TWO, beautiful, healthy, smart, wonderful, sweet, lovable and loving children.

Lily celebrated her first Thanksgiving in a special tutu mommy made

Mommy made that tutu to match the turkey bow.

As always she was a hit, Grams just loves her littlest Cupcake.

As a special treat Great Grandma Joyce and Great Grandpap Steve came down from Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Grandma Joyce has been sick so had not meet Lily yet.

Great Grandpap Steve LOVES all the kids and will hold them and love them as long as he can, Lily just loves everyone. Both of her Great Grandparents kept saying how she is the happiest baby they have ever seen.

We are lucky enough to avoid the stress of Thanksgiving by going to a buffet (NO cooking for us) with ALL of our family, this year there was 20 of us! As we got ready to head to the restaurant Johnny was readying books to his cousin Sammi.

Shawn loves this picture of little Samantha becuase he calls her a "bruiser." (She is Johnny's kindred spirit, a rough and tumble little girl!) But seeing the bruiser all dressed up really hits Shawn funny and makes him giggle, I just think she is adorable!

Lily just loves everyone, here a visit from Wyatt was making her giggle. I can't say how wounderful is was to have all the SIX grand kids together and have all of our family in one house, talking and sitting together, this is what the holidays are about.

One of our traditions is to take advantage of this long week end and set up the Christmas tree and decorations (yes it is almost Christmas)

I am so excited this year becuase Johnny really gets it! He was VERY excited to help Grams and Pops decorate their Christmas tree.

Before we got to the restaurant Johnny was running non stop with one cousin or the other, having so many "friends" around really makes him happy! But this excitement made it hard for him to sit down and eat his special meal.

This picture really got me because he looks ridiculous in that bib! But he is only two, reasonable he could still need a bib, but Johnny looks like a man child here.

That is the same bib he wore for his first Thanksgiving TWO years ago...it says "Gobble till you Wobble."

Lily is not yet 6 months old, so she started her dinner in her carrier, like a normal baby. But we learned quickly that that was not going to fly.

The big girl wanted to see everything and be apart of the event, so she got into a restaurant high chair for the first time!

Mommy made special organic sweet potato baby mush for her have for her First Thanksgiving meal, but it gave her a tummy ache and diarrhea when we started it the day before. So Lily's meal was a rice cracker and plain rice cereal....she LOVED it!

Lily also loved the extra attention she got, Great Grandpap Steve just can't say no to holding a great grand baby.
Neither can Papa.

Little Wyatt ate two full plates of dinner and then finished up Johnny's. He didn't stop until we started to get worried he was going to get a tummy ache and had to cut him off! He ate straight for the entire 2 hours we where there! Everything from cod, to turkey to dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.

Mommy has been on a low carb diet for a month now, I have lost enough weight to not blow my diet off for the holidays, but not enough to put it out to the public. So Mommy had a lot of turkey, beef tips (very yummy), and salad. I am proud to say I made it through the day regretting no extra carbs!

I also have no pictures of Ella since she was at the other table, but her and her Mommy had made conversation starter cards and she kept asking questions that we could all answer together, it was a great idea and I loved listening to stories about everyone's childhood and favorite things.


Here we are! One happy family. Even though neither kid is looking at the camera I still love this picture because everyone is smiling and happy and obviously having a great day with family.