Gobble Gobble

Whew.  So, we survived Thanksgiving, yay!  Just kidding, it was awesome to be in town and the kids had sooo much fun.  But we didn't get home until late last night.  I guess everyone tried to go home at the same time or something.  Anyhow, here are some pics from last week. 

But first -- Happy Birthday to my (sometimes) sweet baby girl who turned 1 on Friday!  And also Happy Birthday to Chris who turned 29 again!  I couldn't do it without him.  :o)

Monday:

The kids were in Houston, so it was just Emily at home with me, but I don't think she minded having the house to herself.

"First the house, then the WORLD!"

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, we cleaned up the house and packed up for the holiday weekend.  But first, we watered the flowers.

My little helper really likes the flowers, but gets mad when I won't let her grab them.  :o)

She posed for me next to our mini-scarecrows (one for each midget.)

Wednesday:

We made our drive in to Houston!  The kids were all so excited to see Emily.

They sat down for lunch and Emily wanted to sit down too, so we made her some nuggets and put her on the bench.

What a big girl!  :o)

Later, we went over to Nana and Paw Paw's Place.

Haha, so cute (the sign and the Matt-dog.)

Chris held up his prize fish for a photo.

Evelyn played with Strawberry Shortcake

And then, more family came over, so the kids got to play with their cousins too.

Evelyn with Katelyn (awwww.)

Emily and Katelyn played pretty well together.

I think Emily only tried to poke Katelyn in the eye once. ;o)

And although Emily's birthday wasn't until Friday, she got to open her first birthday present!

Evie read the card to her.

Turkey Day:

Emily's getting better at walking.  She took 7 steps from Chris to me a few days ago. 

Her brothers and sister always try to help her practice.

Since we were all getting together for Thanksgiving, we decided to have a cake for Emily's birthday too.

Posing with the birthday girl.  She was sneaking a quick bite of dessert before the party started.

I can't believe she actually left the hat on for a while.

Turkey says: Gobble, gobble, gobble!

Emily really liked her cake.

And then we lit the candles...

"Heh, fire, fire, fire."

Hehe, she actually almost grabbed one of the candles, but Chris stopped her, oof.  When we were singing Happy Birthday, she just kept looking at all of us like we were crazy.  :o) 

She did okay with the presents, but wasn't much help with unwrapping them besides throwing the paper aside and playing with the ribbons.

She did tear off most of the paper on this one, a little piece at a time.  Don't worry, she'll be a pro by Christmas.  ;o)

Group picture of all the kids at the party.

:o)

Quick family photo

Matthew was trying to make Emily smile and Emily was trying to get down, but it still turned out nice.

Later, the kids had fun with Vanessa playing in the sand in the backyard.

"Epa brought the beach to us!"

Hi Joshua!

Too funny, I walked in the house and Quintin was sitting on the couch with 3 sleeping babies around him, haha.  I told him I was gonna bring Emily right over!  ;o)

That evening, I walked in on Epa and Emily talking on their cell phones to each other, hehe.  (Yes, he had his phone on his ear too.)

It was a great Thanksgiving and we were so happy to get to be there!

And the Cowboys won too!! Woohoo!

Friday:

Evelyn rocks her baby sister on her birthday.

The kids got some good Guitar Hero play time in.

Emily really liked the drums and would dance every time Matthew or Chris would start banging on them.

Also, Booger took the big midgets to the movies to see Happy Feet 2.

They had a great time and thought the movie was really good.  Thanks Booger!

Chris and I also saw a movie, and left Emily at home, but we're not gonna talk about how that went, haha.  My poor baby girl still has a lot to learn.  ;o)

Later, we had Emily a mini-cake for her birth-date.

There's that look again, like we're all crazy for singing to her.

My girl had such a good time with her cake.  Evelyn told her to "pat, pat, pat" from Little Einsteins, so Emily started banging on the cake.  Then Emily reached over and patted Evelyn on the head with her icing-covered hand before Evie could get out of the way, haha.

She was a very happy, sugar-filled big girl. :o)

Saturday:

We went over to Booger's house to help hang up lights and decorate her tree.

Epa helped the girl get some more walking practice.

What a pretty tree!

Then Emily crawled off, so this one's just of Evie.  :o)

Well, we spent most of Sunday on the road, so I guess that's why I don't have any pictures.  But I'm already done unpacking, woohoo!  Now I just have to work on getting these Thanksgiving decorations put away to make room for all our Christmas stuff.  :o)

Laters!

My Little Helper

The weather's getting colder, but the sun is still shining, so we're all good.  :o)  This week flew by as Evie finally got her cheerleader uniform, Emily thinks that she is my new little helper, and the big kids got a head start on their Thanksgiving break and are already partying in Houston.

Monday:

Quick pic of my big girl in her brand new uniform before school.

She was cheering at a basketball game after school, so she was so excited that she got to wear it all day.  :o)

Emily and I went through some clothes we had saved up for her and we found this hat.

Hehe, she really liked it and actually left it on for a while.

Have I mentioned that Emily likes to brush hair?

Any time she finds a comb or brush, she starts brushing her hair.  She also enjoys brushing mine and Evie's hair too.  :o)

Sooo, the girl thinks that she is my helper.

Here she is helping me fold the laundry.

 

Haha, okay, she's not folding it, but she loves emptying the clean clothes out of the basket and then laying on them.  She also shoves socks into the bottom drawer in my room, usually when I'm not looking, so she thinks she's helping. (Sorry these are so blurry, camera phone.)

After school, Matthew, Emily, and I went to watch Evie cheer. Joshua went to his Photography Club and would join up with us later. 

And yes, I stuck the hat back on her and she left it on the whole game, haha.

Here's my pretty girl again in her awesome uniform!

She was very happy to get to wear it.

And dude - halfway through the game, the Photography Club showed up to take pictures of the basketball team and cheerleaders.

Check out our photographer!  :o)

Evelyn's such a good cheerleader, always in time and very loud.

Hi Evie! 

By the way - we found out that her JV Cheer Squad will be in 2 parades next February.  Here's the info:

February 5 - Little Rascals, 12:00pm, Metairie

February 11 - Krewe of Choctaw, 11:00am, Westbank

Tuesday:

Emily and I went grocery shopping, and when we got home, my little helper helped unpack the pampers for me.

"Come on Mom, you know you couldn't do it without me."  ;o)

Wednesday:

So Matthew used to wear this Spider-man shirt everywhere.  Then, he got too big, so we found him another one and put this one away, and guess who it fits now.

Hehe, she didn't seem to notice it too much, but Matthew loved that she was wearing it and can't wait to wear his shirt at the same time as Emily.  We weren't able to coordinate their night clothes last week, so we'll see if we can get a pic of that soon.  :o)

Emily and I headed back to the store to get stuff we forgot, and here's how she was the whole trip.

Haha, she was quite comfortable and I think she got more attention asleep than she ever has when she's awake, hehe.  Sweet sleepy girl.

While at the store, I picked up a few flowers for our front porch.

And of course, my little helper had to assist.

She was pretty good about just watching me re-pot them.

She did pull one flower off before I could stop her, and thought it was funny when I kept sniffing at it, so she kept holding it up to my face so I would smell it again.

By the way, yes, the flower ended up in her mouth, but I rescued it...uh, her.  ;o)

We get way too much sun on our front porch, but the tag said "Full Sun to Part Sun" so we'll see if these flowers make it.

Quick pic of the boys after church school that night.

I'm so glad they still love each other. ;o)

Friday:

Guess who still likes to watch cartoons together in the morning.

:o)  Joshua's usually awake before the other kids, so he likes to lay on my bed and watch TV while I'm getting dressed.  Emily likes to hang out with her big brother.

My big kids got out of school early on Friday for the Thanksgiving Break.  They don't have to go back until next Monday.  So Jen/Tia came and picked them up so they could have some extra time in Houston.  Chris had/has to work Saturday, today and tomorrow, so Emily and I decided to wait for him and come in later this week.

They were so excited to go!

This will be our first Thankgiving in Houston since 2007 and we can't wait!

Oh yeah, almost forgot, all the kids got blue wrist bands at school this week for excellent behavior!  Woohoo! (I miss you babies!)

Later, Emily helped me with the laundry again, and Chris turned her into a pirate for a little while.

"Arrrrr....where's me socks!"

Sunday:

Because most of my midgets are out of town, I don't really have any pictures or stories from the weekend.  On Saturday, Chris had to work, so I got a lot of ironing done for when the kids go back to school, but it was a very nice and lazy day too.

After church on Sunday, Emily modeled the new headband that I made her.

It matches her Thanksgiving shirt.

 

"You don't seriously think I'm going to keep this on, do you?"

I saw a picture of big Matt-dog on Facebook chowing down on limes, hehe. We've talked to the kids every night and they are having a great time. :o)  Emily knows that they're missing and seems to follow Chris around a lot more than usual, but she likes to listen to them talk to her on the phone.

We'll probably head into town early on Wednesday.  Emily's 1st birthday is this Friday, so we'll probably have her a cake on Thursday so we don't have to assemble the whole gang twice.  On Thanksgiving, we'll just tell Emily that everyone is coming over to celebrate her birthday, haha.  She's only 1, she'll never know. ;o)

Hope to see y'all all soon, and if not, Happy Thanksgiving!

Laters!