Thanksgiving Throwback

Oh andThanksgiving was spent in Mississippi this year.  Excuse my brevity but I do have a lengthy line of pictures to make up for it.  When you live away from both sets of grandparents it's always wonderful to pull in for a visit and see what your children are most fascinated with at the present age.  One of Jack's fascinations was Sadie's cage and water bowl. 

Hmmm...let's see...

Sadie does it.  How bad could it be?

 We squeezed our Santa visit for the year into a quick trip to Fred's.  This is about as much of Santa as Molly can take, though Jack was intrigued.

As close as we got to Santa this year. 

Bay Springs has two wonderful brand new playgrounds to play on.  This one, at the church, was a fun outdoor break (even though it was quite chilly!).  Everyone got in on the fun!  Love this one of MiMi and Molly on the slide:

And look at this gem of a picture...ALL five looking at the camera??  And pleasantly at that!  Aren't they beautiful?

Thanksmas with Cousins!

Experiencing the thrill of Operation

Reading to MiMi and Swaylor

 We had a wonderful time with the Sellers family on Thanksgiving itself.  I love this picture!:

At MawMaw and PawPaw's

Giggling with Sam and Baby Reed

 We had some extra days to spend with MiMi and Pop and we made good use of it.  We went to the Mississippi Children's Museum and had a wonderfully good time there.  It is an excellent museum as children's museums go and there were LOTS of fun things to do.

Playing with pulleys

Controlling cranes with Pop

Trying their hands at logging

They loved this home living exhibit.  If only real chores were this colorful and inviting:

Loads of fun!

Crawling in the attic

Loading the dishwasher

Janitor Jack

Bookworm

 Jack was really drawn to this earthquake machine in the underground exhibit.  He loved feeling it shake.

Getting hands-on

 Jack is also really into the ladies.  Young, old, doesn't matter.  Even a skunk tail doesn't deter him.

Making eyes

Cutest skunk ever.

 We left for a quick lunch together before coming back for round 2 at the museum:

Back for round 2!

Cutting a rug with Daddy

Gone fishing

Excavating

On to the farmer's market

Family building exercises

Christmas Catch-up

 In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd post about Christmas.  My life lately has been running about 2-4 months behind schedule so why not, right?!  I don't have all that many pictures really.  We put up two trees this year and here is Molly decorating one of them.  She's getting tall:)

My elementary kids did a "Christmas Around the World" program that I ended with a shadow nativity.  One of my friends and fourth grade teachers suggested the concept last year and I figured it would work well with this particular program.  It was truly beautiful.  The fourth grade were the nativity performers and the first through third graders sang an ambitious arrangement of O Holy Night Here are some shots Erin got from the balcony:

The Heavenly Host

Gabriel appears to Mary

Mary and Joseph travel donkey-style

Jesus is Born!

My babies ready for a December Sunday at church:

Plaid tidings we bring to you and your kin

Singing for joy

Breakfast at Bethlehem with Daddy

Our long-legged reindeer!

It was our turn to go to Kentucky for Christmas.  Here are a few pictures I caught with my phone on my hip:

Sofa Silliness

Christmas Clue

Some Christmas entertainment

The boys spend hours on the phone preparing for their visits together.  Here's the outcome of some of their shenanigan planning:

Here are a couple of the recruits.  They were swayed with promises of unsupervised candy and hot chocolate consumption.  Later that day Molly came to me and said, "I gave up with my mind.  I don't want to be in the military anymore."  I guess it was hard work being under Sammy and Jonah's command!

The Recruits

Santa knows what Jack wants!

(Almost) all together now!

Reading the Christmas Story together (w/ Jack competing for the attention!)