Thanksgiving Road Trip - Iowa

Over Thanksgiving break we took our first big family road trip! We (I) planned and focused on the trip constantly for weeks. We started off driving to Iowa, spent a few days there visiting Jonathan's brother, Roger, and his family and then drove to Colorado to spend Thanksgiving with Jonathan's sister, Sarah, and her family.

I tried to capture the trip with pictures, enjoy!

We left Houston the Friday before Thanksgiving and made it into Iowa LATE that night (after midnight). We stayed at our hotel for the night and then headed to visit Roger, Jill and Juliana and meet baby Emily first thing on Saturday morning. 

Aaron liked being bundled up in the car!

Caleb the puppy dog : )

Baby Emily (1 month) and Aunt Melissa - I loved having the chance to meet our newest niece! 

Uncle Roger with Juliana and Caleb

Aunt Jill with the three "big" kids...they all liked playing with Juliana's art supplies

Uncle Jonathan and a sleepy Emily

play time

I couldn't believe how well Emily slept with all the noise

Jello break

Cuties

Swinging at the park, we were lucky that the weather was beautiful while we were in Iowa. Highs were in the 60s which made for great park weather. 

Bundled up

The only room we could get at the hotel had a big jacuzzi tub in the room...it was perfect for corralling a crazy 16 month old!  

That evening everyone but Caleb and I headed down to the hotel's indoor pool. I was told that the water was a bit cold, but the hot tub was great!

Caleb and I didn't get to swim because he was passed out! He fell asleep on the way to the hotel from Roger's house (maybe a ten minute drive). 

On Sunday we joined Roger and family at their church for Emily's baptism. Jonathan and I are honored to be her sponsors and were so glad we could be there that day.

All of us after church the day of Emily's baptism. 

Caleb and Juliana

The baptism wore out Emily, she slept great after we arrived back at Roger's house after church and eating out for lunch. 

Caleb showing Juliana how to use the IPad. 

After we spent Sunday afternoon at Roger's house, we loaded up continued on to our next destination, Colorado!

Thanksgiving "Feast" at PWS

I love the events we have at PeeWee School for the holidays. I was able to join Caleb in his class for his Thanksgiving Feast. Each kid brought their favorite food, Caleb chose hot dogs! Funny thing is, he rarely wants them at home and didn't eat one at the feast. 

Caleb and his best bud, Samir, at the Thanksgiving Feast. 

Growing Boys

This is the beginning of my marathon of posts to catch up! These pictures were taken in November and I was amazed at how big the boys are becoming. 

Caleb loves art, he regularly asks to paint, color, or draw. More recently he's been upset because he can't write words yet.... one step at a time buddy!

Coloring by number

He did all the coloring in balloons first and then started to scribble when he ran out of numbers...I'm still pretty amazed!

They pushed the chairs together and sat having one of their brother "conversations" 

Mommy and the boys : )

Mommy and Caleb watching the Alabama vs. A&M game...AMAZING game! 

A Day with Daddy

Today I went here...

... to the International Quilt Festival in Houston with GG and Mom. An event I have enjoyed every year for the past several years. 

While I was out exploring new patterns, fun fabrics and other crafty things, my sweet husband was taking care of our crazy boys! I expected them to be hanging around the house, playing in the backyard and the usual kind of stuff. 

When I got home from my long day out, I was greeted with hugs and a invitation to watch some pictures from the day. Not only did my husband take care of the boys, but he exceeded all expectations and took them on an outing to NASA by himself! What a great Dad!

I love this one! Caleb staring up at the shuttle!

Caleb took this picture!

After watching the boys' slideshow from their day, I did a little show and tell of my own! 

I have no idea when I'll get to any of these projects, but that's not the point of Quilt Festival. The point is finding new ideas and spending time with some lovely ladies. I'm glad my boys had fun at the same time, too!

A Happy Halloween!!!

What a fun Halloween! Thomas, Kristen, Eli and Hannah Joy came down from Spring to do some trick-or-treating with us and Katy came over from work. We ate a quick pizza dinner and then headed out to collect way too much candy!

Our Jack-o-Lantern pizza!

Fueling up!

Daddy and the Lion

Almost ready to go!

Everyone except Jonathan and Katy

One our way to the first house

Aaron wanted to walk most of the time

Robin had fun too!

Our happy Lion

Eli and Caleb had a great time running ahead of us and yelling "trick or treat!", they are Halloween experts. Aaron was typically a few steps behind holding tightly to his bucket. Toward the end of the evening his bucket started to get really heavy but he still wanted to hold onto it. I think he knew good stuff was in his bucket! Hannah Joy was a little further behind, but just kept giggling the whole night. She was having fun riding in the bat mobile between houses and then getting ooooed and awwwed over at each house.

We trick-or-treated for well over an hour and way past the kids bed times, but it was completely worth it! I loved seeing the boys have so much fun! I know the boys won't be little like this forever, so I'm glad we get the opportunity to have fun with cousins while they are young!