Thanksgiving and Christmas Begins

Be ready for a photo crazy post...it's been so long since i have posted...time gettin away from me, i cant believe that Christmas is around the corner...

Our life has been as chaotic as always, with the twins entering the terrible...and i mean terrible twos, i always thought this was a cliche' because really with Austin it didn't seem so bad, unless i wiped it from my memory. But it seemed on October 1st, on the dot they truly turned 'terrible'...just like a switched was flipped..they are nuts!!! so busy, and into everything... They had a great birthday with family over to celebrate. And loved their cake..which was Dora and Diego of course... they are still mainly into spongebob, but we did that last year and Londyn is a BIG Dora fan, so this year we went with Dora.

Londyn got a new princess vanity for her birthday...she sat here for hours playing the music, looking at herself in the mirror and applying her lip gloss...i finally had to put the lip gloss away, she was getting a bit carried away!! This was the perfect gift for our princess.
And this HUGE balloon was her best friend for weeks!! Grandma and Bampa brought her this balloon...They also brought a HUGE Diego one, but the ceiling fan ate him.... it was sad.
River and this BUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!!! he never let go of this bus all day...in fact in almost every single pic we took, he was holding this buuuuuuuuuuuuus...and that's what he was running around yelling too, at the top of his lungs....BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!
This cute little duck made Londyn happy, this photo says it all.
And of course what is a party without a little DRAMA....River Drama. The tears smeared on the door i think he put there was added DRAMA!! Such a happy boy, but when he's mad , he's MAD!

Now for some odds and ends....

Who do you think these little feet belong to???
You guessed it....one of the few times they get along....
Bathtime with Daddy and Bubble hats for everyone.... always a favorite part of their day.

Then before we knew it...it was thanksgiving....
This year we had thanksgiving at my mom's house....always a ton of great food and lots of card playing....can't say i was at my best in the card playing this year, i was too preoccupied reading the sale ads for Black Friday...which is always a tradition while sitting around the table...making our plan...
My contribution to the meal is usually the homemade noodles.... Some how a few years ago, i got assigned the job when my grandma moved and couldn't be with us at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Mine will never be as good as hers, but i tell ya, it's not an easy job. And to think she used to make them every sunday for lunch after church too!!! The crazy part is, she has no recipe, when i made them for the first time, i called her and she was like "well eggs (can't tell you how many, it depends on how many you are making), a dash of salt, a pinch of baking powder, and flour...." Now seriously, my dash and pinch may be different from hers, but i did it, and since then, it has been my job.....

(notice there aren't any measuring cups or spoons in this photo)

This is the hardest, well not hard, but tedious....part of the whole thing...pulling the noodles apart. Austin always helps me with this part, bless his heart.... and this time...he took pictures and ate some raw noodles....eeeeew. Also thinking I need an apron...my scrubs got a bit of flour on them :)


Austin's Creation!! so cute!

I am so thankful for my family. We may not always have the things we "want", but we definately have everything we NEED, We are truly blessed and have each other, I love my family! Hope you all had a great thanksgiving!

Lastly, the tradition for our family is putting up the tree the weekend after thanksgiving. Here are just a few photos.

Last year, the boys won out and they chose to have a completely BLUE tree!! so this year...GIRLS RULE!!! Londyn and I decided we wanted a HOT PINK tree..... it actually looks pretty tame....almost like maroon, but we love it....yeah PINK!!!

I think our tree has seen it's last year....we have a 'pre-lit' tree, well it used to be, last year we had only two sections that lit up, this year we pulled it out and plugged it in and only the bottom lit, so we had to add our own lights this year....Joe's 'favorite' part.....i think it will be retired after Christmas this year.
River was amazed by the lights...he kept pointing and "oooohing and Ahhhing"
This was also the first year the twins actually put ornaments on the tree....they still threw most of them down the stairs and all over the house, but by the end, they figured out that they went on the tree....usually about 5 ornaments per branch, but that's ok.... they helped and did a great job.

Austin got the "fun" job of putting all the hooks on all the bulbs...Look at all that PINK!
The finished masterpiece...Let the Christmas Holiday begin!!!