Thanksgiving All Over The Place

Thanksgiving was crazy fun this year! It was quite the semi-planned extravaganza! With my brother, Brendan, now a Soldier, you never know which plan of the many will work out. Luckily, we kind of had it all!

First, my mom and youngest brother, William, came up on Monday before Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun going to lunch, grabbing some Starbucks, and hitting up Costco.

Note: Thanks mom for grabbing some photos that I stole from your Facebook page! LOL Love you!

And, an added bonus - I was able to have lunch with Andrew on Tuesday!! He introduced me to all of his classmates and they are just the sweetest little kids. I was so happy to see his little face light up when he saw me waiting for him outside the lunchroom. Love him!

Speaking of Tuesday, that is when my Dad and the other guys showed up! Christopher and Sean, that is. Unfortunately, James had to work. Darn you, Black Friday! (By the way, every time I write my brothers names... I ALWAYS have to hit backspace because I keep typing in Brendan's name after Christopher. LOL It's getting annoying...)

All the guys hanging out in the kitchen. And, yes, I apparently have 2 small Soldiers-In-Training of my own!

Oh, and while on the topic of Soldiers... We found out on Monday on our way to Costco that we were able to see Brendan for Thanksgiving! So, Thanksgiving got moved to Wednesday for us here in Alabama.

Tired parents LOL But, hey, at least we got our First Thanksgiving in our new home photo!!

Love this guy! My youngest brother with my youngest baby! <3

After we had everything heating up in the ovens, I took some of us down the trail behind our awesome neighbor's house to the Cahaba River. Love it!

This guy. LOL He is so silly, but he is pretty awesome, too. This is another one to be proud of. He is headed to the Navy in April. He is going to work with nuclear subs!!! (I'll get his actual job title soon.)

Thursday morning we woke up, packed up and headed to Augusta, Georgia to Fort Gordon to have Thanksgiving fun with Brendan!

Of course, we couldn't leave with out grabbing a Thanksgiving Photo!

Oh, and we couldn't leave without coffee... Fun cups are found at Target, people! Ok, everything fun is found at Target!

Brendan!!!!! How awesome does he look?!

This photo must have been after we left to get the kids to bed. I can only imagine the jokes that were being cracked at The Huddle House! I mean, come on... Look at those smirkity-smirks. What are y'all talking about!?

Friday, we headed back over to Brendan with lunch (mom, dad, and the guys stayed just a few blocks from Brendan's barracks) and games!

Lunch time!

Game time!!

Afterwards, we all headed out to see the cool Army tanks and other vehicles. Very cool. The boys loved it!

I love this pic. Really. I mean this is the truth right here. Trying to get everyone together for a pic when you have this many people is hard. But, it is imperfectly perfect, ya know?

"Family: We may not have it all together 

but, together we have it all."

Of course, a picture will be had, people! So, snap to it and smile!

From the left: Dad, Christopher, Jason, Austin holding Brendan's hand, William, Andrew, Sean and I, Aria, and Alex

Wow, what a week!!
My family and fun times at our house!
Thanksgiving Day lunch at Fort Gordon's Huddle House with Brendan!
And, a fun weekend with Jason's family!

Graphic via casa de lewis

Note: I'm terrible... I know... We had so much fun with everyone doing everything that other than the few pics I snapped and the ones I stole from mom... I totally missed taking any pics of the rest of the week. Jason may have taken a few. So, perhaps an update to the post will appear soon. :)

Elf Fun Run 2015

Another day, another race!! And this one was a bit colder!

Before the race & getting excited!

Alex is pretty pumped! LOL

Aria and Austin ready to cheer for their brothers

The Elf (Alex on the far right ready to go) Just4Running photo

Listen up! Just4Running Photo

And, they are off! Just4Running Photo

Just4Running Photo

1st lap, 2nd long straight

Ending the first lap Just4Running Photo

Start of the 2nd (and last) lap. I love how they are sticking together through this! So cute!! Just4Running Photo

Final turn to the finish line! Just4Running Photo

The finish line!! Yay!! (I don't know who the runner guy is, but he is awesome for helping this mama out!) Just4Running Photo

End of the race treat - chocolate milk! Yum!!

Me and my little racers!! Next race, we are all going now that Aria is big enough and loves the jogging stroller :) Just4Running Photo

Tiny Race Trainee #1 Just4Running Photo

 

Tiny Race Trainee #2

We can't wait for the next one!! Wanna run with us!?

October 2015 - Part 2 {Video}

In the middle of the month, the kids and I (Jason had to work, unfortunately..) took a road trip to Fort Benning to watch my brother, Brendan, become an American Soldier!! It was such a wonderful trip and amazing ceremony. Hearing the graduates recite the Soldier's Creed was the best part...such strength and courage. I am proud to be an Army Sister!! Hooah!!

Brendan's Visit

This past weekend, plus a few extra days, was great!! My third youngest brother, Brendan, came up for a visit. We had such a great time!

Our first stops, of course, were Dave's Pizza and The Shops of Grand River, with my mom who had brought him. It is one of the few, but good, places that allows pets. It was fun! And, the boys knew that about half way through the numerous stores they could get slushies and pretzels out of Grandma. Haha! Thanks for the treats, Mom! 

 

After dinner on Friday, Brendan and I ran to Target to get the needed goodies for us grown ups. This not only included Orange Fanta, gummy bears, and licorice... But also a taste of the Force:

Yes, that is a marshmallow Stormtrooper and a cereal TIE Fighter and X-Wing. Score!

Saturday, we introduce Brendan to the wonders of Costco! He was rather impressed with the sizes of things that you could buy. We even got a huge Costco pizza to take home! Yum!

While the boys played with Jason, he helped me get dinner started in the kitchen. I'm not sure if he knew I took this picture or not. But, you can only take so many of Brendan before reaching his personal quota. Love you!

Sundays are lazy family days around here. After Mass and lunch at Moe's, Austin went down for a nap while the rest of us played Super Mario Brothers and Wii Resort. I have been banned (by my doing...) from playing Mario with the boys. But, listening to all the guys playing, big and little, was HILARIOUS!

On Monday (sadly, Jason was out of town most of this week), we traveled a little south of Birmingham to check out the sights at The American Village. What a cool place!! I have had this on my list of places to go for a good while now. I'm glad Brendan had picked it out. Andrew and Alex loved it, too! 

The Colonial Chapel where we heard Patrick Henry's famous speech. Andrew thought he was pretty cool.

Where Patrick Henry stood in the Chapel. Beautiful!

Liberty Bell Garden

The National Veterans Shrine - Brendan's favorite place! He was able to speak with one of the Veterans while we toured this beautiful building.

Andrew and Alex went on a Scavenger Hunt to find some pretty amazing things inside the Shrine.

 

Liberty embracing the fall of one of Her men during the Revolutionary War.

 

Mount Vernon

Brendan hard at work in the Oval Office

Encampment

Brendan took Andrew and Alex down to see the Encampment up close

After some shopping was done in the gift shop, which YES! included a new addition to my coffee mug collection, we headed back up the road and stopped for lunch. Everyone was starving from all the fun that was had at the American Village. We can't wait to go back!!

Tuesday morning, we headed out to the movies for one of the summer $1 flicks. Brendan hadn't seen Mr. Peabody and Sherman. So, after watching the trailer for it on YouTube, among many other videos we had to share with each other, he decided it would be fun to watch. And, yeah! We got the butter soaked movie popcorn and huge drinks! We don't get out much... Ha!

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Wednesday came around and it was time for the fun to {almost} end. Brendan was heading back home today. Mom drove back up and met us at the Galleria this time. There was a "threat" of storms (which apparently decided to hold off until today...and for the 4th of July...) so our normal outside options weren't in the cards. 

Seeing an Ironman Transformer of some sort was cool.

But, since the Lego store is at the Galleria, the boys were fine with the change of plans. 

Well...Austin wasn't a fan.. He was told not to open the Legos until we got home. But, we knew a cookie would fix that frown in a heartbeat.

But, our time with Brendan was coming to an end... So, once we said our goodbyes, we all headed in our different directions back home.

Mr. Sleepy

Austin was pretty tired, so he took more of a real nap at home. The other two knew that the time has come for their new Lego sets to be taken care of finally! Here are two of them -Lunar Rovers (by the way, go Lego Store for the freebies to honor space exploration this month!). I'll have to get a better pic of Andrew's Snow Truck and Alex's Swamp Police set later. 

 Once Austin woke up he got down to business with his little pond set.

Busy builder man

It is so crazy to think that the next time we see Brendan... He will be a soldier of the United States Army. I am so very proud of him. We all are! He is one amazing guy and I am so very happy to call him my brother. And, I am so grateful for the time he was able to spend with us these past few days. Sure, he may not like his photo taken, but I grabbed what I could and I am so thrilled that I did. Here are my favorites that I will end with. We love you Brendan!!

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