With Thanksgiving in My Heart

Friday we went to have Thanksgiving Feast with Evan at his school. The cafeteria was all decorated for Thanksgiving. It looked so cute. Ella Grace was SO excited about going to see Evan and "the kids." We arrived at 10:40 for lunch. Isn't that crazy early??? There's just something about eating cafeteria turkey and dressing before 11:00 a.m. I can tell you it sure hasn't change much since I was a kid. :)

Ella Grace and Derek waiting for Evan.

We were so excited to see Evan's class filing into the cafeteria. The look on his face when he saw us was priceless. He was smiling from ear to ear and SO excited we were eating lunch with him.

Just look at that face!

I was just as excited to see him in the middle of the day. We snagged him after lunch and took him home with us. He was VERY excited about that. Although, I don't think we would have made it out of there without him even if we had tried. After lunch, he was latched on to both Derek and my hands. :) I was thankful we could just take him home.

Here is Evan's pinecone turkey. One of his teachers is from Jamaica (we LOVE her), so Evan's turkey had a Jamaican theme with red, yellow and green feathers.

Happy Thanksgiving, Mon!

I am so blessed beyond measure. I have so much in which to be thankful! I am so thankful Derek is home and not 8,000 miles away. I am so thankful for my two beautiful, healthy children that bring such joy to my life each and every day. I am thankful to be a child of God and for His grace and mercy. I am thankful for my entire loving family and wonderful friends. My cup is overflowing!

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all! I hope you have a fantastic day with your loved ones.

Gobble Gobble (or maybe it should be Wobble Wobble for me after all that turkey and dressing)!

Kelly's Bloggy Baby Shower

Okay, this is just like me showing up late! I didn't want to be rushed, and I wanted to have time to write a note to my sweet friend, so I had to wait.

Sweet, sweet Kelly! We sure go way back! Many memories I have of you including watching Brady Bunch marathons, eating at Mazzio's on Sunday nights, your never ending wardrobe of dresses, and countless others. I could go on and on, but I think my most favorite memory is more recent. This is it...

I cried the day you e-mailed me about this miracle. I adore your faith and how you have given God all the glory through your struggle and now through this blessing of Harper.

I can't tell you how excited I am for you and Scott as you wait for Harper's arrival. As for advice, I don't really think you need any. You are going to be a fantastic mom and have already loved Harper even before you knew you were expecting her. You will be a natural. I know you are going to enjoy each and every day (and 4:00 a.m. morning). I am so looking forward to meeting Harper in person and watching her grow.

Love you bunches,
Leigh Ann

Branson

I haven't been to Branson since I was a little girl and my parents took my sisters and me to Silver Dollar City. I have always heard people rave about Branson, but I just thought it was all "country" with shows. Not that I don't like country music and a good show, but it just didn't sound like a fun way to spend time off. Wow, was I wrong! I have totally been missing out. It was not what I expected at all!

My mom, sisters and I headed out early Saturday morning...

My mom, my sisters, Millicent and Melinda and me. I was so excited.

When we arrived, we hit the shopping right away. We went to the Disney store first. How fun! My mom got Ella Grace the most beautiful Cinderella dress-up outfit with shoes that light up. That girl is going to be in heaven!

Mom and me outside a shop. It was VERY windy and VERY cold. With the Christmas music that played in the background, it definitely felt like Christmas time. We even saw snow flurries!

I got these cute Christmas decorations with our names on them...



I got some Christmas shopping done, which I was so excited about, and I also got some shopping done for ME! hee hee. My sisters and I bought these boots. Of course, I made them pose with them. Ha!

We saw girls in these boots everywhere. In the store we bought them, we got the last several pair they had left. We began to wonder if we were too old to wear them since every "girl" we saw wearing them seemed to be 14 and under. ha! We did see some girls our age wearing them, too. We got quite a bit of attention walking together wearing the same boots. It kind of felt like I was back in junior high walking around the mall with my friends while wearing the same outfits. It was SO funny!

After the afternoon of shopping, we headed over to check in to our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing. It was SO nice. It looked exactly like the pictures on their website.

The shopping was right below our room!

That night we took my mom out to dinner for her birthday. We took her to Joe's Crab Shack. Before we left, they adorned her with a crown and birthday sash and the restaurant sang to her. My mom can be a little shy, but she was a VERY good sport.

The birthday princess.

After dinner we went back to our room for our slumber party. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

Sunday, we went to downtown Branson for more shopping. I got more Christmas presents marked off my list. Woo hoo! The funnest part was taking my mom shopping for new clothes. My sisters and I helped her pick out some things and bought them for her.

I had THE best time with my girls. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful mother and two great sisters. They were all my first friends, and now they are my best friends! :)

There's No Place Like Home

I had a FANTASTIC time on my girls' trip to Branson with my sisters (I'll post more on that later). I was SO glad to get home to my wonderful husband and terrific kiddos. I really missed them, and I was glad to be home. It reminded me of the night before I left. TBS was running "The Wizard of Oz" all weekend, and Ella Grace watched some of it for the first time. She LOVED it. I thought she might get scared of the flying monkeys. Honestly, they still creep me out, but she wasn't scared. She was busy looking for Toto in every scene. LOL! Evan didn't care for it much. I guess maybe that is more of a girl movie???

Here she is front and center.

I can't wait to write about our trip. We had THE best time ever. I totally scored on some very good shopping. When I got home, look what was waiting for me.

I got the market tote I ordered from Faith. How cute is that? I've heard it is "life changing," so I'm expecting big things out of my new lime green friend. Ha! I think this is going to be fantastic to carry all of the potluck dishes I'll be taking all over the place during the holidays. If you need a personalized gift (or if you are like me and just want to buy yourself a gift...hee hee) and have not visited Faith, I highly recommend you jump on over to see her. She can do anything. She has even made a couple of things for me that are not on her site. She is SO good!

It is so good to get away sometimes, but there is nothing like going "home." :)

Oh, and look who was in the paper on Saturday...my hunky husband pumping cheap gas. He was on the front page. Hee hee. He was thrilled let me tell you. Ha!

Paintin' Pottery

This morning I took Ella Grace on an outing with our local Mommy & Me group to a pottery studio. Ella Grace was so excited to go "paint," and we got to meet up my one of my favorite friends, Kim, and her two sweet kiddos. There was so much to choose from as far as pottery to paint, but I/we decided on a Christmas tree ornament and a butterfly. Since it was our first time, I didn't want it to be too ambitious!

I really wanted to get Ella Grace's hand print, but she was not having it. You know, that would require her to get a little messy, and the girl does NOT like messes! Ha! She did a great job painting the ornament red and then she was more interested in watching all the other kids paint. There were SO many people in the studio. It was pretty much organized chaos, so there was a lot for her to watch. In the end, she also painted a butterfly. I had to finish it up though. :) All in all, it was a great time and afterward we met Derek and Evan for lunch at Chili's.

Ella Grace painting her butterfly (pink of course).
You can also see our red ornament with green and white polka dots in the background. The colors are supposed to be more vibrant once it is "fired." I just want to know where these places were when I was a kid. I would have LOVED doing stuff like this.

I hope you all have an excellent weekend. I'm off early in the morning for my girls' trip with my mom and sisters. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post when I get home (all to the protest of my girls...they like to look at my blog, but they don't necessarily enjoy being the feature of a post...hee hee). They are just going to have to get over it. Ha!

Pee Pee in the Potty

There is nothing better than when your two-year-old daughter takes herself to the potty and tells you afterward she has gone.

Ella Grace has taken herself once and asked me twice today to go "potty." She is doing great. She has been wearing panties and has been doing fairly well staying dry. She informed Evan's doctor out of the blue today that she has "dry panties" and she "gets candy." Ha! However, now she is telling me, "Come on. Hurry. Pee pee potty," a lot when I know her only motivation is candy. She briefly sits down and is then ready for "candy." I'm not above a little Skittles bribery, but I think I've created a little monster. LOL!

Things are Lookin' Up

Thank you all for the sweet encouragement you all have given me after last week. I just love my blog friends, and I feel so blessed to have found each and every one of you through blogland! Thank you for praying for Evan (and for me)!

This is a MUCH better week. Evan is back to his little self, and I am so glad! Maybe it was the time change or the weather. I don't know, but it has passed and I am SO thankful. He is eating take-out Mexican right now (his favorite)! Plus, he is out of school the rest of the week, and I know I'll enjoy some extra time with my sweet boy.

Right now this is what both my boys are doing. They are both on their laptops! Evan is truly amazing on the computer, so we had this old laptop repaired for him. I definitely see a career in computers in his future.

I don't know about you, but I am getting SO excited about Christmas. In the past, I have been one of "those" people who didn't put their tree up until about mid-December and usually I only minimally decorated. Not this year! I am super excited about decorating and feel the Christmas spirit flowing big time. The Junior League of Little Rock puts on an event every year called Holiday House. They have all kinds of vendors and sell anything you can imagine from children's clothing to Christmas Decorations to party food. Michelle, Abby, and I set out last Thursday night for some shopping. I picked up a Christmas present for Derek and some decor mesh for my Christmas tree. If you haven't seen or heard about this mesh, it makes all the difference in decorating a tree. I got some last year, and I loved it. It is super easy to use and really fills in the tree. I got another roll for my tree and also a more shimmery style for my front door. I'm going to attempt some sort of garland decoration around my door.

I picked up these Razorback Tervis Tumblers for Derek. I just knew he would love them, and he DOES because he has already found them when he was cleaning out the car. Rascal!

I try to pick this mesh up at Holiday House because I can't find it anywhere else. It really is fantastic.

Derek and I also have Santa all taken care of. This is also very uncharacteristic of me at Christmas time. I rarely have any shopping, let alone ALL of Santa, done by Thanksgiving. We have found some things I know Evan and Ella Grace (and probably their Daddy, too) are really going to enjoy. We got most of their things at Toy Up, but I just couldn't find the play kitchen there I was hoping to find for EG. I thought about ordering one from Pottery Barn Kids, but it was way more than I wanted to spend. I wanted something wooden and something that would match her room. Then, we were at Target, and I saw this...

It was on display, and EG got a chance to play with it and loved it! I think this will be the last year we can try out a Santa gift first. Ha! It will match her room and is SO cute. Plus, it was half the price of the one from Pottery Barn! Had I known how good it felt to have shopping done early, I sure would have been doing this a long time ago.

Now, if all that isn't enough, I am super excited about going on a girls' trip this weekend with my three best friends...my mom and sisters. Saturday is my mom's birthday and we are taking a trip to Branson to go shopping! We haven't been on a trip together in 12 years (last one was when my mom turned 50). I am so excited about spending some time with them. Who knows. Maybe I'll also knock out the rest of my Christmas shopping. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Lastly, I got to spend the day with my handsome Veteran! We have been dieting (we both lost six pounds last week), so we celebrated with a "cheat" of a cheeseburger. It was SOOOO good! :)

I hope you all are off to a good week! Hugs!!!