Thankful

yes.

thankful.

we have so much to be thankful for.

let us be a people who are full of gratitude to God for who He is, what He has done for us, and His abundant provision and faithfulness.

we had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend.

unfortunately i worked on thanksgiving day. so i missed out on the big meal at my sister's house. (her and my other sister mb did a great job. you can look at her post here!)

my parents came up on wednesday night and i had everyone over for dinner.

i made pioneer women's lasagna and sheet cake. DELICIOUS!

i am slightly obsessed with pw.

mary b set the table.

she made it look beautiful, as usual.

(its nice to have an artist live with you :))

love those sweet boys.

we got d's haircut last weekend.

we took pictures during it - but not an after shot. sad :(

it looks good (even though jordan said he liked it better before the cut - i just can't handle the very long, messy hair)

sweet al and jason

i don't have any pictures from thanksgiving day.

you probably wouldn't want to see them anyway.

plus it would be a hippa violation :)

(those of you in healthcare know what i am talking about!)

on friday my dad took just me to breakfast at einsteins.

so sweet of him and a wonderful time to connect with just us.

he took each of us girls for some one on one time.

what a thoughtful and purposeful dad.

we went to chuy's for lunch.

i decided that this would be a good tradition for any time we have thanksgiving in dallas.

we did it last time everyone was here - so i decided that now the tradition is born.

i have a bunch of pics from chuys - b/c i didn't get any on thanksgiving day.

enjoy!

nice pic jason

Shutterfly!

As many of you know, I LOVE christmas cards. It is always one of my most favorite things to do during the Christmas holiday. (i love getting them as well :)). I have always made my Christmas cards and enjoyed the process of doing it, but this year I am making a change! I L-O-V-E all of the amazing designs that shutterfly has with their new Christmas collection. You can see it here.

I decided that I don't quite have the time I formerly did to individually make each card - so when I found their new designs and the new stationary cards that they come on - it was a wonderful discovery! I used shutterfly for Campbell's birth announcement and it turned out great - so it should hopefully be as great of an experience this time. You can see the options for birth announcements here.

I have also made a photo book with shutterfly before and it turned out precious. It was SUPER easy to make, turned out great, and came to my home fast! I probably will be making another one of those soon too! Here is where you make the books.

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f you have a blog and want 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, Click here to go to Shutterfly for information on how you can get 50 free cards this holiday season, and make sure to select Clever 1000 as the referral source.

Happy Thursday

Cooking with Mommy

Jayden and I have been doing a lot of cooking together lately.

It is a fun activity for us to do while the little ones nap in the morning.

(and it helps me get any baking done that is needed for the day!)

Last week Jayden and I made pumpkin bread.

Yummy!

This recipe is so good and so easy to make.

It is great because it makes either 2 large loaves or 4+ mini loaves.

Here is my little helper ready to go!

cracking the eggs, one of his favorite activities!

(don't worry - i shovel out any accidental shell pieces that get put in b/c of the aggressive cracking!)

mixing the flour and spices together

are you liking jayden's nice smile!

he use to not look at the camera, and now you get a good cheesy smile when he does - oh well it is better than the opposite i guess :)

jayden's favorite part - licking the paddle after we are done

he is even learning how to help mommy clean afterwards

pumpkin bread cooking

the finished product!

we wrapped up two and brought them to jayden's teachers.

i think it was really fun for him to tell his teachers that HE had made the bread for them.

what a great way to give some fall love to others :)

you can find the recipe here.

enjoy!

Football!

Saturday was a fun football day!

Even though it was a sad finish for the Baylor bears - we had fun watching the Baylor/ATM game at Blake & Amy's.

I decided that it would be fun to dress the kids up in half baylor half atm clothes. With Jordan and I being a mixed family :) I thought I would allow both teams represent!

(and thanks to grandparents on both sides - we have plenty of gear for both schools!)

Here we are as a family all dressed up!

Our family plus sweet little EK!

the marables

jayden "holding" campbell

(She looks like she feels real secure doesn't she?)

campbell wore these precious bloomers!

duncan's awesome outfit!

a little baylor bear shirt, and very loud atm pants

ek was all baylor!

campbell in her BIG bow and baylor cheerleading outfit

We also had football that afternoon.

Our church had its 5th annual Turkey Bowl football game.

It was super fun,

(even though my team lost by quite a bit and i twisted my ankle slightly in the first part of it!)

I wish I got a picture of the t-shirts - i loved them, they were turkey's with a mustache on them.

how clever is that?

It was the perfect fall day for football. I didn't get any pictures of the actual game - just my kids watching the game. (i am sure you are surprised about that!)

here is me and campbell

(jordan was there but didn't play in the game. two years ago he chipped his knee while playing and had to have knee surgery so he has opted out of playing ever since)

as you can probably tell from my other blog posts (i LOVE this red flower headband - she wears it all the time!)

such a happy little guy!

and look at that hair - i have no idea what to do with it.

he is such a mess!

sweet ek

happy MONDAY!

Goode Times at Thistle Dew Ranch

On Sunday after church we headed out to "thistle dew" ranch to see our dear friends the Goodes.

It was so much fun and I am sad that we didn't plan to stay longer.

The ranch is near palo pinto and right on the brazos river. It is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Such a relaxing time and great to see our friends.

We miss the Goodes and are glad any time we get to spend with them.

The boys road a horse. What a fun experience that they got to have!

Yes - this is correct - Jordan (my animal lover husband;)) is on the horse bare backed!

The boys both LOVED it!

I was surprised that Jayden got on the horse - but he did, and then wanted to ride it again and again!

we rode in the back of the truck to see the animals

fun times!

ronnie g and dunc

the kids also fed the donkeys and horses

they loved doing that as well!

duncan of course loved petting the donkey!

jayden and annie kate had so much fun together

thought this was a neat picture - into the sun

daddy and j

daddy and duncan

sweet kids

shiela walked the horse around

riding back

thank goodes for inviting us out there!

we loved it and love you guys.

look forward to seeing you again soon when we are in boston!