Football...oh yeah, and Thanksgiving

 It was so nice having a whole week off of school, I definitely needed a break!  We stayed in Dallas for Thanksgiving this year and did a lot of fun things!  One of the days, I took the kids to the sitter and Tracy, Emily and I spent the day shopping.  It was so fun and even though I didn't get many Christmas gifts, I still found some great things....for me, ha! :)

On Thursday, Blake and Emily and Nick and I had tickets to the Cowboys game.  I have never been to the new stadium and to say it is ridiculously large is an understatement.  We had so much fun though!  We had rockstar parking and seats! 

 Auntie Em and Finley getting some snuggles in before we left for the game

 Of course we are all Baylor grads so we are huge RG3 fans but Emily and I decided to cheer for the Redskins since neither of us are Cowboys fans...RG3 rocked it by the way!!!

 

Nick, Blake and Emily

Go RG3!!!!

Friday afternoon, Blake and Emily hosted their after-Thanksgiving feast and it was so great to see Blake's family and other friends.  Blake made some super good food and we enjoyed sitting on their new patio enjoying a fire.  

Saturday we were up super early for the Baylor/Tech game.  Pretty exciting that I've never been to the Cowboys stadium and I get to go twice in three days.  We met up with a bunch of our friends and had an awesome tailgating spot and hung out for several hours before the game started.   It was such a nice treat to be able to spend the day with friends and watch our alma mater and know the kiddos were in good hands!  Thanks Granddad and Gigi for watching our kids!!

 For some reason we had a couple pesky bees hanging out at our tailgate and I was pretty determined to kill one....with a knife!?!

Jessica, Emily and Blake

Love this guy!!!

The game was amazing!!!  The first quarter wasn't looking too promising for our Bears but we ended up winning in OT and there is nothing better than beating a team when you have super annoying Tech fans sitting behind you, bashing your school!!  Sic em Bears!!!

It was such a great week and kinda sad to have to return to work but 4 weeks and we have Christmas break!!  AND, we will be closing on our house next month too, woohoo!!!

Lots of exciting things coming up this next month!

Lately....

 I've taken a little bit of a blogging break, just wasn't feelin it but that's ok, I still have lots to share from the last few weeks.  Two weeks ago, Finley woke up at midnight crying.  Being kind of out of it, I went into her room to pick her up and realized she was covered in throw up.  Yes, my every wish has come true!!!  Nothing I love more than puke.....not!  Once I realized we both had vomit all over us, I summoned my wonderful husband to come help and after a quick bath and change of sheets and wipe down of the crib, everything was cleaned up.  I was hoping it was just kind of a fluke thing because she does have a very strong gag-reflex and I was just hoping it wouldn't happen again.  Did my wish come true?  Nope......poor thing threw up every 15 minutes for 4 hours!  We have never experienced this before and didn't even know what to do.  

As big of a phobia I have with throw up, I was actually very proud of myself.  I helped out as much as I could and did a lot of the cleaning up.  Nick is such a great daddy and fell asleep with her on the bed with a little bucket next to her.  When I went in at 4am to check on them, he had her all propped up on some pillows so she wouldn't choke....ahhh!!!  Dad of the year!

After she took a long nap, she woke up feeling much better and didn't throw up the rest of the day.  Cole woke up acting totally normal but quickly declined.  Within an hour of waking up, he started acting strange and kept asking to go lay down.  We knew he wasn't feeling too hot either.  He ran a temperature all day and just laid around, but thank God....no throw up's from him!!!  Nick actually had to fly to Little Rock for the day and when he was leaving I pretty much had a panic attack that he was leaving me home alone with two possible puking kids and nobody around to help me (Gigi was in London).  Ha!  I'm pathetic, I know.  But again, I couldn't have lucked out anymore because as the day went on they got better and better.

But, there was a lot of this going on that day.....

 By the end of the day, Cole was dressed up as Jake the Pirate and being his normal silly self.

 Having sick kids is the absolute worst, but luckily God watched out for me and it was a very short-lived event!!!!

That same week, Mimi and Papa came for a little visit and it was so nice having them here.  I'm so mad that I didn't take more pictures but I did get a few.  While they were here they wanted to get the kids a little treat from the toy store so we all went and they each got to pick out something.  Cole is huge into Transformers right now so this is what he picked out....

 And he hasn't put them down since.....

Finley has no girly toys so I knew we needed to get her her first baby doll.  She even got a cute stroller for baby.  She also hasn't let this baby out of her sight, she goes everywhere with her.  As I sit here and type this blog, she has taken the clothes off her baby and the baby now has a diaper on.  Awesome!

 Why does Finley look like she's 4 years old here?!?

 She loved playing with Papa!  Even though they left almost a week ago, she still yells for "Papa....Mimi!!!"

 Finley, that bottle is for your baby.....

 Friday evening, we drove up to Frisco to walk through the new house.  I can't believe how it's coming along!  We have cabinets, wood floors and it's really starting to look like a real house.  Next time we go up I'll take some pictures.  The kids are so excited about the house, they just run all over the place and Cole loves to show everyone his new room :)

While we were there, Pete and Katie stopped by and checked everything out.  We definitely can't wait to move in and get settled up there, we definitely miss being close to our friends, church, schools, shopping! (ha!)

We decided to grab some dinner with Pete and Katie at a new pizza place in Frisco Square and it was amazing!  We love this place and can't wait to go back!

Here is Pete with the babes....watching them make pizzas.

Nick had to work a lot this weekend, they launched a big project so the kids and I were left to ourselves for the afternoon/evenings.  Saturday afternoon I took the kids to Stonebriar and looked at new Christmas jammies and I really wanted to check out the new iPad mini so I took the kids in there and Cole was in heaven!  

Nick had to work Sunday again so after naps, the kids and I headed to church for Life group and then we all went to eat an early dinner then headed to the Legacy Tree Lighting event in Plano.  We had such a fun night and I really think the kids had so much fun!  

Top:  Avery and Zachary  Bottom:  James, Addison, Finley, Cole and Reece

 

Reece and Cole....this is Cole's new favorite person!

We got home pretty late last night but they kids were so wound up.  Gigi and Granddad were also coming home and they couldn't wait to see them so I let them stay up pretty late so they could see them.  

Finley has been into this downward dog thing lately, whatever that's about :)

 It was such an awesome feeling last night, knowing I didn't have to get up for work in the morning and that we are going to have a lazy week.  I do have to meet with my grad school advisor today to go over everything so that's exciting to get that ball rolling.  Tomorrow we are taking the kids to the sitter and doing some shopping, yay!  

Thanksgiving day, Nick and I and Blake and Emily are going to the Cowboys/Redskins game.....go RG3!!!  THEN, Saturday is the Baylor/Tech game at Cowboys stadium so a bunch of us are going to that.  I have never been to the Cowboys new stadium so going twice in one week is pretty exciting!

Gonna be a good week!

Halloween 2012

 This year was definitely the most fun Halloween we've had as parents!  I'm pretty sure Cole had been wearing his costume for the last month (definitely got use out of that) and he was so excited about all the fun festivities.  Even Finley understood the whole trick or treating thing.  Probably from watching big brother is what made her excited about the whole thing.  

Our Halloween festivities started with Cole's class party on Tuesday.  I am so thankful that his class parties are in the afternoon because last year his parties were always first thing in the morning and with me working, I could never make the morning parties.  I would be crushed if I couldn't be there for his parties.  He is definitely a very sensitive child and would be sad if he didn't have family there when the other kids did.

They did all kinds of fun stuff, decorated pumpkins, decorated cookies, sang songs and told stories.  I absolutely love seeing Cole in his school element and how he acts around the other kids and adults.  Cole also had to go around to each kid and introduce me to all his friends...it was adorable!!

Thursday evening, the kids could hardly contain themselves.  I love when you have leverage like trick or treating and they eat all their dinner...every single bite! :)

We got them ready and took some pictures before we headed out.

Cole was Ironman and Finley was a Garden Gnome

Showing off his muscles

Our little gnome couldn't keep her fingers out of the candy dish

She nursed that sucker all night long!!! 

Cole was the sweetest and held Finley's hand from door to door

We were so impressed that Finley went up to the doors with Cole.  She'd get right in there, say "please" "thank you" and "bye bye"....then she's awkwardly stand and stare at them, ha!

No way were we going to pay for that Monty Python costume and not get good use out of it!!!

You are hot stuff Nick!!!

After we were done trick or treating, a bunch of the neighbor kids all gathered around Tracy's house and helped hand out more candy and played their little hearts out.

This is Joshua and Cole....Cole didn't know what to think about there being another Ironman!!

Who has the bigger muscles, eh??

It was so fun watching all the kids play last night, we found so many friends to play with!  We pretty much had to drag Cole into the house and he was very sad to say bye to his friends.  I love seeing him have so much fun.

Here is our family....I didn't have much of a costume, just a fun headband

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!