Thanksgiving Day

We always have a very jam-packed Thanksgiving. My mom's side of the family for lunch, Ryan's family for dinner, and then my dad's side of the family for dinner on Friday! We have to force ourselves to either a. not go back for seconds or b. wear sweat pants! :)

My family's tradition has always been to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thanksgiving morning while getting ready (as I'm sure most family's do). So thankful Ryan's family does, too! And thankful there's a TV in the kitchen so I can cook and watch it!

Ryan's dad is a turkey frying expert. If you have never tried fried turkey, OH MAN. It is SO good.

My sweet girl got to wear her brother's Thanksgiving shirt from 2 years ago.

Gavin and Henley have cousins that are so close to their age that I'm so glad we get to create memories with them where they will look forward to playing together every year!

Nani's creation: beans, rice, and construction vehicles in a tub. Genius.

Nani and Pop with Gavin, Henley, and the main event: the John Deere Gator.

Freshly shot venison wrapped in bacon. This is why we come to Dayton every Thanksgiving! :)

My cousins Laura and Madison posing in front of the game room wall.

The spread of food. It's overwhelming how much food we end up with every year! Henley's deciding what she is going to chow down on first.

Gavin put on this helmet and wore it for about an hour without taking it off, through various activities...

My sweet stuffed little girl.

Thanksgiving evening, we got to spend time with Gavin's friend Asher and his family.

I wanted to do a craft with the boys (2 1/2 and 4), so we made these awesome Oreo Turkeys.

They are sooo cute! And were super easy to make.

In other news, Henley is walking EVERYWHERE holding our hands. If she would let go, she'd be running! I think it'll be any day now!

She was cracking up at Asher while walking around the kitchen.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It's so fun that Gavin is a little older now so we can actually talk about what these special days are for and talk about the things he's thankful for and the ways the Lord has blessed us and provided for us. And so fun to hear the things a 2 1/2-year-old is thankful for. Here are my favorite answers he gave me this year:

*Big trucks

*My blanket

*Henley Jane

Thanksgiving Week

We got to spend most of Thanksgiving week in Chattanooga to get away from the construction on our house!

A trip to Chattanooga isn't complete without a day at the Creative Discovery Museum!

Woodland animal corner:

Love this sweet little bunny rabbit!

I love how the top floor is always changing. This time, it was a Winter theme, complete with ice skating!

They had a tub of extra socks, tutus, and hockey outfits to dress up. So fun!! I want to work here and come up with this stuff. Seriously.

We always go into the Bee area, but Gavin's never been interested. This day was different! I think it's thanks to "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That" with a recent bee episode we've watched!

He sat there and watched the bees fly in and fly out. You would have thought he was watching a movie. Love it when my little boy is learning so much!

Collecting pollen:

Nani showing him how it's done:

As always, his favorite was the music rooms!

We also got to spend extra time with family. Here's Henley with her only living Great Grandfather Bruce! Bruce lights up when he's around these kiddos.

And of course no trip to Gram and Papaw's is complete without several tractor rides (one at night with the lights on, as well!)...

...but this time Henley got to ride the tractor for the first time! At one point, Papaw was driving Gavin on the tractor while Gram was driving Henley on the lawn mower!

And now my FAVORITE part of the week.

I don't think I've mentioned on here that Ryan's sister Amanda is engaged!

So of course we made her and Cole pose for the have-to engagement picture. :)

So Julie got her wedding dress box out of storage to see if Amanda could use her veil. With a little bit of peer pressure, we got her to put her 34-year-old wedding dress on!!

Love.this.picture.

We went dress shopping all day Friday and all day Saturday and she found her a dress! If only I could show that picture on here... :)

Next post: Thanksgiving day!

Construction: Week 2

While we were on our getaway, they did another few days of construction. Our sweet neighbors took pictures for us and sent them in a text so we could see the updates while we were away!

They had it completely framed in in just one day!

I requested big windows on all sides so it still has a sunroomy feel. Ryan will eventual build us window seats under all the windows!!! I've always dreamed of having window seats so this is SO EXCITING!

You can see how much bigger it is than our old sunroom:

Sometimes a video is better than pictures to see it all:

The windows have been on backorder, so construction has come to a hault for a week. But BIG DEMO to come this week!

Construction: Week 1

October 31: Construction Day 1

Gavin woke up to his favorite piece of machinery, an excavator, in his backyard:

(Gavin pointed out that Santa Clause was driving the excavator--ha!)

You can imagine this is where the kids were the entire time the excavator was working!

It ripped the deck clear off the back of the house and pulled/pushed it into the backyard--whole:

It dug a trench for the concrete foundation:

Day 1 was only a couple of hours and then we had the rest of the day to throw on old clothes and play in the new dirt pile!

Our neighbor Gabe came over and he and Gavin played and played and played:

Gabe told me this is called a "dirt clod tower."

Somebody else enjoyed demo as well:

(yes, that would be insulation she's laying on)

Day 2: Mixer Truck

(end of driveway)

It poured the concrete foundation, and when it dried, the boys had to go run on it:

Dumpster Delivery:

You can imagine how Gavin has been BESIDE HIMSELF with all of this heavy machinery coming to our house! No need for playdates or me coming up with fun activities--just open the door and let the boy watch the action! :)