From Thanksgiving to Christmas

Let's start this post off with what I like to call 'the tree face.'

Yes, we put our tree up before Thanksgiving ;).

Last week was a whirlwind of a week!  I started Thanksgiving week off with a bang!  A co-worker and I volunteered for JA.  Our company sets up a lot of volunteer opportunities and this is one that really interested me because, let's be honest, I've always wanted to be a teacher!  We hung out with Miss Stanisic's 2nd grade class at Cole Elementary all day Monday!  We had sooooo much fun!!  We learned about voting, taxes, assembly lines and so many more things!!  The kids were awesome and I hope they as much fun as we did!

Jeremy looks like a giant!!  Yes, I'm wearing a princess crown!

Tuesday I actually had to work, whomp whomp, but that night we packed up and headed down to my parent's house where we spent the night before making the trek down to Alex City for our annual slumber party with the Rice's.  Brint and Shanon are my friends from church camp and since we do our family Thanksgiving in Montgomery every year we take that opportunity to go visit and spend the night with them the night before.  Shanon and I always end up staying up way too late, but it's totally worth it to catch up with a friend!  Sadly, we didn't get any pics of us or the kids together, but Shanon did take some cute ones of little Wrennie :).

Wren wanted to play ALL NIGHT LONG!!!  It took us almost 5 hours to get down there and Wren practically slept the whole time so she was ready to go by the time we got back to their house after church.

Working on her gun skills for when she goes hunting with Daddy!

Thursday morning we headed to Montgomery to spend Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family.  This is the one big time that we together during the year so we normally do it pretty big.  This year we were missing several people, but we still had fun!

Wren with her cousin Bethany!  Bethany loves on all the babies!!  We love her!

Wren started crawling while were around last week!!  I loved that I was able to see her legit first crawl!! 

She was practicing crawling on her feet.  Hey, however you gotta get around!

Thursday night, Gary and I headed back to mom and dad's house and for the FIRST TIME we didn't take Wren with us.  She stayed with Bebe (my mom) and Pepaw (my dad) and her cousin Easton for another night in Montgomery.  It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I think it was because it was so late when we left we were dead tired by the time we got to mom and dad's house and then got to sleep in!  Then Shelley and I went shopping for a few hours and mom and dad got home right after I did.  Even though I missed her and kissed her A LOT when we were finally reunited it really wasn't that bad.

Wren didn't sleep so great in the crib at Bebe's house, so she ended up in the bed with us most nights.  For a tiny 6 month old she sure takes up a lot of space.

Girl loves to cuddle!!

Saturday morning we had pictures with Santa.  In case you don't know Santa is a.k.a. PEPAW!!!  Yep, that's right my dad plays Santa every year during the Christmas season!!  He's pretty much the best!  He works with Olivia Reed and we were able to get a 20 minute slot with them Saturday morning **those pics coming later**, but just know that out of 3 kids 2 and older, 3 babies 1 and under, 7 adults and 1 Santa there are NO CRYING PICTURES!!  I call that pure SUCCESS!!

That afternoon was IRON BOWL time!!  I'm so happy were able to watch it with family.  It was such a Great game!!

How we started, but by the end everyone is standing up screaming!!  Both babies were bawling because we all so loud...they better get used to it ;).

Sunday morning we headed to Arab for church where we finally got to meet our sweet friends baby, Maddie!  Sadly, we didn't get a picture with her because we were in a hurry after church, but I loved her and can't wait to see her again soon!!  

We had lunch at Shelley's house and Wren had lasagna for the first time... 

She loved it!!  She had it ALL OVER her!!  She also ate salad, cucumbers and some bread.  I say ate, but really just tasted.

That afternoon we headed to Union Church of Christ where Pepaw was doing a 'cookies with Santa' session.

I'm hoping that since Pepaw is Santa we won't have worry about the screaming pictures, but I honestly think those pictures can be some of the cutest, so we'll see :).

Wren and I decorated a cookie... 

Roll it out

Cut the cookie with a cookie cutter

Put sprinkles on the cookie

TADA!!  Then we gave it to the ladies to bake while we I made some ornaments.

Wren enjoyed eating the paper, like always. 

We got to make 3 ornaments and I'm so excited to hang them on her tree in her room.

Once we were done with the ornaments our cookie was ready and so we...  

Ate our cookie with Santa!!  We had a blast and hope we can go again next year!!

WHEW!!  That was a lot for one post and kudos to those who made it all the way through.  We had a great Thanksgiving week and I hope you did as well!!

Kimberly