Thanksgiving Break: Thanksgiving Photo Dump

The best appetizer ever- club crackers with parm cheese on top, wrapped in bacon.

My first pie.  Getting fancy with the top.

Elia and G helped make name cards.

The kid's table.  Thats Martinellis.

The table all decked out.

Nutella mousse.  Yum!

Sarah and I!

Thanksgiving Break: Uncle Danny's Visit

On Tuesday, Uncle Danny flew in from Kansas where he goes to college so he could spend Thanksgiving with us!  He was so ggod with the girls, and Elia had seen him a week or 2 earlier at the funeral so she was even more excited.  Uncle Danny also really loves My Little Pony, so everyone (even Chris) bonded over that.

Chalk with the girls

All the brothers, and Elia.

He helped Chris cut down a tree.

King of the Ring

Thanksgiving Break: Ice!

Thanksgiving Break week, we joined up with my cousin Kevin and his family to go see the Ice exhibit at the Gaylord.  It was pretty cool and cold.

A christmas tree of ice!

Hot cocoa afterwards.  Elia stole the show in the rest of the pics.

We went back to Kevin and Amanda's for dinner and a quick swim in the hot tub!

Thanksgiving

My last day of work was right before Thanksgiving break.  We drove to StL the next day and spent the week there for Thanksgiving.  We fit in a lot of cooking, a trip to the Magic House, the library, and plenty of family time.

The whole gang went out for dinner on Thanksgiving Eve

We made tepees(courtesy of pinterest)

Grandma and Grandpa!

A Thankful Day

We opted to stay in Dallas this year due to Chris' new work schedule. But we still pulled out all the stops- Turkey, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and a pretty yummy trifle.

We had Uncle Matt and Sarah over. I think the best pre Thanksgiving drink is an amaretto sour. We went through a whole bottle of sweet and sour! Anyways, Chris did a great job with the turkey. He did a paper bag turkey, and it was so moist and succulent. Here is a pic of the spread:

In true Rowles fashion, Elia had a chugging contest with Martinellis. The contest was between her and herself, and she won!

We tried to get a family Christmas photo before dinner, here is one that isn't going to be sent out to my list!

E was mad that she couldn't have her Martinellis!

After the picture, I changed out of my dress and into comfy jeans. We stripped Elia down so there would be less to clean up. That is the best part of doing a holiday at your own house- you follow your own rules! We did miss family though!

And here is my yummy trifle!

We have so much to be thankful for this year- love you all!

Too School for Cool

Today was my turn to teach preschool playdates. It was all about Thanksgiving and the letter T. So we talked about turkeys and triangles. Soooo much fun!

We made these turkey place mats. I got the idea from November's issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I hope we can make more to use at our table this Thanksgiving.

Look how well Gianna colored in that triangle! She can get uber-focused sometimes when she is doing arts and crafts. Of course, after I snapped this picture, there was some definite scribble action all over the page ;).

We had toast for snack. I cut them into triangles. We also had turkey cookies that got gobbled up before I could take a pic.

Then we made triangles on the floor. Even Boom got in on the action.

Can anyone guess what song my blog post title comes from?

Cousins!

The Rowles are in St. Louis right now, and we have had so much fun with the rest of the family! We left our house at 4am Wednesday morning and got to St. Louis around 2pm. Pretty good time considering we had the girls with us! Gianna and Elia woke up around 7:30 am and we worked pretty hard to keep them entertained. We were the last of the family to show up, so we got quite the welcome! Cousins Colin and Gianna have been running all over the house together, playing, tackling, and imitating!! During dinner tonight Gianna accidentally dropped her spoon under the table and so then Colin had to "accidentally" drop his too. If Colin was eating something, Gianna had to eat it too. Gianna had no problem going to bed or taking a nap as long as she knew that Colin was doing it too. Elia and Austin have hardly touched the groud as there are lots of doting adults who always want to hold them. Its funny to see my childhood home busting at the seams with people! Every bed and couch was filled the past 2 nights and there has not been one dull momnet around here. Wish us luck on the drive home...

Thanks to Aunts Shanny and Meggy for going all over town to find matching jammies!!

Apologies.

Are due for the gap in posts and length of this impending post. Alot has changed in the last month and it's been quite busy.
Thanksgiving- we went to CA to visit the family, it was a bittersweet visit that kinda kept me postless for a little while. "Gre-Grama" (adorable when she says it) was in the hospital most of the week with what at first was pneumonia but later was discovered to be lung cancer and a softball sized tumor on her left lung that was putting pressure on her heart. We went and visited her every day in the hospital. G was the life of the hospital, it's absolutely wonderful the reactions an 18 month kid running through the halls and laughing will illicit in a hospital. Typically we like to get out and about during our stays in CA but this trip was much different. We found out about the cancer on Wed, and had hoped that "Gre-grama" would come home for Thanksgiving dinner, unfortunately she couldn't, but we were fortunate to see her come home on Friday. Everyone was there Sally (my aunt flew in when she found out it was bad),my great aunt Viola and her family Tommy and Betsy. It was wonderful to sit down and talk and laugh even if it's the last time. It's heartbreaking having to say goodbye to your grandma, not knowing if you will see her again, a little easier for her I'm sure (she has some dementia right now which may make things easier for her). G again was absolutely adorable. First time around she got everyone's name down. She had all her aunt's and uncles down the first day we were there, so i wasn't surprised to see her rattle off the new names like it was nothing (Ain't nothin but a G thang Baby?!?!) I have pics and video, moe has most on facebook. One of the cutest moments on the trip was her new favorite friend "Mar-leeee", my sisters dog. Well after a couple of days of being scared of the dogs it was good to see her get to like them, but kinda gross....she learned that you could kiss the dog....and they taught each other....yes each other, that you could kiss on the lips. G would chase Marley around the house saying "Marleeeeee kissss?" and every once in a while she would get Marley to lick her on the lips. Jen tells me that now Marley won't stop till she gets some lip action, and randomly G will ask " Marley kiss?" even though she hasn't seen her for a couple weeks now.

Back on the homefront, G is a riot. She had started to just grunt and whine whenever she was trying to express herself, so we have been teaching her alot of new words to help her get what she wants. We learned Please, Help, Stuck, Thank you all kinds of good words, but she still reverts to the grunting. So we tell her "G, use your words". Well alot of times we throw her a lifeline and tell her what to say, well she's gotten in the habit of repeating the words we say....so now when we tell her to use her words we get "words" in return...with a head bob that says "okay i got it right now give me what i want". Hilarious. Her vocab is growing exponentially, it's crazy. She knows all the shapes, an entire zoo and farm full of animals and a ton of words, well assuming you say them first. My favorite thing we do now is be tigers!
I'm the "poppa tiger" and she's the baby tiger, we get on hands and knees and crawl around growling looking for a momma to pounce on. I also taught her how to be a dog and a cat...and the one i am working on now is the duck we squat down and waddle while we quack. I have more stories I'm sure, but this is getting too long and i need to work.