Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a pic I got on one of our walks at the lake at Lufkin Zoo.

Dad got carried away on Brinley's hair.

I love the warm greeting I get when I come home!

Love this cute little girl. I think she's probably been our most stubborn eater.

These two were helpers shopping with me. Brinley was pouting for a moment during this picture.

The girls still don't know that these types of things actually move if you put money in them. They think they're just to sit on for a while.

Playing on the playground.

This girl was really nervous to climb up this rock wall. After a few times, she was doing it with no help at all!

They were supposed to go down at the same time. Claire just couldn't wait...

Ashlyn probably draws 5-10 pages worth per day. She absolutely loves "art". While watching Aladdin, she asked if she could have permission to draw in the living room to draw Jasmine.

Why only one if you can fit two?

The girls have really enjoyed playing with Stephen, the neighbor boy.

Claire was sent to her room. After a couple minutes, I went up to talk to her and found her asleep in the rocking chair. This is not the first time this has happened.

The face of an angel.

Ashlyn taught our Family Home Evening lesson this week and taught us about the pilgrims, their voyage and why they came to the Americas.

We went to the children's musem in Tyler and had a great time together.

We went and saw Coco! It was such a cute show. At the beginning they have a Frozen short film (it was still about 20 minutes). After it was over and Coco started, Brinley said, "We just watched a movie and now we get to watch another one! This is the best day ever!"

Desi loves Olaf, enough to give him a kiss.

We love having neighbor kids outside to play with. Juan hooked up his bike to a wagon and was giving rides to the girls.

So then I hooked up ours to my bike. My rear end was sore for several days.

Stephen playing soccer.

The girls had been asking to go play tennis. So I took them on Friday while Jenny and Desi were taking naps. They enjoyed tennis for about five minutes, then just wanted to ride bikes.

Can you say powder puff?

On Saturday we went to the Naranjo Museum. We enjoyed it. At one point we were walking and looked down and saw this, realizing Desi had pulled her shirt down and was walking around bare chested. We had a good laugh.

It has been a little cooler so we had a fire pit and roasted hot dogs. Brinley landed on her ankle weird and hasn't been able to put any weight on it. Jenny will take her into see the doctor tomorrow. She has been hopping and crawling for the last two days. She hasn't complained once! She has still been just as energetic and happy as ever. I've been very impressed with her.

We pulled out the Christmas books. The girls enjoy the books that relatives have sent or given us over the years with voices recorded. This one is Minnie reading.

Claire does a pretty good job at putting shoes/sandals on the wrong feet. Probably 90% of the time.

We have made friends with a couple in Nacogdoches, about twenty minutes north of us.

They had a big swing out back and the girls loved being on it together!

We put frosting on sugar cookies! Claire couldn't eat any because she didn't eat her dinner. She was a great sport.

Desi found a pair of glasses that just seemed to fit her so well.

Love you all! We miss family during Thanksgiving but also enjoy the family time that we get to spend together.

Fall is in the air!

We have a new family favorite spot!  We love walking around the lake at the zoo park. This day it was 65 degrees and everyone is all bundled up.  

Skipping rocks in the lake

Right now this little one has daddy wrapped around his fingers.  It is her favorite person right now (yes, I am jealous!)

I am soaking up these moments that she wants to be with me, not daddy.

We had to pull out our Thankful Turkey Punch!  At dinner time we have a kid punch the cup and they find a slip of paper that asks a question that everyone in the family answers (ex. what food, animal, season, are you thankful for?)  It has turned into a fun tradition.

This little girl loves to sing.  She is recently found somewhere in the house singing, "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."  with a mircrophone.  It is so darling!

We did a family craft where we made masks from paper and tissue paper.  So fun!

I love how crafty my girls are.

The girls wanted to watch our wedding video...fun ol' memories.

Derek and I watch it and think about how skinny we used to be...ha ha.

Derek had an idea (where I would freak out) about have a burn pile in the backyard.  The kids loved it! We are excited that the weather is starting to cool down so we can build some fires in the firepit.

This girls love their daddy!  They came up with a fun activity where Daddy pushes them up our neighbor's driveway and they go backwards down the hill.  It is hilarious!  They are learning to take turns!

Daddy donated some money to the High School band and so we got tickets to their band night that followed with a firework show.  It was awesome to see a great marching band and their various formations.  Then they honored veterns in Lufkin.  It was a fun evening that we would like to do again.

They provide dinner before the event.

Daddy spoiled these girls with hot chocolate!  It was a great way to warm us up!

It was a great evening and the girls zonked out on the way home!  YAY!

Ashlyn is really enjoying drawing and Derek found a youtube station that teaches her how to draw many different types of things.  It is her new fav!  So we spent Sunday afternoon (while everyone was napping and daddy was home teaching) doing artwork!  This girl is an amazing artist!

Ashlyn has the best teacher!  Ashlyn came home so excited that she played tic-tac-toe with her teacher four times and she won three of the games and tied the other one.  She told me with excitment that when she left to go home that day, Ms. Horan said, "See ya later tic-tac-toe master!"  It just made her day!

Silly faces against the window

The girls and I made cupcakes that I learned how to make the week before at a girls night!  They turned out delicious!  These are great bakers!

Fun walks around the neighborhood!

Ashlyn loves teaching Brinley how to draw!

These girls had a dentist appointment this week and they did great!

They are in the no cavity club!

Derek got kidney and gallstones a few weeks ago and he had a patient who brought him donuts.  The patient found out that he had stones and came back from the store with fresh fruit instead.  Derek gets spoiled by his patients!

He is the best dentist!

These girls love getting mail from Nana!  They loved the stickers! Thanks!

Funny Story:

So Derek has this darling patient and we just hit it off when we met each other.  We have ran into each other so many times at the store, restaurant, Derek's practice, and even the OB office.  We finally set a date to get our families together.  She invited us to her house on Friday for dinner.  We made plans on Monday, to get together on Friday. As we were getting ready, Derek looked at my phone to find the address. He noticed that we hadn't texted each other since Monday, and asked me if I'd talked to her since then. I told him and didn't think it was a big deal. So we drive to their house and pull in. There were several cars and quite a few people in their backyard. No one really came up to our car or looked like they were expecting us. Derek turns to me and says, "Are you sure they are planning on us? Did they forget?" So we took our sweet time getting out of the car because we weren't sure. The husband goes inside the house. Then the wife comes out and says hi and welcomes us, telling us that they decided to have family over too, to celebrate one of their kids birthday. Derek told me later that while talking to the husband he said, "Yeah, we pulled up and were nervous that you guys had forgotten." He just paused and said, "yeah, well we did kind of double book tonight." It was a fun, strange, semi-awkward night. They had already eaten but got food out for us. We roasted hot dogs and enjoyed our time together.

Daddy's girls gathered on the swing together.