I'll Be Home For.... Thanksgiving

Greetings from freezing Wisconsin! LL, Collette, and I made the 13 hour trek to WI on Tuesday night. We actually left after LL got off work (aroudn 6pm) and drove straight through the night. We put Baby C in her footie jammies before we left, and she did, in fact, sleep most of the way. And when she was awake, she was happy! We are so thankful for our sweet, laid-back (most of the time!) baby! Here she is happy at a 2am gas station stop:


We made it to WI about 6:15am (with the time change) and visited with mom and dad for a little bit before handing off the grandbaby and taking a nap! :o) My grampie came over for lunch and we all had a great time catching up. In the evening we went to my parent's church for their Thanksgiving-Eve service. Everyone was so excited to see Collette, since we haven't been here since she was born.

Oh, and Collette also thought it was awesome that Grandpa and Grandpa have a REAL TUB so that she could use her ducky.


Yesterday we had a great Thanksgiving. Collette has decided that walking is, in fact, an efficent mode of transportation, and has started walking all over the place. She is now walking more than crawling, but her balance is still sketchy, particularly when she's tired. :o) Here she is with her classic "ooooh" excited face, thrilled with her new-found skill:


My brother Tim surprised my mom by flying in from Myrtle Beach Thanksgiving day, but his flight didnt' get in until 3:45pm, so we had to find a way to convince mom that we should have a late Thanksgiving dinner. Luckily, everyone knows LL and I like to cook, so we just told her we were tired and wanted to sleep in before attacking all of the cooking for the day. Worked like a charm. :o) We did attempt something new for us.... a lattice-top crust on our blueberry pie. It actually worked quite well. MMMMMMMMMMMMM. Blueberry goodness!



While we were baking, Collette spent some quality time with grandma, grandpa, and great-grampie.




Around 1:30, the phone rang, and Tim got to tell Mom he was in Detroit and would be there for Thanksgiving. I think she was surprised. LOL


The Thanksgiving feast was awesome. We brought a fresh smoked turkey from the farm, which was divine, and we had all the fabulous sides. This is the first time my family has been all together since Collette was born, so it was extra special.



We (okay, I) decided that we needed to take a nice group shot because we always procrastinate on pictures (I know!! How are these people related to me!?! LOL) and they wait until the last minute before we need to leave and then we never get any good shots. So this year I informed everyone we needed to take a nice family picture on Thanksgiving. It took us a few tries, but we finally got a good one. Here's my favorite out-take:


And the Keeper Shot!


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We truly have so much to be thankful for, this year and every year. God is so good and gracious to us!!! We are blessed beyond belief.