Black Friday... We Traveled and Ate

Instead of getting up really obnoxiously early on Black Friday and heading out shopping, I got up at normal time and headed down to see family. Alex had to work (shocking I know) so the kids and I piled into the Tahoe. We headed to Carrollton first to see Grandma Ann and whatever Webers were around. We got there in time for lunch!

 

The crazies had to see the kitties AS SOON as they walked into the house.

The baby kitties that had grown since the last time we had visited Grandma.

Jake came to play too. He gave Sawyer a hat...

Liss helped make lunch and in turn she had Charlotte help her too :)

Charlotte LOVES to cook.

Does this not just steal your heart?????

I would be a cat lady if I could. I really wish I could....

I messed up the cropping and editing of this picture. I chose not to fix it. It's the odd picture out. But how funny are these two.

Melia, my cousin (the next Weber cousin in line after me), gave birth to her beautiful baby girl at the beginning of November. Here we are meeting her for the first time. Charlotte fell in love. Absolutely in love.

 

Grandpa Richy came out to visit with Melia and her two girls. He is smitten by baby Allana. Sawyer loved her too....and you can always find Liss wherever all of the babies are :)

Grandma loves her great grandbabies :) Sitting with her oldest and her youngest.

Pretty baby girl...

After we hung out for the greater part of the afternoon, I loaded the kids up and headed over to the Villa for Thanksgiving with the Schumanns.  We got there just in time to eat with everyone. Grandma and Grandpa, Bev and T, and Aunt Betty and Uncle Paul came down. Mom cooked a delicious meal.

Sawyer loved hanging out with Aunt Bev.

 

Aunt Bev, Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom

Grandpa loves picture time. All of these ladies just tell him what to do.

 

Do you see the similarities?

Dad was taking pictures on his Ipad as well. After he took the pictures, they all had to look at them. So funny.

I have no idea what he is saying here.

Gigi is so funny.

Cousin Chet came over to see all of us. Sawyer loves him. Charlotte is scared of him and his beard.

 

 

I told Charlotte that if she would smile then Chet would go home. This is the smile I got.

Papa and his two babies...

...fighting over the Ipad.

After I ate supper, I ended up getting sick a few times. I threw up multiple times. Everyone else felt fine. I had no idea what was going on. I was so extremely nauseous that I couldn't function. However, both kids only wanted "mommy" to put them to bed. So I had to suck it up to get them to sleep. While I was rocking Sawyer to sleep, Charlotte fussed and stood outside of the room.

She fell asleep standing up and pouting....

 

 

The rest of the night was awful. I threw up consistently from 6 pm until 2 am. Projectile vomiting that then led to just dry heaving like a mad woman. I continued to dry heave off and on all night. In between I would fall asleep with my head on the toilet seat for awhile and then move back to the bed. I didn't eat or drink anything from 6 pm on. In the middle of the night, I heard Dad start to get up and run to the bathroom. He was doing the same thing I was. By morning, Mom had joined us in the sick kids group. When we talked to Mary later in the day, she also was having vomiting. I still had to drive home the morning of the 30th because it was Alex's birthday. So I made the 3.5 hour drive home from the Villa. It was awful. But by the time I got home, I had eaten a few pretzel sticks and had drank a bit of water. I felt awful the entire next day. Charlotte, Sawyer and Alex eventually had their rounds with it....but none of them vomited like I did. Holy cow!!!!

 

I hate that I was sick and couldn't enjoy all of the Thanksgiving celebrations. Regardless, it was a great Thanksgiving.



Happy Thanksgiving.... :)

So I haven't written in this blog for a LONG time. So many things have prevented me from doing it....everything from not being able to get my computer to work to my computer needing to be wiped clean and started over to me getting a new photo editing program to not having time between babies... and family....and lots of events... and taking pictures for other people.... But I am back....with a goal to do a blog post a day to get caught up since I am FIVE months behind!!!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving from the Jacksons!! :)

 

The night before Thanksgiving, Alex and I attended a fabulous party at the Shoff's house. I went to high school with Scott and college with Erica. So the party was a blend of people from his home town, her home town, and their grown up life. I was SUPER SUPER nervous about the party BUT my friend Erin and her hubby were there too so I knew that I had people to rely on if I got weird. :) Mom and Dad watched the kids so that Alex and I could go out and enjoy ourselves. I drank much too much and felt pretty horrible the next morning.

 

 

Thanksgiving morning we enjoyed a delicious and festive brunch at the Meredith's house! Mom and Dad have been attending this for the last few years and we were actually able to attend this year! Alex went with our neighbors to help serve Thanksgiving lunch to the tornado victims in Washington (our neighboring town).  He missed brunch and the food prep.

At brunch we all had drinks (which helped the hangover), and snacks and enjoyed the company. Then I headed home with the babies. I put them down for naps and I prepared Thanksgiving dinner.

John came over and helped me make the food and helped me with the kids.

Sawyer loves his Uncle Poop

We had so much delicious food and it really didn't take that long to make it all.

Mom brought the homemade pies (AMAZING) and Mary brought the homemade bread.

We had a beautiful spread....so delicious.

The counters in our shoebox kitchen were filled with yummy food and lots of love :) (cheesey but true).

Lunch was perfect. Mom, Dad, Mary, Chad, John, and our four all enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal together.

Charlotte thought the Thanksgiving meal was delicious.

 

We had an amazing Thanksgiving Day... so different from past Thanksgiving Days. But it was perfect. It was filled with Family, Food, Fun. We are so thankful for the last year in our lives.

 

And we are thankful that there is a day set aside on the calendar to remind us to all be thankful for what we have.

Until Next Time, South Carolina...

On Sunday morning, our last morning in Surfside, we got up at normal time... around 7 am... maybe a few minutes after. Ella was clearly already up because she is up and at 'em as soon as she hears anything. Ella and Kate were going to be venturing up to York, PA to see Kate's grandma and to help her out for a few weeks. They had a very long drive and a very long day ahead of them.

 

Charlotte was getting so sad to see her friend go.

(In fact, on Monday morning she woke up and asked for Ella. "Momma, where is Ew-wa?")

Ella got her and bath and her undergarments :)

Playing just a few more minutes before it is time for her to pack up and leave.

It tugs at your heart strings a bit knowing it will be a year or more before we see her again...and she will be so different.

Uncle Alex was sad to see her leaving. He helped get her ready to go.

He just loves her so much.

We had breakfast and Kate and Ella got on the road to PA. We all hung out and started getting the house cleaned up/packed up. Man, packing 3 checked bags and 5 carry ons and 2 carseat bags in a way that makes it so they aren't overweight and everything is carry-able proved to be quite difficult. But I got it done!!!!

 

Aunt Amelia called around 11 asking if she could come by and see us before she headed back to Columbia to see her boyfriend. She came over while we got the kids bathed and ready for naps. She played with crazy girl in the bath tub... Sawyer who was SUPER tired wouldn't stay in the bath without me in there so he didn't get a very long bath.

Both kids got dressed and were ready to go to sleep. Aunt Amelia got a few last minute snuggles and then she headed on her way home. Alex had her tell Grandma and Grandpa and Mimi that the kids would be over to visit for a bit after their naps.

We got both kids put to sleep and the crazy cleaning began. I did about 10 loads of laundry that day. Adam and Alex got the oyster stuff cleaned up, helped clean, helped pack, and then they took the kids over to Mimi's house a little after 2 so that they could see everyone else before our flight.

Adrienne and I finished getting packed, cleaning, and getting ready, and then I headed over to Mimi's house for goodbyes as well.

 

 

Doesn't he just steal your heart??

Goofy, pretty girl.

 

Can you tell these two are related???

She was saying "CHEESE"

At 4 pm, it was time to head to the beach house so we could load up and head to the airport.

Goodbye hugs for Grandma Jackson.

 

Goodbye hugs for Grandpa Jackson

At the beach house we took one more wipe over everything and loaded up our ton of crap. Adrienne drove the kids and I and Adam and Alex rode together to the airport.

 

Charlotte was getting anxious for the flight...hence the paci.

Saying goodbye to Aunt Adrienne.

Sawyer saying "goodbye' to Uncle Adam.

Our three checked bags, our two carseats, and our one carry on rolling suit case. We also had 2 strollers, 2 book bags, and 2 duffle bags.

We got all checked in and through security. It was SO NICE not being at a busy airport. The workers were so nice and patient, the kids got to run around, and it felt fairly clean.

 

It was so clean that Sawyer mistook it for someone's house and rolled around on the floor.

Naturally.

Yep, my kids were those kids.

Our first flight was on time. Our second was an hour and a half late leaving. We were planning to be home around 10 but didn't get home until right around 12 pm. we were tired. SO SO SO tired.

 

Here is what my living room looked like for the next 2 days. And to be honest, I just didn't care. I even had people step foot in my house and I left it like that.

 

We really did have a great trip. It was awesome having a beach house for us. We didn't feel like we were in anyone's way and we could just kind of take over the place. We loved being close to the beach but close to family. We tried so hard to have the kids see Grandma and Grandpa as much as possible but sometimes the schedules were conflicting with our kids being early risers and early nappers. Most days they didn't get to see them until after 2. But we tried our best to fit in everything we wanted to fit in (Alex got to fish, do his oysters, go to the beach, hang with Adam and I wanted to do my 5K and see some of my friends on Saturday.) We had such a great time sharing the house with Adam and Adrienne. They took care of us...seriously they did so much for us. We loved that Kate and Ella could spend so much time with us. It is super stressful travelling with both kids. Trying to remember everything and all of the money that goes into all of it can really make your head spin but it is all worth it in the end.

 

Thank you everyone who participated in a trip!!!

 

You are amazing.